Oh Captain My Captain!

This blog is mostly about what I do in my free time, but I think it's important to occasionally articulate the many thoughts and opinions I have on my adopted but temporary home. To all the Japanophiles that I may upset with such posts: feel free to pull the wool back over your eyes after you finish reading.

Every other Thursday or so I get a call from my parents. We discuss relevant matters first, then shoot the breeze a bit: George Bush is an idiot, the pluses and minuses of building a summer home in Iraq, that sort of thing. Since I live in Japan, this country often comes up. A snippet from last week's conversation:

Dad: So, what's up with the group suicides pacts in Japan?
Mom: Yeah? We saw an article about seven people killing themselves in a van. (see report here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3735372.stm).
Me: Oh, that?! Well, you must understand that the Japanese lack individuality to the point where they can't even kill themselves alone.

That gave them a good laugh on an otherwise serious and depressing topic. But it begs the question, are the Japanese so group oriented that something as personal as suicide can't be accomplished without consensus? Or, would most people prefer to take their own lives with others?

Having taught for three years here, having seen the doctrine of conformity and its deadening- effects on students first hand, I have to lean towards the former conclusion. Now we can argue back and forth about the role that schools and public institutions, regardless of country, have in creating obedient little citizens who march lock-step to whatever song their leaders decide to sing. I freely admit that all governments seek to do this to some degree. It's just that the Japanese government has perfected it. A common expression here is "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down". It's like in that movie "Dead Poets Society", except that there are no Mr. Keatings here in Japan. The teachers are a product of what they are perpetuating: Group think in all its manifestations. The result? Group suicide as a nation circa WWII, a battle the Japanese generals conceded could not be won even before Pearl Harbor was attacked, or group suicide circa 2006 in a "van down by the river!" What would Chris Farley think about this? Oh wait, he committed suicide too. Damn.


“Certain defects are necessary for the existence of individuality.” -Goethe,

If only those defects existed in order-crazy Japan.