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Individuality and the Individual in Contemporary Japan
Organizer: Peter Cave, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Chair: William W. Kelly, Yale University
Discussant: Amy Borovoy, Princeton University
Japan has often been seen as a society that prizes harmony, and sanctions those who disrupt the moral and social order. Recently, however, the need for more individuality has been asserted by many, from government ministers to businesspeople, educators and pundits. Some want to encourage creativity for the purpose of economic competition; others see focus on individual fulfilment as inherently desirable. Japanese people’s behaviour also provides considerable evidence that they increasingly value individuality and self-realization. These changes prompt this panel’s examination of the place of the individual and individuality in contemporary Japan. Peter Cave shows how schools give children increasing opportunities for self-directed learning, yet simultaneously try to integrate them more successfully with their local communities. Colin Smith explores how the processes of political economy have actively shaped the meaning and practice of individuality in the world of the young labourers known as “freeters”. William W. Kelly reveals the tensions between individuality and the team in the world of professional Japanese baseball, as well as the cultural implications of these conflicts when they come to public view. Finally, Gordon Mathews argues that there are profound differences between what makes life worth living for the elderly and the young in today’s Japan, as young people seek the individual self-fulfilment many older people cannot even imagine. The panel highlights the importance of the individual as social agent in contemporary Japan, even while showing that ideas about the individual and individuality remain highly contested.
Individuals and Others in Japanese Elementary Education
Peter Cave, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Japan has often been seen as a society that emphasizes the collective over the individual. Yet during the 1990s and 2000s, government educational reform has aimed to develop children’s individuality, as well as improving their socialization and creating more integrated communities. What this has meant in practice is illustrated by the ethnographic study of elementary classrooms reported in this paper, which focuses on two major areas of study: the teaching of Japanese (kokugo) and the new field of cross-curricular integrated studies (soogoo gakushuu). Both continue to develop interdependence, yet also give individual children increased scope to pursue their own interests and develop their particular strengths. In the case of kokugo, children held debates and sometimes chose their own subjects and methods of study; yet whole-class teaching continued and texts emphasized human interdependence. In soogoo gakushuu, children were also given choices about what to study, but within a framework that focused on their locality, with the aim of helping them become enthusiastic and well-integrated community members. Though individuality and difference were encouraged more than before in the schools studied, this is a gradual and evolutionary process, not a revolution. Even within the reform initiatives of the 2000s, encouragement for individual initiative is balanced with a desire to foster children’s connectedness with their local communities. Through this dual focus, those who direct Japanese education hope to gain the benefits of increased individuality, without incurring costs in the form of social disharmony and alienation.
"Freeters" and Individuality in Japan's Youth Labor Market
Colin Smith, Columbia University
In recent years, in Japan, the rapid expansion of young part-time workers known as “freeters” has attracted much attention and become a topic of concern. Freeters are part of a larger process of labor market reorganization stemming from the Heisei economic crisis, the growing service sector, and globalization, but they are also seen by many as rejecting the values and conventions of the postwar social order, symbolized for most by the figure of the “salaryman.” Because they are free from the commitments demanded by organizations, and craft their identities independently of them, freeters seem to enjoy more flexibility and individuality in their work than conventional full-time workers. But what is the nature of this individuality? Rather than treating it as something simply imported from the West, a purely natural and universal human quality, or a state of being defined by independence from the yoke of conformist institutions, this paper explores the role that political economic processes play in the formation of the meaning and practice of individuality. With regards to freeters, this paper focuses on the ways in which individuality is actively cultivated by commercial concerns invested in irregular work and the promises of the free market.
You Gotta Have W(h)a(t)? Idioms of individuality in sumo and baseball
William W. Kelly, Yale University
At a time in the mid-1960s when the manager of the reigning champion Yomiuri Giants was touted for his autocratic "managed baseball" policy, a rival manager told the press that his most important task was keeping his players sober and out of jail. Even the discipline of team sports must acknowledge and in fact must actively cultivate individual expression.
Sumo and baseball are two of modern Japan's central sports, but despite their very different features, they offer remarkably similar lessons about the cultural phrasing of individual effort, achievement, and character in elite spectator sports. Because such sports have--and are intended to have--pronounced "demonstration effects," their idioms of individuality have been salient for the wider society as well. This paper explores the "individuality" of wrestlers and ball players to show that the circle of harmony is more often a corral of restless spirits.
Japanese Individualism and "What Makes Life Worth Living".
Gordon C. Mathews, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
The Japanese concept of ikigai—“that which makes life worth living”—had, in the 1980s, two meanings: it was formulated in some Japanese writings as “self-realization” and in others as “commitment to group.” These two concepts were in contestation, I wrote in 1996: was “self-realization” eventually to supersede “commitment to group,” or was it to remain a dream, making bearable a constraining institutional reality? In this paper, I examine ikigai as it is formulated two decades later in Japanese writings, following an era of economic downturn and institutional delegitimation. I find that ikigai is most often thought of in terms of the elderly, who are urged to attend the numerous “ikigai centers” set up to provide hobbies and other pursuits; many of these elderly have been wholly devoted to work and family and may find no self left to which to return in their old age. However, an even more critical area, not often touched upon in the Japanese ikigai literature, is the ikigai pursuits of young adults—the part-time workers and singletons who do not follow the institutionalized paths of their elders, and remain apart from the standard adult ikigai of work and family, living for their dreams instead. To what extent will these young Japanese continue to seek ikigai that transcend the grasp of institutions, as most of their elders have not? And what may be the ultimate consequences of this?