TOKYO, Oct. 22, 2020—To innocent foreigners, one of the first images of the Japanese people is deep bows and soft voices coming from a polite demeanor. Not a misleading image of the country of ‘kenkyo’ – a philosophy of being modest and humble. Yet poring deep down into history shows the Japanese did not necessarily acquire this manner naturally: it can be traced to the old hierarchical societal practice of coercing people to pay respect to senior samurai warriors, a feudal bureaucratic tradition that was firmly established as a societal norm after the Tokugawa shogunate samurai clan took over the entire country in the 16th century and has survived to date.
This bureaucratic philosophy has come to sap Japan’s passion, creativity, global views and many other virtues. Increasingly, being kenkyo has been misinterpreted in modern Japan and begun to embrace other human traits that almost sound excessive and unique to this country: Assume and act by thinking what the counterpart would think, feel and react (Sontaku), or read the air before you say something or take action. Sontaku is a Buddhism teaching having become a dead word for centuries and the same for this and other teachings traits. Their revival coincided with Japan’s fresh bureaucratization of society, from government administration to private lifestyles, over the past decade or so.
In a country that treasures conformity and unity, Japanese rarely open up about their views and aims, excluding a few such as famous athletes and successful business folks. Before standing up and saying something at meetings, Japanese often look around to make sure that they are with the crowd. It’s the reason why Japanese commuters heading to offices wait for the lights to turn green to cross the street even though there’s no traffic. In the current global Covid-19 pandemic, the herd mentality works as a plus helping to keep infections low as practically every single person of this country of 126 million population wears a face mask. But where competition matters, especially of borderless nature, being kenkyo can be a big drag.
‘Japanese are kenkyo (modest and humble),’ Ai Miura, a female racing car driver said in a radio talk show in early October 2020. ‘It’s a great virtue. It helps keep the country united and crimes low. But if you look at it from a different angle, we look like being a bunch of stereotypes.’ Whereas non-Japanese drivers and engineers would fight and try to prevail over others in their teams to win races, Japanese opt to do what they are told to do and do not bother to cross their boundaries, she said. ‘Wa (harmony) is great but in competition, that’s not enough’ – that’s what I as a writer have learned.
Kenkyo derives from the teachings of Confucius. It was known to have been introduced to Japan in the 6th century and came to be actively utilized as The Textbook virtue during the Tokugawa clan’s Edo period (1600 to 1853) and applied broadly to every walk of human life from politics to family matters.
Confucius teachings urge improving human ethics –be loyal; paying respect; be benevolent to others; practice righteousness; express gratitude; be polite; improve knowledge; and trust (do not deceive) others. The Tokugawa shogunate family interpreted the Confucius teaching to keep the country stable and war-free under its control. Being loyal, which the Confucius meant to be loyal to other people, was reinterpreted to mean ‘loyal to the master.’ Paying respect twas meant to have respectful heart for others was changed to ‘respect your parents and seniors. Be polite, which originally was meant to revere God, was changed to mean being polite to seniors and others.
The Confucius teachings were compiled by his students as the Lunyu (Rongo in Japanese) and its Japanese renditions had been actively taught during the Edo and into the modern period through the end of World War II in 1945. So it was considered in post-war Japan as the textbook of Japanese militarism and totalitarianism.
Rongo is regaining popularity among young Japanese. The national broadcasting station, NHK, even offer programs teaching Rongo to school children. New books are being released frequently on how to study Rongo and Confucius. They are taught to be modest and humble and restrain from expressing themselves and do not expect returns to favors they extend to others.
But it would be difficult to live zen priest lives for long, and that may be the reason why a growing number of young people are pumping irons in the gym and running madly from early morning to build up their bodies, looking at their muscles in the mirrors and taking photos of themselves with smart phones to post them in facebooks and other SNS sites.
It’s how Japan’s competitive edge is being eroded in the business, technology, diplomacy and numerous other areas – competitive passion restrained by kenkyo philosophy and energy is buned at gym.
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Insight Into the Future