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Japanese Society Today Some Conce.E Tual Maps

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Japanese Society Today Some Conce.E Tual Maps Japanese Society Today Some Conce.e_tual Maps David L. SWAfN LIKE A COMPUTER. screen gone haywire, di­ the scholarly labors of others, gleaned pri­ verse images of Japan have careened wildly marily through a prolonged study of Japan­ across the public consciousness in recent ese science history with physicist Sugimoto months. Reckless Japan-bashing in the Masayoshi and later others,1 and urban United States and mindless counter-slurs studies under the guidance of former Keio from Japan have done much to amplify University professor Yazaki Takeo.2 These Japan's international exposure but little to two areas of study indicate my conviction deepen understanding. Watching this crazy that modern Japan is marked by its extraor­ kaleidoscope made me wish for a steadier dinary success in adopting and adapting gaze at enduring realities of longer historical modern science and technology, as well as and broader social scope-what might be in developing the cities required by its large called the basic dynamics of Japanese soci­ population and limited inhabitable land ety. In this essay I attempt to fulfil.l my own space. 3 The other source of ideas and per­ wish by focusing on certain basic dynamics spectives is simply my four decades of life in and by providing figures as "conceptual maps" in which readers can perhaps find Japan, including thirty work camps, count­ some coordinates of their own experiences: less committees and conferences, wide­ The ideas presented and the figures used spread organizational ties in and beyond the are my own. They first took specific form Christian community, and extensive travel and were gradually refined in talks made by foot and every means of vehicular trans­ over the years at various schools, churches, port except the fabled jinrikisha. It bears repeating that this is an essay, not seminars, and conferences. The principal an academic thesis; citations are made to sources are of two kinds. Most important are illustrate, not to "prove", a point and to sug­ gest collateral reading. Moreover, I offer no David L. SWAIN, a United Methodist mission­ final conclusions, only some reflections on ary for forty years with the United Church of missional implications for Japan. With that Christ in Japan, served eight years as editor of The said, I turn now to the first part of a struc­ Japan Christian Quarterly, predecessor to the tural depiction of Japanese society, and later Japan Christian Review. His major works include to a broad-stroke historical perspective. Science and Culture in Traditional Japan (MIT Press, 1978) and a joint translation with Dr. BASIC COMMITMENTS Ishikawa Eisei of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the The term "commitment" is used here to re­ Atomic Bombings (Basic Books, 1981). solve the choice, when trying to analyze a 61 JAPAN CHRISTIAN REVIEW 58 1992 society, between focusing on its value sys­ tional commitment. While economic activ­ tem or its material conditions. The value ity extends far beyond Japan's national claims of a people can perhaps best be tested boundaries, the economic commitment is, by asking how the society's human and ma­ in my judgment, almost exclusively struc­ terial resources are situated and used. "Com­ tured and administered to serve the national mitment," then, is meant to embrace both commitment. So the circle for the economic focuses. Specifically, one needs to know commitment is drawn so as to protrude only how population and wealth are distributed, a little beyond the main circle of national and how power and controls are managed. commitment. Then one can measure material evidence Although the Japanese idealize their rural against values and ideals to see how faith­ past (as Americans idealize theirs in Christ­ fully the latter are followed. mas cards and "western" films), any realistic Before turning to these specifics, I first in­ appraisal of the placement of human and troduce a larger frame of national commit­ material resources will show the primacy of ments that encompass and guide all the urban commitment: it is the primary questions of population, wealth, and power. locus of economic activity, the primary so­ cial structure of the national commitment. Social commitments Japan's cities do not exist in complete isola­ The overarching commitment of virtually tion from the rest of the world; quite the con­ all public organizations in Japan is to pre­ trary, they are the central nerve system for serve the territorial integrity of the Japanese Japan's world-encompassing economy. Even nation and promote the interests of the Jap­ so, they function primarily to preserve and anese people. Every political party, includ­ prosper the national commitment, so this ing the Socialist and Communist parties, circle too is drawn almost wholly within the must make clear its allegiance to this basic circle of national commitment. commitment, which is represented by the It is essential to understand that these so­ largest circle in figure 1. cial commitments, like the cultural counter­ The economy is organized to pay for, that parts that follow, involve not only official is, to maintain and prosper, the overall na- structures, organizations, and policies, but Fig. 1 Social Commitments of Japan Fig. 2 Cultural Commitments of Japan 62 SWAIN: Japanese Society Today informal group and community ties, and senting literature and art is smaller. More­ general public ethos as well. 4 over, despite the remarkable quantity of works translated from other languages into Cultural commitments Japanese, this circle of activity strikes me as Education is the overarching cultural com­ more within the bounds of education's ser­ mitment, as shown in figure 2. Its basic vicing of the national commitment. That is, function is to tell the Japanese people who art and literature play a large role in foster­ they are, that is, to maintain national iden­ ing the national identity, but only a minor tity. It fits them into the national commit­ role in helping the Japanese relate to other ment. 5 Education is also the primary means lands and peoples. So this circle too extends for preparing persons to find and fill a place only slightly beyond the main circle. in the economic and urban circles. (It is by It would be a serious mistake, however, to no means strange that the major long-term confine this literature-art circle entirely Christian investment in Japanese society is within the education circle, given the extent precisely in this circle of primary cultural of. English language-learning from middle commitment. And it is this area, as noted school on. There might be a distinct implica­ later, that is pregnant with implications for tion for Christian mission here. Foreign-lan­ Christian work in Japan.) guage teaching in Christian schools has, by Science and technology are without ques­ itself, little potential for introducing and tion the major emphases of education (and nurturing Christian faith, values, and action of most training beyond formal schooling). as expressions of a universal commitment. This primacy derives from the economic Language-learning at elementary levels is, commitment in all its industrial, commer­ after all, but a limited means of dealing with cial, informational, and other dimensions. ideas, even on practical, matter-of-fact lev­ Japan shares with the rest of the world the els. But whenever learning a foreign lan­ modern science and technology that evolved guage opens avenues for serious scientific or from Western roots, but modern science and literary work, indeed, for any in-depth en­ technology today involve universal and counters with other peoples and cultures, global modalities in concept and method. then the potential increases exponentially. Not all Japanese investments of time, en­ Another implication may be that mis­ ergy, and money in science and technology can be kept completely subservient to the sional attempts to deal directly with eco­ national commitment. So the science-tech­ nomic issues will encounter more nology circle protrudes even farther outside nationalistic resistance than similar efforts its overarching circle. The circle of science in matters scientific and technological. For and technology represents, then, Japan's example, coping with threats to our com­ foremost opening to "internationalization" mon living environment is perhaps a better in the sense of transcending the constraints point of missional entry into responsibility of the national commitment and fostering for world hunger than would be a frontal at­ fuller participation in the global community. tack on economic greed (though the latter Literature and art in the estimation of cannot be indefinitely ignored). some might call for the largest circle of all. In my view, art and literature have a lesser THOROUGHLY URBAN JAPAN place in Japanese life and society than do The Tokyo metropolitan region is the science and technology. So the circle repre- epitome of urban Japan. It is the direct 63 JAPAN CHRISTIAN REVIEW 58 1992 descendant of Edo, former center of the sam­ urai (military-administrator) system of nearly 300 provincial domains under Tokugawa hegemony for 265 years (1603- 1868). Throughout this period Edo was the pinnacle of population, wealth, and power. The radial pattern of roads leading up to and away from the castle center symbolized Edo's primacy. When Japan entered its modern era in 1868, the castle grounds of the shogun be­ came the palace grounds of the emperor, 1 "Big Four" Metropolises: Tokyo, Osaka, and Edo became Tokyo. Under the restored Nagoya, Kitakyushu imperial system, the radial pattern remained -dominate 11 prefectures, with 2/3 oftotal dominant, as the capital city vastly in­ population creased its capability of attracting and inte­ -1/3 of all Japanese live in Tokyo metropolitan grating population, wealth, and power. One region continuing symbol of the capital's centrality 2 Medium-size cities: Sapporo, Sendai, is that all trains going to Tokyo are called Hiroshima etc.
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