Fighting Sports Well Respected in Japan

Many Japanese people, mostly men, yearn for being strong.  I think this is the same in many of other countries, however, the degree of such a desire seems to be higher among Japanese than most of other peoples.

Let me show you a picture of Japan in early 1950s.

These people gathered in a public square in front of a station.  Guess what they were doing there.

Answer is...

These people came here to watch the small TV (circled in red), which was showing a professional wrestling match of very famous wrestler called "Rikidozan."

Rikidozan became a national hero in Japan after the World War II, and many people tried to watch him on TV.  But TV sets were not widespread yet at the time in Japan, and thus people came together to the public place for the TV broadcast.

Professional wrestling has been so popular in Japan since the Rikidozan's days.  For example, I remember even prestigious class of people in Japan, including some Prime Minister and corporate executives, did not hesitate to say in public they were a big fan of professional wrestling.  This is interesting to me that this kind of fighting sports are so respected in the Japan society, regardless of the fact that the professional wrestling matches were generally regarded as a "show", not serious.

In fact, I was told by my American friend during my living in the U.S. that the professional wrestling was not widely accepted in the U.S. and many people, particularly high class people, should be careful to say they are a fan of this fighting sports even though they actually are.

Anyways, I think that not only a professional wrestling but other fighting sports as well are very popular and respected in Japan.

I think this phenomenon is somehow related to the Japanese people's tendency to fulfill their desires to become strong through watching games or matches, rather than taking more physical actions, like learning some martial arts.

Sounds very realistic and smart decision to me...
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Used Cars in Japan

As discussed in the last blog (Private Room - Car), car seems to be more than transportation means for many Japanese.

Many car owners maintain their cars with special cares.  Any scratch or dent on the cars would make them very nervous, even thought they are very tiny ones.

Although the car owners treasure their cars like their babies, they tend to abandon those their "babies" once the babies become old (maybe 3 to 5 years old!) or get tired (i.e. around 40,000 to 50,000km of driving mileage), and get brand new ones.  These definitions of "old" and "get tired" by Japanese car owners might surprise many car owners in other countries...

Regulations also require car owners to carefully maintain their cars by forcing  them a regular inspection of their cars every two or three years.  The cost of this regular inspection is usually more than US$1,000-1,500.  Yes, it's expensive!

As a result of the car owners' high consciousness toward their cars and the regular inspection requirement, used cars in the Japan market are generally in good conditions.  These used cars attract many people in other countries and are exported overseas.  In fact, I also have many requests from my business partners in foreign countries to export used cars in Japan.

Interesting thing is that their requests include not only Japanese cars, but non-Japanese cars like Mercedes, BMW, etc. as well.  These my partners say they would like to buy non-Japanese cars from the Japan market as the cars are generally carefully maintained.

Other interesting thing is any cars, which are regarded as "scrap" in Japan, just because of its mileage of nearly 100,000 km or age of maybe 10 years or so, are still demanded by people in other countries, since those cars still run great!  These demands make sense to me, and I think Japanese might need to realize "high value" of the used cars in the Japan market.
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Private Room - Car

I am living in Tokyo.  I do not currently own a car as I do not think it necessary.

Tokyo is a very convenient city where transportation infrastructure is very well established and organized (although very complicated even for me!).  The public transportation system, particularly trains, is punctually operated and usually takes people as scheduled.

Train Route Map in Tokyo and its Suburbs (Easy to follow, hah)

On the other hand, most roads in Tokyo are usually very clouded and frustrate car drivers.  Such a busy traffic causes delay.  Also, exhaust fumes are environmentally unfriendly.

Maintenance costs for owning car in Tokyo, including parking, regular inspection, insurance, fuel, etc., are crazily high.  My very rough estimation for these costs of more than 20 years ago was at least US$500 a month, and I think the current situation is worse.

So, taking all the above into consideration, I do not think owning car in Tokyo is a decent idea.  Regardless, many people own cars in Tokyo, which makes me guess why and assume the following.

I think many people regard their cars like their private rooms. As I mentioned in my last blog (Private Room), the Tokyo's living condition is generally poor and each family member does not necessarily have enough private space there.  Thus, I guess some people are trying to expand their living area into their cars to keep their own space.

Several things to support the above my thought as below.

Some drivers, particularly among young generation, decorate car interior.

Oops, the above might be an extreme case.  However, the above picture shows what I am saying below.

Believe or not, some car drivers put their shoes off when getting on their cars, and annoyingly, they ask a front-seat passenger to do the same!!! (Of course, a pair of slippers are provided as in the above picture, don't worry!)  Well, I have to confess that I was one of such annoying car owners when I owned a car many years ago...

No question that many car owners clean their cars weekends as one of their weekends routines.  To make sure, the cleaning tasks include not only washing (by hands, not a washing machine, being afraid of having scratches), but waxing as well.

I used to live in the U.S. (Boston, Iowa, Denver, NY, Chicago) for more than ten years and never saw any of the above.  I assume in the U.S., particularly in cities where cars are absolutely necessary for their livings, cars are just transportation means and are not more than that.  I think American people's this sort of mindset on cars is more natural, and Japanese' is some extreme, although this Japanese' gentle treatment of their cars result in good quality of used cars and should be appreciated.
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Private Room

Continuing from the last blog in yesterday, I would like to talk about other toilet machine in the below picture today.

Not sure if you have ever seen and used this machine.  This is a toilet seat with water spray feature for washing.  The seat can be also warmed, which is very comfortable during winter.

I love this comfortable device and wonder why I do not see this in other countries.  The cities where I did not see this toilet seat include London, Chicago, NY, Athens, Shanghai, Seoul, and possibly others, although most of hotels I stayed there were a sort of high class ones.

I have been wondering why this comfortable toilet seats are not widely used in other countries and have come up to a certain idea that we Japanese might be unique to value a toilet time and would like to spend comfortable time there.

Many of Japanese houses are relatively small compared to ones in other countries, particularly Western countries, and accordingly, in many cases family members do not have their own private room in the houses.  Under such an environment, a bathroom becomes a private area and provides very relaxed time.  Many Japanese, including myself, read books, newspapers, or magazines in the bathroom, for example.  Thinking this way, I could explain why a toilet room in Japan is closed while one in other country is open as I mentioned in the last blog ("Shame Culture").

I therefore think any comfortable toilet device like the toilet seat above gets more popular in Japan than other countries.

Your thoughts?
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Shame Culture

It is said that Japanese culture is a "shame culture" (whereas Western cultures are "guilt cultures"), which seems to me very true.

Having said that, I would like you to guess what the machine in the below  picture is for.

OK, time is up.

This is a silencer which is set in a toilet room and covers up our own sounds during "doing our business."  Let's watch how this actually works.

toilet silencer

This is popular particularly among Japanese women.

Before this came out, many people, mostly women, flushed the toilet to deaden bathroom noises. As you might be thinking, yes, it was waste of water and was eco "un"friendly.

I heard that the silencer is Japan's unique and is not used in other countries.

Speaking of bathroom, other thing which I think is coming from our shame culture is the fact that the toilet room in Japan is very closed.

I still remember my shocking experience when I first traveled to the U.S. and used a bathroom in the San Francisco airport as the room was too open for me to concentrate on "big business"!

Japanese very nervous about others' eyes?
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Japanese Tax Authorities...Smart

I think this Monday April 15 was a due date of Individual tax return in the U.S. and now that it's finally over and many people are finally relieved.  Congrats!

Japan's Individual tax return is due March 15.  Our situation is a bit different from the U.S.' and is much easier, which is not necessarily good to most of us.

For most of employed people in Japan, the year's tax matters are closed by "year end adjustment," which is an adjustment between final tax amount and what have been withheld in the year.  The year end adjustment is done by their employers, and those employed people do not have to file tax returns, unless they have some reasons, such as claiming some tax deductions, earning high income, etc.

Sounds good?  Well, there have been some arguments for this current tax filing system.

One of those arguments is that the current system intends to take away from the employed people, who are majority of our society, any opportunities to learn about the tax laws and leave them as "tax idiots."  This situation is favorable for the tax authorities as many of those employed people do not realize that they have tax refunds or do not claim the refunds, even though they realize the rights since the refund claim requires them to file tax returns, however, those people are not acｃustomed to tax return filing and just give up the opportunities.

The current tax filing system also helps the tax authorities stay with lower number of headcounts.

Some analyzes that changing the current "year-end adjustment" system to tax return filing system like the U.S. model would possibly cost the Japanese government huge amount of money mainly due to increases of tax refunds and tax authorities' costs.

So, under the current system, the Japanese government is very happy and would like to stay at, and citizens are also happy without knowing their losing opportunities...
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Eat Lunch in a Public Bathroom

Some Japanese people, particularly younger female generation including students, eat their lunch in a public bathroom.

Reason?

Some reports say that those people do not have anyone to eat lunch with and cannot help eating alone, however, they do not want to be seen by others, "Oh, s/he does not have any friend..."

The reports comment that the sole people obsess about this kind of the other's view because such a view might lead to a reputation that "S/he is alone without any friend because s/he has some personality problem."

The reports further provide that the eating lunch alone situation sometimes result in the people leaving her or his school or company.

Well, sorry to those people...  And I think this is very "Japanese."

The Japan society tends to respect group rather than individual.  We need to always obsess about the other's view toward ourselves.

Japanese are agricultural people, who are required to act as a group most of the time and to be not different from other members of the group.  This is not a matter of good or bad, but is just a fact that the rule helps harmonize our society, and not following this unspoken rules might result in that person's unhappy situation.

I guess particularly western people feel, like I do, that this kind of rule restricts each individual's freedom and thus does not have to be followed.  Unfortunately, the realty is not that easy and this unspoken rule of this society causes some problems, such as harassment.

The eating lunch in the public bathroom matter seems to have the above cause.

All above are just my thoughts, which are not necessarily agreed.
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