Bhutan

Kingdom of Bhutan has been talked about in Japan last a couple of years.

Bhutan is a small country with population of about 700,000 and is not "materially" wealthy with General Domestic Product ("GDP") per person of about US$5,300.

King of Bhutan

City in Bhutan

When we view this country with a different measure, which is Gross Domestic Happiness or GDH, the story is totally changed.

Bhutan has been trying to increase the GDH, and currently more than 95% (!) of its people are feeling happy.

Bhutanese

I think it is difficult to measure the amount of happiness and compare it among peoples, however, it is still amazing that almost all of people in the nation are feeling happy.

This is not easy for people in a developed country like Japan to understand how people in such  not wealthy situation can feel happy, and it's a reason why Japan has been paying a great attention to this small country.

Japanese believed after World War II that becoming materially wealthy would lead them to happiness and worked so hard.

Busy Japanese

Such a hard work was rewarded, and Japan became the second largest economic power in the world following the U.S. (recently became third by being passed by China).

The amount of income of Japanese people also increased; however, the prices also dramatically went up, and most Japanese couldn't feel being rich.

Many Japanese had been feeling that hard working by sacrificing their private times and their material oriented mind did not necessarily bring happiness to them.

Japanese were sensing more mental things should have been respected for better lives but could not see models for their thought.

Then Bhutan' GNH matter came to Japanese people's attention and has been helping Japanese think about happiness.

I don't think it right to completely switch our mind from material oriented to mental oriented and think the best mix of the two should be sought.

Bhutanese way to value happiness should help Japanese find the direction.

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Insidious Nature

As I discussed in School Caste in Japan and Mother's Community, insidious behaviors of people are prominent in the whole Japanese society, regardless of age, gender, or situations (e.g. school, work place, etc.).

I wonder this insidious nature of Japanese might come from the fact that Japanese are agricultural people.

Agricultural People

Farm work becomes more efficient when done communally and thus is usually done so.  The work requires each member a certain commitment to the group and to respect teamwork, which is understandable.  However, such a groupism sometimes go beyond the acceptable level of control of each member by a strict hierarchy or mutual surveillance.  A farmer has much free time, compared to a hunter, for example, who has to catch a thing every day, because farm work basically consists of just planting and cropping.  What else does the farmer has to do?  Right, just praying for preferable weather and keeping a good organization.

Rain-Making Ritual

When a member finds any unwanted behavior of other member, s/he tends to use any indirect way to punish the member by, for example, talking behind the person's back.  A farmer doesn't like to overlook an other member's act disturbing harmony in the group, however, s/he also doesn't want to be hated by that person and tries to manipulate an indirect way to accuse the person by hiding ownself.

The fact that a farmer basically eats rice, i.e. carbohydrate, and some pickles, not proteins containing foods, and doesn't have much muscles might lead her or him to a nonphysical means.

Rice and Pickles

An extreme punishment is social outcasts.  A farmer can't live alone and is so scared to be ostracized from a group.

Can't Survive Alone

Hence, the person becomes stared down and disciplined to follow the rules in the group, including any unspoken ones.

And the "improvement" of the person's behavior makes the other member, who indirectly accuses the person, very happy.

This way, an indirect way or insidious way to give the rule to the other member goes unmentioned in the group, community, and finally the whole society.

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Mothers' Community

It is said in Japan that joining mothers' community at park is somehow very stressful and would cause some problems.

It is so called "park debut" in Japan, which means taking her child to a park of neighborhood for the first time.

There are other mothers with their kids in the park, who know each other and make a group.

For a new member it is sometimes difficult to join the group.  But does she have to join the group?

Well, it is important and preferable because she could get useful information for childcare, including one for  kindergarten,  pediatric doctor,  current prevailing diseases, recommended clothes, any notes in each stage of the kid's growing, etc., which sound like items of information a childcare mother used to get from her mother's generation.  However, the more families in Japan are becoming nuclear, the less mothers have opportunities to have these items of childcare information, and thus joining a mother's community becomes more important than used to be.

Park Debut

More importantly, failure in joining a mothers' community would possibly result in her child not being able to join a group of those mothers' kids.  Watching own kid playing alone without joining a group is so painful...

Even though a mother and kid successfully join the community at the park, they can't be safe.

There would possibly be hierarchy and a leader in the mothers' group, who tends to make unspoken rules in the group.  If a new comer can't build a good relationship with the leader...

Also, if a kid makes some trouble with her/his friend like a quarrel or fight, which should frequently happen the kids' society, the friend's mother might get upset and try to separate the kid and his mother from the group.

So, there are many things to watch out in the mothers' group, which would make mothers stressed out.

They say that there are some families to go out the town as a mother failed to get along with the mothers' group members.

I see the difficulties and problems seen in the mothers' group above are very similar to ones in some school classes as I introduced before (See School Caste in Japan), in terms of insidious behavior of Japanese people.

Unfortunately, it seems insidious bullying type of things exists not only in children's societies but in adult's as well.

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Seal Instead Of Signature

In Japan, a seal or stamp (called inkan in Japanese) serves the same purpose as a signature.

Seal

Having experienced the custom of signature in the U.S. for a while, I wondered if a seal is not safe as it looks being easily forged.

In fact, Japan originally considered to introduce a signature system more than hundred years ago when Japan was modernized after the revolution.  However, the Japanese government finally decided to use a seal instead, taking into account its less burdensome admin processes than a signature system.

There are two kinds of seals: a registered seal and a ready-made seal.

A seal is made of wood, plastic, animal's ivory or horn, amber, etc.  And it is usually 2 to 2.5 inches long.

In most cases, Kanji name is carved on seal; however, English or katakana (one of three scripts in Japanese mainly used to express foreign words) can also be used for foreigners.

English and katakana are used

In many seals, fonts are twisted.

Fonts are twisted

Many fonts can't be even read, but that's OK.  I understand such a deform of letter is done to reduce the risk of forgery.  Also, it intends to call in fortunes as a seal is used in very important occasions, such as closing a certain contract, and many Japanese feel any spiritual things in a seal itself, I guess.

It might be cool for you to have one (but don't try to use in your country if not allowed).

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Japanese Girls Group - Social Phenomenon

AKB48 is a girls' pop music group in Japan and has been so popular and been a social phenomenon in Japan last 5 or so years.

Yes, it is certainly a social phenomenon as a middle age man like myself knows names of many members for this sort of young girls' group.

Interesting difference from other pop groups in the past is that just selected members, rather than all members, can be shown up.  This system seems to promote high level of competitions among members.

There is an event of the group around this time of a year since 5 or so years ago, which many people in Japan and possibly other countries pay great attentions.  The event is called "a general election," and this year's voting by fans is currently going on until June 7 (Fri) of this week, and the election returns will be in June 8 (Sat).

2013 Election

This is an election to determine 16 members out of around 250 candidates from AKB48 and its sister groups who can join the unit for their next (32nd) single song, which will be released in this coming August.

A candidate receiving the highest numbers of votes can take a center position of the unit group, which is very prestigious thing.

One of progress reports provides that current top is Yuko Oshima, who got No. 1 in the last year's election.

Yuko Oshima - Election Poster

A second is Rino Sashihara who used to be a member of AKB48 and was transferred out to a sister group based in a local city due to her love affair last year, which is strictly prohibited.

Rino Sashihara - Election Poster

Will see who wins this year.

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Pachinko: Unregulated Gambling in Japan

Pachinko is a game, which has a nature of gambling as discussed below, is very popular in Japan.

People can plan pachinko at a pachinko parlor, which can be usually found anywhere there are many people, such as near stations, shopping arcade, and like.

Pachinko is a very simple game.  Player fist buy certain amount of small balls whose diameter is around half an inch.  Put the balls into the machine, which is vertically placed as in the above picture, and fire the balls one by one.  If the ball goes into certain places of the machine, then player can get more balls.

The balls can be exchanged to prizes, such as daily products.

But many players exchange the balls for money.  In Japan, however, private gamble is not allowed, and thus, players can't directly get money for the balls.  Instead, players first exchange their balls for certain products at the pachinko parlor, which are used just like as tokens, take the products to an exchange place outside the pachinko parlor, and exchange them for money.

It sounds wired to insist that the above is not gamble, but everything is currently overlooked and is not regarded as gamble.  Yes, form gets over substance here.

As far as I know, pachinko became very popular among common people after WWII.

Pachinko machine was first manually operated.

If you see the bottom right of the machine in the above picture, there is a device to flip a ball.

The machine then incorporated more electronic device and computer operations, which expedite a win or lose much more quickly and increase the gambling nature of pachinko dramatically.

The current pachinko machine looks more intending for friendly natures by using designs of famous idol or manga characters, for example.

It has been pointed out that many people, including house wives and retired people, become pachinko addict.  I think such a result can be easily expected under the current unregulated situations surrounding the pachinko industry.

As mentioned above, many pachinko parlors are located in our neighborhood, like next door of a grocery store.

It is not sane that such an unhealthy gambling place has that easy access in our normal life.

It has to be improved.

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Yes or No?

As said a few times before, Japanese and English are totally different languages (See Japanese and English are Completely Different Languages).

Let me give you an interesting example.

When I started living in the U.S., I was very confused by different meanings of "Yes" and "No."

Assume someone asks you, "Aren't you hungry?"

American people would respond by saying, "No, I'm not hungry." or "Yes, I'm hungry."

Japanese would use Yes and No oppositely by saying, "Yes, I'm not hungry." or "No, I'm hungry."

What we Japanese mean here is as follows:
Yes, I'm not hungry. ---> Yes, [that is right.]  I'm not hungry.
No, I'm hungry. ---> No, [that is not right.]  I'm hungry.

If we say the full sentence like above, maybe we can communicate with American counterpart OK.

But if we just say "Yes" or "No" in the above situation, then we would confuse our American friend.

In fact, I confused many American people because I was being confused by how to use Yes and No to a negative question.

But I found a very simple rule one day, which is "No is No", and "Yes is Yes" in English or at least in the U.S.

Hence, I should say "No, I'm not hungry." if I'm not hungry regardless of the way how my American friend asks the question.

I haven't been confusing American friends since then.

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