Urban Subcultures and Trends in Japan

As is the same in any society, there is quite a diversity among Japanese... they're not just a bunch of conformists. There are quite a few subcultures here and there. Japan is very much a nation in which its citizens are pressured to conform... and they are pressured to conform not only by peers and family, but by the education system, the media, their employers' expectations, their social norms of behavior and, oh, just about every other institution you can imagine. As a widely-quoted Japanese saying goes: 'the nail which sticks-up is the one which gets hammered.' This is not to say that Japanese folks aren't individuals: they have the same joys and frustrations that a person in any western country would have, they're just under greater pressure to not let their idiosyncrasies become their overwhelmingly distinctive features. There are a vast number of dissatisfied people who don't like living in a highly regimented society. Consider the Japanese word 'makoto', which is often translated into English as 'sincerity'. Sincerity in the western sense means that the face one presents to the world is the same as one's inner nature. In short, the inner self can be seen on the outside. But the Japanese concept of sincerity is almost the opposite: 'makoto' means that the face one presents to the world is dictated by the situational expectations of others, and the squirming inner-self is suppressed.

Despite this, individuality still finds ways of leaking-out. For instance, many Japanese youths like coloring their hair... brown, tan, hazelnut, orange- anything but black. The vast majority of the colored hair typically belongs to people who aren't worrying about getting a good job or into university yet, if at all. But this is a small example of how some of the younger set try to show their personal flair.

But conformity is very important to large swaths of the populace and this seems to get revealed whenever one rides the subway and watches the people milling-about the station. The stereotypical adult Japanese male falls into the category of 'sarariman'... that is to say, a salary-man. Only about a third of the male Japanese workforce falls into the category of salaried workers, the rest are blue-collar workers, shop-owners or non-permanent positions. Being a sarariman seems very much to be the pinnacle of reasonable employment hopes for most people and the education system acts as a giant sorting-machine to determine who will fit where in the job hierarchy. A sarariman will often get great job security (until recently this was true, however), good benefits and a modicum of respect among peers. If you ask a woman what her husband does for a living, she might very well reply: 'he's a sarariman'... and not by mentioning the specific line of business he's in. And, being a sarariman has drawbacks: specifically, you are chained to your desk for long hours and expected to take-part in all sorts of company-related activities outside the office. So, the sarariman subculture is very-much a prevalent and monied demographic and the largest percentage of the mass-media caters to their tastes. There are sarariman-oriented TV shows, comics and magazines, for instance.

There are fringe subcultures out there, much in the same way that Americans refer to Goth, preppy, geek whatever. And I think there is a great deal of relevance when it comes to how the Japanese mass-media functions, as it often serves as the main vector for spreading these kinds of images.

The Curious World of The Japanese Media

Yes, we all know that U.S. television is often devoid of intelligence. Sadly, Japanese television is even more devoid of intelligence. In fact, if you think that American television content is geared towards those with the mental age of twelve, the content of Japanese television seems to be for those with the mental age of eleven. It's not a good source if you want intellectual nourishment. Half the time, Japanese TV seems to be nothing more than a mix of vacuous variety-shows, soap-operas and bland news programs that omit absolutely anything that might be controversial or too taxing to one's mind.

The organizational structure of Japanese media is a conspiracy theorists' nightmare. Among independent journalists in the U.S., there is a lot of hand-wringing over how all the major TV networks are owned by a handful of large companies... with Disney owning ABC, GE owning NBC, and Time-Warner/AOL owning just about everything. (Naturally, NBC News can't be entirely trusted to carry unbiased stories about the parent company's subsidiaries, can it?) In short, critics of the U.S. media claim that the official media opinions reflects the officially-sanctioned opinions of a few huge corporations or their billionaire CEOs. Well, the media situation is similar in Japan- except to a much, much larger degree.

For starters, one of the defining characteristics of the Japanese journalism is its monolithic nature... although the tone may change slightly from newspaper to newspaper, the content is essentially the same among them. Editors furiously read each others' early editions, and adjust their own positions accordingly in later editions. Newspaper and broadcasting agencies gather their information via a few hundred kisha (reporter) clubs that are attached to every major political, industrial, financial and social institution in Japan. The kisha are ostensibly there to help journalists by ensuring they won't miss-out on a vital development, and information on the targeted institution is hard to gather through methods outside the kisha club. But kisha-club members make collective decisions on what they may or may not report; the clubs are used as a forum in which to straighten-out exactly what will be said, and they will often align their positions with the institution that the club is attached to. If any member violates the collective decision on what to print, they will be kicked-out of the club. When a big political or industrial scandal does get reported by all the media, the public receives a giant flood of information because the reporters in the relevant kisha were aware of the details all along. In short, the relationship between journalists and the organization they cover is usually one of collusion, not one of investigative probing.

Or consider how advertising is structured... The biggest Japanese advertising agency, Dentsu, is the largest such firm in the world. As of the late 1980s, it accounted for one-fifth of ads in Japanese newspapers and fully one-third of the advertising on Japanese television. (I'm not sure what the 21st century figures are for Dentsu, but I'm sure they haven't diminished by much. It's still the world's biggest advertising firm. By comparison, the largest US advertising firm only accounts for perhaps 2 or 3 percent of commercials on U.S. television.) Dentsu also employs many sons of high-powered government administrators, television executives and publishers. Executives who leave Dentsu often find new positions in newspapers, local TV stations and publishing houses, so its informal tentacles truly reach deep into many institutions. Dentsu can also intimidate large firms because it has the ability to broadcast news of corporate scandals through its media friends... or pressure the same media friends to hush-up scandals (this has actually occured a number of times in the past). Dentsu also runs the rating agency which grades Japanese TV programs (like the Nielsen rating system... except the American version is supposed to be independent of outside influences). By controlling the way ratings are tabulated, this gives Dentsu the ability to tell broadcasters what shows should and shouldn't be on the air. And Dentsu is also the official PR firm for Japan's ruling political party, the LDP.

As I said: it's a conspiracy theorists' nightmare.

Their Proper Place

Few things would be more offensive to American women than the way women are commonly portrayed on Japanese television.

I don't understand the dialogue in Japanese programs very well, but I think I've seen some recurring themes here and there involving women. I guess... one thing that I noticed very quickly: women on Japanese television appear to be of secondary importance to the males. On many television shows, the male presenter often has a comely female sidekick whose role is to laugh at his jokes and agree with everything he says. And this is true not only in entertainment, but on the news too. For instance, in interviews with officials, the female interviewer might look smart but there is a distinct lack of depth in the questions that she asks. She doesn't seem to be there to ask tough, probing questions of the interviewee but says things like: "Is that so?", "How wonderful!", "How you must have struggled!", "That sounds complicated.", "Can you explain how it works?" Obviously, if a female reporter has brains, it seems that she's not rewarded for using them.

Or women are given more subtle messages through the examples set for them. Happy endings for women on TV seem to be steeped in generally-accepted social norms about a woman's 'proper' way to interface with work, marriage, giving birth, taking care of kids, taking care of the elderly and basically sacrificing themselves for the good of the family. The mother holds the family together no matter what; the travails of the mother is what drives the sons to do grander things. Stories like that. A story where a woman gets enough guts to leave her invariably swine-jerk husband to start on an exciting, new existence as a single career mother... that isn't a happy ending you'd typically see here.

Another example: I spotted a news exposé-style program about various social vices that youth were supposedly in danger of exposure to... alcohol, tobacco, gambling, addiction to unhealthy foods and so on. There were interviews with underage drinkers whose faces were fuzzed-out, underage smokers whose faces were fuzzed-out, underage gamblers whose faces were fuzzed-out... Without exception, all of the subjects were female! Not one male was included! Dramatizations were needed for scenes in which gambling addicts were portrayed... and all the people who were portrayed in these scenes were female. I mean... seriously, not one male was portrayed or interviewed as being an underage drinker, smoker or gambler. Not one. The hidden message was quite clear: specifically young women need guidance from parents and teachers because they can be easily sucked-in by vice. No way would that sort of bias be accepted back in the States! Seriously, American chicks would react quite indignantly if only women were portrayed in a news show as being weak-minded and easily-suckered.

I guess... I'd written rants about how American television increasingly seems to lampoon and denigrate males. That males are stupid, useless, boorish louts... whatever. Well, the images in Japanese television seem to go the opposite route: women are secondary, weak-minded, fickle, silly, irrational, childish...

Of course, neither bias is a good one... it's not constructive in either case.

Torendo

The Japanese advertising market is the world's second largest (after the U.S) and probably nowhere else on the planet has TV been integrated so effectively into modern life. TVs can be found not only in the home, but in shops, train stations, banks, taxis- almost everywhere you look. And television helps to facilitate the spread of trends, or 'torendo', in a major way. In Japan, fads appear with remarkable swiftness and disappear just as quickly... who knows how any trend ever starts? But they seem to typically originate in the hippest parts of the country such as Shibuya district in Tokyo. Then, the trend spreads to the other urban centers, and by the time it reaches Hokkaido (the northernmost island), it's already passé.

An example of this was the phenomenon of Ruuso Sokusu (loose socks) in 1998.

In an effort to make their legs look slimmer, some Japanese girls started wearing very loose socks that would drape-down over their shoes and even drag slightly on the ground... (I am not making this up!) This was followed by purposefully extra-loose socks that were made to fulfill this demand... and even a special adhesive that could be used to affix the socks to the wearers' calves (without the glue, the socks would fall-off and drag on the ground. Obviously you need glue in order to wear your socks- duh!) The full-blown trend didn't last more than a few months, but the residue is obvious. Every now and then, you'll see a gaggle of schoolgirls here and there wearing socks that look more like mini leg-warmers.

Tastes are fickle. Popular Japanese 'stars' are mass-produced with 'careers' lasting rarely more than two years; their songs are rather bland feel-good tunes. They are a caricature of the Western pop stars who are famous only for their fame.

Anyway, what was the point of this piece again? Oh yes... urban subcultures among women. This is just a sampler, many of these (with the exception of the O-e-ru and Ojosan) are mostly fringe groups:

Ko Gyaru

Ko comes from either 'koko' (Japanese for 'high-school') or Ko (meaning 'small' or 'girl') while 'gyaru' comes from the English 'girl'. These high-school girls favor Day-Glo colors, sparkling make-up around the eyes, a dark salon suntan, bleached hair and towering high-heeled boots. The effect is reminiscent of the cast of Clueless having less savoir-faire with regard to the proper application of cosmetics.

Ojosan

These are the conservatively-dressing career women who can be seen in the subways and in offices wearing business suits. And sometimes, their skirts are just a wee bit shorter and tighter than would be considered conservative in America. Most often, they're college graduates (sometimes from one of the plethora of women's' colleges around Japan) who will one day marry a young sarariman. These are the women I'm the most attracted to: they reek of responsibility, intelligence and ambition. They are also not to be confused with O-e-ru.

O-e-ru

O-e-ru (taken from the Japanized pronunciation of 'OL', the acronym for 'Office Lady') tend to do the lower-level office, customer-service and secretarial stuff. If not in offices, they tend to be bank tellers or tend to work in places like travel agencies or department stores. They can often be seen in the subways traveling in small groups, wearing identical uniforms and identical hair. They remind me somewhat of flight attendants for offices. Often, they don't work full-time and are expected to always have a cheery demeanor about them on the job. Sometimes, they might work part-time at two or even three different places and have to change uniforms between shifts. And periodically, they are required to do tasks that are too menial for robots. I imagine their job interviews might go something like this: 'well Miss Furukawa, your computer skills are quite impressive, as are your references... but can you clean ashtrays?'

Yamamba

These are girls in their late teens (never more than 20) who get their name from a witch-like figure with long white hair who appears in some Japanese fairy-tales. Their overall image appears to be highly influenced by the bleached-Goth look. Not only is their hair white, but their lipstick is also white. Sometimes they have white eye-shadow or circles of dark eye-shadow... the latter look is disarmingly raccoon-like. This make-up contrasts with their salon-tanned faces, giving them a ghostly appearance... or a facial appearance reminiscent of a flaming pancake that got beaten-out with a metal spatula.

Yan-Mama

Stems from the English root 'young' and the Japanese 'mama' (mother). These are women in their early 20s who married and had children while young (often just after high-school.) The stereotypical Yan-Mama continues to dress like a teen-ager, much to the horror of the more stodgy, conservative folks.

And of course... Furyou Gaijin

These are foreigners (almost exclusively male) who either can't get laid in their home countries or don't want to get laid in their home countries. 'Furyou' means something like 'no goodnik' or 'antithesis of good'. (Snicker.)

Anyway, I'm so busy at work, it's often difficult for me to keep-up writing stuff at the pace I did in the U.S. As interesting things happen, I'll definitely post them...

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"When women kiss, it always reminds me of prizefighters shaking hands." -- H. L. Mencken.

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