The Customer is God

Recently I've had some experiences/conversations that have led me to reflect on the difference of behaviors and expectations between consumers and specifically service industry workers (though I'm sure this applies more broadly) in the US and Japan. And you know, this particular instance defies the usual stereotypes. Defies, I say!

In English, we have expressions like "the customer is always right" and "the customer is king" (at least I think I've heard the latter one before). Once upon a time this may have been so, and some of the better companies may still try to adhere to this kind of thinking. However, the US is a very individualistic society, and a lot of us don't like taking crap from people, including those we're supposed to be serving. Sure, there are the perpetually moody denizens of the DMV and the Postal Service and a slew of others out there who hate their jobs, but I think a good amount of service workers just want to try to be positive and get through the day without being yelled at for things (mostly) beyond their control.

We also have the expression "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Having worked in customer service positions before, I know that if I get combative and angry at an operator or receptionist, they may feel pressured to let me have my way or rectify their mistake. But they also won't go out of their way to help me. The tactic may also backfire and they may decide to drop the call or drag their feet as revenge. Either way the experience will be a lot less pleasant for both of us if I take out my frustration on the lowly service worker.

Sure, there are tons of asshats in this country. I've talked to plenty of them on the phone. But I know there are also a fair amount of people who think like me - when dealing with customer service you need to be assertive but patient, and try to be nice.

Now let's talk about the Japanese side:

お客様は神様です

The key Japanese expression to remember is "the customer is God."

"I SAID NO ONIONS!'　

There's no doubt about it - service in Japan is far superior than in America. But I sometimes wonder how good a thing that is and whether it's contributing to the high rate of depression in Japan. I'm only being half serious, but really. When I lived in Japan, I often felt bad for people who worked at department stores or restaurants. And especially convenience stores.

Imagine working at a 7-11. You have to do all the honest but menial labor associated with working at a convenience store - make food, stock shelves, ring up customers. Now imagine that you're supposed to loudly greet every customer that walks in. And shout "Thank you, come again" like Apu every time someone leaves. And when someone comes to the register, you're supposed to smile and say "Hello, thanks for shopping at 7-11!" And most of your customers just ignore you and pay without saying a word.

Ok, so that doesn't sound too bad, but what if you're just not feeling it one day? Well too bad! If your manager catches wind of you not greeting and thanking, you'll be out of a job.

To be fair, there were some workers at my (then) local conbini who were great at this. They were friendly and maybe they really liked their job. But at a majority of the places I visited in Japan, these ritualistic greetings and thanks were hollow and robotic. The workers were clearly burned out on it and probably tired of interacting without any interaction.

Japanese people are "supposed to be" おとなしい. That is, meek. Well, I guess a lot of the time they are. But not when they're buying something!

In my Japanese class the other day, we were talking about how in Japan, when customers want results, they yell. "What the hell? Can't you go any faster?!" The answer is no. When someone yells at you to go faster, you get muddled and quality and/or speed suffer. Our teacher remarked that it took her a while to get used to the "American style," where you try to be nice to service people so that they'll help you.

I don't want to go into too much detail, but I had an experience at work recently that highlighted this cultural difference. Basically my boss was upset about something and wanted me to contact the responsible parties and...yell at them. He expected that would earn us some kind of compensation or rectification of the situation. Yikes. 

Given a choice between the two, I really think it depends on what side you're on. I'm not a big fan of service jobs, but I'd much rather be doing one in the US. I don't imagine most people would rather be a customer in the States than in Japan, though. I guess I kind of wish both countries had some kind of happy medium, but it is how it is. What do you guys think?

Oh, and thank you, come again!

Cultural shapes

One thing that caught me off guard one time while in the classroom was the different meanings of certain shapes across cultures. I was standing at the blackboard, the students having chalked some answers up there. As I read the first answer, I checked it off and nodded, and threw in a "Very good." The students looked puzzled, and several touched eraser to paper.

Apparently, check marks are not used in Japan to denote a correct answer. As I learned that day and would come to observe quite frequently in the future while watching teachers grade tests, correct answers get a circle beside them (○＝まる) and incorrect ones get an X (ばつ) or often just a straight line (that sometimes resembles a check mark, I guess). 

Additionally, triangles (⊿＝さんかくけい) are often used to denote partial credit or "debatable."

I've seen these symbols used at my current job, too. At our daily morning meetings, we each present some articles and talk a bit about them, and then my boss tentatively draws a circle, x, or triangle on his paper next to the article name to note whether or not the news will be sent to Tokyo (the triangles are "maybe").

And blue moons mean "%$^ you!"

In retrospect it makes perfect sense, but it just never occurred to me that different shapes and symbols take on different meanings depending on the culture.

The Culture of Money (Part 2)

In the comments section of Part 1, Shaun mentioned that repatriating to England he was surprised at the dirty bills, being used to the largely crisp, clean yenners. I've also been experiencing some money-related reverse culture shock, but of a different nature.

The single dollar bill. I've grown to dislike it.

Japan, the UK, Europe, Canada - all have coins for their one-dollar-like denominations. It's not that we don't have $1 coins in the U.S., it's that they're not popular and thus don't stay in circulation for long. I regularly listen to an NPR podcast called Planet Money, and they sometimes talk about this. Apparently people just don't like the coins; they'd rather have light bills rather than heavy coins.

The solution, of course, is to just ignore public opinion and discontinue the single dollar bill. This is what happened in Canada, and it resulted in successful $1 and $2 coins.

As for me, I don't mind the extra weight so long as the coins aren't huge. $1 coins would be a lot more convenient for vending machines, and it's a lot easier to just quickly stick a few $1 coins in your pocket when you get change than to pull our your wallet and put them away.

In Japan, there are six types of coins: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen. I've written about how the 500 yen pieces are excellent for saving. Most people, even men, carry around personal bags in Japan, so weighing down your pockets rarely becomes and issue. Many wallets also have pouches for coins (which I don't believe is unique to Japan). And the 100 and 500 yen pieces are so easy to spend that they don't weigh you down long, anyway (the multitude of convenience stores and vending machines help see to that)!

Though I think the U.S. would do well to follow the lead of Japan and so many other countries, I'm not holding my breath. We're still holding on to Fahrenheit and resisting the metric system, after all.

What do you all say? Paper or metal?

The Culture of Money (Part 1)

I was talking to my girlfriend Yoshie a little while ago and she mentioned that she had gotten annoyed just before coming home. I asked her what happened, and she told me about how a client had given her a nice 10,000 yen (~$130) tip tonight (she's a piano player). She then went to a convenience store and bought a few small items to get change. Unfortunately, the clerk gave her back dirty-looking 1,000 yen notes. I chuckled and when she asked me why, I could only say that in the U.S. most people don't really care about the condition of the cash we get as we're just going to spend it soon anyway.

True, there may be occasions that call for crisp bills in the U.S., but generally I've found the Japanese to be much more particular and conscious of their cash. There are special money envelopes that you can buy as you might buy Hallmark cards in another country, with ribbons and kanji to indicate different occasions, from weddings to funerals. And it is common custom to go to the bank and get fresh, crisp bills for such gifts, especially for weddings, as the fresh, new money is hoped to bring good luck upon the fresh, new couple. Though we do give cash gifts in the States, the Japanese are much more ceremonious about it, perhaps partly due to the fact that people don't use personal checks in Japan. I imagine it would be a little difficult to gussy up personal checks as gifts, but then I probably shouldn't underestimate the originators of tea ceremony and Hello Kitty.

Japan and High School

Have you noticed that "high school" seems to be a fairly popular theme in Japan? What I mean is that here you see high school settings and characters everywhere - movies, cartoons, comics. Often seems like for most Japanese people "high school" equals "hey-day."

In the West, or in the U.S. at any rate, I think the "good old days" that many people have come to wax nostalgic for are more often the days of university or just young adulthood in general. In pop culture, at any rate. That's not to say we don't have our share of movies, TV shows, and literature featuring high schoolers, but I think they often appeal to the limited audiences. If I had to compare, I'd say American entertainment tends to be more dominated by college and post-college themes.

Are Western and Japanese media really so different in this aspect? I think so, and here are a few observations I've made as to why.

Exhibit A: Manga and Anime

I lump these two together because more often than not they go hand in hand (a large number of anime series are taken directly from manga). Of course not all manga are high school-themed. There's a wide enough variety of Japanese comics and cartoons out there to satiate a veritable army of nerds.

I'm hardly claiming that all or even the majority of manga and anime have to do with high school. However I think a relatively large percentage do.

While doing a little research, I came across a Japanese blog with an entry about the most popular manga in Japan during 2009. According to a survey conducted by Nikkei Entertainment Magazine, the popularity of many series is shared across demographics (more so considering age than gender, though).

Of the top 20 manga listed by the survey, 5 of them featured high school students or settings (君に届け; 桜欄高校ホスト部; 名探偵コナン; xxxHOLiC; おおきく振りかぶって).

That means that in 2009, 25% of the top manga were high-school related.

When you consider other big titles like Death Note, Slam Dunk, and Boys Over Flowers, there's a pretty strong case for the argument that "a lot of manga and anime have something to do with high school."

Exhibit B: Movies

When it comes to Japanese movies, many of the more well-known titles don't have anything to do with high school (though Godzilla may well step on a few schools). A lot of the more classically popular films fall under the 時代劇 (period drama) or fantasy/scifi headings.

Looking a little closer, there are a number of Studio Ghibli (makers of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away among many others) movies with high school student protagonists: 猫の恩返し (The Cat Returns), 海が聞こえる (Ocean Waves), and the upcoming コクリコ坂から(From Kokuriko Hill).

How many Disney animations with high school characters can you think of?

Couple this with the fact that like anime, a lot of Japanese movies come from manga series. Thus you have Death Note (the movie), Boys Over Flowers (the movie), Gokusen (the movie), etc.

And let's not forget one of the most (in)famous movies to come out of Japan, Battle Royale, originally a novel about adults sending high school students to an island to fight to the death.

She's a winner!

Exhibit C: Video Games

These days there are almost as many different kinds of video games as comics. Plenty have nothing to do with high school, but the genre does creep into even this medium.

To start, once again we have many manga spin-offs. More Death Note, Slam Dunk, ad nauseam.

If you're a fan of Japanese games, you may be familiar with the Persona (Shin Megami Tensei) series. Not quite at the same level of name recognition as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it's been picking up steam over the years, especially due to its recent releases for the Nintendo DS. Essentially its a series about high school students who can control demons or spirits.

Many high school-themed games don't make it abroad for one reason or another, and thus I don't have very much information or even an English name to offer you. One Google search for "high school protagonist games" turned up this title from 2004, Kuron Youma Gakuen Ki (Story of the Nine Dragons Academy?), which appears to be about a high school boy who decides to be come a treasure hunter (a legitimate pursuit in this game's world) and transfers to a special academy in Tokyo.

I was also recently playing a baseball/high school game called Atsumare Pawa Puro Kun Koshien, in which you can take the roll of either the coach or team captain of a group of high schoolers and must train and lead them to victory. In Japan, the best high school baseball teams qualify to enter a nationally televised tournament that's held annually at Koshien stadium (incidentally not too far from where I live). It's basically the equivalent of high school students getting the chance to play at Fenway Park. The goal of this game is to get your team to Koshien. If you fail, apparently your life and the students' baseball careers are over.

I also have a game called Inazuma Eleven, which is similarly about a soccer team of high schoolers with big ambitions. I believe that one has made it out of Japan.

There are also plenty of other games, often of the dating orientation, that are centered around high school life. I haven't played any of these, though, as I find them creepy.

Why don't many of these games make it out of Japan? For some reason they're not anticipated to sell well abroad. In many cases  I believe it's because Japanese people just have more of an affinity for high school than we do abroad.

Implications

So the high school theme appears more often in Japanese pop culture than in many others. What does it mean? I don't know - you tell me. It could be that despite the wads of homework and sometimes slavish dedication to a club or sport, high school provides (or provided) the last memories of freedom for many Japanese people, and that's something they cherish.

One of my friends theorized that the Japanese have more of an appreciation for that "time of innocence," and that high school marks the time before adulthood when some things are still pure. That could be. It might go partway to explaining one of the more prevalent fetishes associated with, uh...lower Japanese culture.

What do you think? If you've spent some time in Japan or have consumed a lot of Japanese media, do you think Japan is more fascinated with high school life than other countries? If so, why do you think that is?

I'm curious to see what you come up with.

Update: Some good stuff in the comments. From Ryan Cecil:

 "I wanted to say that I do agree with your friend about the "Age of Innocence." It was first brought up to me by a Japanese friend, explaining why high school students don't have part time jobs. "We Japanese like our children to be children." Having a job just doesn't seem right for a child, so that's a good reason to prohibit it.

It's also brought up a little bit in my debate classes, when students talk about school uniforms: "We feel like students when we wear school uniforms." So the high school atmosphere thing is important not just to nostalgic adults, but students too. Also, I think you can look to the way (it seems) certain events are ubiquitous at every school, such as sports day, cultural festivals, and certain school trips. I think creating "happy high school memories" is real important to Japanese people.

There's also the way, compared to Americans, Japanese high school students are more naive about... almost everything. I think they feel like they're "supposed to" be naive, especially the good kids. (Maybe it's subversive to be a precocious high school student here)."

Think that's well put. Perhaps because in many cases Japanese people have to make a very quick transition to adulthood, this last period of youth and innocence is especially valued. I'd love to have a native or two weigh in on this.

One thing that gives me pause, though, is my perception that a lot of high school students are (a) sexually active as are teens in other countries and (b) often work part-time jobs though they're not supposed to. According to my understanding of the concept, (lack of) sexual awareness and experience are cornerstones of "innocence," so I'm not too sure it's something Japanese youth really possess. Though that wouldn't necessarily preclude them from trying to hold on to it.

Eryk brings up another good point:

"I think high school is interesting because it is a period that blends care-free living, protection, and a very real community with a shared set of seemingly insurmountable problems. College is too care-free to inspire the drama needed for good storytelling; and the social cohesion isn’t the same. "

Adversity can really help build great relationships, and it could be that all the hard work and drama of high school make for not only good memories but also strong friendships. Some of your classmates become your buddies in the trenches, struggling a'la J-drama to overcome the odds and win that baseball championship or study your ass off and get into Tokyo University.

And some perspective from Kaori. I recommend reading the comments if you're interested, but here's part of her thought:

"I agree with you and a lot of the comments. High school really is pretty much our first taste of freedom, and the fact that it's within a certain boundary (because let's face it, your still kids) makes it all the more exciting. It's probably a mix of innocence and adolescence."

Fun with Mary Jane

The other day I was teaching a lesson on illness and injury - how to say "I have a fever" and "My head hurts" and that sort of thing. On one of the worksheets I made, I presented three patients with their complaints, and the students had to write some advice, using the "(Person) should ..." format. One of them was Spiderman, saying that he had gotten into a fight with a thief who had punched him in the face, and now his tooth hurt (excuse the implausibility - I know Spiderman would never sustain an injury from such a lowly foe). After a few minutes, when we were checking the answers, some of the more vocal boys started giggling. I asked one of them for his answer, and he offered "Spiderman should go see MJ." It took me a second to process, and then I chuckled. "Mary Jane?" I asked. "Yes, MJ! Mary Jane-u!" the boys laughed.

Little things like that make me appreciate the innocence (in some regards, anyway) of many Japanese high students. Saying "Spiderman should go see Mary Jane" would no doubt evoke a completely different and substance-related image for an American high schooler. I'm sure if that kind of slang and drug culture were existent in Japan, the situation may have been different. But they're not. The boys just meant that Spiderman should go see his girlfriend. Of course, they probably did mean that Spidey should seek a different kind of action from his girlfriend. Hmmm...I guess they're not so innocent after all. Perverts.