The "Cool Japan" Delusion

There's a recent "Views from the Street" at the Japan Times online asking the question "Can selling 'cool Japan' save the ailing economy and help avert a demographic disaster?"

First of all, the "Cool Japan" campaign, if it can be called a campaign, is a move to promote Japanese culture abroad as hip, or "cool" as the kids say these days. While I might argue that it the branding of Japan as "cool" has been relatively unsuccessful, as I believe many more people would associate Japan with words like "technological," "exotic," or "strange," there is no denying that the spread of some elements of "cool" Japanese culture around the world has enjoyed more than modest success. Anime, manga, video games, and Japanese pop music have spread to many countries, although they thrive particularly among those members of "geek culture," as noted quite some time ago by Emily Leach of Asian Week. Still, I don't mean to assert here that Japan isn't "cool." What I do mean to assert is that the whole notion of "cool Japan" relating to Japan's economic woes is flawed.

Cool Japan is a red herring. Japan's stagnant economy can be traced back to the 1990's and its accrual of debt and fiscal deficits (Sound familiar? If America makes it out of the current recession, it will succeed where Japan has failed). Japan's economic problems cannot be saved by some giant advertising campaign. And they will be severely worsened, possibly to the point of collapsing the national economy, within the next 50 years. It has nothing to do with image. It has to do with individual behavior and national policy.

As Tornadoes at As I see Japan...from LA has been pointing out in recent posts, Japan is suffering from population decline. Not only that, but Japan's population is aging. This means that as the years pass, there will be less people working and more people retiring. Eventually there won't be enough taxes coming in to pay for all the "free" health care and welfare that is required.

There are two possible solutions:

(1) Japanese people need to have more children. This is the easiest way to increase the population and inject some new blood into the ailing economy.

(2) Ease immigration policies. This is obviously not happening.

As it is, the "cool Japan" movement, even if it were effective, can only boost tourism and sales of Japanese goods. What it needs to do is encourage immigration to Japan. And the Japanese government needs to allow for this. 

And so will Japan somehow weather the storm, or will it fade away into oblivion (in a cool way, of course)?

Working Japanese Moms

Apologies for the recent update drought. Joe's currently out visiting the Motherland, and Yoshie's in Kansai for a couple weeks, so I've been a bit busy preparing for her arrival and spending some time with her since she got in Sunday evening.

I noticed this recent survey over at What Japan Thinks (原因), asking mainly about the support that working mothers receive both at work and at home from their husbands. As you may already know, I have somewhat of an interest in the marital/breeding habits of the Japanese and their foreseeable social and economic consequences. Notably, I was a little surprised on two points.

First, that while 81% of women cited their reason for working as "To support the family budget for food, daily expenses, etc," only 33.3% chose "To advance my career, because I want to work." Perhaps the Japanese women I know aren't a legitimate statistical sampling, but I think many (or even most) of my younger female peers seem primarily driven right now by their careers. Thinking about it further, however, this statistic begins to make more sense. While I didn't see any percentage breakdown by age group of those surveyed, it may be safe to assume that 33.3% represents a majority of the younger women polled. Also, it's also extremely likely that those women who place a high priority on advancing their career either aren't married or don't have children.

Second, I was also surprised that a majority of working mothers surveyed are satisfied (at least to some degree) with the support/cooperation they receive from their husbands, considering how notorious Japanese men are for spending all day and night at the office and never seeing their families. Then again "support" and "cooperation", 「育児スサポート」and 「協力」 are vague terms in my mind. If I'm interpreting the Japanese data correctly, it looks like mothers from higher income households tended to be more satisfied with their husbands, so perhaps financial support as opposed to physically helping out with the kids is the key bit of information here.

I think it's important to understand and address the concerns of young Japanese women regarding motherhood. It seems to be a common conception (and of course not unique to Japan) that when women have children, their working lives are effectively over. I can see how that could be the case in many instances - after all, carrying a child to term takes a lot of time and energy, as does taking care of said child. I'm not of the mindset that women need to stay home with the children, though, although I don't see that social pattern changing here any time soon. When I was young, both my parents worked. For a while my sister and I had babysitters, and at times my parents would arrange their work schedules so that one of them would be home with us while the other was working. Then when my dad's health went into decline, he retired and stayed home with us while my mom worked during the day.

I'm not sure if many Japanese women don't want to have children (at a younger age, anyway) these days because of work concerns or just because they aren't that interested in having a family, but as the prior is more easily addressed, I hope it's something that will change in the coming years. While I think full-time child-rearing is a worthwhile calling for either a mother or a father, I can understand why many women would balk at the idea of having children if it means permanently passing up the chance at a meaningful career.

Raising a family isn't for everyone, but any society that boasts gender equality should encourage women to pursue both career and family if that's what they want.

このアンケートは興味深いと思う。僕はこんな日本の育児や結婚や生殖に関することになんだか興味ありますから。日本人の女性の職業と家族の心配は大事だと思う。知り合いの若い女性は、沢山の女性は仕事と職業は一番大事だと思う。出産したら職業の人生終わると思ったら、その考え方よくわかる。現代の日本はそれは普通だと思います。

僕は子供のときに、両親は両方働いてた。ベビーシッター何人かいて、あとで両親は一人で僕と妹と一緒にいるためにスケジュールを計画して別な時間に働いてたんだ。お父さんは病気になったら、引退して僕らに面倒みた。

僕の考え方は、子供を育てることは両方の両親協力した方がいい。したかったら、両方は働いていい。一人は仕事やめたら、女性ても男でも、家庭と育児はすごく大事な仕事だと思う。

"Go to bed early" says Tokyo

An interesting article from the Telegraph:

The Japanese government has launched a campaign encouraging people to go to bed and get up extra early in order to reduce household carbon dioxide emissions.

The Morning Challenge campaign, unveiled by the Environment Ministry, is based on the premise that swapping late night electricity for an extra hour of morning sunlight could significantly cut the nation's carbon footprint.[...]

While this campaign doesn't surprise me, as Japan has for years been leading efforts to cut global CO2 emissions, it is a little strange how the government is prioritizing its initiatives. Sure, protecting the environment and conserving energy are important, but how about something that will help revitalize the Japanese economy or address the birth rate problem? Hey, why not piggyback the two issues? "Go to bed" an hour earlier, if you know what I mean. Ah well. T'is a brave new world we're living in.

Japan's Population Problem

I may have mentioned in the past that Japan is facing a impending economic collapse in the next 50 years or so if it doesn't get its act together. This is due to its measly birth rate and aging population. In 50 years or so, there will be too few workers to support the amount of Japanese retirees. Government officials and think tanks have been tossing around policy ideas for years, and have implemented programs encouraging foreign workers to (temporarily) come to Japan. These programs have been criticized, however, for providing little support for these foreign workers and for eventually trying to turn them out of the country.

Really Japan has two options if it wants to survive as a nation and remain a world power. The Japanese people can either have more babies, or the government can ease regulations on immigration. Neither seems to be happening. I understand Japan's desire to retain its cultural identity, which is deeply tied to its homogeneity. But is it better to die out than dilute the purity of Japanese culture?

Debito Arudou, author of Debito.org and periodic contributor to The Japan Times, recently penned an article to weigh in on the topic. A solution to Japan's problems does not seem within reach at the moment.

Check out the article full here.

[...]One panel was particularly odd. Panelists concluded, of course, that Japan must do something to stop this demographic juggernaut. A deputy director general at Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research even extrapolated that Japanese would be extinct by the year 3000! Yet the prospect of Japan's decimation was no match for the fear of the foreign element.

During the Q-and-A, I asked: "Sir, only briefly in your presentation do you mention letting foreigners into Japan as a possible solution. However, you depict the process not as 'immigration' (imin), but as the 'active use of the foreign working labor population' (gaikokujin rodoryoku jinko no katsuyo). Why this rhetoric?"

The speaker hedged a bit, suddenly asserting that Japan is now a crowded island society. To paraphrase, "Immigration is not an option for our country. Inflows must be strictly controlled for fear of overpopulation."

Afterward, one on one, I reconfirmed his intellectual disconnect. He further cited "a lack of national consensus" on the issue. When I asked if this was not a vicious circle (i.e. avoiding public discussion of the issue means no possible consensus), he gave a noncommittal answer. When I asked if "immigration" had become more of a political term than a scientific one, he begged off replying further.[...]

What's in a name

Japan's August 30th general election is fast approaching, and Japanese voters are to be faced yet again with an almost certainly unresolvable problem. You see, Japan has been governed for over 50 years now by the same political party, generally criticized for being corrupt and ineffective. Its main, more liberal rival is viewed as equally corrupt but with less experience. These days I've been seeing a lot of signs for a third party, which I had never heard of until just recently. Despite the sound of it, this is a real party: the Happiness Realization Party, when translated into English. From what I've read they are quite crazy, and yet (perhaps it's the crazy in me), some of their platforms don't seem that outlandish. You can read about them in this Japan Times article. I find their choice of name to be the perhaps the most surprising thing about them - while marketable, it does sound very cultish, indeed. Their religious beliefs are also quite surprising, but less so once their party name is considered.

Particularly appealing to me are their aims to bring more foreigners to Japan and remilitarize (while striving to overcome Japan's "colonial mentality"). I am somewhat mixed on their desire to inject religion into Japan. If you know me, you know that I am religious myself and am by no means an opponent of policies partly influenced by religious considerations. However, I do draw the line at establishing any kind of State religion, which seems more likely what the HRP means to do.

That aside, Japan does need more people, and since the Japanese seem unwilling to have more babies to bring up their population, they need immigration. Unfortunately, due to strict government regulations it is difficult to obtain a Japanese residency and nearly impossible to obtain a citizenship. The government's desire to preserve Japan's homogenity is understandable, given its culture, but also ultimately self-destructive. If Japan doesn't get a significant amount of young workers in the coming 50 years or so by one means or another, the country faces an impending economic collapse.

Update: Here is an article highlighting one aspect of Japan's population problem.