Obligated to a Fault?

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Source: The Japan Times
One of the most generally accepted (although contested) reasons for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II was to minimize casualties and force the Japanese army to surrender. Although seemingly quite drastic, the reasoning behind President Truman’s choice was partially based on the American interpretation of the Japanese mindset as unwaveringly and to some extent, irrationally loyal to the point of choosing suicide over accepting surrender.

This conceptualization of Japan is rooted in stereotypes, but not entirely baseless – self-sacrifice, self-control, and commitment to community are values deeply embedded in Japan’s history and culture. While American culture values self-reliance and individual identity in almost all aspects of their lives, Japanese culture equates strength in character to conforming to society and exacting self-restraint by quelling individual desires and impulses. It could be said that acting in such a way is a more subtle manifestation of the concept of obligation in Japanese society. In further contrast to Japan, America’s ethnically heterogeneous population and seemingly frequent open criticism from citizens of the country’s myriad of issues – political polarization, inability to eradicate national acts of violence – makes a unanimous sense of national loyalty difficult to conceive.

The concept of giving to society is perhaps most noticeable in the Japanese language. The degree of specificity of honorifics used to address those of a higher status is a show of respect, and more broadly, a statement about the acceptance of Japanese society’s take on human relationships. To simply speak the language and learn the nuance of how to address a boss (-sama), teacher (-sensei), or stranger (-san) is to exhibit deference to a preconceived social construct where value is placed heavily on interpersonal relationships and the societal status of the individuals involved. Other cultural nuances such as bowing to others as a greeting stress the importance of conformity and cooperation—the objective: a strong family, community, and country.

These customs, and many more like it, can be considered examples of giri (義理) which directly translated, means the “righteous way”. Although the righteous way can have varying cultural definitions, its Japanese cultural meaning implies the existence of moral obligations that a person is responsible for over his or her lifetime, ranging from showing gratitude to exacting vengeance, a concept remnant from feudal Japan but still present in modern society.

One of the most obvious markers of giri’s feudal roots is the concept of self-sacrifice, the ultimate display of loyalty to a larger cause and pinnacle of giri at the time. Samurai, or Japanese feudal warriors, were known for their staunch loyalty and according to the Bushido code, dishonored samurai or those who had been defeated must commit seppuku, a form of suicide. Hijikata Toshizo, a vice-commander of the police force Shinsengumi in the Edo Shogunate era, is known for saying, “I am not going to battle to win. With the Tokugawa government about to collapse, it would be a disgrace if no one is willing to go down with it. That is why I must go. I will fight the best battle of my life to die for the country.”

However, the idea of self-sacrifice in context of modern warfare, technology, and society is outdated. Although the honor of fighting with a blade and even the honor of the katana itself are written into oblivion with the military technology available today, Japan’s corporate culture and work conditions have replaced feudal honor in today’s society.

In the past, it was common to work long, laborious hours in order to attain sufficient results or output but modern technology has made work more efficient and has almost entirely cut the need for most hands-on production jobs in many sectors. However, the Japanese continue to exhibit enormous dedication to working long hours and take few, if any, vacation days despite the ready supply of them. Although this phenomenon may seem like quite a foreign concept to many Westerners, this reality is not uncommon for many Japanese adults.

To Americans, work culture often doesn’t extend much beyond about 40 work hours per week, varying healthcare benefits, and an outside life far removed from their time at work. The work culture in Japan, however, often entails social outings such as drinking with coworkers after work, eliciting an employer’s paternalist sense of duty to care for employees and their families. The dissolution of the supervisor-employee boundary even extends into counseling employees in personal matters such as children, wedding affairs, and the like. Contrary to work culture in the U.S., the Japanese have a much smaller divide between life at work and life outside the office perhaps in part to the common Japanese “salaryman’s” belief work serves as both an obligation to the corporation and perhaps on an even larger scale, their country as a whole.

However, giri is not simply linked to closer social ties with coworkers. Too much evidence of the negative consequences of Japan’s intense work culture exists to write it off as a benign product of lifestyle. Karoshi, or death from over-exhaustion from work, is only one of the many consequences of the extreme obligation the Japanese have to their jobs. However, Japan’s population growth is suffering as well. With birth rates estimated to be as low as 1.41 births per woman (compared to that in 1970, which was 2.14 births per woman), many sources have cited this drastic drop to be due to increased work hours for adults of childbearing age. With the increase of women entering the workforce and the emphasis of duty to career, many women simply cannot find the time and energy needed to build and sustain a family in this day and age. Although this general trend is common amongst developed countries, Japan’s population demographics are troubling because of the strain it will put on the country’s economy as the current workforce ages and must be supported by a staggeringly small number of youths.

However, the effects of social obligation and conformity reach further than just working adults; children and students often times feel the most pressure to achieve success. A number of young adults become hikikomori, in which they isolate themselves in their houses and shut themselves off from the outside world to maximize concentration on their studies. Although this phenomenon may seem rather extreme to Western audiences, this practice is not that uncommon amongst Japanese youth due to both academic and societal pressures to attend a prestigious university in order to build a successful career.
Giri is a rather romantic concept and is made even more so by the fact that the Japanese manage to uphold the ideals in many senses; the cleanliness of the cities, the respect and politeness that the people address others with, and the orderliness of the community, which some find are the pinnacles of the Japanese culture. But giri is also a multi-faceted and elusive concept. During World War II, the prospect of an entire country jumping to their death rather than accept defeat was suddenly quite real in the eyes of the West . However, an encompassing question remains: at what point does the sacrifice of individual needs and identity for greater cohesion between members of a society become less about personal loss and more about obligation to a greater cause?

Lucy Zhang is a freshman at Duke University.