The remarkable diversity of Japan and its people – Nikkei Asia

Stephen Givens is a corporate lawyer based in Tokyo.

As an American who has spent most of his life in Japan, watching America fragment over race and gender makes me grateful to be living in a country where 99% of the population could care less whether bakers should be legally compelled to bake cakes for gay weddings.

Many Americans today would say the comparison is not fair. America is diverse. Japan is homogenous. America's problems -- and its virtues -- reflect its diversity. Japan avoids the problems that come with diversity, but is one-dimensional and sheltered.

To which I want to reply, "Let me tell you about the diversity of Japan and its people!"

Yes, there are fewer black and brown faces in Japan than in America, for obvious reasons of history and geography. But the diversity of the Japanese people, from Hokkaido to the Ryukyu Islands, is, if anything, more complex and interesting.

Although the origins of the Japanese people are still shrouded in unknowns, no one doubts that Japan is the product of centuries of immigration and foreign influences that even today have not blended into a homogenous bowl of porridge.

The consecration ceremony at Todaiji Temple in Nara in 752 was attended by dignitaries from Korea and China. Japanese Buddhism, the city plan of Kyoto and the Japanese writing system all entered from abroad.

Isabella Bird and Lafcadio Hearn in the late 19th century noticed, as do the Japanese themselves, striking regional differences in customs, physiology and dialect.

The complexions of women from Akita Prefecture are said to be especially beautiful. Scholars do not agree whether this is because there is lots of snow and little sunlight in Akita, or a result of intermarriage with Russians from across the Sea of Japan.

Japan, like ancient Greece, is home to hundreds of local dialects, festivals, musical and craft traditions and cuisines, now sadly dying off with accelerating mobility, television and the internet.

And lest we forget, for most of Japan's history, diversity led not to harmony but just the opposite -- cycles of vicious clan warfare that only came to an end with national unification at the turn of the 17th century.

Japan's diversity is supported by remarkable tolerance of eccentrics and curiosity about foreign people and things.

Nobody bats an eye at trucks driven by right-wing activists blaring martial music, or girls dressed up like their favorite manga characters. Gender-bending and cross-dressing have a long and respectable history in Kabuki and its more recent offshoots like the all-female Takarazuka Revue. Foreign visitors and immigrants are treated with friendly curiosity and respect.

Eccentricity and deviation are tolerated, but against a background that understands that men and women, and people from different countries and regions, are not interchangeable, and have their own natural and normal characters. Politically incorrect stereotyping? Perhaps so.

Women are partial to sweets, and are more sensitive to cold. Men like spicy food, and have strong body odor. Single-sex schools are OK. So are girl-only group outings and men-only private clubs. The Japanese language itself codifies different vocabularies and verb endings for men and women.

So, too, regional stereotypes. People from Osaka unashamedly bargain for a lower price. People from Kyoto are aloof and unfriendly to strangers. Wakayama people are country bumpkins. Regional differences provide a rich source of humor of a kind that is now effectively outlawed in America, where diversity is celebrated but differences must go unmentioned for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

Japanese have never believed in a Higher Truth or Great Awakenings. They are rooted in the here-and-now, ordinary common sense, acceptance of human beings and knowledge as inevitably imperfect. For that reason, feelings of moral outrage and moral superiority are rare -- a good thing if diverse human beings and communities are to get along.

By contrast, Americans over their history have been attracted to high-minded, bluestocking religious and ideological movements inspired by feelings of moral outrage and superiority against their less enlightened fellow citizens. Puritanism and Evangelical Christianity cast their long shadows today. The Prohibition movement, and both sides of the abortion issue, are examples of self-righteous finger-pointing utterly baffling to most Japanese.

On a trip back to America last month, I was taken aback to see how the Great Awokening has taken hold in "progressive" enclaves like Cambridge, Massachusetts. Churches and historic mansions along Brattle Street have signed on to an updated Apostles' Creed emblazoned on placards in windows and front steps everywhere you look: "We believe: Black lives matter; No human is illegal; Love is love."

Translation: Unbelievers repent.

As a foreigner privileged, assuming I pay my taxes and otherwise behave myself, to reside here until my body is laid to rest, I am profoundly grateful to spend my remaining days in a vibrantly diverse and pagan nation rooted in earthy common sense and forgiveness for human fallibility.

Originally posted here:
The remarkable diversity of Japan and its people - Nikkei Asia