Japan’s Amazing Traditions Of Goodwill & Service!

TOKYO – Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-island born writer (the son of an Anglo father and a Greek mother) who arrived in Japan in the 1890s on assignment for an American magazine, became entranced with the attitudes and behavior of the common people, and wrote that life in Japan was like living in paradise.

There were many who disputed this idealistic view of Japan, but Hearn was, in fact, on to something.

For more than a thousand years before Hearn’s arrival in Tokyo, the foundation for Japan’s culture had been wa (wah) or harmony, based on a concept known as amae (ah-my), which may be translated as “indulgent love.”

In essence, amae referred to treating people with the utmost respect and propriety, never doing anything to upset others, and going out of your way to be kind, thoughtful and generous.

Obviously this philosophy did not prevent all aggression and violence in Japanese society, particularly among the ruling class, but it did permeate the attitudes and behavior of the common people to a degree that is rare in human history.

The ordinary people of Japan were law-abiding, honest and thoughtful to a degree that was astounding to visitors from the West -- and despite all of the changes in Japan since the end of the 19th century, enough of this traditional cultural remains in Japanese society to set them apart from most other people.

Bicycles, store merchandise -- you name it -- are left on sidewalks and streets without fear that they will be stolen. Taxi drivers turn in anything left in their cabs! Individuals go to extreme lengths to return wallets found on streets or in other areas -- with the contents intact!

Japan’s traditional culture also made hospitality a moral and philosophical facet of their character, particularly in their behavior toward guests and seniors -- a phenomenon that grew out of their native religion, Shinto, and the influence of Buddhism and other concepts and customs imported from China.

And what was equally impressive to Hearn -- and millions of people who have since visited Japan -- was, and is, the level of service that is an integral part of the lives of the people -- in every facet of their lives, from the manufacturing and wholesaling industries to the retail trades.

And nowhere are these traditions of service more obvious, and more impressive, than in the inn, hotel, restaurant and nighttime entertainment industries.

As in the case of so many aspects of Japanese culture, this extraordinary standard of service rose to the level of an art during the Tokugawa Shogunate era (1603-1867) -- a phenomenon that grew out of the fact that the standards of etiquette and service in the Shogun’s Court and in the courts of the 300 provincial lords was spread throughout the country.

There are a great many things in Japan today that are impressive to visitors, but when it comes down to what really makes the most lasting and the most positive impression on visitors from abroad is the character of the people -- their attitudes and behavior toward others in general, and especially toward customers and guests.

The traditional etiquette of the Japanese -- how they behaved toward each other in both social and business settings -- was based on the highly refined and stylized manners that developed in the Imperial Court in Kyoto and, like their concept of service, spread from there to the courts of the shoguns and provincial lords, then to samurai families, and finally to the whole of society.

An old story dramatically illustrates the level of Japan’s traditional etiquette. In the 1890s a London banker became a devotee of the Japanese tea ceremony and told his counterpart in Tokyo that he would like to have a teahouse built on his property.

The Tokyo banker dispatched a carpenter to London to build the house. The London banker was so impressed with the manners of the carpenter that he mistook him for a member of Japan’s upper class, and greeted him accordingly. He was astounded to discover that the man was a common worker.

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
______________________________________
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.