Foreign Cultures Still Transforming Japan!

“French Maid” Shops

Help Japanese Make Friends!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Coffee shops were among the first new businesses to appear wholesale in Japan following the end of the Pacific War in 1945. By 1950 there were dozens of thousands of them, with the larger ones featuring such themes as Russian Cossacks, fashion shows, art galleries, etc., with the waiters and waitresses dressed in the appropriate attire.

The shops were a runaway success for several reasons. First, because there were no other public places where large numbers of people could go for coffee and light snacks—and they were heated in the winter…and by the mid-1950s air-conditioned in the summer!

And second, company offices at that time were generally not heated in winter or air-conditioned in the summer, and most of them did not have private offices for managers and executives or special rooms for business meetings—resulting in hundreds of thousands managers and employees holding their meetings in the new coffee shops.

By the mid-1960s the overall number of coffee shops in Japan had increased but the foreign-culture-theme approach had virtually disappeared.

Now the theme approach has made a comeback, featuring a “French maid” theme not only in coffee shops but also in casinos, karaoke bars and souvenir shops. This new phenomenon first appeared in Tokyo’s famed Akihabara “Electric Town” discount and wholesale shopping district, which attracts several million Japanese and foreign tourists annually.

The petite, cute “French maids” in the various shops wear short-skirted uniforms that include aprons, socks that come just above the knees, and stylized bow ties.

Japanese professors (who specialize in commenting on social behavior of every kind) say this new phenomenon is a spin-off from the custom of young girls to make the uniforms of their favorite animation characters , wear the costumes on holidays and weekends, and gather at popular meeting places to show them off.

Other professors say the real reason for the proliferation of the “French maid” concept in coffee shops, karaoke bars and casinos is that they encourage the usually reticent Japanese to begin conversations with strangers, and come out of their “shells.”

These profs say that the Japanese have become great at communicating via email and text-messaging but that they are still reluctant to engage strangers in instant conversations and make friends the way Americans and other Westerners do.

“French maids” in karaoke bars sing along with patrons and take requests—at ¥500 a pop!
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. To see a list and description of 40-plus books on Japan by the author, go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

It is Now Alright to Smile in Japan!

Dramatic Shift in Japanese Culture

Upsets Social Critic

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Cultural changes in Japan since the 1950s have been both profuse and profound—beginning with and prompted by the introduction of personal freedom and individuality into Japanese society for the first time in the history of the country.

One of the new elements in modern-day Japanese culture that is both amazing and enlightening – in comparison with earlier times – is the custom of smiling. Traditionally, the Japanese were known for smiling when they were embarrassed and when referring to personal tragedies, but not smiling in situations that Westerners considered funny and not continuously injecting humorous comments or actions into their behavior that would elicit smiles in other countries.

It is not fair or correct to say, however, that earlier Japanese did not have a sense of humor and did not laugh and smile in their daily lives. They did have (and still have) a highly honed sense of humor, and both smiling and laughter had their place.

But it is true that the Japanese have traditionally been restrained in their use of humor and in smiling because of the formality and strictness of their etiquette in their relations with others. A serious demeanor in virtually all formal situations and in the workplace was a key part of the culture of the Japanese. At the very least, it was considered rude for clerks, receptionists and others to smile when dealing with customers.

There was a time and place for humor and for laughing in pre-democratic Japan, but to engage in such behavior when it was not the time or the place could have very serious consequences. During the long samurai era (1192-1870) a smile in a formal situation could get you shortened by a head. And still today in offices and workplaces a smiling face can get you labeled as insincere and not worthy of promotion to a higher position.

But beginning around the 1970s the new breed of Japanese began adopting the Western custom of smiling as an integral part of creating and maintaining harmonious relations with others—something that was diametrically opposed to traditional Japanese behavior.

Now, says noted Japanese social critic and author Tomomi Fujiwawa, the Japanese born after 1970 have gone so far in substituting smiles for seriousness and sincerity that it has begun to have a deleterious affect on their ability to solve problems.

In an interview published by the Japan Economic Weekly Fujiwara is quoted as saying that there is now too much smiling in Japan and that he fears for the future of the country. He says that the constant smiling that one sees in restaurants and stores gives an impression of peace and harmony, but in reality it can be and often is misleading and can make genuine communication difficult or impossible.

Fujiwara adds that people who have become conditioned to smiling their way through life become susceptible to “running amok,” when they encounter challenges or obstacles that they cannot deal with by smiling.

Having been intimately involved with Japan since the late 1940s my own judgment is that adoption of the Western way of smiling and using humor in private and public relationships by the younger generations of Japanese has been one of the best things that has happened to the country.

One of the primary cultural traits of the Japanese born and raised before the spread of unrestrained smiling was a deep-seated feeling of being fundamentally different from people in the rest of the world, of not feeling at ease with foreigners, of experiencing extraordinary stress when dealing with foreigners.

This feeling no longer exists among post-1970 Japanese and has dramatically subsided in those who are older – and is one of the reasons why so many resident foreigners and foreign visitors regard Japan as a kind of paradise – made so by the friendly outgoing personalities of the people and their continuing attention to the care, comfort and needs of others.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a list and descriptions of the author's 40-plus books on Japan, go to: phoenixbookspublishers.com