Another “Only in Japan” Tale!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

In ancient times in Tokyo [meaning in the 1950s] I wrote a weekly column entitled “Only in Japan” that covered events, ideas and products that were unique to the country.

Many of these things appeared humorous or childish to the average Westerner, but some of them, particularly unusual products and odd brand names, went on to become huge commercial successes around the world.

Among these early things was the name “Walkman” that Sony chose for its new portable radio, and a variety of children’s products introduced by Sanrio Company under the brand name “Hello Kitty.”

The Walkman brand name took a little while to catch on overseas, but in Japan it made perfect sense…you could listen to the tiny radio while walking around. Hello Kitty products were an instant hit in Japan because they were terminally cute – and the Japanese have an obsessive addiction to cuteness.

Itturned out that most Westerners are also turned on by cuteness if it doesn’t go to extremes, and Hello Kitty products are now bestsellers world-wide.

Despite all of the fundamental changes that have occurred in Japan in the last 50-plus years there are still many “only in Japan” things that add to the ambiance of life.

A new and intriguing “only in Japan” phenomenon is printing popular comic and animation characters, as well as the profiles of famous comedians, on toilet paper.

“Character toilet paper” has, in fact, become one of the country’s hottest souvenir and gift items among younger Japanese and foreign tourists alike. And by toilet paper standards, the rolls are not cheap – going for more than twice the amount of plain paper.

Animation studios, entertainment companies and others have boarded the character toilet paper bandwagon, opening their own retail shops.

The owner of Tokyo Atom Shop in Tokyo Central Station says that some of his customers – both local commuters and travelers – buy up to 50 rolls at a time to give as gifts.

The shop at the National Museum for Emerging Science and Innovation sells a line of character toilet paper called Astronomical Toilet Paper. I don’t know what “astronomical” refers to, but it apparently appeals to young women, said to be the main buyers.

Toilet paper sold at a shop called Yoshimoto TV Street in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, owned by media giant Yoshimoto Kogyo, features profiles of comedians that the company represents.

The comedians obviously don’t object to their descriptions being printed on paper that is used to wipe indiscriminate derrieres. One, in fact, is quoted as saying he finds this new form of publicity quite amusing.

Without intending to resort to ribaldry, the most amusing toilet incident I ever witnessed occurred at a bar that used to be across the street from Shimbashi Station just south of the famed Ginza shopping mecca.

One evening in the mid-1950s I took an American friend and his wife to the bar for a few drinks. After a while the wife, who happened to be quite tall, noted that she had to go to the toilet. I pointed to a narrow hallway, and said: “First door on the right.”

The toilet was about the size of a telephone booth and squat-style, with an elongated ceramic “bowl” over an aperture in the floor. My friend’s wife had a bit of difficulty getting into the toilet, but she did it.

Once inside the toilet she was able to squat down easy enough but when done she could not stand up or pull up her panties. Finally, in desperation, she opened the door and waddled out into the hallway in full view of the bar patrons. There, she stood up, nonchalantly pulling her undies up at the same time.

As she approached our booth, her husband and I were nearly choking in an effort to avoid laughing but she was smiling broadly. “Go ahead and laugh before you bust a gut!” she said.

Toilets in present-day Japan include the most high-tech commodes and urinals in the world. They take your temperature, check your blood pressure, analyze your leftovers, and if you want, transmit the results to your doctor. How times have changed!
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Boyé Lafayette De Mente (b.1928) has been involved with Japan and East Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, business journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on Japan, Korea and China, including the first ever on the Japanese way of doing business. See: http://www.business-cultural-language-books-on-china-japan-korea-mexico.info/

Americans Adopting the Worst Elements of Japanese Culture

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

In the mid-1960s when I was a Tokyo-based trade journalist I wrote that a growing number of Americans were being influenced by positive elements in Japan’s traditional culture and were approaching the cultural sophistication that the Japanese had reached by the 10th century.

In that instance I was referring to the arts, crafts, food, poetry, literature, entertainment and sexual practices. But in the following two decades Japan’s influence on the United States was to go well beyond these areas and become a serious national problem.

By the mid-1970s many segments of American industry were being threatened with extinction by the overwhelming power of Japan’s economic juggernaut, and it was not until then that American business leaders began to pick up on the Japanese concepts of kaizen (continuous improvement), kanban (just in time parts delivery), hinshitsu (quality), miryokuteki hinshitsu (quality with sex appeal), yugo ka (fuzzy thinking), and other Japanese practices...all of which I had been promoting in my books on Japan for well over a decade.

In The Japanese Influence on America, a book I wrote in the early 1980s, I described the impact that Japan was having on American management and manufacturing processes—both of which had become obsolete and had already relegated many segments of American industry to the trash dump of history—and recommended practical steps for American manufacturers to take in order to not only cope with but to benefit from the Japanese challenge.

Now, the influence of Japanese culture on the U.S. has gone well-beyond beyond management and manufacturing processes, eating sushi, and singing in karaoke bars—all of which have their very positive sides.

On the other hand, we also seem to be hung up on adopting some of the worst elements of Japan’s traditional culture. …elements which the Japanese themselves are actually in the process of giving up.

The outmoded elements of Japanese culture that Americans are importing include behavior that is based on policies instead of principles, and hiding behind facades (tatemae/tah-tay-my) rather than telling the truth up front (honne/hone-nay). Both American businessmen and politicians have become masters of the tatemae approach.

More and more Americans are now also emulating Japan’s traditional approach to human sexuality by condoning and celebrating it. Like the Japanese of old, we now elevate prostitutes and pornographers to star status. But we do not have the structure or restraints that were built into the Japanese way and kept it under control.

Our whole economy is driven by the exploitation of sex, especially female sexuality, and sexual behavior has become a kind of free-for-all, with the only restraints being the time and place—and even these are often ignored. And not surprisingly, this element of American culture has been adopted by most other developed and developing countries in the world—driving home the old adage that sex sells.

Today’s over-emphasis on female sexuality obviously derives from the efforts of religions to mask, suppress and deny the sexuality of females—a male ploy designed to keep women on the bottom.

I am all for emancipation from the ancient religious view of human sexuality that has brought unimaginable suffering to the Western world…but it needs to be de-commercialized and humanized.

There are still many positive things to learn from the Japanese, including their use of both sides of their brains (the rational side and the emotional side), which contributes to their extraordinary design sense and their appreciation of beauty.

I recommend The Advantages of Using Both Sides of Your Brain [something the Japanese are very good at], available on amazon.com.

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Boyé Lafayette De Mente (b.1928) has been involved with Japan and East Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, business journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on Japan, Korea and China, including the first ever on the Japanese way of doing business. See: http://www.business-cultural-language-books-on-china-japan-korea-mexico.info/

Asian Art of Face Reading Goes High Tech!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

The ancient Asian art of face-reading has gone high-tech in Japan. Japanese scientists are now applying high-speed photographic technology to the art, adding a new dimension to understanding human feelings and human communication—a development that could eventually change most human interactions.

This new development is being led by electronics manufacturer Omron’s Keihanna Technology Innovation Center [KTIC] in its O’kao (Honorable Face) face-sensing technology project.

The KTIC has over one million photos of the faces of some 9,000 people that reveal different facial expressions that are then related to meanings and moods—taking the art of face-reading to a level never dreamed of before.

The researchers say the new technology can be applied in many ways, from linking people with devices and machines to revealing a person’s innermost thoughts that may be contrary to what they are saying—going beyond a sophisticated lie-detector to virtually reading a person’s mind.

Japanese researchers at Meiji University School of Science and Technology (MUSST) are taking this new innovation in a different direction by linking facial movements to operating electronic devices, giving the impression of virtual thought-control.

MUSST’s main project is a robotic face [called Kansei or “Sensibilities”] that has a data base of half a million words with facial expressions that relate to meanings of the words.

The creator of the robotic face, Prof. Junichi Takeno, says his goal is to discover the mechanisms of consciousness. At this time his robot face has 36 expressions—probably more than the average person thinks he or she is capable of expressing.

Among the practical applications of the new face-reading approach: enhanced security systems; photo booth cameras that manipulate colors and contrasts to make the subjects more attractive; turn electronic devices off and on; manipulate household appliances that have embedded chips; and act as backups for drivers who become fatigued or whose attention is distracted—in other words, the ultimate remote controls.

Face-reading as both an art and science was originally studied and institutionalized in China some 3,000 years ago by physicians who began to relate facial features with intelligence, character, personality, sexuality and other human attributes as part of their health-care practices.

From the health-care industry, face-reading became a skill that was used by the Chinese military, by employers, and by men seeking more amorous female partners—the latter use making it especially popular among ordinary people. [Many of the readings are sensually oriented.]

From around the 14th century A.D. Japanese priests and others who had occasion to visit China picked up on the face-reading theory and practice of the Chinese and introduced it into Japan.

I began studying the art in Japan in the mid-1950s after being inspired by the face-reader brought in by the military in 1939 to help decide what kind of training new recruits were best suited for. He was living in Chiba at that time and readily agreed to be interviewed.

I subsequently wrote a book entitled Face-Reading for Fun & Profit, went on a lecture tour in the U.S., and appeared on the then popular What’s My Line television show in New York.

This activity helped promote the use of face-reading in the corporate world of American, with some companies using face-readers in their recruiting efforts as well as in their decisions to promote employees to higher positions.

Everybody face reads. In fact, it is the very first thing we do when seeing or meeting someone for the first time, and throughout life we continue to read the faces of people we are talking to or listening to, and everyone automatically makes judgments about the character, veracity, etc., of these individuals.

But there are over one hundred precise readings based on the size, shape and quality of the facial features, and without special knowledge or training most people recognize and react to less than half of this number.

I [naturally!] recommend my own book, which has been republished under the title of Asian Face Reading – Unlock the Secrets Hidden in the Human Face, as a good starting place. It is available from bookstores and Amazon.com

___________________________Boyé Lafayette De Mente (b.1928) has been involved with Japan and East Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, business journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on Japan, Korea and China, including the first ever on the Japanese way of doing business. See: http://www.business-cultural-language-books-on-china-japan-korea-mexico.info/

Astounding Advances in Robotics Rings Bells!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Recent technological advances by Japanese scientists in robotics brings to mind the movie “The Rise of the Machines”—one of the Terminator classics starring now California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger....advances that pose a serious question.

Will the new robots now coming online—and the incredible ones that are on the immediate horizon—be a boon to mankind (as the scientists claim) or will they evolve into a new order of intelligence that becomes self-aware (as in the movie “I, Robot”) and themselves decide on what the human-robot relationship should be?

Japanese scientists, who continue to make one break-through after the other in programming robots to feel, hear, see and think like human beings, maintain that their goals are to create robots that will be able to act as assistants, caretakers and nurses for Japan’s rapidly aging population.

That sounds both benign and worthy of pursuing, especially since the elderly are expected to make up 40 percent of Japan’s population by 2055—with similar demographic changes in other countries as higher living standards and better education results in a decline in births and longer life-spans.

Scientists in Japan are now engaged in creating the technology for a range of robots that includes caretakers, general servants, technicians and engineers. Technology already developed and being used includes most of the eye, hear, arm and leg functions that distinguish human beings.

The latest advances in robotics involves placing incredibly sensitive sensors all over the bodies of robots that emulate the tactile response of human skin—a development that has far-reaching and profound implications. The bodies (and fingers) of this new order of robots are just as sensitive as human bodies.

This growing effort to humanize robots is being spearheaded by a combination of government and private industry sponsorship under the heading of an organization called the Information and Robot Technology Research Initiative (IRT), which is aimed at fusing information technology and robot technology. In other words, the goal is to provide robots with human-like skills and brains.

Project teams are well into applying new control systems developed by such companies as Toyota and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. To avoid making the robots look like humans, and therefore a possible threat, these teams are coming up with forms based on the work the robots are designed to perform.

Their public rationale is that a robot designed to do mechanical repairs on a washing machine, for example, does not have to look like “Mr. Maytag;” a robot that prepares and serves meals would not necessarily have to look like a chef. But people would surely be more comfortable if it did, and it is this human emotion that will no doubt determine the appearance of most future “domestic” and “service” robots!

The efforts of the IRT are being directed by Isao Shimoyama, a professor at the University of Tokyo, who says his goal is to create a class of robots that will be integrated into human society on the level that machines, electrical appliances and electronic devices now play.

The several million people who visited the Expo of 2005 in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture got a glimpse of the robotic world of the future, but the walking and talking robots that were introduced at that exhibition pale when it comes to the generation of robots that will go into the first stages of production in 2009.

The time has come when the Laws of Robots devised by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1940 should be dusted off and turned into non-fiction laws worldwide. In summary, these laws state that under no circumstances can a robot harm a human being…and they would at least set standards that scientists should follow.

In the meantime, we are getting a preview of the future!
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Boyé Lafayette De Mente (b.1928) has been involved with Japan and East Asia since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, business journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on Japan, Korea and China, including the first ever on the Japanese way of doing business. See: www.business-cultural-language-books-on-china-japan-korea-mexico.info

New Crown Jewel of Tokyo Hotels

Peninsula Tokyo Sets New Standards
For Combining Culture & Convenience

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Luxurious hotels that were perfect reflections of traditional Japanese culture first appeared in Japan nearly four hundred years ago, when the Tokugawa Shogunate decreed that some 270 of the country’s fief lords would spend every other year in Edo [Tokyo] in attendance at the Shogun’s Court.

Since this edict made it necessary for the lords and their entourages to spend several days to several weeks marching in stately processions between their fiefs and the Shogunate capital, the Shogunate also required the construction of a network of luxury inns, called honjin (hoan-jeen), for the exclusive use of the lords, their high-ranking retainers, members of the Imperial family, and court nobles.

Japan thus became the first country in the world to have a national network of luxury hotel accommodations for travelers—setting a precedent and establishing a tradition that was not to appear anywhere else in the world until the 19th century.

The first Western style honjin was constructed in Tokyo in 1890, and was christened The Imperial Hotel. Patronage of the new hotel grew rapidly and an annex was soon added. In 1910 it was decided to replace the buildings entirely with a much larger facility. Work did not start on the new hotel until 1917, and the Mayan-like second Imperial Hotel was officially opened to the public on August 31, 1923.

On the following day, at precisely 11:58 a.m. the Tokyo and Yokohama area was struck by a great earthquake that destroyed virtually every Western style building in the two cities—except for the new Imperial Hotel. The designer of the hotel, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, had “floated” the foundation of the hotel on huge pilings driven into the reclaimed land, allowing the massive stone-block building to ride out the waves of the earthquake like a boat.

For the next several decades the Imperial Hotel set the standard for Western style hotels in Japan, and then it was eclipsed by a stream of new international hotels, most of which incorporated some elements of Japanese arts and crafts into their interiors and furnishings, giving them a cultural façade that brought to mind the traditional honjin of the lords.

But none of these hotels did more than add a few surfaces touches of Japanese culture to their appointments…that is until the arrival of Peninsula Tokyo on the scene in 2007—exactly eighty-four years to the day after the Great Kanto Earthquake made the Imperial Hotel known around the world.

The architects and designers who created Peninsula Tokyo incorporated elements of traditional Japanese arts and crafts in virtually every aspect of the hotel, from the entryway to the floors, the ceilings, the walls, the rooms and the furnishings—all of which complement the ultimate in Western-style conveniences.

But the builders did not stop there. They also made Peninsula Tokyo the most high-tech hotel in the world. In fact, there are so many high-tech features in the rooms that a small manual is provided for guests to guide them through the futuristic amenities…one of the most practical of which is a cell phone that acts as an in-house phone when you are in the hotel and automatically converts to a mobile phone when you are out on the town.

Naturally, Peninsula Tokyo has a selection of gourmet quality Chinese, Japanese and international restaurants, one of which takes up all of the 24th floor and provides a 360-degree panoramic view of central Tokyo and the adjoining Imperial Palace Grounds.

In addition to being across the street from the outer Imperial Gardens, Peninsula Tokyo adjoins the core business district of Marunouchi as well as the Hibiya and Yurakucho restaurant and theater districts, and is a five-minute stroll from the Ginza, Tokyo’s most famous shopping and entertainment district.

For newcomers to the Asian scene, the pedigree of Peninsula Tokyo is impeccable. It is a member of the famous Peninsula group of hotels that began in Hong Kong in 1866 and now includes properties in New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Bangkok, and Manila. Peninsula Shanghai is scheduled to open in 2009.

Old Asian hands arriving at Peninsula Tokyo will immediately recognize the famed Peninsula Hong Kong connection: Rolls Royce Phantoms lined up in front of the hotel for use by guests, and the lobby restaurant where breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea is served and iconic Peninsula pageboys page guests who have phone calls or visitors.
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Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 40 books on Japan, including Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, the first book ever on the Japanese way of doing business, published in 1959. His most recent book on Japan: Elements of Japanese Design—Understanding and Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.

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

The Amazing Globalization of Japan!

Japan Leading the Way in Globalization

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

TOKYO (BNS) -- The changes that have occurred in Japan since the end of the long samurai/feudal era in the early 1870s is one of the most remarkable sagas in modern history – changes that are, in fact, incredible, particularly to someone who has been directly involved in them since shortly after the end of the Pacific War in 1945 when the industrial areas of the country and vast stretches of housing were mostly rubble.

In fact, contemplating Japan’s rise to economic superpower status between 1948 and 1968 is now like a dream…and then to take into account the additional changes in the physical infrastructure and the culture of the country since then evokes even more incredulity.

Why and how the Japanese were able to transform themselves into leaders in virtually every scientific and technical field of human endeavor and their country into the world’s second largest economy in less than 30 years is a story that has not yet been fully told.

Much of both the “why” and “how” portions of this question can be found in the heritage of the samurai that became embedded in Japan’s culture over a period of a thousand years—a heritage made up of the ability to focus with incredible precision, to work with equally incredible energy and perseverance, to strive for perfection in everything, and to satisfy an unquenchable thirst for achievement and success.

And now Japan is on the cusp of economic globalization, putting itself in a unique position to take advantage of all of the positive and beneficial principles and practices that this includes.

Japanese companies are continuing to dramatically increase their holdings in foreign assets, from buying into leading companies to long-term contracts for raw materials. As witnessed by the business news media, the number and value of these investments is multiplying at an amazing pace.

A single issue of The Nikkei Weekly (The Japan Economic Weekly) reveals new tie-ups and manufacturing operations in Australia, China, Denmark, England, Germany, India, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, the United States, and Vietnam—not to mention several South American nations as well as other African countries.

And this list of overseas investments made by Japanese companies in recent weeks and months is by no means complete. The overall scale and potential of these and other globalizing efforts is simply staggering.

Both foreign countries and foreign corporations are also playing key roles in the rapid globalization of Japan’s economy by continuing to expand their investments in Japan, becoming significant shareholders in a growing number of companies. There is now hardly any Japanese company of note that does not have foreign stockholders.

Of course, the level and pace of globalization in other countries, especially the United States, China and India, is also rising rapidly but Japan seems to be leading the pack, and while its ranking as the second largest economy in the world will soon fade, the transformation to a global economy will surely help ensure the future welfare of the country.

While there are unique factors that often make it easier for Japan to globalize than other countries, I believe the Japanese example is a good one for other nations to follow.

Obviously, politicians and diplomats are incapable of bringing about world peace and prosperity. With Japan helping to lead the way, the globalization of the world’s economy could achieve both of these long-sought goals.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. To see a list and description of 60-plus cultural and language insight books by the author go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/; also Amazon.com. His current bestsellers include: Japan’s Cultural Code Words; Samurai Strategies (that modern business people can use); Chinese Etiquette & Ethics in Business; Survival Chinese; and Why Mexicans Think & Behave the Way They Do.

Builder Takes Aim at World’s Obsolete Cities!

Japan’s Amazing Mori Building Company
Changes Conception and Creation of Cities

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Basically, the world’s cities have not changed in some 5,000 years.
That stuck-in-the-past mode is now being challenged!

ROPPONGI HILLS—It is astounding to note that within the last half a century some of the world’s most extraordinary accomplishments in the managing, designing, manufacturing and marketing of leading-edge products have come from a country that just 60 years ago was primarily viewed as a feudalistic society based on an ancient warrior mentality.

That country is, of course, Japan—a tiny island nation that kept itself isolated from the rest of the world during the Industrial Revolution, and then, following its defeat in World War II transformed itself into the world’s second largest economy in less than 30 years.

Beginning in the 1970s hordes of American and European businesspeople began making the long trip to Japan to find out why and how such a small and previously insignificant country could become such an economic powerhouse in such a short time.

What the world generally had not understood about Japan before—and still does not fully appreciate—is that for more than a thousand years prior to the modern era the level of intellectual activity in Japan was very high and the ability of the Japanese to quickly understand and master technology was unsurpassed.

Another element in the character of the Japanese that has traditionally been underestimated is their courage in discarding old traditions and charting new courses—a level of courage that generally does not exist in the United States and European countries.
Once politically and culturally free to exercise this courage, large numbers of Japanese quickly began to distinguish themselves as avant-garde thinkers and entrepreneurs.

One of the most outstanding present-day examples in this group is Minoru Mori, President and CEO of Mori Building. Since the early 1980s Mori and his company have been pursuing the goal of recreating cities that are both user and environmentally friendly, using the most advanced technology that now exists.

Roppongi Hills, the business, dining, residential and shopping complex on a rise overlooking downtown Tokyo that I referred to in an earlier column, is now the centerpiece of the Mori concept of what cities should be like.

There are three basic parts to the Mori mission: total safety and security; the integration of the city environment and nature; and the integration of art and culture into the complex. These three parts incorporate six themes: the combination of urban facilities and nature; the merging of tradition and innovation; the mixing of business and culture; the convergence of universality and uniqueness; the merging of the local and the international; and the fusion of stimulation and tranquility.

The integration of the latest technology throughout the Roppongi Hills complex is a marvel of efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The convenience and ambiance of its facilities has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. The variety of its artistic, cultural and health-related activities is equal to what one expects in a large modern city.

Mori Building, with the advice and help of some of the world’s leading architects and designers and such luminaries as Yoshio Karita, formerly director of protocol for the Imperial Household, is now engaged in a long-range plan to not only recreate Japan’s cities but to spread the concept around the world.

Internationally, the most spectacular of Mori’s overseas projects to date is the towering Shanghai World Financial Center, which became a symbol of the new China before it was completed. The 101-story tower, which rises from a garden setting, includes offices, conference facilities, restaurants, shops, a five-star hotel and the world’s highest observation platform.

Mori Building is now working with other wards in Tokyo and with other cities in Japan to replace large areas of traditional buildings and streets with multi-use complexes similar to Roppongi Hills—a program that will continue for decades if not generations, until all of the main cities have been transformed.

The Mori urban redevelopment vision is encapsulated in the word “hills,” chosen because of the deep meaning the term has for people—and now represented in Tokyo by Ark Hills (the first project), Roppongi Hills (completed in 2003), Omotesando Hills, Atago Green Hills, Holland Hills, and Moto-Azabu Hills.

Each of these projects follows through with the “hills” image by incorporating slopes and hills in the design so that it represents a microcosm of nature—very much like Japan’s traditional landscaped gardens.

In the past, Westerners trooped to Japan to discover the secrets of its economic power. Now I suggest that city leaders and planners from around the world make the trip to Tokyo to learn how they should be rebuilding their cities.
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Copyright © by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
To see a catalog of 30-plus books on Japan by the author, go to his personal website: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

Japanese Cabarets and the Art of “Selling Sex in a Glass”

Porn Mogul Larry Flynt

Created the Phrase
But Japan’s Cabarets Did it First!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Larry Flynt, the Kentucky hillbilly who made a name for himself in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the owner of a chain of night clubs featuring go-go dancing, and went on to become a mogul of porn publishing, once said that the success of his clubs was based on the art of selling sex in a glass.

Flynt was the first to conceive and use this provocative phrase, but Japanese operators of hostess-filled cabarets mastered the art of selling sex in a glass in the late 1940s and early 1950s, during the heyday of the American occupation of Japan and the opening of Japan to American importers who poured into the country in a torrent from 1948 on.

One of the largest of these Japanese cabarets during the late 1950s was the Mikado in Tokyo. It had more than 1,000 hostesses on its staff, which, combined with Las Vegas style live entertainment, made it a mecca for resident foreign men and foreign buyers who filled the city’s hotels during that era.

The Mikado and the hundreds of other cabarets that sprang up in Japan following its surrender to U.S. forces were just the most conspicuous elements of the country’s entertainment industry…which was not only the first industry to recover after the war, but the most profitable enterprise in the country for many years.

The key to this astounding proliferation and success of cabarets, nightclubs and bars in post-war Japan was the presence of huge numbers of sex-hungry foreign men and some five million young Japanese women who worked in them as hostesses, providing the Occupation forces and civilian foreigners with access to the companionship and the wiles of women who had been culturally programmed in the art of enticing and pleasing men.

The traditional word for all of Japan’s night-time entertainment trades, including the world of the geisha and hot-bath massage parlors, was mizu shobai (me-zoo show-by), or literally “the water business.”

There is no agreement on how the term mizu shobai came into use, but it is fairly obvious that the extraordinary number of natural hot springs and the ancient Japanese practice of bathing daily (without sexual discrimination) led to the early association of water and pleasure. Shinto, the native Japanese religion, advocates both scrupulous cleanliness as well as the lusty celebration of human fertility.

During Japan's last great shogunate dynasty (1603-1868) bathhouses, in which the pleasures of the flesh were as much of an attraction as the hot water, a great network of roadside inns around the country that featured hot baths and sexual release, and both geisha districts and courtesan quarters played major roles in the country—economically, socially and politically.

While organized prostitution was subject to the control of the shogunate government and the 200-plus daimyo (die-m’yoe) provincial lords in their own fiefs, it was a legitimate enterprise that was not under a cloud of moral righteousness. The Japanese did not associate sex with sin or with the love of one person for another, and thus over the ages they were spared the suffering imposed by religious leaders on Christian and Muslim people.

Perhaps the strongest criticism one might make in regard to the sexual mores of feudal Japan is that it was a man's world, with all of the customs and institutions designed to satisfy the needs and whims on men, and generally to ignore those of women. While this was unfair and deplorable, it nevertheless was responsible for many of the feminine characteristics for which Japanese women are known and admired — and, of course, was primarily responsible for the many aspects of the mizu shobai that foreign male visitors to Japan found so fascinating.

However, in present-day Japan, the women are getting their revenge. In many ways, the tables have been turned on men, and it is women who call the sexual tunes. Japanese women in general are willing, eager participants in the ongoing play between the sexes, and there is a growing trend for young girls to take the initiative in their relations with men.

The heyday of the hostess-filled cabarets ended in the 1970s but they were soon replaced by go-go dance clubs, small upscale bars that featured equally upscale hostesses, and izakaya (ee-zah-kah-yah), or pubs, by the hundreds of thousands.

In the 1980s the go-go clubs were quickly replaced by hard-rock dance clubs that catered to both men and women, and the number of geisha declined rapidly because of competition from hostess bars, but the mizu shobai survived and remains today one of the largest industries in the country.

While a great deal of the attraction of Japan’s mizu shobai continues to be its sexual overtones, its cultural role goes well beyond this physical element. Drinking alcoholic beverages has traditionally played a far more basic and comprehensive role in Japanese culture than in most other countries.

From the earliest times, sake (sah-kay) the native brew, was an integral part of the Shinto ritual of communicating with and pleasing the gods, and from this early use it spread throughout Japanese society as the primary vehicle in bonding with others, in sealing agreements, and in maintaining good relationships.

The strict etiquette that reigned during Japan’s long feudal age (1192-1968) prevented people from behaving in normal ways except when in drinking situations, further increasing the role and importance of alcohol in their lives.

Still today, the Japanese tend to believe that you cannot really get to know people until you drink with them—and this factor alone continues to fuel the thriving mizu shobai.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a more detailed view of Japan’s mizu shobai, see the authors ebook, Mistress-Keeping in Japan, described on his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

The Future is Already Here in Parts of Tokyo!

Amazing New Mixed-Use Complexes
Are Preview of World to Come

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

TOKYO—On a recent visit to Tokyo I and renowned tanka poet Mutsuo Shukuya were treated to lunch in a gourmet restaurant in the huge, spectacular Roppongi Hills complex by Yoshio Karita, senior executive advisor to Mori Building Company, creator of the amazing city-within-a-city.

Once Shukuya and I had arrived at the Roppongi Hills complex via an underground concourse from Roppongi Subway Station, and rendezvoused with Karita San, getting to the restaurant required a miniature tour of this forerunner of Tokyo’s futuristic business-dining-residential-shopping centers.

During the luncheon Karita San shared with us the philosophy that had attracted him to Mori, a philosophy that he was dedicated to helping carry out. Formerly director of protocol for the Imperial Household and recently awarded The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure for his services to the Imperial family, Karita San is one of the new breed of Japanese whose vision is helping to create today a lifestyle that is a harbinger of the future.

The amazing Roppongi Hills complex is divided into five areas: North Tower (which encompasses casual gourmet dining areas), Metro/Hat Hollywood Plaza (featuring beauty, diet and health amenities), West Walk (a free zone for trendy communication), Hill Side (art and lifestyle spaces including entertainment), and Keyaki Zaka Dori (sloping streets filled with greenery and luxurious urban apartment buildings).

These zones includes restaurants, upscale shops, lifestyle and lifecare services, a cinema complex, gallery, museum, TV broadcasting station, Grand Hyatt Tokyo Hotel, an educational academny, a tour center, the Roppong Hills Club, an observation deck, and more.

In a recent article in Wired.com British architect-writer-photographer I. Momus said that walking around in the new areas of Tokyo was like getting a preview of the 21st century. He added: “But glimpsing the future in Japan isn't just about first sightings of cool gadgets. It's also about seeing a city change—fast—as if photographed in time lapse. The city is shockingly unstable. Buildings disappear, replaced by new ones. Entire districts come and go, seemingly overnight.

“Roppongi is the hot district just now, with a new art museum and the massive Tokyo Midtown complex drawing people to the formerly sleazy neighborhood. Other districts, like Odaiba, rise spectrally and speculatively from Tokyo Bay on artificial land.”

Momus went on to say that Tokyo is a city where yesterday’s tomorrow is constantly being replaced by today’s, adding: “The Tokyo way is to try stuff, trash it, then try something else. Whether it's the legacy of earthquakes or Buddhism, everything here is understood to be temporary. It's best not to get too attached. The spirit of what you lose will probably pop up somewhere else.”

However, the new complexes like Roppongi Hills, Shiodome, Odaiba, Omotesando Hills and Tokyo Midtown—and new independent buildings like the Marunouchi Building and the Shin Marunouchi Building across from Tokyo Station Plaza—are not temporary efforts. They are representative of the new Tokyo that is rapidly rising where the old once stood.

The two new independent Marunouchi buildings are themselves remarkable examples of 21st century edifices, combining business offices, restaurant arcades and shopping floors that make the most of architectural imagination, superior design and decorating sense, and advanced technology.

Both of these buildings are integrated with Tokyo Central Station, its massive Yaesu side underground shopping mall and the Marunouchi and Otemachi business districts, with subterranean plazas and concourses. You can, in fact, stroll, dine and shop underground from the Tokyo Station area to Yurakucho, Hibiya and the famous Ginza shopping, entertainment and dining districts that are generally considered the heart of Tokyo.

Tyler Brûlé, writing in The International Herald Tribune, says: “The Japanese might be obsessed with many things (cute mascots, manga, belting out a good tune to close a business deal) but few pursuits can compete with the passion [they] put into building—not just the concrete-and-cranes variety but also the fine art of building anticipation.”

He adds: “I'm usually not the biggest fan of such 'grand projects,' but Japanese developers have a special knack for not only delivering extraordinary modern wonders but also completing them on time.

He goes on: “When Mori finally took the hoardings off its Roppongi Hills development, it was remarkable how quickly the mix of high-rises, tunnels and retail blended into the fabric of its surroundings. While the final execution may not have been to everyone's liking, Mori could hardly have been accused of leaving a trail of mud, untended flower beds or unfinished concrete canyons on or around the site. Within weeks of completion, Roppongi Hills felt like it had been around for years.”

Brûlé was also impressed with when he was given a sneak preview of Tokyo Midtown, only a short stroll from Roppongi Hills. He said he was fully armed to dislike it, but within four minutes he “was hooked” by its design as well as its extraordinary mix of brand-name retailers, financial institutions, its Ritz Carlton hotel facilities, its Starbucks/Tokyo FM café-cum-studio, its open spaces, and more.

He suggests that the denizens of London, New York and Paris and other major world cities would no doubt be envious of Tokyo Midtown—as they no doubt would be of dozens of other new developments in Tokyo, Yokohama and other Japanese cities.

For years now, I have been saying that anyone interested in seeing what common sense raised to a high level, imagination, courage—and money!—can do to improve the quality and ambiance of human life all they have to do is go to Japan and visit a few of its new mixed-used developments and some of the country’s hundreds of mixed-use train stations.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
To see a list, with descriptions, of the author’s 30-plus pioneer books on Japan, go to his personal website: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

Which Side of Your Brain Am I Talking To?

Why Men & Women Talk
Past Each Other!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

It has been established beyond a reasonable doubt that the two sides of the human brain perform different functions, ranging from speech, emotional reactions, sexual pleasure, fear, and analytical thinking to the appreciation of beauty.

There is also growing evidence that one side of the brain is dominant in most people. This is of vital importance because left-brain oriented people think and behave differently from right-brain oriented people.

One noted authority on the function of the brain, Japan’s Dr. Tadanobu Tsunoda (author of The Japanese Brain and numerous other works), asserts that the language one first learns as a child is the deciding factor in which side of the brain is dominant for the rest of the person’s life.

Dr. Tsunoda has spent several decades studying the influence of languages on brain function, using electronic devices he developed to test thousands of people in his Tokyo laboratory—both Japanese and non-Japanese [I was one of his subjects]—with some amazing results.

He found that people whose native tongue is Japanese (or Polynesian!) are primarily right-brain oriented, while all other people are primarily left-brain oriented. (It’s the preponderance of vowels in these two languages!)

It seems that right-brain oriented people are primarily motivated by their emotions and a holistic approach to life, while left-brain oriented people are programmed to be logical and practical-minded, and to take a short-term approach to things.

I used Dr. Tsunoda’s theory as the basis for evaluating the differences between the mind-set and behavior of the right-brained oriented Japanese and the left-brain oriented rest of the world in a book entitled Which Side of Your Brain Am I Talking To?—The Advantages of Using Both Sides of Your Brain.

I believe that the right-brain orientation of the Japanese was one of the primary factors that made it possible for them to recover from the destruction of World War II and turn tiny Japan into the world’s second largest economy in less than thirty years.

All women in left-brain oriented cultures are forced to use right-brain thinking and behavior to survive in their male-dominated societies, while Japanese women, whose culture is primarily right-brain oriented, are forced to use left-brain thinking to cope with their male-dominated society—making them superior in many ways to the male side of the population...

The French and Italians and all Spanish and Portuguese speaking people are more right-brain oriented than Americans, Chinese, Germans, British and other people around the globe--making their cultures significantly more emotion-oriented.

Many of the problems that plague Western countries are caused by too much left-brain thinking and not enough right-brain thinking, and in Which Side of Your Brain Am I Talking To? I pinpoint many areas where business managers and people in general could benefit greatly from learning how and when to use the right side of their brains.

The book attributes the “irrational behavior” of both men and women to which side of their brain they use at a particular time, and provides insights for coping with the built-in gender programming of the brain.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente.
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WHICH SIDE OF YOUR BRAIN AM I TALKING TO?—The Advantages of Using Both Sides of Your Brain (and Why Women Must Use the Less Dominant Side of Their Brains in Order to Survive!), by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. Phoenix Books/Publishers. 6x9 trade paperback. 108 pages. $9.95. ISBN: 0914778-95-1. Distributors to the trade: Ingram Book Company; Baker & Taylor. Consumer distribution: Amazon.com, Borders, Barns and Noble, etc.
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A full list of De Mente's books on China, Japan, Korea and Mexico can be seen on his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

How to Psyche Out the Japanese! (Chinese, Koreans & Other Foreigners!)

Using Key Words
As Windows to the Mindset of People!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

It has become painfully obvious that defining people by their race while virtually ignoring their ethnicity is both dumb and dangerous and the importance of understanding cultures is a new mantra for business leaders as well as diplomats and politicians.

For most people, however, understanding the cultures of others is a process that requires long periods of living in and personally experiencing the cultures, often preceded or combined with extensive studies of research by anthropologists and sociologists.

But there is an easier and faster way of getting into and understanding the mindset of people—a way that I use in my “cultural insight” books on Japan, Korea, China and Mexico.

While working in Asia as a trade journalist in the 1950s and 60s I learned that the attitudes and behavior of the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans were summed up in a relatively small number of key words in their languages—words that explained why they thought and behaved the way they did.

I first became aware of the role that these key words played in the mindset and behavior of the Japanese in my attempts to explain their way of thinking and doing things to American importers who began flocking to Japan in the early 1950s.

I made use of this approach in my first book, Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, published in 1959 [and still in print by McGraw-Hill], introducing such terms as wa/wah (harmony), nemawashi/nay-mah-wah-she (behind the scenes consensus-building), tatemae/tah-tay-my (a facade or front) and honne/hone-nay (real intentions, real meaning) to the international business community.

As a result of my trade reporting experience in early post-World War II Japan I was also the first to introduce the now popular Japanese words kaizen (kie-zen), meaning continuous improvement, and kanban (kahn-bahn), just in time parts delivery, to the international business community.

The more I got into the Japanese, Korean and Chinese way of thinking and doing things the more obvious it became that they were culturally programmed and controlled by key words in their languages, and that these words provided a short-cut to understanding them.

I then went on to write a series of “cultural and business code word” books on China, Korea and Japan, and eventually added Mexico as well.

People in all societies, especially older societies, are in fact primarily programmed by their languages—and learning the meaning and everyday use of key words in their languages is far more effective than any psychological testing.

My books that are based on this “cultural code word” concept include Japan’s Cultural Code Words, China’s Cultural Code Words, Korea’s Business and Cultural Code Words, and Mexican Cultural Code Words.

All of these titles, except for the Korean book, are also available in paperback editions under different titles, including The Japanese Have a Word for It, There’s a Word for It in Mexico, and The Chinese Have a Word for It.

My latest book using the "cultural code word" approach is Elements of Japanese Design--Guidelines for Understanding & Using Japan’s Classic Sabi-Wabi-Shibui Concepts. In it I identify and explain the concepts and principles that are the foundation of the design of Japan’s arts, crafts and modern-day products, and are having a profound influence on designers around the world.

These ancient Japanese concepts and principles, all expressed in key words, are rapidly becoming the universal standard for well-designed products.

The point is, to truly know and understand a people you must identify and learn the key words in their languages...a point that so far has generally been ignored.

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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente.
[A list of the author's books, with descriptions of each title, is available on his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.]

JIZAI (Jee-zie)—The Power of a Modern Version of Zen!

How the Japanese Tap into
Cosmic Creativity!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

I note in my book The Japanese Have a Word for It! that until recent times the Western world did not give very much thought to the relationship between the mind and the body, and to the power of the mind to influence and change the functioning of the body. Such ideas were regarded as mystic nonsense.

It was not until the latter part of the 1900s that Western scientists began to accept the idea that their concepts of the physical world were only a part of the human and cosmic equation, and that there was much more to life and existence than what meets the eye.

Most people in the West continue to ignore the ancient Asian practice of Zen, which allows one to transcend conventional wisdom, see things as they really are, and achieve mental and physical skills that are out of the ordinary.

It was the addition of Zen meditation to the training of Japan’s famous samurai class that made it possible for them to transcend the limitations of the average person in martial arts, and it was this same training that provided the insight for Japan’s artists, craftsmen and garden designers to routinely create masterpieces.

One of the versions of Zen that has played a key role in the emergence of Japan as a major economic power is subsumed in the word jizai (jee-zie), which, in effect, refers to being able to think outside of the box of conventional wisdom and customary practices.

Virtually all of Japan’s best known businessmen/entrepreneurs have been and still are practitioners of jizai, and the concept is the foundation of many of the think-tanks that sprung up in Japan in the latter half of the 20th century—the best known of which is the Jizai Kenkyu Jo (Jee-zie Kane-que Jo) or Jizai Research Institute, founded in 1970 by Masahiro Mori, a Tokyo University professor of engineering who was also the founder of the Robotics Society of Japan.

Many of the most successful products that Japan has produced since that time have been the result of jizai thinking. In product terms, jizai thinking means meditating on the design and function of a product until you arrive at the ultimate in function, design and quality.

There was very little if any tradition of this kind in the Western world until recent times, particularly in the United States, and it was not until competition from Japanese manufacturers became a serious threat to U.S. industry that some American designers and engineers began to take a more jizai approach to their work.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For other concepts that are expressed by key terms in the Japanese language, see the author’s books, The Japanese Have a Word for It (McGraw-Hill) and Japan’s Cultural Code Words (Tuttle Publishing). For books in the same series on China, Korea and Mexico, see his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/ and/or Amazon.com.

YUGEN (Yuu-gane): A Japanese Word You Should Know!

The Mystery & Subtlety of Beauty

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

When Westerners first began to visit Japan in the mid-1500s they were struck by the refined beauty of the country’s arts and crafts. It was a kind of beauty that they had never seen before.

As noted in my book The Japanese Have a Word for It there was a character about Japanese-made things that gave them a look that was distinctive from similar things made in Korea and China, from which the original technology had come.

This special quality of Japanese things was so commonplace that the Japanese themselves did not consider it unusual. Everything they made, including simple household utensils, had the same quality.

Japan’s traditional arts and crafts owed their special character to a merging of cosmic and Shinto concepts of harmony, sensuality and spirituality—a cultural factor that remains very much in evidence and in force among Japanese artists and craftsmen in present-day Japan.

The Shinto concept of harmony included the size and shape of things, how they were to be used, and their relationship with people. The spiritual element in Japanese things incorporated the essence and spirit of the materials used, and was based on both respecting and revering these inherent qualities.

The sensual element in Japanese arts and crafts was reflected by the things that people automatically find attractive—harmony in shape, in size, in the relationship of the parts, in the interaction of colors, in their feel when touched, and in the vibrations they project.

After generations of refining their designs and techniques, Japan’s master artists and craftsmen achieved a kind and quality of beauty that transcended the obvious surface manifestations of their materials—a kind of beauty that was described as yugen (yuu-gane), meaning “mystery” or “subtlety.”

Again quoting from my book, “Yugen beauty referred to a type of attractiveness—beneath the surface of the material but in delicate harmony with it—that registers on the conscious as well as the subconscious of the viewer. It radiates a kind of spiritual essence.”

The skill and techniques that were going into Japan’s arts and crafts by the 10th century became so deeply embedded in the culture that they were not distinguished from daily life, and were reflected in everything the Japanese did, from designing and building castles, gardens, homes and palaces to the creation of hand-made paper.

Despite the mostly Western façade that today’s Japan presents to the world yugen beauty is still very much in evidence in the arts and crafts, in traditional restaurants, inns, shops, wearing apparel and elsewhere in many unexpected places.

Yugen is another Japanese word I recommend that other people learn and use because it clearly identifies a concept that in other languages requires several sentences to explain—and in itself is an example of the traditional Japanese propensity to refine things down to their essence.

This compulsive reduction tendency of the Japanese is also dramatically demonstrated in their ability to design and manufacture miniaturized hi-tech products and in using nanotechnology to create new processes and new materials.

For a definitive look at the Japanese view and creation of yugen beauty, see my book, ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN—Key Terms for Understanding & Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a more definitive discussion of yugen and more than 450 other key Japanese terms see the author’s The Japanese Have a Word for It (McGraw-Hill) and Japan’s Cultural Code Words (Tuttle Publishing); both available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers, and bookstores worldwide. To see a full list of his 60-plus books, go to his personal website: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

MUGA (Moo-gah): A Japanese Word You Should Know!

The Secret of Becoming a Master
In Any Physical Art, Craft or Sport

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Many years ago when I was a resident of Tokyo and spent most Sunday mornings bowling with journalist friends I had a new kind of experience that was to have a profound influence on my understanding of how the body and mind work together—or more to the point, how they work against each other.

I was serious about honing my bowling skill and was always fully conscious of every aspect of the physical movements involved in moving down the lane runway for two or three steps and releasing the ball.

But on this particular April morning I had been in a contemplative mood since getting up and walking the few blocks to the bowling alley in Meiji Park. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, there was a mild breeze, and the sky was a seductive blue. My mind virtually disassociated itself from my body and I was not conscious of the act of walking.

When I joined my friends there was none of the usual banter and my mind remained more or less outside of my body. I was the first one up. I made my approach and let the ball go without thinking about it, and made a strike.

This body-mind disconnect continued and I got three more strikes in a row, when the thought suddenly occurred to me: “I’m in a state of muga (muu-gah)! This is fantastic!”

I became intensely conscious of what I was doing, and on my next time up my ball went into the gutter. I was beside myself with disgust at having broken the spell of muga.

The dictionary meaning of the Japanese word muga is self-effacement, a spiritual state of selflessness, to be in a state of ecstasy.

But thanks to Japan’s famous samurai class the term had come to mean much more than this esoteric definition. From the age or six or seven boys in the samurai class went through a rigorous training process to develop incredible skill with the sword, and while they were mastering the physical process of wielding a sword they were also developing the ability to enter the mental state of muga—a state in which the mind did not interfere with the actions of their trained bodies.

The samurai were not the only Japanese to make use of the element of muga to achieve mastery in their profession. The training of all Japanese artists and craftsmen traditionally began in childhood and continued until they were in their thirties or forties and sometimes until they were in their fifties.

In this long process of mastering every physical element of their art or craft they also gradually got to the point that they did not have to think about the movements that were required to create a masterpiece. Their actions were spontaneous.

All people everywhere, especially those engaged in arts, crafts and other skills demanding precise, coordinated physical movements—from jugglers and musicians to sportspeople—must achieve some degree of muga in their actions to reach an impressive level of skill. But only those who are able to perform automatically on the highest level, without thinking about the movements they must make, become true masters.

It helps to have a word that explains the relationship between the body and the mind in developing a physical skill, and I recommend that the term muga be adopted by all cultures. If young people are able to relate a long period of physical training with achieving the muga mind-state—during which performing a physical function perfectly becomes spontaneous—they might take their training more seriously.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a more definitive discussion of muga and more than 450 other key Japanese terms see the author’s The Japanese Have a Word for It (McGraw-Hill) and Japan’s Cultural Code Words (Tuttle Publishing); both available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers, and bookstores worldwide. To see a full list of his 60-plus books, go to his personal website: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com.

The Japanese Way of Pleasuring in the Brevity of Life!

How Communing with the Fragility of Life Can Sharpen

Your Sensual, Intellectual & Spiritual Enjoyment!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

One of the special elements of Japanese culture is the tradition of creating both environments and occasions for communing with the fragility of life—an element that adds enormously to the recognition of this fragility and makes people more inclined to enjoy the years they have.

One of the most memorable afternoons I have spent in Japan was in a traditional ryokan (rio-kahn), inn, situated on the slope of a gorge on picturesque Izu Peninsula southwest of Tokyo. It was a Sunday afternoon. I was alone, and it was raining—not a heavy rain but a light, steady rain that was close to being a mist. I was sitting on the balcony of my room, looking out over the gorge, waiting for a friend to arrive.

As I sat there I began to experience what the Japanese call mono no aware (moe-no no ah-wah-ray)—a Buddhist concept that includes being very conscious of the ephemeral nature of man, his struggle in the face of great odds and the inevitability of his downfall and disappearance.

This aspect of Japan’s culture, developed between 700 and 1200 A.D. was based on the acute recognition of the impermanence of all things—an element that was enhanced by the code of the samurai which required them to be ready to give up their lives at a moment’s notice—resulting in their lives being compared to cherry blossoms...beautiful but fragile to the extreme and subject to being wafted away by the slightest breeze.

This culture of impermanence was especially reflected in the haiku and tanka poetry of the era, as well as in the such great literary works as Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji), a novel about the intrigues and loves of an imperial prince (usually regarded as the world’s first novel) written in the early 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady in the Imperial Court in Kyoto; and Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), compiled by a blind monk named Kakuichi in 1371.

The opening lines of Heike Monogatari, which depicts an epic struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for the control of Japan in the 12th century, say more about the human condition than many philosophical tomes:

“The sound of the Gion Shôja [temple] bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sâla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last; they are as dust before the wind.”

The culture of Japan reflected this theme in many ways, resulting in the Japanese developing an extensive vocabulary that expressed this inherent sadness of life.

While mono no aware means something like “indulging one’s self in grief,” neither this phrase nor any of the other key words were actually used in sad situations. Instead they referred to a gentle melancholy view of the fragility and preciousness of life that included an element of subdued pleasure.

The annual custom of celebrating the short life of cherry blossoms is the largest of Japan’s the mono no aware rituals. It reminds them to take the time and find ways enjoy life while you can because it will soon be gone.

My spending a quiet afternoon entranced by the natural beauty of the setting as it was being cleansed and renewed by rain was another of the mono no aware practices that are dear to the hearts of the Japanese. Still another way is to engage in “forest bathing”—spending time in an isolated forest, letting the sights, sounds and vibrations of the trees wash over you.

There is also an element of mono no aware in most of Japan’s classic art and craft designs, from kitchen utensils to the kimono wore by older men and women. The famous Tea Ceremony is a pure mono no aware ritual.

Knowledge of this cultural element makes it possible for one to appreciate more fully the distinctive essence of things Japanese—the elements that make them Japanese.

This factor is one of the unspoken and generally un-described things that makes the traditional aspects of life in Japan so sensually, intellectually, and spiritually attractive to everyone, including foreigners who are sensitive to the realities of life, including its brevity.
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Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente
For a detailed and definitive discourse on aspects of Japanese culture see the author’s book, ELEMENTS OF JAPANESE DESIGN—Understanding & Using Japan’s Classic Wabi-Sabi-Shibui Concepts; The Japanese Have a Word for It!; JAPAN UNMASKED—The Character & Culture of the Japanese; and SEX & THE JAPANESE—The Sensual Side of Japan. To see a full list of his books on Japan, China and Korea, see his personal website at: www.phoenixbookspublishers.com, and/or Amazon.com and other online booksellers.

You Know You’ve Been in Japan too Long, When….!

Japan Seduces Foreigners
And They Can't Leave!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

TOKYO—Marco Polo was one of the earliest foreigners to get seduced by Asia and failed to leave when planned.

Since the days of that intrepid adventurer hundreds of thousands of other Westerners have gone to China, Japan and Korea and fell victim to the same seductive elements of Asian life that is something like cultural quicksand. Once they step into it they find that it is difficult—if not impossible—to get out.

I believe that the culture of Japan is the most powerful of all, and that its influence on Westerners works like a magnet…or maybe the force of gravity. The closer and deeper you get into the culture the stronger its hold on you.

And what is especially remarkable about this is that many foreign residents have a long list of things about Japan that they do not like, and yet they stay on and on—often for a lifetime.

Two of the primary elements in Japanese culture that are responsible for its hold on foreigners are the aesthetics and sensuality of its arts and crafts, and the overt and covert sexuality of the culture itself.

Shinto, which provided the original foundation for Japan’s culture, is essentially a fertility cult that is both feminine and masculine in nature, with the feminine side conspicuously dominant.

Foreign males in particular are attracted to the feminine element in Japanese culture, like moths to flames—even when they are not conscious of what it is that they find so appealing about Japan that they choose not to leave.

Interestingly, foreigners with a well-developed comic sense and an artistic bent often translate their feelings about Japan into anecdotes and cartoons, and that is where Bill Mutranowski comes in.

A budding journalist, Bill went to Japan in 1986 intending to stay for a year. He began teaching English, and before long was contributing cartoons to the Japan Times Weekly and freelancing as an illustrator.

He is still there.

A short while ago Tuttle Publishing brought out a collection of Bill’s cartoons and accompanying text that illustrate and expound on life in Japan in the eyes of a foreigner who sees the comic, funny, hilarious side with a light-hearted touch that reveals far more than many serious dissertations on what life is like for foreigners in Japan.

Bill’s book is entitled You Know You’ve Been in JAPAN too Long When….which serves as a tag-line that introduces each cartoon and the insightful comments [in both English and Japanese] on the opposing pages.

Here are some samples of completed tag-lines:

You utter “Yoisho!” at the slightest physical exertion; You organize a work stoppage at a time that will inconvenience the fewest number of people; You think apparel emblazoned with nonsensical English is cool; You put a plastic “condom” – a clean one – over your umbrella before entering the supermarket on rainy days; You can tell the difference between honne (the real thing) and tatemae (the face or façade that masks what people really mean).

Also: You’re used to having a cleaning lady wait for you to finish (going to the toilet); Your comfort food sports eyeballs and tentacles; You secretly wish the Japanese prime minister were as tall as those other G-8 guys; You nonchalantly mention to your grandmother back home that you went to a “Penis Festival” last weekend.

You Know You’ve Been in Japan too Long When….makes a great gift for yourself or someone else who is interested in the exotic. It is available on Amazon.com.
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To see a list and description of 30-plus books on Japan by the author of Japan-in-Focus see his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

Japan Takes Lead in Bringing Shopping to Your Fingers!

Digital Shopping

Is Revolutionizing Retail Business!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

TOKYO -- Some time in the near future the world’s great department stores could become little more than drop-ship warehouses and boutiques and other stores could get few if any live shoppers…and all because of tiny all-purpose mobile phones.

This phenomenon has already begun in Japan, where shopping by mobile phone is already large and is growing at the rate of 40 percent a year.

According to government data, mobile phone shopping in 2006 reached the trillion yen mark, while the sales at department stores and shops declined. Just one online company, Rakuten Ichiba, did 460 billion yen in mobile phone sales that year.

More and more Japanese are now doing their basic shopping—for apparel, cosmetics, food, furniture, etc.—on their mobile phones while they are on their way to work, at work, in restaurants and pubs and other places, and the whole process takes only a few minutes at most.

Young women, who are always the trend leaders in virtually everything new that occurs in Japan’s huge consumer market, are in the forefront of this movement, which means it is real, it is solid, and it will grow—and manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers who ignore it will be left behind.

All signs indicate that 2006 was the tipping point for mobile phone shopping in Japan, and this movement will inevitably spread around the world as the cost of gas goes up, highways and streets become more clogged with traffic and there is growing pressure for people to drive less in order to reduce pollution.

The next country to undergo this mobile phone shopping revolution will no doubt be South Korea, the most digitally connected country in the world—and I can see it happening in China and in India as entrepreneurs in those countries seek to skip the slow and inefficient retailing process that has been characteristic of market economies since the 1880s.

One of the facets of shopping by mobile phone is that it can make a huge success of a product that hasn’t been moving in a matter of days just by making it available online.

In Japan big-name international companies like Procter & Gamble are taking advantage of this new phenomenon by promoting their cosmetic lines on mobile phones, targeting women in their 20s.

What this phenomenon may mean to the retailing industry in the world at large can be mind-boggling—not to mention frightening if it fails to keep up with the times. Instead of maintaining brick-and-mortar places, stores will have to transform themselves into warehouses that ship their goods to individual consumers—or manufacturers could replace the retailing and wholesaling businesses altogether by taking on the role of shippers as well as manufacturers.

Dell, the computer giant, Amazon.com and many other companies have already proven conclusively that people will shop online if it is made easy and secure.

This transition of the way of shopping is not going to go away. The only questions are how rapidly is it going to continue to grow, and at what point will it no longer be feasible for present-day retailers to keep their doors open.

One of the greatest benefits of digital shopping is that hundreds of millions of people would not have to get into their cars and go shopping every day or every week. This in itself would have a profound affect that would encompass the automobile industry and the oil and gas industries—which combined, make up a huge percentage of the world’s economic activity.

Talk about computers changing the world! Just wait until even more enhanced mobile phones are in the hands of just half of the world’s population!

The Cute Syndrome Rules Supreme in Japan!

If You Want to Make it Big in Japan
You have to Make it Cute!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

One of the elements of Japanese culture that has a powerful impact on the way the Japanese think and do business is subsumed in the word kawaii (kah-wah-eee), which means dear, darling, lovely, charming, attractive, tiny, winning—and above all, cute.

The Japanese have been culturally programmed since the beginning of their civilization to refine things down to their essence, eliminating all excess material, and making them the epitome of kawaii in appearance and sensual to the touch.

From the earliest times this dedication to the kawaii principle incorporated kitchen utensils, food, wearing apparel, accessories of all kinds, dolls, and other toys.

The foundation of the kawaii principle no doubt derived from Shinto, which emphasizes the beauty of all things in nature, especially things that are small and delicate, such as flowers.

Another source of the hold that the kawaii syndrome has on the Japanese may be the fact a significant percentage of young girls are extraordinarily cute, with small, refined features that are perfect in their symmetry and doll-like in their appearance.

In any event, the kawaii factor plays a major role in Japan’s entertainment, toy, publishing, advertising messages, print ads, public signs, product development industries, bullet trains, etc. You name it, and if it was designed by Japanese it will exhibit at least some kawaii qualities.

There is an ephemeral quality about things that exhibit kawaii characteristics—and its affect is so powerful that the syndrome long ago became associated with what was regarded as the ideal look and behavior for girls and young women—so much so that until recent times it was common for them to affect the voice and mannerisms of very young, innocent, soft, fragile females…something that acted like an aphrodisiac on males.

This kind of behavior is not nearly as common among present-day Japanese girls and young women, but the kawaii factor continues to play a major role in Japan, especially in the advertising and marketing industries.

Foreigners who want to succeed in Japan should make a thorough study of the kawaii syndrome a key part of their market research.

Copyright © 2007 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

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Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 40 books on the business, culture and language of Japan, including the pioneer Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business, first published in 1959 and still in print (Mc-Graw-Hill). For a list and descriptions of his titles go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/, or key his full name into Amazon.com’s book search window.