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/.

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.

Two Adventurers Cross Pacific in Amphibious Jeep Called “Half-Safe”

Journalist-Author Celebrates 50th Anniversary
Of Crossing Pacific Ocean & Bering Sea
in Amphibious Jeep Called “Half-Safe”

Margaret Warren De Mente

PARADISE VALLEY, AZ—In the winter of 1956/57 Boyé Lafayette De Mente, my soon-to-be husband, was a Tokyo-based journalist working for The Japan Times.

The newspaper carried a brief article about the landing of an amphibious jeep called “Half-Safe” (after a popular deodorant of the day!) at Kagoshima, on the southern tip of Japan’s Kyushu Island.

A few weeks later the jeep, owned and driven by Ben Carlin, its Australian “captain,” arrived in Tokyo. Being of a sporting if not adventurous nature my husband-to-be contacted Carlin and made arrangements to interview him.

During the interview, Carlin invited Boyé to accompany him on the last leg of his around-the-world trip on the jeep—a journey that had started in 1948 from New York with his then American wife Elinore, but which had ended abruptly some 500 miles off the eastern seaboard of the U.S. when the engine of the jeep conked out.

Carlin, his wife and Half-Safe were picked up by a Swedish freighter and deposited in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Carlin rebuilt the engine and once again the two set off across the Atlantic Ocean. After a stop in the Azores, they made the coast of Africa, and from there finally reached London by land and water.

Elinore went to work as a secretary while Carlin, over a period of several years (he was a notoriously slow worker), virtually rebuilt the jeep from scratch and they set off again, heading for the Near East, the Mid-East and Asia. Somewhere in India Elinore jumped jeep, left Carlin, and later divorced him.

Carlin recruited another “mate” (a young man from Australia) because the jeep required a two-man crew when at sea. This young man hung in with Carlin until they reached Kagoshima, Japan, and there he too decamped from the adventure, so Carlin was on his own when he arrived in Tokyo in the late fall of 1956.

For reasons Boyé has never fully explained, apparently to anyone, he accepted Carlin’s invitation to join him on the last, longest and most dangerous leg of the around-the-world journey, scheduled to begin in late April, by which time the storm-tossed North Pacific and Bering Sea would have quieted down.

A few days before the departure date a number of startling incidents involving Carlin and the jeep resulted in several of Boyé’s co-workers and friends urging him to quit the enterprise before it started. But despite a calm and basically un-aggressive nature Boyé refused to back out.

On the morning of May 1, 1957, Half-Safe departed from Tokyo amidst great media fanfare, first from the front of the Mainichi Newspaper Building, and then from the front of the nearby Yomiuri Newspaper Building.

For the first few hours of the journey, several cars filled with reporters followed the Half-Safe as it made its way out of Tokyo and headed north. One man had been assigned by his company to go all the way to Wakkanai on the northern tip of Hokkaido with the jeep. But a series of incidents involving Carlin resulted in him disappearing after three days and nights, never to be seen or heard from again.

Each day and night brought new incidents—not all of them involving Carlin’s irascible character—including a number that threatened to end the adventure before it really got started. This included the jeep springing a leak when they were crossing the straits separating Honshu Island and Hokkaido, collisions with submerged rocks as they neared the port of Muroran, and finally, on what was to be the big day of their departure from Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Carlin jumped from the dock onto the jeep for the benefit of cameramen, cracking a section of the cabin that he had constructed to enclose the jeep from the outside elements. This caused another one-day delay for repairs.

Getting underway the next day turned out to have another set of dangers that threatened the jeep before it got away from the dock. From that point on, the adventure and the dangers really began. The two adventurers encountered Russians, Japanese fishing nets, sea lions, technical problems, the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea—and each other!

After enough incidents and adventures to fill several lifetimes, the Half-Safe arrived in Anchorage, Alaska on September 1, exactly four months from the day it left Tokyo. The safe arrival of the two in Alaska made news worldwide, and was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records, as well as Car and Driver’s Amazing Stories.

By agreement with Carlin, Boyé did not write his account of the crossing until five years had elapsed, to give Carlin time to get his own book published.

Boyé’s account of the crossing, which he chronicled in a book entitled ONCE A FOOL – From Tokyo to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep, reveals in precise detail the unexpected threats the two wayfarers encountered, including exact—but rare—conversations between them.

In his words, once they set off into the North Pacific the confines and noises of the jeep induced a kind of semi-coma that they came out of only when the daily 24-hour routine of “four on four off” was broken by some emergency.

Their two encounters with Japanese fishing nets and Carlin’s behavior following the last incident is high drama of the most absurd kind.

On another memorable occasion, Boyé stands on the tiny prow of the jeep for several hours in a cold rain and high seas pumping air into a torpedo-shaped yellow tank holding 660 gallons of gasoline to force gas into inboard tanks, with the tank jumping and rearing like a wild animal.

What is perhaps the most remarkable of all, Boyé hung in with Carlin until they reached Anchorage, where he also “jumped jeep,” parting company with his strange companion and flying to Phoenix, Arizona to see his family and recuperate.

And in yet another believe-it-or-not episode, 10 years after Boyé left the jeep in Anchorage, had spent another six years as a trade journalist in Tokyo (where we were married) and moved back to Phoenix, one of our friends spotted Carlin driving Half-Safe down Van Buren Avenue in the center of the city.

Carlin had eventually made it back to Halifax, Nova Scotia then continued for several years touring the U.S. in Half-Safe, lecturing and showing films of the Pacific and Bering Sea crossing, ending up in his hometown of Perth, Australia where he died in the 1980s, and where Half-Safe is on permanent display at his old school.

Boyé went on to have an extraordinary career as the author of more than 40 books on the business cultures and languages of Japan, Korea, and China. We now make our home in Paradise Valley, Arizona, from which he has crossed the Pacific over 100 times—by air!

His book, ONCE A FOOL, became a bestseller in Alaska, and is still available from Amazon.com, other online booksellers, and through major retail chains. To see a full list, with descriptions, of Boyé’s 70-plus books (on Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii), go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.


Contact:
Margaret Warren De Mente
Paradise Valley, Az 85253
Email: mdemente@cox.net

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.

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.

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.

Short But Amazing Step Forward in Re-Greening the Planet!

Extraordinary Inspiration Leads
To Seed-Bearing Clay Ball Program

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

KAMAKURA, JAPAN - In 2003 a film-school teacher named Ryuji Enokida had an extraordinary inspiration that is now helping to restore plants and trees to areas that had become barren deserts, using an astonishingly simple process that requires no watering and no fertilizer.

It somehow occurred to teacher Enokida that plant and tree seeds encased in small balls of clay would germinate and grow when spread around in arid areas that had become virtually lifeless.

After testing the idea and proving that it worked, Enokida formed a group within his existing Yokohama Art Project to introduce the process to the world. He teamed-up with a film-maker friend, went to a Kenya diplomat and pitched the idea of re-greening an area outside of Nairobi that had once been heavily forested but had turned into a dry, dead area when all of the trees were cut down.

With approval from the Kenyan official Enokida and his group spread hundreds of clay balls (about one inch in diameter) embedded with acacia, eucalyptus and other plant and tree seeds in a 1-hectare (2.47 acre) plot of barren land.

Within one year trees from the balls of clay were 1.5 meters high and were thriving without having been fertilized or watered! Not only were the trees thriving, but the baked and cracked earth had regained some moisture.

The secret of this miraculous-sounding growth was that the difference in the day-and-night temperatures resulted in dew forming inside the balls at night, causing the seeds to germinate and put roots down into the ground. Being embedded in clay, the seeds were protected from the extreme heat and dryness and from being eaten by birds and other predators.

Local Kenyan residents were shocked that the little seed-bearing balls of clay actually turned the plot of land green, and asked that the project be expanded into other desert areas in the country. Seeds planted in this manner near the equator grew taller than the average person within one year.

The program has now been spread to China, first in the Beijing area, and could play a major role in helping to reforest huge areas of China that are bare of plant life because of cutting and logging.

Enokida’s film-making friend has prepared a documentary on the project to help raise money for the enterprise. This is something that the big foundations and environmentalists should get behind and turn into a worldwide wave of greening the barren areas of the planet. Information about the Yokohama Art Project is available on the Web.
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To see a list and descriptions of 30-plus books on Japan by the author, access his personal website at: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.

You Too, Can Be a Robot!

HAL Turns Impaired People
Into Super Human Beings!

Boyé Lafayette De Mente

As reported earlier in this column robot manufacturers in Japan are rapidly populating the country with “partner robots”—referring to robots that are designed to serve people as security guards, aides, maids, nurses and waiters.

The impetus for this extraordinary robot partner program is the rapid aging of Japan’s population and the declining number of young people going into the care and welfare industries, resulting in millions of elderly people needing help they cannot get from care centers, hospitals and other institutions.

Another element in this mix is that—at this time—the average person in Japan lives several years longer than people in other countries because those who are now 60 and older ate a far healthier diet that most people elsewhere [a factor that is rapidly diminishing, however, as the younger generations now eat more like Americans].

The latest robotic contribution to people who are physically impaired for whatever reason is HAL—and this is not the power-mad computer of science fiction and film fame.

In this case, HAL stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb—which is Japanese-English for a robotic “suit” that a disabled person puts on (more or less like a space suit) that makes it possible for him or her to walk, pick up and carry a 25kg (about 55 pounds) bag of rice effortlessly with one arm.

With that kind of power, HAL obviously makes it possible for a person to do more than just pick up a bag or rice—but that was just a demonstration!

HAL was developed by Cyberdyne, a venture business affiliated with the University of Tsukuba outside of Tokyo, a world-famous center for scientific research and development.

Sensors embedded in the cyber suit detect electrical impulses generated by the wearer’s muscles and move the suit’s power units accordingly.

Cyberdyne has partnered with Daiwa House Industry Co., Japan’s leading home builder, to market HAL through the company’s sales network, beginning in 2008.

Over 20 other companies in Japan are also in the partner robot business and some 20 other firms say they have plans to start manufacturing robot partners in the near future.

HAL may also be just the thing to provide elderly people with the means to fight back when confronted by vicious thugs who like to use 90-year-olds as punching bags.

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.
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Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 40 business, culture and language books on Japan. To see a list and description of his titles go to http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/, or key his full name into Amazon.com’s book search window.

Japan Remains Safe Haven For Foreign Travelers!

TOKYO – Japanese who travel abroad are repeatedly warned in travel literature, by their travel agents, by friends, and by the news media that once they leave Japan they will be in danger of being robbed, injured or even killed if they do not remain alert and take special measures to protect themselves.

The Japanese are cautioned never to set their bags down in a hotel lobby or in any kind of transportation terminal; to never walk in certain areas of cities at night; to be wary of conmen, touts, and so on.

Unfortunately, these warnings are not exaggerated or based on unwarranted fears. Given the number of Japanese who are robbed and often beaten while they are abroad it is remarkable that so many -- some 14 to 15 million -- continue to travel overseas each year.

In contrast to this, it is so rare for a foreign traveler in Japan to be robbed, beaten, killed or even harassed in any way that when it does happen it makes national headlines.

The incidence of violent crimes has gone up dramatically in Japan since the introduction of democracy and Western culture following the end of World War II in 1945, but the crime rate is still far below that of Western countries, and generally does not involve foreign victims.

One often hears that in Japan women can walk alone, at all hours of the night, in city districts that are notorious for their low life and the presence of street thugs and professional gangsters without fear of being accosted, robbed or raped. And that is true.

One also hears that foreign women are even safer when they are out and about in Japan -- wherever they may be and whatever the hour -- because Japanese males, including the criminal element, are less likely to harm foreigners. And that is true.

The continuing low level of crime in Japan, in particular the low incidence of people being attacked in the streets -- day or night -- can be attributed to Shinto and Buddhist standards established in the culture very early in Japan’s history, and reinforced politically and socially during the long Shogunate period (1185-1868), when armed samurai warriors administered the country and were empowered to quickly and severely punish law and custom breakers.

During the early decades of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1867), samurai warriors were legally permitted to kill people on the spot for violations of etiquette or the law that today would be consider minor infractions.

Given the combined influence of the Shintoism and Buddhism, both of which advocated non-violence, and the social morality mandated and enforced by the samurai rulers of Japan, ordinary Japanese became paragons of honesty and good manners.

Still today, people routinely leave unlocked bicycles on the sidewalks and in front of stores and stations. As a rule, you can leave a bag or some other possession virtually anywhere in public and it will be there when you get back. Shops routinely put product displays outside, and leave them unguarded.

It is said that the extraordinary success of vending machine marketing in Japan occurred because it was possible to set them up out in the open, unprotected places, with virtually no chance that they would be vandalized and robbed.

Stories abound of the time and effort people expend to return lost or forgotten property, especially where foreign travelers are concerned. This is not only a manifestation of the honesty that is built into the character of the Japanese. It is also because the Japanese feel that they and the whole country are responsible for the welfare of visitors.

This security factor is one of Japan’s greatest assets, and is an integral part of the attraction that the country has a travel destination. It is also one of the reasons why foreign residents are so attracted to life in Japan.

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

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

A Little Nihongo (Japanese) Goes a Long Way!

TOKYO -- Word has gotten out that virtually all Japanese study English for several years when they are in elementary and middle school, and that is true. It is also true that hundreds of thousands of Japanese study English in private language academies after they finish their formal education.

But that does not mean that the average Japanese speaks and understands English, even with a modest degree of fluency. Much like the United States, public school instruction in foreign languages in Japan has traditionally emphasized grammar and reading, rather than speaking.

Dramatic improvements have been made in teaching English and other foreign languages in Japan in recent years, but this still doesn’t mean that English speaking foreign residents and visitors no longer have to be concerned about being able to communicate with Japanese.

Of course, most Japanese who work in frontline positions in the travel industry, where their job requires them to interact with foreigners, generally speak enough English to communicate on a basic level. That is fine as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Once visitors get off the tourist track it can be very much like suddenly becoming tongue-tied – if not deaf and dumb.

Fortunately, it is not difficult to learn enough Japanese in a very short period of time to significantly improve the quality of a Japan experience – not to mention the personal pleasure it provides once you are beyond basic needs.

Unlike English words, which are spelled with individual letters that represent hundreds of sounds, Japanese words are made up of precise syllables that are based on only six sounds. These six sounds are represented in Roman letters as a, i, u, e, o and n, which are pronounced as ah, ee, uu, eh, oh and unn (more or less like the n in bond).

The Japanese language is made up of several sets of syllables. The first set is the above ah, ee, uu, eh, oh.. The second set is ka, ki, ku, ke, ko (pronounced kah, kee, kuu, kay, koh). The third set is sa, shi, su, se, so (pronounced sah, she, sue, say, soh).

Then there is ta, chi, tsu, te, to (pronounced tah, chee, t’sue, tay, toe); next comes na, ni, nu, ne, no (nah, nee, nuu, nay, no); ha, hi, fu, he, ho (hah, hee, fuu, hey, hoh); ma, mi, mu, me, mo (mah, mee, muu, may, moh); ya, i, yu, e, yo (yah, ee, yuu, eh, yoh); ra. ri, ru, re, ro (rah, ree, rue, ray, roh); wa, i, u, e, wo (wah, ee, uu, eh, woh); and finally n (unn) all by itself.

All the other syllables that make up the Japanese language are euphonic variations of some of the above (pah, pee, puu, pay poh), and combinations of two syllables (pya, pyu, pyo), etc.

These syllables never change, and with some exceptions, their pronunciation is constant. The exceptions are when vowels are pronounced “long,” and when there is a consonant at the end and beginning of two syllables that are joined (nikko / neek-koh). This means you don’t have weird spellings or unfathomable pronunciations to deal with.

As may have been noticed, the pronunciation of Japanese is virtually the same as that of Hawaiian, and practically the same as Spanish. If you can say ah, ee, uu, eh, oh and unn you can learn to pronounce Japanese in just a few minutes.

The famous Japanese farewell, sayonara, is therefore pronounced sah-yoh-nah-rah. And that weird word karaoke (which literally means empty orchestra) is pronounced kah-rah-oh-kay, not kerry-oh-kee!

Knowing just a few Japanese expressions can make a visit to Japan a lot more pleasant. Here are some examples (if you want to learn more, Japanese phrase books are available in leading bookstores and from online book dealers):

Good morning
Ohayo gozaimasu (Oh-hah-yoh go-zigh-mahss) / until about 10:30 or 11 a.m.

Good day or good afternoon
Konnichi wa (Kone-nee-chee wah) / from about 11 a.m. to around dusk

Good evening
Komban wa (Kome-bahn wah) / from nightfall on

Thank you very much
Domo arigato gozaimasu (Doh-moe ah-ree-gah-toe go-zigh-mahss)

Don’t mention it
Doitashimashite (Doe-ee-tah-she-mahssh-tay)

How are you?
O’genki desu ka? (Oh-gane-kee dess kah?)

I’m fine
Genki desu (Gane-kee dess)

How much is it?
Ikura desu ka? (Ee-kuu-rah dess kah?)

What time is it?
Nanji desu ka? (Nahn-jee dess kah?)

Let’s eat!
Tabemasho! (Tah-bay-mah-shoh!)

Let’s go!
Ikimasho! (Ee-kee-mah-shoh!)

For a complete home-course in Japanese, see my SPEAK JAPANESE TODAY, available from Amazon.com and other online booksellers.

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

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