The Phenomenology of Socialistic Power in Japan

In Japan power is modified by the usual elements of giving and taking: through respect, money (including shelter, water, and food) , cooperation, and positive feedback. However, these elements are emphasized and exercised in different ways than in other cultures.

Ask yourself the question: how could Theo - such an adamant individual of sorts - decide to live in a tiny village for a year and all the while act like a proper Japanese person in as many ways as I am capable? It's more complicated than it seems.

Last night I was at my India Ink class and finishing a work on a pine-tree piece. I was already copying a version that my teacher had made me (that is how we are supposed to do it). Then as I was approaching the finishing touches, which were less than insignificant, my teacher decided to do them for me, almost out of the desire to keep what I had started as nice as it had been (or so I thought). She then finished it, putting some of the most bold marks on the page without any advice from its [albeit already secondary, because I was copying the model she had given me] creator. Then she finished, admired the piece and even tried it on the wall for a look. The two other ladies in the class clapped and I was confused if I should feel at all responsible for the piece. My teacher said she would take it home and flatten it for me so that I could put my Japanese stamp on it (my two Chinese characters that represent my name "Tedo" and are translated as "philosopher man").

Somehow all individuality of my work was stolen away from me without any loss to my own high status in the class as a quick learner. The respect and cheering from my teacher and classmates not only turned me into a copycat (which is part of the tradition), but furtermore, into a fake who doesn't even produce his own art.

This is just one example of how the system of socialistic power can work on an individual. The kids are all funneled through an education system with many of the same traits as my India ink class. The positive feedback from teachers, parents, and classmates (not just the fact that everyone else is doing it) keeps certain forms of individualism from being probable.

Through this lens my job appears in a different light. It seems like the perfect job for an opportunistic person with little or no direction in life (unless one's direction is learning Japanese and Japanese-style teaching, which would make this job closer to ideal). For I am rewarded with countless measures of respect, a very decent salary, affordable housing, and healthcare all for the somewhat simple price of obeying the rules and gently giving up much of my individualism (especially through having much of my person be unreadable/untranslatable to those around me). It can be a small price to pay for so many benefits, but in the end it allows little room for being who you want to be.

One of the reasons I am being so exhaustive in these explanations is because one of the major forces of this society (filial piety) is working on me to produce a certain amount of sadness and guilt for leaving this community. And when I have sadness and guilt I generally try to purge it from my system rather than cover it up and hide it. I take the "better chuck it" approach rather than the "digest and hope for the best" approach. But I'll be OK in a matter of time, and I will probably have to digest a little bit as well.