Domo arigato gozaimas

I started writing this entry on the flight from Osaka, Japan to Seoul, Korea. I was genuinely sad to leave Japan. Though I'm sure it will never be my home (even if I were to live there), I have developed a great deal of respect and affection for the Japanese people and their culture. I found my thoughts repeatedly returning to the culture as the source of many of the country's strengths. It is only at a superficial level that I can understand the culture, and even more so at which I can communicate what I learned... but lack of ability never discouraged me in the past, so why should it now?

A sense of respect not only permeates the local population, but also extends to foreign cultures as well, as evidenced by the Japanese willingness to incorporate the best parts of other societies into their own. Western influences are everywhere in Japan, from the popularity of baseball to the dominance of the auto industry.

Of course, Japanese have managed to leave the worst parts of Western culture behind. As an example, rather than view religion as divisive, Japanese people are very tolerant of other faiths. One of our several tour guides was raised Buddhist but went to a Catholic prep school and baptized her children in a Buddhist temple. This was a welcome surprise for this Westerner whose countrymen often try to reaffirm the value of their culture by dismissing others as inferior.

Though Japan is a democracy in very much the same sense as the United States (we did write their Constitution, after all), the incessant individualism that plagues our population is replaced with an almost socialist ethic of collaboration and shared responsibility. As a trivial example, when a taxi driver taking me and my friend Janita to a dinner party in Tokyo momentarily lost his way, he immediately stopped the meter until he resumed progress. I can't imagine an American cabbie doing the same thing; their philosophy can be summed up as something like, "If I'm driving with someone in the back, they're paying for it." Another illustration of the Japanese social ethic is a complete lack of jaywalking, as if everyone in society has implicitly understood that following certain rules helps society to function more efficiently.

Also, one might expect that the complete lack of tipping (I didn't pay a single gratuity during the entirety of my visit) would encourage indolence and low quality service. In fact, though, the level of service I received in Japan was as high as anywhere I've ever been.

The value placed on respect is abundantly evident. Restaurant and store patrons are always welcomed upon arrival and thanked upon departure. Japanese really do bow profusely. They welcome foreigners, or gaijin, as guests in their country. The stark difference in attitudes was underscored when Rei, one of the trip organizers and a friend from HBS, related her reaction to her initial interactions with thick-skinned New Englanders: "What did I do to offend them?"

Granted, unlike in the States, where anyone might be a local, foreigners are more easily identified in Japan. But I believe that cultural factors, rather than distinct physical appearance, account for most of the difference in the way tourists are treated.

Though I will always be a gaijin, I am fascinated by Japan's culture, which has somehow produced the sort of society I'd want to live in, successfully commingling a number of seemingly conflicting social ideals. The Japanese culture has evolved over the past half century, borrowing many Western philosophies, methods, and ideals. This is a topic I could spend hours writing about, and I'm sure I'll revisit it in future postings. At a high level, though, visiting Japan makes one thing acutely clear: we have quite a bit to learn from their way of life.