Throughout human history, few countries have ever had everything they needed to both survive and thrive. Our species developed two soluti...
For countries like Japan, the global economy has been a boon. Not only has Japan excelled on the technological front, but the country has been able to export the one thing most important to its citizens: culture. Although the concept of a “global economy” did not exist until the early 20th century, Japanese culture had long been one of fascination across Europe and the U.S. From samurai to geisha, representations of the mysterious nation and its people abounded in literature late 18th century and beyond, as Japan, once known very little outside of Asia, began to open itself up to the rest of the world.
Japanese Culture Makes Its Move
In his 1871 book, “Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan,” international writer Lefcadio Hearn wrote:
“But the rare charm of Japanese life, so different from that of all other lands, is not be found in its Europeanised circles. It is to be found among the great common people, who represent in Japan, as in all countries, the national values, and who still cling to their delightful old customs, their picturesque dresses, their Buddhist images, their household shrines, their beautiful and touching ancestor worship.”
It is difficult to say whether Hearn, who, as a man of Greek and Irish heritage was a product of a more globalized world, was speaking of Japan in a purely fascinated or the subtly patronizing way so common among high society Europeans at the time. Nevertheless, he goes on to say:
“This is the life of which a foreign observer can never weary, if fortunate enough to enter into it--the life that forces him sometimes to doubt whether the course of Western progress is really in the direction of moral development.”
Japan’s culture at the time was highly idealized, not just by writers such as Hearn, but by many Europeans who, when faced with an increasingly modernized world, saw Japan’s culture as a pure and unadulterated version of humanity.
Yet 1870 was a long time ago. Nearly 150 years later, much of Hearn’s description has changed. Japan still has some glimpses of the culture that it once had. Reverence for ancestors can still be found. Around 35% of the population still identifies as Buddhist. But one might say arguably say that the culture Japan now exports to the rest of the world is far from the bucolic image Hearn wrote about. And in many ways, far removed from the morality Hearn once praised it for.
A Culture in Crisis Mode
Culture has always been Japan’s chief export. That is, of course, far more difficult to quantify than the country’s more tangible exports. Indeed, cars make up the largest share, at 13% of the country’s $714 billion in annual exports. Yet in many ways, it’s Japanese culture and beliefs that are exported the most heavily, even molded into the physical goods the country exports overseas. Chief among these is Japanese anime.
If anime, then, is one of the primary means by which Japan is displaying its culture to the rest of the world, what does the world see? How does the world perceive “Japan” as a concept and a culture? As with any media form, anime is created for an audience, crafted to sell, and as a form of pure entertainment. Yet any form of entertainment media provides hints and glimpses of the culture that created it, even if it’s slightly or even abundantly exaggerated. American media has certainly done a fair job of presenting American culture to the world. It’s the reason Chinese trap music, for better or worse, is now an actual thing.
As for anime’s representation of Japan, there are increasingly more representations of Japanese society that, for Western sensibilities, are more negative than positive. At times, those representations appear to fly in direct conflict to what appears to be happening in real Japanese society as well.
One blaring example of this is the portrayal of women in anime. By Western standards, the often hyper-sexualization of women in the genre is troubling at best. It’s not uncommon to find female characters, quite often even teenaged ones or younger, presented in revealing outfits with ample body parts that seem to defy gravity using an animation style called gainaxing, created, quite literally, just for the purpose of giving anime’s distinctly male fans something to enjoy while watching the show.
I finished #AngeVierge. It was certainly flawed, but it got much better as the series went on. Just wish there was less #fanservice. #anime pic.twitter.com/mxmU5vellu— Rai (@pinkraichu) September 26, 2016
This portrayal of women persists throughout most anime, even those in which the female characters are strong, independent and viable protagonists. In fact, a majority of anime pass the Bechdel test with flying colors, which in some ways pokes holes in the test itself, while also drawing attention to the fact that Western and Japanese sensibilities are not always compatible. Not that women in Japan are abundantly pleased with how female characters are drawn and written. There is, however, a difference between cultural acceptance and cultural approval.
This portrayal is indeed an evolution of the geisha figure, placed more into a modern concept and applied a bit more liberally across the gender. If anything, it hints at a culture still focused heavily on gender roles that have changed very little since Hearn first visited the island nation.
One would also think that, given the way Japan portrays itself through anime (highly sexualized), sex and relationships would be at least somewhat more fully realized in the culture as well. Yet Japan is currently experiencing a population decline that is in no small part due to the fact that increasing numbers of Japanese youth are failing to get married, let alone start romantic relationships with others.
Meanwhile, divorce rates in the country are continuing an upward trend recognized for the past 30 years, while the rate of new marriages continues to fall. In the early 1970s, Japan saw more than 1 million new marriages each year. In 2015, that number was below 700,000. And with the exception of Okinawa, Shiga, Aichi and Kanagawa, each of the countries more than 40 prefectures (equivalent to individual counties in the U.S.) have posted negative natural population growth.
The Things Left Unsaid
It is easy to think, at least from what anime might tell us, that Japanese society is one in which love and relationships are still the focus of most youth. Yet the reality seems to be increasingly untrue. What this boils down to is an unfortunate reality. Japanese anime is fantasy, yes, but even the more realistic “Slice of Life” genre, which tends to parallel real life situations, seems to be off the mark on that end. Every year, more Japanese youth become “NEETS”, or shut-ins. And each year, it seems, more are rejecting love and relationships. This is more than fantasy. It’s lies. And given the Japanese government’s strong desire to raise its dangerously declining birth rates, it’s likely a subtler form of propaganda.
Anime presents a world where young adults are heavily interested in relationships, or at least sexually interested in each other. Reality is a different matter. Japan’s chief export to the world, it’s cultural identity as exhibited through anime, is not the culture that is, but the culture it wants. At least, as far as love, romance and relationships are concerned. Japan is lying to itself. We should all be worried.
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