CIVIL WARISM AND HARMONISM

KEYS TO UNDERSTNDING THE JAPANESE

By Shun Daichi

30 March 1989
Revised 30 Oct. 1990
Revised 30 0ct. 2003


INTRODUCTION

Are the Japanese fundamentally different from any other people? 

While I was in Australia for five years, I sensed that most Australians thought that the Japanese are a difficult people to understand. 

I had the opportunity to speak at several Rotary Clubs in the suburbs of Sydney and each time I started my talk by saying that "we are the same flesh and bones as you are . . . . "
I had to say it and remind them; otherwise, I felt that they might think otherwise.

Of course, Australians do not think of the Japanese as being an "elite race of the world," but rather finds them "strange, hard-to-understand human being-like creatures."

I also sent letters to the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald and other local papers, and there again I felt compelled to emphasize the same thing, that we are all the same human beings.

It is ironic that both the Japanese and non-Japanese appear to agree on the same points, that the Japanese are a difficult people to understand and are somehow different from the other people in behavior.

My opinion is that the Japanese are the same human beings but we have different principles guiding our actions, and this is what has been making other people wonder about the Japanese people.

To understand the way in which Japanese think, you have to first understand two fundamental "-isms" in Japan. One is what I call "Civil Warism" (in Japanese "Sengoku-Shugi"), and the other "Harmonism" ("Chouwa-Shugi").

In this booklet I will explain about the "Harmonism" and "Civil Warism" of Japan.

For most Japanese, to keep harmony with the other members of the society has become second nature. However, "Harmonism" came about originally to control the "Civil Warism" which had been the foundation of our society.

Civil Warism is based on fundamental human nature that it rooted more deeply in our society than Harmonism.

"Harmony," or "wa" in Japanese, became our religion and law.

Japanese society is controlled fundamentally not by law and order nor by contracts or rules but by "wa" and "Harmony" and I call this "Harmonism."

Before Westerners arrived in Japan 110 years ago, we didn't have much of "laws" "rules" and "contracts". The Meiji government hurriedly installed laws similar to those in Western countries to make our country look like a Western country. It was superficial and it is still superficial today.

So, fundamentally we still believe in and behave in traditional ways.

Today, wherever the Japanese go, they bring with them Harmonism and try to convince and convert locals to the idea.

Honda Motor Company in U.S.A., and Nissan Motors in Britain, and all the other companies and people who travel to foreign lands are unconsciously exporting the idea of Harmonism.

At the same time, the Japanese practices “Civil Warism” outside Japan where no restriction of Harmonism, and tend to do things extreme, such as destroying ship building industries and motorcycle industries abroad.

When we talk about harmony in Japan, there is the traditional centralist’s view of harmony that tries to convince us that harmony has existed in Japan and that it was mostly positive.

My view is very different from theirs. I think we have never had harmony in our society and that Harmonism is both good and bad.

As we never had harmony that is the reason why we strive to have relative hannony in our society.

Harmonism and Civil Warism have never been fully analyzed by anybody yet. This booklet may be the first of which tries to analyze it in detail.

However, most Japanese know that our society operates on the principle of harmony (“wa”), and it has become like second nature, therefore most of us do not worry about it, and do not recognize Harmonism among ourselves.

It is our way of life and is part of our mind and soul.

I shall explain Harmonism first, for it is harder to understand.



PART ONE:


What is "Harmonism"? 

1. Harmonism and I

I came to recognize Harmonism through my bitter personal experiences with Japanese society; therefore I have to tell you the story of my struggle with it in Japan.

I started my career as a staff editor of a business magazine called "Jitsugyo-no-Nihon" (Business of Japan). Then I went to Los Angeles and worked for PACE Publications Inc., as a staff writer for "PACE" magazine for a year and a half.

Living in U.S. totally changed my life. I appreciated and loved the freedom of America very much. In Japan we do not have the kind of freedom America has. America is a unique country.

In the U.S., what is of importance is not seniority or position in a company but logical righteousness and your ability.

In Japan being young means to be inferior, but in the U.S. being young means hope and sometimes superiority.

I was amazed by the way people treated young people in the U.S. They really promoted young fellows who had ability and potential.

"What happened Shun?"

"I lost my glasses in the sea."

"Where about?"

"I don't know. . .but . . . I just walked back straight from the sea.”

"Good, . . .Hey! Everybody come here! Shun lost his glasses and we gonna find it in the sea. Come on fellas!"

"No need to do that, Malcom……"

I was astonished by Malcom's decision. I knew it was an impossible task and was sorry to waste my colleagues' energy.

I had been body surfing while wearing glasses and had been rolled over several times by a big wave so it was totally my own fault, and I had already given up looking for it. It was at the Santa Monica beach and we used to go there weekly with the young editorial staff and play beach ball.

"O.K. everyone stand arm in arm and make a line and walk into the sea. Let's go! "

"Let's go! Let's go!"

Robin, Sue, Judy, Jonathan, and all the others were enthusiastic. The eight of us were young writers and illustrators.

Gee, . . . are they really serious? They must be joking. Well. . .then I must also enjoy the game. . . . . .

We walked slowly and the water got up to our hips.

"I hit something!" Judy shouted.

"What is it?"

Judy bent and picked it up . . .

It was my glasses indeed.

The spirit of Malcom and the others shocked me. It appeared that they never gave up, and went for the impossible!

On the other hand I knew we Japanese tend to give up easily and are quick to compromise.

"Rod! , you shouldn't make such a noise! You splash too much! "

Rod and I were staying with a family in an apartment and there was a swimming pool in the center of the apartment complex. Rod was a big American photographer, and every morning and after work he jumped into the swimming pool and made big noises.

I was quite sure that we would be kicked out of the place sooner or later .

"Don't worry, Shun. There is a tradition in America that if you don't like your neighbors you yourself get out and move, not the noisemakers. There is plenty of land and places to go, you see?"

"I see……"

I was skeptical about what he had told me and expected to be kicked out of the place, though nothing happened. Nobody complained to us and we were able to stay there. I call this kind of freedom the "American Freedom" which we Japanese never knew due to the limited land space and restricted nature of our society.

There must be laws in the U. S. that protect tenants from the unruly behavior of other tenants. However, level of tolerance was very different from Japan.

I came back from the U.S. equipped with the American virtue of individualism, and the spirit of “Never Give Up”.  And I had become quite self-assured, outspoken and confident, just like a typical American.

Back in Tokyo, I wanted to go back to the same company I had worked before. All my former colleagues welcome me back, and the Editor-in-Chief took me to the owner of the publishing company.

"You are not Japanese any more. You are more American than Japanese and my company is a very traditional Japanese company and you might disturb our system so you had better look for a job with some foreign company. Do you understand Shun?"

“Well . . .I thought, I can be more useful to you than before . . . .because now I am equipped with English-speaking and writing abilities..."

"It's a good point, Shun, but look at your pink shirt. Do you think you can wear such a shirt and long hair working for a Japanese company?"

The owner of the company was very clear about not accepting me in his organization, so I decided to look for a job elsewhere, though I could not comprehend for a long time why he had to reject me, for he knew I was a good writer and a decent editor.

I got a job with the Tokyo branch office of Hill & Knowlton International. According to the manager I was the first Japanese male hired after interviewing more than 600 people. The pay was three times better than that at Japanese companies, and I was enthusiastic.

However, disillusion came quite quickly. I simply had doubts about the job called “Public Relations”. I felt our society is different from the US and we did not really need “Public Relations”. If you read through this booklet you might agree with me.

I also had to fight against Japanese consultants who had successfully cheated the American company. I lost the war against those consultants and I was forced to leave the company.

I was head up with English speaking Japanese gentlemen who get paid enormous amount of money from American manager and give wrong advices and rip them off. Some of those people were quite well known figures in Japanese society as a bilingual person.

It was a really funny feeling to have been asked to join with them in defrauding the Americans when only Japanese were in the meeting room.

What do you think I did in that meeting room?

Do you think I told them "NO" or said "YES" ?

Actually I didn't say anything and just smiled and smiled in a friendly manner, even though my answer was clearly "NO."

This is our way of behavior in the society of Harmonism that I will tell you in more detail in the following chapter.

I lost enthusiam and American manager took advice from Japanese advisors to get rid of me, so I was asked to leave. I had no place in the company and did not want to have a part in the cheating of Americans anyway so I was happy to leave.

I joined a Japanese firm in Kayabachou, a Wall Street of Japan, in Tokyo and was producing booklets, slide presentation kits, TV commercials and newspaper advertisements for 300 security houses and firms on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.  

I enjoyed staying this organization. It was comfortable. Pay was good. Work was easy. People were very nice. Though I needed more exciting job, I stay with the organization for more than 6 years.

One of the reasons for my joining a Japanese company at the time was that I felt it might be easier for me to be accepted as a Japanese in the society. By that time I realized that I was rejected not only by the owner of the publishing company but also by most of Japanese.

They said I was a bit strange, too pushy, never compromising, that I didn't pay enough respect to seniors and what I wore was too colorful and my hair was too long.

So. . . , I was regarded as a "strange Japanese. "

Have you ever heard of the Japanese phrase "Henna Gai-jin" meaning "Strange Foreigner"? This means a foreigner who speaks Japanese fluently and understands the Japanese ways very well.

I was treated as "Henna Nihon-jin," (meaning "Strange Japanese" ), a Japanese who speaks English well and who does not fully understand the Japanese ways or does not accept the Japanese ways.

Working for a Japanese firm for nearly seven years, it appeared that I was finally accepted by the majority of my fellow Japanese as another Japanese, albeit a little slightly strange one.

I was successful because I learned to wear a mask and hide my emotions and my opinions behind that mask.

By and large all the Japanese people wear masks to hide their feelings so as to keep harmony with others.

It was in Australia when I realized what kind of a wall I was hitting my head against. I lived in Australia with family for five years working for a Japanese company. I was an administration manager.

The idea came suddenly.

I had an 8-year-old son who had lived in Australia from the age of 3 to 8 and who behaved and spoke like a real Aussie. I was wondering, what was going to happen to him?

Does he have to go through all the difficulties I had gone through with Japanese society? After 20 years of hard work to assimilate myself into Japanese society, I was still considered by many Japanese to be an "unusual Japanese."

While I was thinking about my son, suddenly I realized that what I was fighting against was the Harmonism of Japan. And my son Maana would have to face the same monster.

Then, it became my obligation to analyze and understand the monster and tell Maana what are it like and its weaknesses and other factors of the monster. Then he may be able to tame the monster and become friendly with it. 

2 . “Hamonism” and Japan

Then, what is "Harmonism?"

The essences of Harmonism are as follows.

TO KEEP HARMONY WITH OTHER PEOPLE AND THE SOCIETY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY FOR EVERY JAPANESE PERSON.

MAINTAINING OF HARMONY AMONG THE PEOPLE AND THE SOCIETY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN RIGHT OR WRONG.

Does this sound too simple? However, this implies a lot of things.

I showed some writings on my theory of Harmonism to an Indian, an Indonesian and a Chinese and all of them said "Oh, we have a similar system of harmony in our society."

I realized every society need harmony to govern the people efficiently. So there is harmony in every kind of society. The importance of harmony is not only a Japanese phenomenon.

However, the difference is that we rely on Harmonism more than other countries do, and Harmonism is the only rule we have.

Indians and Indonesians have major religions to give some order to society, while the Chinese are very family oriented and individualistic. In the U.S. and European countries there is the idea of "contracts."

In Japan the Harmonism is the ultimate answer to everything, especially to "Civil Warism".

Everything else, something that is particular to Japan is subject to change, such as the seniority system and lifelong employment. However, Harmonism will stay.

You may have heard of the quote: "in Japan, the nail that sticks out is hammered down." This quote is still true today in Japan because of Harmonizm of Japan. American author Ruth Benedict wrote a famous book on Japan during the World War Two and told that Japanese keep one's "proper station" and strict hierarchy. This Japanese attitude has changed a lot, however, our ruling idea of Hramonism has never changed.

This is due to the dangerous "Civil Warism" which has deeper roots in human nature than Harmonism. We need Harmonism to control Civil Warism.

I will explain about the Civil Warism in Chapter 4.

I originally had a theory that Harmonism unconsciously became the consensus of the Japanese people about 400 years ago when the Tokugawa Shogun finally united the nation (AD 1600).

However, after traveling Japan for five weeks and learned a lot about the Jomon culture of more than 10,000 years old, I realized the roots of Harmonism might go back to the Jomon culture.

Anyway, my old theory went as follows.

Before Tokugawa Shogun era, there was truly bloody age of civil war that lasted intermittently for some three centuries. The most extreme Civil-Warism was at play during this period.

There was a conqueror, one of the "unifiers" of Japan at the end of the civil war, called Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) . He was the kind of character we never had before or after in the history of Japan.

He was a man of himself and acted like God and a dictator without peer. His cruelty and lack of compromise with his opponents made him the conqueror. Japan needed such a personality and incredible brutality to end the civil war.

I thought this experience was too much for the Japanese people, and everyone hated the civil wars and realized a need for some system to control conflicts among people.

Then came the age of Tokugawa and people enjoyed relative peace for over two and a half centuries.

I thought faith in harmony started and matured during this period. It must have started unconsciously by all the people because there was no one who specifically campaigned for it.

Japanese people get wiser through their civil war experience and realized that the most important matter for the nation and people is to have "peace."

And the best way to keep peace is through harmony among people, and practical methods to maintain harmony have been developed in our society.

This is my old idea and not too bad. I mean I think the theory is true, however, now I think Harmonism has deeper root in our society.

The Jomon Culture was originated about 14000 years ago. The Jomon produced very fine pottery at around 14000 years ago. The Jomons produced the oldest pottery in the world.

Scholars found that Jomon people were very prosperous. They cultivated forest, had agriculture. Plantation of chestnut forest was everywhere. Each township or big village had specialty in certain products.

We still do not know much about the Jomon culture, however, many scholars believe that the Jomons were peace-loving people.

3000 years ago, Yayoi people from Mainland China invaded and conquered the Jomon people. It should be brutal and there should be wars between the Jomons and the Yayoi, however we cannot find any trace of wars nor battles between them. The Jomon people appear to welcome the Yayoi people to their land. Idea of the Jomon people  must be Harmonism.

"Harmony (wa) is the most precious value" is the first sentence in the first Japanese constitution made by Shoutoku Taishi in 700 AD. This clause has been hammered into the heads of the Japanese people at every stage of our education.

However, our society today and in the past has never had a truly harmonious society and there never will exist one. We just had a relatively harmonious society for the last four centuries, except during the Meiji Restoration and the World War Two.

Harmonism always pursues harmony through the method I will explain in the next chapter, however, it is like a dream and is never possible to reach. Therefore if we can maintain relatively harmonious relations in society we consider it a success.

A difficult question may then be asked. If the Japanese are the harmony seekers then why did Japan wage war on China, the U.S. and the rest of the world?

This was because Civil Warism was revived through global imperialism. However I will explain more about this in Chapter 4.

We have democracy, freedom and capitalism in the Japanese society of Harmonism. However, all those ideas have been adjusted and changed to meet the needs of Harmonism. I can say that no Western-style democracy or freedom or capitalism exists in Japan.

Can I say that you and I basically know what Harmonism is? So, we can go on to the next step, which shall look at our society and analyze, "How do we achieve and maintain harmony among the people in our society."

PART TWO:

How do we achieve and maintain harmony? 

l. We place harmony as the number one priority.

"To keep harmony with others" is the only fundamental rule we have in our society. Anything else has less value. This is common sense to the Japanese and we are conditioned from childhood to believe it. Thus, no one questions its validity.

You better know the rule that maintaining of harmony among the people and the society is more important than right or wrong.

2.  Discourage Debate

"It is very interesting to know, Shun, that in the Japanese language there are only a few swear words and the meaning of the swear words are very simple compared to English".

"Is that right?"

"Yeh, you know. . . . "Baka" means a horse and a deer and "usunoro" means being slow, and "manuke" mean just a stupid fellow.

"Do you know more swear words, Shun?"

"Not much, I am afraid."

"It is really curious. Can you tell me why your language does not have many swear words?"

She was an American and studying Linguistics at the University of Tokyo as a postgraduate student. And at that time I couldn't give her any answer. However, I have an answer now.

It is true that in the Japanese language there are only a few swear words. We don't need them because in the society of Harmonism we discourage people to use any swear words. We discourage argument and even debate.

In the history of Japan we were importer of ideas from other countries most of the time. The Japanese have been imitators for most of its history. We had imported Chinese characters to write our speaking language.

Art, music, constitution, Buddhism, Confucian ideas and other things were all imported from China and Korea. Recently we have copied imperialism, technology, capitalism, democracy and rock music from the Western countries.

However some ideas and skills were never imported nor copied.

And one of those is the "debating contest." Debating contests have been very popular in Western countries for quite a long time. The debating contest of the Western world comes from ancient Greece and the Socratic method. We knew such a thing existed, though it was never really welcomed in Japan. Why?

The answer is simple. We discourage debate and encourage silence to maintain harmony in the society.

If you debate, it might become a seed for conflict but if people keep silent then we do not know the seed therefore there is more chance of keeping harmony with others.

We have proverbs like "Silence is Golden" or "Silence has a Golden Value. "So, in our society people tend to try to be quiet as much as possible even though there may be some need for someone to speak up.

A person who likes to argue is often expelled from the group and disliked as a "Giron Zuki" (Debate Lover). We also dislike "Rikutsu Zuki" (Logic Lover) who sticks to their logical correctness. Logical correctness has not much value in Japan compared to maintaining harmony.

The Japanese often tell the kids. "don't talk with logic! It's no good. You just listen to your seniors. O.K.!"

I raised my son Maana completely opposite way. We debate  logically and if he wins I accept his way. Maana I have been friends from when he was three years old.

3. Never Say "No"

Some people say the Japanese never say "Yes" or "No" clearly. Actually what happens is that we always try not to say "No" to anyone. It is very hard for the Japanese to say “No”, because of Harmonism.

"Please have some…… "
“…………….”
"Aren't you hungry?"
“……………”

The principal of an English-teaching school had invited several high school students to his home for tea. Sandwiches and cookies were placed in front of the young students.

"Why don't you have some?"
“……………”

Then the principal took the tray away from the students. And later complained to me, "we prepared very special sandwiches which took all morning to do, but no one wanted them!"

He was almost angry. He didn't know about Harmonism and was very disappointed.

The students kept a straight face and no one complained when the nice looking food was taken away. However, all of the students actually wanted to try the food very much.

What happened there was that the Japanese students wanted to be polite and also wanted to make sure that they would not upset the principal.

They were especially cautious in not grabbing the food because it was the first time for them to be invited to an American family, and they were not sure of what to do.

The principal was also a little too impatient. If had he asked once more or waited a little more, then all the food would have been taken and disappeared quickly because those students were, as a matter of fact quite hungry.

We Japanese are usually very cautious in saying "yes" or "No". Especially when saying "No" to anyone we are over cautious. If we have a valid reason to say "No" then we may say so; however, if we do not have a valid reason, then we put a lot of effort to saying "No " without hurting the other person's feelings in order to maintain peace and harmony with others.

There was a home party held to welcome a Japanese mayor of Sanda City at the city of Blue Mountains in Australia and I was invited to attend the party.

At the party the mayor was asked by several local Australian government officials to sing a song of Sanda City.

"Please sing Mr. Mayor …… Please!"
"Don't force me…… I am not a good singer”.
“Never mind, we know you can sing"
“……I can't…”
"Let ' s start the music" 

" . . . . by the way. . . . Is there a song of the Blue Mountains?"

He was trying unsuccessfully to change the subject of the talk.

Everyone was drinking. And soon some other people shouted. "Mr. Mayor. . . . sing a song please. . . "

The mayor kept smiling and smiling and left quietly for the men's room. Then he went to another room.

He never said "no" to the Australian host but just kept smiling and smiling and finally disappeared. You might think this attitude is crafty but the Japanese hate to say "no" to anyone, because "no" means disagreement and disagreement means disharmony.

So now you understand my attitude when I was asked by the consultants to work together to defraud the American company.

"Differences in opinions tend to end friendships in Japan." This is what Mr. Akio Morita, Chairman of Sony Corp. once said. And this is quite true in the society of the Harmonism.

Why differences in opinions tend to end friendships in Japan? It is because we hardly say "no" to anyone clearly and if once it is said clearly it means a lot more than just saying "no." It implies that you are angry or dislike the other person, and so on.

We usually never say "no" to anyone, so once it is said, then people take it very seriously and are often offended. That is why we are very reluctant to say "no" clearly.

There may be another reason for ending the friendship.

As I said before, in our society Civil Warism is stronger and human relations under this Civil Warism have only three aspects. You are either an ally, an enemy or neutral. A friend is an ally but once they do not agree, then they become enemies.

Mr. Morita is a Japanese therefore he cannot bluntly say "No" to anyone without risking the friendship. However, we are tolerant towards foreigners saying "No" clearly and directly because we know that foreigners have different principles and culture. At the same time, some Japanese might say "No" clearly to you if they knew you had a different value system.

4. Never reveal the truth (Honne & Tatemae)

So now you know that all the Japanese wear a kind of mask, right? This custom of wearing a mask leads us to the point where we do not reveal any truths easily. Therefore you have to read the undergoing current well, otherwise you might be left alone on an island.

We have very handy tools to keep harmony in society, which is called "honne and tatemae."

"Honne" means "Genuine Truth" or "One's Real Intention," and "Tatemae" means "Official Stance" or "The Facade."

So when the Japanese tell you anything it could be either "honne" or "tatemae " so you have to guess right. However, you had better expect that most of Japanese will tell you "tatemae" because "honne" is for family members or trusted friends only.

I have a bad habit of telling my own "honne" to anybody most of the time and close Japanese friends of mine always warn that I had better be careful. Speaking ones "honne" in our society all the time is not an easy thing to do because it might violate the golden rule of not disturbing harmony.

And when I tell Japanese my crude "honne" then they will take it as a joke very often to soften the shock they received from me.

I should give you some simple examples.

l . When we give a gift to a person we always say, "This is a tiny and cheap thing so please accept it. . . . . "

In reality 99% of the time the gift is the best one can afford and is not cheap at all.

2. When we play a guitar in front of people we say, "I am just a beginner . . . ", even though the person plays pretty good.

One reason behind this is that we avoid conflict of opinion, so that if you under-evaluate yourself then there is a greater chance that people will agree. That is the reason why we take a low posture.

However, you had better realize this attitude of telling an underestimated view of him or his gift is very different from being just polite. We tell people "tatemae" not because we are polite but to avoid possible conflicts. So at the bottom of their hearts those people could be very arrogant.

I can give you other example.

When I was working for a Japanese company I tried to bring a Macintosh computer to my office. It took me one-and-a-half years to convince them that it was useful. During the negotiations with the directors of the company I had to tell them my "honne."

My "honne " at that time was that I was very unhappy with the people who behaved like barbarians and watched the computer like 'primitive people looking at the modern day airplane.'

I told them what I thought with half a smile, then all the directors thought I was joking and laughed, but actually I was telling them my "honne."

Unfortunately, in the society of Harmonism we cannot express our "honne" easily, so that we usually try to make them understand after working hours, at drinking places.

Another example.

When President Bush asked Prime Minister Kaifu to send a Japanese defense force to the Gulf area, Kaifu did not say "yes" or "no" clearly (16 Oct. 1990: Asahi Shinbun). His "honne" was clearly "no" but Kaifu couldn't say it.

5. Denial of Individualism & Freedom

There is no freedom without individualism.

In the society of Harmonism we discourage individualism and promote the group. It is most obvious when we look at decision-making in big companies.

In those companies nobody decides alone, but does it collectively. Therefore no one gets blamed for a mistake a group or a section makes, and you are also not rewarded when you alone contribute a lot to the organization.

If individuals push their own wishes, it tends to cause conflict among people. Therefore we discourage individualism.

Denial of individualism has long roots in the history of Japan.

In the old days, under the Tokugawa rule, a whole village was punished if one individual disagreed with the authorities. In this kind of situation no one can be individualistic. If you do anything wrong or extraordinary then not only you but also all the other villagers were punished.

This tradition still remains very strong to this day.

When I left a Japanese company and went to America, my brothers and sisters complained that I was doing an extraordinary thing and therefore they would have a hard time finding a good husband or wife or job.

In Japan if one of your family violates a law then all the relatives are blamed for it. Sometimes if a son murders someone, then his father and mother kill themselves to apologize for their son's mistake.

We usually criticize the family of offender anyway. There are, of course, no Japanese laws that punish the family for the crimes committed by a family member.  It is merely tradition that the family must atone for the crime committed by a family member.

Denial of individualism also leads to a denial of the merit system. In the Japanese group system a boss doesn't have to be an expert in the field he works, because we work as a group so other people who know the job well may handle and help the boss.

The boss is not necessarily bright either, because of the group system.

Then, why does the group system of Japan appear to work better than the merit system of America or Europe?

Firstly, a merit of the group system is that everyone can participate and won't be kicked out of the place because of their ability. Most of the people in the world are mediocre anyway so the group system benefits mediocre people like the Japanese, and I think 95% of the people on the earth.

I know Americans do not believe that 95% of the people are mediocre. When I live in the US, I was so surprised to find out that 95% of Americans believes themselves they are genius.

 My American friend told me that Americans believe each individual can accomplish great things if he or she finds the right path. This is true, however, I think Micaville of Italy was right when he said 95% of people do not take initiative if there life are secured.

He said 95% of people are satisfied not achieving something great. I think those people become mediocre.

Secondly, in the group system, there are places for high caliber people and the value of those people are recognized in a long run.

6. Make rules elastic.

In Japan rules are considered elastic.

If you drive on Japanese roads you may notice speed limit signs. All those speed limit signs show ridiculously low speeds. This means that the police are expecting people to break the law, and 99% of the time people do not follow the speed limit.

I was driving a car one early morning at a speed of 80k/h on a road in Tokyo when a police car stopped me.

"You were driving 80k/h."
"Yes, I know."
"The speed limit is 40k/h."
"Really?" I looked back on the wide freeway-like road.
"Impossible, I can't believe it."
"Anyway you should be careful with the road signs! O.K?"
"Yes, sir."

Then the police car went off and did not ticket me.

In the book "You got have wa " Robert Whiting tells the story of a different (bigger) strike zone for American ball players. That is a typical example of elastic rules. Japanese consider the harmony of the society to be of paramount importance, and that rules may be bent or compromised.

A candidate for the Diet in Japan took a wrong "Shinkansen" train during an election campaign. After the train had left he realized that it would not stop at his destination, going directly to Nagoya non-stop for two hours.

He rushed to the train drivers cabin and asked the driver to stop at XYZ station on the way, because there was 5OOO people waiting for him and he had to deliver a speech for his backers.

The train driver called up a boss at the Tokyo operation center for directions, who said "O.K.," so it stopped at the station.

Later the major newspapers uncovered this story. The papers accused the candidate for misusing public transportation.

This was an embarrassment to his political party and he was expelled from the party. Later he won the election and became a Diet member. That the people saw the candidate as not having done anything wrong in spite of the fact that he had been expelled from the party.

Japanese consider rules to be not absolute or final and for the name of Harmonism, in other words, for avoiding a possible conflict, one can bend the rules. So under Harmonism rules are treated as being elastic.

I was an administration manager of a Japanese company in Australia for five years, and dealt with huge contract documents all the time.

Japanese are puzzled to see huge contract documents prepared by the US or British companies. I felt very odd about it in the beginning too. The Japanese and most of none western people are unfamiliar to the concept of contract. Basically contract is a rule, therefore it is elastic in Japan.

While I was in Australia I began to understand why contracts are so important to the Westerners.

When you make a contract, the contracts suppose to be fair to both sides. So if you break a contract, you may be accused as an "unfair" person. I realized the idea of " fair" and "unfair" come from the idea of a contract.

Western concept of "fair" and "unfair" are unfamiliar concepts to the Japanese. In Japan, a contract (rules and the laws as well) is elastic therefore nobody is fair or unfair.

Another concept strange to us is "law and order". We believe in "harmony and order”, for in Japan “harmony” is the “law”.

7. Believe in Long Term Relations

We believe in harmonious long-term relations. Therefore if you have business dealings with any Japanese companies it most likely implies long-term relations.

If we employ a person we expect them to stay as long as they can.

With Japanese companies one does not have to worry too much about getting sacked because the Japanese company tries hard to educate workers. In other words, the Japanese company in Japan initially does not expect too much from you. They look at you in long term.

We seek long-term relations because it means less conflict and more harmony. If you know you get orders from the same company continuously, then you will be more co-operative to that company, won't you? This is a good way to maintain relative harmony in society. However, Japanese companies may not take the same attitude outside of Japan.

Therefore it is hard for newcomer to get into a Japanese business circle. It is not impossible for outsider to establish a business relationship with a Japanese individual or with companies, however, it will take a long time.

8. Suppress women and the weak.

The weak and women tend to be suppressed in the society of Harmonism. There is some logic to it.

When the Tokugawa regime started, the main aim was to keep the country in peace. And it appears as if we realized that there is an order of importance in the society. Japanese people placed priority on harmony about 400 years ago to achieve the most important factor in anybody's life, which is "PEACE."

I believe we learned from the bloody civil war that war is the worst thing we can have in a society. "Peace" is the next stage, followed by economic success and finally individual freedom. So, there are four stages in the status of any nation, as follows.

l. engaged in WAR
2. having PEACE
3. prosperous ECONOMY
4. grant individuals FREEDOM

Japan has reached the third stage. However, the fourth stage is still far away. The United States may be placed between stages three and four. Countries like Israel, Cambodia and Lebanon are at stage one . I may say most of the other countries are located at stage two, and between one and two.

When you are in stage one and two, the weak and women are more likely to be discriminated against. When any country gets economically rich, then the status of the weak and women improve.



PART THREE : 

Outcome of Harmonism 

In General

Our society has been pursuing relative harmony through Harmonism for the past 400 years if not 10000 years and there are both positive and negative effects to the outcome of the Harmonism in Japan.

The positive effects are easy to note and many of them are already very well known even outside Japan.

Good sides:

l. We have only a few swear words in our language. So, we do not fight much at least on surface.

2. Cities are relatively safe, even at night. This is changing rapidly recently due to increase of none Japanese workers in Japan.

3. Industrial relations are good. We have almost no major strikes. Company management and Labor Unions work harmoniously together to achieve maximum business success in Japan.

4. Elderly people live with younger families in harmony (in Tokyo 46 percent of those over the age of 60 Live with their children's family.)

5. We have fewer disputes on surface compared to the Western countries and have fewer lawyers. We have dispute of course, however, we prefer to solve the matter by private negotiation and without involvement of lawyers. Bad side is sometimes Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) may employed to solve the problems.

6. Workers work very hard and we are very successful in business. This is because we have work as a family in the company and  harmoniously.

7. Japan is relatively united and heading to one direction. In the society of Harmonism, we feel we are all belongs to a middleclass and share similar view on everything. That is why sometimes we feel hard to have two political parties.

Now we look at the bad side of Harmonism. I think this side needs more explanation.

l . Accumulation of Frustrations

In our society one cannot live apart from others. And we all have to compromise with each other on every subject all the time.

There is no freedom to be different from others. No freedom to express your own true feelings (Honne) in public so that frustrations accumulate. We also take into consideration the color of clothing to be the same as the others so as not to upset them.

It is like living in a "ari jigoku" (the nest of an ant lion).

Everyone tries to pull everybody else's legs and we do not want others to escape from the "ari jigoku." However, once you get used to living in this place, then you will find life is easy and enjoyable. We call this phenomenon "sumeba miyako , " which means "if you live anyplace long enough, it becomes home."

It is impossible to be individualistic in this country and most Japanese don't know who they are, and only frustration accumulates. For most Japanese, life is to compromise and to giving up constantly. This has not changed for the past 2,500 years and even today, after an economic miracle, 95 percent of the Japanese people have to give up on having a higher standard of living, and live at a lower level compared to other developed countries.

Even corporate leaders lead humble life compared to the US company CEOs. Salary and bonus of Japanese company leaders are minimal compare to the Western top managers.

The reason for this Japanese attitude in life, only can be explained by the power of Harmonism.

To maintain harmony in our society, there is a lot of energy, and lots of compromise and negotiations are needed. Accrual of these frustrations can be very high and we need a place to get rid of those frustrations. And we have such places as drinking bars and restraints in Ginza, Akasaka and other places.

I think we might have more than 10 to 50 times the number of drinking places in every corner of our towns and cities compared to the United States and other western countries.

Related to this accrual of frustration, there is one other peculiar behavior one can observe with the Japanese people. We try to imprison our frustrations to the utmost limit and once it goes over our limit then we tend to react in a Kamikaze-like fashion.

We usually treat this kind of behavior as being normal, because we know once those frustrations are let out, the person will be back to normal very soon.

This kind of situation happens daily with Japanese, especially when we drink together. A person with too much frustration burst in to anger. People around the person know he is just get let out his frustration. We try to help him but never really surprised by such behavior.

Good example of Kamikaze-like behavior is an attack of Pearl Harbor at the start of the World War Two. President Roosevelt was a clever man. He must knew Japanese national traits. He embargoed oil export to Japan and limited our shipbuilding to minimum. Those act of the US frustrated Japanese, and finally Japan took a Kamikaze-type attack on Pearl Harbor.

2. Everyone Becomes Mediocre

One result of Harmonism is that everyone becomes afraid to be different from others. We also worry a lot about how we look in the eyes of others, because it is "wrong" if you looked different in the society of Harmonism.

 This may be part of the reason all the Japanese look alike. This also does make the Japanese a mediocre people. Our education system is well known for producing not geniuses but a mass of mediocre people who become a good work force but not a good initiator or creator.

This worked well for Japan, for we have an army of worker ants, mighty in their discipline, efficiency and strength.

Because of the relentless emphasis on education, during the summer vacation, many 12-year-old boys and girls have to study seven hours in a "Jyuku" private institutions to supplement the schoolwork.

It appears that we don't want geniuses because those people cannot be understood by ordinary people and might disturb harmony in our society.

Of course we have many bright people in every walk of life but those people always take low postures and never dare to break the harmony in society.

There are very few who break the harmony and still survive in Japan. One of them may be movie producer Akira Kurosawa. He acted like a dictator, and his nickname was "Emperor Kurosawa".

He produced great movies but was not accepted by the movie industry, the critics and press. He is not the kind of person to compromise with others, which astonished most Japanese.

He once tried to kill himself and Japanese companies did not support him financially.

Many talented Japanese have to go abroad to let their talent blossom, because of the "anti-maverick society" of Harmonism.

Fashion designer Issei Miyake was noticed not in Japan but in France. Many of the best brains among the Japanese scholars live in America, and many of them have received international recognition for their work.

If those people had stayed inside Japan then most likely their talent would have been wasted by Harmonism.

We adopted Samurai norm as our social norm after the Meiji Restoration. At the time of Meiji Restoration, more than 80% of Japanese were farmers, however, Samurai norm was considered as the best and adopted by everyone. Samurai had both Civil-Warism and Harmonism in their belief.

Samurai bereaves in royalty, honesty and devotion to the boss. They have sincere and serious attitude. They do not care for money but keep pride very high. This attitude is still highly valued in our society.

A kid like my son Maana also suffers a lot because in the society of Harmonism, where being different means being "wrong."

Everyone has to be the same in Harmonism, at least in "tatemae ." The difference between Maana and the other Japanese kids is the way they were brought up.

In Japan children are very spoiled and are not expected to develop their own individuality. Therefore most of them are very childish even at the age of 20.

However, it is very dangerous to generalize because it is human nature for people to seek their own identity and establish their own self and there are few who are very mature at a very young age in Japan.

Many Japanese children sleep with their parents in the same room until the age of 10 to 12, and take a bath together until they are nine to 13 years old.

Elementary school teachers encourage parents to take baths together with their children to maintain emotional ties until the age of 12.

It is safe to say, however, that Japanese kids are not expected to get mature until the age of 16 or 18.

However, my son Maana was raised in Australia and was sleeping in his own room at the age of three and was used to baby sitters and being alone. In Japan we have no such thing as baby sitters .

"It is disgusting to see this boy name Jimmy Connors. He is just 18 but plays tennis with the maturity and cunning of an adult."

This was a true comment made by a leading Japanese tennis commentator. This is still the typical Japanese attitude toward young people. It seems as if the society does not want young people to mature at the age of 18.

Why?

It is my own personal view that we wish the young to be childish because it enables the ruler of the country to rule society easier. If the young get mature quickly, then they have youth and energy with which they might change the society to their own liking.

Another question may be raised?

"Well, we thought Japanese kids are well disciplined and behave well compared to American kids."

Well, I agree that the Japanese kids might behave better in schools and in public because they are afraid of others' opinion of them. As I said, in the society of Harmonism everyone should do the same and behave the same otherwise a kid will be very badly treated by the group.

There is tremendous pressure from teachers, families and fellow kids to behave the same in our society. However at home they behave like kings and queens.

Japanese kids may be very wild at home, especially if there have grandparents living with them. We used to have a tradition of living together with grandparents in a big family. That tradition remains to a lesser degree but the tradition of spoiling children at home remains.

3 . Need of Outside Pressure

More and more, Japanese society requires outside pressure to shift the course of the country.

In the society of Harmonism, achieving a consensus among the people is the ideal. However, reaching a consensus is an almost impossible task in any human society. It is therefore only achieved by "tatemae" and not really by "honne" in Japanese society.

Even so, with "tatemae" it is very hard to get a consensus among people; it sometimes takes endless amounts of persuasion. This may be one of the causes for slow decision-making by Japanese institutions .

In the case of the beef and orange negotiations with America, it took a long time to persuade Japanese farmers to agree to the terms. It actually needed strong outside pressure to convince the farmers to submit to the government decision.

On the other hand, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) was not popular in introducing the consumption tax because there was no outside pressure and people felt that the LDP had no reason to rush the tax through.

It is easier and quicker to have outside pressure bring about a consensus in our country. It has now become a political technique to deliberately wait for outside pressures to rise, to gain consensus in the society.

In negotiations the Japanese are known to be persistent but will bend under strong pressure. For the Japanese, winning a negotiation is often only of secondary importance. In our society we sacrifice almost anything to keep harmony with others and this attitude seems to be reflected in international negotiations as well.

4. Ethnocentricity

The Japanese may be one of the most ethnocentric peoples in the world today. We do not have institutionalized racism like South Africa used to have, which is a crime today, however, we do not have a good record either.

Not only the nationalistic politicians but MITI also has revealed an ethnocentric tendency when they announced their plan for a program called Columbus. In this program MITI planned to establish Japanese colony-type villages in Spain, Portugal and Australia and send elderly Japanese to live there, and of course big Japanese businesses are sure to follow.

Such an insensitive attitude toward another country and another people is not surprising when one realizes that almost every race and nation believes that they are the best race or the best nation in the world.

Japan is not an exception.

It appears that Harmonism also contributes to this factor. We always work hard to be the same with others and we reject anything different from us. This attitude seems to lead us to a kind of racism.

The Japanese are interested in the outside world; however, living in a tight and rigid society on a small island in harmony does not help us understand in depth about other countries and people.

Living up to the expectations of our society is already quite hard and demanding on us.

I had a dinner with an American family in China. The family had three children and one of them is an adopted child from India. She said she had horrible experience in Florida when she visited as one of the music group members of her university.

The eyes of many white people in the South of America were scary, she said. She was not so happy living in the US. Her university is in Boston. In her university, black boys immediately consider her as a possible candidate for dating, while white boys immediately put off the idea of dating with her.

“You should live in Japan. You might have better time” I said.

“Not much discrimination?”

“Well, we have discrimination but we discriminate everyone not just blacks but white people too. We discriminate even own Japanese people. “

We all laughed. But this is true. We discriminate fellow Asians, Japanese called BURAKUMIN, Ainu people and everyone who does not understand Harmonism.

In Japan there is a feeling developing that the world inside Japan is the whole world and anything happening outside is not important to the Japanese people.

We have the attitude these days that if we have harmony in our country then that is everything. I will tell you in the last chapter that an ethnocentric tendency is one of the greatest hurdles we have to overcome.

5. Capitalism Japanese-style

Capitalism in Japan has been modified by Harmonism. Capitalism under Harmonism had to seek harmony among competitors. We have only limited competition among companies.

"In Japan there is no ‘fight to the death’ but there is one in the United States" a Japanese who headed an American company in Tokyo once told me.

It is true that we don't have a no-holds-barred-fight-to-the-end. If there had been such a thing then more companies would have gone out of business a long time ago.

When shipbuilding industries went into a deep slump, the government did a lot of things to help the weak companies. In 1987 the Fair Trade Commission approved the shipbuilder’s cartel.

There are few heavy industries in Japan, such as Mitsubishi, Hitachi , Ishikawajima-Harima and Toshiba. When Tokyo Electric Company was granting an electric power plant construction job, they would give each company a contract in turn.

And when Ishikawajima was in a slump because of the poor shipbuilding business then the government-controlled electricity companies granted more jobs to Ishikawajima-Harima.

Big national projects such as the construction of Narita and Kansai airports are always given equally to the leading companies without competition. In the name of harmony we have always restricted free competition.

This practice in a way works very efficiently, but at the same time encourages companies to bribe Government officials and politicians, perhaps not so openly but in a crafty way.

It is a widely known fact that if you bribe a key person in Japanese business, you are almost certain to get that particular Job from the company. However, you have to develop personal human relationships with the key personnel before doing anything.

In this sense the practice of Marcos in the Philippines was not surprising at all to many Japanese; however, only the scale of the bribes may be the difference with the Marcos regime.

So, in Japan we do not really have free competition. If the industries are doing well, then there may be freer competition, such as in the audio-visual industries.

In Japan companies help each other. Companies protect themselves by holding company stocks in each other. This brings steadiness to business and works good for Harmonism. At the same time available stocks for individual investors becomes limited so that the price of Japanese stocks becomes ridiculously high.

The Fair Trade Commission in Japan gives consideration first to Harmonism and to fair trade second. The Fair Trade Commission rarely takes the initiative. The job of the commission is to destroy a peaceful mutual consent among the companies, so the

nature of the job is go against Harmonism.

It was known for a long time that the price of beef was a bit too high in Japan, but the Fair Trade Commission just recently told us that there had been a cartel of importers.

It only became news after we reached an agreement with the United States on the opening up of the Japanese market. The commission must have known such a thing existed but didn't bother to reveal it.

Protection of the key companies by the government has been the key to success in business in Japan. Today we enjoy such a success in business, however, we could have never done it without government protectionism.

Our government protected our industries and limited foreign investment in key business such as car manufacturing, department stores and so on. And today we try to protect the space industries from the United States, otherwise the companies will be wiped out by the mighty American space industries.

"Japanese business investment in Thailand is economic imperialism and invasion. Isn't it, Shun?"

"Of course, it is! I have no doubt about that. So you should protect your own country by yourself"

"You are the first Japanese to admit that," said a medical doctor who was one of the leaders of the anti-Japanese movement at the time, and he and other leaders were successful in overthrowing the military government in 1979.

"Japan protected herself very well from American industries and developed its own. The difference with Thailand is that your military government is inviting Japanese investment to get themselves rich"

"You are right Shun, though is there any way that Japan can restrict its own investment voluntarily? "

"Sorry to say, but, it might be hard to do, because we are living in a Western-style capitalistic world so you have to help yourself and safeguard your own interests".

"Yeah, I know. . . . . . . I think we should develop a new theory of economics and capitalism for Asia to develop our society".

"We should do that!"

The Japanese system of capitalism under Harmonism has been successful in creating a low unemployment rate, and less bankruptcy and social peacefulness. However, Harmonism is only for the domestic economy, and outside Japan "Civil-Warism” has been at work which has confused the world economy.

6. Democracy Japanese-Style

What is democracy? To me, the democracy is what Abraham Lincoln once said: "Of the people, by the people, for the people," in which then we don't have democracy in Japan.

If we describe the democracy of Japan as Abraham Lincoln did then we would say: "of the country, by the country, for the country, or, of the companies, by the companies, for the companies."

In the society of Harmonism, who really attains prosperity, freedom and enjoyment? The answer is, "no one!" In Japan the country and the companies get richer, the country and the companies get freedom, and the country and the company enjoys, but not the individual person.

Well, there are some Japanese who became tremendously rich and enjoying freedom and prosperity, but basically those people are the exception.

We have the super rich in Japan but those people take law posture and want to be anonymous.

We have a democratic system of the respective independence of the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, however, those are for the country and the companies but not for people.

Why we cannot have a democracy in the society of Haronism?

It is because people's rights are of only secondary importance to the Japanese. Keeping harmony nationwide is the most important factor in the life of the Japanese people. Therefore democracy is accepted as far as we can keep relative harmony in the nation.

It must be related to the fact that in Japan we deny individualism. Without individualism there is no democracy either, is there?

Why do we accept "harmonized democracy?" Why has real democracy not been realized by the Japanese people?

The answer may be:

One: we believe that social harmony and peace is more important than individual happiness. Without harmony there will be no happiness anyway.

Two: The other reason is that Japan is basically a poor country, and individual freedom and people's democracy are considered to be extravagant. 

PART FOUR: 

Civil Warism: a fundamental idea.

An Australian asked me, "The Japanese talk about harmony and the people are generally gentle, but in your history you have destroyed the harmony of the world and are not necessarily that gentle to other people. Why was that?"

My answer was, "because fundamentally the Japanese know only "Civil Warism," and when there is no Harmonism around, then Civil Warism dominates the Japanese mind. The basic rule of Civil Warism is, "if you win you are right, I you lose you are wrong."

I may have to explain more.

It is interesting to compare two books ; one is "King Rat" by James Clavell and the other is "Black Bread Diary" by a Japanese author Keishi Kurumizawa.

 Both books are based on authors' true experiences as a prisoner in the concentration camps during WWII.

There were clear differences between a camp of Japanese prisoners and a camp of British and Australian prisoners, especially when there was a power vacuum.

As prisoners, the British and Australians organized themselves and tried to run the camp by themselves. What happened often in the Japanese camps was civil war and whoever had power dominated others under a harsh dictatorship.

Those who finally controlled the Japanese prisoner camps in a power vacuum were often Yakuza-type people (Japanese Mafia).

This implies what will happen to our society without Harmonism.

Civil Warism is a more fundamental idea for men and women. Extreme Civil Warism must have a history of 3000 years in Japan. We used to know nothing else much.

Harmonism may be rooted in Jomon period of 10000 years ago and reinvented at around 2000 years ago to control our society.

It appears to me that in Europe, instead of Harmonism, ideas of "contract" and "law and order" were developed.

Civil Warism is still a fundamental value today and the under- current of our society. One example is the practice of some Japanese companies to tender for an expensive computer system design for just "one yen."

The Japanese companies compete with each other extremely hard inside and outside Japan. Therefore without cartels and Harmonism only one company may be left today.

This is because we are a very emotional, competitive people just like all other human beings and we inherited Civil Warism.

Civil Warism found haven outside Japan in the free trade system because there was no Harmonism to restrict its movement.

There is a difference between free competition and Civil Warism. In the free trade system there are a set of rules and one is expected to compete "fairly." However, Civil Warism regards rules as a tool to win, in other word to "dominate," just like what happened in those concentration camps.

That "Japan Bashing" occurred in South-East Asia about 30 years ago and sometime ago in the U.S. was not surprising to many Japanese because we practice "Bashing" inside Japan quite often.

When Fujitsu made its "One yen tender offer" the company was bashed by our society. The same thing happened with the Recruit scandal.

And the bashing of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was another case. In our society when Civil Warism becomes too strong and goes beyond the limit of Harmonism then Harmonism knocks them back into their proper place.

Outside Japan, however, this mechanism does not work, therefore "Japan Bashing" by other countries unfortunately become inevitable.

Harmonism is very important for Japan because we have no other way to control our Civil Warism.

Civil Warism may be common to all human beings. Western society controls it by Law and Order. Islam countries control it by religious teachings.


PART FIVE: 

A Look at the Past, Current Affairs and the Future 

l. In the past how Harmonism and Civil Warism worked.

Let's look at the past in Japan and see what really happened with Harmonism. We had 300 years of relative peace until the Black Ship arrived in Japan from the U.S. in 1853.

a.     Opening of the door to the West (Meiji Restoration).

When we have strong outside pressure Japan can shift the course of the country. Without outside pressure we are very slow in changing, as I explained in the outcome of Harmonism.

b.     Limit of Harmonism (World War Two)

Civil Warism found expression in imperialism before World War II, especially outside Japan. The harsh colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria by Japan are good examples of Civil Warism.

Just like today, Harmonism at that time could not control events outside Japan and Civil Warism found haven there.

A danger of Harmonism is that once the mind of majority is manipulated and goes in one direction then the ordinary Japanese has no alternative but to follow the majority without question.

2 Today's Harmonism

a: Japan-U.S. Trade Relations

It has been quite funny to watch the process of the Structural Impediments Initiative Negotiations between Japan and the U.S., because the two sides had different things in mind.

Americans shouted to the Japanese angrily, "Unfair!" and Japanese were puzzled, not because the Japanese were doing "unfair" things but because they wondered, why being "fair" or "unfair" was so important.

In the U.S. and Europe, the contract system plays an important role in their societies.

I realized that while I was living in Australia for 5 years and in the U.S. for 1･5 years that the contract system is based on "fairness." People sign contracts because they believe that the contract represents a "fair" deal.

Therefore to be "fair" in Western society is very important and if you conduct an "unfair" deal then you are regarded as a cheat.

Not so in Japan.

In Japan the contract system plays a very tiny role. We rarely talk in terms of "fair" and "unfair." Instead, we put an ultimate value on Harmonism and everyone is striving to maintain harmony with others.

When U.S. Government administrators told Japanese Government administrators, "You are practicing unfair business" they must have expected the Japanese to jump up and deny "unfairness" and try and prove the "fairness" of their business practice.

However, that didn't happen and the Americans must have grown suspicious.

On the other hand, the Japanese were thinking, "well, the Americans are angry again and talking very odd concepts such as "fair" and "unfair" however, we won't argue and will keep harmony with them" and just continually made compromises.

b . Takeshita's new approach: good and bad

When Takeshita was Prime Minister, he showed remarkable leadership. His way of leadership is the only way to lead Japan under Harmonism.

Takeshita dominated the ruling LDP, and at the same time all the other parties could not argue with him, because he was so nice and humble and listened to the opposition Japan Socialist Party and Komeito Party. Chairperson of the JSP, Takako Doi at the time said, "it is hard to oppose Takeshita, he is such a nice character."

Takeshita showed leadership and imposed an unpopular consumption tax. It was remarkable. At the same time, it was very strange to see that there was no opposition party at that time. Japan became one under him, however, for a short period.

Was it a good thing or a bad omen? It was scary to see Japan united under one person, at the same time that is the only way for Japan to have any strong leadership under Harmonism, besides a dictatorship.

3. What will happen in the future

a.     Is a nightmare waiting?

When we adopted the imperialism of the West and became a master of the art, the West found fault with us because Japanese style Civil Warism was too extreme for their liking.

And the typical Japanese excuse at that time was, "we are just copying the West's idea of colonialism. What's wrong with it?" However, at that time the idea o imperialism and colonialism became obsolete quickly, partly because of Japan's involvement in world affairs.

At that time there was a new idea forming which denied imperialism and colonialism, especially in the U.S. and Japanese failed to recognize the birth and growth of the new idea.

The same thing may be happening today with the free trade system, imperialistic business conducts and the mass consumption economy of developed countries.

Japan mastered the rules of global trade and became successful in it, and consuming much natural resources.

And the West is again finding fault with us. This time the Civil Warism of Japan may be destroying the tropical forests of Asia and several industries in Europe and in the U.S.

Is this too extreme for the West's liking? Yes, I think so.

Most leading Japanese businessmen and politicians today say, "what's wrong with us? We are doing what the West are dong."

However, a new idea of global business and less consumption economy may be forming somewhere.

The new idea may be much kinder to the environment and developing countries.

I just hope that the Japanese will notice the new idea before it becomes too late. Otherwise there will be a nightmare waiting for the Japanese.

b . The Only Way

In the short term, Japan has to apply Harmonism not only inside but also outside Japan. Which means self-restriction of its international business conducts.

In the long run Japan needs to modify Harmonism to accommodate the concepts of "contracts," "law and order", "debating" and individualism."

This will take a long time.

Every country needs a way to stabilize one's society and we have Harmonism and the U.S., Australia and Europe have the contract system.

Other countries have military power or religious belief or guild system so on to control their society.

Harrnonism works somewhat well in Japan but far from faultless and the same is true with the "contract" system of the West.

Ideal situation in the "contract" system is achieved when you can trust people and when there is no need for contract.

However, today we have to read very thick contract documents to control society. In the "contract" society, there are too many lawyers and too many dispute.

Idea of Harmonism may be considered as one of the alternatives to build the world a better place for us to live. (END)