Japanese Culture Without Japanese

Note: This article grew out of a conversation with a friend. As there is some push back to the article, I have removed a reference to their name to prevent them from becoming involved. Opinions are completely my own.

Japan has held interest in the "West" for almost as long as it has been known of. It was more by chance than on purpose that Europeans first encountered Japan. In 1543, a storm blew a Chinese merchant ship off course, and it ran aground on the island of Tanegashima, a small island located south of Kagoshima.?Francisco Zeimoto and António Mota were the two Portuguese sailors who were part of the Chinese vessel's crew.?The Japanese called them "nanbanjin" or literally "Southern Barbarians" because they had come to Japan through the Portuguese enclave of Goa in India. A few years later, in 1549, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, arrived in Japan to begin the first Christian mission. The Portuguese were eager to trade with Japan and quickly established more formal traffic through the port of Nagasaki.

The Japanese were interested in the Portuguese, and the interest was mutual. There are many extant writings from the period and while there is obvious fascination, there's also a clear lack of mutual understanding.

They eat with their fingers instead of with chopsticks such as we use. They show their feelings without any self-control. They cannot understand the meaning of written characters.? Japanese impression of the Portuguese

The island of Jampon, according to what all the Chinese say, is larger than that of the Léquios, and the king is more powerful and greater and is not given to trading, nor are his subjects. He is a heathen king, a vassal of the king of China. They do not often trade in China because it is far off and they have no junks, nor are they seafaring men. — Tomé Pires in Suma Oriental (Note, Japan was never a vassal state of China. Léquios was the 16th century name the Portuguese used for Okinawa and the Ryukyu Kingdom)

This first wave of Western interest in Japan was followed by the "sakoku 鎖国" or closed country policy which severely restricted Japanese contact with the outside world to a Dutch trading enclave on an artificial island in Nagasaki harbor. When Sakoku was ended by the arrival of the American flotilla in 1854, a new era of enthusiasm for all things Japanese began. Termed "Japonisme" it was a craze for Japanese art and design that followed the reopening of Japan to trade with the outside world.

In the 1980s, Japan experienced another boom, as the Japanese economy and Japanese products like automobiles and consumer electronics swept the globe. The interesting thing is that it is difficult to figure out when this boom ended, if it even has. In Dusseldorf, Germany, there is a festival which brings an estimated 1.2 million participants. Japan Expo Paris sees 192,000 people. Places with comparatively large Japanese immigrant populations, like Vancouver, Waikiki, Los Angeles, or Sao Paulo have annual festivals to celebrate the diaspora community. Washington DC is famous for its Cherry Blossom Festival, commemorating the 2000 trees gifted by the city of Tokyo, which were cut down and burned when invasive insects and nematodes were found. The second group of 3020 trees which survived arrived in 1912. All but four of the trees survived World War 2, when they were rebranded as "Oriental Cherry Trees" to spare them symbolic retribution. The DC Cherry Blossom Festival today has many celebrations of Japanese culture, although the largest, the Sakura Matsuri had to be relocated to accommodate the then Trump International Hotel (today the Waldorf Astoria).

Even in my home US state of Georgia, the celebration of "things Japanese" is extensive. Macon Georgia is home to a vibrant cherry blossom festival every spring, which, although started by American William A. Fickling, Sr. who loved the trees, has been supported by Japanese corporation YKK, a large local investor and employer. In September every year, JapanFest draws about 20,000 patrons over 2 days. And in Gwinnett and Fulton counties, there are Japanese grocery and book stores. The newest, Teso Life, was marked by 2-hour long lines of customers waiting to get in when the opened.

And this is where there is an odd phenomenon beginning. The first Japanese stores and restaurants in Atlanta were owned by Japanese. Today, most are not. Older ones have been sold, and newer stores never had any Japanese owners. Teso Life, and nearby competitor Ebisu Life Store seem not to have Japanese origins (although Ebisu Life does claim to have been founded in Osaka). In China, stores like Miniso capitalize on a "Japanese aesthetic" by selling products remarkably similar in appearance to those in Japanese retailer Muji, while copying the store design from Uniqlo. This is not intended to be a castigation of "knockoffs." Historically Japan has made them too, as do most nations at early to mid-stages of their economic development.

Rather the tragedy for Japan is twofold. First, they are missing out on sales of their own products and services. Are there truly no Japanese entrepreneurs who want to capitalize on overseas demand? Sure Muji and Uniqlo have stores in North America, but they are in locations like New York, Vancouver, or Los Angeles. Gwinnett County in Georgia has dozens of Korean, Chinese and non-nationally specific "Asian groceries" like H-Mart, Great Wall, Zion, Jusgo, Assi, and Mega Mart. Atlanta certainly isn't the biggest market in America but it is a top-10 metro area.

Secondly, by allowing others to distribute "Japanese culture" with no Japanese competition, Japanese merchants no longer have input on what constitutes "Japanese culture." As an example, I will say that I love bubble/boba tea. (My earlier article on Bubble Tea) It is delicious and different. I am always taken aback, though, when I see a "Japanese" restaurant or store selling boba. Or a Korean, or Vietnamese restaurant. Boba Tea is from Taiwan. It would be like going to a French restaurant and being told to order the gelato, or a Portuguese restaurant and being offered baklava after the meal. It's not the incongruity. If the quality of the product is sufficient, I will gladly overlook the mismatch. I'm no purist, in fact I like many clever admixtures of various cultures. It's just that the absence of a Japanese voice means that the culture stops being a culture and instead becomes essentially a brand. Since the end of World War 2, Japan has existed on "Soft Power." Many high profile Japanese government initiatives, from the JET Programme, to Cool Japan, to the multiple Olympics, to the upcoming Osaka World Expo have been designed to increase Japan's soft power by building a positive image of Japan in global consciousness. But all these efforts are hamstrung if the message about what is culturally Japanese is completely controlled by non-Japanese people. I recognize the potential for irony if I, a non-Japanese person, were perceived as saying "only Japanese people can understand and share Japanese culture." So I want to explicitly make clear that I am NOT saying that. What I am saying is the opposite side of that scenario, a "Japanese culture" which has no input from Japanese people AT ALL is just as bad.

Japanese culture is great. I have been an enthusiastic advocate for more than three decades. And I would be absolutely heartbroken if Japan lost control of its own cultural narrative. The Portuguese merchants who first went to Japan in the 1500s did so because of the unique things that Japan offered. If Japan were to become an indistinct rehash of some median "Asian" culture, that uniqueness which attracted many of us in the first place would be lost.