Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (12 page)

By Western standards the amount and quality of food are inadequate. Rice is the main dish in a way that no dish is the main dish in the West. To overstate the case slightly, it is eaten in such quantities that all other food is used for flavoring. Fish is available in abundance and variety and is used to flavor the rice. Small fish bones are eaten, providing needed calcium. Since virtually no spices are used, soy sauce and many varieties of pickles are served at every meal to season the rice. Vegetables and meat are eaten with rice and in much smaller quantities than in the West. The Japanese slice meat very

[2] In Japan as in the United States, the middle class is characterized by having a very high proportion of savers. Cf. Nihon Shakai Koozoo Choosa Kai,
Howaito Karaa no Ishiki Koozoo
(The Structure of White-Collar Class Consciousness), Tokyo, March, 1962 (mimeographed), p. 232.

thin, and it is no accident that they use the word "roast" to mean simply high-quality meat, since they never cook the large cuts served in the West. Various kinds of inexpensive seaweeds are often eaten. Bean paste and bean curd are used with other relatively inexpensive items for making soups. Fruits although used daily are still considered somewhat of a luxury. Milk is drunk primarily by children or sick people although milk products are increasingly available. Imported drinks, such as coffee, which are expensive by Japanese standards are used by most salary men in limited quantity for special occasions. Daily shopping for fresh fish and vegetables is the rule. Most families own small wooden ice boxes for short-term food preservation, but freezers and once-a-week shopping expeditions are unknown.

Many services which one must pay for in the West are in Japan performed by friends without charge. A person staying overnight in another city usually will stay with a friend or a friend of a friend, unless he is traveling on an expense account. When seeking a job, getting personal counseling, or seeking a special technical connection, one is likely to get help from friends rather than to go to an official agency. Although private detectives (to provide personal information, especially regarding employment and marriage) and real estate agencies are still widespread, one feels safer and saves money if the services are performed by friends. When one wants to use a public facility, such as a meeting hall to entertain guests, it is often possible to get a big discount through friends. Some people will call upon a rich friend to help them entertain guests. A wealthy man may feel honored or at least honor-bound to assist, and the person making the request shows his appreciation by various favors. When he gives a present in return for a favor, it need not be expensive. An expensive but tasteless present would be insulting, for it would imply paying off a favor of friendship with money. Rather, it is expected that one show considerable kindness and thoughtfulness by giving a present or memento with style and grace. Photographs may be sent after a get-together as one way of showing appreciation. A favorite gift is some special product brought back from another part of Japan or from abroad. A family with an obligation to a neighbor may have their son buy famous local products for them on his school trip. The Mamachi resident feels that the trouble

one goes to in bringing something back from a distant place is an indication of how appreciative one is. Indeed, almost every corner of Japan has some famous local product, and since so many children in these families go to distant places for school trips, guests are often treated to local delicacies, and houses are filled with such famous local products. In whatever way favors are returned, it will emphasize feelings of personal appreciation rather than money, and for large favors one will feel a long-term obligation.

In addition to the frugal use of double-duty household facilities and to obtaining free services from go-betweens and friends, various customs serve to conserve possessions. Shoes are not worn inside the house since they bring in dirt and mar the floors. Only stockinged feet or bare feet are permitted on the straw mats which are swept every day. These mats can be re-covered once every year or two, but even a replacement is not expensive. Covers are used for all items of furniture including the cushions one sits on. The most valuable dolls are kept in glass cases and may be preserved for more than one generation. Television sets, electric toasters, and other appliances come with covers which are carefully placed over the equipment when not in use. Machines are not discarded so long as they can be repaired. Even paperback books come with extra covers, and hardback books are sold with a protecting cardboard box as well as a thin paper cover. At home and even for neighborhood shopping, the wife wears a white apron which covers not only the skirt as in the West but her blouse and sleeves as well. The child going to nursery school wears an apron as part of the uniform so that his regular clothes will not get dirty. Children of grade school age wear shorts and long stockings even in thirty or forty degree winter weather. While the families regard this simply as a custom, the wearing of shorts does make it possible to avoid worry about patched knees. Even though the women save by doing their own sewing, it is considered embarrassing to wear in public anything that is patched. Nylon hose, however, are mended, since this mending does not show. Old clothes are worn at home, and clothes which are beyond repair are cut up and sewn to make washcloths, hot pads, and rags. Instead of buying new magazines, a Mamachi family may belong to a neighborhood club in which several members exchange magazines to split expenses, or they may buy their books or maga-

zines at second-hand magazine and book stores. Boxes which formerly contained tea or cookies are kept for storing kitchen items. Younger children may protest about wearing hand-me-downs but the pattern is still fairly widespread, particularly in families which cannot easily afford to buy new clothes. It is perfectly permissible to wear the same clothes for several days in succession, and school uniforms make it possible for a child with only one or two suits to be well dressed throughout the school year. These frugal practices make it possible to conserve resources and live on little income, in a manner not too different from that of a few decades ago in the United States, and in Europe today.

Rich or poor, the Mamachi family will guard what it has. Often barbed wire is placed above the high fence, and many have a large dog to chase off possible burglars. There is a special word,
rusuban,
for a person who stays at home to guard the house while everybody else is away. Some houses can only be locked from the inside, and most families are unwilling to leave the house for more than a few minutes unless someone in the family or a close friend or relative stays in the house to see that nothing happens to it. Whatever the rationale surrounding the concept of
rusuban,
it does indicate the family's concern for conserving what it has.

By and large the new middle class is unable even to imitate the big businessman's conspicuous display of wealth: the chauffeur-driven car, membership in an expensive golf club, the use of several servants, and lavish entertaining. Elegant restaurants and
geisha
places in Japan are high-priced even by Western standards. Two or three hours of entertainment by geisha girls and eating out are likely to cost a hundred dollars or so for a group of only three or four, the equivalent of an average salaried person's monthly salary. Rich men display their wealth conspicuously like the nouveaux riches in America a generation or two ago when large fortunes were first accumulated.

In contrast to what William H. Whyte has called the "inconspicuous consumption" of the American organization man, the Japanese salary man and especially his wife would like to imitate the richer classes in their conspicuous display of wealth. But with their small income they can afford few flamboyant gestures. The greatest display is at a child's wedding. Although the movement to simplify

ceremonies has become stronger, it is not unusual for the parents of the bride and groom to spend an equivalent of two or three times the young husband's annual salary on the wedding, the renting of expensive clothes, sizeable gifts to all the guests, and a lavish feast.

The wife's kimonos which are worn for going out socially or for formal occasions may also cost the equivalent of several months of the young husband's salary, and even salaried men's wives may have several kimono outfits (including sash and shawl to match). Though Western-style suits vary in quality, these differences are more difficult to distinguish, and suits are relatively unimportant as items of conspicuous display. Some modern women have at least one or two dressy Western outfits which are much less expensive than the traditional kimono. Being modern and Western makes it possible for them to avoid the dilemma of either buying an expensive kimono which they cannot afford or buying an inexpensive one that looks cheap.

Although only a few families may be able to distinguish variations of quality in most items of merchandise, they all can recognize the major status labels of high class stores, and the purchase of an item with a label from Mitsukoshi or Takashimaya, or the delivery of equipment in Takashimaya or Mitsukoshi trucks, which neighbors would be certain to notice, does have a status meaning. As one man wryly commented, some of his friends will walk right by a small shop on Mamachi's main street and go into Tokyo to buy an identical item costing perhaps twice as much in order to be able to show off the Mitsukoshi label.

Since the bedding is aired outside every few days and thus is open to the neighbors' view, a Mamachi housewife generally tries to put her best quilt forward. Laundry too is aired outdoors in a neighbor's range of vision but it generally is not as crucial for determining status as, for example, a kimono, and it causes somewhat less concern.

Entertaining guests can be an important way of conspicuous status display. Generally it is considered better to entertain guests outside than in the home. It is thought that a person entertains in the home because he cannot afford to go outside. If one does entertain a guest in the house, one shows more respect for the guest by

ordering the delivery of various kinds of food from a restaurant.
^[3]
The kinds of refreshments and the dishes on which they are served all carry implications of a certain status. Having leisure and money for flower-arranging and tea-ceremony lessons and music lessons for the children is now within the reach of the average salary man's family, and still signifies the ability to enjoy the refinements of life.

The salary man often has difficulty balancing the need for frugality with the desire for high status in the eyes of his neighbors, friends, and associates. He must be frugal yet disguise his miserliness to friends by acting as if he were willing and able to spend freely, especially for guests. The expression used to mean to reveal one's weakness or inadequacy (
boro o dasu
) literally means to show one's rags. Many observers have noted that Japanese families make clear distinctions between the
omote
(what is open for outsiders to see) and the
ura
(what is not open). While there are many meanings to these expressions, one of their important functions may be to permit outward display and private frugality. One can, in a sense, have his cake and eat it too, provided one reserves the good cake for company.

Families have two general alternatives in making small purchases. One is to buy as steady customers in a small local shop; the other is to buy as strangers in a large establishment like a department store. Similarly, in making larger purchases, it is possible to choose between going through personal connections to arrange discounts and going to a large department store where all people will be treated equally. The confidence of getting a good buy when shopping at a local shop or when making special arrangements for a discount derives from the steady relationship between the store and the customer or between the store and an intermediary. Minor price adjustments are still sometimes made, and regular customers may be given slightly lower prices. In buying at a department store, con-

[3] This is one example where the specific customs vary by region. In the Kyoto area one does not order food from the outside for a guest. For this information I am indebted to Robert J. Smith.

fidence of receiving fair treatment derives from the name and reputation of the store. Just as the large organizations have been the first to set regular salaries, so large stores have long had a fixed-price system. But now many smaller stores are gradually moving toward fixed prices, and even strangers may be given the same price as regular customers.

A customer who goes to a place where he is known is assured of many personal considerations. He is greeted by a friend, the items are tailored to suit his wishes, purchases may be made or delivered to suit his convenience. Although department stores cannot match the personal situation, most department stores make an effort to train attractive young sales ladies to be pleasant and charming to the customers and to provide the many services of an American department store, and perhaps even more.

Going through friends who have a special contact with some manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer has the advantage of permitting savings. Many families select their electrical appliance not on the basis of brand preferences but on the basis of personal connections enabling them to get a discount. Nearly everyone who works in a store or factory is entitled to a discount for himself or friends, and a sizeable portion of purchases are made through these discount arrangements.

But at the same time, going through friends has the disadvantage of building up obligations, and though many families continue to use friends, others are willing to pay higher prices in order to avoid being in debt to friends. Unless the saving is great, the friend is close, and the discount easily arranged, many people hesitate making requests through friends. Going through friends also limits the range of selection. Of course, one can find out the general range of supplies a seller has before accepting the introduction, but once the introduction is made, there is a strong obligation to buy. If the product turns out not to be suitable or if there has been a misunderstanding, the obligation as a result of receiving a special favor in the form of reduced prices makes it virtually impossible to make adjustments without creating some problems in the relationship with the friend. These situations are commonly known as
arigata meiwaku
(a favor which caused trouble). As greater discrimination in select-