Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (15 page)

Although an individual person almost never objects directly to the government about the way he is treated in a government office, groups of citizens occasionally present complaints collectively. For example, some Mamachi residents went in large numbers to complain about the sewer system in their area. Other groups protest plans for roads, noise from factories, or heavy traffic. But even large delegations do not expect to receive much consideration unless they are introduced by a person of power or position in that bureau.

As yet there are few groups devoted to securing or preserving the rights of citizens. Generally, it is felt that these functions will be served by the people in power, or by the more powerful citizens of the community, and if these functions are not served residents feel that all they can do about it is protest loudly. It is difficult to imagine organizations with a wide membership base such as the Civil Liberties Union, and since women are so removed from politics it is even more difficult to imagine an effective Japanese League of Women Voters. Despite the growing interest in public opinion, most residents of Mamachi do not expect that under ordinary circumstances public opinion and the activities of the citizenry will have a serious impact on their government's decisions.

The experience of Mamachi men as salaried employees in large organizations has served to lend support to the prevailing view of the powerlessness of the citizenry. They have found that the way to be most effective in their organizations is to work through people with whom they have a special relationship. If they have a connection with people in power, then usually it is possible for them to express their opinions, and the people in power will tend to assist them in getting what they wish. However, if they do not have such contacts, it is hopeless for them to try to affect company policy. Thus in business as in politics, a man's influence on decisions depends in large part on his position within the organization and upon his relationship with the people at the top. By their contacts

and power, influential high-status salary men are more conservative politically
^[11]
and expect to play a role in governmental processes, but ordinary salary men do not.

Even in the local community salary men take little part in political activities. Because their center of activity is in the firm or bureau which has no ties to the local community, they have much less interest in suburban politics than the old middle class of small business owners and independent professionals who control the reins of local power. Furthermore, the salary man and his family are generally among the newcomers to Mamachi and would have difficulty breaking into local politics even if they were interested, expecially since most important issues like budgets for schools and road and sewage construction are decided by the local bureaucracies rather than by local elections in which all can participate. Even participation often means only petitioning the local government.

The feeling of powerlessness of the citizen in relation to the government is unmitigated by confidence in the democratic processes. Residents value the right to vote and have a vague hope that their combined votes may have some influence, but they do not feel that voting, in fact, has much effect on government decisions. From their point of view, government decisions are made by the higher-ups in private meetings, often at geisha houses, and are completely beyond the control of the average citizen. They are not happy with the situation but they feel powerless to change it.
^[12]
Although the average American citizen may have little more influence in governmental decisions than his Japanese counterpart, the American is taught to feel that his vote and opinions do count and that he has effective avenues for redress of grievances. The Mamachi resident,

[11] In a Tokyo survey in 1962, it was found that 39 percent of one group of office workers in large enterprises and 51 percent of another group supported Socialists. However, only 14 percent of the officers in these enterprises supported the Socialists. Nihon Shakai Koozoo Choosakkai,
Howaito Karaa no Ishiki Koozoo
(The Structure of White Collar Ideology), Tokyo, March, 1962, p. 265. The evidence from this and other voting studies shows that ordinary salary men are more likely to vote Socialist than are laborers.

[12] Indeed, books like the Japanese translation of C. Wright Mills,
Power Elite,
which argue that elitist cliques exist, are extremely popular among salary men, especially those who are recent graduates of universities. In Japan, the government bureaucracy has more power and political functions vis-à-vis the political parties than in America and many Western countries. Therefore, the feeling of being excluded is likely to be greater than when officials are more subject to the will of the people.

being more cynical of the government's tendency to look out for its own interests and ignore the interests of outsiders, has no such basis of optimism.
^[13]

Part of the alienation toward the government in power rests on this feeling of being looked down upon by governmental leaders. The salary man, like other Japanese, feels intense loyalty to his own groups and intense hostility to groups from which he is excluded. Because government leaders, and particularly government bureaucrats, tend to have close-knit elitist groups unresponsive to the wishes of the average person, it is difficult for the salary man to identify with governmental leaders. One of the strongest complaints against the government, that it is a "tyranny of the majority," clearly reflects the concern about exclusive government groups imposing their will without giving sufficient consideration to others. The salary man does not feel that the government leaders are "of the people," but of a series of in-groups to which he does not belong.

In part, the alienation to the government in power seems to rest on the desire to modernize government institutions. Since the government has more than its share of leaders representing rural and special-interest conservative groups, it seems far more traditional than salary men wish it to be. Many salary men connect their feeling of disillusionment with the government to what they had learned in their university days. In contrast to many of the older middle class who support conservatives and even the radical right, salary men are in favor of developing a rational approach to government just as they wish to develop rational procedures in their own firm. But even if they could respect the methods of operation of government departments, salary men cannot identify with what they see as the primary purpose of any government bureau, the perpetuation and strengthening of its own power.

For many Mamachi residents, criticism of the government gives them a feeling of remaining true to their feelings of protest and the

[13] Many Westerners had hoped that with the rise of the middle class, the democratic processes would be strengthened. Although the participation of the middle class in voting and in free speech and criticism undoubtedly poses certain restraints on authoritarian rule, the relatively closed nature of groups still poses formidable obstacles to the broad expansion of political participation and influence.

ideals of democracy which they had espoused so vocally during their college days. They are convinced that the militarists came to power in Japan because people did not stand up for more democratic practices. In general, as salary men grow older and rise higher in their firms, they become more conservative. Some salary men seem to feel slightly ashamed of having adjusted so well to the firm, to have lost the feeling of protest, and of doing so little to help the cause of democracy and the nation's welfare. However, many who in their own behavior have become more conservative retain much of their strong ideological opposition to the government.

Although feeling excluded from governmental processes, the salary man maintains an active interest in political affairs and keeps himself well abreast of the news, especially in national affairs.
^[14]
Japanese are avid readers, but the salary man, being better educated than the average, is particularly well read on broader issues affecting his country. The Mamachi man commonly reads both the morning and evening editions of one of the three large dailies, as well as weekly and monthly magazines, and he often discusses politics with friends at work. Although wives are generally much less informed about national political activities than their husbands, they, too, follow at least the main trend of important political events.

Most salary men are moderate in the manner in which they express opposition to the government. They enjoy many of the virulent criticisms of the government in the newspapers and pass on their bitter criticism in conversation with friends, but they are not likely to participate in riots and demonstrations. Even if they vote for the Socialists, as many salary men do, they explain that they do not really respect the Socialists, who seem to them irresponsible in their behavior. They are not as much for the Socialists, as they are against the government; they doubt that the Socialists would be freer of corruption and mismanagement.

The moderate way in which salary men express opposition is not simply a result of the fact that companies prefer to hire college students with moderate political views—many a salary man admits

[14] In an
Asahi
poll in 1952, 87 percent of salary men questioned knew the Diet was in session compared to 70 percent of merchants and industrialists, 65 percent industrial laborers, and 57 percent of farmers and fishermen. Cited in Allan B. Cole,
op. cit.,
p. 392.

having been more leftist in his youth. Rather, his moderation seems to be a result of the fact that he seems sufficiently comfortable with his present position and sufficiently pessimistic as to what would be accomplished by more active political participation; thus he is reluctant to place his position in jeopardy. Mamachi men know that although firms are ordinarily loyal to their members they have been known to sacrifice a member should he become too embarrassing; and that short of dismissing an employee, the firm can exert powerful informal pressure on the deviant.

For informal social life, a husband does not meet with his wife's friends, the wife does not associate with her husband's friends, and they rarely go out together as a couple.

Shortly after arriving in Mamachi, we invited six families to our house for a picnic luncheon. As soon as the invitations were issued, the wives got together and decided that husbands were not to attend, and indeed, the husbands did not attend. Despite ideology to the contrary, it is clear that husbands and wives will not easily adopt a pattern of shared social life, and that women are as little anxious as men to push for a change. A husband centers his social life on his place of work, the wife on her immediate neighborhood and relatives. Even on the rare occasions when the husband brings guests to his home, a proper wife serves the guests and smiles pleasantly, but does not interfere with the conversation and often stays in another room except when serving. With their friends, husbands generally feel constrained in the presence of a wife, and wives feel even more constrained in the presence of a husband. Most wives prefer to stay at home where they can be comfortable rather than face formalities, listen to stiff conversation, and worry about behaving properly. Even couples who told us they would like to go out together found excuses for never doing so.
^[1]

Paradoxically, the separation of the husband's and wife's social

[1] Many Americans in Japan have commented that while they can communicate with Japanese men, they find it difficult to develop meaningful relationships with women. It may be suggested that this is because they have largely seen the women in public situations or in the presence of their husbands.

lives is more complete in the modern salary man's families than in many traditional families. In farm and small-shopkeeper families, although men's and women's activities are carefully separated, a woman's closest friends are often the wives of her husband's friends. Consequently, husbands and wives have a feeling of belonging to the same social community although there may be little direct interaction between men and women. Independent professionals and businessmen have more opportunities to go out with their wives, and the women often become friendly with the wives of their husbands' friends. Not so the salary men, where the husbands' friends usually have no relationship with the wives' friends.

Sometimes, however, the Mamachi husband and wife pay visits together on formal occasions like New Year's, weddings, and funerals. Some modern couples, immediately after marriage, proudly go to movies, plays, and concerts together and sometimes attend parties with friends. Yet, in most Mamachi families this visiting stops abruptly shortly before the first child is born. While some young couples talk of going out occasionally even afterward, they rarely do, except perhaps for visits to relatives. Occasionally, husbands do visit with husbands of the wife's neighborhood friends. However, most husbands have little to do with their neighbors, not only because their own social life keeps them busy but also because they are mildly embarrassed by intruding into what is essentially the wife's domain. Although doing things as a couple is usually regarded as "modern," even in traditional homes elderly husbands and wives have been close and do many things together. Life expectancy is almost the same as in the United States, and after the salary man retires at fifty-five or sixty, the elderly couple generally spend more time together than they ever did when younger. Elderly couples go to Tokyo together for shopping or entertainment and, if they can afford it, take trips together to hot-springs resorts, famous shrines, or scenic spots.