Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (25 page)

In women's community groups, where group productivity is less critical, competence is less important and social status more weighty. Yet the resolution of the conflict between loyalty and competence follows the same lines. A woman loyal to her group will be included in group activities and given a position of honor even if she is not particularly competent. But greater responsibility and prominence go to those who are loyal, responsive to group opinions, and able in carrying out the group activities.

Many Mamachi residents consider themselves closer spiritually to the French than to any other nation, explaining that they share the interest of the French in artistic values. Mamachi residents have a particular sensitivity to beauty, especially in spatial arrangements. Their interest in size, shape, and color pervades their entire life and finds an outlet in room arrangement, flower arrangement, decora-

tion, and gardening. Even the preparation of food becomes an art form with the careful cutting and arranging in interesting designs and color combinations. They enjoy seeing the food arranged in such a way that it preserves the original nature of the food. Complementing their keen awareness of beauty in man-made products is their love of nature. This love enters the home and takes them outdoors; they enjoy traveling to places famous for their natural scenic beauty.

Many of their skills are designed to gain a mastery and self-control which they see as providing a kind of harmony with the spirit of nature. Such activities as tea ceremony, flower arrangement, calligraphy, gardening, or quiet meditation, practiced by men as well as women, are in part cultivated as status symbols for a higher style of life but they are respected because they provide this kind of self-control and harmony.

Many events are invested with a ceremonial elegance that is part of the Japanese love of grace and control. Though some regard certain features of these ceremonies, like low bowing and expensive weddings, as despicable remnants of feudalism, most derive enjoyment from the style of many formalities: the exchange of greetings, the giving and receiving of presents, the entertainment of guests, the sending-off and welcoming-home parties, the celebration of holidays and special events. Such acts are conducted with a style and elegance rising above the mundane routine of daily tasks.

Although such aesthetic pleasures have an important place in the lives of many Mamachi residents, generally aesthetic values are given a secondary role, and the opportunity to cultivate these arts is confined to segregated times and places. People are admired for their aesthetic qualities and criticized for slovenliness (
darashi ga nai
), but these qualities are not as essential to group life and activities as loyalty and competence. A few professions, such as entertainment, the arts, teaching, or the priesthood, specialize in aesthetic values. Aesthetic values may also assume a primacy for women of leisure or for elderly people after retirement. But for most people, the significance of aesthetic pleasures is found in the attempt to achieve peace of mind away from the routine tasks of housework and the heavy demands of loyalty placed upon them in their groups. Yet these pleasures are not simply a release from other problems, but

represent a positive striving for beauty and a feeling of being at one with the universe. Unlike certain Western values that would actually be counter to group loyalty, the acceptance of aesthetic values provides individual gratification without threatening to interfere with group demands. If anything, by helping the individual to resolve his own ambivalences and achieve personal integrity, it makes it easier for him to follow the demands of his group.

With the heavy valuation on loyalty, concern with individual profit from economic activities has never been considered entirely legitimate. People like Goto who amassed the Toyoko fortunes or Matsushita who amassed the National Electric fortunes are considered overly selfish by many Mamachi residents, and they do not command the respect that Ford or Carnegie enjoyed in America. In the early period of Japanese modernization, the large businessmen had to justify themselves, not in terms of their own entrepreneurial skill and the preservation of free enterprise but in terms of their contribution to the nation. Present-day Mamachi residents likewise have little regard for those engaged directly in the pursuit of their own profit. The small shopkeeper may escape criticism if he keeps a stable particularistic relationship with his customers, but he is suspect if he appears to be concerned primarily with his own profit. Of course, entrepreneurs in larger concerns have a much higher status, but they have little leeway in the manner in which they pursue profit if they are to retain people's respect on moral grounds. Even many community leaders and politicians who are permitted to occupy important positions because of their power and ability, are not admired for their moral qualities if they are seen to be looking out primarily for their own interests.

The salary man, however, does not see himself as looking out primarily for his own interests. When he enters the company, he receives a low salary, much less than he deserves by straight economic calculations. Since his salary is regular and determined more by seniority than his good work, he feels he is doing good work not out of his own interest, but out of his devotion to the firm. He receives a bonus not on the basis of his individual contribution to the firm, but on the basis of the success of the firm. By being com-

mitted to the firm for life and receiving many benefits for his long-term service, he, in fact, ordinarily feels loyal and genuinely interested in the firm's welfare. Thus the salary man has solid grounds for self-respect in his basic value system. He sees his own long-term interests as fully identified with the company's interests but because of his devoted service to the firm, he cannot be accused of putting his own interests first.
^[14]

The firm not only gives him a chance to feel loyal; it provides a basis for a feeling of competence. In some groups like his family, he may feel loyal, but he knows he is accepted even if he lacks ability. But in the large bureaucratic organization, a man must prove himself before he is admitted. Everyone in the organization is considered to have at least a minimum of ability so that he is not threatened with the possibility of discharge. The further training within the company and the continual rise in status on the basis of loyal service enhances the feeling that all men have a necessary minimum of competence.

The independent businessman may have plenty of ability but he may have difficulty in convincing himself and others that he is properly loyal to anyone but himself. In certain traditional inherited occupations, the son may be loyal to the family, but he often has a weak basis for the claim of competence. The practices of the large firm make it possible for the salary man to feel that he is legitimized both on the basis of loyalty and competence.

At the same time, the salary man is able to feel that his organization has made great progress toward getting rid of arbitrary feudalistic practices. In the small shops or in many of the smaller enterprises, the intense relationship between master and apprentice is such that the apprentice feels completely bound by the relationship with a single person. In a large organization, however, the loyalty is primarily to the firm and there is leeway given to the individual. He does not remain completely under any single person's authority.

[14] Japanese do not express surprise at the existence of a corporate ethic, nor is there a competing value system which can be used to criticize the corporate ethic as expressed, for example, by William H. Whyte,
The Organization Man
, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.

To my knowledge, none of these firms reward employees for individual services in the forms of commissions or sales, piecework, or special contributions to the company.

There is usually opportunity for contact with other people in the firm, and one's future does not depend entirely on some superior who may exercise his authority arbitrarily. The large organization fits well with the newer modern conception of loyalty.

The position of the salary man offers a unique opportunity to live according to the values which Mamachi residents consider most important. Not only does it provide an opportunity for legitimation on the basis of loyalty and competence, but it permits free time for aesthetic pursuits. In short, the Mamachi salary man is proud to be a salary man not only because he feels that he can acquire security and meet the practical problem of earning a living, but because he can have self-respect in terms of his most basic values.

Until the end of World War II, the Japanese government saw that all its citizens, through school and mass media, learned in great detail about "the family system." As a whole the government was amazingly successful. Not only did everyone learn about the ideal family, but many attempted to model their family on this ideal. Even today, Mamachi residents, like other Japanese, remember clearly the main outlines of what they were taught about the ideal family and the model of the
ie
^[1]
still has an important impact on family behavior. At the heart of the system was the
ie
, the single unbroken family line, including both living and dead, and the concept of filial piety. The basic goal of
ie
members was to care properly for departed ancestors and to preserve the continuity and prosperity of their
ie
. Selling land, for example, was considered a grave misfortune, both because it was a disgrace to the ancestors and because it might seriously affect the family's fortune for generations to come. Family members sacrificed personal pleasures and wants for the
ie
, not only to gain respect or rewards in this life, but to attain immortality, for the idea of after life was contingent on the continuation of the
ie
.
^[2]

[1] The same word,
ie
, is also used to mean simply home or a family, but in this chapter it is used only in its meaning as a family line.

For a brief but authoritative account of the
ie
, see Kizaemon Ariga, "The Family in Japan,"
Marriage and Family Living
, 1954, 16:362–368. The term
dozoku
is used to denote a locality kin group comprising main and branch families sharing the same work. The main and branch families were sometimes linked not by blood but by fictitious kin ties. Cf. Michio Nagai, "Dozoku
^[*]
: A Preliminary Study of the Japanese 'Extended Family' Group and Its Social and Economic Functions," Report No. 7, Project 483, Ohio State University (mimeographed).

[2] Cf. Nobushige Hozumi,
Ancestor Worship and Japanese Law
, Tokyo: The Hokuseido Press, 1912.

Small children belonged to their parents'
ie
. When the children of a family attained maturity, one son, usually the first, was given the honor and the responsibility for preserving the
ie
. The other children had to find another
ie
or, if given permission, they could start a new branch to the main
ie
into which they were born. When a daughter married, her name was crossed off her
ie
's register and entered into the register of her husband's family. The
ie
gave daughters sizeable dowries and assisted younger sons in starting out in life, but the bulk of the family land and treasures was given to the son who had the responsibility for looking after the family line.
^[3]
In theory, the family head did not own the property, but was merely the trustee
^[4]
in the present generation who looked after the property of the
ie
, past, present, and future. If the head of the household died, normally his son would inherit the headship. If no son were available, a younger brother of the deceased might become head if he had not yet gone to another
ie
, or a wife might take over the headship until an heir was selected.

When a bride entered a new family, she was expected to learn her new family's customs (
kafuu
) and by hard work, automatic obedience, and enthusiastic submission to prove that she was sufficiently loyal to deserve family membership. If she failed, she was returned to her original home.
^[5]
An adopted son-in-law had to go through the same process.

The bride was not simply a bride of her husband but of his
ie
, and his
ie
referred to her as
uchi no yome
(our bride). In many ways she was regarded as an adopted daughter, and she referred to her parents-in-law as mother and father.
^[6]
She was chosen not by

[3] It may be suggested incidentally that this practice played a crucial role in capital formation which was necessary for modernization. Many characteristics of modern developments (thrift, hard work, and even economic rationality) were often intimately associated with the attempt to develop and preserve the
ie
. Hozumi,
op. cit.
, notes that formerly rules existed against the
ie
giving too much away since this might interfere with family continuity.

[4] Cf. the works of Carle Zimmerman.

[5] Returning a bride was very common, especially in certain areas of northern Honshu, and it was this practice which made such a high divorce rate in the Meiji Period. The rate was even higher than statistics indicate because many brides were returned in the first months after the marriage before it was officially registered.

[6] In Tokugawa census registers, a young wife is often listed as daughter without being distinguished from a true daughter of the household. For this information I am indebted to Robert J. Smith.