Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (42 page)

[13] Takeshi Ishida has cogently argued that Japanese rationality is a rationality of means rather than ends and that a group's ends are ordinarily never brought into serious question. Takeshi Ishida, "The Pattern of Japanese Political Modernization." Paper presented to the Association for Asian Studies, March 1963.

mentation regardless of his position, and the firm is not troubled by the problems of heavy labor turnover. Low mobility between firms makes the process of introducing changes from outside somewhat more difficult, but it permits a higher degree of integration of changes in the firm. Furthermore, the early retirement age means that new blood will be entering the company rapidly and that control passes more quickly to younger people who are less influenced by traditional practices. How long the low mobility between firms and the primary commitment to the firm rather than to occupational specialty will continue is an open question. While these practices are being challenged in areas of labor shortage or where a high degree of technical skill is required, they remain firmly institutionalized for most salary men.

The life of the modern Japanese family with a husband in the new bureaucratic organization has changed greatly from Japanese family life of an earlier era but it remains different from the common patterns in the United States and many European countries. The unique features of the salary-man family discussed in the body of this work (the insulation of the family from the firm, the lack of participation of husbands in household tasks, the narrow range of the wife's social participation and her very close relationship with the children) show no signs of radical change.

The salary man has not surmounted all difficulties. The room for independent free movement apart from the wishes of the group is considerably less than in most Western countries, the amount a person must give up to group unity much greater, and the amount of group solidarity required to maintain such sacrifices much greater than the solidarity existing in most Western organizations. Many salary men whose ambitions are frustrated within the firm or who are not accepted by the dominant company cliques are likely to develop a sense of apathy and may complain bitterly to friends or identify with the unfortunate self-sacrificing heroes in movies, novels, and short stories.
^[14]
Despite these frustrations, however, the salary man is basically pleased with his way of life. Although the salary man's wife may feel that she sacrifices herself and has a more

[14] Professor Howard Hibbett informs me that the themes of modern novels, stories, and movies are filled with such unfortunate situations, and that the life of the salary men portrayed in fictional form is filled with frustrations.

difficult life than her husband, the world outside her own narrow sphere is so stiff and the inside of her world so relaxed and so subject to her control, that she prefers to stay at home cultivating the wifely arts and caring for the children.

The contrasts between the salary man and other groups in Japan have been drawn sharply in this study in order to highlight the pattern of the salary man. The contrasts may have been drawn overly sharp because there is considerable variation among salary men, and even more because the patterns described have already spread beyond the confines of the group of the salary men.

With the managerial revolution, most of the Japanese elite have now been incorporated into large organizations, and their pattern of life has become essentially that of high-level salary men.
^[15]
The great industrial, business, and political leaders increasingly arise from the ranks of the large organizations. They are not placed in high position merely by having influential family and friends. Even the "well born" who rise to high positions have been subjected to competition with boys of lower standing, especially during the period of entrance examinations.
^[16]
They follow the same pattern of regular hours, regular pay, regular vacation. Although they have higher standards of consumption and participate more actively in political and community life than the average salary man, they do not have the independence in action that the independent entrepreneur had. Their activities, like those of lower-level salary men, are subject to their groups' consensus about the interests of the firm.

With the proletarization of industrial workers into large organization, their lives have become increasingly similar to those of salary men. Their salaries are much higher than those of industrial workers

[15] In his work on Japanese executives, Kazuo Noda has called these men "super salary men." Cf. Kazuo Noda,
Nihon no Juuyaku
(Big Business Executives). Tokyo: Diamond Sha, 1960.

[16] Although a much higher percentage of Japanese elite come from families of higher social status than would be expected on the basis of statistical probability, university training (which depends on success in entrance examinations) is even more crucial for entrance into the elite than in the United States. Cf. Hiroshi Mannari, "Nihon no Keieisha no Shakai-teki Seikaku" (The Social Characteristics of Japanese Business Leaders),
Shakaigaku Hyooron,
1961, 12:7–19.

in smaller enterprises, and, in contrast to what one might have expected from Marxian theory, there is not only little revolutionary spirit among such workers, but there is a very high degree of satisfaction of being able to work in their present organization.
^[17]
In their consumption patterns, in their political attitudes, in the patterning of leisure time and work time, they are similar to the lower-level salary men, and even their salaries are not too different.
^[18]
The regularity of salary and the rationalization of various procedures within the firm have had the same effects on the factory worker as they had on the salary man.

Finally, because the pattern of the salary man has achieved such prominence and because it has become a symbol of the desirable life, it has an important effect even on those who are not part of large organizations. The way of life of the salary man dominates the mass media, the popular stories, the "how to" books. The advertising and the standard package for the consumer are probably geared more to the level of the salary man than to any other group. The educational system is dominated by the spirit of the salary man, and anyone who hopes to advance beyond the junior-high-school level must take entrance examinations whose tone is set by those who aspire to be salary men. The independence of the salary-man's wife from the cares of earning a living and her opportunity to devote herself to her children without the interference of a mother-in-law are becoming a powerful model for wives of farmers and small shopkeepers. Small business associations have been clamoring for government help so they could provide the same welfare benefits provided by the larger organizations. Many rural co-operatives and mutual-benefit organizations of professionals attempt to provide a salary-man kind of security to their members. In some rural communities, farmers now turn over their income to the co-operative,

[17] Survey data on this problem are presented by Kenichi Tominaga, "Nihon no Keiei to Nihon no Shakai" (Industrial Organization and Social Structure in Japan),
Shakaigaku Hyooron
, 1961, 12:30–45.

[18] Survey data on this problem are presented by the Group for the study of Japanese Social Structure (Nihon Shakai Koozoo Choosa Kai), in
Howaito Karaa no Ishiki Koozoo
(The Structure of White-Collar Ideology), Tokyo: March 1962. In analyzing their questionnaire data, these authors also note the striking similarity between lower-level salary men and workers in large factories.

draw it out in the form of "sarari" (salary) and proudly claim that they are just like salary men.
^[19]
As in Western countries, the powerful influence of the middle class does not mean that society will be completely homogenized and that individual and group differences will disappear. It does mean that the new order of the salary man is not only a way of life for people in large organizations, but a model affecting the life of others. For the rest of society the salary man mediates the direct impact of Westernization and industrialization by offering a model of life which is modest enough to be within the range of realistic hopes and modern enough to be worthy of their highest aspirations.

[19] For this information I am indebted to Dr. David Plath, an anthropologist who did his field work in Nagano prefecture.

In 1969, ten years after our initial study, my wife and I returned to Mamachi. Unlike many suburban areas studded with new stores and recreation centers, Mamachi remains much as it was. During the same ten years entirely new suburbs have been created further from the center of Tokyo and many downtown areas of Tokyo have been completely rebuilt; by comparison, the physical appearance of Mamachi, like that of other older suburbs, is relatively unchanged. To be sure, streets are better paved, stores are better built and better stocked, homes have been renovated, and a new school building has replaced the old. Yet the homes, the gardens, the fences, and the little shops in Mamachi all look familiar. Surprisingly, almost all families live where they did a decade ago, and as before, the breadwinners are almost all salary men.

A decade ago the families we saw were eager to learn about America. They were trying to understand all the essentials of private life, business and society in America. They were already imitating many aspects of America, but they were still learning. Today they are still interested in America and Europe, but the eagerness is gone because they have mastered the essential characteristics of life in the West. Ten years ago when Mamachi citizens compared Japan with America it was with uncertainty and it usually ended with a question about America. Now when they make the comparison, they are more sure of themselves. In a sense, ten years ago they were still part-time pupils of the west; now they have not only completed their training with flying colors, but they have finished their apprenticeship also. Where they have kept Japanese customs it is not because they have not yet learned Western patterns, but because they prefer Japanese.

The phenomenal economic growth rate, the new material prosperity, and the greater understanding of the West have given Mamachi citizens, like other Japanese, a new sense of pride. A decade ago Mamachi residents were worried about economic stability; there was a sense that daily livelihood was precarious, and they talked of the dangers of a new recession. Now with more money in the bank, more material possessions, and a national consensus that the economic prospects of Japan are, if anything, brighter for the future, anxiety about material welfare has almost disappeared.

This new confidence has led to a new evaluation of the life of the salary man. Ten years ago, to be employed by a large company was considered highly desirable by most of these families, as well as by most of the other people in Japan. The large companies and government bureaucracies could provide security, regularity, and assurance of advancement with age. At a time when acquiring the new kitchen and electrical machines for the household and insuring an education for the children was problematic and not possible for many families, this security was obviously desirable. The salary man's family could purchase new goods with predictable regularity and without anxiety. Their "bright new life" set a standard which Japanese from other walks of life envied and emulated.

By now all these aspirations for security, material possessions, and regular hours have been realized not only by the salary man, but by most of the population of Japan. The model and the vision that were provided by the salary man a decade ago have been essentially achieved already.

This very success has led the Mamachi citizen to raise new questions about his life, to question assumptions that a decade ago were taken for granted. Why should one sacrifice for the good of the company? Why should one labor so assiduously for so many years at the same place? Are there not other, more interesting things to do? Why should the youth study so hard to be admitted to the good colleges and the the good firms? Are there not other values of greater importance?

Despite the questioning, Mamachi men still work in the large

companies or government offices. In fact, the proportion of Japanese citizens who are salary men has actually increased as large companies have grown more rapidly than small ones. They remain salary men, but they wonder if this is still so desirable.

For no one has the new questioning become more acute than among teenagers and young adults. Junior high school students still work hard in preparation for high school entrance examinations, and high school students still work hard in preparation for university examinations, but many students admitted to the university now wonder why they have worked so hard and whether it was worth it. Students preparing for examinations are still very concerned with getting into the better institutions and companies, and those who fail are disappointed. The feelings of ambition and of wanting to do well remain strong, but the anxiety that failure might lead to serious economic hardship is now gone. Students studying for examinations are increasingly reluctant to undergo the excessively long hours of training, and their parents now have more doubts about the necessity or even desirability of pushing their children so hard in preparation for the examinations.

The number of Japanese students actually involved in barricades, occupation of university buildings, and armed clashes with police is only a tiny minority of the total university population, and virtually no Mamachi youths were among these radical activists. Yet they share much of the radical criticism of the universities and feel that the university system is in need of radical reorganization. They object to the fact that their teachers often are not well-informed on their topics and that the lectures are in terms of abstract theories which seem to have little relation to current realities; they object to the fact that their classes are not intellectually challenging and do not prepare them either for the work which they will do later or for the society in which they will live; they find that many programs on television and many current magazines are more informative and more interesting than their classrooms, and they do not feel involvement or identification with the universities they attend.