Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb (43 page)

Universities in turmoil created an additional hurdle for the youth. The student and his family had to decide what to do when the uni-

versities closed down for a few months or a year, and the youth selecting a university had to make some estimate of whether a given institution will be open during the next several years. The problem of the universities thus exacerbated the problem of youth confronted with the basic questions of where to work and what kind of life to lead.

Most of these teenagers and young adults continue to live at home while attending the university. Since family life remains stable it provides a haven for the perplexed teenager. But parents cannot always understand the adolescent in turmoil. Even parents who are close to their children cannot answer the basic questions about what kind of work the children should do and what kind of life they should lead because they, too, are uncertain about what is desirable in the future.

Many young men in Mamachi now specifically say that they do not want to become salary men. They hope for a more interesting and challenging life—perhaps one connected to the literary or artistic world—one that provides more challenge and excitement. Although new possibilities are opening up in these new fields, the economic structure of the society is such that most young men will eventually become salary men and most of the young girls will eventually become wives of salary men. In most cases their search for more interesting lives leads not to a different kind of job: at best it leads to the pursuit of new interests outside the job.

The transition from university life, where talk of adventure is big and restraint on personal freedom small, to highly disciplined company life is difficult. Yet even those youths who have weathered the stormy transition accept company discipline almost immediately. They are much more reluctant than are their American counterparts to raise basic questions or criticize their superiors in their firms. The reservations they have about accepting this new and, in their view, mundane life are reserved for their private thoughts, their families, and their closest friends.

In contrast to the young man in the first few years with his company—who complains in private that he is given few responsibilities, that the work is boring, and that he must subordinate himself to a horribly disciplined life,—the young salary man in his late twenties

or early thirties has a distinctly different attitude. He has already begun to share the excitement of the company life. The sense of solidarity within the company, the vitality of most Japanese companies, which are growing at an astonishing rate, and the young man's participation in the meaningful responsibilities of a new family mollify his desires for new adventure. Questions about the desirability of this kind of work do not disappear, but most of the young married couples in their late twenties and early thirties have accepted their fate in life. The adjustments they make in finding or creating more interesting activities do not disrupt the framework of their company, their community, and their family.

The attitudes toward work and life of a particular salary man are bound closely to his work position. If he is in a small company, or an unsuccessful company, then he may be looking for opportunities to change to a better situation. If he is in a large company but has an unsympathetic superior, if he has been passed over in promotions or assigned to relatively uninteresting work, or if his prospects within the company are not very bright, he is likely to be acutely frustrated. But the young man with a promising future who moves into positions of responsibility feels an excitement and devotion to his work that is comparable to older high-level executives in the United States.

No new, clear vision has emerged to compare with the clarity of the vision of the salary man of a decade ago. To the extent that there is a new vision, it is a many-sided vision which centers on leading a richer fuller life. Some are taking to new hobbies and spending more time in recreation; some watch television or read or travel more; some men spend more time with their families; some are busy planning to remodel their homes or to purchase a new car. But none of these goals provides the sense of purpose or requires the discipline that was required only a decade ago to become and remain a salary man.

The unprecedented economic growth in Japan brought new prosperity to Mamachi. Men wear neatly-pressed dark suits of materials that compare favorably with those in middle-class America. Women dress in accord with world fashion. Many families have new cars.

Most families have made major home repairs, and many have torn down their old homes and put up new ones on the same site. The homes are now equipped with modern electric equipment and kitchens which resemble those in middle-class America. Many of the homes have new Western-style living rooms, and, not uncommonly, traditional tatami mats have been replaced by carpets.

With this progress the excitement about acquiring new material belongings has begun to fade, but it has by no means ended. Families that a few years ago were acquiring their first refrigerator or washing machine are now planning to buy their first color television, or to add on a new room, or to lay wall-to-wall carpets. Those who lack cars are likely to be planning to buy one, and those who have cars are likely to be thinking of a new one. The chance to acquire all these new objects is still sufficiently fresh that these families are not as indifferent to new purchases as are their counterparts in America.

A decade ago families made a sharp distinction between what they showed to the outside (the
omote
) and what they kept to themselves (the
ura
.) The part of the house they showed to guests, the clothes they wore outside, and the food they served others were very different from what they had for themselves alone. They were extremely generous before others but penurious with regard to their own daily material belongings and to financial affairs within the home. The distinction between omote and ura has not disappeared, but the omote area has greatly expanded with the rise in material wealth, and the proportion of life and belongings which the family would be reluctant to show visitors has greatly declined. Families still eat plainer food for their daily meals than they would eat outside, and they still have poor material belongings which they are reluctant to show to others. The area of the ura has decreased, however, and even the distinction itself is less important than when frugality was essential for making ends meet.

It is a testimony to the rise in expectations that families are so seriously concerned about the rise in prices. Although salaries have risen more rapidly than prices, expectations have risen still more rapidly, so there is often frustration at being unable to buy more than actually can be purchased. Because desires have risen so rapidly and money does not go far enough, some husbands still complain bitterly

that their wives do not give them enough allowance for daily spending money, while wives complain that their husbands spend too much and do not leave enough for them to use for the home and the children.

The advent of the car has greatly increased family travel, making it even more common than the company outing. The increase in seashore resorts in the last several years has, in a short space of time, given rise to summer activity at the seashore comparable to that in the United States, except that crowding is more severe. But even with greater income and security there is still a feeling that one should not lock up one's home for more than a day or so. Families are reluctant to take trips for more than two or three days at a time, especially if no one is left to look after the home. Individual family members may take longer trips to see relatives or to visit friends or see some new scenery, but family trips are generally very brief. Still, an increasing number of Mamachi families have by now been able to send one or more members abroad to Hawaii, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or elsewhere on vacations. Many others in Mamachi are beginning to think of their first trip abroad. While approaching affluence, Mamachi dwellers have not yet arrived, and there are still many things they look forward to acquiring or doing for the first time.

Fantastically rapid economic recovery has led to a new view of Japan and the world. Twenty-five years ago, amidst defeat and food shortages, Japanese had a sense of inferiority to the modern West. Even a decade ago they felt that Japan as a whole was less advanced than Western European countries in its general standard of living. Since Japan has now passed all countries except Russia and the United States in gross national product, and since its rate of economic growth is clearly much faster than any other country in the world, Japan's position in the world is undergoing a new appraisal. The fact that the American government has to make special appeals to the Japanese government to overcome its unfavorable balance of trade helps reduce the vestiges of inferiority which some still feel toward the United States. The fact that the Japanese have been able to achieve all this despite poor natural resources, a very small geo-

graphical area, and the devastation of World War II gives them a feeling of enormous vigor and achievement. In contrast, the United States looks slightly decadent and soft, and American cities look run-down. The internal dissensions in the United States because of race and Vietnam give the Japanese a feeling that they are fortunately spared some of America's debilities.

The citizens of Mamachi are not more nationalistic than a decade ago, but they are prouder. They feel an intensely close identification with Japan on the international scene, and they repeat what they have heard on television or read in the popular press about the relative competitive position of Japan on the world economic scene or the world sports scene. Their sense of international competition in sports reached a peak at the time of the Olympics in Japan, but it was revived for Expo 1970. Their identification with Japan's international status is concentrated on peaceful competition—Japan's standing in international sports meets, Nobel prizes, international musicians, productivity, and standard of living. In contrast to Americans, they are not preoccupied with national security; they deem it highly unlikely that any nation will attack Japan.

A new sense of confidence and the new perspective about Japan's position in the world at times promotes vaulting ambitions. People talk of surpassing Russia in gross national product within a decade and of surpassing America in the average standard of living before the end of the 1980's. Indeed these are the conclusions which follow if one projects into the future present economic growth levels of various countries.

This new perspective on the position of Japan in the world has given rise to a desire to correct those situations in which Japan is perceived and treated as a junior partner. American bases in Japan still symbolize American occupation and Japanese subordination to America, and most Mamachi residents would like to see these removed. The return of Okinawa by America and of the northern islands by Russia seem to be natural reflections of Japan's new, increased power. A commitment to peace and a feeling against rearmament remain very strong, but the Japanese expect Russia, America and the other nuclear powers to make concessions about Japanese possession of nuclear weapons—and perhaps about the de-

struction of many nuclear weapons if Japan were to completely forego them.

Although they are proud of their domestic productivity, they feel that the level of Japanese investment and ownership abroad is not in keeping with Japan's new economic power, and most citizens consider it natural to invest more heavily abroad. However, the residents of Mamachi are overwhelmingly opposed to Japanese involvement in political and military disputes abroad like the one that has recently entangled the United States in Southeast Asia. They do not feel a responsibility for keeping order and promoting development abroad; indeed they consider it beyond their capacity.

For all the enormous progress that Japan has made in the last few years, the residents of Mamachi have a very low opinion of Japanese political leaders. They remain cynical and skeptical of their own leaders, and they have no political heroes. The elected leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party are accepted with resignation, for Mamachi residents are no more hopeful that Socialist or Komeito leaders would deal effectively with national problems. But the officials are seen as politicians, not statesmen, and none of them has become a living symbol of the new Japan.

In their own community Mamachi residents are becoming freer in expressing their political attitudes. Local housewives are more willing to complain about public nuisances or to call to the attention of the local officials the inadequacies of neighborhood public facilities. Some are willing to join support clubs for local politicians, but even then their perspective is more that of a practical citizen interested in certain goals, than one spell-bound by the idealism and the talent of the local leader.

A new concept, "my home-ism" (
mai homu-shugi
) is the current fad for describing the widespread commitment to family life. In some cases, husbands who are no longer thrilled by the excitement of company life devote themselves more to their families. However, "my home-ism" is essentially a new concept for what has existed for a long time. Family life is much the same as it was a decade ago; even the close relationship with grandparents and the frequency of

young married couples visiting their parents has not greatly declined. It is not uncommon for a young wife to return to her mother's home to recuperate after having given birth to a baby. It is not uncommon for a young married couple to live with or near their parents. Even if the old kotatsu, the old family hearth in the middle of the floor, has been replaced by a new gas stove, the sense of the warm family circle joining together in discussion remains much the same.