Popularity of Korean Pop Culture in Japan: it is not temporary

Korean Pop Culture: it's still popular among Japanese

 One of the things I have been quite surprised since I came to Japan six months ago is that Korean Pop culture is getting more popular. The popularity is not restricted just to mid-aged ladies who go crazy over Korean Dramas. It's been quite widespread from generation to generation(but I would exclude mid-aged and older Japanese males). Before coming to Japan, I thought the boom was exaggerated by patriotic Korean journalists. However, the reality is the boom is still going on and may not end soon. Let me show a few cases.

Case 1: a grandma of an old udon restaurant in Hiroshima.

 I visited Hiroshima last April to see a friend of mine. I stayed in a hostel the night I arrived and the next morning I found an old and a bit rusty udong restaurant nearby. I tend to look for old restaurants thinking that sometimes I get luck having a rare chance to eat something traditional but not well-known. There was none except for me and the old lady. I introduced myself as a Korean because I had to have her understand why I repeated asking some questions(I still have difficulty understanding local accents). She showed me an old magazine with broadcasting schedules for Korean Dramas. We talked over a very old but legendary Korean Drama titled 'Winter Sonata.' It was aired more than 15 years ago, but the main actors and actresses were still her favorites. One impressive thing was that she thought Korean ladies are quite tall(actually, the main actress in the drama is quite tall even as a Korean lady). I got free rice thanks to being a Korean. I was privileged not discriminated.

Case 2: my two co-workers are big Big-Bang fans.

 I don't know their exact ages. Probably late 20s or early 30s. Japanese don't ask people their age like Koreans do, which I like. Both of them have been to Big-Bangs concerts. We happened to go to a Karaoke together and one of them tried to sing Big-Bang's songs like 'Fantastic Baby,' I helped them pronounce a few words correctly. Doing the rap part is quite hard for them.

Case 3: a young guest  was a big fan of Twice.

 'Twice' has been commercial models for Yahoo Mobile quite a while. Their pictures are everywhere. There are toy vending machines from which you can get a cocoon with a toy in after slotting coins in the supermarket where I go quite often. The theme of the vending machine was 'Twice.'

Teenagers shopping in a souvenir store for K-pop Stars in Canal City in Fukuoka 

The Past of Korea and Japan: Colony and Colonizer

 There are much more cases which exemplifies the boom of Korean Pop Culture. But the thing I wanna say is not about my pride over my culture. Considering the history of early 20th century between Japan and Korea, it is a very unique cultural phenomenon which are rarely seen in other areas in the globe. More specifically, Korea was the colony and Japan was the colonizer. During the colonization, Korean culture was treated inferior to Japanese one. One of the most distinctive examples was that during the late colonization era, Koreans were not allowed to speak Korean in public places such as schools and even forced to change their names to Japanese ones. Those kinds of oppression affected people's frame of mind in both cultures. Koreans felt inferior to Japanese culture and thought Japanese culture was more advanced than Korean one(like it has been more westernized). For instance, it was not allowed for Japanese pop entertainers to do business like releasing albums or holding concerts until late 1990s. It was because of the fear that if Japanese pop culture are allowed to be imported, it will dominate Korea and Korea would be culturally colonized again.

 Partly the fear was plausible. Officially and unofficially so many things from Japan were copied and reproduced in Korea. Many of the cartoons I enjoyed watching when I was a kid were made in Japan.

 Generally, even though a country became independent from the colonizer country, the country's cultural hegemony tend to keep strong hold in the the country. Looking at India, South Africa and other countries which were under the umbrella of British Empire,

we can see that people with high education or status prefer British culture. The cultural hegemony has not been eradicated yet.

 But when it comes to the cultural flow between Korea and Japan, the tide changed opposite comparatively quite suddenly. You can see it talking with Japanese and Korean youngsters. In spite of invalidity for generalization, I see the changed tide. Even some Korean youngsters started to think Japanese Pop culture is quite unique but a bit oldish. They say their fashion and styles were things like 10 years ago they saw in Korea. Even some Japanese youngsters think Korean pop culture is quite cool and more fashionable than Japanese one. 

 Recently I saw some interesting goods with brand 'Seoul.'  Avoiding the rain, I got into the biggest mall in Fukuoka named Canal City. I walked around and checked the prices. There were green T-shirts with logo 'Seoul.' In Zara, there was perfume with brand 'Seoul.'

 As a Korean who had been fascinated with Sony Walkman and Anime like Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk and taken it for granted that Most of Japanese goods are more sophisticated and fashionable than Korean ones, the ongoing tide of Korean Pop culture in Japan looks quite amazing and in a way unbelievable. 

in H&M

in Zara

At last I saw Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival partly:Nagarehiki(流れ引き)

Before reading the blog, you can watch the video of the event held on 19th of July, the most popular part of Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival(日田祇園曳山祭り) on Youtube!  I made it.

Click the link!

Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival

Hita(日田), a small city with rich tradition

 Hita has quite a lot of festivals considering its size of population and width. Among them the most popular and oldest one is Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival(日田祇園曳山祭り). Before coming to Japan, I had hoped to see what a festival or masturi(祭り) in Japan is like and compare it with ones in South Korea. One of the reasons I had been interested in festivals in Japan is that I quite often happened to read news articles that criticized monotonous and bureaucratic styles of local festivals in South Korea, many of which compared them with Japanese ones with great fame bringing lots of tourists not just from Japan but from all around the world. Luckily, I got a day off on 19th July, when the main event called 'Nagarehiki(流れ引き) was supposed to be held.  Actually, my boss got me the day off because he wanted me to take pictures and videos of the festival and spread them on the Internet as a sort of promotion of tourism of Hita.

First of all, I would admit it was fantastic and worth watching!

 I remember a friend of mine, after glimpsing my photos on Facebook over Hita, jokingly  said,

"Hey, Jerry! you are having a great paid vacation!"

Of course, his comment is quite far from reality(I work in Hita). But 19th of July was the day when I felt like he was somewhat right.

The origin and history of Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival

 The first question I had over Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival was why they have done it so long? Of course, it wouldn't be completely wrong to say that it has taken place by local leaders to attract more tourists and revitalize its local economy. But originally the festival took place for 'survival.' What was the most scary thing before the modern times for people who lived in a small city like Hita 400 years ago? It was contagious diseases. Whether in the West or the East, when it broke out, it could be disastrous enough to destroy the whole city. In the situation when no one knew how it breaks out and can be removed, the only thing people could do was praying for God or gods that it does not break out. Translating praying for God or gods is 'matsru(祭る)' in Japanese and when 'mastru' changes into the noun form, it turns to 'matsuri(祭り).' Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival is a maturi where people gather and pray for the god who protects them from contagious diseases. 

 Even the name 'Gion(祇園)' implies 'a place with passionate wish.' There have been a number of shrines in Japan with diverse purposes. Shrines serving the god who prohibits contagious diseases are called 'Gion Shrines.' There have been many Gion Shrines throughout Japan (the most popular one is located in Kyoto) and Hita also has had a few. Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival is run by the Gion Shrines people related to them. Gion Shrines worship a god called Gozu Teno, who is known to protect people from contagious diseases. A few Gion Shrines were located throughout Hita area including Kuma, Mameda, Ikebe, Kabu, and Tsutsumi, each of which had used to hold its own festivals or matsuris. 

 Around 1655, the first small scale kakiyama in which people in each area held their own float and marched streets appeared. It was accompanied by bells and drums. The first big scale Yamaboko Festival was held in 1714. Yamabokos are tower-like statues decorated with characters in ancient legends or myths from Japan or China and platforms supporting them which are carried by people on the streets. They are the things  people from Hita, Kyushu, Japan, and the world are excited to see. The festival was held in Kuma and Mameda(it is the same even now). As time went by, the sizes of Yamabokos got bigger and bigger with more sophisticated decorations. Even the music accompanied  became more organized getting through the early Edo period(from early 17th century to middle 19th century), when the first manager of the Koyama-gumi troupe which was a kind of music band made to energize the festival composed the first organized music for the festival by the order of the local magistrate at that time. The music was later refined by his son, Matsukichi. At the bottom of a Yamaboko, there is space where dozens of people can get in. The space is for the troupe to get in and play the music when the gangs outside carry the yamaboko.

 For the last decades, the festival got its reputation not just  nationally but internationally. It was designated as a National Intangible Folk Culture asset  in 1996 and  inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible  Cultural Heritage list in 2016 with other local ones in Japan.

This is Museum of Hita Gion Yamaboko. You can see big and high yamabokos whenever you want!

July, the month of Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival

 The main events are held around late July. But seeing overall procedures, it begins on the first in July. My privilege as the resident of Hita was that riding my bike passing through Kuma-mach and Mameda-mach heading for supermarkets for grocery shopping, I was able to see the whole steps of the festival throughout the month.

Here is the summary of the procedure of the festival in July(I got an English pamphlet in the museum). 

On the first day of July, a ceremonial event called Koyairi takes place.

Two weeks before the marching events, another ceremony is held, when  the float wheels are lifted out of the pond, where they have been usually placed. Then the painted yakata(float box) and wheels are assembled and decorated.

One week before, the floats are washed late at night on the Saturday one week before the festival, using the water of Mikuma River.

Two days before the main events, there is Nagarehiki, when the floats are given a " test drive' to check the balance and stability. As a matter of fact,  it is the biggest event and attracts lots of tourists because all yamabokos gather in the square of Hita Station. 

Festival day, usually Saturday, Mokoshi(portable shrine) ritual is held, and the floats are carried through the town, starting at about 9:00 pm.

Next Day in Yaburi, people involved in the festival celebrate the success of the festival and store the items used back to the places where they used to be. 

Ye, it's a Japanese traditonal festival and quite different from Korean ones!

 Comparing with traditional festivals I have seen in Korea, I could see three distinctive traits of  Hita Gion Hikiyama Festival.

 First, All the items involved in festival such as yamabokos and costumes of the participants were quite fancy or more positively splendid.  Surely, one big reason for the fancy is that the economy of Hita during Edo period was quite robust. Hita was flourishing as the financial and logistic hub of Kyushu Island. For big festivals, it takes lots of money. Another reason could be that Japan was relatively less influenced by Confucianism than Korea and each local area were quite independent from the central government. Confucianism, more specifically Neo-Confucianism emphasizes frugality of not only leaders but people of communities and nations. Therefore, in Korea where Confucianism was the dominant idea or doctrine for more than 600 years before the collapse of Chosun Dynasty in 1910, it was not encouraged to have local festivals spending an enormous amount of capital. On the other hands, in Japan Daimyos(大名) who were kinds of lords who were quite autonomous from the central powers like emperors or shoguns(将軍) wanted to show off their prosperity in order to justify their authority and power. Festivals were great opportunities to do so. Even leading business people used festivals the same way. Luxurious Yamabokos represented wealth and prosperity of leading business people in Hita.

 The second thing I was impressed with was the participants were quite inter-generational. Except for a few dignified traditional festivals, most volunteers who perform in traditional festivals in Korea are quite aged. Even though there has been slow change to rediscover and revalue the traditional culture among young generations, it is true that traditional cultures are not respected and protected voluntarily by the people in communities in Korea. However, in Hita, I could feel and see visible and invisible system and connection of people in the community nurturing the energy to dignify and preserve their local culture. I watched boys pulling yamabokos with old gentlemen, where there were long and steady communication among generations. It was envious.

 The last impressive thing was that only men were allowed to pull Yamabokos or play music inside yamabokos. Of course, many women volunteered as supporters giving out drinking water ,but main roles were just for males. It reminded me the news I watched on TV a few months ago. A politician was speaking on a sumo stage. All of a sudden, he got a heart attack. Two female medical staff rushed up to the stage, but a staff broadcast to warn the two ladies to get off the stage because it is not permitted for women to step on the sumo stage. I still think Japan is a very discriminatory society against women.

One of my dream came true

 One of dreams came true. Moreover, it gave me a great chance to think more deeply over Korea as well as Japan. I guess I've adjusted to the new living environment well enough to feel like writing blogs like this one. My plan is to expand my experience from small to big, from Hita to Japan. And I hope it goes further from Japan to East Asia, then the world.

Wish me luck!

Creatures in Miyajima

 On the third day in Hiroshima visiting a friend of mine, Michael, I headed for miyajima(宮島) taking the tram. Actually, I hadn't planned to visit the well-known Itsukushima Jinja(厳島神社), but Micheal recommended me to see it and suggested joining the trip, which made me decide to spend the last morning there. Moreover, he said there is a Starbucks in the island( there is no Starbucks in Hita and I go to McDonald to get a wi-fi usually). I didn't enjoy Starbucks, but nowadays one of the first things I check when I go somewhere in Japan is whether there is a Starbucks nearby. 

 I and Michael were supposed to meet at the Starbucks in the island, but I got a text message on the way that he could't make it for a thing which he had to deal with bureaucratically. 

Surely, my official objective is to enjoy the scenic views of the island and its mystic shrine, but I was more attracted to the moving creatures around like human beings, birds and etc. 

Middle School Students

 The first creatures I had been faced up with was a mass of middle school students and their teachers who were taking a field trip to the island. They looked quite like Korean students and teachers overall. But I could see things I don't see in a school field trip back in South Korea. One thing was that students were wearing uniforms and even the teachers were wearing suits. In Korea, many schools allow students to wear their own clothes on the day of the field trip and teachers tend to wear quite comfortable casual clothes to be more active. Field trips needs students and teachers to move around quite actively and widely and especially for teachers wearing light and comfortable clothes makes more sense to me. 

 But Michael who had worked in a Japanese public school a couple of years gave me a different perspectives over dress codes on field trips in Japan . According to his explanation, on the field trip they should reveal themselves to the public and  it is significant for students and teachers to wear elegantly. I could say  it is from 'saving face' culture in Japan. In Korea and China, and even western countries, there exist customs or social attitudes to save faces, but the spectrum and degree differ from culture to culture. Having listened to Michael's explanation, I could understand why the students were walking and waiting more in order than Korean students were, from a different aspect.

Deer even here

 I've been to Nara which was a capital city in the ancient times several times where you could see lots of deer around the parks and even in the temples. I was relieved to see that there are not as many deer as in Nara. I did't have to worry over stepping deer dung. But they are living creatures enough to get me a few pictures. Additionally, in East Asia deer are treated as sacred animals. 

Blowfish(fugu)

 Looking down the water in the shrine, I was really amazed seeing tens of blowfish moving around. I hadn't seen blowfish in nature. I had seen them in fish tanks in front of sushi restaurants in South Korea. The more places I get around in Japan, the more impressed I get with the affluence of nature in Japan. I am not sure I can generalize, but there may be a stereotype among Koreans that Japan had been a quite tough place for living or surviving because most of the terrain is covered with high mountains and can't produce enough staple grains such as rice. The stereotype has been justified with the fact that historically Korea had suffered from the pirates from Japan who were starving fishermen otherwise and during the Colonization Era in the early 20th century Japan took lots of grains to its Islands and led to the long lasting starvation in Korea. But looking at the sea and mountains with its huge natural resources, I've started to give a question to the stereotype. 

Heron

 I had been used to them because there was a small pine tree forest near my apartment with lots of nets of them back in Korea. But I hadn't known how well they hunt or fish. Actually, watching the heron fishing with great success rates was the most astonishing thing I saw in Miyajima. 

A question going further: what is the nature of Setonaikai(瀬戸内海) like?

A thing to do in the near future: kayaking around the seashore of Miyajima

Christianity in Hita I've experienced just superficially

 One of the first things I tried to find in Hita right after arriving was a church where I could join services, Bible studies or etc. As other areas in Japan, finding a church is not as easy as in South Korea. In Anjung(안중) where I lived more than ten years back in South Korea has more than 10 churches whose names I remember, small or big. There may be more, I guess. I was not even curious  about which kind of denomination of the church in Hita would be. I had just thought it would be better than having no church around.

Luckily, It was not that hard to find. A Lutheran church with a big preschool behind  was located right across McDonald where I would be craving for Big Mac and French fries after getting bored with Japanese or Korean food. The existence of the Lutheran church got me a bit of joy and surprise because back in South Korea there are few Lutheran churches (in my life, I saw only one Lutheran church back in South Korea in Hannam-dong(한남동) in Seoul where there is a quite big German community around. I thought joining a denomination I was not used to or involved in could be a great opportunity to broaden and deepen my perspectives towards Christianity in East Asia( One of the reasons I had decided to move to Japan was figuring out how Christianity has taken roots in Korea, Japan, and China each. 

Whenever I went grocery shopping after work which was typically late in the evening, I checked out whether there was a service being done on a regular basis or someone doing something there. Actually I wanted to know if there are Bible studies or something during weekdays because my day-off is just on Fridays, some times Thursdays, not Sundays. After a few trials, I managed to find someone working in the church. He was not a pastor. There was no Bible studies. There used to be, he said. I asked him whether there are any services or activities during weekdays. He answered 'no.' He said there are two services just on Sundays. Moreover, there was no pastor fully in charge of the church. Pastors of Lutheran churches in Oita Prefecture keep taking turns of having services in Hita. Even though I didn't get any specific statistics over religious life of people here in Hita, I could clearly presume that Christianity is not flourishing as actively as South Korea. 

Another day I happened to find a quite Catholic Cathedral like building. At first I thought it was a real Cathedral building. In Kyushu there has been a long history of Catholic churches starting from Francis Xavier in spite of a long lasting persecutions by Dokugawa Bakuhu(徳川幕府) in the middle. Relatively Catholic Churches are more spread  and visible than Protestant Churches as far as I had experienced. 

Over Francis Xavier click down here!

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier

It was not a church. It was a wedding hall. There was no cross at the top of the roof of the building. Of course, back in South Korea, there are many wedding halls, but they don't look like church buildings. Many of them adopt Greco-Roman styles. Possibly, Christianity is treated not as a religion but as a culture from the West by the majority of Japanese. For example, watching Japanese animations and dramas, there are lots of scenes where couples are having a wedding in a church or church-like building with a pastor officiating. But, it is just a type of wedding and doesn't have any religious meanings related to Christianity. 

Having failed to find an opportunity to do something social in the only church I had found, I started to read the Bible before going to bed or just right after waking up in the morning. And it became my habit to check out the bulletin board in front of the church after shopping, which is almost all the time empty. 

'있다' and 'Have'

사과 한 개가 있다(있습니다/있어요).

If you translate the sentence above into English, you may get two ones.

1. I have an apple.

2.  There is an apple. (or an apple exists.) 

The reason why there could be two translations is that '있다' has basically two meanings: the first one is 'exist' or 'be' and the other one is (subject+) have.(depending on the context, the subject could be I, you, she or whoever. It would be appropriate to say that the subject is skipped.)

Actually, teaching Korean students English, one of the hardest parts for me to let them understand is the usage of verb 'have' because in Korean expressions of 'Subject + have(or has) something' are not used as universally as in English.  There are more examples. 

I have a stomachache.

배가 아프다(아픕니다/아파요).

We have snow tomorrow morning.

내일 아침 눈이 온다(옵니다/와요).

I have asked myself which is more original meaning of verb '있다(있어요)' between 'be' and 'have'. More specifically, when the ancestors who lived 200 years ago were said "사과 한 개가 있어요,"  for which meaning would they understand it?

I got a clue from a book I bought a few days ago. 

To those who believe that "to have" is a most natural category of human existence it may come as a surprise to learn that many languages have no word for "to have." In Hebrew, for instance, "I have" must be expressed by the indirect form jesh li("it is to me"). In fact, languages that express possession in this way, rather than by "I have," predominate. It is interesting to note that in the development of many languages the construction "it is to me" is followed later on by the construction " I have," but as Emile Beveniste has pointed out, the evolution does not occur in the reverse direction. This fact suggests that the word for to have develops in connection with the development of private property, while it is absent in societies with predominantly functional property, that is, possession for use. (Fromm, Erich. To have or to be. Bloomsbury Revelations(2015), p20)

I tried imagining that I was a son of a poor peasant somewhere outside Pyeongyang 150 years ago.(my father's family fled Pyeongyang during the Korean War).

What or how many things would I have exclusively on my own? Maybe a few clothes and a pair of shoes?  Most farmers could barely feed their families and cooperation in the community was the key for survival. All kinds of tools and resources were rare and had to be shared. 'To have something exclusively' was kind of evil value or a privilege confined to a few nobles. Naturally expressions with 'I have blahblah' must not have been used as often as the modern times. The modern concept of private property was introduced with the colonization by Japanese Empire in the early 20th century and spread rapidly after 1960s, when the industrial developments were organized and executed under President Park Jung Hee's regime. 

Therefore, from Fromm's sociolinguistic perspectives, it would be logic to guess that the meaning of "to have" was added in "있다" with the introduction of the concept of 'private property' which is the core one in capitalism in the modern times.  

Meditations and Zhuang-zi(莊子)

Figuring out the differences of the ways of thinking between the people from the West(I would say people from the Western Europe, North America and Commonwealth more specifically) and the ones from the East (I would say Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese specifically) has been an ongoing issue for myself as well as my friends, and quite frequently it pops up as a hot issue for debating while drinking beer or coffee. So, looking for clues with which I can find the origins of the differences has become my life project(or a hobby).

There is a podcast channel which I listen to from time to time(of course, it's done in Korean). It deals with various kinds of topics which could be great sources for a bit more intellectual conversations such as Socrates and postmodernism. The title of the channel is 'wide and shallow knowledge for intellectual conversations(지적 대화를 위한 넓고 얕은 지식).'

The Panel of the podcast

 "Meditation" written by Descartes and "Zhuang-zi((莊子)" were introduced in a row and the discussion over the differences over how each book  was organized by the panel was interesting enough for me to borrow the books from the library and read them. I thought comparing the classics from the West and the East could give me a good clue with which I could understand the gap of the ways of thinking. 

Descartes's most popular "Cogito, ergo sum" is from "Mediations." The purpose for him to write the book is  that through doubting even the most undoubtful he could gain the ultimately undoubtful knowledge and build up the structures or schemes of the rest upon it.  His conclusion of "Cogito, ergo sum" is one of the results of his meditations of doubts. 

Two traits I could find tracking the flowing of 'Meditations' are 'giving conditions and making clear the abstract concepts' and 'organzing the abstract concepts through logics and making the conclusion upon.'

All that up to the present time I have accepted as most true and certain I have learned either from the senses or through the senses; but it is sometimes proved to me that these senses are deceptive, and it is wiser not to trust entirely to any thing by which we have once deceived. (The First Mediation)

Reading the paragraph above, I could read Descartes' way of developing his logics.

I get knowledge mostly from senses.

1. Trustable knowledge should be errorless wherever and whenever.

2. Knowledge from senses have errors from time to time.

3. Therefore, knowledge from senses is not trustable. 

Throughout the book, Descartes suggests and makes clear his ideas through syllogism, which is quite typical in the Western philosophy and I guess my Western friends are so great in using it especially while debating or arguing.  

I shall then suppose, not that God who is supremely good and the fountain of truth, but some evil genius not less powerful than deceitful, has employed his whole energies in deceiving me; I shall consider that the heavens, the earth, colours, figures, sound, and all other external things are nought but the illusions and dreams of which genius has avail himself in order to lay traps for my credulity. (The First Meditation)

The paragraph above suggests a few abstract concepts such as God(of course I can say  theologically He is not abstract, but philosophically He is abstract) and those concepts are made clear such as seen "God who is supremely good and the fountain of truth." 

'Moderations' was written in 17th century when so-called 'science' was about to be born growing from 'Natural Philosophy.' But reading the books by Plato, Aristotle, and etc, the two traits of 'giving conditions and making clear the abstract concepts' and 'organzing the abstract concepts through logics and making the conclusion upon.' are quite generally visible. 

For the readers who are familiar just with the Western Philosophies, reading Zhuang-zi(莊子) could be quite exotic and refreshing. Or sometimes it could feel like strange and sound like it doesn't make any sense. Zhuang-zi(莊子) is the name of one of the most representative persons in Taoism in China and the title of the book which is supposed to have been written or orated by him. 

In the northern ocean, there was a fish named Kun(鯤). Its width was so huge that it was impossible to guess how many thousands of yards it was. It could change into a bird named Peng(鵬). Its back is so huge that it was impossible to guess how many thousands of yards it was. When Peng(鵬) flied holding huge amount of air in its chest, its two wings looked like the cloud in the sky. The bird wanted to travel to the southern ocean when the ocean moved.  ······  A quail laughed at Peng(鵬) flying and said, " Where on the earth is it going? I can freely jump and flying in the bush and forest. I can fly tens of yards at most. Where on the earth is it going?" 

北冥有魚, 其名爲鯤, 鯤之大, 不知其幾千里也, 化而爲鳥, 其名爲鵬, 鵬之背, 不知其幾千里也, 怒而比, 其翼若垂天之雲, 是鳥也, 海運則將徙於南冥, ······ 斥鴳笑之曰, 彼且奚適也? 我騰躍而上, 不過數仞而下, 翶翔蓬蒿之間, 此亦飛之至也, 而彼且奚適也?

The story above is introduced at the first part of Zhuang-zi. Many classics in the East, especially ones from Taoism, are organized with an array of stories like the one above. Reading the story at first, I felt like "what on earth is the story about?" That kind of feeling of being confused is not confined to me.  A member of the panel of the podcast who majored in East Asian Philosophy said that due to the possibility of wide spectrum of interpretations for the classics, there developed an academic culture of writing commentary books over classics by scholars in East Asia. Through the long and ongoing process of debating and making commentary books, integral ideas are built up over the classics. 

Then, why did authors in East Asia use story making as a tool often? The panel of the podcast emphasized the culture of seeking insight for truths.  There has been belief in East Asia that wisdom can be gained not through analytical logic games of words but integral perspectives for the flows or the big pictures of the phenomenon (I know even the perspectives for the flows or the big pictures sound quite ambiguous.)

There are two things more I would like to mention; the first thing is that there has been distrust for languages in East Asia. Scholars and Wisdom seekers in East Asia recognized the limitations of words. In Korea, related to Taoism, the most popular words are below.

                               

If you say the truth is the truth, it is not the truth anymore. 

道可道非常道. 

It can interpreted in two ways. The first is that the truth can not be expressed with a few words. The second is about the relativity of truth; it can be the truth in 1990, but possibly it can't be true in 2017. 

The second thing to mention is that there is scholarly resistant attitude against making abstract concepts in a straightforward way(which is quite opposite to the Western way). This kind of attitudes is revealed in the conversation between Confucius and one of his disciples. 

Fanchi(樊遲) was one of the closest disciples of Confucius(孔子). One day, he asked Confucius.

" What is knowledge?"

Confucius answered.

" If you respect gods, but keep distance from them, it could be said that you know things."

敬鬼神而遠之   可謂知矣

As seen in Confucious' answer, he was quite reluctant to define what knowledge is. Of course, its basic assumption is that there is limitation in words in expressing truths.

Surely, just comparing the two books is not enough to get a clear picture over what the differences of way of thinking between Western people and the people in East Asia are from. Actually, there are so many exceptions. Reading the Gospels in the Bible, I see stories with which I don't understand what they mean and the classics from Neo-Confucianism are so abstract and analytical. But considering that the classics are the books that have influenced people's way of thinking so long, I can say that the classics are very useful clue to figure out the differences.


P.S.
If you are more into figuring out the differences, reading "The Geography of Thought" could be helpful.

Recruiting Fair for Foreign Graduates by Pasona in Tokyo (2017/8/4)

For the last 2 and 3 years, I read lots of news that Japanese job market is booming. Economy is recovering from the long depression and trying to hire more staff to expand thier businesses. But the problem is that the populaton of college graduates has been declining steadily and Japanese companies are having difficulty in recruiting young staff. To overcome the problem, companies have paid attention to the foreign students and held variety of events to attract talented staff overseas. South Korea has been one of thier targets to invest thier energy and as far as I know, lots of Korean college graduates started to pay attention to the opportunities in Japan as well. In Korea, I could see more online advertisements that promoted job fairs in which Japanese companies take part. 

I was one of the Korean students who paid attention to the job market in Japan. I felt like seeing what the real situation is in Japan, even a little bit. I had studied Japanese for years and was supposed to get a Japanese community college degree soon. I wanted to get a kind of objective reward for my effort. Moreover, I wanted  a kind of turning point in my life if possible (but I didn't have hig expectation partly due to my age). Before leaving Korea for trip in Japan, I found a recruiting company called 'Pasona.'   

I found it in a book titled 'Tokyo Business Walk' (임상균, '도쿄 비지니스 산책' , 한빛비즈(2016)). The company was mentioned in the book not only because it performed so well but because it pursued quite innovative ideas to have its staff maximize its potentials such as healty diet in cafeteria and so on ( I will write a seperate blog about it). 

I checked its homepage and found there were supposed to be a recruiting fair for foreign college students and graduates in the headquarter builidng in Tokyo in the early August. I put the event in my schedule of the travel of Japan and signed up for it(it was free). 

Before leaving for the fair, I ate a ramen in a small restaurant. It tasted like a real Japanese ramen. But, looking inside the kitchen, the cook was South Asian (Indian , Nepalese, or Pakistani). In convenience stores and fast foods restaurant, it was not hard to see non-Japanese cashiers.

 I got off the subway at Nihonbashi Station and walked around 5 minutes. The headquarter building was located right next to Tokyo Station.

People were guided to the 12th floor. They got a short briefing over the schedule and the companies participating in the event. Each one got a few sheets of paper in which they wrote thier profiles to submit the companies the could be interested in. I checked the proportions of nationalities of participants just with my eyes and ears. Chinese including Taiwanese were dominant. They seemed to be about 50 % of the whole participants. The next dominant group was Southeast Asians. They were like 1 in 4. Interestingly, there were not many Koreans seen.  The guy sitting right next to me was an American. I asked him a few questions. He confrimed the news that Japanese job market is definitely in a better situation than Korea. He said that he already got three jobs offered and came to the fair to find companies with more culturally friendly atmospheres and policies.  

I moved down to the 10th floor with the venue for seminar. At the entrance, there was a bulletin board with brief profiles of companies participating.

Companies gave participitants their pamphlets and offered a briefing over what kind of businesses they were doing, what kind of talents they were looking for, how the working conditions including salaries, and etc. Most companies offered individual consultations and did kind of screening procedures.

The most bustling section was Panasonic.  Most of the participants waiting for individual consultations were Chinese because Panasonic was looking for staff who are able to  support its business in China.

There were some IT companies' sections with couple of foreign staffs who could give consultation in English. In those sections, more people with Western origins joined in, which is I think natural. It was quite interesting to watch them doing like Japanese college graduates wearing all-black suits.

Visiting several sections and getting a few consultations, I recognized what kind of talents Japanese companies are looking for from foreign staff.

1. Glocalization( Globalization + Localization)

I had a short interview with the personnel officer of a leasing company named 'Lalco'. The company was expanding its business in Laos in Southeast Asia. From hotel business, it diversified its business area such as automobile leasing, micro-finance and etc. It was looking for staff who could stay in Laos for a long-term basis and do marketing in the area(learning the local langauge was a must). The problem is that Japanese staff don't prefer to work abroad. In a book titled 'Reimaging Japan: The Quest for a Future That works' which is filled with the suggestions by people who can be said to know Japan quite deep such as Carlos Ghosn, the ex-CEO of Nissan Motors pointed out Japanese youngsters' introvert characteristics. Many of them argue not only that more foreign talents should be welcomed but also that Japanese college students should be encouraged to have more experiences abroad and improve thier English in this kind of globalized business world (concerning the issue,I felt Japanese are quite opposite to Koreans because Korean youngsters are crazy going abroad). It seemed that they think that if the hired foreign staff don't have any big problems communicating with Japanese staff, they are more capable to do marketing abroad. Panasonic got the biggest space in the hall and brought massive staff to procceed its event. It targeted Chinese students who can speak Japanese, Chinese, and (probably) English. 

2. Tourism (English + Japanese + maybe Chinese) 

Tourism has been booming for the last 5 years in Japan. Weak Yen and the rapid growth of middle class in China and South Asia are the main factors for the growth( cheaper flights with introduction of budget airlines could be another). In 2015 about 20 million people visited Japan and in 2016 about 25 million people did. This year until July about 17 million people visited Japan. Just for July, 2,681,500 people visited Japan. It was 16.8% increase year on year.

https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/

The matter is short of staff who can serve overseas customers. Due to the decrease of young populations, hotels and resorts have tried to hire foreign staffs. Even in the fair, I  saw more than five hotel or resort companies recruiting foreign students. Some were recruiting temporary staff who could work seasonly like a ski resort in Hokkaido. 

3. IT( IT technologies + Japanese + a little English)  

General Japanese economy is recovering and IT sector has been catching up with other competitors like Korea, China, and Taiwan. Especially, it found its own strength: IoT. But it has faced the same problem called 'workforce shortage.' Actually, I could see the situation indirectly in Korea. There were quite a lot of training programs seen like computer language training plus being hired by Japanese firms in Korea. The problem will be more severe as time goes by( one of my students asked me to help him learn Japanese after deciding to major in computer engineering).

Definitely there are opportunities in Japan. Speaking Japanese is a must. Good English and Chinese are welcomed. And they are starving for IT guys. But it is better not to expect to get a high salary at first. More than anything, the work is tough whatever it is(Japanese work so hard whatever it is).