The Revolution That Will Never BeReturn to Essay List

           Picture a society where the greatest area to thrive in is the government, and as a government official, you can create policy with little regard for your constituency.  Now picture that the most probable outcome in life for an average person is the lifestyle of a white-collar businessperson who works 14 hour shifts and commutes for up to two hours a day each way to and from work.  Sounds unappealing? 

That, however, is exactly the image of a stereotypical businessman.  Take special note that this aged man has finally climbed the ladder of success, more than likely through very good business connections and much sacrificing of family time, to reach a ripe old age where he can collect a large pension upon retirement.  This is a very good thing.  He'll need it to care for all the diseases and bodily dysfunctions he's likely accumulated in his long, hard life from his most likely humble beginnings as a salaryman.

This is the Japanese dream, at least for men.  Illustrated below is a caricature of what choices are readily available to women in Japanese society.  Isn't this just the pinnacle of prosperity here?  Isn't it an absolute inspiration to be glad to be a woman in Japan? Although the image  is an exaggeration of the lifestyle choices available to women, exaggerations are based on realities within.

With these sorts of realities hanging before them, one must wonder what would drive people to seek to exist and attempt to perpetuate such an existence?  Were this a Western country, there would be no limit to the outrage expressed by the people until things improved.  A revolution would begin the moment something better came along.  It was this belief that drove me to wonder why nothing had been done to change things in Japan.  Why would people seek to engage in such a lifestyle when so much more could be theirs?  Why had not a revolution been set into motion that would dramatically alter life as people knew it so that things would be easier on everybody?  With these questions in mind, I sought to find out why.  It was on this search that I also realized something: with the popularity of pop-idols and J-Rock stars, why do so few remain successful over long periods of time, and why have not their songs stirred in the youth something that would have them seek something better?  After all, why wouldn't one want to live like a rock star?  The life of the artists in groups like L~Arc~En~Ciel and Orange Range seem to be far more fun, free, and glamorous than the lifestyle of a lowly salaryman or woman.  With this curiosity growing in my head, I looked onwards for answers.

 I first turned to the work of one Yuji Oniki.  This man, despite being a New York native, has been following Japanese music since the 1960's when Rock'N'Roll was the popular thing in post-war Japan.  Although he did not grow up in Japan, his evaluations regarding the evolution of Japanese pop-music culture have proven themselves to be extremely valid.  In his article Music in the work Japan Edge: The Insider’s Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture, Oniki states “Just because you could consume Rock’n’Roll didn’t mean you were allowed to participate in its creation.” (107) Despite his remark being in regards to rock music specifically, this kind of attitude seemed prevalent within the social structure of Japan.  Sadly, merely because one existed within a society did not guarantee equal participation in the decision making in the society.  With this as a backdrop, it is a wonder how government officials were able to ensure that they would be able to have secure, well-paying jobs which would not require the same style of work that a businessman or businesswoman would have to put in to merely survive. 

Further into his work, Oniki remarks about the lasting impact music can have on people:

“If you listen to music while in motion, … you catch glimpses of another landscape besides the one you’re passing through.  You want to hear the same song over and over because you want to catch more than a glimpse of this imaginary landscape. … Years later you hear the same pop music … and you remember the associations you have built up around it. …The memory evolves, at times becoming ironic and jaded, at other times nostalgic. … But if these songs from the past matter even now after being so commodified as to obscure their visceral origins, it’s because unlike the altered if not vanished landscapes we encountered years ago, these songs remain intact.  They linger on, not because of their artistic integrity but because they are the scant means we have to claim a shared past.” (Oniki, 1999)

Until this point, I still believed that things sung about in songs and displayed in anime would have had an effect on the mindset of the youth of Japan, if not the Western ideas that offered contrary viewpoints to life that had been flowing in since the opening of the borders in mid 1800's.  It is here that Oniki not only proves himself as a man worthy of being taken seriously, but also simultaneously disproves my theory systematically.  Entire generations grow up, share, and partake in a similar musical culture together, and with music’s ability to transport people to far away locales and inspire images of things far more utopian. It seemed logical that people would seek to find or create this utopia which they’d heard of since childhood.  On these grounds, the reinforcement of these idyllic, magical, soul-affirming songs appeared to be a logical basis for which entire generations would learn lessons differing from those who came before had learned and thusly would seek to live a different life from those who lived before them.  Unfortunately, for all the wonders that music can produce, it will not inspire a revolution.  Henceforth I offer a sample of the myriad of reasons why music will neither lead a revolution, nor will there likely be a revolution in the near future.

A Dutch journalist by the name of Karel van Wolferen spent over 30 years living in Japan, and in 1989 published a book containing facts and criticisms of Japanese society entitled The Enigma of Japanese Power.  Notwithstanding that the book is about to enter into its 17th birthday, some things remain valid to this day.  The power of the government still appears centralized while the true decision makers are inevitably still a large number of bureaucrats.  The teachers remain suspicious of the Ministry of Education.  The prices of food are artificially inflated by the Department of Agriculture. Those who graduate from certain, prestigious universities such as Tokyo University are the ones who directly affect decision-making at the high levels, not the people themselves.  Most unfortunate of all, there remains a great cultural divide between Japan and the West despite having had at least 150 years to learn about each other.

The matter of who is actually running the country, and thusly whose interest the government is looking out for, is really a problem for any country.  These people in power literally shape the mindset of the people, and as Wolferen believes, have done an effective job for roughly the last four hundred years in Japan.  The efficiency with which information has been controlled has declined slightly with the aid of the Internet, and more private government watchdogs have been able to spring up as a result. However, minorities of any kind have not met with much success in Japan.  Either becoming assimilated into the mainstream or affiliated with the power structure, or outright lambasted by the authorities, lesser groups are not taken very seriously unless they can martial much public interest in a subject.  More often than not, these are also the very groups that seek to keep the peoples’ best interests at heart.  The Housewives’ Association opposed rampant marketeering after World War II, teachers are against attempts to instill patriotism under the guise of moral education, given their roles during the Second World War, and environmental protection advocates were widely disregarded until people began suffering from nervous disorders due to mercury poisoning from factory waste.  The government wields immense power through both legitimate and under-handed methods that have the capacity to affect every individual. It is through this power that the government has shaped the very consciousness of the Japanese people.  Through generational indoctrination, general inhospitality to change, and admirable manipulation of popular culture to reinforce its own desires, the Japanese system ensures that people serve as the gears within an immense, powerful machine.  Schoolchildren are forced to undergo rote memorization of facts that must be regurgitated during tests.  People are tested from preschool until retirement.  Order and conformity are highly valued attributes.  Truthfully, there is nowhere that the government’s grasp doesn’t extend to, so it would be a safe assumption that music that is broadcast on public stations is heavily monitored and censored so that nothing too damaging can exist.  Although there is most certainly a minority of people who can attain access to the airwaves, they lack the funds to gain major airtime.  Compounded by the fact that their broadcasts are naturally limited in range due to the mountainous nature of Japan, any messages that could be considered revolutionary would lack a suitable means to engage a large number of people.  Between nature and censorship, the government certainly has no reason to fear independent artists seeking to inspire a great social upheaval through music.

This is not to say that just because the government is nigh all-powerful nothing good comes of it.  One needs only read the life story of Hirotada Ototake in his autobiography No One's Perfect.  Ototake is a unique individual. Having been born with arms and legs extending mere inches from his body, Ototake has had to lead an exceptional life; one in which he has successfully triumphed over any difficulty placed before him.  Through the aid, not the pity, of those around him, Ototake has led an extremely inspirational life.

Naturally, with such a physical handicap, Ototake had a difficult time accomplishing even the most rudimentary of tasks.  Through determination and the help of his parents, friends and teachers, he was able to participate in any activity he chose, from acting as a narrator in a school play, running laps, and swimming in competitions, to basketball, football, and even mountain-climbing!  Some of these ordeals would prove difficult for normal children, but especially for Ototake, and it is in the glimpses into his life provided in his autobiography that we can infer about normal Japanese life, youth, and culture.  Japanese schoolchildren must undergo many trials and tribulations to merely make it into adulthood.  From the time they seek entry into preschool they must undertake tests to determine if they are good enough, and this was especially true for Ototake.

Throughout all these rigors, two predominant groups arise who act as both support and sounding board for whatever ideas the youths may desire to pursue: their friends and their mothers.  With their fathers mostly absent earning a living for their families, the mother is the sole parent available to instill a strong work ethic into their child, and that they do quite well indeed.  Mothers form the backbone to their children's study habits by sending them to cram schools after regular school hours and Ototake was no different.  He too had to undergo the ordeal that was cram school and innumerable tests as he progressed along in his life, but he also remarks that he could not have become who he is today without the support of his friends who stuck with him through good times and bad, and whom he seemed to find everywhere he went.  He, too, supported his friends as they supported him throughout their academic lives.  Whether it was in regards to studying for entrance exams, preparing for physical competitions, or just hanging out with the class troublemaker, each of his friends made his life not only more enjoyable, but survivable.  Together, both his parents and friends became important to him, and he became instilled with a desire to let neither them nor himself down in his life.

The same can be assumed for Japanese youth without the handicap of limb impairments.  Their life is constantly rigorous and difficult, filled with studying and after school activities to boost their future prospects, and the desire to not only not lose in a competition with those you've worked with and befriended over time, but also to not let down the parents who worked so hard to get them where they were must be immense.  As such, the only logical outcome is to proceed along a path that would lead to success for not only their own sake, but for all those who aided them in their journey.  As my research has grown to show, expecting music to alter one's belief system was a foolish idea, but an idea that needed to be seen through unto its end.  Truly, the obligation one feels towards those important to him would outweigh one's desire to attempt something foolish enough such as embracing a counter-culture with an uncertain fate.  Hirotada Ototake has been promoting a barrier-free society for the handicapped and became a free-lance sports journalist. He showed that within one's culture one can improve things and attain one's lifelong ambitions while still proving himself successful.  His fate was not that of a businessman, but neither was it that of a renegade.  Instead, Ototake chose his own path which has brought him, his friends, and his family happiness. If an individual like Ototake with such a severe physical handicap could accomplish so much, it is not a far stretch of the imagination that less-restricted Japanese people would be able to do likewise as well.

With all of this evidence staring me in the face, I came to realize that just because people don't rise up all at once and attempt to alter something not-quite beneficial for them, it doesn’t mean that they can't find happiness in their lives or can't change the society for the better in the long run.  Perhaps there are things in Japan that require change, but there doesn't have to be one singular event to change everything.  Instead, a gradual process of changing and altering society subtly may indeed be the better approach.  Regardless of what happens, music will always remain in the background to provide a beat to the drum of life and not be the introductory track.