Importance of Group Life in Japan
Ahlia Vines
SOC-101
Dr. O’Boyle
05/26/18
Importance of Group Life in Japan
Throughout history countries have endured dreadful wars, plagues and events that have set back their overall success and freedom. Japan is one of earths success stories. The market-oriented country survived World War II, and now, despite its small size, is a major economic power in the modern world. Sociologists study the culture, traditions and roles in Japan to analyze their progression over the years. In this essay, I will discuss the importance of “group mentality” to Japanese culture and how it compares to the more individualistic culture of America.
Since the 20th century, Japan retains their culture in their everyday lifestyle of group thinking collectively as a society. Group life is a known concept by sociologists that is a “lifestyle of reasoning or decision-making by a group” (GS). The Japanese ‘group think’ regarding their work, family, and the way they educate their children. The group conscientiousness begins in the family. Gender roles are transparent in the family and are very traditional. The wife is identified as the “inside person” while the husband is the “outside man”. The role of the woman is to get married usually arranged, and by the age of 25. She then as soon as possible has a child. Her main purpose is to be in charge of the home and children while cooking, cleaning and doing whatever her husband commands. The men live to work and be loyal to whatever company that has hired them. They often go on business trips for weeks to months on end, while the mother stays at home raising their children. Women do everything for their husbands, like pick out their clothes, get their bath ready and so on. The roles played by the men and women in the family are highly segregated but still emphasize the idea of group life. They see their separated lifestyles as a way of benefitting the well-being of the family. The husband brings home the money for the wife to raise and teach their children to be successful.
Group life exists in the work place as well. Japanese companies hire men right out of college and encourage their workers to see them as their family. Since the men treat their work as if it were their family, they give their complete loyalty to the company, working together in teams to advance it. Workers often stay in the same company for a lifetime while working his way up in promotions. The company identifies with each other well after they go through the process of in-house training, company housing, and company sports teams.
Japanese culture has been practicing the concept of group life for years and the way they keep up their traditions and customs is through the way they raise their children each generation. Children are taught the importance of group loyalty very early in childhood. They work with their other siblings and mother before attending kindergarten. Their mother will teach them how to read and write before their first year of school. Since the mother is responsible for the well-being of the family, she often feels accomplished for her children’s successes and responsible for their failures. The children are aware of this responsibility she holds and they work together to make their mother proud. Once old enough to start school, children enter a schooling system very similar to that of American culture: preschool, elementary, middle and high school. In the beginning, children are taught to see themselves as members of their homeroom class, or kumi. A kumi refers to the class that they will learn with and stay together throughout elementary school. Each kumi thinks of their classroom as their collective home where they together eat, clean and study. Within the kumi, teachers will divide them into smaller groups called han, which are study groups. From the roles of their parents and their ways of learning at school, the importance of group life is taught to children and it becomes their normal very early on.
While Japanese culture is one of socialism, American culture can be seen as very individualistic. In the United States, people tend to find satisfaction in their own accomplishments, and focus on their own aspirations. Children are raised by both parents collectively and go to school to learn at their own pace. It is not uncommon for both parents to work, teaching children that it is okay that both parents work to either make their own individual income or combine it in the end. American society is very competitive and most people are concerned with only things that affect them for the better. This individualistic way of life is subconsciously exposed to children early in sports teams, schools and clubs. Kids are taught to fend for themselves when trying out for sports and clubs and even getting into college. Americans believe that the best way for something to get done, is to do it yourself with no distractions. In schools, teachers lecture lessons to a class as a whole and then direct the students to work on their own and occasionally there will be some group work given but usually not until upper grades.