The neighborhood I was assigned to explore and observe was Sugamo, commonly known as the shopping district for the elderly, or “Harajuku for Grannies”. The Sugamo Prison where war criminals were held during the US Occupation after WWII was located here until it was dismantled in 1971. The neighborhood is largely residential, with some commercial areas.
When I arrived, I quickly saw that the area lived up to its nickname. I saw many middle-aged and elderly people walking around and riding bikes, and very few young people, children, or salarymen. After walking around a bit, I found the main shopping street. It was wider than other shopping streets in Tokyo that I have seen. The stores catered to the elderly demographic, selling tea, pastries, and comfortable, modest clothes. Signs for automatic defibrillators were displayed. The pace was very slow, and the street was very quiet. Most of the independently owned shops had no customers at around 3 in the afternoon. I soon noticed that I was the only foreigner in this part of the neighborhood. While my appearance causes me to stick out as a foreigner in Tokyo, Japanese people didn’t seem to really notice or care in busier areas such as Shinjuku. In Sugamo, however, I noticed that people would look at me with a puzzled expression. It may have been in part due to my age, but more likely it was due to me being white. I have not seen Sugamo mentioned in any tourism books or websites, and it certainly does not cater to foreigners, so many people must have been confused as to why I was there. I walked further down the street to look for a place to sit, when I came across the Koganji Buddhist temple. Next to the temple was a statue of a woman. People were rinsing the statue down with water from a nearby fountain, and some focused on certain areas of the statue’s body. After doing some research online, I found that the statue was actually a buddhist Jizou statue. The water in the fountain is said to heal all ills, so if you feel pain in one part of your body, rubbing the statue in that corresponding spot will relieve pain. Many older people were standing in line to pray and rinse the statue. It was interesting to watch people interact with the statue. It seemed to be almost a daily routine for some, who passed through quickly. Other people spent more time rubbing the statue and praying. There was a shaded area that seemed to accommodate long lines, leading me to believe that the statue is very popular among the residents of the neighborhood. The street was very flat and wide. Scooters were parked outside of some shops, but many people still walked or rode bikes, which I found as a contrast to America. There were many bookstores and bakeries, and workers in the stores stood outside and called out to passerby. Very few stores were popular chains, and it was hard to find even a Family Mart on the street. The shops were run by older people as well. Restaurants were sparse, and I didn’t see a single bar on the street. Stores for scooters, conservative, non-trendy clothing, and other items not usually found on more busy Tokyo streets were common. Some stores sold bright red underwear, which is said to bring good luck to people over 60. Many of the buildings were only two stories and seemed old. It seemed more common for hair salons or apartments to be located on the second floor of a building. No construction was going on, and the neighborhood was not gentrified in any way. It seemed like the main shopping street had been that way for several decades. It crossed my mind that, in the future, there could be more neighborhoods like Sugamo as Japan’s population continues to age. Soon, there will be even more elderly people who will need to be catered to, and just one neighborhood of shops will not be enough. I felt a little bit out of place when I visited the neighborhood, but I didn’t feel unwelcome in any way. It was refreshing to see a part of actual daily life in the city without any stores catering to tourists, and to see the difference in people my grandmother’s age in the United States and in Japan, where I feel they are more accommodated.
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Regarding Shibuichi Reading:
1. Is the controversy surrounding the deification of war criminals at the Yasukuni Shrine mainly due to their classification as criminals? In other words, would these individuals be viewed more universally as heroes if they weren't accused or convicted of war crimes by the Allies, but still performed the same actions during the war? 2. Could the United States have this problem if they had lost the war? Further, could some of those buried at Arlington be considered war criminals? 3. How do Japanese people view Americans visiting the shrine? Regarding the Kotler Reading: 1. Why does Japan take pride in its war efforts despite being defeated, while the US, the war's victor, still focuses on the lives lost with a more solemn attitude? 2. Which perpetuates and supports Japanese Nationalism more strongly: a unique and ubiquitous religion (Shintoism) or celebration of its military? 3. Why is Yasukuni only reserved for those who died fighting for Imperial Japan? During Spring Quarter at UW, I took a history class on postwar Japan. My term paper focused on the evolution of the Japanese Economy from 1945-present. A main reason for the massive growth of the economy into the third largest in the world was that, for the first time, women were participating in the Japanese Workforce in massive numbers. However, they did so in temporary or low-skilled positions, and never reached equality in the corporate workplace. Now that the growth of the Japanese economy has slowed, Prime Minister Abe has stated that women are the key to Japan’s future prosperity. This caused me to become curious as to how feminism has played a role in Japanese culture, especially in the mid-twentieth century to the present.
While the second wave of feminism was rising in The United States and elsewhere in the West, a similar movement was not seen in Japan. Why? While Japan has some of the best higher education in the world, why are only 1 in 5 students at its leading university female while Harvard has over 50 percent female enrollment? Japan has the highest amount of workplace gender inequality of any other leading developed nation, and I seek to find out why. In addition to this, I want to know what people in Japan think of this gender gap, and what people are doing about it. Finally, I want to know what the future of the gender gap in Japan is, as the current drop in population is unsustainable for the future of the Japanese workforce. Accessibility of childcare and maternity benefits are essential in raising the birthrate, but employers are reluctant to provide them or to accommodate mothers who wish to work a corporate job. The role of the woman in Japanese society has been dynamic over time, and I wish to explore it. When one examines Japan's immense and complex history, it's easy to see why the culture of the island nation is so unique and unlike that of any other country on Earth. Thousands of years of tradition were flipped upside down in 1853 when Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay and forced Japan to open itself to the world again for the first time in centuries. The subsequent Meiji Restoration catapulted Japan to the tier of being a major world power, and Western culture mingled with ancient tradition to create a modernized and innovative society that remained ethnically and culturally homogenous, a large contrast to the also rapidly growing United States.
The effects of the American Occupation following WWII were also unprecedented. Japan now sits in a peculiar position, where it still sits at the will of the US Military, is governed by a Constitution written by foreigners, and has experienced explosive growth (and subsequent stagnation) in its economy. No other country in the world faces the same set of unique challenges as Japan, because no other country has the same history as Japan does. Tradition and modernity in Japan have successfully mingled for centuries, but now the nation must decide how much to prioritize each over the other. It is traditional for women to stay at home and tend to their families, but in 2017, the economy's growth depends on women working in high-paying jobs. Historical emphasis on honor and loyalty to one's firm have caused Japanese people to be some of the most overworked employees in the world, leading to health and social issues for the population. An aging population leaves a gap in the workforce, but allowing immigrants to come work in the country would contradict the ethnic homogeneity Japan has had for thousands of years. This constant back and forth is what is so interesting about Japanese history to me. The nation is at a crossroads once again, which is one it has faced before; the question of how much to isolate and maintain tradition or to socially progress with the rest of the world comes back into play. This has caused a resurgence in Japanese nationalism not seen since the 1930s. What will happen to Japan is uncertain, but it will certainly be, once again, unprecedented. |
Ann EvansMy 3 Weeks in Japan with UW Honors and Waseda University Archives
September 2017
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