When we were living in Sendai me and my husband sometimes listened to this radio drama in his car: “NISSAN あ、安部礼司〜BEYOND THE AVERAGE” (NISSAN A, Abe Reiji〜BEYOND THE AVERAGE). Broadcasted every Sunday for more than 15 years it is hugely popular. The show depicts the everyday life of an ordinary middle-aged salaryman Abe Reiji who is working at a publishing company in Tokyo. As you probably have already figured it out, his name is a pun for “average” – a word loaned from English. Many reasons can explain the popularity of this heartwarming radio program, however, the main one is its protagonist – a kindhearted, well-liked, yet ordinary in every sense of the word Abe Reiji is a character that many Japanese listeners relate to. The show’s unusual hero caught my attention and after a while, I started noticing how many other movies, TV shows and manga comics in Japan center around somewhat similar characters: “salarymen” (white-collar office workers), so-called “OL” or “office ladies”, bank officers, housewives, and other unassuming, ordinary people.
This realization was somewhat perplexing. You see, in my individual-centric European, and more broadly – Western, culture those who are different and unique are celebrated while being average is not really considered to be a positive trait. At best, in the West averageness seems to be a neutral characteristic – a role for some forgettable supporting character in a movie or TV series. However, that is not the part for the main lead who, like Peter Parker in Spiderman, may appear to be just an ordinary guy at the beginning of the show but goes on to discover his (or her) unique capabilities as the story evolves.
Usually in the Western culture averageness carries somewhat negative nuance – a sense of discomfort, dissatisfaction with life, feeling of wasted potential, regret. One of the mandatory reads for literature classes at my high school was Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis”. To this day the horrifying image of the character of Gregor Samsa – a man so painfully mediocre that he is not even surprised to find himself transformed into a giant insect one morning – is stuck in my mind as the ultimate illustration of this repugnant averageness. In the post-soviet countries, including Lithuania, we have a similar creature – the infamous “Homo Sovieticus”. That is a sarcastic recollection of an average conformist soviet citizen who was deprived of all his individuality, sense of responsibility, and critical thinking by the brutal totalitarian regime.
I naively thought that this negative leaning perception of averageness is universal. To my surprise, the time spent in Japan taught me that attitudes in this culture are often very different. Of course, even before coming to this country, I have heard the well-known Japanese proverb 出る杭は打たれる (Deru kui wa utareru; “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”) many times. It is often cited to foreigners as an illustration of Japanese preference for group conformity. However, when one thinks about it, this saying is not so original – Australians have their “Tall poppy syndrome”, Nordic countries – the “Law of Jante”, even in English speaking world there is a proverb about a big tree attracting a woodman’s axe. In most cultures being different than others is hard and those who stand out experience various degrees of criticism and pressure to conform. But that does not necessarily mean that being ordinary is perceived as some good thing to aim for, does it?
I was perplexed when, during a discussion about the above-mentioned radio show, my husband pointed out that while it may not be what people really dream about in their hearts, for Japanese being just an average guy (or girl) doesn’t bring any negative feelings. On the contrary, according to him, for most Japanese, being ordinary feels like a completely comfortable, even cozy position to be in.
Social scientists Megumi M. Ohashi and Susumu Yamaguchi (2004, 2005) did some research on this topic. According to them, “Japanese tend to perceive themselves as being ordinary, so much so that their self-predictions about future life events are biased (super-ordinary bias)”(2004).¹ They also conducted a study on Japanese perception of the person descriptor adjective “ordinary” (ふつう; futsū) in comparison to “extraordinary” (in Japanese a negation “not ordinary” (ふつうではない; futsū dewa nai) was used) and concluded that “ordinary” people were perceived as more likable and having more desirable personality traits (2005).²
This rings back to what my Japanese friends and acquaintances have spoken about before. Be it little things in life, like engaging in tapioca craze, buying popular brand items, or getting lunch at a trending restaurant. Or maybe more significant events – graduating from a well-known university, getting a life-long job at a big company, or going to Hawaii for the honeymoon. None the examples are unique solely to Japan, but the intense manner in which people here are attracted to and seek generally accepted, popular things bring to mind the words I heard repeated many times: “Japanese wish to be like others and have what others have”.
There is another interesting word in Japanese – 人並み (hitonami) which literally means “aligning oneself with other people”. Author Haru Yamada (2002) notices that while it can be compared to the American expression “keeping up with the Joneses”, unlike its English equivalent the Japanese word hitonami does not have a negative nuance of material competition (pp. 12).³
人並みに生きる (hitonami ni ikiru) – to live like other people. 人並みの能力 (hitonami no nōryoku) – ordinary abilities. 人並みの給料 (hitonami no kyūryō) – an average salary. 人並みの生活 (hitonami no seikatsu) – an ordinary life. The above-listed phrases symbolize a certain positive standard of living, components of a happy, satisfying life. Author Rokurō Morita (2011) elaborates on the logic behind this word. According to him, if one becomes rich or raises in status, he or she stands out, and the possibility of him or her becoming a target of jealously or hate also increases. On the other hand, being in a lower position than others also feel bad. Therefore, being just like other people (hitonami) becomes the best option (pp. 70-72). ⁴
Many people point out that because of the Internet, growing popularity of social networks, and increasing globalization Japanese society is rapidly changing. Attitude towards life, personal goals, and social expectations of the young Japanese are in many ways different than that of their parents or grandparents. However, personally, rethinking the meaning behind the word “average” opened my eyes to the fact how some of the things in life that I unconsciously considered to be almost universal can be perceived completely differently in another culture. This was a small discovery about Japan and about me as a Lithuanian. After all, we humans are weirdly designed to only analyze and understand ourselves in comparison with others.
There still exists another paradox about Japan that continues to fascinate me – despite the culture of group conformity Japanese have certain fondness and appreciation for some of those who are different. For example, quirky, unusual personages on the TV, daredevil, rule-breaking anime heroes are beloved by audiences. Eccentric, maverick real-life figures – from Oda Nobunaga and Sakamoto Ryōma to present-day entrepreneurs such as Masayoshi Son or Horiemon – enjoy huge popularity, even reverence. But let me stop myself here and leave this for another possible post in the future.
Reference sources:
¹ Ohashi, M.M., Yamaguchi, S. (2004). Super-ordinary bias in Japanese self-predictions of future life events, Asian Journal of Social Psychology 7(2):169 – 185. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
² Ohashi, M.M., Yamaguchi, S. (2005). On desirability of “ordinary” as a person descriptor adjective: An approach from indigenous psychology, The Japanese Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(1), (71-81). Retrieved from https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjesp/44/1/44_1_71/_pdf
³ Yamada H. (2002). Different Games, Different Rules: Why Americans and Japanese Misunderstand Each Other, New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from Google Books.
⁴ Morita R. (2011). Nihonjin no kokoro ga wakaru Nihongo. Tokyo: ASK. Retrieved from Google Books.
Featured image by tokyoform on Flickr.