Quote:
Originally Posted by dogsbody70
She told me that if a suggestion would be made to go to a cinema-- that al lwould agree with the choice rather than disagree. Of course she is a senior citizen so grew up in the old ways.
|
I think that an example like this one is difficult to use. Superficially it seems that everyone is just agreeing because they have to... And how horrible it would be to not have the freedom to express your own opinion.
However, it happens in much the same way outside of Japan.
Imagine being with a group of friends, and someone suggests going to the cinema. Everyone agrees and is acting like they want to go and are looking forward to it.
How easy would it be for you alone to say "No, I don`t want to go to the cinema." Chances are, you`d go along with it unless there was some horrific reason you absolutely could NOT go to the cinema. After all, friends having fun even if it`s not your first choice of locale is going to be better than you selfishly making everyone give up and go elsewhere... Or even worse, you ditching the group because they choose to go without you.
Something like this example is just peer pressure. It isn`t a Japanese thing. The group harmony thing in Japan is something much wider. It`s not about friends or even the people directly around you - I`ll even take the leap to say it really isn`t even about the "inner" and "outer" groups. It`s more about how your actions inconvenience others, and how you don`t want to be inconvenienced... And about consequences to your actions.
For example, if you litter - someone is going to have to clean that up. If you decide to do something self centered, someone - another person just like you - is going to suffer because of it. The effect is multiplied the closer you get to yourself (same neighborhood, same workplace, same school, same circle of friends, etc etc) but it still exists even when the other people have no connection to you other than simply being people.