A Look at the ‘Japanese Miracle’

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

AN Englishman watches his favorite TV program on a Sony. A Ugandan drives over the dusty road in his Toyota. A store clerk in Indonesia totals up the bill on a Canon. A tourist in Athens takes a picture of the famous Parthenon with a Nikon. In the streets of Brooklyn, a youth wiggles to the thumping beat blasting out from his suitcase-sized portable JVC.

The list can go on and on. These and other once strange-sounding names have practically become household words. They conjure up images of Japanese products that have inundated the world market, so much so that Japanese visitors abroad often complain about the difficulty of finding souvenirs that are not made in Japan.

Just 40 years ago, Japan was struggling to pick itself up from the ruins of World War II. Today it is an economic giant with which the rest of the world must reckon. For example, American steel production has been outstripped by Japan. British motorcycle makers have been left behind by the Japanese. Swiss watches and German cameras have been exposed to the same kind of competition. From automobiles to zippers, a long list of similar Japanese success stories can be recounted. While not immune to the international oil crisis and the recession, Japan, nonetheless, has weathered the storm and emerged as strong as ever. It is no wonder that many have termed it the ‘Japanese miracle.’

Today, visitors to this country of 120 million people are often surprised, even impressed, by the material progress. The people look well dressed, well fed, and prosperous. Most homes, though small, are equipped with color televisions, telephones, air conditioners, and countless laborsaving appliances and electronic gadgets. Major cities are teeming with sparkling, tall, modern buildings and endless streams of well-kept, seemingly brand-new cars.

Progress is not limited to the material sort. Western art, music, and sports have taken the Japanese by storm. The city of Tokyo, for example, boasts eight major symphony orchestras, surpassing even established musical capitals such as Vienna, Paris, and New York. The American game of baseball has now become Japan’s most popular sport, with an estimated 20 million participators in Little League, company, or professional teams throughout the country. Taken as a whole, Japan’s unemployment rate is among the world’s lowest, and its literacy rate is as good as that of any nation.

The paramount question, obviously, is: What is behind the Japanese miracle? The answer is much sought after by leaders in many nations who are eager to put it to use to bolster their sagging productivity and economy. Indeed, it would be most edifying to see what brought about this miracle and what lessons others can learn from it.

What Is Behind the ‘Miracle’?

IN SCHOOLYARDS and at factory gates in Japan, you will usually find a statue of a small boy with a load of wood on his back and a book in his hand. Ninomiya Sontoku is the 19th-century “Peasant Sage of Japan.” Born into a poor farm family, he taught himself how to read and write. After making a success on his family farm, he taught others how to manage their farms and finances, and how to work with others for mutual benefit. He came to be the symbol of success through hard work and cooperation.

Other countries, of course, have their own versions of the poor-boy-made-good heroes. But perhaps none of them can compare with Ninomiya in the influence he has exerted in shaping the Japanese cultural and social values​—their unrelenting work ethic, their ability to endure the severest limitations, and their willingness to make the necessary personal sacrifices for the good of the whole. In the spirit of Ninomiya, perhaps more than in anything else, we can perceive just what is behind the present-day Japanese miracle.

Early Molding

Starting at home, each member of the Japanese family has a well-defined place. The younger ones address their older siblings, not by name, but as “older brother” or “older sister.” In response to the question: “Older brother, what do you think about this?” older brother will talk down to the younger ones, using their names and a familiar, less polite, form of “you.” The husband has a variety of terms to choose from when referring to his wife, none of which sound flattering to the Western ear. The wife, on the other hand, refers to her husband respectfully as “my lord.” Thus, from early childhood, one is made to recognize one’s place in the group and is expected to contribute to the welfare of the whole by playing one’s assigned role.

Education in Conformity

This concept is reinforced when one starts in school. Here again, the emphasis is on conformity and group values. Students wear uniforms in school. To cultivate group consciousness, student duties include keeping their classrooms, hallways, and schoolyards clean and orderly. The Japanese school system is well known for its rigid and demanding standards. There are few electives in the curriculum, and all in the class are expected to do their best to keep up. It has often been pointed out that the basic Japanese view of education involves the teacher imparting knowledge and the students taking it in, mostly by rote. Individuality and original thinking are not encouraged.

Nine years of elementary and junior high school education are required. But it is the general consensus of the Japanese that getting into the right high school and the right university will lead to good jobs, security, and success. “In Japan, a large part of your success in life depends on which university you went to,” said a school vice-president. “It’s a passport you have to have, and the race to get it starts early in life.”

That “race” consists of passing the tough entrance examinations to get into the elite high schools, which will, in turn, prepare one for the even tougher exams for getting into the desired universities. These exams are so competitive that in addition to the already long school year​—240 days, compared to only 180 days in the United States—​more than half of elementary and junior high school students enroll in after-hours cramming schools. Long, hard hours of study and personal sacrifices are nothing unusual even at this early stage.

The job of seeing that the children do what is expected every step along the way falls mainly on the mother, whose role it is to coerce, persuade, admonish, or even threaten her offspring, so that they will keep their noses to the scholastic grindstone. In Japanese, she is affectionately known as kyoiku mama (education mama). She goes to school for parent observation periods, discusses her children’s progress with the teachers, checks their test results and report cards, and even sits in on classes for them when they are sick. All of this is done to ensure that her children will do well in the competitive examinations.

What if a student does not measure up to what is expected? Self-criticism is called for. It may be in the form of a composition or a speech in front of the class. He must confess his failure, the reason for it, and what he intends to do to remedy the situation. Periodically, parents are required to fill out questionnaires on what their children do out of school, their eating habits, their good and bad points, and other private matters about their family life. Such openness is thought to help combat any tendency toward nonconformity. This, in turn, will make it easier for them to cooperate with others in later life.

Such a rigid system obviously has its strengths and its weaknesses. On the plus side, it turns out young people with a high degree of competence in reading, writing, mathematics, and other basic skills. Japan’s “educational system has raised the quality of knowledge for large numbers of the population to levels not attained elsewhere,” says Far Eastern Economic Review, and this “superior quality of their human resources” is largely responsible for the post-World War II economic success. On the other hand, the urge to conform, to do well, and to keep up has created a pressure-cooker atmosphere for the less gifted students. The pent-up frustration has led to suicides and outbursts of violence in schools. These have made ugly news headlines from time to time.

University and Beyond

Ironically, once a student gets into a university, the pressure is off. The most desirable employers​—prestigious government agencies and large corporations—​usually evaluate the applicants according to what university they were able to get into, rather than how they did in university, as long as they graduate. Once they are recruited, they are looked upon as raw material to be remolded, retrained, and reeducated according to the objectives of the company.

Reeducation, however, is not limited to just the new recruits. Aware of the rapid changes in the technological fields, the major companies spend large sums to provide their employees with continuing education throughout their career. The employees become more useful to the company, and the company manages to stay at the leading edge of advancing technology.

This partly explains why most Japanese work for the same company for life. If they quit, there is scarcely anywhere else to go. New company members are recruited from universities and high schools, not from other companies. Why employ a quitter when there are plenty of fresh job-hunters yearning for lifetime employment? In Japan, it is very unlikely that a person’s lot would improve by changing jobs, no matter how dissatisfied he may be with his present one. Here, life is bitter for the quitter. The accepted pattern is one high school, one university, one company.

For all the success attributed to the Japanese economic system, just what is it like to work and live under it? The big companies and lifetime employment may sound appealing and secure, but is being a cog in this miracle-producing machinery the ultimate in true happiness and contentment? Let us take a look at what life is like in a big company in Japan.

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The school system is known for its demanding standards

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Japanese Information Center

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Schools teach conformity and group values

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Japanese Information Center

Life in a Big Company

LIFELONG employment, continuing education, promotions, bonuses, company housing, recreational facilities​—these and many other benefits are the dream of workers around the world. In Japan, they are the day-to-day realities of many of its workers. In fact, they are probably the aspects of the Japanese miracle most talked about and admired by people elsewhere.

There are, however, other aspects that outsiders know little about. For example, just how much of one’s life is controlled or affected by the big companies? To what extent are one’s marriage, homelife, social life, and even religious views affected? What are the sacrifices one must make to fit in? These are things easily overlooked by outsiders because they are overshadowed by the prosperity and success. Yet, to a large extent, are these not the things that ultimately determine whether a person is truly happy, satisfied, and thus successful?

Manners at Work

One consequence of lifetime employment is the sensitive matter of rank or seniority. The men at the top have had long experience with the company. Naturally, they command the respect and cooperation of the younger people under them. The younger or newer employees, in turn, are ranked according to their years of service with the company. This creates a rather formal atmosphere at the workplace, and it is reflected in their speech and manners.

In Japanese there are three styles of speech. Just by listening to a person’s choice of words, you can tell whether he is speaking to his senior, peer, or junior. “To utter his name [alone] when addressing someone of older or of higher rank would be downright rude,” explains a Japanese business executive. Instead, the family, or last, name or the person’s title such as shacho (president) or bucho (manager) is used along with the courteous expression “san” or “sama.”

The bow, which can mean “thank you,” “excuse me,” “I’m sorry,” and many other things, is an indispensable part of office etiquette. So is the expression “hai” (yes) along with a nod of the head. However, this “yes” does not mean “Yes, I agree,” but means “Yes, I understand what you are saying.” It is only a polite gesture to show respect for the speaker.

As a result, most men are like fish out of water once outside the workplace. When they meet another man who does not work at the same firm, conversation becomes awkward until they know his status so that the correct style of speech can be used. Calling cards and tactful questions are used to determine this before a conversation can begin. Informal and casual talk is difficult for them even with their wives and children. They feel at home only in the small circle of their company.

Loyalty to the Group

To bolster the team spirit, most companies furnish their workers with uniforms. Workers also organize themselves into small groups, not to bargain for better working conditions or higher wages, but to discuss how to improve efficiency and production. The managing director of one of Japan’s steel giants, which has not had a strike in 25 years, described their meetings this way: “We have lively discussions, but in the end everyone co-operates.” Individual workers, feeling that they have a voice in the matter, become more inclined to support company policies. “They think for the group and not for themselves,” said the director.

The difference between the Japanese management and that in the United States is illustrated by a Japanese economist this way: “Our system is rather like an electric train, with each car having its own motor, whereas your system is more like a long train drawn by two or three strong locomotives, with no motors in the other cars. You tell your workers to follow. We like people to have their own motivation​—and move together.”

To show proper motivation, all employees are expected to work long and hard. Although the government has set the goal that by 1985 all companies should allow two-day weekends, a six-day workweek is still common. Only recently did banks begin the practice of closing one Saturday each month. Strangely, public reaction was cool, and an editorial in Yomiuri Shimbun viewed it as a means to silence “foreign criticism that the Japanese are workaholics.”

Overtime work, usually without extra pay, is routine. It has been reported that it is not unusual to see workers leaving their offices at 11 p.m. or even at midnight. Yet, this is accepted as a matter of course. A survey of recent high school and university graduates conducted by the Junior Executive Council of Japan found that “79 percent of the respondents work overtime when asked to even if they have to cancel a date,” reports The Japan Times.

Executives and supervisors do not have it any easier. In addition to the long days at the office, they frequently have to spend the evenings, or even weekends, attending meetings or entertaining clients and business associates, often late into the night. This is all done out of loyalty to the company. “I don’t like entertaining,” said a young executive who has a wife and four children, “but it has become an institution.”

Remunerations and Promotions

Extended vacations have never been a Japanese custom. A government report shows that even though most workers are entitled to 15 paid vacation days a year, they actually took only 8.3 days, on the average. The main holidays are at the turn of the year and in August when the custom of visiting ancestral graves is observed. Then there are the company outings that all employees are expected to​—and do—​attend. They are usually two-day weekend affairs to the mountains, hot springs, or company lodges, with plenty to eat and drink. Workers can unwind, have fun together, and get to know one another better.

A big thing with Japanese workers is the semiannual bonus, given according to the firm’s financial standing. Actually, it is a portion of their salary that the company sets aside. If the company does well, the workers receive the lump sum as a bonus. But if business is not so good, this portion may be scaled down. It is an effective incentive to the workers.

Salaries and promotions are determined largely by the seniority system. It is rare for a newer employee to be promoted ahead of his seniors, no matter how qualified he may be. In the event that this should happen, usually those who were passed over would be given some new titles so there would be no embarrassment or loss of face. This keeps friction to a minimum, and the interest of the group is served.

The situation with women employees is quite different. While about 39 percent of Japan’s work force are women, they are usually paid only about half the amount of a man’s salary. In fact, most companies do not offer promising positions to women even if they have the qualifications, because they are expected to work only until they marry and start a family.

Marriage and Family

The rigorous demands of work​—six-day workweek and frequent overtime—​leave the working man with little time for his family. Some men leave for work before the children are up and come home after they have gone to bed. They rarely see their children, except perhaps on Sunday. It may be said that the life of a typical company man, or sarariman (salary man) as he is called in Japan, revolves around his work. His home, wife, and family are like a small side business, giving him a place to eat and sleep, and a certain status in the community.

With few exceptions, the wife takes care of everything in the home. This includes not just the day-to-day household chores but also major decisions such as where to live, what to buy, and even the children’s education and discipline. Thus, in a subtle way, even though the men may still talk and act as if they are the heads of their families, most families of the big-company men are really matriarchal arrangements.

The single man also has his problems. His work leaves him little time for socializing other than business entertaining. Outside of the company, he may have few friends. Yet, Japanese society looks down on late marriages. Anyone who is not married by the time he reaches his 30’s may be considered odd. This explains the prevalence of omiai, or arranged marriages, which account for nearly 60 percent of all marriages in Japan even today.

Big companies frequently move their men around the country from one branch to another. This means pulling up stakes and getting used to new neighbors and environments every two or three years. Although each move is usually accompanied by a promotion and a raise in salary, it could create problems for the family with regard to the children’s schooling or the care of aged parents. But such are the joys and the woes of seniority and lifetime employment in the Japanese big companies.

Work and Religion

Group consciousness and the urge to conform play a significant role in molding the religious attitudes of the Japanese. In order to fit in, one must not be too insistent about one’s beliefs but be tolerant, ready to compromise. It has been said, therefore, that the Japanese sense of morality is based not on right or wrong but on being acceptable or unacceptable.

Thus, in the big companies, a worker is expected to share in rituals such as weddings, funerals, and other functions whether these be Buddhist, Shinto, or Christian. Most men have no qualms of conscience over such perfunctory participation. They have learned to live without personal beliefs and convictions, or have made these subservient to the wishes of their company. Consequently, many men are indifferent about religion. It is difficult for them to think about religious or spiritual matters. They may still observe the rituals and customs handed down from generations past, but they really have no religious belief to speak of.

On the other hand, women, especially mothers, who must singlehandedly care for the children’s scholastic, moral, and religious education, naturally are more drawn to religion. But with them, the tendency is toward the other extreme​—the more the better. A young mother expressed what might be the typical religious attitude in a news story in Time magazine: “I owe respect to my ancestors and show it through Buddhism. I’m a Japanese, so I do all the little Shinto rituals. And I thought a Christian marriage would be really pretty. It’s a contradiction, but so what?” According to the national census, while the total population of Japan is 120 million, there are 87 million Buddhists and 89 million Shintoists. Obviously many thought nothing of declaring themselves to be followers of more than one religion.

From our brief consideration of life in a Japanese big company, it is clear that there is much more to it than the obvious benefits that are so admired. The fact is that some authorities feel that such benefits are much exaggerated. Instead, they see signs that all is not well in this idealized land of economic and technological giants. What are these signs, and what is the future of the Japanese miracle?

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All are expected to work long and hard

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Japanese Information Center

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Big company functions include weddings

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Japanese Information Center

‘Miracle’ at a Price

WITHOUT a doubt, the Japanese miracle is a unique phenomenon. It is a wonder to see an entire nation build itself up from defeat and ruin to become one of the world’s strongest economic powers, and this in one generation. All of this, as we have seen, has been achieved through rigorous education, hard work, and personal sacrifice, which other nations are unlikely to duplicate.

But what has this miracle brought for the Japanese? Beyond the surface glitter, has it brought them true happiness and contentment? Underneath the prosperity and affluence, there are disturbing signs that Japanese society is losing its traditional values and gradually is becoming embroiled in the problems and ills plaguing other industrialized nations.

To a great extent, many of these problems are by-products of the system itself. For example, experts have noted a sharp rise in cases of depression and suicide among men in their 40’s and 50’s in management positions. The Daily Yomiuri quoted author Von Woronoff as saying: “Polls reveal many Japanese are unhappy with their jobs and would quit if they had the chance.” But they feel trapped by the seniority-based pay and promotion system. This is one reason why lifetime employment is no longer the ultimate dream among the younger generation. “For people in their 20’s and 30’s, loyalty to the company is zero,” said a Tokyo management consultant.

Similarly, absence of the father from the home, discontent of the mother with her demanding role, and the grinding pressure at school have aggravated the rising tide of juvenile delinquency in Japan, which recently has become a national issue. These factors are also responsible for the escalating divorce rate, which has doubled in the last ten years.

The economic success has also provided the Japanese with more money and more leisure time to spend it. This has fostered the new wave of me-ism, which runs contrary to the self-sacrificing work ethic and the group spirit that have been their secret of success. Observers are concerned that this trend, which gives no sign of abating, eventually could spell the demise of the miracle.

Regardless of whether this will take place or not, one thing is certain. We are living in a time of unprecedented global problems​—political, military, economic, environmental, social, religious, and so on. Can an economic miracle in one nation, even if it were to last, solve all these problems? Hardly. What is needed is a miracle on a worldwide scale.

Japan’s 96,000 witnesses of Jehovah are telling people about just such a miracle​—God’s Messianic Kingdom. (Matthew 24:14) Under that Kingdom, what was said of Jehovah God by the psalmist will take place: “You are opening your hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:16) Jehovah’s Witnesses in your area will be happy to share the “good news” with you so that you may live and enjoy the Kingdom blessings soon to come.