4-1_The Curse of Relationships and the Absence of the 'Individual'—The Depths of the Urban OS | The Lost 30 Years | Mental Health | Work Style Reform
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1. The Chameleon's Words: What the Abundance of First-Person Pronouns Reflects
In English, no matter the situation, there is only one word to refer to oneself: the single 'I'. Whether in front of a president, a child, or a lover, one consistently exists as a single, independent entity called 'I'.
However, what about Japanese?
('Watashi, Boku, Ore, Jibun, Watakushi, Uchi, Shosei, Sessha...')
Don't we instantly and unconsciously swap the word we use to refer to ourselves—in other words, our 'subject label'—depending on who we are talking to and the situation at hand? Aren't we constantly replacing our 'subject labels'?
The 'Chameleon First-Person' That Changes Form Depending on the Other Party
In front of a boss, we use 'Watashi'; with friends, we become 'Ore'; and in front of children, we refer to ourselves as 'Papa' or 'Sensei.' This chameleon-like flexibility is a product of the 'Wa' (harmony) and 'harmony of relationships' that Japanese people have cherished since ancient times.
However, hidden behind this rich expressive power is a structural flaw. It is the inconvenience that 'if the relationship with the other party is not determined, the self (the subject) cannot be determined.'
Have you ever had the experience of speaking casually to someone, only to suddenly switch to polite language the moment you actually met them or found out they were older than you thought?
The Wavering Outline of the 'Individual'
If the English 'I' is an 'immovable stake' unaffected by the surrounding environment, the Japanese first-person pronoun is like a 'mooring rope' thrown onto the quay of the other person. Only when there is another person present is one's own position fixed.
Living within this language specification (OS), we unconsciously come to believe that 'the self as seen by others' is 'the self itself.' This is the linguistic basis for 'reading the air too much' that I touched upon in the first installment. Because the collapse of a relationship with another person is directly linked to losing one's own form of address (identity), we prioritize 'maintaining relationships' above all else.
The Reason Why the 'Subject of Responsibility' Dissipates
In a world where the first-person pronoun changes like a chameleon, the locus of responsibility also becomes ambiguous. This is because it is easy to feel that 'I (the role) acted within the relationship of that situation,' rather than 'I (the immovable individual)' having made a decision.
The reason we are prone to losing our 'subject' is not because individual willpower is weak, but because the Japanese OS itself is not designed to define a 'firm, independent individual.'
Column: Is Japanese to blame? If so, why were we able to become 'No. 1' in the past?
When arguing that 'the Japanese OS causes us to lose our subject and leads to stagnation,' the following question is bound to arise:
'Then why was Japan able to become number one in the world over 30 years ago using this same language format?'
The image of the former 'Japan as No. 1' and Japanese companies dominating the world's market capitalization rankings is an undeniable fact. Why were we able to win with this 'subject-less OS' back then? It is because the Japan of that time had a clear 'correct answer (an external father)' to 'catch up and surpass.' In a race to chase the massive back of America, the 'Tokyo OS,' which erased the subject to become a cog in the organization and optimized the group, functioned as the world's strongest execution engine. However, the moment we entered an era without correct answers, a phase where we had to set our own 'questions' and make decisions as an 'I,' this OS fell silent. That is the true nature of the 'Lost 30 Years.'
The other day, I saw a claim in a comment section that 'the glorious Japan of the past was a fiction.' However, ending the discussion there is nothing more than 'complaining.' Rather than a fictional prosperity, what we should return to is a time far earlier than these 30 years. It is
'the ancient Japan that possessed a resilient subject (spirit) while mastering the format of the Japanese language.' If we cannot change the language, we have no choice but to dig up the 'spirit (kernel)' deep within it from the depths of history and update it. We need to dive not into our past 'success experiences,' but into a deeper 'source of uniqueness.'
Next time, I will delve a little deeper into why this happened regarding this fact.
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