Japanese myths 1

So begins my analysis of some of the worst of the Japanese myths I have encountered, or at least the most interesting ones. I have left out the topic of conformism, since I believe that this deserves a whole separate essay of its own. Some of the myths I have heard about Japan are from Australia, and some I have heard since I got here. I shan`t bother distinguishing, because they are all myths.

1. Japan is more sexist than the west: this is an interesting one, which I think mostly derives from a failure to compare societies properly (so it is a non-comparative myth, in my patented taxonomy). Also, sometimes people report their personal experience as if it were true of all Japan. Someone may have heard of someone who was forced to resign because they were pregnant, and so they generalise about the country. I could do the opposite: one of my teachers (in this tiny country town!) is working while pregnant, then taking maternity leave when she is very close to giving birth. Isn`t this exactly what happens in Australia? This is why one does not construct opinions based on personal experience. I have heard that the statistics bear out the theory that women in this country are second class employees, but I seem to recall something about this in Australia too. The facts about Australia and Japan are exactly the same, in any case: women can work, drive, vote and join the armed forces in both countries. Japan differs from Australia in perhaps having less organised childcare arrangements and more discriminatory employment practices, but it is also a lot safer for women here: women can walk alone anywhere at any time of the night without fear (and they do!). So which society is more sexist - one where you have to lose your job while pregnant, or where a stranger gets you pregnant against your will? I think it might be a little from column A, and a little from column B. And this is without considering the behaviour of all the English Teachers here who had to fly 9 hours across the ocean just to pull a root, because no-one will sleep with them if they understand a word that comes out of their foul mouths.
2. Japanese do western food in a wierd way: I think this may have been true in the 80s, when people travelling in Japan discovered spaghetti sauces made from sea urchin eggs. I recommend that those people try my (paternal) grandmother`s patented steak-and-kidney spaghetti sauce before commenting on another country`s view of western food. Anyway, this is not the case now: Japanese versions of Italian, French and Middle Eastern food are excellent. I have had the best falafel of my short life in Hiroshima, and the best Italian food in Kyoto. Also, margharita pizza in japan is universally good. The local burger chain, Mosburger, is reported by the Delightful Miss E to do a vastly superior fishburger than Maccas. This seems to me to be a rather incongruous myth to create, in any case, and right now in my minds eye I can see the idiot who started this myth, coming back from his teaching stint in Tokyo, all full of knowledge about Japan, his Japanese wife beside him: "The Japanese don`t have any ideas of their own, even their language was taken from abroad. Oh, and they do western food really badly."
3. It is impossible to get good dairy products in Japan: see above. There are some people who have lived here who have obviously never visited a supermarket, since there is a huge dairy section in every supermarket, stocked mostly with foods from the local dairy industry. The Japanese are obssessed with pastries, cakes and anything creamy, so they use huge quantities of dairy products. Here in Tottori you can go to a cafe in town and buy smoothies or lassi. One thing I certainly don`t have to miss here is yoghurt, and I suppose the only complaint one could make about it is that it is not very fatty. It is worth noting in this regard that most Europeans consider Australian yoghurt way too sweet.
4. Japan is expensive: I think this is a big city myth, because prices in Tokyo are a little steeper and rent a lot steeper than in Japan. Still, rents in Tokyo from what I have seen and heard seem to be about the same as rents in Sydney, and the quality of the house one gets is probably a little higher (though it will be smaller). Prices in the country and the regional towns like Hiroshima are very different to prices in Tokyo. For example I recently had shrimp tempura with rice, salad, pickles and soup for $7. Some people may be including the shinkansen (bullet train) in their analysis of Japanese prices, but this train is a case of getting what you paid for. It takes half the time to travel the same distance as sydney-melbourne, but costs twice as much. And long after the price war in Australian airfares is over and we have to pay real prices to do that journey, the Japanese will have their high-speed trains.
5. Japanese are really into rape porn: google rape porn, and you will find all the sites selling it are American, and all the people doing it are American. All countries are into rape porn, it just so happens that some countries have extreme porn and some (like Australia) have extreme censorship. This is a case, I think, of an uncontrolled myth, where people examine a situation in Japan without knowing the equivalent situation elsewhere. There is a particularly insidious form of this myth which says that the rape is real, but I went into a porn shop in Kyoto and had great difficulty finding a) rape porn and b) any evidence that it was not acted (that is, I found the names of the actors. I didn`t get to watch the porn). The funny thing about this myth is that there is a far more serious and disturbing truth about Japan which no-one in the west seems to talk about - in any decent-sized comic shop one can buy comic book porn involving sex with children. I don`t know what western idiot came back from Japan full of knowledge about their non-existent rape porn and forgot to mention their very real (comic book) child porn.
6. The Japanese work harder than everyone else: statistically, Australians work harder than the Japanese. Although one often hears stories about heroic work practices in Japan, the evidence seems stacked against them. First of all, they have a vast number of public holidays. Secondly, rush hour in Tokyo for office workers is at 5pm. If they work really hard, why is rush hour at 5pm and not 8pm? Do they start work at 5am? This would make them unique in the entire world, which seems unlikely. If they work so hard, how is it that there are so many brothels, pubs, video game parlours, karaoke places, sports precincts and clubs in this country? I think it might be reasonable to claim that the Japanese attitude to work is different to ours, but maybe not so reasonable to suggest that they work harder. I think this myth also has a certain element of "asian superhero" about it. During world war II when the Japanese were stomping the allies into the dust, many western newspapers and magazines portrayed them as superheros. I think now in our war of economies the same thing is being done, but is a myth now just as it was then.

So as you can see, myths about Japan abound and sometimes it is difficult to sort the truth from the lies, but I say to you: if you didn`t hear it from me, it`s clearly bullshit.