Review focus: "One of the most significant obstacles to understanding between the Japanese and outsiders - whether executives, politicians, or diplomats - might be called the "two-faced" aspects of the typical Japanese character."

Boye Lafayette de Mente is one of our regular monthly columnists at the Asian Business Strategy and Street Intelligence Ezine. A noted author with over 30 years of experience in China, Japan, Korea and other Asian countries, Boye's tips on doing business in Asia are both pragmatic and enlightening. Some material is taken from Boye's many books exploring Asian cultural and business, business etiquette, customs, and language.

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Feeling Superior and Inferior

One of the most significant obstacles to understanding between the Japanese and outsiders - whether executives, politicians, or diplomats - might be called the "two-faced" aspects of the typical Japanese character.

The Americans, Germans, English, and French in particular have traditionally been afflicted with a very conspicuous and destructive superiority complex that is a distinctive facet of their national characters. The Japanese also harbor a superiority complex that is as strong if not stronger than that of most other nationalities. But in the case of the Japanese, their national character is far more complicated because they are also subject at the same time to an intense inferiority complex.

The core of the traditional Japanese superiority complex probably derived from the ancient mythological theme that Japan was created by divine beings and that the Japanese themselves, however indirectly, were descendants of these same superior creatures. (A concept, I might add, that has long since disappeared in post-feudal generations.)

In any event, this basic cultural concept of superiority gradually became stronger over the centuries because of unchallenged insular nationalism and an inbred life-style that was eventually refined to delicate perfection. Cultural historians say the idea gained further stature when the Mongols attempted to invade Japan in 1174 and again in 1180, and both times were routed by the "divine" intervention of one of the country's seasonal typhoons (giving rise to the kami kaze or "divine wind" idea). Development of the feudalistic samurai warrior code from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries added pride and a remarkable capacity for arrogance to the convictions of superiority that had been growing in the Japanese from the dawn of their history.

When the first Westerners began arriving in Japan in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Japanese became even more convinced of their superiority in all important social and cultural pursuits. To them, the Westerners looked and often behaved like half-wild savages. They were large, hairy, often dirty, and in contrast to the exquisitely well-behaved Japanese, had the manners of uncivilized barbarians.

The Japanese subsequently developed considerable admiration for the technical and material accomplishments of Westerners, but they continued to regard themselves as superior to Americans and Europeans in matters of the spirit and heart.

The inferior side of the Japanese face no doubt had its origin in Japan's relationships with Korea and China, beginning around the third century A.D. and lasting well beyond the eighth century. At the start of this period, Japan was divided into numerous competing clans, with primitive life-styles, while China was at the height of one of its greatest dynasties and Korea had long been the cultural beneficiary of its huge neighbor. The impact this cultural disparity had on the Japanese mind is still very much in evidence.

The big difference between Japan's relationship with China well over a thousand years ago and with the West today is that the Japanese could at least identify with the Chinese radically and emotionally, thus lessening the trauma resulting from their inferior position.

In contrast, the typical Japanese today finds it difficult or impossible to identify with Europeans and Africans. Not only does the foreigner's appearance irrevocably separate them from the Japanese, many of their attitudes and manners are diametrically opposed to the Japanese way and are alien and shocking.

At the same time, most Japanese continue to envy Americans and some Europeans for their living standards, their individualism, their social and economic freedoms, and even for their size and light-colored skin. The Japanese thus feel both superior and inferior to Westerners at the same time, with considerably more passion than they regard other Asians.

Probably the one thing in which the Japanese now take the greatest pride and which makes them feel the most superior to other people (since defeat in war shattered the belief of their spiritual superiority) is their humanism. The Japanese have long tended to believe that their social attitudes and institutions are the most human of all. At least until recent decades, they were imbued with a deep belief that it was their duty to spread their own brand of humanism and harmony to the rest of the world.

As the world well knows, the Japanese have now achieved technological and economic feats par with the leading countries of the West. This accomplishment has noticeably increased their feelings of superiority, but their feelings of inferiority remain a disrupting, emotional influence in their lives because they are now primarily related to racial characteristics that are absolute and to the minuscule size and economic vulnerability of their country.

Among other things, their sense of inferiority gives the Japanese an overwhelming desire to catch and surpass all other countries, with the result that they are accused of being too ambitious, too hardworking. During the 1960s and 1970s, they came close to destroying both their health and environment for the sake of economic growth.

The Japanese will not be able to rid themselves of this feeling of inferiority until they learn a new set of practical and spiritual values which give them a new respect for the individual humans, their worth and their responsibilities. They must learn at the same time to accept differences in ideas, in people, and in customs, without constantly comparing and measuring their traditional way of life against foreign standards.

As for the future influence of the superiority complex of the Japanese, it seems to me that just as the Romans of long ago, the Germans in more recent years, and now the Americans have had to accept the fact that they are not endowed with any special ability or divine right to be masters of the world, the Japanese must also purge themselves of this ancient, egoistic impulse. On the personal, individual level, the Japanese - like most other nationalities - must recognize and acccept the idea that on the average they are no better and no worse than other people, and that neither their inferiority feelings nor their superiority feelings have any inherent, natural basis in fact. Once rid of both of these false, misleading, and dangerous assumptions, the Japanese will find themselves much more comfortable and effective in their international relationships.