they’ll blush and try not to sound xenophobic

On Saturday I took the Chuo line from Tokyo station to Shinjuku after work as always. I sat down in a spot dividing two seats, as per the Japanese custom of avoiding sitting next to anyone. Two guys got on the train and saw that there was a seat available on either side of me, frowned, and moved on. No one ever politely asks for someone else to move over, lest the disturb the sacred Wa. I got their attention, said –douzo, and scooted over. The one who sat nearest me, to my dread, immediately started a conversation –where are you from? I took off my headphones and we got to talking, and as always I was pleasantly surprised to find that the purpose of the conversation was not a free English lesson but merely curiosity.

I don’t remember the exact contents and course of the conversation but he asked me what I do, to which I hesitantly responded that I teach English. He gave me the benefit of the doubt and asked if I’m a businessman. –I wish, I wanted to say and asked him his deal. So, he told me he lived in Thailand for seven years, and can speak English and Thai pretty well. We got to talking about the economy and the recession and as we meandered through this topic I asked him about the Japanese side of things—something about which I’m always curious. He told me that what Japan must do to survive is to find new breakthroughs in it’s various industries. For example, to combat the cheap new Tata Nano from India, he said Japanese car manufacturers will have to come up with something revolutionary. How can Japanese companies, and by extension the country, consciously do this? The man’s answer was simple: cultural diversity.

I was shocked to hear this coming from a Nihonjin. But I guess living in Thailand for seven years has broadened the man’s horizons. He pointed out that Japan is a very closed nation, with stringent immigration laws that make it unfriendly to immigrants. He also noted that despite the recession, one of the greatest assets that the US has is it’s great cultural diversity. Make note of these facts to a typical Japanese person and suggest that maybe the solution to the low birthrates, cultural stagnation, and impending foreign competition on all fronts is merely a more lax immigration policy, and they’ll blush and try not to sound xenophobic as they tell you it’s not a good idea for no particular reason. So it was refreshing to hear the opposite coming from a Japanese native.

I don’t want to make a crude generalization. Japanese people from my experience are mostly tolerant and friendly individuals. But they have a deep seated paranoia that too much foreign cultural influence—especially in the direct form of immigration—will somehow forever infect and dilute Japan’s cultural heritage. In the age of globalization this is a farce. On the contrary, cultural diversity strengthens a culture the same way that genetic diversity does. Hearing this minority-held perspective from a Japanese person was a breath of fresh air for me, and as usual I’m glad I had a nice chat on the train. We parted ways in Shinjuku. I didn’t get his name but I got something to think about.

A few weeks ago I read an article addressing the misconception that human evolution has come to a near standstill. The article pointed out that modern era humans are evolving at a faster pace their ancestors, the reason being a staggeringly large gene pool. Because our civilization is so large and varied we have great genetic diversity. This diversity, the article argues, increases the rate at which the human race evolves.

What does this have to do with my run in with a liberal Nihonjin on the train? I’ve been recently tossing around ideas in my head that cultural diversity affects society in the same way that genetic diversity affects the gene pool. The more diverse a culture, the more ideas get tossed around and the quicker the culture changes and adapts (usually for the better I think). Hearing my thoughts come from another mouth really drove this idea home for me. I firmly believe that higher cultural diversity in a society greatly increases that society’s ability to adapt and improve. Anyway, the sun has long come up and my eyes burn. I’d love to wake up to find feedback on this matter.