Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program (55 page)

14. See W. G. Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travellers
in America and Europe (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), for a fuller
treatment of these missions.

15. John Bennett, Herbert Passin, and R. K. McKnight, In Search of Identity: The Japanese Overseas Scholar in America and Japan (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1958), 27.

16. Hajime Nakamura examines the various ways Japanese modified Indian
and Chinese Buddhism, which teaches how to transcend worldliness, to focus
on comprehending absolute truth within secular life; see "The Tendency to
Emphasize a Limited Social Nexus," in Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples:
India, China, Tibet, and Japan, ed. Philip P. Wiener (Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1964), 496-513.

17. Roger Goodman, Japan's "International Youth": The Emergence of a
New Class of Schoolchildren (Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford
University Press, 1990), 193-

18. Thomas Rohlen, "Learning: The Mobilization of Knowledge in the Japanese Political Economy," in The Political Economy of Japan, ed. Yasusuke Murakami and Hugh T. Patrick, vol. 3, Cultural and Social Dynamics, ed. Shumpei
Kumon and Henry Rosovsky (Stanford: Stanford University Press,1992), 324-

19. Herbert Passin, Education and Society in Japan (New York: Teachers'
College Press, 1965), 21.

20. Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian, 157.

21. Rohlen, "Learning," 326.

22. Quoted in Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian, 1.

23. H. J. Jones, Live Machines: Hired Foreigners in Meiji Japan (Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press, 1980).

24. Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the State, 1868-1988 (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1989); Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy: Power and
Pageantry in Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

25. There have been numerous cases of outright opposition to ceremonial
uses of the flag and anthem-particularly in Okinawa, which was the only
major island to experience ground fighting and which remained under U.S.
control until 1972.

26. See Harum Befu, "Symbols of Nationalism and Nihonjiron," in Ideology and Practice in Modern Japan, ed. Roger Goodman and Kirsten Refsing
(New York: Routledge, 1992), 26-46.

27. I am indebted to Thomas Rohlen for this image.

28. Two major perspectives can be discerned in the academic analysis of ethnicity. The first sees ethnicity as powerful and irreducible attachments emanating out of what Clifford Geertz described as "the assumed givens of social
existence": namely, congruities of blood, speech, and custom. This view assumes the primacy of cultural attributes in defining ethnic groups, and the key
question becomes discovering the nature of the shared culture on which ethnic
identity is based. See Geertz, "The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the New States," in The Interpretation of Cultures
(New York: Basic Books, 1973), 259. The other looks not to these "primordial
instincts," which may be strengthened by isolation, but to an interactive
model. Fredrik Barth and others have argued that ethnicity is a social creation
that may in fact go hand in hand with cultural contact, which creates the need
to defend ethnic boundaries. Language and culture, in this view, become byproducts of social organization. Far from being eternal and mysterious, ethnicity becomes predictable and changeable. See Barth, ed., Ethnic Groups and
Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Differences (Boston: Little,
Brown, 1969).

These two perspectives are certainly not mutually exclusive. In times of
perceived threat, ethnicity clearly becomes more salient and purposive. Similarly, the shared culture cannot be ignored, even if we recognize that cultures are never completely holistic entities. As Joshua Fishman has noted, if there
can be no heartland without boundaries, there can also be no boundaries without a heartland; Language and Nationalism: Two Integrative Essays (Rowley,
Mass.: Newbury House, 1972).

29. Walter Edwards, "Buried Discourse: The Toro Archaeological Site and
Japanese National Identity in the Early Postwar Period," Journal of Japanese
Studies 17 (1991): 1-23.

30. Jennifer Robertson, Native and Newcomer: Making and Remaking a
Japanese City (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 14.

31. Takie Sugiyama Lebra, Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern
Japanese Nobility (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 14; David
Titus, "Accessing the World: Palace and Foreign Policy in Post-Occupation
Japan," in Japan's Foreign Policy After the Cold War: Coping with Change, ed.
Gerald Curtis (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1993), 68-69.

32. For a broader discussion of this general phenomenon, see Ulf Hannerz,
Cultural Complexity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992).

33. See Kosaku Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan
(New York: Routledge, 1992).

34. Akira Nakanishi, "Ibunka rikai to kaigai shijo kyoikulkikokushijo
kyoiku" (Intercultural understanding and education for overseas and returning children), Ibunkakan Kyoiku (Intercultural Education) 2 (1988): 21.

35. Dore, "The Internationalisation of Japan," 6o6.

36. See, e.g., Choong Sun Kim, Japanese Industry in the American South
(New York: Routledge, 1995); James Fallows, "Getting Along with Japan," Atlantic, December 1944, pp. 60-62.

37. Edward Lincoln, for instance, concludes that although the strategy of
providing soft loans (to impose discipline on the host country) has theoretical
merit, "the extent of the commercial interests in shaping Japan's aid program
is pervasive, enduring and generally nontransparent"; Japan's New Global
Role (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1993),133-

38. According to the Justice Ministry, at the end of 1995 the number of "registered alien residents" totaled 1,362,371, accounting for 1.o9 percent of the
population; 666,ooo were Korean. See "Justice Ministry Report," Japan Times
Weekly International Edition, 15-21 July 1996, p. 2. See also George DeVos,
Social Cohesion and Alienation: Minorities in the United States and Japan
(Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1992), 176-205; on the burakumin, see 171-

3 9 . In 1988 Watanabe Michio, speaking at a political action meeting, accused
blacks of indifference to bankruptcy; in 199o Kajiyama Seiroku compared the
arrival of foreign prostitutes in Japan to blacks moving into white neighborhoods in the United States.

40. See William Cummings, Education and Equality in Japan (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1980); Thomas Rohlen, Japan's High Schools
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983); and Merry White, The Japanese Educational Challenge: A Commitment to Children (New York: Free
Press, 1987).

41. Nikolas Kristof, "Japanese Schools: Safe, Efficient, But Boring," New
York Times, 18 July 1995.

42. Masami Yamazumi, "State Control and the Evolution of Ultranationalis tic Textbooks," in Japanese Schooling: Patterns of Socialization, Equality, and
Political Control, ed. James J. Shields, Jr. (University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1989), 235.

43. Teruhisa Horio, Educational Thought and Ideology in Modern Japan,
trans. Steven Platzer (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1988), 174.

44. Ienaga had lost two previous lawsuits dating back to 1965; and in this
third and final ruling the Supreme Court did uphold the constitutionality of
the textbook screening process. See Tomoko Otake, "Historian Wins Textbook Suit," Japan Times Weekly International Edition, 8-14 September
1997, P• I-

45• See Yasuko Minoura, "Life in Between: The Acquisition of Cultural
Identity among Japanese Children Living in the United States" (Ph.D. diss.,
University of California at Los Angeles, 1979); Merry White, The Japanese
Overseas: Can They Go Home Again? (New York: Free Press, 1988); Tetsuya
Kobayashi, "Educational Problems of 'Returning Children,"' in Shields, Japanese Schooling, 185-93.

46. Goodman, Japan's "International Youth."

47. Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, "Commission Funds Center to Promote Study Abroad in Japan," The Commissioner, spring/summer 1997, P• 1•

48. Rohlen, "Learning," 362.

49. Lynn Earl Henrichsen, Diffusion of Innovation in English Language
Teaching: The ELEC Effort in Japan, 1956-1968 (New York: Greenwood Press,
1989),121.

50. Inazo Nitobe, "The Teaching and Use of Foreign Languages," Sewanee
Review 31 (1923): 338-39. While Nitobe found this tendency deplorable, it is
also worth noting that Japanese sensibilities call for humbling oneself and
downplaying one's proficiency no matter how great it might be.

51. Ibid., 338-

52. Roy Andrew Miller, Japan's Modern Myth: The Language and Beyond
(New York: Weatherhill, 1982), 233.

53. Masayoshi Harasawa, "A Critical Survey of English Language Teaching
in Japan: A Personal View," English Language Teaching Journal 29, no. 1
(1974): 71-72.

54. Popular belief in the inadequacy of language instruction is fueled by
such media events as a 1989 prime-time television special called We Don't
Need This! (Konna Mono Iranai), in which a panel of distinguished guests explored the reasons for Japan's poor performance in English education.

55. A 1986 survey by the Economic Planning Agency revealed strong support
(70 percent) for what Kenneth Pyle calls "superficial internationalization" (information exchange, increased tourism, etc.) but weak support (30 percent) for
more far-reaching measures such as greater numbers of foreign employees and
marriage to foreigners; see Pyle, The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era (Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1992), 113. Harumi Befu and Kazufumi Manabe found a high willingness to allow foreigners to be integrated
into educational and economic institutions, but a reluctance to admit them
into the spheres of politics and kinship; "An Empirical Study of Nihonjinron:
How Real Is the Myth?" Kwansei Gakuin University Annual Studies 36
(1987): 97-111-

56. There were numerous other national-level actors whose policies and decisions affected the JET Program on occasion-the Prime Minister's Office, the
Justice Ministry, the National Audit Board, the Finance Ministry, and the
Health and Welfare Ministry.

57. For a good overview of key concepts in the anthropological study of organizational culture, see Tomoko Hamada and Willis E. Sibley, eds., Anthropological Perspectives on Organizational Culture (Lanham, Md.: University
Press of America, -1994).-

58. See Conrad Kottak and Elizabeth Colson, "Multilevel Linkages: Longitudinal and Comparative Studies," in Assessing Cultural Anthropology, ed.
Robert Borofsky (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 396-412•

59. Harumi Befu, "The Internationalization of Japan and Nihon Bunkaron,"
in The Challenge of Japan's Internationalization: Organization and Culture,
ed. Hiroshi Mannari and Harumi Befu (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983), 262.

6o. Masao Miyoshi's argument that U.S.-Japan trade negotiations must attend carefully to history is relevant to policy innovations such as the JET Program as well. He writes, "What we need is historical understanding as to why
what looked like Japan's deceptions to the Americans are rooted in history, or
why-if it must be so phrased-a 'deception' is perpetrated, or how differences
have come about in the manner of achieving the same goals, why individuals
are motivated differently in different societies, or even why a nation is so selfenclosed. In short, what historical forces shape a given society into a different
organization with a different imaginary and a different articulation?"
Miyoshi, Off Center: Power and Culture Relations between Japan and the
United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), 8o.

CHAPTER 2. THE SOLUTION: TOP-DOWN
"GRASSROOTS INTERNATIONALIZATION"

1. Karel van Wolferen, The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in
a Stateless Nation (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 361.

2. Richard Samuels, The Politics of Regional Policy in Japan: Localities Incorporated? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 46.

3. Tsuchiya Yoshiteru is quoted in Chiiki ni okeru kokusai koryu (International exchange in local areas), special issue of CLAIR, a magazine for local
government bodies, March 1987, pp. 2-3. It is interesting to note that deficiencies in other languages were not viewed as impeding internationalization in
the same way that English was.

4. Eto Shinkichi, interview by author, Tokyo, 3 June 1995.

5. Nose Kuniyuki, interview with author, Tokyo, 4 June 1995.

6. In actuality, the Ministry of Home Affair's claim to have some jurisdiction in educational matters was not as farfetched as it might initially seem. Eto
elaborates (interview):

While the Ministry of Education has the right to make general educational policy, the
Ministry of Home Affairs also has an implicit right to get involved in educational matters. It works this way. The number three man in most prefectures, directly under the
governor and the vice-governor, is the somu bucho, or head of the general affairs section. This person is almost always appointed by Home Affairs-usually it's a young,
career-oriented official. This person, in turn, has the de facto right to select the board of
education (kyoiku iinkai), which is a group of prominent citizens who advise the superintendent of education. Normally, they're just sleeping, but in any event this was one
rationale used by Home Affairs for justifying its involvement in educational matters.

7. Nose, interview.

8. Steven R. Reed, Japanese Prefectures and Policymaking (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985), 27. One interesting outcome of this system
of local allocation is that prefectures or municipalities with high revenue from
local sources receive a smaller percentage of state support than do poorer local
governments.

9. I am grateful to Kevin Newman for pointing out this view of the JET Program. Roughly 50 percent of JET participants report that they are able to save
at least 25 percent of their salary, according to the "1990 JET Questionnaire:
Evaluation of Living Conditions."