Ain't no sunshine - Life of a Japanese Sarariiman

“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed to a monstrous vermin.”

Opening line of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

In the midst of glitzy Ginza, Tokyo I remembered Czech writer Franz Kafka and his book The Metamorphosis. Kafka worked in an insurance company but despised his work. He had a problem in dealing with all authority figures in his life. In The Metamorphosis he talked about ordinary human beings reduced to inconsequential, inconvenient bugs (vermin). His timeless story showed a petrified Gregor Samsa lying buried deep in all of us. Surrounded by neon lights, I remembered my days when I used to work with Panasonic India and abhorred the word Japanese. I was reminded of the feudal nature of Japanese corporate world. Scores of white-collar workers waiting patiently at the crossing reminded me of our existence where we all are cogs in the wheel, unaware of our calling.

Japan is a study in contrast. It offers serene, zen like order and harmony in every space of life – in art, theatre, music and even mundane daily conduct. And at the same time, such steadfast focus on order and harmony quells individuality. It creates pressure, stress to conform to the roles. There is no space to stand outside the line. Pyramidal feudal structure is followed in all walks of life – from corporate life to tea ceremony.

For the longest time, Japan, because of its geographical location, has been shielded from the global tidal wave of change exemplified beautifully in wood block print of The Great Wave by Hokusai. Its island nature allows it to enforce rules on the entire society that may be very difficult to implement in a large country. This has worked so far. In the ever changing landscape of an inter-connected world, where everybody is on mobile phone constantly, how will Japan resist change and keep its cultural mooring is going to be an interesting sociological study.

Japanese ‘salaryman’ (sarariiman, Japanese way of saying it) is the bedrock of their mostly egalitarian white-collar working society. Sarariiman title was/is the status symbol. It signified employment where the organization assumed the role of a father figure providing training, lifetime employment, gradual increase in salary, pension and housing. The system was designed for an economy that would continue to grow and never falter. It demanded only one thing in return -- an utter devotion to the company.

Since the ‘lost decade’, this system is continuously coming under pressure. But there are no easy answers. After cramming in school, university time is considered as fun time before submitting yourself to a professional life of routine and boredom. Colleges do not provide skills to navigate in the new world order. There are number of sarariiman who suffers from utsu (depression). Even now, employees are expected to contribute 80 hours a week (13 hours a day from Monday to Saturday); not take more than 5 days of holiday in a year; not leave the work till seniors are in office; take the last train to home and the first train back to office. Families are supposed to ‘understand’ it as their commitment to the provider. 

Japanese society has found its own unique way of dealing with this kind of sleep deprivation. It’s called inemuri – catching up on sleep in public. You can find people sleeping not only in places like trains, buses, park benches but also in office meetings, classes and serious discussions.  The Japanese have high tolerance for inemuri.

This is just one aspect of Japanese life. There are far too many features of this society to admire and learn. It just happened that I started writing about it first… Will share my admiration in subsequent posts.