< Back to previous page

Project

Representations of Responsibility in Japanese Culture

I would like to investigate “representations of responsibility in Japanese culture”. In other words, how issues of responsibility have emerged and mattered in Japanese culture; what are the conditions for responsibility; what are crucial elements for responsibility to arise; where or who is the place of responsibility in societies, companies, or groups; how to take responsibility, to put it differently, what kind of actions would be expected for someone to take responsibility; what is the relationship between apology, excuse, and responsibility; how to pay for or compensate one’s responsibility, and so on. In addition, I would like to investigate collective responsibility, individual responsibility, and being irresponsible in Japanese culture, also.

 

Strangely enough, there is only little literature that comprehensively discusses or elaborates on the representations or the notion of responsibility in Japanese culture, even though topics on responsibility are very popular in not only schools or companies but also everyday life in Japan. Without doubt, being responsible is one of the important virtues in Japan. There are exceptionally a lot of literature concerning responsibility during the era around the Second World War; in particular, concerning military, politics, and the emperor. Besides, some books have been published on individual responsibility. There would be different approaches to investigate responsibility such as historical, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, comparative cultural, political and so on, I believe. Yet, I do not stick to one single approach. I will research on any kind of literature on responsibility so as to comprehensively investigate representations of responsibility in Japanese culture.

 

Prospective subjects I would deal with are as follows; thoughts of Masao Maruyama, the notion of Kuuki (atmosphere; mood) in relation to others, discussions of responsibility on the second world war, individual responsibility, corrective responsibility, the relation between apology and compensation, philosophical contemplation on responsibility, social psychological study on responsibility, comparison to other cultures in responsibility, and thoughts of non-Japanese on Japanese culture. I am also interested in a literature on japan by Luís Fróis, a Portugal missionary to Japan in16 century.

 

A phenomenon that could be unique in Japanese culture is an appearance of Kuuki. It is indispensible to analyze the notion, Kuuki, in order to deal with responsibility especially during the Second World War in Japan. Kuuki is considered as a certain atmosphere that dominates opinions of members at groups, meetings, and societies. Therefore it often suppresses the individual opinions in groups. For instance, an important decision could be made by Kuuki, not by a will or an opinion of someone at a meeting. As a consequence, strange enough, everyone at the meeting might be free from responsibility of his decision.

 

Here is an example that the appearance of responsibility in Japan could be different from other cultures. It is too rough, but very interesting that Maurice Pinguet, a French philosopher, in his book, La mort volontaire au Japon, (“自死の日本史”), claims that one has to take responsibility according to consequences, not to will, in Japan. However, on the other hand, will is a key in the Christian tradition in the West. Besides. One can judge and execute oneself to the ultimate degree, like by suicide, in Japan, while only God can judge one to the ultimate degree in the West, meaning that one is not allowed to judge oneself in the West. Therefore, an extreme self-judgment like suicide is not allowed as a compensation for one’s deed in the West, where life is not in one’s hands at the ultimate point either.


It would be fruitful to research on the period of warring states (Sengoku-Jidai) in Japan. It is interesting that most of leaders stayed in a safe area and did not actually fight in the fields. Moreover, they did not apologise nor take any responsibility in case they lost. It might be possible to be associated with the cultures of Japanese companies, institutions, and groups now. Another thing I wonder is that while the spirit of noblesse oblige existed in some cultures in Europe in history, I assume that Japan did not have that kind of culture in place.

 

In addition, there is a tendency in Japan that societies in public do not try to harshly investigate the reasons as to why one did something wrong or why something wrong happened. For instance, it is quite common for politicians not to keep public promises. Moreover, it is well known that Japan has not judged or investigated itself concerning the second war and the Iraq war, which means no one has been accused by Japan itself of the wrong decisions or the consequence of the wars. Japanese government has not tried to investigate them and the majority of the Japanese citizens seem to be indifferent to them, which are very peculiar. 

From another perspective, apology is the key for compensation to “consequences” as a responsible manner in Japan. Excuses are in general not welcomed in the first place. They could be accepted, but only after an apology. In fact, expressing apologetic feelings might be more important than explaining what happened and why one did it. Only an apology can become compensation in Japanese culture, which could not be a case in the West, I assume.

 

To sum up, I would like to comprehensively investigate representations of responsibility in Japanese culture without boundaries from inside and outside. I think that my project would contribute to anyone, not only for academic but also ordinary people, who is interested in any kind of responsibility in Japanese culture.

Date:27 Oct 2016 →  20 Jul 2020
Keywords:Japanese Culture
Disciplines:Language studies, Literary studies
Project type:PhD project