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One thing that surprised me coming to live in countryside Japan is that everybody is part of the "kumi" hierarchical structure. They are neighborhood assemblies

by Iv 6y ago

One thing that surprised me coming to live in countryside Japan is that everybody is part of the "kumi" hierarchical structure. They are neighborhood assemblies, so 10-20 persons in my area, with a president and a budget. The kumi bosses elect a boss for their super-kumi (forgot the name of that) and it is hierarchical up to the city level. They meet regularly to discuss local events, repairs, but mostly the matsuri (summer festival) and the bonenkai (the booze event of the end of the year). But they are also the ones who tell you who to support for elections. This year the local kumicho (head of kumi) came to give us leaflets for a city hall candidate, which surprised me because I know he dislikes the guy. But the boss of the "super-kumi" supports him so he gave lip-service to that. Knowing that this is the supported candidate by the local kumis will win a lot of local voters. Another thing to understand is that seniority is very respected in Japan. I have seen a 63 yo man defer to a 65 yo because he was his "sempai". I don;t know if all the kumis are like that but ours is pretty much based on the assumption that the elder can boss around the younger. That can explain why the conservative party is so well entrenched. People polled in that article claim that they base their appreciation on managerial qualities and personal advantage, but from what I have seen, they get these opinions from their own social environment.

Iv 6y ago
Hah, trying to find the name of the "super-kumi" I learned that this terminology is known in the west for being used by Yakuza. It makes sense, organizing the matsuri, which involves finding young men for carrying the mikoshi (a heavy palanquin you have to carry around) must be an excellent way to recruit people straying away.
donw 6y ago
I've been asked to step in and take this over for our neighborhood, so I'm learning about this process. Doing so has really showcased one thing that I truly like about Japan: people tend to take care of their communities. This starts from a young age: even in grade school, kids are responsible for cleaning their schools, and for serving lunch to other kids. Back when Mom was alive, I asked her about why we didn't do this in the US -- she was a school-board member -- and it boiled down to: "The parents will sue us for a gigantic list of reasons, the union representing the janitors will sue us because having students clean violates our work contract with the janitors, it probably violates child-labor laws, and the media will eat us alive for all of the above reasons." In the case of my neighborhood, we have a communal trash area, and there's a rotating roster for which household gets to handle cleaning that trash area for any given week. I am heavily incentivized to ensure this area stays clean, as it is immediately in front of my house. :) Even when I was living in a high-rise, where trash was handled by the building, we had a "floor coordinator" -- also a resident -- that handled a number of things, including emergency drills. The coordination of which was assigned to me after I slept through the first one, thus ensuring that I would not make that mistake again.
- Iv 6y ago
  There is this solidarity part that I like but in my case I find it really outweighed by the bad parts that force individuals to conform and to do no waves to be part of the community. In our case it culminated with a PE teacher of the local school who was hitting the students members of his kendo club and sent one to the hospital. And the discovery that all the parents of the club members knew about that. Yes, if there is one thing I would like to take from the Japanese school system it is the cleaning of the classroom and serving of lunch, but if that meant also importing the sempai-kohai system and the bullying culture it enables, forget about it.
  - donw 6y ago
    I'm not sure how cleaning schools requires the sempai-kohai system...? Besides, while I'm not a fan of the whole sempai-kohai thing, it's not like bullying isn't absolutely rampant in US schools which wholly lack that cultural mechanism.
    - Iv 6y ago
      I wan unclear. No it does not require it and I would be happy to import that part alone. But that part alone is not enough to make me favor the Japanese school system that comes with a lot of issues IMO.
      - donw 6y ago
        Oh, absolutely. It does prompt the question: what education systems do you favor?
        Iv 6y ago
        I have been disappointed by both the French and Japanese education. I'd love to give Montessori and Freinet style of education a try. But I find it weird that education can't reinvent itself radically. The system we have was based around a scarcity of books and a need for the production of standardized workers. I suspect the education system's main constraint is not the needs of kids but the possibility/will of the current teachers.

by Iv 6y ago

Iv 6y ago

Hah, trying to find the name of the "super-kumi" I learned that this terminology is known in the west for being used by Yakuza. It makes sense, organizing the matsuri, which involves finding young men for carrying the mikoshi (a heavy palanquin you have to carry around) must be an excellent way to recruit people straying away.

donw 6y ago

I've been asked to step in and take this over for our neighborhood, so I'm learning about this process. Doing so has really showcased one thing that I truly like about Japan: people tend to take care of their communities. This starts from a young age: even in grade school, kids are responsible for cleaning their schools, and for serving lunch to other kids. Back when Mom was alive, I asked her about why we didn't do this in the US -- she was a school-board member -- and it boiled down to: "The parents will sue us for a gigantic list of reasons, the union representing the janitors will sue us because having students clean violates our work contract with the janitors, it probably violates child-labor laws, and the media will eat us alive for all of the above reasons." In the case of my neighborhood, we have a communal trash area, and there's a rotating roster for which household gets to handle cleaning that trash area for any given week. I am heavily incentivized to ensure this area stays clean, as it is immediately in front of my house. :) Even when I was living in a high-rise, where trash was handled by the building, we had a "floor coordinator" -- also a resident -- that handled a number of things, including emergency drills. The coordination of which was assigned to me after I slept through the first one, thus ensuring that I would not make that mistake again.

Iv 6y ago
There is this solidarity part that I like but in my case I find it really outweighed by the bad parts that force individuals to conform and to do no waves to be part of the community. In our case it culminated with a PE teacher of the local school who was hitting the students members of his kendo club and sent one to the hospital. And the discovery that all the parents of the club members knew about that. Yes, if there is one thing I would like to take from the Japanese school system it is the cleaning of the classroom and serving of lunch, but if that meant also importing the sempai-kohai system and the bullying culture it enables, forget about it.
- donw 6y ago
  I'm not sure how cleaning schools requires the sempai-kohai system...? Besides, while I'm not a fan of the whole sempai-kohai thing, it's not like bullying isn't absolutely rampant in US schools which wholly lack that cultural mechanism.
  - Iv 6y ago
    I wan unclear. No it does not require it and I would be happy to import that part alone. But that part alone is not enough to make me favor the Japanese school system that comes with a lot of issues IMO.
    - donw 6y ago
      Oh, absolutely. It does prompt the question: what education systems do you favor?
      - Iv 6y ago
        I have been disappointed by both the French and Japanese education. I'd love to give Montessori and Freinet style of education a try. But I find it weird that education can't reinvent itself radically. The system we have was based around a scarcity of books and a need for the production of standardized workers. I suspect the education system's main constraint is not the needs of kids but the possibility/will of the current teachers.