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Honor. It's what powers Japanese culture. Some might think of the Japanese as historically over-concerned with shame, but shame is the result of losing honor or

Honor. It's what powers Japanese culture. Some might think of the Japanese as historically over-concerned with shame, but shame is the result of losing honor or pride. And Shinto beliefs hold that everything in the world has a spirit. If you're going to make a product, you can think of it as an inanimate cog in a machine that generates cash. Or you can think of it as a representation of your own worth, the worth of your company, and the worth of those who use it. If it's shoddy, that means you and your company are shoddy, and you think the users are too. And if it will have a spirit, you want to respect that spirit, as all spirits are connected in musubi.

manuelabeledo 4y ago
Losing face has nothing to do with quality or thoughtful design. Japanese products were synonymous with low quality cheap stuff in the 50s and 60s, and nowadays they still make tons of crap, but those just don't make it out of the country for obvious reasons. I've been to Japan several times, and they have tons of useless low quality crap on sale in every corner.
crimsoneer 4y ago
White noise toilets are not powered by honour.
mejari 4y ago
This seems like a very strange fetishization of Japan.
astrange 4y ago
Without looking it up, what’s “honor” in Japanese? You won’t know because they don’t actually talk about it because this idea was made up by a white guy. (Similarly, most ideas about Bushido being cool and honorable were made up by a Japanese pop historian who was actually educated in the West.) A funny consequence of this is that every time a fantasy novel series has a fake-Asian culture that talks about honor or face all the time, they have to make up a fake word for it, because they don’t know what the real word is. Like in Wheel of Time it’s “toh”. They do know what shame is though (haji). > And if it will have a spirit, you want to respect that spirit, as all spirits are connected in musubi. Did you get that from Your Name? (It’s “kizuna”. Though I don’t think they’d explain it that way either. “Musubi” is a nonmetaphorical knot or a kind of Hawaiian food.)

manuelabeledo 4y ago

Losing face has nothing to do with quality or thoughtful design. Japanese products were synonymous with low quality cheap stuff in the 50s and 60s, and nowadays they still make tons of crap, but those just don't make it out of the country for obvious reasons. I've been to Japan several times, and they have tons of useless low quality crap on sale in every corner.

crimsoneer 4y ago

White noise toilets are not powered by honour.

mejari 4y ago

This seems like a very strange fetishization of Japan.

astrange 4y ago

Without looking it up, what’s “honor” in Japanese? You won’t know because they don’t actually talk about it because this idea was made up by a white guy. (Similarly, most ideas about Bushido being cool and honorable were made up by a Japanese pop historian who was actually educated in the West.) A funny consequence of this is that every time a fantasy novel series has a fake-Asian culture that talks about honor or face all the time, they have to make up a fake word for it, because they don’t know what the real word is. Like in Wheel of Time it’s “toh”. They do know what shame is though (haji). > And if it will have a spirit, you want to respect that spirit, as all spirits are connected in musubi. Did you get that from Your Name? (It’s “kizuna”. Though I don’t think they’d explain it that way either. “Musubi” is a nonmetaphorical knot or a kind of Hawaiian food.)