Moe Anthropomorphism in Japanese Entrepreneurship

In pondering a simplistic article proclaiming how Japan desperately needs startups if it hopes to climb out of the recession, ("Searching For Entrepreneurship in Japan" Forbes.com 29MAY09), I'm reminded how wrong western society interprets oriental society. Americans watch the Japanese or the Chinese and think we know what they're thinking. We don't. Our interpretation of their actions via our western perspective is often wrong.

Perhaps the most easily-comprehended differences come from this Japanese book 擬人化たん白書 (Gijinka tan Hakusho, lit. Anthropomorphism-tan Files, ISBN 4-7572-1262-3. Tokyo, Japan: Aspect, 2006. ) which discusses how faces and bodies are always used by the Japanese to depict common objects.

You'll find this anthropormorphism in many cultures, but it's everywhere in Japan-- even in otherwise sophisticated instruction manuals. We've seen the look of Pokémon or 'anime' and 'manga' and think it's all cute, but virtually everything from televisions to power cords to even such mundane things as tires or pencils have a personality in Japan.

It's not about cuteness, though-- that's our western interpretation. To the Japanese it's yet another method of keeping the raw truths of life from rubbing too close to inescapable reality. And having lived in Japan over three decades, as well as having been top management at a major Japanese company for almost a solid decade, I've been VERY involved in discussions about how to distill Japanese anthropomorphistic "cuteness" to the western world... to depict professional products to professionals who don't think electronic components should be depicted with faces.

If someone thinks entrepreneurism is any different, it's not.

Consider that Forbes article regarding stalled entrepreneurism in Japan. One (American?) gentleman wrote in response, "[Not] only does it take resources which there are fewer of here (and costs more) compared to at the least the US to which I am familiar, but the individual faces great risk in terms of social, financial and career. These risks are starting to dissipate but they are still additional hurdles that mask and hold back great ideas. ...I saw a study some years ago on the view of bankruptcy comparing Americans, Germans and Japanese... I have interviewed perhaps a dozen Japanese entrepreneurs that have gone bankrupt and they are ashamed beyond belief and some have contemplated suicide - not to mention it is hard for them to enter the work force again."

To him I'd write,

With respect, in discussing how a culture reacts towards failure (e.g., bankruptcy) is like discussing the ketchup on the fried egg-- we're not not talking about the eggshell which is the core of the issue.

Japanese society keeps a fence around entrepreneurs-- even the ones who are a-societal or attempt to break out and "do their thing." By return, "rebels" implicitly do their breakout thing within the bounds of acceptable cultural boundaries... and so by mutual, implicit agreement, they're granted extended, push-back boundaries. Cultural pressure (the eggshell) is somewhat flexible as long as society, as a whole, is not threatened.

That's why these failed entrepreneurs you've interviewed are allowed back into society at even reduced levels... the eggshell resists and chides and reminds, but is not totally heartless. Instead, it is the failed entrepreneur child who feels far worse to have lost his position in the family of man and failed mother society that causes the act of contrition and apology-- not a statement of absolute purpose (as suicide represents in the west).

Skipping over most of my extended analysis of what is wrong and how it got there, here's how to get around it. Any Japanese wanting to succeed will have all power in this one suggestion IF they realize it does not come from a foreigner who would never understand; they will put this FACE on their idea:

Find some one (or some company or some nation) who has already done something, and then indicate you're IMPROVING, not PIONEERING (a bad word in Japan). You go from 'opposition' or ' leader' to 'coach'... which latter position is acceptable.

Countless times (and for tens of millions of dollars in contracts), I myself-- personally-- have overcome the I-don't-want-to be-the-first-and-chance-other-people-will-laugh-if-we-fail mentality by simply tricking the system. I've demonstrated that Company A is already doing something like this... and we at Company B can trump them. My company not only accepts the task, but funds it and works with a will. This is possible ONLY because I'm reassuring the top leaders at Company B that there's an escape pod-- a safety valve-- that in the case of failure, the finger of failure will always point AWAY from them and toward Company A.

I've pre-stretched the eggshell. I've animated the inanimate. I've made it acceptable.

Culture (and people) in Japan is not now (and will never be) agreeable to the lonesome cowboy; the rags-to-riches waif, nor the do-it-alone iconoclast. Japan is not set up that way. It must function as a physical collective. It needs an imaginary layer-- even an anthropomorphic one-- acting as safety valve to keep reality from getting too close. With its population density of eight (8) people per square meter, and its history of cooperation its people MUST do so-- so anyone causing a rift in the happyplasma will continue to be ostracized. It's a matter of survival for EVERYone that no ONE be allowed to monkey with the machine.

In both our worlds, the common word for that rift is 'entrepreneur.'

That's why the imaginary or cartoon cowboy is infinitely more acceptable than the real cowboy... which, interpreted, is the entrepreneur.

The bottom line is that the youthful Japanese entrepreneur has not learned to play the game of his own country. They're emulating the western breakout hero, bucking Japanese society, instead of learning from their own culture, history, and operations... which learning is precisely what I had to do to survive in Japan.

Cheers
Lee