Too Formalised Society

I am finally getting around to writing this a long time after much of these events happened. This is because the months of March and April have been rather strange for me. March was filled with all the occasions surrounding the end of the school year. As a result I had few lessons. The obvious apprehension of everyone in the office as people speculated who might be leaving/ the difficulties of negotiating who would take on what extra responsibilities in the life of the school for the coming year. It`s an unsettling time for everyone, - nobody likes this change that is forced upon them. But it is all present in Japanese society – this changeover in companies – I`m sure ultimately the Japanese believe in its` “greater good”, for the benefit of the company/ organization etc, but on a personal level – it is not a nice/ relaxing time.

So resulting from all this change – and the inevitable meetings that accompany it, me teaching regular lessons has been rather thin on the ground. Even when the new term started a couple of weeks ago it has taken until mid-April for me to teach again due to all the entrance ceremonies/ medical checks for students and the like to be over and done with. At first I was grateful for the cancellation of my lessons – easy life for me! But it got to the stage when I resented being confined to my chair/ confined to the teachers room on my own while the rest of the Japanese staff were in meeting after meeting dealing with new teachers/ new students/ new job roles/ new everything. Not to mention all the school all the school leaving/ entrance ceremonies at this time of year too.

The operation of Japanese society is formed by/ structured by HUNDREDS of formailities/ traditions and rituals. Some treasured I`m sure, some disliked but generally accepted and taken with the view that they are important for the good of the company and society.

I have been rather overwhelmed with all these formalities and rituals in the last couple of months. April – the changeover season in Japan is overrun by these.
I have mixed feelings about all these formalities. They, (again), create a structured manner in which you should mark/ behave according with the year in year out custom associated with the passing of this event/ occurrence.

In many ways my feelings towards this are contemporary to those of my feelings about the school day of the students. I resent that the life of the students aged 16-18 in Japan is vastly more structured compared to their counterparts in western countries. Every period of the day is a lesson (the concept of a free period for these late teens is unheard of, and provokes incredulity when I have mentioned it to teachers here in the past). The club activity every student should belong to structure their after school, weekend and holiday hours. Seeing as the teachers teach the lessons and run the after school club activities this wide-ranging structure that exists over most of their waking hours, exists for the teachers/ all adults too.

There is a lot that I think is wrong with this excessive structure present in Japanese society. There is little time for freedom of expression, freedom to think for yourself, to do something outside of the set structure.
And I have the same view towards the vast number of formalities I have witnessed and been a part of in these past couple of months too.
We have had welcome parties (where seating is decided by ballot – can`t possibly sit next to your friend who might be leaving this year), goodbye parties (and when I say parties I mean a formal event with LOTS of speeches at set times etc), leaving ceremony for leaving teachers at an assembly with a speech from each leaving teacher, speeches from each leaving teacher at the party, speeches from each of the 3rd grade teachers at graduation party, clapping the 3rd grade teachers in the staffroom meeting, clapping the new 1st grade teachers 2 weeks later (mostly the same bunch), waving off the leaving teachers as they left the school for the last time, presentation of leaving certificates to the leaving teachers in the principle`s office with all the other teachers crowded in to applaud, moving around all the desks for the start of the new year (just in case people got TOO comfortable where they were).

The number of rituals that happened at this time of year is huge and I haven`t even mentioned all the special bento lunches (often with food that carried some meaning based on the event), and all the meetings to establish the new additional roles and responsibilities for the teachers. (Teachers don`t just teach in Japan – they have budget responsibilities/ timetable creation responsibilities/ recommending universities for the students – (yes! It does seem that the teachers research universities for the students! Unbelievable!)/ social event organizers (the team in charge of organising these formal enkai parties)/ international affairs responsibility …etc.

As in the case of cultures all over the world, often people love their special traditions. Maybe the Japanese like their coming and leaving rituals, but for me the whole thing is far to formalized. All the structure surrounding coming and leaving hardly leaves space for individual expression of your actual feelings. Most of what is said is outwardly in the form of a speech (read: several). I obviously should acknowledge the Japanese peculiarity that at enkais people will get up and pour drinks for the people for whom the enkai is in honour (leaving their cooked food that has been served to them almost straight away – VERY bizarre), so in that way, they have a chance to talk to their leaving friends individually. But in my impression, the enkai is such a socially pressured environment. That culture of continuous drinking. (Incidently, when talking to a colleague about the importance of drinking alcohol to the Japanese people – which is very important by the way – I found out that the word for drinking does not just physically mean the act of drinking alcohol; there is also a social aspect to the meaning of the Japanese word for drinking). For me, all this formality and the rituals (flay, flay …! Male cheerleading, throwing leavers in the air, endless speeches, singing the school song) at the office enkai is too much pressure, and I certainly value the freedom of a less structured social environment in and outside the workplace.
(NB: this enkai situation I guess only applies to the biggest whole-school enkais – smaller ones – perhaps of the volleyball club teachers for example – I`m sure are more like a social situation that I could identify in England for example).

As a result, I have been welcoming the return to normality, and teaching classes again. Though all this was quite fun. But afterall – teaching is the job I came to do. And these past months I have been not doing it. Stupid really. I enjoyed the break for a while but then it was really tiresome. Just wasted time. (But I suppose not wasted in terms of the insight into the culture I have got from this). But, I can`t imagine putting up with it next year aswell.