One of the more enjoyable anime of the current season has turned out to be Majo no Tabitabi, aka Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, a relaxing fantasy show about a girl who becomes a licensed witch and wanders from town to town having various adventures. In one episode, Elaina visits a town that’s been blessed (cursed?) by magic that prevents anyone from speaking any untruth of any kind. Let’s see what we can learn about whether ‘lying culture’ is a thing in Japan through this anime!
When Foreigners Come to Live in Japan…
I came to Japan in 1991 “for a year or two” and ended up staying for nearly thirty years, so far. While I’ve had an almost universally positive experience here, I’m conscious that my situation is extremely unique. While I came to Japan after studying the language for four years at university and was fortunate enough to find a wonderful woman to marry who lives in an actual liquor store, then have the Internet happen just in time for me to discover my dream job blogging about Japan and anime/hentai culture, not everyone will be this lucky.
First, a note about some differences between visiting a country for a few weeks and actually living there across multiple years. If you’ve ever traveled to Japan, you’ve probably spent some wonderful days exploring Akihabara or Harajuku and maybe visited some amazing temples in Kyoto, having a fantastic time. But if you live in a country like Japan for a year or more, things are quite different. Instead of being treated as an okyaku-san, a guest who’s automatically excused from following every social rule, you’re naturally expected to learn the language to a minimal degree and follow both the actual law as well as accepted social customs. You need to learn what days you’re allowed to throw away which kind of garbage (burnable, non-burnable, special items such as lightbulbs), how to obtain health insurance and visit a doctor if needed, and how to pay your taxes. Life in Japan is good — and the foreign staff of J-List from the U.S., France, and the Philippines all agree that the Japanese government treats us better and makes us feel more welcome than foreigners might feel in our home countries — but of course we have responsibilities to the country we reside in, too.
Want to see a list of six things foreigners should never do in Japan? Here’s a blog post for you!
While I’ve pretty much loved Japan from the beginning, I’ve talked with other foreigners who had views of Japan that were very different from me. Japan is just a normal country, after all, with various good and bad points, just like any other place. Here are some experiences by foreigners I’ve known over the years.
- Obviously the work-life balance can be a challenge, though not every job is as grueling as it appears when viewed through Internet memes. The worst situation is when people find themselves working for “black companies” who can be abusive with their employees, but this is a small number of companies, and in general Japan has a well-regulated employment system that protects employees.
- When you’re a Westerner living in a semi-rural place like Gunma, you’re often the only gaijin wherever you go. I never cared about this, and in fact learned to “surf” being the only American in the room, hopefully having interesting conversations with people I meet. But I had a friend who described living in a country where children might stare at the only Westerner they’ve ever seen as “living in a fishbowl.” He eventually returned home with his Japanese wife.
- One new arrival to Japan told me that “everything was about death.” I think she was over-extrapolating a few traditions — don’t pass food chopstick-to-chopstick, don’t stick chopsticks up in rice, don’t sleep with your head pointing north — which are associated with Buddhist funerals. But it’s true that there are a lot of aspects of daily life in Japan that might appear that way from the outside.
Is ‘Lying Culture’ a Thing in Japan?
One of the foreigners I knew expressed frustration that “everything in Japan is about lying, or at least hiding the truth.” I didn’t agree with him that “lying culture” was an actual facet of life in Japan, but he had a point that it was common for people to avoid being overly honest, or employing various social or linguistic levers to “soften
- As I’ve written before, Japanese can be quite a vague language compared to English, with the subject often omitted and passive voice used frequently to express ideas neutrally, for example, “it has been decided” rather than “Section Chief Tanaka decided this, so blame him if it turns out to be a mistake.”
- There are many “soft” ways to express negativity in Japanese. One example is chotto, which ostensibly just means “a little bit” but depending on the context it could easily stand-in for a much more complex idea, like “I really dislike the meal you cooked for me but I’m polite enough not to say so directly” or “that guy gives me the creeps, let’s avoid him.” Foreigners often take years to learn the nuances of these “soft” Japanese expressions.
- Some “lies” seem to be built into the language. It’s common for a foreigner to come up with some idea and suggested it to his Japanese manager, who will say 検討します kento shimasu which means “I will study your recommendation” but which actually means “your suggestion is unworkable and will be ignored.”
- Japan has a population that’s 40% of the U.S. crammed into an area the size of Montana, leading to a population density of 340 people per square km, the 11th highest in the world. In a country where people are in closer proximity to each other, it’s normal that different social and linguistic mechanisms might exist to avoid hurting feelings.
Writing about #tatemae and #honne today.
The tall building in the background is Kadoebi, a semi-famous soapland where you can rent a “private sauna” and a girl to “wash you.” The building in front is…a police station, even though prostitution is ostensibly illegal in Japan. pic.twitter.com/7mmnsmgTwn
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) December 11, 2020
Tatemae and Honne
One concept you learn pretty quickly in Japan is 建前 tatemae and 本音 honne (hon-neh). The first word literally means facade and describes the social constructs we build around certain aspects of human society or relationships to hide them from direct view, while the second describes the way things really are, including one’s true intentions or beliefs. Examples of tatemae might be you saying “come visit any time” to a friend when in fact you’d be quite surprised if they showed up on your doorstep suddenly, that roads have “speed limits” that drivers actually ever follow, or that the girl in the “private sauna” you rent at a “soapland” is only going to wash your body. If you say something using honne you’re trying your best to express your true intentions towards someone, or trying to get at the root of a problem, or honestly trying to “tell it like it is” to a friend who might be in denial about something.
While tatemae and honne might make for a more flexible society for us all, actual lying is a nearly unforgivable sin, and the word for “liar” (usotsuki) is much stronger than it is in English. Please avoid ever using this word unless you’re very familiar with the person in question.
Majo no Tabitabi Teaches us the Important of Little White Lies
In episode 6 of Majo no Tabitabi, Elaina visits a town that’s had magic cast on it so that no one is able to lie, and every word spoken will automatically be the truth, because the king of that land thought that this would lead to the most honest and happy kingdom. In reality, since no one can avoid speaking the truth, no one speaks at all, communicating with gestures or in writing, as that’s the only way for the town to function.
In the end, Elaina is able to banish the curse and bring back the glorious ability of fishmongers to bend the truth about how fresh their fish are and bakers to fib that their bread is freshly-baked, and everyone is happy again. “Let’s all relax a little bit, and govern a kingdom in which sometimes we lie, and sometimes we are lied to by others, and everyone is happier.”
Thanks for reading this post about the Majo no Tabitabi anime, and weather lying culture is a part of life in Japan. Got any ideas for blog posts? Tell us below, or tell us on Twitter!
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