{"id":12798,"date":"2014-11-05T07:03:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T17:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12798"},"modified":"2014-11-09T09:51:48","modified_gmt":"2014-11-09T19:51:48","slug":"japan-times-jbc81-nov-5-2004-does-social-change-in-japan-come-from-the-top-down-or-bottom-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12798","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JBC 81, Nov 5 2014, “Does social change in Japan come from the top down or bottom up?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hello Blog. \u00a0Here’s my latest JT column \u00a0posted as a question, not an answer this time. \u00a0Any answers? \u00a0Please post in the Comments Section below and\/or at the JT website. \u00a0Thanks as always\u00a0for putting this column once again in the Top Ten Most Read on the Japan Times online this month! Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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ISSUES | JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n Does social change in Japan come from the top down or bottom up?<\/strong>
\n BY DEBITO ARUDOU<\/strong>
\n THE JAPAN TIMES, NOV 5, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2014\/11\/05\/issues\/social-change-japan-come-top-bottom\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This month I would like to take a break from my lecture style of column-writing to pose a question to readers. Seriously, I don\u2019t have an answer to this, so I\u2019d like your opinion: Does fundamental social change generally come from the top down or the bottom up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By top down, I mean that governments and legal systems effect social change by legislating and rule-making. In other words, if leaders want to stop people doing something they consider unsavory, they make it illegal. This may occur with or without popular support, but the prototypical example would be legislating away a bad social habit (say, lax speed limits or unstandardized legal drinking ages) regardless of clear public approval.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By bottom up, I mean that social change arises from a critical mass of people putting pressure on their elected officials (and each other) to desist in something socially undesirable. Eventually this also results in new rules and legislation, but the impetus and momentum for change is at the grass-roots level, thanks to clear public support.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Either dynamic can work in Japan, of course. For top-down, I have seen many rules decided by decree. How about the steadily encroaching anti-smoking rules in public places? It\u2019s no longer just train platforms; you can\u2019t even have a lit cigarette on many Tokyo streets anymore. Some movements were instituted after government awareness-raising drives, like the n\u014dshi wa hito no shi (\u201cbrain death is a person\u2019s death\u201d) campaign deployed in the 1990s to overcome apparently religious-based objections to organ donation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These and many more examples of social engineering and official consensus-manufacturing have resulted in people changing their outward behavior, if not their outright belief in a previous system. (Who remembers that brain death was ever an issue?) And it happens pretty quickly (as in weeks or months), especially if these moves are backed up by criminal penalties. Remember when drunk driving was much less harshly punished? (I do, and thanks to Draconian penalties for even one glassful, we have the world\u2019s only decent-tasting zero-alcohol beer.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bottom-up, however, takes a lot longer \u2014 years or decades \u2014 but it can be just as irresistible a social force. For example, I have seen the slow death of \u201cold maid\u201d bashing (remember \u201cChristmas cakes\u201d referring to women over age 25?), the loss of faith in overwork as proof of a person\u2019s worth, and the stigmatization of power-based bullying (e.g., sexual and power harassment) to the point of achieving court victories. The progress of this genre of social change can be quite imperceptible, but when backed up by a media campaign after a social shock (such as a huge scandal or a horrific crime \u2014 stalking, for example), bottom-up change can happen much faster.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But these are relatively small fry. For really significant social changes, such as the abolition of racial discrimination and\/or hate speech in Japan, both methods have been tried, and have failed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Advocates (yes, including myself) have tried the top-down approach for decades, asking all levels of government and the bureaucracy to outlaw discrimination as blatant as \u201cJapanese only\u201d signs and rules. Their most common response is, \u201cIt\u2019s too early; we have to change the public\u2019s mind first.\u201d For them, the bottom-up approach is the chicken before the egg.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But starting at the grass roots has been tried too. In fact, that\u2019s where we started, working as hundreds of advocates for decades. I personally have spoken at hundreds of gatherings to thousands of people \u2014 even one-on-one to the discriminators themselves, calmly (yes, calmly) coaxing them to treat people with dignity and equality, as they themselves would want to be treated in a similar situation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But in this case, the problem isn\u2019t as simple as asking individuals to give up something like smoking on a train platform; this is an issue of excluders worrying aloud that \u201cforeigners\u201d are a threat to their cultural integrity in general, if not their business specifically. It may even be a matter of them saying, \u201cI just don\u2019t like those people, so sod you.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, unaffected bystanders can be quite sympathetic to excluders who fear for their livelihoods (even if they are excluding a neighbor). Besides \u2014 cue vicious circle \u2014 there\u2019s no law against them doing it. And then we return to the top-down approach: the egg before the chicken.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I admit that I lean towards the top-down approach. There are plenty of historical examples of bottom-up not working when it comes to the big changes. America\u2019s Susan B. Anthony, for example, campaigned tirelessly at the grass-roots level for women\u2019s suffrage throughout the 1800s but failed to get the vote in her lifetime. Or in Japan\u2019s case, the foremost grass-roots movements in Japan right now \u2014 protests against the state secrets law, remilitarization and the restarting of nuclear reactors \u2014 are gaining little traction in the face of the government\u2019s relentless top-downism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, many of the great grassroots successes in history got lucky. Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s grass-roots achievement of Indian independence was aided by the fact that the grip of the British Empire had been weakened by two world wars. Nelson Mandela was lucky not to meet the same fate as Steve Biko, and to see a more liberal South African government in his lifetime. Thus, change happened because leaders made sage decisions \u2014 and there is an enormous amount of top-down inherent in that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally, I have witnessed significant social change \u2014 most notably, the flowering of America\u2019s civil rights movements after 1964. Very much a grassroots effort, it still took more than a century for equal rights to be enforceably guaranteed by top-down policymaking and criminal penalties. But I remain convinced that the social change was top-down.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As a child growing up in New York state in the 1970s, I vividly remember African-American classmates (there were a significant number in my elementary schools) feeling empowered, even adopting the swagger and proud demeanor of hero boxer Muhammad Ali, without being accused of being \u201cuppity Negroes.\u201d Instead, there was enormous opprobrium from teachers and other influential people for anyone who dared, for example, use racist language, such as the N-word. Even observing that somebody might be \u201cdifferent\u201d because they had different skin color was simply \u201cnot done\u201d anymore.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why? I believe the new top-down rules set the agenda and terms of debate in a more tolerant direction. You had to accept that the \u201cold ways\u201d were \u201cbackwards\u201d and no longer appropriate.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Obviously, it wasn\u2019t perfect, and there were plenty of holdouts, disobedients and overt racists in the American example. The U.S. was still two generations away from an African-American president, and to this day a huge number of minorities are disenfranchised just because they are minorities.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But back then it was made very clear that somebody was going to get it in the neck \u201cfrom above\u201d if there were any violations of the new narrative. That\u2019s why as kids, our overt behavior and eventually our attitudes changed \u2014 maybe not immediately into good habits, but certainly away from reinforcing bad habits.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course, this is the American example, with limited application to Japan. Japanese society has very different attitudes towards the outward appearance of \u201cdifference\u201d and expression of dissent. The national narratives of inclusivity and community construction are arguably polar opposite to America\u2019s.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even the power of the Japanese grass roots is purported to be different. Political science professor Jiro Yamaguchi recently wrote (\u201cPerilous spirit of the times,\u201d The Japan Times, Oct. 28<\/a>) about Japan\u2019s \u201cdeep-seated tendency of conformism\u201d; fellow professor Koichi Nakano has described the business of governing Japan as an \u201celite-driven process rather than a society-driven process<\/a>.\u201d Some even argue that a traditional, unchanging world view is what makes Japanese into Japanese, so why would anyone expect any major change?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But, again, all societies have bad habits, and racial discrimination is a doozy. How could a more positive environment be created so that the children of immigrants (many of the latter of whom are here at the bidding of the Japanese government) and international marriages will not be treated as \u201cforeign\u201d and sometimes be denied equal treatment?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So I ask readers: On balance, is unequal treatment to be legislated away, with people catching up through the carrots and sticks of a new legal and social regime? Or is it something that people will cotton on to eventually, as they push for reforms because it just \u201cmakes sense\u201d to treat people (especially fellow Japanese) equally?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Is a bad social habit to be thrown out the second-floor window, or patiently cajoled down the stairs and out the front door? Discuss.<\/em><\/strong>
\n==============================
\nDebito Arudou\u2019s co-authored bilingual \u201cHandbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan\u201d is available on Amazon as a paperback and e-book, see www.debito.org\/handbook.html<\/a>. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears in print on the first Thursday of the month. Your comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp<\/em>
\n==============================<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening: This month I would like to take a break from my lecture style of column-writing to pose a question to readers. Seriously, I don\u2019t have an answer to this, so I\u2019d like your opinion: Does fundamental social change generally come from the top down or the bottom up?<\/p>\n

By top down, I mean that governments and legal systems effect social change by legislating and rule-making. In other words, if leaders want to stop people doing something they consider unsavory, they make it illegal. This may occur with or without popular support, but the prototypical example would be legislating away a bad social habit (say, lax speed limits or unstandardized legal drinking ages) regardless of clear public approval.<\/p>\n

By bottom up, I mean that social change arises from a critical mass of people putting pressure on their elected officials (and each other) to desist in something socially undesirable. Eventually this also results in new rules and legislation, but the impetus and momentum for change is at the grass-roots level, thanks to clear public support.<\/p>\n

Either dynamic can work in Japan, of course…
\n(Your thoughts on the question welcome here and at the JT site.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,28,18,22,44,19,34,5,4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pinprick-protests","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-cultural-issue","category-discussions","category-education","category-exclusionism","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}