Understanding Japan through job resumes, reflections on the word "otaku" and Obi-Wan on our "point of view"

One way to compare Japan's more structured society with the U.S. and Europe is to look at the standardized Japanese resume form, called rirekisho (ree- REK-sho, "employment history form"). When you want to apply for a job in Japan, be it for a truck driver or sushi chef or computer programmer, you drop by a stationery store, pick up one of these standardized forms and fill it out by hand. Virtually everything that's important about you is recorded on the form: name, address, past school and career history, what special certificates or qualifications you've got, and so on. There's also a place to affix a photo so potential employers can see what you look like, always in the same place on every form. Some information isn't recorded, of course, like blood type, since employers might have biases about people of a certain blood type. The form is very different from the open-ended way job resumes are prepared in the U.S., usually a single sheet that succinctly describes a person's school and work history and career goals. Unlike the Japanese resume form, there's no set format for a resume in the States, and there are thousands of variables that could affect how yours might look. Plain font or fancy? Colored paper? Traditional layout or something more eye-catching? What level of information to include? It can boggle the mind, and I'm sure that Japanese who have to write English resumes for any reason have lots of trouble knowing where to start.

Obi-Wan was right: much of the way we view the world depends greatly on our own point of view, and how you look at a complex country like Japan is the same. You can approach Japan from many angles, learning about the country through martial arts, Zen Buddhism, toy culture, JPOP and JROCK, origami, Japanese TV dramas, and so on. Like many in the current generation, I got interested in Japan through anime, drawn in by the dramatic stories that saw actual resolution, and characters who actually died. When I started studying Japanese, I knew I needed input in the language, so I began reading manga like the Rumiko Takahashi classic Maison Ikkoku, the story of a poor college student's long efforts to woo the widow who runs his apartment. Studying Japanese through manga is especially good, since almost everything is spoken dialogue that can be digested and used as-is. I also embraced karaoke as a way to approach the contry, going to Japanese restaurants in San Diego and memorizing the songs and the kanji that displayed on the screen. The many fascinating aspects of Japan are like bridges over the sea, allowing us to walk right up and say hello.

At Otakon I talked on several panels, including one on "trends in otaku culture in Japan," where I got a lot of questions about the word otaku itself. Although it's come to equal "anime fan" or "anime geek" here in the West and serve as a badge of honor for those who revere Japanese popular culture, the word otaku is originally a polite word meaning "you" or "your family." It's kind of a "housewife word," with the most common usage being between housewives in the neighborhood. Urayamashii ne, otaku no ko wa mainichi benkyo, one might say to another, meaning "I really envy you, your son studies everyday." (Japanese are into praising each other's kids while putting their own kids down in front of others, it's a humility thing.) The word became used to refer to people who obsessed over anime in the 1990s when Gainax release their classic Otaku no Video, which documents one character's slide from "normalcy" into otakuhood. More than any other animation company, Gainax has helped create a self-aware "otaku" generation (and we thank them for it).

J-List has a great line of wacky Japanese T-shirts, which present funny or aesthetically beautiful kanji shirt designs for you. We've got dozens of shirts for guys and girls, as well as great hoodies for the cooler months, in stock for you, all printed here in San Diego by our dedicated staff. We're always closing out designs to make room for others, so if you like the look of one of our shirts, you might want to get before the design is cycled out in favor of new ideas. We've recently reduced the price of some of our close-out shirts, including a cool shirt that teaches you some Japanese words and culture. Why not browse our great T-shirts today?

Some more pictures from the show. I was hanging out in Artist Alley a lot, snapping picturs and handing out our world-famous J-List tissues.

Now this guy has had a great idea!

Another nice costume...

This wounded Gundam holds and sign that says, "Will shoot Zakus for anime."

I'm so glad I'm a father. I know I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Harry Potter books as much if it weren't for being able to read the books through my kids' eyes.

Wow, old school. Hey, were these guys even born when Speed Racer was on the air?

Someone was distributing deodorant to random fans, and one girl gave this to me. I was mildly offended.

All too true, all too true...

This was taken before the show, when we were on our way back from a trip to Virginia. You gotta love their moxy.

More reflections on "freedom" and how it relates to James Dean, my trip to the Moon, and Japanese "standing nails"

Well, Otakon has passed and we're safely back in San Diego, our long, multi-stage vacation across America finally over. After finishing up at the convention, we spent Sunday in D.C. so that my son could see the many amazing sights there. We started with the Capital and walked all the way to the Lincoln Memorial ("the place from Planet of the Apes"), taking in various monuments along the way. One of the challenges of raising a child who's both American and Japanese is exposing him to the cultural knowledge Americans take for granted, George Washington chopping down the cherry tree and all that. I had my work cut out for me, explaining the history of the nation mainly through the presidents that appear on the U.S. currency and trying to impress upon him why archaic language like "four score and seven years ago" is important We capped off our day at one of my favorite places in the world, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, took in the great aeronautical achievements of the past century, went to the moon courtesy of IMAX, and did the requisite touching of the moon rock. It was a great memory.

I talked last time about what the idea of "freedom" might mean to the Japanese, at least the students I taught English to. In general Japan is what's known as heiwa-boke (hay-WAH BOH-kay), roughly meaning "going soft in the head from too much peace." Japan has spent the last six decades completely free of war, with the exception of peacekeeping efforts in Cambodia and now Iraq. I grew up with ideas from the American Revolution like "the tree of liberty, from time to time, must be replenished with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (Jefferson), but Kim Jung-il notwithstanding, Japan has very little in the way of external threats to its liberty that would make people think about what "freedom" might mean in the larger, philosophical sense. So "freedom" comes to mean the freedom to do the things they're not allowed to do in Japan, like wear the clothes they want to school (almost all junior high and high schools have required uniforms), the freedom to drive or work a part-time job (forbidden for students), freedom to listen to rockabilly music, or freedom to imitate your heroes on Hollywood. I definitely feel lucky as an American to have a better idea of what "freedom" should really mean.

I'm always interested in Japanese who recognize the limitations of Japan's more structured society and find ways around them. One person I knew had finally gotten into Aoyama University in Tokyo, a prestigious private school, after years of preparation and study. Once in the school, he found...nothing that interested him. It's common for Japanese university students to study very hard to pass a school's entrance exam, then play around for four years while they wait to graduate, and that's what he saw happening. So he dropped out -- how scandalous! -- and restarted his university career in Oregon, enjoying a much broader education in the U.S. and perfecting his English in the process. America is very much an open plain, with little in the way of established social grooves that people feel they must move through, as in Japan, and this suited my friend very well. One of the famous sayings in Japan is deru kui wa utareru, or "the standing nail will be hammered down," meaning that people who stick out will usually be brought into line with social norms in the end. If you were to make a list of Japanese who have done really outstanding things over the past century, I'm sure you'd see that most or all of them were very much "standing nails." I'm sure my friend will do great things in the future.

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Neo and Smith and one of our T-shirts in the background there.

Speaking of our shirts, they were there, even though J-List wasn't represented officially at any booth.

Cosplayers from Animamundi, wow.

Ulp, $5 for ramune? That's ridiculous in the extreme.