Will Miss #56 - surgical masks (reflection)

One thing I have realized since coming back to the U.S. is that cultural context truly matters. This is something I've pondered in relationship to the debate over face-obscuring hijab or burkas being worn by women in the name of their native culture. In America, a country in which there is a fair bit of crime, covering ones face in a manner which obscures identity is a very different kettle of fish than it is in cultures in which there is less crime or crime in which identity is obscured.

In Japan, people wore surgical masks regularly to protect themselves from the flu or colds or to prevent allergens from getting through during certain seasons. In the context of Japanese society, which has little crime and people rarely rob and cover their faces to hide their identities, the wearing of such masks seems cute, quirky, and endearingly paranoid (if paranoia can be seen as "endearing"). Everything I read framed it as less than "useful", but I think the jury is still out on that.

I find that I not only miss how seeing the masks made me smile a little inside, but also knowing that I lived in a society in which covering one's face in this fashion was not seen as any sort of problem as it did not link potential criminal behavior. 

Won't Miss # 501- hearing about "the bases"

The U.S. has military bases in Japan and occasionally, one of the people living there commits a crime. When this happens, the Japanese media has a field day pointing fingers at the bad Americans with their criminal behavior. Every day you read about (Japanese) parents murdering their children or old people being killed or killing people or babies being abandoned and left to die, but any crime carried out by a person stationed on a base is made into a much bigger deal because the existence of the bases is controversial. Many Japanese people don't want them so they assume an attitude that crimes wouldn't happen in those areas with bases if the bases were eliminated. There is always the either overt or covert message that the Americans are inherently criminal and violent and that the Japanese people would never experience crime if it weren't for the contaminating influence of these soldiers and their families. Frankly, I wish America would remove the bases since everyone would shut up about them and the Japanese would start footing their own defense bill (something which many of them fail to realize is going to cost substantially more than what they pay America to protect them),  not to mention tangling with the diplomatic fall-out from their Asian neighbors that would result from such a change. The fact of the matter remains that the bases are there because they benefit Japan more than they harm them, but the focus is always on the deficits and never on the (rather large) benefits of this military presence.

I won't miss hearing all of the claptrap about the American military bases in Japan.

Will Miss #423 - naivete about crime

I was discussing crime with one of my students and asked her if she had ever been a victim of it. She said that someone had attempted to break into her house, but failed when they couldn't breach her window screens. They broke the glass and gave up. One of her friends, however, was robbed twice, by a couple of sisters, no less. She said that friend was now afraid to ever take a vacation. I told her that most criminals rob only empty houses, and that they identify them often by the accumulation of mail or newspapers at the house. I told her you can make your house a less appealing target by having a neighbor clear things out and by putting your lights and T.V. on a timer so that it appears the house is occupied. This information came as a huge surprise to her. Most Japanese people experience so little crime that they don't have an awareness of how it works nor how to lessen the likelihood of being a victim. When I experience this naivete, I feel that it's a little like science fiction shows in which aliens have no idea what murder is because they are immortal. You have to explain some sort of ugly truth to them so that they can understand the concept.

The naivete about crime that is relatively common in Japan is a reflection of a society that hasn't been so strongly touched by it, and I will miss how heartening and reassuring that is. 

Won't Miss #394 - being followed in shops

At lunch recently with a new acquaintance, she remarked that she felt all Caucasians should spend some time in Japan to begin to get a clue of what it feels like to be a minority in their home countries. One of the experiences which certainly breeds empathy for black folks back home is not being picked up by cabs. Another is being followed around in stores. This generally happens in larger spaces, though not necessarily expensive shops (it happened to me in a Daiso 100 yen shop, among other places). I'm not sure what motivates it, but it has happened to me despite my feeling that I neither resemble a kleptomaniac granny nor a thieving hood. Usually, a plain-dressed man tries to surreptitiously case me as I browse the store looking at their goods. He could think he's going to catch a thieving foreigner stuffing goods in her pockets. He could be just rude and acting on curiosity.  He may simply be interested in exactly the same goods as me and coincidentally following the same meandering path throughout the store as I am and think that I'm reverse-following him and that's why he's glancing at me so often. He may find the upper-middle-aged foreign lady so hauntingly beautiful that he can't resist her charm. He might even be a salesman applying his trade in some bizarre stealth fashion and awaiting just the right moment to pounce. (Note how all of my theories become more and more bizarre as I carry on... this is called thinking like an apologist.)

Whatever the reason for this bad behavior, I won't miss being followed around in Japanese shops.

Won't Miss #388 - coerced confessions

The obscured word is "Shut".

Sometimes I wonder if my most ardent stalkers realize the risk they take with their hostile e-mail messages and the trollish responses that they make as they follow me to every site I comment on around the web. If anything untoward were ever to befall me, from a robbery to an attack to an unfortunate fatal accident, the first finger would be pointed straight at their I.P. addresses (which I have a growing collection of). The Japanese police, who do not do forensic research or investigations so much as decide who committed the crime and then coerce a confession out of the "guilty" party, would then arrest the errant stalker and they'd be in the pokey for the crime whether they committed it or not. This potentially gratifying outcome aside, the fact that this happens in Japan has been a source of concern for my husband and I throughout our stay in Japan. We live with a certain paranoia that if we were to ever be unfairly fingered for a crime we did not commit, we know that various unpleasant techniques would be employed to force us to confess. What is worse is that the Japanese populace, by and large, believes that the police only arrest the guilty and therefore do not question this practice.

I won't miss this nagging worry that if the police decide my husband or I broke the law, we'd be browbeaten down and placed in jail for something we did not do.

Will Miss #375 - depictions of criminals

If all of the criminal element would just wear these types of jackets, the police would have a much easier time doing their job.

Old cartoons used to show the bad guy as having a long mustache that he twirled as he contemplated his dastardly deeds. Criminals were shown wearing striped prison outfits or were snaggle-toothed, wearing eye patches or masks, or leather-clad punks. These days, such caricatures of the criminal element are only used as a part of comedy. When such images are used with the utmost sincerity, as they are in Japan, it's a hoot. Frankly, I think if someone showed up who looked like the people who are illustrated in the warning signs in Japan, I think people would know enough to stay away from them.

I think the mask might be a small hint of trouble, but that's just me.

I'll miss seeing the criminal element being portrayed earnestly as ridiculous caricatures. 

Will Miss #290 - tattoos on Japanese

Tattoos are nothing new in the world, nor are they new to Japan. Every exhibitionist and her brother in the west has sanskrit, Chinese characters, or "Hello Kitty" tattooed on their arms. It carries no (or very little) taboo, and rarely will get you denied access to anything. In Japan, tattoos are actually a real act of rebellion because they are associated with organized crime and people of poor repute. Visible tattoos can get you barred from certain services such as onsen or public baths. You will also be denied jobs if you have tattoos. Even if you can hide them, many people have to live in fear that some activity (like a company outing or trip) will require them to show their bodies in a fashion that will reveal the tattoo. Average folks do not get tattoos, and it is certainly not an easy or casual choice for someone to ink up their body in Japan.

I'll miss seeing tattoos and knowing that these are people who have made a conscious decision to situate themselves outside of what is acceptable in Japanese culture.

Won't Miss #277 - bribing/paying back victims

In Japan, there is a curious habit of allowing criminals to bribe or pay back the victim so as not to be charged with a crime. My first experience with this came via the news that my successor at my former job, a Welshman, was arrested in a post-soccer game brawl and held in prison (without charges or bail) for 21 days. At the end of his stint, the instigators (who were Japanese) paid him between 3,000,000-4,000,000 yen (~$34,300-$45,700) in order to compensate him for the trouble. I find the idea that one can commit a crime and simply pay the victim or return stolen money or goods to avoid jail unsettling.

Of course, there is some small consolation in the fact that repeat offenders aren't let off the hook so easily, but it still seems like justice is not being served and I won't miss it.

Won't Miss #263 - blaming foreigners for drug sales

If you read a story about a Japanese person who is caught with drugs and arrested, there is a high probability that it will be mentioned that the detainee will be asked where the drugs were obtained and the answer will be, "I got them from a foreigner". The fact that this information is included for routine drug busts (like someone caught with marijuana or stimulants) for small amounts of drugs is somewhat curious in and of itself. The fact that no one ever questions whether or not the drug user who is being held is telling the truth about where the drugs came from is an indication that merely saying, "I bought them from a foreigner," is explanation enough.

I won't miss this tendency to link (mysterious) foreigners with drugs in order to deflect responsibility for the crime for the Japanese perpetrators to non-Japanese.

Will Miss #254 - general trustworthiness

A woman left her wallet, schedule book, drink, and slippers on a bench while she made a call from a phone booth about 10 feet away.

Both natives and foreigners alike are told constantly that Japan is a "safety country", and that people do not engage in petty criminal acts. This is largely true and at least a little false. I left a tote bag in a bike basket while running into a store and it was stolen. People have found and not returned my husband's lost wallets twice. That being said, you generally can leave items out in public in Japan with far less fear that they might be stolen than in similarly populated Western countries. People often leave personal effects in vulnerable positions because they trust that they won't be taken by random strangers, and usually they are not. Just seeing that often gives me hope for humanity, and makes me smile at the nature of people who show this sort of trust of strangers. Also, I have experienced situations where personal effects were not taken. I left my purse behind on a cement wall near a bank the first year I was here, and it was there when I went back for it. My wallet once fell out of my pocket on a park bench, and someone pointed it out to me. A woman even chased me down because she thought I'd forgotten to pack a bunch of broccoli that she thought I'd bought at a shop (though it wasn't mine).

While I absolutely do not recommend leaving valuable items in a situation where they might be stolen (as I have had things stolen for becoming too complacent about leaving them and walking away), you can generally make a mistake and leave something behind with more confidence that it'll be there when you get back.

Won't Miss #219 - panty thieves

There used to be a commercial for video on demand services that showed a man who realizes as he's settling into bed that he forgot to return a rental DVD to the shop. He undergoes a series of difficulties as he finds a street blocked and he can't ride his bicycle except down a series of stone steps (which demolish his bicycle) and he has to run to the rental shop before midnight or pay an overdue fee. As he's running down the street, a pair of panties flies off a hook it is hanging to dry from and flies onto him. He takes it in his hand and looks at it just as the police see him and they start to chase him thinking he's a panty thief. This joke works because there are men who will steal womens underwear if they hang it on their first floor balconies and the idea that police would suspect a man of pilfering panties he's holding has verisimilitude in Japanese society. Because of this type of theft, you can't hang your underwear out to dry from first floor apartments (and many women won't hang theirs out at all, as you'll notice if you look at the type of laundry people hang outside their homes).

I won't miss these creepy, fetishistic panty thieves.

Won't Miss #207 - umbrella thieves

Long, plastic sleeves for wet umbrellas are offered next to the stand. 

Umbrellas are everywhere in Tokyo. People frequently forget them on trains and in the holders outside of shops. You can also buy cheap plastic ones for 300-500 yen ($3.22-$5.37) if you are caught unprepared for a downpour. Every year the Tokyo Metro has a sale of unclaimed items that are left on trains and umbrellas make up a large portion of that sale. You'd think that with all of those umbrellas on hand, and the low price of cheap replacements, people wouldn't need to steal them. Nonetheless, I have had my umbrellas stolen on numerous occasions both by strangers and coworkers. When I left one in the stand at work "just in case" it rained, invariably a coworker would just take mine (and sometimes not bring it back at all) and leave me high and so-not-dry. I have gone into convenience stores and markets and left my umbrella in the stand outside to drain and found it has been pilfered when I leave the store and go to retrieve it. If you've ever wondered why (wasteful) plastic sleeves (to holster wet umbrellas) are placed next to umbrella stands, it's because some people refuse to leave their brollies in the stand for fear of them being stolen and the shops don't want the water from them dripping all over the floor in the store. The very presence of these sleeves is an indication that such theft is pervasive enough to require an alternative to leaving your umbrella outside where anyone can steal it.

I won't miss this petty umbrella theft.

Won't Miss #182 - attitudes toward rape

When I was in university, one of my psychology professors discussed rape and culpability for the crime. He asked if a woman who dresses provocatively, flirts, and is in a place where people frequently hook up for one-night stands is responsible, at least in part, for being raped. When some people in the class said she was, he then asked if a jewelry shop that had a beautiful display of necklaces filled with precious gems was responsible, at least in part, for their wares being stolen. In other words, do we hold the victim responsible for enticing the criminal? In Japan, the answer when it comes to rape victims is definitely, "yes." I have heard directly and indirectly from more than one sexual assault victim in Japan who has said the police blamed them when they reported being raped. They also tried to dissuade the women from even filing a report. In the most despicable case, the police asked a woman who had been raped by her stepfather why she was alone with him in her apartment (implying that she showed poor judgment). I've discussed this with many Japanese people and the vast majority hold the woman at least partially responsible either by being in a place where she can be taken advantage of or for how she looks.

I won't miss this despicable attitude toward rape victims.

Won't Miss #178 - English graffiti

Almost all of the graffiti that you see in Tokyo is in English. It's very rare to see any Japanese characters at all. I believe there are several reasons for this. One possibility is that they feel more freedom to express themselves in a foreign language. Another possibility is that the vandals are either intentionally or unconsciously trying to distance themselves from their actions (which are criminal in Japan) or trying to mislead people into thinking a foreigner is doing these things. The chances that a foreigner is actually creating the graffiti are close to zero.

Whatever the cause, I don't like the fact that a criminal act, albeit a petty one, is linked to a language other than the one the criminal speaks as a native as I think it draws an unfair connection between crime and foreigners in the minds of the Japanese.

Won't Miss #160 - peeping Toms

I can't speak for everywhere in Japan, but Tokyo has issues with "peepers" or "peeping Toms". Women have to be very careful to keep their curtains drawn if they don't want some pervert to find a vantage point and watch them. I'm not sure why this is relatively common in Japan, but I suspect it has to do with a variety of social and (pop) cultural factors. Japanese men are notoriously "shy" about approaching women as compared to Western men and there is often a presentation of creepy, pervy behavior in manga, anime, television, and movies which inspires men with such inclinations to act out on their urges to peep. Peeping is second to groping as a past-time for Japan's "chikan" or perverts, and since it's far less likely to get them caught, they're likely to indulge when given an opportunity.

I won't miss these creepy men or hearing my unfortunate female acquaintances tell me about their experiences with them.

Won't Miss #140 - gropers

Click the image above to load one which is readable.

During my early years in Japan, when I was still young enough to be of interest to random men, I was riding an escalator down into a basement store to meet my husband. A man walked down the escalator behind me and touched my ass. I assumed at first that he had accidentally bumped into me after walking a step too far so I moved forward, and then he moved forward again and touched my behind again. At the time I was naive about a widespread problem in Japan, groping, so I thought he was just impatient for me to walk ahead and was nudging me. Now, I'm certain that both times he was intentionally groping me (particularly since we were the only ones on the escalator and he could have walked around me). The problem has gotten more attention in recent years, but it continues to be of sufficient concern that there are separate cars on trains for women so that they can avoid being fondled by men who can't keep their hands to themselves.

I won't miss these creepy men who think women are objects for them to play with.

Won't Miss #93 - "Japanese people don't steal"

I can't tell you how many times I've read comments by foreigners who claim Japanese people are honest and don't commit crimes. In particular, there is a myth that they (by and large) do not steal. I've read people say that all the theft in Japan is carried out by Asian immigrants, particularly the Chinese residents. What is more, Japanese people often repeat this myth. Not only has there been an increase in shoplifting by Japanese people who are perfectly capable of paying for the goods they're taking (they have lots of money on them), but there are indications all around that Japanese people are not exactly paragons of virtue. For instance, the toilet paper at the local Seiyu supermarket has the characters for the store stamped on the top of it to dissuade people from pilfering it.

I won't miss the absurd myth that Japanese people are immune from the temptation to steal by virtue of their culture or blood.