Stick to the plan

So I got to school on Wednesday and I was told that no taxi was coming for me. Today I will stay at the base school and not go to Tamagawa my visit school. No explanation given. I figure it's because today is the sports festival practice at Tamagawa and there are no classes. However, I do have a class scheduled today, after the sports practice which only goes until lunch time. I tell the vice principal this, along with the more obvious fact that it's raining and therefore the sports practice won't even be happening today. Today will be a normal lesson day instead (this was also true of the base school, the place we were standing having the converstion, so I was obviously right). Shouldn't I go to Tamagawa and do lessons rather than sit here and do nothing? Before the vice principal's ears start bleeding from trying to make a decision, he calls the board of education who tell him to stick to the plan. This is despite the fact that we have spare taxi tickets on hand, presumably to deal with these unexpected situations (we taxi to the visit schools using dated, pre-paid tickets from the government).

If only he or the BOE could have made a snap decision to change the plan and send me to Tamagawa, I would have had four classes. Also worth noting is that I was sick on Monday and Tuesday, so this day would have been an opportunity to go in and make up for lost time, but that new piece of information never came into the equation. Even though it was the plan to keep me at the base school, the English teachers there had no idea I would be there, and so did not plan lessons for me. One teacher did invite me to two lessons, apologising for the short notice, but I was more than happy to go.

This event, although miniscule, seems symptomatic of what I have been reading recently about the way Japanese companies are run. There is no ability whatsoever to adapt to new situations and make quick decisions; all decisions are thrown up the heirarchy and the bosses don't want to change anything. Did it matter that I had said I have lessons scheduled after the sports practice, or that I pointed out the blatantly obvious fact that rain would cancel said practice? No. In my mind it was totally clear that I should go to Tamagawa and I said that, but the BOE, unaware of the situation on the ground told us to stick to the plan. I don't know much the vice principal is to blame in this, probably not at all as he seemed as confused as me. But, when I take this up with the BOE supervisor they probably won't have a decent explanation either.

When I got to Tamagawa on Thursday... they were doing the sports festival practice! So I had the day of standing around anyway, but the plan was for me to be there on Thursday and I was so it didn't matter.

Oh Golly Gosh!

I read Sam's blog and I was reminded of a conversation we had at work about political correctness in Japan and England. In Britain it's popular to say that "political correctness has gone mad" because of the uproar over potentially slightly offensive remarks by famous people or members of the royal family dressing like Hitler. But in Japan there is no concept of political correctness at all. I was watching TV last year and there was a mature female singer performing, her backing singers where Japanese men in full golliwog outfits, basically blackface. Now, the history of minstrel show, black-face and the golliwog is something everyone knows about in the west, and the use of blackface now is limited to comedy shows and movies where it is done in a very self-conscious way. This still draws offence from some people, who angrily tell people to "read the history of blackface". But the use of blackface today (Robert Downey Jr.'s character in Tropic Thunder, for example) is informed by it's history and the stupidity of blackface is always the joke. But over on prime-time Japanese TV, it was just guys in blackface, with no self-consciousness or cultural context, and certainly no offended viewers.

Well, which is more desirable? The use of black-face being rightfully viewed in the context of it's dark (get it?) history, even when it's used for humour, or the use of blackface in 2009 as though it's still the 1850s. The western mind-set might lead to a radio DJ getting in trouble for using a racial stereotype to do a comedy bit, or, on city council promotional materials the number of black and Asian people being obsessively balanced, but there's no straight up blackface on TV.

Political correctness is really just an attempt to find a common code of behaviour for everyone to adopt in a changing society. When new people and cultures arrive, and as it becomes more and more okay to being a raving homosexual, the society has adapt in order to survive. In "Gone With The Wind", one of the greatest films of all time, Rhett Butler, the hero, says "darkie" for the entire movie and it was totally accepted in 1939. In modern times, Ron Atkinson resigns immediately for saying n*gger on TV and his career is dead. The media frenzy surrounding that event was maybe over the top (there was even a TV documentary called "What Ron Said" analysing the aftermath) but few would question that the status quo now is not to say n*gger or darkie. The constant back and forth between what terms are acceptable for ethnic groups is tiring but it's necessary if people in Britain are to approach a new appropriate terminology.

That's in England, but what about Japan? Well, there's hardly even a debate is there? There are hardly any black people to worry about, so the society doesn't need to make any changes to it's code of behaviour at all. And it's media can go on presenting ancient stereotypes because the reality of blacks and Indians in the society isn't something that people have to deal with. Stereotypes are broken by actual experience, befriend a homosexual, a Muslim, or a Chinese girl and stereotypes quickly fade away. But if the train you're on is full of only Japanese then how can you question stereotypes? And why worry about making TV shows, or designing Pokemon characters based on stereotypes when there are no blacks around to make it wrong? Wait, is it wrong? Is it even wrong when the society is so homogeneous that no-one is around to be offended by golliwogs on TV? If everyone in Japan is ignorant of the history of blackface (they are) then no-one will squirm with discomfort and shame when they see it. Ignorance is bliss, yeah?

To conclude I'll defer to Stewart Lee: