Thursday, September 25, 2008
24 September 2008
Tokyo. Likely as different from Japan as Beijing is from China, New York from the USA and Paris from France.
I feel like one of those penguins from the era of “scientific” toys, the kind that sat beside a glass of water and would dip its body toward the water every few seconds. Here a whole culture dips and bows often enough to make me wonder if there is research to see if Japanese backs are stronger than non-Japanese backs and what the ratio of inhabitants to back problems may be. If memory serves something like 3 out of every five of us on this earth have “bad backs”, not further defined. Perhaps the Japanese have found a better way.
Be that as it may the response to all this bowing varies by time of day. Early and through most of the day the bowing has its charms, but it also wears thin the longer the day proceeds. Their country, their culture; I am the visitor.
But that leads to another thought, the fact that I live in one of two countries with significant populations that are homogeneous. Japan is the smaller country at about 130 million. About 10% of the population is in and around Tokyo. If that were true of Shanghai that city’s population would be 140,000,000.
But the homogeneity is more significant than just numbers. This immigrant-averse population likely surpasses the 95% figure that China applies to its Han heritage. I expect there have been studies about what that kind of homogeneity does to, for, and against a culture, and a government.
Is it harder to develop a real opposition if the population is so “together”? Is the population “together”? If togetherness keeps Japan from having a dynamic opposition (the political opposition is not within the government here, its among outside groups), then why does the US with its polyglot population have an equally weak adversarial opposition?
On the other hand this small population produces the second strongest economy in the world. No mean feat. There are constant reminders that this is an island. There is an island mentality.
When I asked one of our Japanese hosts, an executive in a group of educational institutions, how Japan was going to deal with the problem of an ageing population and an inadequate birthrate to replace the deaths, much less grow the population, the answers were evasive.
I sharpened the question and asked whether immigration might grow, whether it was possible for this traditionally anti-immigrant population to soften its stance and bring in people to do the work that locals will no longer do. The discomfort of my host with the question was palpable, but as we were both academics of a sort I bored on. Was the level of immigration going to rise; was this a subject of debate? He proudly proclaimed that Japan already permits 80,000 immigrants to come in every year. He either did not understand what an infinitesimal percentage of the population 80,000 immigrants represent, or he was just hoping for a change of subject.
My colleague and friend Barry Petersen, the CBS News correspondent for Japan and China – for all of Asia for that matter – doubts even the 80,000 number. His reply was: “That’s why the Japanese are working so hard on robotics as a solution.” The Japanese have plans to use robots as health care workers for the aged. They are likely to succeed, but the imagination brings to mind chilling visions of the future in this country (and others) for the aged.
SONY gave us the Walkman; Mitsubishi will perhaps give us Nurse Cavendish!
Takashimaya has its Vatican at Shinjuku in Central Tokyo. It’s the site of what must be the world’s largest railway station. Plural is more like it. Half a dozen or more subway lines come together at Shinjuku. The maze of underground passageways gives me instant admiration for Japanese engineers who had to set out these underground layers of intersecting, crossing, and bending tunnels for people and trains. The mainline Japanese trains come into and out as well, including the bullet trains.
Good place for a Department store. With a capital D.
I grew up on Macy’s “The world’s largest store” when it was not only large but complete. The trick was to think of something you needed, or wanted, and not be able to find it at Macy’s. My mother never succeeded. I lived long enough to see the day when I couldn’t find anything I wanted or needed at Macy’s as US department stores migrated into the real estate business and rented space to boutique purveyors of overpriced goods. The modern American Department store has no inventory. If its not on display its not for sale and there is precious little for sale. Boutiques with sixteen dresses. Tough luck if your size isn’t among them.
Not Takshimaya. It’s the old model combined with the new. One half of the 8 storey store laterally and vertically is devoted to modern boutiques with the names and inventory familiar to the world. Given the anemic value of the dollar, $500 USD handbags of no distinction, $250 USD shirts, and blouses that exceed $1000 USD are in plentiful supply. Japanese price labels take your breath away given the 104 to 1 ratio of the Yen to the dollar. But even when you knock off two zeros, what’s left is enough to thin the ranks of buyers to the extremely rich. An ordinary bicycle, mass produced in China costs about $500 USD. A small, thick lock for that bicycle, K-mart variety, runs $30 USD. I needed Mink Oil to treat a set of boots and tested Takshimaya. Would they have Mink Oil?
Of course they had Mink Oil. Not only the US variety but in a size I never saw in the US, half the size of the standard shoe polish box. Thank heavens, because even this small size cost $6.00, twice the US price for the full size version. But that I could afford.
If you ever shop at the Takashimayas around the world you will not find “Tokyo Hands”. It is an experience you will have to come to Tokyo to enjoy.
If you have been to Paris or are blessed by living there you know the BHV Bazaar de L’Hotel de Ville, the department store across from the Paris City Hall. BHV has a famous basement that on one floor tries to emulate what Takashimaya does on eight floors. I used to consider BHV the Vatican of “stuff”, everything from pipes for plumbing, to keys for keying, and dog tags that can be personalized. BHV also provided, in the 60s, custom versions of the metal street signs that are part of the Paris charm. No longer, they’re plastic now. But them I didn’t see anything like that in Takashimaya either which figures. Tokyo street signs have zero charm. But BHV is now a sloppy second at best. Crowded, squeezed with an inventory that can only be called “limited” by the standards of the Japanese.
One section of one department at Tokyo Hands had a variety of wood blocks, the ends of different styles and kinds of wood, laminates and solid, round and square and oblong. Priced (outrageously when converted to dollars) by size. My elder daughter would have loaded up with newfound bases for her sculpture. Younger daughter would have used them for decorative pieces to fit into the charm of her farm.
Tokyo hands had Halloween costumes; men’s wallets in the leather section. There must have been 40-50 styles, none less than $40 USD and some in the hundreds of dollars. Simpler wallets! A hard leather old-fashioned document bag, stylish, cost $348 USD. Drill bits and scientific instruments (I half expected to find a slide rule, but that was expecting a bit much) aplenty. Stationary.
The fact is that much of this half of Takashimaya is “made in China”; Japan’s number one trading partner. Import trading it would seem. Given the low cost of manufacture in China and the relatively short throw for the import to arrive, the profit margin on “made in China sold in Japan” must be stunning.
Japanese manufacture is high cost. I found it interesting that many of the shoes in Takashimaya and elsewhere were “made in Japan”, and yet the prices were in line with good shoes in other developed countries. I wonder at these pricing distortions. But then I don’t think it gives the average shopper a headache.
Average shopper. The crowds, the waves of shoppers that move through the five or six departments stores that share the center of Tokyo (you never have to go outside to move between them and the subway system) are as determined as any I have ever seen. Tokyo displays a consumer society. Given the dress of the shoppers, from ordinary office worker, to couture-dressed chic, the surface conclusion is that there is money here, money to spend liberally. A high percentage of men and women were “carrying”. Carrying multiple bags from multiple stores. After all the second strongest economy in the world. But for how long? What happens when Japan dies out?
Will the fiasco of dealing with Kim Jung Il end in his death and open N Korea. Will a portion of that population flood into Japan as Eastern Europe and Turkey and many African states have flooded into the EU?
I am told the N Koreans who made it legally to Japan years and generations ago are the local “mafia” that run and rule the Pachinko parlors; those cacophonous betting parlors defy the “no gambling” laws. You don’t “gamble” at Pachinko. You play the slot-like machines, music, bells and whistles threaten the eardrums, and when you win, you win a stuffed animal. You take the stuffed animal to a desk where you sell it back to the Pachinko store. That’s how you win money. I like the French expression: Figure toi. Go figure.
Pachinko parlors are hard on the eardrums. In this high-tech society the Pachinko machines are not purely digital, they have mechanical components. Delightfully noisy, tinkly, abrasive sounding parts. On a recent trip to Las Vegas I was disillusioned by the comparative quiet of the casino floors. The slots are all digital and whiz and whirr and nary a sound when you win, none of those cascades of coins.
But when it come to living with moral laws like no gambling we all have our little deceptions.
I wonder why?
Is “denial” the strongest force in us?
I am told that a foreigner living in Japan has an easier time than he or she did years ago when foreigners were all but shunned. But this cannot be an easy society for a foreigner.
The Japanese young show no sings of learning any language beyond their own. The ubiquity of English that drives the world of international commerce is not heard here. It is seen. Many sings, particularly those involving public transport and street identification or directions are bi-lingual. More so than the US where the population still seems to consider the country is English-only (yes exceptions in certain Spanish sreas, and a few Chinatowns).
The subway system is a dream. Bilingual signage. Machines to dispense tickets that are easy to read and easy to use, and I did not see a single “out of service” machine in two days of travel.
The trains and platforms are not new. They have been around, but everything is spotless. You feel clean in these trains and stations.
A ride in the first zone of Tokyo is about one dollar and fifty cents at the current exchange rate.
I kept thinking about London where the tube is a sometimes-working experience. Zone One in London was six or eight US dollars on my last visit. Fortunately I wasn’t going far, but at that I saw numerous signs reporting sections of the system that were out of service with recommended alternate routes or bus substitutes. The loudspeakers kept up a steady chatter informing riders of delays and other outages. My last three or four visits to London were similar tube-challenged experiences.
Not a single outage during my Tokyo visit. The system is large. One of my days was a holiday therefore light traffic yet short waits (a few minutes) for a train. The pictures of passengers squeezed like sardines are real and continue on normal work days. I saw the pushers. They were ready but had no challenges given the holiday. With all that and trains that run at 2-3 minute headways, the system runs on a schedule and the schedule is published. Check it out.
Downside? Many commuters in Tokyo spend between 1.5 and 2 hours a day commuting from the far suburbs and exurbs. Rents are that high in town. And space seems rationed.
Tokyo is a low city. Much of the construction kept low by the threat of serious and frequent earthquakes. New Buildings are tall, designed to withstand the rolling and shaking. But most buildings are low. Whole neighborhoods of two and three story structures, rarely exceeding five or six stories. Do the math. 12 million people in low buildings = damned little space for each and every Japanese.
I kept wondering what the city might look like if there was a concerted effort to build tall for every low building that has reached its age limit. Here is little preserve in those “old” buildings. The bombing during WW II saw to that. There is no distinctive modern Japanese architecture in Tokyo, just the drab blocks and blocks of post WW II construction. And poor construction at that. Quite a contrast to the wealth of the inhabitants.
Reminds me of my first days in Hong Kong five years ago. I was watching TV the first night, the local news came on and the head of the MTR (subway) came on to apologize for a single delay on a single line. Service was 20 minutes off schedule. He told the public that this was an embarrassing and intolerable event that would be thoroughly investigated. The results of the investigation would be made public and every effort would be made for no further interruptions of service.
I spent 22 years growing up in New York. I rode the 3rd avenue “El” (elevated), and lived through its destruction….and the destruction of the old Penn Station. I reveled in the world’s largest subway system that took you anywhere. From Yankee Stadium to the far reaches of a wide beach facing the Atlantic for a nickel for what seemed like an endless “forever” ride.
I lived through the near death of the system when there were hours when it was literally worth your life to ride the subway; when it seemed the rolling stock would never be replaced and the fans had long since ceased swiveling or turning to move the fetid air. Today’s system remains a mostly air-conditioned marvel. A reminder that rail can move millions of people daily. But living in China where Beijing has built 6 subway lines in five years, where Shenzen has a new system that is expanding at the rate of a new line every two years, and Hong Kong has the finest system in the world, often running on 2 minute headways and occasionally less…..whatever happened to the USA’s infrastructure?
Tokyo. Likely as different from Japan as Beijing is from China, New York from the USA and Paris from France.
I feel like one of those penguins from the era of “scientific” toys, the kind that sat beside a glass of water and would dip its body toward the water every few seconds. Here a whole culture dips and bows often enough to make me wonder if there is research to see if Japanese backs are stronger than non-Japanese backs and what the ratio of inhabitants to back problems may be. If memory serves something like 3 out of every five of us on this earth have “bad backs”, not further defined. Perhaps the Japanese have found a better way.
Be that as it may the response to all this bowing varies by time of day. Early and through most of the day the bowing has its charms, but it also wears thin the longer the day proceeds. Their country, their culture; I am the visitor.
But that leads to another thought, the fact that I live in one of two countries with significant populations that are homogeneous. Japan is the smaller country at about 130 million. About 10% of the population is in and around Tokyo. If that were true of Shanghai that city’s population would be 140,000,000.
But the homogeneity is more significant than just numbers. This immigrant-averse population likely surpasses the 95% figure that China applies to its Han heritage. I expect there have been studies about what that kind of homogeneity does to, for, and against a culture, and a government.
Is it harder to develop a real opposition if the population is so “together”? Is the population “together”? If togetherness keeps Japan from having a dynamic opposition (the political opposition is not within the government here, its among outside groups), then why does the US with its polyglot population have an equally weak adversarial opposition?
On the other hand this small population produces the second strongest economy in the world. No mean feat. There are constant reminders that this is an island. There is an island mentality.
When I asked one of our Japanese hosts, an executive in a group of educational institutions, how Japan was going to deal with the problem of an ageing population and an inadequate birthrate to replace the deaths, much less grow the population, the answers were evasive.
I sharpened the question and asked whether immigration might grow, whether it was possible for this traditionally anti-immigrant population to soften its stance and bring in people to do the work that locals will no longer do. The discomfort of my host with the question was palpable, but as we were both academics of a sort I bored on. Was the level of immigration going to rise; was this a subject of debate? He proudly proclaimed that Japan already permits 80,000 immigrants to come in every year. He either did not understand what an infinitesimal percentage of the population 80,000 immigrants represent, or he was just hoping for a change of subject.
My colleague and friend Barry Petersen, the CBS News correspondent for Japan and China – for all of Asia for that matter – doubts even the 80,000 number. His reply was: “That’s why the Japanese are working so hard on robotics as a solution.” The Japanese have plans to use robots as health care workers for the aged. They are likely to succeed, but the imagination brings to mind chilling visions of the future in this country (and others) for the aged.
SONY gave us the Walkman; Mitsubishi will perhaps give us Nurse Cavendish!
Takashimaya has its Vatican at Shinjuku in Central Tokyo. It’s the site of what must be the world’s largest railway station. Plural is more like it. Half a dozen or more subway lines come together at Shinjuku. The maze of underground passageways gives me instant admiration for Japanese engineers who had to set out these underground layers of intersecting, crossing, and bending tunnels for people and trains. The mainline Japanese trains come into and out as well, including the bullet trains.
Good place for a Department store. With a capital D.
I grew up on Macy’s “The world’s largest store” when it was not only large but complete. The trick was to think of something you needed, or wanted, and not be able to find it at Macy’s. My mother never succeeded. I lived long enough to see the day when I couldn’t find anything I wanted or needed at Macy’s as US department stores migrated into the real estate business and rented space to boutique purveyors of overpriced goods. The modern American Department store has no inventory. If its not on display its not for sale and there is precious little for sale. Boutiques with sixteen dresses. Tough luck if your size isn’t among them.
Not Takshimaya. It’s the old model combined with the new. One half of the 8 storey store laterally and vertically is devoted to modern boutiques with the names and inventory familiar to the world. Given the anemic value of the dollar, $500 USD handbags of no distinction, $250 USD shirts, and blouses that exceed $1000 USD are in plentiful supply. Japanese price labels take your breath away given the 104 to 1 ratio of the Yen to the dollar. But even when you knock off two zeros, what’s left is enough to thin the ranks of buyers to the extremely rich. An ordinary bicycle, mass produced in China costs about $500 USD. A small, thick lock for that bicycle, K-mart variety, runs $30 USD. I needed Mink Oil to treat a set of boots and tested Takshimaya. Would they have Mink Oil?
Of course they had Mink Oil. Not only the US variety but in a size I never saw in the US, half the size of the standard shoe polish box. Thank heavens, because even this small size cost $6.00, twice the US price for the full size version. But that I could afford.
If you ever shop at the Takashimayas around the world you will not find “Tokyo Hands”. It is an experience you will have to come to Tokyo to enjoy.
If you have been to Paris or are blessed by living there you know the BHV Bazaar de L’Hotel de Ville, the department store across from the Paris City Hall. BHV has a famous basement that on one floor tries to emulate what Takashimaya does on eight floors. I used to consider BHV the Vatican of “stuff”, everything from pipes for plumbing, to keys for keying, and dog tags that can be personalized. BHV also provided, in the 60s, custom versions of the metal street signs that are part of the Paris charm. No longer, they’re plastic now. But them I didn’t see anything like that in Takashimaya either which figures. Tokyo street signs have zero charm. But BHV is now a sloppy second at best. Crowded, squeezed with an inventory that can only be called “limited” by the standards of the Japanese.
One section of one department at Tokyo Hands had a variety of wood blocks, the ends of different styles and kinds of wood, laminates and solid, round and square and oblong. Priced (outrageously when converted to dollars) by size. My elder daughter would have loaded up with newfound bases for her sculpture. Younger daughter would have used them for decorative pieces to fit into the charm of her farm.
Tokyo hands had Halloween costumes; men’s wallets in the leather section. There must have been 40-50 styles, none less than $40 USD and some in the hundreds of dollars. Simpler wallets! A hard leather old-fashioned document bag, stylish, cost $348 USD. Drill bits and scientific instruments (I half expected to find a slide rule, but that was expecting a bit much) aplenty. Stationary.
The fact is that much of this half of Takashimaya is “made in China”; Japan’s number one trading partner. Import trading it would seem. Given the low cost of manufacture in China and the relatively short throw for the import to arrive, the profit margin on “made in China sold in Japan” must be stunning.
Japanese manufacture is high cost. I found it interesting that many of the shoes in Takashimaya and elsewhere were “made in Japan”, and yet the prices were in line with good shoes in other developed countries. I wonder at these pricing distortions. But then I don’t think it gives the average shopper a headache.
Average shopper. The crowds, the waves of shoppers that move through the five or six departments stores that share the center of Tokyo (you never have to go outside to move between them and the subway system) are as determined as any I have ever seen. Tokyo displays a consumer society. Given the dress of the shoppers, from ordinary office worker, to couture-dressed chic, the surface conclusion is that there is money here, money to spend liberally. A high percentage of men and women were “carrying”. Carrying multiple bags from multiple stores. After all the second strongest economy in the world. But for how long? What happens when Japan dies out?
Will the fiasco of dealing with Kim Jung Il end in his death and open N Korea. Will a portion of that population flood into Japan as Eastern Europe and Turkey and many African states have flooded into the EU?
I am told the N Koreans who made it legally to Japan years and generations ago are the local “mafia” that run and rule the Pachinko parlors; those cacophonous betting parlors defy the “no gambling” laws. You don’t “gamble” at Pachinko. You play the slot-like machines, music, bells and whistles threaten the eardrums, and when you win, you win a stuffed animal. You take the stuffed animal to a desk where you sell it back to the Pachinko store. That’s how you win money. I like the French expression: Figure toi. Go figure.
Pachinko parlors are hard on the eardrums. In this high-tech society the Pachinko machines are not purely digital, they have mechanical components. Delightfully noisy, tinkly, abrasive sounding parts. On a recent trip to Las Vegas I was disillusioned by the comparative quiet of the casino floors. The slots are all digital and whiz and whirr and nary a sound when you win, none of those cascades of coins.
But when it come to living with moral laws like no gambling we all have our little deceptions.
I wonder why?
Is “denial” the strongest force in us?
I am told that a foreigner living in Japan has an easier time than he or she did years ago when foreigners were all but shunned. But this cannot be an easy society for a foreigner.
The Japanese young show no sings of learning any language beyond their own. The ubiquity of English that drives the world of international commerce is not heard here. It is seen. Many sings, particularly those involving public transport and street identification or directions are bi-lingual. More so than the US where the population still seems to consider the country is English-only (yes exceptions in certain Spanish sreas, and a few Chinatowns).
The subway system is a dream. Bilingual signage. Machines to dispense tickets that are easy to read and easy to use, and I did not see a single “out of service” machine in two days of travel.
The trains and platforms are not new. They have been around, but everything is spotless. You feel clean in these trains and stations.
A ride in the first zone of Tokyo is about one dollar and fifty cents at the current exchange rate.
I kept thinking about London where the tube is a sometimes-working experience. Zone One in London was six or eight US dollars on my last visit. Fortunately I wasn’t going far, but at that I saw numerous signs reporting sections of the system that were out of service with recommended alternate routes or bus substitutes. The loudspeakers kept up a steady chatter informing riders of delays and other outages. My last three or four visits to London were similar tube-challenged experiences.
Not a single outage during my Tokyo visit. The system is large. One of my days was a holiday therefore light traffic yet short waits (a few minutes) for a train. The pictures of passengers squeezed like sardines are real and continue on normal work days. I saw the pushers. They were ready but had no challenges given the holiday. With all that and trains that run at 2-3 minute headways, the system runs on a schedule and the schedule is published. Check it out.
Downside? Many commuters in Tokyo spend between 1.5 and 2 hours a day commuting from the far suburbs and exurbs. Rents are that high in town. And space seems rationed.
Tokyo is a low city. Much of the construction kept low by the threat of serious and frequent earthquakes. New Buildings are tall, designed to withstand the rolling and shaking. But most buildings are low. Whole neighborhoods of two and three story structures, rarely exceeding five or six stories. Do the math. 12 million people in low buildings = damned little space for each and every Japanese.
I kept wondering what the city might look like if there was a concerted effort to build tall for every low building that has reached its age limit. Here is little preserve in those “old” buildings. The bombing during WW II saw to that. There is no distinctive modern Japanese architecture in Tokyo, just the drab blocks and blocks of post WW II construction. And poor construction at that. Quite a contrast to the wealth of the inhabitants.
Reminds me of my first days in Hong Kong five years ago. I was watching TV the first night, the local news came on and the head of the MTR (subway) came on to apologize for a single delay on a single line. Service was 20 minutes off schedule. He told the public that this was an embarrassing and intolerable event that would be thoroughly investigated. The results of the investigation would be made public and every effort would be made for no further interruptions of service.
I spent 22 years growing up in New York. I rode the 3rd avenue “El” (elevated), and lived through its destruction….and the destruction of the old Penn Station. I reveled in the world’s largest subway system that took you anywhere. From Yankee Stadium to the far reaches of a wide beach facing the Atlantic for a nickel for what seemed like an endless “forever” ride.
I lived through the near death of the system when there were hours when it was literally worth your life to ride the subway; when it seemed the rolling stock would never be replaced and the fans had long since ceased swiveling or turning to move the fetid air. Today’s system remains a mostly air-conditioned marvel. A reminder that rail can move millions of people daily. But living in China where Beijing has built 6 subway lines in five years, where Shenzen has a new system that is expanding at the rate of a new line every two years, and Hong Kong has the finest system in the world, often running on 2 minute headways and occasionally less…..whatever happened to the USA’s infrastructure?
Labels: A VISIT TO TOKYO
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