Speaker 1: I guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, I know we've
Speaker 1: been competing this week to see who could come up
Speaker 1: with the best what's big in Japan? Thing? But I
Speaker 1: actually have saved one for you. And did you know
Speaker 1: that adult adoption is actually a pretty big thing in Japan.
Speaker 1: In fact, most adoptions in Japan are adult adoptions. So
Speaker 1: I don't think I even know what that means exactly. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it has to do with inheritance. So
Speaker 1: say you've got a business owner who wants to keep
Speaker 1: his business in the family, but I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: he thinks his kids are too lazy or not smart
Speaker 1: enough to take it over. So the owner might select
Speaker 1: an executive from that company and just adopt them, you know,
Speaker 1: like to keep the business in the family. That's pretty funny.
Speaker 1: I mean I have heard of people joking about adopting
Speaker 1: college grads so that you have someone to take care
Speaker 1: of you, you know, when you're older. But I mean
Speaker 1: this is kind of surprising to me. Yeah, it is, well,
Speaker 1: and and sometimes it's also just like this kick in
Speaker 1: the pants that the business owners kids need to start
Speaker 1: working harder, and it gets complicated. I guess with the
Speaker 1: new sibling rivalry. But you know, Japan is such a
Speaker 1: fascinating place and we thought we'd just take a deeper
Speaker 1: dive into some of the customs and culture you might
Speaker 1: not usually hear about. So let's dig in ya. Hey there,
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend man
Speaker 1: Guesh Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass,
Speaker 1: super focused on his latest origami creation. That's our friend
Speaker 1: and producer Tristan McNeil. So, so what's he working on?
Speaker 1: Mangoes trying to look? Is that? Is that a bear?
Speaker 1: I think it's actually a sailboat. Oh okay, well it's
Speaker 1: a very interesting sailboat. Keep it up, Tristan, it's looking
Speaker 1: really good. All right. Well, today's show is all about
Speaker 1: Japanese society and culture. But rather than taking a deep
Speaker 1: dive into the nation's long history, or maybe focusing on
Speaker 1: a single aspect of its culture, we're going to share
Speaker 1: some of the strangest, most surprising things that we recently
Speaker 1: learned about Japan. So where do you think we should start, Mango, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, something I think we should address up front
Speaker 1: is this incredible balancing act that Japan does between the
Speaker 1: past and the present. All right, so give me an
Speaker 1: example of what you're what you're talking about. Well, one
Speaker 1: simple example is that their smartphones are actually waterproof, and
Speaker 1: this has existed in Japan for over a decade at
Speaker 1: this point. Really, I feel like that's such a recent
Speaker 1: technology here in the US. Like all the commercials last year,
Speaker 1: we're so focused on that. Yeah, it really is. And
Speaker 1: I actually saw this guy at the beach last summer
Speaker 1: and he kept accidentally dropping his phone in the water
Speaker 1: then like wiping it off and taking a picture, And
Speaker 1: I guess he was doing it to like impress the
Speaker 1: women around him were like some of the other people
Speaker 1: he was with, And at first I was kind of
Speaker 1: impressed too, But after like the third or fourth time
Speaker 1: he dropped it, I was just rooting for the ocean
Speaker 1: to take that phone away from No kidding, I would
Speaker 1: have done the same. But back to Japan. So, the
Speaker 1: first waterproof smartphone rolled out way back in two thousand five,
Speaker 1: and according to a number of electronics companies, the reason
Speaker 1: waterproofing was introduced so early is that manufacturers quickly learned
Speaker 1: that Japanese consumers were fond of taking phones into the
Speaker 1: shower or bathtub with them. Wow. You know, you always
Speaker 1: hear about screen addiction and how people are finding it
Speaker 1: increasingly harder to disconnect from their phones, and this kind
Speaker 1: of feels like the extreme of that exactly, So that
Speaker 1: that's what I thought it was at first. Two, especially
Speaker 1: when you hear like these reports of gamers and how
Speaker 1: addicted they are the video games. But that's not actually
Speaker 1: what's going on there. So waterproofing is really the industry
Speaker 1: standard in Japan of all smartphones sold in the country
Speaker 1: or waterproof and it's because of Japanese tradition. So as
Speaker 1: you might have heard that time is really important in Japan,
Speaker 1: like public bathhouses called cento. They've they've been pillars of
Speaker 1: Japanese society pretty much from the start, and thanks to
Speaker 1: the country's many volcanoes, they also have like I want
Speaker 1: to say, it's like twenty thou natural hot springs around
Speaker 1: the country for people to soak in well, And are
Speaker 1: their traditions around these or what? Yeah, I mean, partially
Speaker 1: it's just the health benefits, right, like the warm water
Speaker 1: improved circulation and it relieves stiff joints. But there's also
Speaker 1: the social intimacy that comes from sharing a bath, you know,
Speaker 1: with other members of your community. So today, most Japanese
Speaker 1: people still take frequent hot baths as a way to unwind,
Speaker 1: and the waterproofing was basically a compromise to bridge the
Speaker 1: old traditions with the new ones. Basically, most Japanese citizens
Speaker 1: were on board with having this new type of technology,
Speaker 1: you know, something that you carry around with you all
Speaker 1: the time, as long as they could take them into
Speaker 1: the tub with them. That's pretty interesting. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's something I actually came across while doing my research,
Speaker 1: and that's the idea of big companies having to bend
Speaker 1: to old Japan, you know, and and find a way
Speaker 1: to operate within that existing social framework. So how do
Speaker 1: you mean exactly, Well, one thing is that Japan places
Speaker 1: a high value on hospitality and that extends the company,
Speaker 1: is not just individuals. So you know, there's this expectation
Speaker 1: among Japanese consumers that companies are going to go above
Speaker 1: and beyond just to accommodate them and any of their needs.
Speaker 1: And there's a great example of this, and that's the
Speaker 1: Japanese auto industry. So, according to the country's automobile dealers, Association.
Speaker 1: Japanese brands account for nearly n of the cars sold
Speaker 1: there in Japan, and all of that's thanks to the
Speaker 1: hospitality services. Well, it actually is a big part of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that the relationship between car dealers and their
Speaker 1: customers is very different in Japan than it is here,
Speaker 1: and as a result of that, Japanese consumers are used
Speaker 1: to this high level of service that American dealerships have
Speaker 1: yet to really invest in, either at home or even
Speaker 1: over there. Now, The Atlantic did an article about this
Speaker 1: last year, and it included this great description of a
Speaker 1: typical car buying experience in Tokyo, and it really kind
Speaker 1: of explains how deep this custom goes. So the author
Speaker 1: of the story rights, the last time Shujiro Urada wanted
Speaker 1: to buy a car in Japan, his phone happened to ring.
Speaker 1: It was the local Toyota dealer on the phone asked
Speaker 1: him if he was thinking about buying a new car,
Speaker 1: and we replied in the affirmative, and the dealer and
Speaker 1: a co worker showed up at Eada's doorstep an hour
Speaker 1: later with two demo cars, which Urada and his wife
Speaker 1: test drove around the neighborhood. Theoradas decided to buy a
Speaker 1: car from this dealer. The dealer also handles their car insurance,
Speaker 1: coming to their home whenever the insurance contract needs to
Speaker 1: be renewed. Theorada is bringing their car to the dealer
Speaker 1: every few weeks for a free car wash, or they
Speaker 1: hang out and talk to the employees, who kind of
Speaker 1: become their friends. Japanese customers also expect to receive services
Speaker 1: like free maintenance from their dealers after they buy their cars.
Speaker 1: When their cars need to check up, the dealer comes
Speaker 1: and picks them up, does work on them, and then
Speaker 1: returns them. I mean, I kind of want that service, right.
Speaker 1: It's insane, But is that why American car companies haven't
Speaker 1: taken off their like because of that service element. It's
Speaker 1: a bigger part of it than you think. And these
Speaker 1: added services are just too costly and I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe complicated for American car companies to even bother with.
Speaker 1: In fact, Ford pulled out of the Japanese market altogether
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and sixteen. That's because they've sold
Speaker 1: like five thousand cars or so on average in any
Speaker 1: given year then, and General Motors now has fewer than
Speaker 1: thirty dealerships in all of Japan. All of this despite
Speaker 1: the fact that Japan is actually the third largest auto
Speaker 1: market in the world, behind of course, the US and China.
Speaker 1: Oh that's crazy. I had no idea is that big?
Speaker 1: So is this just a U S thing? Like, is
Speaker 1: it a problem for the U S? Or is this
Speaker 1: a problem for other manufacturers around the world as well? Well?
Speaker 1: Not exactly. I mean European car dealers and Mercedes and
Speaker 1: BMW in particular, they've made significant strides in the Japanese
Speaker 1: market over the past few years, and as you might expect,
Speaker 1: they pulled this off by embracing this idea of hospitality. Now.
Speaker 1: BMW spent like seven hundred million dollars updating its dealer
Speaker 1: network in Japan back in two thousand and sixteen. And
Speaker 1: this was also that customers are treated to a lot
Speaker 1: of the same services and perks that they're used to there,
Speaker 1: and the company's sales are actually on the rise as
Speaker 1: a result of this. So I've got to say I'm
Speaker 1: pretty envious. And it's not just the service, Like I
Speaker 1: kind admire how the culture makes huge companies work for them.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine getting that kind of service
Speaker 1: from like your cable bill provider or your cell phone provider. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty incredible. So the American cars haven't been
Speaker 1: a hit with the Japanese, but there is at least
Speaker 1: one American export that they have taken to, and that's baseball.
Speaker 1: That Japan is not one, but two professional baseball leagues,
Speaker 1: as well as countless high school and university leagues across
Speaker 1: the country. So all sumo wrestling might be the sport
Speaker 1: most closely associated with Japan. Baseball is actually the most
Speaker 1: popular by far, and it's watched and played by more
Speaker 1: people in Japan than any other sport, which is insane.
Speaker 1: So I I knew Japan love baseball, but I didn't
Speaker 1: think it had gotten that big, and I do want
Speaker 1: to hear about it, but I can't pass up the
Speaker 1: chance to share one of my all time favorite Suma facts,
Speaker 1: which I jogged down in my margins with an asterix
Speaker 1: of my notes. I think I have a feeling I
Speaker 1: know which one this one is. Is this the crying
Speaker 1: babies thing? Manga spoiler alert? But yeah, I've got to
Speaker 1: share it. So for listeners, there's this four year old
Speaker 1: ceremony in Japan where once a year, parents bring their
Speaker 1: infants to shrines so that Suma wrestlers can try to
Speaker 1: make them cry. It's amazing, But the ceremony is part
Speaker 1: of the naki Zumo festival and it's believed to bring
Speaker 1: good health to the babies and help ward off evil spirits.
Speaker 1: I feel like maybe I block this out because I
Speaker 1: don't remember. But but how do the wrestlers try to
Speaker 1: make them cry again? Well, each wrestler takes a baby
Speaker 1: and ideally gets the kid to ball just by kind
Speaker 1: of bouncing them up and down in the suma ring.
Speaker 1: But everyone has their own techniques, so like a wrestler
Speaker 1: might make funny faces or even growl at the baby
Speaker 1: a little bit, and then after a few seconds, if
Speaker 1: nothing's worked, a referee will actually step in wearing a
Speaker 1: traditional face mask, and that's what does the trick wait
Speaker 1: a referee. So is this more of a ceremony or
Speaker 1: a competition? Well, I mean it is an event that
Speaker 1: happens all over the country, so the exact rules vary
Speaker 1: from region to region. So at us One shrine in Tokyo,
Speaker 1: they call it on baby chry Sumo that it's strictly
Speaker 1: a ceremony. In some places, the babies actually do compete
Speaker 1: against each other to see who will cry first, and
Speaker 1: whoever cries first is declared the loser. I still can't
Speaker 1: believe Japan has this competition where babies are pitted against
Speaker 1: one another by sumo arrest. I do love that there
Speaker 1: is such a thing, but it's still pretty nuts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it does make you wonder why they even
Speaker 1: bother with baseball. Well, I do want to get back
Speaker 1: to exactly how and why baseball has becomes so big
Speaker 1: in Japan, but before we do, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about
Speaker 1: some surprising features of Japanese culture. So well, I know
Speaker 1: you're itching to explain the origins of Japanese baseball, but
Speaker 1: first I just have to tell you about a story
Speaker 1: I found while researching KFC in Japan's Love Affair with It.
Speaker 1: But don't worry, because it's actually a baseball story too.
Speaker 1: So you know how in American baseball we have these
Speaker 1: curses that crop up from time to time. Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: you've got the Cubs and their Billy Goat, and the
Speaker 1: Red Sox and the Curse of the Vambino and all
Speaker 1: sorts of curses like this. Exactly, and and apparently that
Speaker 1: baseball tradition carried over to Japan because they have the
Speaker 1: same kind of thing. And probably my favorite curse of
Speaker 1: all time involves a team called the Hanshin Tigers and
Speaker 1: a statue of KFC founder Colonel Sanders. So the story
Speaker 1: goes back in the Tigers won the Japan Championship Series,
Speaker 1: which is the Japanese equivalent of the World Series, and
Speaker 1: to celebrate big wins like that, Tigers fans had this
Speaker 1: tradition where they would gather on a certain bridge in
Speaker 1: Osaka read the names of all the winning team members
Speaker 1: out loud, and then as each name was called, a
Speaker 1: fan who resembled that player would actually jump off the
Speaker 1: bridge into the river. I mean, this is already weirder
Speaker 1: than the Babe Ruth curse. And I'm a little confused here.
Speaker 1: So is the whole fan base made up of guys
Speaker 1: who just look like these players or what? Yeah? I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it was more of a close enough thing.
Speaker 1: But the problem was in eight five, none of the
Speaker 1: Japanese fans looked anything like the team's m v P.
Speaker 1: Who's this American guy named Randy Bass? And so this
Speaker 1: is where KFC comes in because the fans were desperate
Speaker 1: to find a Randy Bass look alike, and when they
Speaker 1: couldn't find when they spied the statue of the KFC mascot,
Speaker 1: it kind of looked close enough, so they snatched the
Speaker 1: colonel dressed into Randy Bass jersey and chucked it off
Speaker 1: the bridge into the river as they spoke his name
Speaker 1: out loud. Wow. And if you were trying to just
Speaker 1: make up, like, what is the most American name you
Speaker 1: could come up with just like Randy Bass just the way. So,
Speaker 1: so I don't understand who put the curse on the team.
Speaker 1: Is it the owner of the KFC or Randy Bass?
Speaker 1: I mean, actually, by the way, I just googled and sadly,
Speaker 1: Randy bast does not look much like the colonel at all.
Speaker 1: I mean that makes it better actually, But the curse
Speaker 1: was from the colonel himself. So the real Colonel Sanders,
Speaker 1: I want to say, like, passed away five years earlier,
Speaker 1: and so, according to the legend, his spirit was so
Speaker 1: pissed about the Tigers fans desecrating his statue that he
Speaker 1: cursed their beloved team to never win a championship again.
Speaker 1: And it must have been a potent curse because thirty
Speaker 1: three years later, the Tigers have yet to win, despite
Speaker 1: making it to the playoffs multiple times. Wow, So has
Speaker 1: anybody ever tried just putting the statue back, you know,
Speaker 1: just to a peace Sanders. Yeah. So, once a few
Speaker 1: years had gone by and it became clear that, you know,
Speaker 1: the team had been cursed by the ghost of an
Speaker 1: American chicken salesman, Barents tried all kinds of ways to
Speaker 1: affuse them. So they apologize to the KFC manager. They
Speaker 1: they mounted a few failed dives to the bottom of
Speaker 1: the river to try to find the statue, and then
Speaker 1: in two thousand nine, divers actually found and recovered the
Speaker 1: Colonel statue. I mean, his glasses and left hand were missing,
Speaker 1: but otherwise he was pretty intact. So so of the
Speaker 1: Tigers were hopeful once more, and in fact, the manager
Speaker 1: of the team held a press conference where he told
Speaker 1: the press, when I heard the statue had been found,
Speaker 1: I felt that losing history had ended. I do think
Speaker 1: if the Cubs could win a series, I have to
Speaker 1: believe the Tigers will get there sooner or later. But
Speaker 1: all right, Well, if the KFC curse tells us anything,
Speaker 1: it's that baseball is this unexpected source of overlap between
Speaker 1: Japanese and American culture, of course, and so I did
Speaker 1: some digging to find out how the Japanese first fell
Speaker 1: in love with baseball, and the story actually goes all
Speaker 1: the way back to the eighteen hundreds. I now, this
Speaker 1: was during the Meiji era, and this was this period
Speaker 1: when Japan was moving away from its isolationist roots and
Speaker 1: trying to adopt these more western customs as a result
Speaker 1: of this. Now, one person often gets credited for introducing
Speaker 1: baseball to Japan, and that's Professor Horace Wilson. And he
Speaker 1: was an American who taught English at the university in Tokyo,
Speaker 1: and at some point, I think it was in the
Speaker 1: eighteen seventies, he started introducing his students to baseball because
Speaker 1: he decided they needed to get more exercise in their lives.
Speaker 1: But I mean, isn't there plenty of sports opportunity to Japan,
Speaker 1: like martial arts and winter sports, and you know we
Speaker 1: talked about sumo. Yeah. I had thought the same thing,
Speaker 1: but there was one part of this that I had
Speaker 1: not really thought about. So so here's the thing that
Speaker 1: sports native to Japan or super popular in Japan or
Speaker 1: that sumo or karate or several others. You know, they're
Speaker 1: mostly one on one activities. So despite the fact that
Speaker 1: Japan is a pretty highly group based culture, for whatever
Speaker 1: weird reason, the country actually hadn't developed that many team
Speaker 1: sports of their own. That's crazy. I actually never thought
Speaker 1: about that. So is that one of the things that
Speaker 1: helped baseball catch on? Definitely? And like I said, so
Speaker 1: much of Japanese culture is built around this idea that
Speaker 1: the group is the central unit of society. So whether
Speaker 1: it's your family, your neighbors, or your classmates. So a
Speaker 1: team sport like baseball was naturally appealing to many people
Speaker 1: once word of it spread, and actually spread pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: So in eighteen seventy eight, just a few years after
Speaker 1: Horace Wilson taught his students how to play baseball, the
Speaker 1: Japanese railway engineer organized the very first Japanese baseball team,
Speaker 1: the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics. That's an amazing name. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: Japan did get better at naming things than today. There
Speaker 1: are several professional baseball teams there and it's not that
Speaker 1: different from the American mascot name, so to go along
Speaker 1: with the Tigers, you've got things like the Buffaloes, the Hawks,
Speaker 1: the carp as well as you know a few mythical
Speaker 1: creatures like the dragons and the giants. But there is
Speaker 1: something interesting about the naming there. And we mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: that the team was called the Hanschen Tigers. But Hanchen
Speaker 1: isn't actually a city, so I mean, is it a
Speaker 1: village or a hamlet or something. No, So that's one
Speaker 1: difference between American and Japanese baseball. Hanchen's actually a railway company.
Speaker 1: So while American teams are privately owned and name for
Speaker 1: cities that support them, Japanese teams are named for the
Speaker 1: corporations that own them. So while we have the San
Speaker 1: Francisco Giants, Japan has the Miori Giants, which are named
Speaker 1: for the Yamori newspaper company there. That's pretty interesting, though
Speaker 1: I do feel like I'm missing a piece of the
Speaker 1: history here. So how did Japanese baseball go from being
Speaker 1: a college sport to a national pastime that has these
Speaker 1: massive companies bankrolling the teams? Well after eighteen seventy eight
Speaker 1: you started to see these other teams popping up in Japan,
Speaker 1: and for the next ten years, baseball continued to gain
Speaker 1: popularity at these Japanese universities. The game mostly stayed on
Speaker 1: campuses until well after the turn of the century, but
Speaker 1: then in the early thirties, and American ballplayer named Lefty
Speaker 1: o'duel started touring these Japanese universities with a small team
Speaker 1: of American players. How baseball of a name is that
Speaker 1: Lefty o Duel. So they were giving lessons to Japanese
Speaker 1: players and holding these exhibition games every year from nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty three to nineteen thirty seven. And these exhibitions could
Speaker 1: be massive, so sometimes they played the crowds of more
Speaker 1: than sixty thousand people. Wow. And so nineteen thirty four
Speaker 1: in particular was this very important year for Japanese baseball.
Speaker 1: And this was the year that left he brought over
Speaker 1: this all star American team. That this team included players
Speaker 1: like Luke Garrig, Lefty Gomez, Earl white Hill, Babe Ruth himself,
Speaker 1: And so Japan organized its own dream team to face them.
Speaker 1: But Lefty's crew handily defeated them in all eighteen of
Speaker 1: the games that they played. I mean that sounds awful, right, like,
Speaker 1: like why would you want to take up a sport
Speaker 1: after that sort of humiliation. Well, so there was a
Speaker 1: moment during those eighteen games when something truly special happened.
Speaker 1: There was a Japanese picture named Agi Sawamora, and he
Speaker 1: managed to strike out Charlie Garringer, Babe Ruth, Luke Garrick,
Speaker 1: and Jimmy Fox all in a row. So even though
Speaker 1: the team ultimately lost, Samamember became this national hero overnight,
Speaker 1: like the country saw what was possible, and baseball became
Speaker 1: more popular than ever. In fact, organizers rode that wave
Speaker 1: of public enthusiasm and just two years later they formed
Speaker 1: Japan's very first professional baseball team. And as a thank
Speaker 1: you to Lefty o'duel, the New York Giant who helped
Speaker 1: spark the base ball fire in Japan, the newly formed
Speaker 1: team named itself the Giants in his honor. I love that.
Speaker 1: And there's actually another unexpected big in Japan craze that
Speaker 1: I want to talk about. But before we do that,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break, all right, Mango, So it's
Speaker 1: my turn for a quick tangent. So we both heard
Speaker 1: the phrase big in Japan, but I just wanted to
Speaker 1: take a second to talk about where the phrase actually
Speaker 1: comes from Yeah, I mean, I think it's like a
Speaker 1: music industry term, right, Like I remember bands growing up
Speaker 1: who didn't hit the charts in the US but would
Speaker 1: always point to their number ones in Asia saying they're
Speaker 1: big in Japan. Yeah, that's right. But there's actually an
Speaker 1: origin story here, and so the idea goes back to
Speaker 1: the fifties and the sixties when Japanese youth started getting
Speaker 1: hooked on British and American music. So, for example, there
Speaker 1: was this rock band from the States called the Ventures,
Speaker 1: and by the early nineteen sixty the band was, you know,
Speaker 1: less fashionable in the US, so they tried touring Japan,
Speaker 1: and to their surprise, the country went crazy for them,
Speaker 1: quickly becoming the group's most devoted fan base. In fact,
Speaker 1: the Ventures continued to tour Japan every year until two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen, and today their albums have outsold the
Speaker 1: Beatles two to one. There isn't that crazy. That is crazy. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess big in Japan started out as
Speaker 1: kind of a compliment. Well I don't know about a compliment,
Speaker 1: but it definitely started out the way you and I
Speaker 1: have been using And it's just to acknowledge the fact,
Speaker 1: like this band is big in Japan. But you know,
Speaker 1: by the seventies and eighties, the phrase was just being
Speaker 1: used more mockingly, and it kind of came to represent
Speaker 1: the snobbish perception that Japanese consumers were maybe attracted lesser
Speaker 1: artists or something like that. But there's actually even a
Speaker 1: joke at the end of this is spinal tap. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you remember this, but the Washtup band
Speaker 1: reunites for a second chance at fame and goes on
Speaker 1: this Japanese tour. You know, I've forgotten that, and I've
Speaker 1: always thought of that line as more of a lie,
Speaker 1: like it's the guy who claims to have a girlfriend
Speaker 1: at camp in Canada. You know. It's like, I guess
Speaker 1: I never even considered all this cultural condescension. That's pretty interesting,
Speaker 1: And maybe that's partially because they're all these great musicians,
Speaker 1: especially jazz artists, who are a little overlooked in the
Speaker 1: States but have been super popular in Japan for decades.
Speaker 1: And I looked into this a little and it's kind
Speaker 1: of amazing. So unlike rock music, which was this late
Speaker 1: import to Japan, jazz actually came up in the country
Speaker 1: around the same time and emerged in the US. Well,
Speaker 1: I knew Japan had a thing for jazz. I mean,
Speaker 1: it comes up all the time and Murakami's novels, and
Speaker 1: I think was a big inspiration for him to become
Speaker 1: a writer in the first place. But but I actually
Speaker 1: figured it's had something to do with like World War
Speaker 1: two and it catching on after that. Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: would have been my guest too. But I read this
Speaker 1: great interview that NPR did with the jazz historian named E.
Speaker 1: Taylor Atkins, who explained that the music actually made its
Speaker 1: way to Japan as early as the nineteen tens. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: that early. So so how did it get there? Well,
Speaker 1: so you've got to remember this is the decade of
Speaker 1: the Titanic, right, and so they're these luxury ocean liners
Speaker 1: that are already taking wealthy passengers back and forth across
Speaker 1: the Pacific, you know, from West coast ports to places
Speaker 1: like Manila and Shanghai and of course Japan. And it
Speaker 1: was common for these ships to have orchestras on board
Speaker 1: as entertainment. So when a Japanese ocean liners stopped at
Speaker 1: a port in San Francisco or Seattle, the musicians would
Speaker 1: hop out and check out the local music scene. They'd
Speaker 1: buy sheet music or records and even visit clubs to
Speaker 1: hear the locals play. And so what you had were
Speaker 1: all these Japanese musicians who were learned to play music
Speaker 1: that was popular in major US cities. And at the time,
Speaker 1: nothing was more popular than jazz oh wow. And so
Speaker 1: so how did the music make it off the boats
Speaker 1: and into the country. So a lot of these cruise
Speaker 1: musicians also worked in hotel lobbies or restaurants in the
Speaker 1: off season, and that gave them plenty of opportunities to
Speaker 1: practice what they'd picked up abroad. So you know, they'd
Speaker 1: play in these locations and and then they were simultaneously
Speaker 1: introducing the country to this new sound. That's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: all right. So I want to switch gears and go
Speaker 1: back to something we touched on at the top of
Speaker 1: the show, and that's this idea of Japanese culture as
Speaker 1: this balancing act. So far, we've talked about in terms
Speaker 1: of like new technology versus these older traditions, as well
Speaker 1: as like the western influence and the country's own culture.
Speaker 1: But another place we kind of see this balancing act
Speaker 1: is about the young and the old, and so we
Speaker 1: alluded to this earlier, but Japan potentially has a crisis
Speaker 1: on its hands because more than a quarter of the
Speaker 1: countries a hundred and twenty seven million people are sixty
Speaker 1: five or older, and that proportion is actually only expected
Speaker 1: to rise. Some researchers are predicting that forty of Japan's
Speaker 1: population will be over the age of sixty five by
Speaker 1: the year twenty sixty. So, just to put that in perspective,
Speaker 1: a Japanese diaper maker name Unan Charm reports that adult
Speaker 1: diapers now out sell baby diapers. That's crazy, and you've
Speaker 1: got to think the impact on the labor market alone
Speaker 1: is pretty scary. Yeah, it definitely is. But you know,
Speaker 1: it also provides this rare chance to see how an
Speaker 1: industrialized nation addresses that kind of population shift. So, for example,
Speaker 1: in late two thousand and sixteen, Japan began launching programs
Speaker 1: aimed at coaxing elderly drivers to hand over their driver's license.
Speaker 1: And that's because even though the overall number of traffic
Speaker 1: accidents in the country has actually gone down in recent years,
Speaker 1: the number of accidents involving drivers over the age of
Speaker 1: seventy five has seen a dramatic increase. I think it
Speaker 1: went from about seven percent to over the past decade
Speaker 1: now that's almost double. And of course, Japan being Japan,
Speaker 1: they're not about to forcibly strip the elderly of their licenses,
Speaker 1: so instead they've had to get a little creative. So
Speaker 1: how did they convince people to stop driving, Well by
Speaker 1: doing something that would probably work on us too, and
Speaker 1: that's to give them discounts on Roman noodles. I mean
Speaker 1: that sounds kind of like a joke, right, It sounds
Speaker 1: like a joke, but it's not. So this is coming
Speaker 1: from a district in central Japan and and basically this
Speaker 1: restaurant chain it started to provide these lifelongent discounts at
Speaker 1: all one d seventy six of their locations and this
Speaker 1: of course to anyone over the age of seventy five
Speaker 1: who's turned in their license. But this isn't the only one.
Speaker 1: So there's similar incentive campaigns that have launched all over
Speaker 1: the country. Some offer discounts on public baths or haircuts,
Speaker 1: or bus or taxifairs. And the plan seems to be working.
Speaker 1: So they've had over a quarter million people in Japan
Speaker 1: that have given up their licenses and two thousand and
Speaker 1: sixteen alone, and this is all thanks to this Ramen
Speaker 1: noodle discount, which I'm sure more of these will follow. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I found another way that chefs are helping
Speaker 1: Japan cope with its aging population, and that's what's something
Speaker 1: called choke proof food. So this is something I hadn't
Speaker 1: really thought about before. But swallowing becomes harder and harder
Speaker 1: as you age, and obviously this becomes an even bigger
Speaker 1: problem when such a large portion of your population is elderly.
Speaker 1: In fact, according to a report in The New York Times,
Speaker 1: more Japanese people now die from choking than they do
Speaker 1: in all those traffic accidents you mentioned earlier. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. I mean, I can definitely see you why
Speaker 1: there'd be a market for choke proof food, but how
Speaker 1: exactly does it work? And what is it? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it starts out as regular food items, so you're thinking
Speaker 1: about things like grilled salmon or dumplings. But once the
Speaker 1: food is prepared, it's thrown into a blender. And I
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking. This is way less gross than
Speaker 1: the story I told you about Lizzie's grandmam who was
Speaker 1: having like a toothache. So she blended her salad and
Speaker 1: pizza into a shake and just kept telling everyone it's
Speaker 1: all going into the same place, so don't worry. She's
Speaker 1: not wrong about that. That to taste gross. But here
Speaker 1: the food is kept separate and mixed with a new
Speaker 1: kind of jelling agent, so the gel actually allows the
Speaker 1: food to be reshaped so that it resembles the way
Speaker 1: it originally looked. So basically, choke proof food is this
Speaker 1: new way of making puade food more appetizing. It isn't
Speaker 1: like flavorless mush. Instead, you've got something that looks and
Speaker 1: actually taste normal, with the added bonus of being easy
Speaker 1: to swallow. And if it catches on, like the hope
Speaker 1: is that Japan's elderly will be able to hold onto
Speaker 1: their meal time independence for a little bit longer. Like
Speaker 1: they can simply head to a restaurant and order their
Speaker 1: good food prepared in this style and it's called young
Speaker 1: I guess, which is Japanese for swallowing. That is a
Speaker 1: pretty great idea and I hope that that works for them.
Speaker 1: But you know, one of the things I like about
Speaker 1: these campaigns and how Japan looks out for its elderly
Speaker 1: is that it reflects the group base mentality that we
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. You know, that kind of all
Speaker 1: for one approach to society. That's something that's instilled in
Speaker 1: Japanese citizens from the start. I was actually reading this
Speaker 1: interesting article in the Atlantic about the high level of
Speaker 1: independence that Japanese kids seem to have, and apparently it's
Speaker 1: really common to see kids as young as six or
Speaker 1: seven out on their own in Japanese towns and cities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we talked a little bit about this in our
Speaker 1: education episode, where there's a system to help kids walk
Speaker 1: alone to school from I think it's from first grade
Speaker 1: on and they're actually walking a few miles, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, And you know, sometimes they're heading to or
Speaker 1: from school, but other times they're actually out running errands
Speaker 1: for their parents, and it's kind of this right of
Speaker 1: passage in Japan. In fact, you know how the country
Speaker 1: is fame is for his outrageous game shows and all
Speaker 1: these weird reality shows. Well, there's actually a popular show
Speaker 1: that translates as My First Errand, and it's basically this
Speaker 1: hidden camera show where kids just as young as like
Speaker 1: two or three are sent out to run an errand
Speaker 1: for their family that sounds crazy. So I'm guessing the
Speaker 1: kids have no idea they're being recorded at that age. Oh,
Speaker 1: of course not. I have no idea. And I mean
Speaker 1: the cameramen are right out in the open at some points,
Speaker 1: but the kids are so frantic or anxious that they
Speaker 1: never noticed the supervision. And so I actually watched an episode,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's funny, but it can be brutal. But
Speaker 1: the one I saw how this little boy and his
Speaker 1: younger sister out on an errand to pick up groceries,
Speaker 1: and they had to go to a few different shops
Speaker 1: and already you can see how hard this is right
Speaker 1: for these kids, and they can barely remember the names
Speaker 1: of the items. I mean, they're tiny. And this little
Speaker 1: boy that was watching, he was so cute, but he
Speaker 1: had this melt down once they were like a block
Speaker 1: away from their house. He actually had to stop and
Speaker 1: compose himself in an alleyway and then keep going. And
Speaker 1: meanwhile there's this laugh track and a panel of not
Speaker 1: judges but commentators, I guess, and it all feels like
Speaker 1: some kind of surreal psychological experiment. But my first air,
Speaker 1: and it isn't some new reality TV thing. It's been
Speaker 1: on air for almost thirty years now, So I mean
Speaker 1: this sounds equal parts hilarious and bizarre. But how does
Speaker 1: it relate to being group minded? Like, if anything, these
Speaker 1: kids seem independent, right right? Well, that's the thing. I mean.
Speaker 1: According to Dwyane Dixon, who's this cultural anthropologist, it's it's
Speaker 1: not self sufficiency that we're seeing, but group reliance. As
Speaker 1: he puts it, Japanese kids learned early on that ideally
Speaker 1: any member of the community can be called on to
Speaker 1: serve or help others. And as you see on the
Speaker 1: show I watched, they are grocers and shopkeepers, even regular
Speaker 1: people on the street, and they're all eager to help
Speaker 1: the kids with directions or counting coins. And the idea
Speaker 1: is that whether you're a family member or a stranger,
Speaker 1: young or old, we're kind of we're all in this together,
Speaker 1: you know. I like that. I can actually see why
Speaker 1: it's popular. So I guess we saw that in the
Speaker 1: school's episode two, right, like where students take turns serving
Speaker 1: lunch their classmates, or that there aren't any janitors there
Speaker 1: because all the kids devote twenty minutes each day to
Speaker 1: cleaning up. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, And I love that
Speaker 1: there's this personal responsibility for shared spaces, and it's one
Speaker 1: of the most pleasantly unusual things about Japanese culture and
Speaker 1: and definitely when I wish we'd emulate more in our
Speaker 1: own lives here. Yeah, although that that discount on ramen
Speaker 1: noodle sounds pretty good too. I would do whatever it
Speaker 1: takes to get that, but including trading in my driver's license. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but before you head down to see if the restaurant's interested,
Speaker 1: why why don't we work up an appetite with a
Speaker 1: quick fact off. So one thing that's cool about Japan
Speaker 1: is that they have all sorts of escalators. Right there
Speaker 1: are massive and beautiful spiral escalators. There's the world's highest escalator.
Speaker 1: It's it's a little terrifying. It's between two skyscrapers and Osaka,
Speaker 1: I believe. But my favorite of the escalators, and the
Speaker 1: one I traveled to use, is actually the Pucci Culator.
Speaker 1: That's what's called it's the world's shortest escalator and it's
Speaker 1: just outside Tokyo. But do to some weird construction flow,
Speaker 1: it's only about four or five steps tall, so it's
Speaker 1: super short and it's uh, I guess it's like half
Speaker 1: a short flight of stairs, But when I looked into
Speaker 1: why they even bothered to build it, it was because
Speaker 1: of this concept of service. So like helping people not
Speaker 1: have to walk down four stairs, even if it's only
Speaker 1: four stairs, is still important to the culture. That is
Speaker 1: so weird. I've never heard of this thing before, but yeah,
Speaker 1: well here's the thing that feels unimaginable. So do you
Speaker 1: know what happens when teachers are sick in Japanese secondary schools.
Speaker 1: The school actually doesn't bring in a substitute. Instead, the
Speaker 1: kids are just expected to stay there and quietly spend
Speaker 1: the day study, and it were I mean, the kids
Speaker 1: actually do this. Can you imagine that ever happening in
Speaker 1: US schools? Absolutely not so so I think you know,
Speaker 1: I love the bullet train, and I didn't realize this,
Speaker 1: but it's actually been around for fifty years now. And
Speaker 1: part of the reason I love it is that's so efficient.
Speaker 1: It's rarely more than I think twenty six seconds late,
Speaker 1: like it makes the whole country super accessible for tourists.
Speaker 1: But I especially love how safe it is and it
Speaker 1: never seems to crash or have any fatalities like the
Speaker 1: trains in the US. And that's partially because of Doctor Yellow.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of Dr Yellow? I have not. So
Speaker 1: it's a yellow train that travels at full speed, but
Speaker 1: it actually monitors the rail conditions for safety. And because
Speaker 1: it doesn't have a published schedule, people just love seeing it.
Speaker 1: They go wild for it. It's like a lucky charm
Speaker 1: and and sometimes they'll actually cheer for it or just
Speaker 1: smild wide when they see it passing by. That's pretty great.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, here's a quick one I think you
Speaker 1: might like. So did you know that scientists in Japan
Speaker 1: have come up with a banana with an edible p
Speaker 1: If you love bananas, I know we both like bananas
Speaker 1: but hate all the time it takes to peel them.
Speaker 1: This is perfect for you. Apparently the process involves freezing
Speaker 1: and thawing the plant, so you do need to have
Speaker 1: a pretty cool climate there, of course, but the benefit
Speaker 1: is that there aren't any natural predators, so you don't
Speaker 1: have to spray the banana with a ton of pesticides.
Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing. So, speaking of strange fruit, did you
Speaker 1: know that they sell individual strawberries in Japan. It's a
Speaker 1: really popular gift to give someone for Valentine's Day and
Speaker 1: they come beautifully packed in these individual cases, but they'll
Speaker 1: set you back ten or eleven dollars for a single fruit,
Speaker 1: or like forty or fifty dollars for a cardon. So
Speaker 1: you might be wondering what kind of strawberry is worth
Speaker 1: that much money? And at least one of the varieties
Speaker 1: is a kind of strawberry peach hybrid that kind of
Speaker 1: looks like a giant strawberry, but it has notes of
Speaker 1: peach and the bipe. And there's actually another one that's
Speaker 1: completely white but supposedly has kind of a pineapple taste,
Speaker 1: Like I kind of want to taste all of these,
Speaker 1: Oh me too? All right, well, I think you're going
Speaker 1: to lie this one. I know both of us love
Speaker 1: following what comes out in the Ignoble Awards every year,
Speaker 1: But did you know that Japanese scientists want of two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen Ignoble Prize for realizing that when you get this,
Speaker 1: when you bend over and look between your legs, objects
Speaker 1: look further away. And this is some real science, but
Speaker 1: apparently your perception changes even though you're at the same distance.
Speaker 1: But what's funny is that Japan has embraced this scientific victory,
Speaker 1: and there are some tourism platforms in front of mountains
Speaker 1: and scenic areas where their handrails for you to bend
Speaker 1: over and look at the landscape through your legs. I'm
Speaker 1: not kidding about this. I mean, I guess it's so
Speaker 1: you can appreciate it from even more of a distance
Speaker 1: or something. I don't know, but I've got to go
Speaker 1: check these out. That is amazing. And you know I
Speaker 1: love anything that embraces real science. So right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you this week's trophy. All right, well, thank you
Speaker 1: very much, and listeners, if you think we need to
Speaker 1: know any great science as ridiculous as this, or any
Speaker 1: facts that we forgot to share about Japan today that
Speaker 1: you love, feel free to share those with us part
Speaker 1: Time Genius at how stuff works dot com. We always
Speaker 1: love hearing from. You can also call our seven fact
Speaker 1: hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius, or hit
Speaker 1: us up on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening,
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