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