Tradition vs Invention

by
Toshimi Ohara

Japanese traditions are at stake now. This concern has been discussed throughout Japan under the support of critics, analysts and the older generation ( over 55). Some of them denounce that today’s Japanese youth, so-called "the new-humans"(the age of 15--29), similar to Generation X in Canada, don’t respect any ancestral or local tradition. Another thinks that those traditions that have been inherited during centuries are being destroyed by the emergence of the computer culture. However, their slogan of protecting old Japanese traditions is nothing but a plausible excuse. The friction between traditions and computer, one of the biggest inventions in the 20th century, derives from more subtle and deeper psychology - helplessness, horror and desperation - of the older generation against the social transformation caused by technologies.

The Sunset of the Former Kings


Why the Japanese traditions seem to incompatible with the computer culture is based on complex but basic reasons. Firstly, most of the older generation who was brought up in traditions, such as martial arts ,Confucianism, historic religions or folk arts and crafts , lacks flexibility for today’s high-tech societies due to the difficulty to acquire computer skills. Computers and other information products, such as cel phone and fax machines, make them wince and feel inferiority complex at the new-humans - their children. Now the older generation feel surrounded - or besieged- by a huge number of the information products armed with wires, cables and satellite network in office and even at home. Executive who had been respected by their subordinates in companies are slighted and despised if they can’t use computers. Therefore, it became a typical phenomenon of the information age that such once-commanding executives now secretly commute to computer night-schools after five.

The Time Shock


There is a wide gap on a sense of time between traditions and the computer culture. As the information revolution and social digitalization advance, promptness and accuracy of the information management have been increasingly valued in industrial fields. On the other hand, the essence of Japanese traditions, such as tea ceremony or flower arrangement, is to enjoy the process and beauty of the whole movement that takes an appropriate time, tasting the time comfortably. That is, these traditions and computers exist in totally different dimensions on the value of time and can’t mingle together.

The Old Heritage


The older generation representing "protect traditions" sometimes shows allergy to American products. In the winter of 1995, Microsoft landed the Windows ’95 in Japanese market. The extreme Windows fever so instantly and intensely prevailed throughout Japan that it drove the general people who had not had personal computers, such as salarymen, housewives and students, to purchase their own computers with the Windows ’95. However, this phenomenon also caused fear among the older generation, especially who had been baffled with and behind in the rapid computerization of societies. While it is natural for the new-humans to accept the information products with higher quality and speed, some of the older generation regard the widespread of the Windows as the invasion of American power into their daily lives. They were afraid that the Japanese society would be more Americanized and consequently Japanese traditions ruined by the U.S. influence. Significantly, what makes them feel horror is not only the American information products but also whatever they are from the U.S.A., such as beef, oranges, cars, and even English. The longtime bitterness and trauma of the defeat of the Second World War, the competitive spirit for technological fields, and frustration of the social change caused by the information revolution have created aversion to the whole U.S. items. However, in the information age, the most industrial developments depend on computerization of infrastructures, and ironically, the U.S.A. is the strongest on computers and network. Therefore, the older generation has to suffer the contradicting dilemma between pride and pragmatism.

The Way to Co-exist


It has been a common issue that new culture subverts tradition. However, tradition is originally generated by a new culture that was created by a new invention in the process of inheritance during centuries, destroying other wavering cultures. Cultures prey each other when they exist in the same period, but as long as people appreciate the culture is valuable to inherit, it remains as a tradition. This is natural selection of all human cultures and traditions. Whether the present Japanese traditions will survive this natural selection, co-existing with the computer culture, depends on mutual understanding and respect between the older generation representing traditions and the new-humans who are the children of the information age.