Have You Seen This Man?

note: I'm going to be writing things you may or may not agree with. They are not scathing or offending things, just my assertions based on loose knowledge of (for example) Doi Takeo's works. If there are any inaccuracies or points that are disagreed with...leave a comment! I'm a student and I'm always learning new things!

Have you seen this man? He walks around the streets of Tokyo, a bluish-gray uniform with billowing pant-legs, white towel wrapped on his head, sometimes with white gloves. He is often carrying a cigarette, and can be seen in a pack of two or three. He wears shoes that can only be described as...ninja-like?

sorry for poor quality...I have no scanner!

Okay, so maybe those are NOT ninja shoes (but they look like ninja shoes). That's okay, because this is not really a 'wanted' or 'lost persons' picture. This is my own [non artistic] rendering of a typical Japanese workman. Why, you ask, did Lydia post this picture. Well, it's not because I wanted to showoff my drawing 'skillz'.

One of the first things many people notice when visiting Japan for the first time is the uniforms. [Practically] All jobs have a sort of uniform (not counting fashion industry, but even then...). From the workman (which I have so painstakingly re-created for you) to bank-tellers, from the convenience store worker to the salary man and office ladies.

Maybe it has something to do with the 'group-mentality' Japan is so often attributed with. When you are part of something, be it high school, work or home, you are part of a group. Doi Takeo talked about uchi and soto, terms meaning home/inside and outside. According to Takeo, and many other scholars who write about Japan, it is a common phenomenon to group yourself and acquaintances into these inside and outside groups. It may be automatic, for example using polite language to a superior, or by choice (I guess the best example I can thing of is speaking informally with a new acquaintance?). Why do the Japanese make such group distinctions? Well, don't we all? I know I treat strangers differently than I treat my siblings. It's a social tool that dictates how you act, that way you aren't doing inappropriate things at inappropriate times!

I think that it's really easy to do this in Japan because of the language. There are different verb-endings for honorific, humble, formal and plain-language. If you ask your boss how his family is, you ask him with honorific, and he will reply with formal, or maybe plain-language. If he asks you, he asks using formal and you answer with humble-language. It's all very confusing, and, I hear, that modern youths in Tokyo often confuse humble and honorific language.

This is a photo that my father took. He was quick to note the uniforms, especially these pink ones of the ladies who cleaned the shinkansen. Although you usually see uniforms for jobs such as these, I believe Japan takes a step up and above institutions in the United States. Note the pink. There were no men in this uniform, only women.

On that note [tangent], there is a common theme of gendering uniforms. For example, police men and women have different hats (I don't understand this). I was at a cafe the other day, and I noticed that the male servers wore a blue apron and the female servers had a red one. Interesting, and a little disturbing.

Okay, okay. I know what you might be thinking. 'In the US there are uniforms for all sorts of jobs too, but you don't see me writing about it'. Well, that is true, but uniforms in the US are just so...uniform. You don't see pink suits on the ladies cleaning Amtrack Trains (do you ever see people cleaning Amtrack?!), and you never notice that a female police officer has a different hat than a male officer. Uniforms in Japan are so tailored, clean and fresh looking that it's hard not to notice someone wearing one.

Maybe not my most interesting post, but I enjoyed writing it!

Thanks for reading :)