Atom Feed 
Well, it's that time of year again: time for "the experts" to select the top products, trends, and words or phrases of 2007. But before we consider buttocks-biting bugs (the inexplicably popular "Oshirikajiri mushi") or guys in Speedos (Kojima Yoshio, with his catchphrase "Sonna no kankei ne," "What does that matter?"), perhaps we ought to reflect on some past "buzzwords" and see what's become of them.
As I watch television these days, I am reminded of one word in particular: "Mottainai" (wasteful). Now, at the risk of veering too close to "Japan-bashing," which tends to be a favorite pastime of long-term expats, I want to consider some recent trends in light of this former buzzword, which has apparently lost much of its "buzz" in a stunningly short period of time.
Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai drew upon this catchphrase in 2005 to promote respect for the planet and consciousness of our consumption patterns, and it was her usage of the term that brought it back into fashion. This was much reported in the Japanese media, as would be expected, and it became a source of national pride, as well as nostalgia for the simpler, purportedly less wasteful days of the Showa period. But I, for one, am shocked that the media has failed to draw any connection between this concept and, say, the recent scandals concerning "Akafuku" rice cakes, to take one example of several companies caught either recycling or using ingredients past their expiration dates. Didn't anyone wonder where all those unsold boxes of Omiyage (souvenirs) were headed at the end of the business day? Even if they had been thrown out, instead of re-used (as they apparently were), would that not have been considered "Mottainai," or wasteful? I recently wrote about Omiyage culture, but perhaps it is time for me to reconsider the impact that such consumption patterns are having on the larger environment, and stop rationalizing such excess by using empty terms like "tradition" or "culture."
Let's put it this way: what if the companies who engaged in mislabeling and misleading business practices guaranteed that their products were made fresh daily, using only the finest ingredients, but were available only in limited quantities? So, after a certain number is sold, then that is all that there is for the day. If they then find that they are selling out too soon, then they need to make adjustments accordingly. Wouldn't that make their products all the more precious and valuable, knowing that only a limited number could be made to such high standards? I would think so. And it would certainly be more sustainable. Instead, what they did was to attempt to maximize their profits and minimize their losses - exactly what we are told is the objective of a business - through mass-production and, more troublingly, misleading labeling, recycling of unsold products, false advertising and so on.
Now, I'm not excusing them in any way: what they did was immoral, illegal and unhygienic in the extreme. Someone could have gotten very sick, especially when we consider the ill-named "Meat Hope" company in Hokkaido (there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave that to your imagination). But one thing that I find very disturbing is the mainstream media's handling of this issue. In terms of these cases of food mislabeling, there has been no serious critical analysis, so far as I have seen, of the demand-side of the equation. In other words, what might have forced these companies to resort to these kinds of devious business practices? Were they simply greedy, or was there more to it than that? Unrealistic expectations and demands by consumers must surely play a part in this travesty.
Let's take another example of wastefulness, one that is being celebrated, rather than scrutinized, by the mass media: the phenomenon of "competitive eating" (called "Hayagui" or "Oogui" in Japanese). Perhaps I'm alone in being disgusted by the resurgence in "competitive eating" that is on Japanese television these days. But the sight of people consuming enough food to feed a small village in the so-called "Third World" not only offends me ethically; it is absolutely repulsive to watch.
The irony of it is that there was a halt to such "competitive eating" contests and displays a few years ago after some people, mostly kids, choked to death imitating their "heroes." Unfortunately, it has staged a dramatic comeback in recent months, perhaps due to the popularity of "Gyaru Sone", who is currently in the midst of her allotted "15 minutes of fame" (right alongside Kojima Yoshio), or "Tsunami" Kobayashi Takeru, the reigning king of hotdog-eating. To call this disgusting display of gluttony "wasteful" seems an understatement - especially when one considers that these "competitive eaters" consume somewhere around 6,000 calories per day when "training."
We could also look at the popularity of 100 Yen sushi, the proliferation of all things "Mega-", or any number of other ways in which unsustainable or wasteful consumption has gone unchecked in recent years, not only in Japan but in most of the so-called "Industrialized World." But perhaps it would be more useful to simply pause and reflect upon a word like "Mottainai," which like so many other things in our fast-paced, short attention span-driven society, has fallen by the wayside. Maybe some phrases deserve to be elevated from the category of "buzzwords" - as Dr. Maathai surely did when she singled out the word “Mottainai” during her visit to Japan a few years ago - in order to enter our lexicon of everyday words and become part of our daily lives in a meaningful way. Whatever this year's top buzzword is, I have a feeling that it won't quite match the depth and relevance of the now-forgotten concept of "Mottainai," but given the shelf lives of "buzzwords," perhaps it doesn't really matter after all.
Mottainai: when "buzzwords" lose their "buzz"
Well, it's that time of year again: time for "the experts" to select the top products, trends, and words or phrases of 2007. But before we consider buttocks-biting bugs (the inexplicably popular "Oshirikajiri mushi") or guys in Speedos (Kojima Yoshio, with his catchphrase "Sonna no kankei ne," "What does that matter?"), perhaps we ought to reflect on some past "buzzwords" and see what's become of them.
As I watch television these days, I am reminded of one word in particular: "Mottainai" (wasteful). Now, at the risk of veering too close to "Japan-bashing," which tends to be a favorite pastime of long-term expats, I want to consider some recent trends in light of this former buzzword, which has apparently lost much of its "buzz" in a stunningly short period of time.
Nobel Prize-winning environmentalist Wangari Maathai drew upon this catchphrase in 2005 to promote respect for the planet and consciousness of our consumption patterns, and it was her usage of the term that brought it back into fashion. This was much reported in the Japanese media, as would be expected, and it became a source of national pride, as well as nostalgia for the simpler, purportedly less wasteful days of the Showa period. But I, for one, am shocked that the media has failed to draw any connection between this concept and, say, the recent scandals concerning "Akafuku" rice cakes, to take one example of several companies caught either recycling or using ingredients past their expiration dates. Didn't anyone wonder where all those unsold boxes of Omiyage (souvenirs) were headed at the end of the business day? Even if they had been thrown out, instead of re-used (as they apparently were), would that not have been considered "Mottainai," or wasteful? I recently wrote about Omiyage culture, but perhaps it is time for me to reconsider the impact that such consumption patterns are having on the larger environment, and stop rationalizing such excess by using empty terms like "tradition" or "culture."
Let's put it this way: what if the companies who engaged in mislabeling and misleading business practices guaranteed that their products were made fresh daily, using only the finest ingredients, but were available only in limited quantities? So, after a certain number is sold, then that is all that there is for the day. If they then find that they are selling out too soon, then they need to make adjustments accordingly. Wouldn't that make their products all the more precious and valuable, knowing that only a limited number could be made to such high standards? I would think so. And it would certainly be more sustainable. Instead, what they did was to attempt to maximize their profits and minimize their losses - exactly what we are told is the objective of a business - through mass-production and, more troublingly, misleading labeling, recycling of unsold products, false advertising and so on.
Now, I'm not excusing them in any way: what they did was immoral, illegal and unhygienic in the extreme. Someone could have gotten very sick, especially when we consider the ill-named "Meat Hope" company in Hokkaido (there's a joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave that to your imagination). But one thing that I find very disturbing is the mainstream media's handling of this issue. In terms of these cases of food mislabeling, there has been no serious critical analysis, so far as I have seen, of the demand-side of the equation. In other words, what might have forced these companies to resort to these kinds of devious business practices? Were they simply greedy, or was there more to it than that? Unrealistic expectations and demands by consumers must surely play a part in this travesty.
Let's take another example of wastefulness, one that is being celebrated, rather than scrutinized, by the mass media: the phenomenon of "competitive eating" (called "Hayagui" or "Oogui" in Japanese). Perhaps I'm alone in being disgusted by the resurgence in "competitive eating" that is on Japanese television these days. But the sight of people consuming enough food to feed a small village in the so-called "Third World" not only offends me ethically; it is absolutely repulsive to watch.
The irony of it is that there was a halt to such "competitive eating" contests and displays a few years ago after some people, mostly kids, choked to death imitating their "heroes." Unfortunately, it has staged a dramatic comeback in recent months, perhaps due to the popularity of "Gyaru Sone", who is currently in the midst of her allotted "15 minutes of fame" (right alongside Kojima Yoshio), or "Tsunami" Kobayashi Takeru, the reigning king of hotdog-eating. To call this disgusting display of gluttony "wasteful" seems an understatement - especially when one considers that these "competitive eaters" consume somewhere around 6,000 calories per day when "training."
We could also look at the popularity of 100 Yen sushi, the proliferation of all things "Mega-", or any number of other ways in which unsustainable or wasteful consumption has gone unchecked in recent years, not only in Japan but in most of the so-called "Industrialized World." But perhaps it would be more useful to simply pause and reflect upon a word like "Mottainai," which like so many other things in our fast-paced, short attention span-driven society, has fallen by the wayside. Maybe some phrases deserve to be elevated from the category of "buzzwords" - as Dr. Maathai surely did when she singled out the word “Mottainai” during her visit to Japan a few years ago - in order to enter our lexicon of everyday words and become part of our daily lives in a meaningful way. Whatever this year's top buzzword is, I have a feeling that it won't quite match the depth and relevance of the now-forgotten concept of "Mottainai," but given the shelf lives of "buzzwords," perhaps it doesn't really matter after all.
Career Support
LIVING IN JAPAN