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The Unbearable Loneliness of Post-Modern Japan

Japan has fallen into loneliness. This is not my opinion, but that of Ryu Murakami. He wrote that modernization has changed Japan's national sentiment from sorrow to loneliness. Such is progress. He points to the Kobe murders committed by a 14-year-old boy about ten years back. He points to the increasing trend of "compensation dating" - high school girls that prostitute themselves to middle-aged men so that they may buy high priced designer goods. He says that these phenomena’s result from the quiet loneliness and lack of national goals that grip Japan.

I know the loneliness of Japan, but I attribute it to the division of soul. How can one be expected to have values and morals when also expected to split herself in two? To which self do you pledge loyalty? Those that have lived here any amount of time have heard of tatemae and honne, the separation of public and private selves. It is exhausting to maintain two lives. After some time, both lose validity, become blurred and forgotten. Instead of having two rich worlds, we are left with faded impressions of life. Motions. Habits. Secrets we keep but cannot remember exactly why anymore.

Lovely images of cityscapes and women filled the facing pages of the book of Ryu Murakami's essay on this topic, "Murder in the lonely country." I ripped his concept idea for the above image. My own tatemae and honne - barely noticed above the glitz of my surroundings.

Here are two Ryu Murakami books I've swallowed in the last week. (Not to be confused with my beloved HARUKI Murakami. These books are intense. Great, shocking, intelligent reads.

posted by Scribbler @ Sunday, February 26, 2006