T.R. Reid

T.R. Reid and his family traveled the world the American way before relocating to Japan due to a job advancement. However, when he arrived in Tokyo and saw the stark disparities in American and Japanese social, economical, educational, and military traditions, he realized that the world was far more diverse than his stereotyped view of it. Reid authored a book about his newfound knowledge after living in Tokyo for five years, documenting what he saw in various major East Asian towns and highlighting the significant differences between Japanese and American cultures. The title of his book is Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West.

Confucius (the progenitor of Confucianism) was a prominent influencer of Chinese politics, ethics, and education (Violatti, 2013). However, due to cultural filtration prevalent in human societies, Confucius’s ideas and teachings transcended the borders of China and were adopted by many other countries, especially the surrounding nations of East Asia. One of these countries which exemplify Confucius’s philosophy is Japan (Tyrker, 2017). Hence, it stands to reason why despite living in the Land of the Yellow Sun (as Japan is infamously known), Reid saw the ideologies of a Chinese philosopher dominant in Tokyo and other major non-Chinese metropolis in East Asia. And by patiently studying the lives of his neighbor who was an individual example of Confucianism, Reid became aware of what it means to live the Confucius’s way.

Reid’s Argument

In the early chapters of his book, Reid claimed that the Western media had been misleading people on the superiority of the Western society relative to the Asians’. Consequently, Reid countered that such ‘Western’ depiction is inaccurate. He insisted that East Asian countries can rival their Western counterparts financially and politically. To demonstrate, Reid stated that Japan possesses the world’s largest foreign reserves and that Asian is completely independent of foreign power after both Britain and Portugal relinquished their control of Hong Kong and Macao respectively. Though Reid’s book briefly mentioned the economic and political emancipation of Asia, he focused on other issues: social indicators.

T.R. Reid, in his book, believed the societal signs exhibited by the East Asians signify their autonomy much more than the conventional features of an independent and prosperous state, such as skyscrapers, advanced town planning, revolutionary transport systems, etc. These social indicators (he called them social miracle), Reid mentioned, are a consequence of these ‘Confucian’ sovereigns promoting collectivism while discouraging individualism.

Collectivism Versus Individualism in Japan

Reid stressed that the status quo ethical philosophy in Japanese society is that the group is superior to an individual. Because of this, the individual must preserve the wa (social harmony) and must distance his/her person from meiwaku (unacceptable social behavior that could tarnish the reputation of a group). His/her principal obligation (known ri or righteousness) is to protect the group’s image and live up to its moral standards at all times, even if it means the individual has to forego some proclivities. Conversely, if a person violates the group’s traditions or brings shame upon it, he/she becomes unworthy of being a member of that group and faces social ostracism (murahachibu) and condemnation (Kopp, 2013). Consequently, social exclusion is the cruelest form of moral punishment that can be meted out to one of the citizens of a country that prides itself on conformity to a group, on uniformity, and on collectivism.

This propensity to belong to a group and avoid smearing its image is engendered by certain moral codes, not by any legal restrictions, therefore adhering to a particular Confucius’s saying:” If you govern them by moral influence, and keep them in order by a code of manners, they will have a sense of shame and will come to you of their own accord." This sense of responsibility and shame, according to Reid, culminated in Japan’s social miracle such as lower crime, fewer cases of indulgence in narcotics, family-first approach, better educational achievements, and parity of wealth.

The Manifestation of Reid’s Social Miracle

Statistically, criminal activities in the Confucian countries are relatively fewer than the global average. This minimal presence of violence and cases of drug addiction in most East Asian states, Reid theorized, makes the general public feel safe. The citizens’ confidence in their security manifests in their aversion to installing car or house alarms, barring their windows or locking the doors to their respective abodes. Paradoxically, despite the Western countries’ heavy investment on crime deterrents such as armed police, border control, prisons, etc., the Eastern countries achieved it by imbibing the Confucian culture and without heavy policing or harsh sentencing.

Also, Reid rightly estimated the impact of drug use on regularity of crime. He opined: “One of the reasons for the low crime rate in the East Asia nations is the low rate of narcotic abuse.” To demonstrate the positive correlation between drug use and crime, T. Bennett et al. (2008) proved that a drug user is three or four more times more likely to commit crime than someone who doesn’t use narcotics. Hence, a county with fewer reported cases of drug-related offences, such as Japan, stands to experience low crime rate.

Thirdly, familial loyalty (one of the most emphasized facets of Confucius’s doctrine) means couples are more likely to remain in a relationship compared to their Western counterparts. Because of this, the chances that a child will grow up in a two-parent household is higher in East Asia than in the West. In fact, studies have revealed that the child of divorced parents is likely to exhibit later in life behaviour problems, stress, family difficulties, drop in achievement levels, loss of self-esteem, emotional trauma, etc.

Drawing Parallels Between Reid’s Portrayal of Japan and the Norms of an Ideal Society

In the tenth chapter of his book, Reid surmised that there exists conspicuous similarities in the values proposed in the West and those practiced in the East. From Reid’s own position on the issue of ethics, it is obvious that in any sane social setting, people must exude certain expected characteristics such as politeness, taking responsibility, non-indulgence in crime, drug, and violence, obedience, safeguarding the community’s interests, the four forms of loyalty: loyalty to one’s family, loyalty to one’s group, loyalty between an employee and an employer, and loyalty between the state and its subjects. Naturally, these expectations are the repercussion of almost every modern civilization having its roots in religion. Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Shintoism, etc., all preach kindness, discourage evildoing, and promote world peace. However, along the line in the West, reality replaced idealism, taking responsibility traded places with freedom, group’ interests gave way to individual rights. The consequence of this social substitution being skewed morality, resulting in many iniquities and inadequacies found in the Western hemisphere.

Hypocrisy in Confucian Japan

It is true that Japan is comparably safer and its people are more group oriented, less likely to divorce, academically smarter, and more loyal. That’s why, at first, Reid’s book seemed like an articulate glorification of East Asia. However, not until the latter stages of his work did Reid paint a contrasting picture of Japan. In these chapters, Reid showed the nepotistic, America-hating, racial, socially chauvinistic, grossly corrupt, jealous, and vindictive Japan.

The case of nepotism and corrupt leadership contradicts one of the primary tenets of Confucianism: self-improvement. Confucius emphasized improving oneself; thus, the essence of self-improvement is lacking in the leaders of a society that claim to exemplify the teachings of Confucius.

In truth, history has shown that the East Asian leaderships have a history of subjugating their subjects, brainwashing them to do their biddings, and not reciprocating such service with compassion and benevolence, as prescribed by Confucius.

Individualism Highlights the Imperfections in Japan’s Social System

The Japanese have a popular saying: “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” It is a way of Japanese trying to dissuade an individual from standing out, conforming to Reid’s description of a homogenous Japan. Interestingly, the problem with this philosophy is that it impedes the progress of individuals with unique skillset. Whereas, respecting racial diversity and recognizing the need to harness individual strengths to build a revolutionary society is something the Westerners have thrived on for centuries. For example, the CEO of many West-owned Fortune 500 companies are not from the Western region of the world. In contrast, big East Asian corporations prefer to have East Asians as leaders to preserve their homogeneity and minimalize Western influence in their companies. In fact, one could argue that the ability of the Western sovereigns to accommodate this diversity, and still properly function as a civilized society, demonstrates profound strength.

Another problem with the Japanese social beliefs, as espoused by Reid, is that their protection leads to complacency, which ill equips almost any Japanese to cope with crime and violence outside their shores. Being in their comfort zone dulls their survival instincts – traits which are required to survive in this dangerous world.

The Superiority of the West

No state should determine personal choices, because considerable number of wars had been fought to attain personal freedom. It is this freedom to choose that has made the Western political and social principles enticing to many in other parts of the world. Further to this, many nations now adopt democracy and the West’s economic model.

Secondly, for all the Japanese supposed academic superiority, the West are still the leaders of world inventions. Internet, space shuttle, Einstein, Newton, Google, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, quantum computers, LinkedIn, Apple, Microsoft are few of the West’s contributions to inventions. Furthermore, the Westerners still dominate the world university ranking, despite spending an average of sixty fewer days in school.

Conclusion

What makes What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West a brilliant book is T.R. Reid’s analysis of the social triumphs of the East Asian nations and how these victories have provided the foundation for East’s new-found financial and political prosperity. These Confucian cultural norms witnessed in East Asia were also the basis of the West’s self-touted civilization, but along the way, the West lost these values and replaced it with non Judeo-Christianity principles all in the name of human rights. Yet, Reid still exposed the flaws in this seemingly perfect Japan and other East Asian territories.

However, this book is about how an American sees East Asia, making it an opinionated assessment of what constitutes an ideal social behaviour. Reid implied that the East Asians have better social principles. But who is to say that a Japanese exposed to the West’s democratic lifestyle won’t prefer it to his/her country’s well-established tradition of mental subjugation and elimination of people’s freedom – especially that of association/dissociation – just to perpetrate the will of a government more likely to embezzle his/her hard-earned money and engage in an institutionalized corruption?

References

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