🚀 go-pugleaf

inagaki@aclab1.resrch.anritsu.co.jp (Shintaro Inagaki) writes:

>In article <2755@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
>    >>
>    >>># By the way Dave,
>    >>># I feel that your way of life is very Japanese; if you do not mind.
>    >>># Would you express the same opinion if you were discussing in U.S.?
>    >>
>    >>Yes, I would say exactly the same thing. I've always spoken my mind.
>    >>
>    >>But of course in the U.S. I would be accused of various "Unspoken of
>    >>Crimes Against Society" as many/most people there expect my line of
>    >>thinking to be according to U.S. Conventional Wisdom.  Of course
>    >>some people on this side of the water expect my line of thinking to
>    >>be what they think is U.S Conventional Wisdom and it's not. 
>    >>
>Very interesting.

>I wonder whether there is any difficulty to survive in Japan
>because many people expect your way of thinking/action
>to be according to Japan-side Conventional Wisdom.

>e.g.:
>In Japanese Conventional Wisdom,
>beard should be limited to a certain people, such as University professors.
>So I wonder in case you wore beard and you loved to,
>you would have difficulty to get a job as salesperson,
>or you would be rejected to have a credit card. 

If the de facto standard is that salesmen don't have beards then
probably yes (do we really need to specify this for saleswomen? :-)
So now comes a Turning Point: do you want to make a "Statement about
Freedom" or just get the job and get on with your life? In my case I
spent a lot of time making Statements about Freedom but found I could
actually do more for freedom by just getting on with my life. 

I think getting a credit card would be a bit different. If beards
signified University professors (and University professors were
given credit cards), then maybe it would be useful to appear at the
counter and apply for a credit card with a beard ... and a suit, and
a briefcase full of books and papers, and whatever else would help
your case. 

Or, since this is Japan, wouldn't a professor have some staff call
the bank about the credit card? I mean would they really go in
themselves? 

In my experience, both in Japan and other Asian countries, people
of the middle to upper-middle classes have helpers/servants/staff
who do things for them. I forget what they are called, but just
about every time you see some important business person or 
politician on TV and they are getting out of a car and walking
into a builing they don't have a briefcase; it's being carried
by somebody else.

Dave

--
Dave McLane  davidg@aegis.or.jp
You're free to copy/quote/translate as long as credit is given. 
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087