Gerald L. Curtis | This Month's Feature | Trends in Japan

Beginning this year Trends in Japan will feature interviews with notable foreign residents of Japan. We are honored to have as our first interviewee Gerald L. Curtis, a Japan scholar who has written books including The Japanese Way of Politics and Election Campaigning Japanese Style. Dr. Curtis earned his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, where he now teaches. He is a visiting professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

GERALD L. CURTIS:
Thirty-five Years of Observing Japan
September 19, 2001

"I've never been bored in Japan," says renowned Japan-watcher Dr. Gerald L. Curtis, looking back on almost four decades of his involvement with the country. Now teaching at Columbia University as well as Japan's National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Dr. Curtis came to Japan for the first time in 1966. "I was 23 years old when I first came here, and Japan was still in a sense a developing country--rapid economic growth, radical student movement, lots of things going on, a very exciting time. But every decade since has been very different. Japan changes, it's been changing a lot over the time I've seen it, I've been involved with it. So I've never had the opportunity to really get bored."

Change in the Air
Dr. Curtis launched his career as an expert on Japanese politics in Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, where he spent over a year on the daily campaign trail of a local politician on his way to the House of Representatives. His first visit culminated in his Election Campaigning Japanese Style, a book widely acclaimed as the first inside account of the workings of the Japanese electoral system by a foreign observer.

Thirty-five years on, Japan is undergoing what could be a turning point in its political history. Jun'ichiro Koizumi became prime minister in April on the back of overwhelming public support, despite his message that pain lies ahead if Japan is to reform. Dr. Curtis reiterates a point he makes in his book, The Logic of Japanese Politics, that while the strategies and actions of individual politicians determine politics, they also need an environment of supportive public opinion. In that sense, Koizumi's rise to power is significant for reflecting the changes in Japanese voter sentiment.

	In Japan it's become very popular to say the '90s were the 'lost decade.' I think the '90s were a 'watershed decade' for Japan.

"In Japan it's become very popular to say the '90s were the 'lost decade.' I think the '90s were a 'watershed decade' for Japan. So much has changed from the past, particularly in the last five years or so. First of all, attitudes have fundamentally changed. People believe Japan isn't doing well, and cannot do well given its current structures. Until five, ten years or so ago, most people thought Japan was going to take over the world. Now there's been a big change," says Dr. Curtis.

A Shifting Society
In Dr. Curtis's view, the "Koizumi phenomenon" may prompt a major realignment among Japan's political parties as part of an irreversible movement toward a more transparent political system led by a younger generation of politicians whose values better reflect the social changes that have swept Japan.

"My feeling is that the generation gap in Japan today is wider than it's ever been in postwar Japan, or in most other advanced countries at the present time. There's kind of a disillusion that's set in with the younger generation about things that the older generation, their parents' generation, took for granted," he says. "Working lifetime employment jobs, not coming home until late at night, spending little time with the family--many features of the typical salaryman [salaried worker] life are simply unacceptable to the younger people."

And there have been even greater shifts. "To me, the biggest change in the last few years has been the way women think of their own role in life," says Dr. Curtis. "There's this silent protest against a lot of aspects of traditional treatment of women. So they're not having babies, they're not getting married until late, if they get married at all . . . they have only one baby, or none. They don't want to take care of their parents-in-law."

Other significant changes include the emergence of a group of returnees--multilingual children returning to Japan after spending their formative years abroad who are taking up influential positions in society. Volunteerism is also developing, led by women who, are more closely involved in neighborhood communities than their husbands. "All of these things, sooner or later, have to influence mainstream politics," says Dr. Curtis. And that means he will be busily engaged with Japan for a long while to come.

It's Not All About Work
But Dr. Curtis is drawn to Japan for other reasons as well. "I like the language and I like the thought processes you go through in the Japanese language. It's very different than the English language, so I can think a little differently when I think in Japanese, and I express myself differently. And it's fascinating," he says. "And when people oppose, or object or disagree, it can be done with real style, so that it doesn't have to be rude, doesn't have to be confrontational, and yet you can get your point across."

Dr. Curtis also notes that while Japan offers many other positive features, such as the safety of its streets, a successful system of compulsory education, and the politeness of its people, the Japanese themselves seem happier playing them down. "This society has enormous strengths, but you'd never know it from listening to what the Japanese say about their own country," he notes. "One thing that bothers me about the public discourse here is that everything you read in the press and the magazines is negative about Japan. There's a masochism here that's very hard to understand. It's curious that people can be so negative about their own country and yet not want to change things. But that's what's true in Japan."

Perhaps that's another layer of mystery waiting to be uncovered by Dr. Curtis, who likens studying Japan to peeling an onion. "I've been peeling away for almost forty years. And it's a big onion, and it's a complex society, and it's a sophisticated culture; it has its long history. It's become pluralistic in many ways--in spite of its homogeneous ethnicity, it's a pluralistic country. So you keep on peeling away, and you look at this onion, and there's a more interesting design on the next layer than on the one you just think you'd figured out."

Gerald L.Curtis

Gerald L. CURTIS
Received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 1969. Is now a professor of political science at his alma mater and a visiting professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan. Author of Election Campaigning Japanese Style, The Japanese Way of Politics, The Logic of Japanese Politics, and other works.

Copyright (c) 2001 Japan Information Network. Edited by Japan Echo Inc. based on domestic Japanese news sources. Articles presented here are offered for reference purposes and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Japanese Government.