From the Executive Director  

Trip to Another World

By Janlee Wong, MSW

Recently, I was privileged to accompany social worker Assembly member Mariko Yamada to Japan for a government-sponsored trip to study high speed rail and aging/long term care. Rising from utter devastation after World War II and suffering two devastating atomic bomb attacks, Japan is a significant world economic power with the world’s third-largest economy.

Japanese women have one of the highest life expectancy rates in the world and one of the lowest infant mortality rates. Japan is one of the safest nations in the world and has a per capita income level second only to the United States.

With a social worker’s eye, I wondered how could Japan go so far and rise so fast. My conclusion: a homogeneous population with a rigid culture of conformity. Japan is 98.5 percent Japanese and has a culture of “conform to get along” in a crowded country with over 126 million population squeezed on a land mass of 146,000 square miles (873 persons per square mile).

High-speed rail or “shinkansen” in Japan has huge ridership, tremendous profitability and a virtually zero-accident rate with an average delay time of 6 seconds. The trains always stop at exactly the same spot where dutiful Japanese line up to board. No one holds the door open. Shinkansen can be a euphemism for getting to your objective on time and everyone knowing their place.

Japan’s Achilles heel is its homogeneity which is also its weakness. Without immigration or diversity to replenish its worker population and increased longevity, in a couple of decades there won’t be enough workers to support the aging population and the social security and health programs that sustain it. Japan’s culture is thoroughly Westernized so younger people want the same freedom and independence that their counterparts in the U.S. want. This includes having fewer children and not staying home to take care of their elderly.

Japan’s policy makers are aware of this dilemma but have few answers other than encouraging more women to join the workforce and delaying retirement. Eventually Japan will be where the U.S. is, importing more workers (legally or otherwise) and counting on the families they will have or bring with them. Japan isn’t at this point yet, but it’s inevitable.