The Japanese Smile

We had a concert at Ye Olde Academy today, the first of three Saturday Afternoon Concerts for the 2007-2008 school year. It was enjoyable as always, but it showed that there was definitely room for improvement. After that was the first general meeting of the Music Club Parents' Association (very peaceful-sounding fanfare), which thankfully went quickly without any bumps.

Anyway, once all that was done and I was on my way home, I passed a tiny little fire station on a back road just as the (miniature) fire engine came rushing out, sirens blaring. I quickly pulled off to the side of the road to let the fire engine pass. I then continued on my way, but after only another three hundred meters or so I found a whole herd of fire engines parked on both sides of the narrow road, obviously the destination of the truck which had passed me (though its home station was clearly the closest! Go figure...). Both professional firemen in full gear and volunteer firemen in jeans and T-shirts were hustling about with their hoses and things, attacking a fire that was blazing in a nearby field. The latter was bordered closely by a few houses and a shrine, but none of them appeared to have been affected yet. Considering I drive by that field on that narrow road twice every day on which I go to work at Ye Olde Academy, it was a bit of a surprise seeing that fire and all that activity.


A typical local fire truck in Japan. This image was taken from the website of Yokosuka City, but the one that passed me was very similar.

However, what really surprised me was all the rubberneckers (i.e. people coming to watch). Even on that remote, little back road out in the middle of the sticks, there was quite a crowd gathering. Now, that's not particularly unusual, but I couldn't help noticing that many if not most if not all of the people gathering to observe the spectacle were smiling.

A fire in one's neighborhood isn't usually cause to smile. However, you have to remember that this is Japan, and in Japan a smile can have a totally different meaning. It brings to mind the time back in the late 90s when a new installment of the Japanese TV drama "Oregon Kara Ai" ("From Oregon With Love") was being filmed, and the Japanese TV company decided to use American directors to make it more authentic. They ran into some trouble when they were doing a scene in which a middle-aged Japanese woman opened her wallet to pay for some groceries (at an Oregonian shop) and realized she had no money. The Japanese actress expressed embarrassment as most middle-aged Japanese women naturally would: she smiled. That sent the American director into a tizzy, as he'd naturally expected something more along the lines of bugged-out eyes and a wide-open mouth. The Japanese interpreter saved the day by explaining the cultural difference to the director, who then decided to allow the actress to give her natural, Japanese response (even though he still didn't get it).

It is often said that the Japanese smile is like a mask to hide behind. It is something to flash when one is feeling troubled. You see it here when someone is frightened, stressed out, or angry. On his wife's or girlfriend's face, it is a sign that a man is in deep trouble. It is the first response I get whenever I call on a student to answer a question. Perhaps it is an extension of the Japanese concept of wa (harmony), hiding negative emotions behind a pleasant face. After all, I'm sure the people in that neighborhood were feeling shocked, worried, maybe even frightened. There were lots of unpleasant feelings in response to an unpleasant situation. Therefore, it was only natural that they were dealing with it in the customary way, by hiding it all behind a pleasant smile.

Either that or it was schadenfreude on a massive scale.