There is a holiday called "Physical Fitness" day in Japan. Traditionally, kindergarten to high school, mini Olympic-like field day event was held in October. Over the recent years, more schools have this event in May. My kids' public elementary school holds this field day in mid September.
Japanese society was swinging in the direction of non-competitiveness, group harmony over the past twenty years, but I started to notice the pendulum swinging back towards competitiveness recently.
The program of the field day seem to reflect this. This year's "kiba-sen" (concept of horse mounted knights battle) was separated into two battles, one was one army against another, the other was one-on-one. The spectators were watching intently as one team fought against another. In Japanese society, people frown on showing fierceness. But with "kiba-sen", we see the fight to win in pure form. I was watching the entire battle, all caught up in fascination and excitement, forgetting even to take pictures. So here's the pre-battle waiting and post-battle winner announcement scenes only. White caps beat the red caps.
I'm currently an ALT on the JET Programme and just experienced my first Japanese "Physical Fitness" event. That's a great insight you have about the competitiveness and group harmony. I guess the competitiveness is a reflection of society as a whole, being filtered down by politicians and businesses. Everything these days is about cost cutting, being efficient, streamlining expenses and pressures in maximizing minimal resources to achieve the desired result. It's the economic reality that we all face.
Posted by: Jason | October 15, 2005 at 01:05 AM
Hi Jason. Thank you for your insightful comment! I know what you mean about economic reality. I also started to think recently that although politicians and businesses are visible, it is human nature, and reproductive organic being's nature to be competitive and efficient. Maybe it's all within each of us, and we either make peace with it, use it as positively as possible or fight it.
Posted by: Fujiko Suda | October 16, 2005 at 12:15 AM