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What If We Behaved Like the Japanese – Just Occasionally?

Indian tourists find so many things amazing in Japan. Some we can and should bring back too. Here are six Japanese micro-philosophies, which we can learn, and really improve our life.

By Sandeep Das

Last year, I visited Japan and was absolutely amazed by the richness of their culture. Specifically, by how polite, graceful, and dignified everyone is. Even though the country has had its share of darkness.

Think of the catastrophic WWII bombings, devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, prolonged periods of economic pain. Despite all this, if the Japanese people are still polite and graceful, it’s not by accident. Their behaviour has to be understood in terms of certain key Japanese philosophies, which shape their thinking, and help them live an excellent quality of life. Indeed, we can also improve our lives by adopting some of the Japanese micro-habits.

Kaizen

This has been heavily popularised by firms like Sony and Toyota. It’s about continuous improvement. Ideas like ‘improve by 1% every day’, come from this philosophy. Its application potential is boundless. For someone wanting to pick up a reading habit, reading 5 pages a day for a week, then making it 6 pages a day next week, and so on, is a great example. Or someone wanting to get physically fit, walking 10 minutes every day for a week, then making it 15 minutes next week…

It’s also about overcoming negative habits. For someone trying to reduce smoking, this means cutting their consumption by 1 cigarette a day for a week, then by another cigarette a day the next week, and so on. No great habit is formed overnight, but micro-habits over a sustained period of time can result in great improvement.

Shokunin

This is about a deep dedication to mastering your craft. Often, it involves lifelong self-improvement, in the pursuit of excellence. In Japan, regular people, barber, train ticket collector, garbage collector, everyone takes so much pride in their work, trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Ikigai

Perhaps this is the Japanese philosophy that’s travelled furthest in the world. It’s about identifying your purpose and being energised by it every morning. It can make a heck of difference in a world where every other person seems miserable at work – struggling with low motivation or burnout. To find your ikigai, ask yourself some key questions. What are you good at? What do you love doing? What will the world pay money for? What does the world need? At the intersection of these questions, is your ikigai. To be honest, finding this is not easy. It can take years, even decades. Still, this is the most simple and effective framework to get there.

Gaman

This is about building emotional resilience. Whatever Japan has been through as a society, its people are rarely bitter. Because, per the gaman principle, while you are not in control of what life throws at you, you do control how you respond to it. As our Dhoni has said a few times, it’s about controlling the controllables.

In terms of micro-habit examples, this translates into not saying unpleasant things when you are angry, and not feeling sorry for yourself when you hit a difficult stage of life. The bigger question gaman philosophy pushes you to ask is, what are three things you can do to respond to the difficult situation? After all, the only thing constant in life is change. Good times give way to difficult times and difficult times give way to good times.

Ichigo Ichie

This translates to ‘one time, one meeting’. Meaning, the current moment is unique, we should not lose it to thinking about the past or the future. For instance, let us slow down the pace of eating, enjoy every morsel of food. Reduce the portion size, chew a little more, feel the texture of our food. Practise active listening, instead of thinking about how to respond to the other person, try to really, really understand what they are saying, and where they may be coming from.

Osewa

This is about acknowledging someone’s efforts to look after you, conveying your appreciation and respect.

It’s a core reason why everyone in Japan is so polite. A simple micro-habit for us to imbibe is to generously thank the people we deal with – be it the lift man, coconut vendor, flight attendant, or our domestic help.

Subconsciously, this is also connected to the principle of reciprocity. If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you. In other words, being respectful and polite has business benefits over the long run. A simple micro-habit of smiling at the people you work with, can go a long way.

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