Q072: I am very curious about life in Japan. It seems to me that the vast majority of people are conformists; that most of the more educated and comfortable people in Japan are the least interesting! The most creative, intelligent, and interesting people seem to be outsiders, drop-outs, misfits, rebels. Is this accurate? Is life in Japan stifling or uncomfortable for you? Do you feel that AMT are under-appreciated in Japan?
A072:Once I started travelling abroad, I rediscovered many things about Japan. I read once (in a book written by a non-Japanese, I hasten to add!) that there are two kinds of people, Japanese and everyone else. I lot of what I have seen leads to feel that this is perhaps
true. I believe that the Japanese are innately communist. There's a Japanese proverb that says that the nail that sticks out should be hammered home - and Japanese love uniforms, and there is a current of thought in Japan that admires you the less individuality you
show. Accordingly, what 'individuality' that is allowed to exist in Japan must always align itself to some kind of group identity. Truly unique and visible individuality is not recognized and is treated as 'alien'. But on the other hand, it is this kind of thinking that has created Japan as it is now. It is this system of values that sees the individual as one part of the whole that creates in Japan words like 'corporate warrior'. And it is these
people and their devotion of their lives to their work that has created the idea of 'family service' (the time that they give to their families at the weekend). However, I do not hate the values of these kinds of Japanese - they are the ones who sustain Japanese
society and for that I thank and even admire them. I, on the other hand, have no qualifications to become one part of their society.
But it's because of their hard work that I am able to drop out of that society and live in comfort while devoting my life to music. In the past I once worked as a designer in a large company. But when I realised that if I were to struggle for the next 30 years and defeat all my colleagues and rivals, the seat that I would finally get to sit in would be the same one occupied by my boss today, I handed in my resignation. I realised that I could never
live in a world where I could so clearly imagine what kind of person I would be in 30 years time. But at the same time there is a part of me that cannot accept the European idea of individuality. I'm a hedonist, a revolutionary and I live for the moment, but I'm also quite driven. I can't just sit and enjoy life or relax. Perhaps that says something about the Japanese blood that must run through the veins even of this dropout.