Via Slashdot, I came across The Puzzle of Japanese Web Design.

With respect to clarity, simplicity, and boldness of line, the Japanese have been a thousand years ahead of us in fine art and graphic design. Our best painters learned minimalism, cartooning, and much else from the Japanese during the “Orientalism” period of the late 19th century. Before that, western fine art was judged in part on its complexity and detail. And our posters and advertisements! Don’t ask.

Following that simplistic, stereotyping, jingoistic "us vs them" nonsense, there's a bizarre bit about chopsticks that somehow mistakes cheap, ugly, scrap-wood waribashi disposable chopsticks as the only form of chopsticks in Japan. It's really unrelated, but I can't resist:    

Even the way the Japanese design chopsticks reveals this genius for simplicity coupled with a reverence for the natural world. Your Chinese chopstick is all lathe work. It’s about the gloriously smooth finish of the stick. Chinese chopsticks are miniature masterpieces that we tragically toss away after a single use. But they are masterpieces of human skill.

In contrast, the Japanese don’t change the shape of the wood. They simply put a small crack in one side—just enough that you can snap it like a wishbone when you’re ready to use the chopsticks. The Chinese chopstick is about Man and His Craft. The Japanese chopstick is about the sacred, ephemeral beauty of the revealed world.

This guy's a hoot; it reads like a parody of culturologists, but I think he's serious!

Anyway, that's just a wacky tangent. The gist is this:

Given Japan’s world-leading preference for the boldly simple in the applied and graphic arts, it’s puzzling that so many Japanese website designs prize clutter over clarity. 

All right. Yes, many Japanese websites are cluttered. I've certainly noticed it myself. And... so?

As I'd expect, the comments below the article are rife with chipped-in inanities about “Western” vs “Eastern” ways of thinking and “zen perspectives” and “contradictions” and "more is more" vs "less is more" and on and on... 

Give me a break, people! There is no "contradiction", no "paradox", no "puzzle" here. The two-second answer to the whole "puzzle" raised by the article is this:

People making austere, elegant pieces of traditional artwork… and people making gaudy, cluttered web sites… are generally not the same people.

Boom. Solved. Aren't simple answers lovely?

A “puzzle” or "paradox" appears only when one adopts the silly delusion that a shared affiliation with a political entity (“country”) among multiple individuals should mystically create a shared sense of (among other things) aesthetics. But that delusion simply doesn’t mesh with reality. 

Here's the truth in a nutshell: When reality conflicts with your preconceptions (like "aesthetics is a property of countries, not people!"), that doesn't mean you've found a "paradox". It means your preconceptions were wrong. That's all.

Yet as the linked page demonstrates, there's no doubt that the converse – "OMG everything's a paradox, at least if there's the name of a foreign nation attached to it!" – is so damned beloved out there. Why? That's the "paradox" paradox that always puzzles me.

You know what's so annoying – very mildly annoying, yes, but persistently so – about "cultural contrast" discussions? It's really not so much the more elaborate made-up claims backed by laughably imaginary evidence (the "special relationship with robots" is a good example). Rather, it's the non-stop rain of little claims, the ones that paint everything in site as a "difference" or a "unique twist" – but then just leave those assertions hanging, without any attempt at support.

Below is a fine example: a piece on the impressive uptake of mini-blogging service Twitter in Japan from the Mainichi Daily in June. (I've been told that it first ran in the Japanese version of the paper, though I haven't been able to locate a Japanese original). It was picked up by news services everywhere; here's the full article, which you may have already seen: Read more

Here's a bit of goofiness unearthed in the old scrap clippings pile. It's such a minor thing that I hesitate to apply my frequent "A dose of dumb:" preface to the title. Anyway:

The October 2003 issue of JETRO's Focus Japan magazine reported that the French animated film Kirokou et la sorciére (Kirikou and the Sorceress) proved popular in Japan. The tidbit of commentary notes: Read more

Back in 2005, Japan Times science writer Rowan Hooper noted US-based medical studies which, although inconclusive, suggested that aging-related conditions could be ameliorated through transcendental meditation (TM) techniques such as mindfulness and progressive muscle relaxation. Hooper went on to suggest that Japanese lifespans may be long due to similar effects brought about by two factors: Buddhism and "shikata ga nai mentality".

If you have any contact with "Japanology" musings, you've no doubt heard of shikata ga nai, or its other common form shou ga nai, as yet another entry on a loooong list of "uniquely Japanese" concepts. The phrase, as normally used, is a simple expression of resignation, of giving in or going along when things are beyond one's control – as in, "Oh well, what are you gonna do." Read more

Meet Poppy the Pig. From her online introduction of a few months back (the website text is different now): 

She goes to the flower market and likes gardening and doing household work. She is very sociable and she is kind to her friends and to her niece Grunty. The reason she has such Dutch characteristics is because Bruna created her modeling after his children's grade school teacher. 

Hm? What are these "Dutch characteristics"? Enjoying gardening and household work? Being sociable and kind? Having a niece named Grunty? All of those?

Do you have "Dutch characteristics"? I'll bet you do, and don't even know it!

All right, the above text is clearly as harmless as a bit of writing can get, but I'll say it once more anyway: I'll never understand made-up culturology, and am sure glad that I don't partake in it.  

But moving on: In case you're unfamiliar with Poppy, she's a friend of Miffy, star of over 100 children's books by Dick Bruna. While I don't think Miffy's caught on big in the US, she's a popular character in Europe and here in Japan as well.

A glance at Miffy should remind you a lot of another cartoon character, [Hello] Kitty. They're almost twins, though the vacant-eyed pair are separated not only by species but by age as well: Miffy was born in 1955, while Kitty didn't appear until 1974.

 vs

Actually, according to this interview, the similarity seems to have the pioneering Bruna a bit... er, miffed: 

'That,' he says darkly, 'is a copy [of Miffy], I think. I don't like that at all. I always think, "No, don't do that. Try to make something that you think of yourself" '

Wow; for a guy as nice as Dick Bruna, that's almost a jump from "Hello" to "Screw You, Kitty". The characters' resemblance is indeed suspicious, though in Sanrio's defense, we could note that the simplicity of Miffy doesn't leave much room for a similarly-sparse design to differ. (I was about to joke that maybe Sanrio should have given Kitty facial hair – when I recalled that they did.) 

Well, there's really no need for the two to compete; the affection of children is a thing to be shared, not divided. (Awww.) Though on the other hand, a Miffy vs Kitty no-quarter cage match does have its appeal. Who do you think would win? (Why, we the viewing audience, of course.) 

Remember one of the key rules of culturology: "Cultural differences" aren't something you sensibly take note of when and if they pop up. Rather, you simply know that they lurk everywhere unless shown otherwise (and, of course, you don't ever attempt to demonstrate that "otherwise" part). 

There's a new Astro Boy movie coming out, and the director is making the normal interview rounds. Here's the opening question from an interview on the AMC web site:  Read more

Ah, April in the Northern Hemisphere! If you're in a location with sakura cherry trees – whether Washington D.C., Seattle, Seoul, or any number of locales – you're in for a treat as entire trees erupt in fluffy pink blossoms.

In Japan, the blooming of the cherry blossoms is eagerly awaited every year. It's a time for relaxation and fun: walking under pink canopies along the river, taking photos in the park, and – best of all – enjoying all-day (or all-night!) hanami picnics under the blossoms with friends, food, and drink.

Unless you're Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, that is, in which case sakura season adds an extra activity to your calendar: a spring-fresh burst of the racist blathering for which you're infamous. Read more

It's time to visit the strange "Japan’s special relationship with robots" meme again. In a recent post, I wondered whether the meme was dying out; I haven’t heard much of it lately. (Then again, I don’t look for examples, or even spend much time in the sort of cultural-comparison media that would focus on the topic, so I'm not the best one to ask.)

Alas, though, the meme does live on, as demonstrated in a January 29 2009 episode of the Daily Show. Host Jon Stewart interviews Dr P. W. Singer, an authority on a range of topics related to modern warfare, on his new book Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. Both the topic and the interview were fascinating, with an exchange at the end really catching my attention. Here it is, with my comments interspersed: Read more

CRACKED Magazine offers a scatalogical look at Japan's Insane Creation Myths. "Hoo boy", I thought, "here comes another bunch of wild exaggerations to play up the 'Japan is so crazy' meme".

Well... I'll leave specific criticisms to experts in the field, but a scan of the linked references suggests that, yeah, these myths are built from the distilled essence of porn movies and junior-high body function jokes. Which isn't unique to the ancient myths of Japan, as many commenters point out, but these particular myths sure do aim for the gutter.

Fun stuff, if you're not too easily offended!

The smart way to learn about the world is this: Start with no conclusions. Draw in data. Form a tentative conclusion from those. Revise conclusion as new data require.

The common "culturology" way to do it: Start with a conclusion. Welcome all data that fit. Label data that don't fit as "exceptions" or "a paradox".

The mistake is called confirmation bias. Here's a really trivial example – meaningless by any measure, but worth pointing out because, hey, nice pizza ad!  Read more