Japanese Getting a Cultural Nudge -- From a Foreigner

The American in a kimono bows deeply with a polite smile, daintily shapes flowers into an artful arrangement and kneels to put her traditional Japanese slippers in their proper place.

The message of this TV public service announcement starring Jeanie Fuji is clear: Japanese have grown so out-of-touch with their culture that they need reminding from an American who’s doing it better.

“Many younger Japanese don’t know about Japan and aren’t interested. And I think Japan has such a fantastic, rich culture,” said Fuji, a demure-looking blond who is clearly quite foreign despite her kimono.

The ad, first aired in October, highlights a growing trend here to value cultural heritage at a time when the nation’s self-confidence is lagging from an economic slowdown.

This one is in tandem with a government effort to promote cultural identity. Authorities mandated the study of Japanese music and other traditions in schools starting this year, and are considering a bill supporting a curriculum to instill patriotism -- an idea some pacifists oppose.

“Here’s an American who is more Japanese than a Japanese,” said Eiji Ga of the Japan Ad Council, which created the commercial featuring Fuji, an innkeeper at a hot-springs resort.

“It’s calling on Japanese to re-examine our identity.”

The ad council is a group of businesses that periodically makes public service announcements with social messages, such as staying away from drugs or keeping city streets clean.

The San Francisco-born Fuji, 36, entered one of Japan’s strictest worlds when she married the heir of Fujiya, a 350-year-old inn at the Ginzan hot springs in northern Japan’s Yamagata prefecture.

Wearing a kimono every day, Fuji runs the inn -- all the while following the strict rules of etiquette that dictate the proper way to serve tea, pass a tray or enter a room -- “completely choreographed,” she says.

Mari Kobayashi, a 41-year-old Tokyo doll maker, and her husband spend New Year’s Eve every year at the 12-room Fujiya.

She said Fuji looks foreign, “but she isn’t pushy or loud, like a lot” of foreigners.

Fuji taught English in Japan after college and met her husband, Atsushi, 43, during a ski trip. They married 11 years ago.

Training at the inn was hard, she said. She had to start by learning the dirty work -- like dishwashing.

“I made a lot of mistakes. It’s a habit now,” Fuji said, switching midway through the telephone interview into Japanese.

The couple have a 5-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.

The complaint that foreigners seem to appreciate Japanese culture more than the Japanese themselves isn’t new.

Over the decades of modernization, Japanese have turned to Hollywood, Disneyland and hip-hop for inspiration at the cost of their own traditions: Kabuki theater, taiko drumming, the tea ceremony and haiku poetry.

Performers of traditional arts often go unnoticed at home, perhaps taken for granted or considered unfashionable, only to reach stardom after receiving rave reviews on overseas tours.

“In the past, school programs were devoted to Western music,” said Katsunori Ouchi, an Education Ministry official. “But unless Japanese study their own culture, they can’t explain anything when they get asked questions abroad.”

Noriko Kitano, a hairstylist in her 50s who loves the samurai theater, believes in tradition.

“It’s the spirit of Japan,” she said. “Young people shouldn’t forget the beauty of the kimono.”

Fuji believes it’s up to the Japanese to decide how much tradition they want to keep. She said all traditions -- like Christmas in the United States -- are sometimes restraining but can be a bonding force.

“To become truly international, you must first understand your own culture,” Fuji said.