What Does the Showa Fever Say about Japan's Future
Nostalgia is a big marketing ploy in contemporary Japan. The nation's media spend lengths glorifying the heady days of the Showa era (lasting until 1989, marked by high economic growth, increasing materialism, and then the wealth of the stock market bubble), as a time of national optimism not seen today. Shops, restaurants, and even amusement parks play up the nostalgia factor with old-fashioned indoor decorations and menu items, attracting both the old seeking to revisit a slice of their youths and the youths seeking out an idealized version of the past.
The omnipresence of the Showa fever is undoubtedly a representation of the general gloom of the general public as the country's "lost decades" enter the third decade. Japan of the Showa era seemed to at the top of the world, poised to outgrow the US to become the world's top economy and hauling in revenues from around the world through exports of iconic, innovative products, whether it be the fashionable Walkman portable music players, reliable Toyota cars, or entertaining Nintendo game consoles. The difference of modern-day Japan, with a declining population and global influence, cannot be any starker.
But while it makes sense to reminisce about the glories of the Showa past during Japan's present downturn, the idea of it persisting for as long as it has is still baffling. I remember watching music shows on TV about the golden era of Showa music when I was still in elementary school, more than twenty years ago. The fact that that Showa fever has not gone out of fashion after such a long time illustrates that perhaps it is more than just a longing for the past glory days of the country today. More than that, it is a fear and the hope for the Japan of the future, where uncertainty continues to mount despite twenty years of efforts to change course.
The reflection of Showa fever on the future of Japan is not much the economic hopes of Japan becoming a fast-growing, world-beating country again. With serious structural issues of declining and aging population, many individuals and firms have largely abandoned hope that the economic miracle the country repeated post-WWII can be repeated even in any limited way. Instead, the hope is the regaining of the country's optimism and confidence that made its people an extremely forward-looking and energetic one. It is that positive energy that brought the country a glow of vitality people today long for when they witness the Showa fever in any form.
Of course, economics helps to make people more optimistic and energetic. The prospect of having more money to spend in the future than now certainly encourage people to work and play harder today. But growth is not necessarily the only way that social energy comes. Witnessing Showa fever in various formats show that beyond the measure of economic success, many other factors play into the positive storyline about life in the Showa era. Broadly speaking, the ideas of innovation and family/community unity stand out as those worthy of projecting onto the current Japanese society.
Innovation is not just about creating new products. Museum exhibitions about the early Showa era frequently note how families came up with ingenious ways to stretch their limited budgets to make the family happy. Such a culture is largely lost in modern Japan, where mass consumerism has turned the population that is keen to buy, and then throw out, many small tools that seem to be convenient for achieving specific tasks but not useful enough to keep around for a long time. Excess materialism has taken out the joy of frugality and entrenched a sense of constant unhappiness about lacking something that is needed then and now.
And the need to be innovative to make the budget stretch really existed because people valued the happiness of having and providing for a large family. The post-WWII ear saw a baby boom in Japan, with large families with multiple kids a norm. With so many bodies packed in small houses in dense neighborhoods, people placed much greater emphasis on maintaining a sense of camaraderie with their family member and neighbors. As people have fewer children and move to more planned and isolated neighborhoods, the distance of people who generated a sense of mutual coldness that many people feel did not exist in the (idealized) Showa era.
Simple efforts of making ends meet, combined with simple warmth to others. Those, for many people deep in the Showa fever today, defines the past even more than economic growth. And reviving those values, for the same people. maybe even more difficult than getting the Japanese economy to grow again. While policies can stimulate economies, mentalities can only change slowly based on slow realizations of changing realities on the ground. As consumerism and depopulation continue to grip Japan in the future, it is difficult to say how the optimism of the Showa era can return to Japan. It is that sense of losing something that was cherished not so long ago that is driving popular reminiscence of the Showa era into the next decade.
The omnipresence of the Showa fever is undoubtedly a representation of the general gloom of the general public as the country's "lost decades" enter the third decade. Japan of the Showa era seemed to at the top of the world, poised to outgrow the US to become the world's top economy and hauling in revenues from around the world through exports of iconic, innovative products, whether it be the fashionable Walkman portable music players, reliable Toyota cars, or entertaining Nintendo game consoles. The difference of modern-day Japan, with a declining population and global influence, cannot be any starker.
But while it makes sense to reminisce about the glories of the Showa past during Japan's present downturn, the idea of it persisting for as long as it has is still baffling. I remember watching music shows on TV about the golden era of Showa music when I was still in elementary school, more than twenty years ago. The fact that that Showa fever has not gone out of fashion after such a long time illustrates that perhaps it is more than just a longing for the past glory days of the country today. More than that, it is a fear and the hope for the Japan of the future, where uncertainty continues to mount despite twenty years of efforts to change course.
The reflection of Showa fever on the future of Japan is not much the economic hopes of Japan becoming a fast-growing, world-beating country again. With serious structural issues of declining and aging population, many individuals and firms have largely abandoned hope that the economic miracle the country repeated post-WWII can be repeated even in any limited way. Instead, the hope is the regaining of the country's optimism and confidence that made its people an extremely forward-looking and energetic one. It is that positive energy that brought the country a glow of vitality people today long for when they witness the Showa fever in any form.
Of course, economics helps to make people more optimistic and energetic. The prospect of having more money to spend in the future than now certainly encourage people to work and play harder today. But growth is not necessarily the only way that social energy comes. Witnessing Showa fever in various formats show that beyond the measure of economic success, many other factors play into the positive storyline about life in the Showa era. Broadly speaking, the ideas of innovation and family/community unity stand out as those worthy of projecting onto the current Japanese society.
Innovation is not just about creating new products. Museum exhibitions about the early Showa era frequently note how families came up with ingenious ways to stretch their limited budgets to make the family happy. Such a culture is largely lost in modern Japan, where mass consumerism has turned the population that is keen to buy, and then throw out, many small tools that seem to be convenient for achieving specific tasks but not useful enough to keep around for a long time. Excess materialism has taken out the joy of frugality and entrenched a sense of constant unhappiness about lacking something that is needed then and now.
And the need to be innovative to make the budget stretch really existed because people valued the happiness of having and providing for a large family. The post-WWII ear saw a baby boom in Japan, with large families with multiple kids a norm. With so many bodies packed in small houses in dense neighborhoods, people placed much greater emphasis on maintaining a sense of camaraderie with their family member and neighbors. As people have fewer children and move to more planned and isolated neighborhoods, the distance of people who generated a sense of mutual coldness that many people feel did not exist in the (idealized) Showa era.
Simple efforts of making ends meet, combined with simple warmth to others. Those, for many people deep in the Showa fever today, defines the past even more than economic growth. And reviving those values, for the same people. maybe even more difficult than getting the Japanese economy to grow again. While policies can stimulate economies, mentalities can only change slowly based on slow realizations of changing realities on the ground. As consumerism and depopulation continue to grip Japan in the future, it is difficult to say how the optimism of the Showa era can return to Japan. It is that sense of losing something that was cherished not so long ago that is driving popular reminiscence of the Showa era into the next decade.
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