Culture is an odd concept. We talk about it, think about it, as if it is a concrete phenomenon that we can measure and describe with as much precision as we document the physical world. From businesses to nations, people try to “change the culture,” develop culture, define culture, as if it is something they can directly affect and manipulate like regulations and items on a spreadsheet. In reality, culture is far more nebulous. It’s not simple enough to encapsulate in a few words, never mind attempting to deliberately manipulate it.
Culture is an abstraction, a word that we use to reference the peculiar phenomenon of the attitude that can arise in common from a society. It’s a property of a kind of gestalt organism that is formed by people together, a system of systems. Everything affects it, and fully understanding it, in an intellectual sense, might be beyond anyone, whether immersed in the culture for a lifetime or examining it a moment from outside. Culture is too dynamic, too varied, too inconsistent to be confined to a definition. Part of why I set out on my tour of ancient world literature was to understand and immerse myself, in some small way, in all of those cultures that no longer exist, and that is an ongoing project.
Any attempt to capture a culture in brief, even an extant one, is therefore bound to be, at best, an incomplete enterprise. Before I read Culture Smart: Japan, I might have gone so far as to call it futile, but Norbury does an admirable job. The guidebook is not a complete exploration, but it’s not intended to be – it wouldn’t be called a guidebook. I was pleased to find that the book fulfilled its intended purpose as well as I could ask.
In fact, I have few critiques that I can make, which probably speaks to the importance of managing expectations more than it does the book itself. With sections on history, language, customs, religion, geography, and good, it addresses all of the basics, and I learned much that was of, well, far more immediate use than most of what I read (as much as I enjoy, and do find application for, what I read). The gift-giving customs were particularly interesting.
Two issues that are worth mentioning: the book focuses on what is probably the most common case of business travel, which is not necessarily applicable to all travelers, and it is worth bearing in mind that, as we established at the beginning of this review, cultures are neither monolithic nor static. The culture described in the book may not be applicable to all regions of Japan, and how you encounter it will vary, in particular with regards to your role while you are in the country.
Culture Smart: Japan is not the book that you read if you want to learn the history of Japan, or the culture of a specific period (read The Tale of Genji for that), or even the complex dynamics and reasons for the culture as it currently exists. It does not capture the nuances of every possible interaction, the precise intricacies of customs that someone living in the culture their entire lives might know, or the differences between regions and even neighborhoods that inevitably exist. There are other books that attempt to address those matters. This one does exactly what it sets out to do – it provides an introduction to Japanese culture useful to a traveler visiting Japan for the first time. If that describes you, then I encourage you to give Culture Smart: Japan a read. Maybe on the plane ride there, like I did.
IGC Publishing 