Hibshman 1

Livia Hibshman

Dr. Lukacs

Japanese Society 1784, section 1010

December 6, 2021

Final Paper Prompt 1: Assessing Orientalism

Scholarly works studying non-western cultures often take an Orientalist approach and

provide a one-dimensional portrayal of the society they seek to understand. An orientalist

approach exoticzes and generalizes non-western cultures, offers a homogenous portrayal, does

not acknowledge evolution within a society, and describes the society as isolated to further create

distance between western and eastern societies. Notable literature professor at Columbia

University and political activist Edward Said published his 1978 book Orientalism which has

established him as the “father of Orientalism”. As such, he defines the term in his introduction

chapter,

Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological

distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) ‘the Occident’.

Thus a very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists,

philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have

accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for

elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts

concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny, and so on (Said 1978:

10).

This unfortunate bias taints much scholarly work concerning the east, creating a subjective

approach rather than an objective one. However, not all scholarly works from Western authors
 Hibshman 2

inherently fall into the Orientalist category; for example, American anthropologist Ruth

Benedict’s work reads as very self-aware of her status as an outsider.

Chapter one of Ruth Benedict’s 1946 book The Chrysanthemum and The Sword explores

Japanese culture in the context of World War Two, from the position of an outsider of United

States origin. However, Ruth’s stance as an outsider does not automatically qualify her for

Orientalist bias. She instantly combats the oversimplification of Japanese culture by those tainted

with these preconceived notions and stereotypes. On her opening page, she writes, “When a

serious observer is writing about peoples other than the Japanese and says they are

unprecedentedly polite, he is not likely to add, 'But also insolent and overbearing.' When he says

people of some nation are incomparably rigid in their behavior, he does not add, 'But also they

adapt themselves readily to extreme innovations’” (Benedict 1946: 2-3). This dialectic continues

for most of the next page, as Benedict points out the contradictory nature of Japanese collective

consciousness, and asserts their complexity misunderstood by outsiders. Notice in the second

half of the quote, Benedict no longer refers only to the Japanese, but any nation other than one’s

own. With this, it can be understood that Benedict not only seeks to point out the generalization

of the Japanese, but also the generalization of any culture to an outsider, thus the idea of

Orientalism and its harmful simplifications. However, not every outsider can achieve what

Benedict did with grace, which is an objective and nuanced assessment of Japanese culture.

A more contemporary example of American writing on Japanese culture can be found in

Anne Allisons’s Precarious Japan, published in 2013 by Duke University Press. Cultural

Anthropology professor Allison explores the conditions of Japan and what makes their society

particularly volatile in her opinion. The paper details postindustrial life in Japan, in which she

describes the unusual violence in everyday situations and disturbing details of mummified
 Hibshman 3

middle aged workers dead from starvation. For instance, about Japan she states, “Stories from

the everyday where death stalks daily life. Unease crimps the familiar and routine. A disquiet

brushing the surface where the all too normal can turn deadly” (Allison 2013: 4). Interestly, this

statement out of context could very well apply to America, from where Allison wrote her work

on Japan. Allison does acknowledge that many postindustrial societies other than Japan struggle

with similar societal problems on page two, but then compares the precarity in Japan first and

foremost to that of “Arab Spring”. The term Arab Spring itself connotes stereotypes held in

Western society about “Oriental despotism”1, lumping many different countries and cultures

against the same tyranny, which simply does not accurately reflect the respective conditions

objectively. To compare two eastern regions (Japan and Arab nations) and label them as

“precarious” while also ignoring the very same conditions occurring in the west and within one’s

own country only further perpetuates the notion of non-western societies as “the other”, or

incomparable to the west. When in fact, these precarious conditions can be found across the

globe. Look to the half dozen American Amazon employees dying of exhaustion on the job 2,

American terrorists exposing up to an estimated three million children per year to a shool

shooting3, and so on. These conditions and others like it have been occurring in America when

Allison’s work on Japan was published and long before that.

Allison is forced to reckon with the undeniable fact that America’s precarious conditions

are not only comparable to, but worse than Japan’s when she examines poverty rates: “Japan also

has the second highest level of poverty among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

1
Lorella Ventura (2017) The “Arab Spring” and Orientalist Stereotypes: The Role of Orientalism in the Narration of
the Revolts in the Arab World, Interventions, 19:2, 282-297, DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2016.1231587
2
Palmer, Annie R. “Sixth Confirmed Amazon Worker Dies amid Calls for the Company to Release Data on
Coronavirus Infections.” CNBC, CNBC, 14 May 2020,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/sixth-confirmed-amazon-worker-dies.html.
3
“The Long, Shameful List of Gunfire on School Grounds in America.” Everytown Research & Policy, 22 Mar.
2021, https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/.
 Hibshman 4

Development (OECD) member countries. Calculated as the number of people who fall below

half of the mean income, Japan—with a rate of 15.3 percent—is second only to the United

States, which has a rate of 17.1 percent” (Allison 2013: 5). However, her entire work revolves

around Japan, rather than exploring postindustrial societies in general, which all struggle with

these precarious conditions that are not simply isolated to Japan, and are not even the worst in

Japan. The main problem with Allison’s work is it focuses nearly entirely on Japan while

exploring a global phenomenon. Her work, while likely not intentional, does fit into Said’s

definition of Orientalism, in that it portrays Japan as isolated or different in its struggles with

precarious conditions while largely ignoring these same conditions in her own country of

America. If Allison were a Japanese native herself, this work would not be interpreted this way,

but it lacks self-awareness that precarity is a global problem statistically worse in America.

Overall, there are arguably Orientalist sentiments or elements throughout Allison’s work, enough

that bias could be detected.

Western scholars must be careful and check their internalized bias when conducting

research and publishing works on Eastern nations such as Japan. It can be tricky to avoid

Orientalist bias as an outsider, but it would be amateur of an accredited scholar not to consider

their work for this bias before its publication. With that being said, it is not impossible to put

aside preconceived notions about another culture, and works like Ruth Benedict’s prove that

objective study can be conducted and honest conclusions can be reached about a culture different

from one’s own. With the help of Edward Said’s influential work on Orientalism, students and

scholars alike can become more aware of what makes a study or published work Orientalist and

how it can be avoided.

 Hibshman 5

Works Cited

Allison, Anne. 2013. Precarious Japan. Duke University Press, 1-42.

Benedict, Ruth. 1946. Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture, 228-252.

Mariner Books.

Lorella Ventura (2017) The “Arab Spring” and Orientalist Stereotypes: The Role of Orientalism

in the Narration of the Revolts in the Arab World, Interventions, 19:2, 282-297, DOI:

10.1080/1369801X.2016.1231587

Palmer, Annie R. “Sixth Confirmed Amazon Worker Dies amid Calls for the Company to

Release Data on Coronavirus Infections.” CNBC, CNBC, 14 May 2020,

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/sixth-confirmed-amazon-worker-dies.html

The Long, Shameful List of Gunfire on School Grounds in America.” Everytown Research

& Policy, 22 Mar. 2021,

https://everytownresearch.org/maps/gunfire-on-school-grounds/.