Overall good translation. Orchid64, I do defend Chris’ use of “emotional backbone,” but was he talking to all graduates or one particular person in general?

Well it is true that most Japanese students will “give the teacher the answer he or she wants over the right answer,” I think it is a sign of progress that the professor is encouraging his student(s) to have more confidence in one’s abilities and not be dependent on another person’s confirmation. However, I’m not sure, how being a professor will would increase the impact of telling someone to have more confidence in oneself.

That’s an interesting observation about people losing their “emotional backbone” in junior high school. I don’t have much experience with Japanese people younger than university age, but at least at that stage I understand (to a degree) what this professor is writing about.

But I also think there is a sense in which arguments about “conformity” tend to set up an implicit standard for what “individuality” means. The tendency of students to just do as they are told instead of thinking for themselves (as described in this post) frustrates me a great deal. At the same time, though, school/university are one particular type of context — people who follow blindly in that situation may very well show their “individuality” in other ones. This is my strongest reservation with this blogger’s argument — it is very university-centric, as if a person who can’t demonstrate their emotional backbone in university will never be able to do so. I see no reason why that should necessarily be so.

I teach a wide age range of Japanese students, starting from 2 year olds to the middle aged. From what I can tell, again from my very limited experience in Japan, is that Japanese people are not inherently afraid to assert themselves. Somewhere in the process of growing up, the culture starts to impose this norm of not having an emotional backbone or an original thought or an opinion. I’m going to be bold and say that the change over begins in junior high school. Of course, there are exceptions, but generally, prior to the teenage years, my Japanese students express their individuality and express it loudly. After the beginning of adolescence, it appears my students no longer have a voice and just go along with the crowd; they conform.

Thanks for your comment. Actually the term “emotional backbone” is a translation of the Japanese 「精神的な背骨」, and it could arguably be expressed in other ways. But I do think the sense was somewhat pejorative in the original Japanese. That’s also the reason the blog post sparked quite a few responses, more than a few of which were critical.

I’ve encountered many people in Japan, particularly those currently in academia, who have similar issues and it comes down to how the education system handles them and how they are socialized. There is a continuum of how hesitant people are to express themselves to others, but most Japanese people have been conditioned by their culture not to express themselves freely or with confidence and indeed are punished when they do so. An education system that emphasizes giving the teacher the answer he or she wants over the right answer is a big part of this.

Perhaps working in research requires that one overcome the years of conditioning up to that point, but, lamentably, it generally serves people well in their society to have a weak “emotional backbone” and to seek the approval of others.

Undoubtedly, things are changing now. Social rebels have become prominent and praised by many in the society.

Nonetheless, with or without emotional backbone, the new graduates should brace themselves for the challenges arising in the gloomy global economy.