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Depending on when in the 21st century you're going for, you'll probably want to put some research into:

- experience of women in the workplace at the time, especially if she's super businesslike/professional; when working in Japan c. 2005 I had several of my female coworkers pull me aside on a company trip and go over safety tips that included things like "don't be alone with any of the men after dinner or when they've been drinking" and "never allow a male coworker in the room, my boss at my last job insisted on coming into the women's room and then would grope us and refuse to leave." Awareness of sexual harassment is a thing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

- cultural attitudes about hierarchy and ingroup/outgroup wrt how one treats other people - this can be hard for non-Japanese people to figure out. It's ok to order people around only if they're lower than you on the social hierarchy; 'outgroup' should never be forced to find out about any of your actual feelings, only your socially appropriate ones; the lower you are on the hierarchy the harder you're expected to work and the less you're expected to complain; etc. There are about a million dimensions to this, and fucking it up earns you either a rep as a total screw-up or a rep as a daring nonconformist in Japan, depending on how deliberate you are. It sounds like your character's neither, so you'll want to see if you can dig up some essays or explanations on those issues to make sure you understand the basic rules.

- cultural attitudes about criticism and responsibility - a friend's Japanese teacher summed it up this way: "if you are dying on the side of the road after a car accident, and your boss calls to ask why you aren't at work, the proper response is 'I'm so sorry! I'll be in soon!' ... and if you say it the right way, your boss will understand that means you're dying on the side of the road."

This is not wrong. It's weird to someone raised in the US to wrap your mind around the way it works, but being direct is the rudest thing imaginable in Japan & definitely never ok when you're talking to a social superior, like your boss. When criticized by a superior, you must always accept full personal responsibility and throw yourself under the bus as hard as you can; this allows forgiveness and an understanding that you'll do what is necessary to repair the error. (Even when you have a really, really good excuse, you have no excuse.)

In return, when your superiors fuck up, the understanding is that they'll take responsibility up to and including resigning their position and ending their career if it's called for by the severity of the fuck-up, so, actually, I prefer Japanese ideas of responsibility to the American tendency to pass the shit down the line until you hit someone who doesn't have the power to make it go away. "Accepting full blame for your failures, regardless of their cause" is required, effectively, at any level.

If you ever take a Japanese class from a native speaker, expect this to translate to statements like "I know you were in the hospital last week, but why didn't you finish your homework?" and "Since the bus you were on broke down and walking five miles to class made you miss the test, you will get a zero." (FYI, neither of these is a hypothetical nor an exaggeration.)

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Honestly, though, my recommendation is that you shouldn't rely on a bunch of stuff I'm throwing at you off the top of my head from living there just for a few years! There are some great books about Japanese culture out there that are more about the worldview and cultural interaction than Pikachu and samurai. Lafcadio Hearn's Kokoro is good, if about 100 years out of date for your canon. Look especially for books written by Japanese people who've lived in other countries, or by non-Japanese who lived there for a long time (ideally, decades.) It's not true that the Japanese spirit can never be understood by a foreigner, but there are a lot of shitty, surface-y, stereotype-ridden writings in English on Japanese culture, mostly by American business consultants.

this is all really interesting information that's good to know in general, but

if they're just going to play some anime character, it's hardly going to be crucial for their portrayal...

on the contrary, ayrt's information is really helpful. note i didn't say i was playing an anime character ;)

Honestly, I am of the opinion that understanding your character's cultural context helps anyone, regardless of what type of canon the character comes from! If you don't write what you know, it helps to put the effort in to know what you write.

It might not be crucial - it's easy to get into a game and play a character without doing any real-world research - but it can make the difference between an OK portrayal and a good one.

I'm glad you found it helpful, OP!

- cultural attitudes about criticism and responsibility - a friend's Japanese teacher summed it up this way: "if you are dying on the side of the road after a car accident, and your boss calls to ask why you aren't at work, the proper response is 'I'm so sorry! I'll be in soon!' ... and if you say it the right way, your boss will understand that means you're dying on the side of the road."

I hope nobody takes this literally. The thing to do when you had a car accident in Japan is first, call an ambulance, and second, call your boss and tell them what happened, and third, to say you're sorry for not being able to go to work on time. After that, your work is your bosses problem.

this is a joke, right

If you haven't watched it or read it, Hataraki Man might be a good canon to check out with details about a working woman.

I can give my own insight, having worked in Japan for many years, but I'm a foreigner so it isn't entirely accurate.

while these are all good points, keep in mind that each workplace is different and things are constantly changing everywhere in the world, japan included. since overworking to the point of getting sick is such a big problem (what with the "you don't leave until your boss leaves" mentality and whatnot) some companies are attempting to make it easier for people to take time off when they need it. the declining birth rate is also a huge problem that's gaining a lot of attention right now, about how to make it easier for women to both have a job and have children without getting set so far back on the seniority ladder that they'll never catch up again. the mindset that "you have to be married when you're 30 or you're worthless trash" is also not as prominent as it may have once been (though honestly I see that sort of thing in all sorts of cultures)

obviously japan is still largely conservative in many ways and this "work > life" mindset is still prominent. but if things like this would affect your character, I think it's important to keep in mind that culture is not static and that there are at least ripples of change happening at present.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Japanese characters

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OP

anon with the tl;dr up there

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Re: da

Re: Japanese characters

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