Nowhere is group mentality more apparent than at a Japan professional baseball game.
The word fan is taken to the extreme and fits neatly as an abbreviation of fanaticism. Japan is well known as a nation of groups with the largest being the homogenous population. In everyday
situations difference sticks out plainly as something curious but slightly distasteful. Into this atmosphere, the gaikokujin (foreign outsider) experiences a special feeling of difference especially at a Hanshin Tigers baseball game.
Preconceived Notions
The fanaticism of Japan baseball fans is well known throughout the nations that play baseball and perhaps all over the world. This author has both read and seen pictures of Japan Hanshin Tigers fans and because of this had preconceived notions of what a game would be like.
When this writer was invited to go to a game the invitation provoked feelings of curiosity more than enthusiasm for the sport. There was also a slight feeling of superiority because of being a citizen of the country that invented the sport. Baseball is part of the heritage of the United States and a part of the history of this writer’s childhood and adolescence. Being pitcher and captain of a little league team made the sport special and magical to this author. Therefore, certain skepticism existed as to whether Japan really understood the game or would ever really be good at it.
The Group Influence
Almost all fans going to a Hanshin Tigers game ride the Hanshin train to the game. This means that the fans group in mass at the Hanshin main station in Osaka. This grouping gave this author a pre-view of what to expect at the game. The platform was full of small groups of fans with each single fan carrying or wearing paraphernalia in badges of belonging. Having never been a dedicated fan of any team this author felt rather outside the realm of the group mentally. As everyone moved into the train, this feeling increased. Not only was this author not wearing Hanshin Tiger fan paraphernalia he also was a head taller than anyone and the only non-Japanese on the train. Immediately all eyes passed at least once in his direction and some did not avert but rather stared with curiosity at a foreigner going with them to a game. Upon entering the stadium, the notion that there would be a bit of noise was dashed and replaced with the fact of an unbelievable din. As seats were found this writer, felt there must be some mistake in seating. This area must be a special cheering section. Behind this writer was a bass drum, three cornets and two trombones. Scanning the audience the view was one of a sea of yellow noisemakers all in continual use. The noise level was such as to produce pain in the ears and obvious was the fact there would be no letup throughout the game. The teams entered the field with the same unity as the fans. Marching out in step and in perfect lines. This writer immediately thought of a military performance. As each player came to the plate, a special song was sung to encourage him and each fan knew the words by heart. This author’s pain turned to amazement that this many people would know 10 or 15 songs perfectly. In the seventh inning, thousand of pre-bought phallic-like balloons were simultaneously released to encourage the team.
Impact on Author’s Behavior
The complete difference in feeling and the complete feeling of being outside the group caused this writer to remain aloof and detached. The possibility of trying to join in the behavior was so far removed from thought as to have not even the slightest entertainment. This author felt white, American, and overly proud of being from a culture where individuality is considered an attribute rather than a reason for expulsion from a group. The feeling reached a point where the thought was, “I will never belong here and I will always be a guest welcome or unwelcome.”
Pico Iyer (2003, ¶ 2) describes the Japan group mentality is this manner:
Japan has taken the Confucian model of old China and refined it to the digital nth degree; the sense of loyalty to the group is so advanced- and so perfected here- that the country can seem at times like a cult writ large, a capitalist version of Kim Jong Il’s earthly paradise, in which everyone is playing from the same score and everyone knows her part.
Iyer (2003) goes on to explain that because of the complete devotion to group great expressions of individuality occur. Iyer (2003, ¶3) expresses this as, “the more rigorously a group mentality is enforced, the wilder the explosions of individual eccentricity.”
Myers (2008) describes a group as being as small as two individuals who have an effect on each other even if only after a few moments of being together. Perhaps in the case of Japan, the innumerable groups that Japanese are a part of that are tedious in rules and pressure leads to the burst of fandom to the extreme. Being a Hanshin Tiger fan allows for extreme bursts of individuality such as young men who jump from a bridge into freezing polluted water after a Tigers win. One such young man gave his life in that outburst.
Impact on Self (written in first person)
Interestingly living outside of the normal groups that one is brought up in produces a chance to see the “self”. This is dangerous in that the security and balance the self feels is because of continuous positive input from co-members of various groups. Lowering the number of groups leaves less security within an individual. Doubt as to self-worth appears. Survival continues if at least a family group exists. Removing this last group means pushing the psyche over the edge in most cases and results in anti-social behavior and in extreme cases suicide. In the case of Japan a kind of substitution occurs. The normal family in Japan stops touching after the ages of nine or ten. This lack of physical contact may produce a greater need to substitute the lack of contact with group contact. Living outside of the groups, I would normally be involved with in my own country have caused my social skills to deteriorate. This is because of the inability to assimilate into the culture or groups. The inability to assimilate is more apparent with adults than with youth and so I can interact with student age children with ease. This ability and the close love of my family allows me to survive with relative success in Japan. The impact on my self however may be extreme in a negative way. This will only become fully apparent when I am finally able to step out of this society. Being a guest in this society has kept me in a state of stress that is amazingly acute and completely internalized. Although, occasional outbursts or expressions occur of some kind or another.
Conclusion
Attending a Hanshin Tiger game is the ultimate exposure to group mentality in Japan and allowed this author to understand both Japan groups and American groups. American condones accepts and encourages individual behavior while Japan attempts to control and reduce the affect of individual outbursts. However, in Japan individual outbursts are extreme because of the strict control of groups. Somewhere in the depths of each Japan individual is the desire to become unique. This desire sometimes surfaces and often surfaces in some form of western behavior. Living among the Japanese is difficult. My only hope is that in the long run the affect on my self will be one that is a positive growth in the understanding of human beings. In a matter of months, I will return to the United States in an area that I have no extended family. Perhaps at that time the impact of my Japan experience will become clear. The question will be whether I will be able to become a part of western groups once more. Perhaps I have become more of a Hanshin Tiger’s fan than I can possibly imagine.
References
Iyer (2003). Fans national spirit: The land of the rising fan. Retrieved September 27, 2008 from http://www.colorsmagazine.com/issues/colors61/09.php#maincontents
Myers, D. G. (2008). Social psychology. Ninth edition, McGraw-Hill