Abstract Sex from Samurai to Anime: the secret vibrations of the audial vector in Japanese culture

Japan is the country of the rising sun, high technologies and and excellent sushi bars. It is famous not only for its best in the world warning systems for natural disaster, but also for the absolutely unique Japanese culture, which was spread well through movies video games, and, of course, anime. 

It is surprising how the country that occupies a small piece of land in way less than favorable geopolitical zone (with modest natural resources, limited territory, natural cataclysms) managed not only to take the second place in GDP right after the USA and other leading positions in the world, but it was also able to keep its ancient traditions adapting them to modern social norms. 

Researches rack their brains over the “Japanese economic miracle”, along with that a suicide is committed every 15 minutes in this country of engineering thought while its population enjoys complete material well-being and social security. 

The entire world admires Japanese culture, which is so unique and fantastic and has no analogues anywhere. For example, seppuku or harakiri, the ritual suicide, that has almost romantic flavor of the samurai reality, existed exclusively on the basis of the Japanese mentality. 

The Japanese have also invented an interesting way of keeping law and order. The Yakuza clans exist in the Japanese culture to these days; they have a clear hierarchy and power that is often inherited. The Yakuza are well-organized and law-obedient (strange as it may sound) criminals who control the illegal and half-legal business in Japan (drugs, prostitution, pornography, gambling etc.) However, their actions are consistent with the state that decided to negotiate with them instead of fighting. Be that as it may, there is crime in every country, even in the most prosperous one while peace and tranquility are a guarantee of prosperity and the ways they are achieved don't matter. Thus, the yakudza have the right for their segments of the “market” but the scope of their activity is limited by the state. 

The crime rate in Japan drops every year. And serious crimes, such as murder, theft, arson and rape make only 5% of the general number of crimes. Only 0,44 murders per year happen per 100 thousand residents. Japan has always been and still remains one of the safest countries in the world.

And 30 thousand Japanese people commit suicides every year, meaning, over one third of a billion suicides were committed over the last decade. This number is twice as high as in the USA (where population density is higher) and it remains the highest among developed countries.

At first glance the Japanese culture is full of contradictions. But let us deal with this issue from the point of view of Vector Systems Psychology.

According to Vector Systems Psychology, mentality of each country has its own vector, meaning direction. Only the lower vectors can include the values that are typical for a large number of people. 

For example, the USA and Western Europe have the dermal mentality , where the values typical of the dermal vector prevail, for example, such as discipline, the law, responsibility, duty, etc.

Arab countries have mainly the anal mentality, where family values and commitment to traditions prevail in the society. 
The nation’s mentality is determined largely by its natural and geographic traditions, thus, the limited island space created preconditions for development of the dermal mentality in Japan. However, the dermal mentality of Japan differs fundamentally from that of the Western countries.

Every vector has 36 qualities , every one of which has two directions of realization: namely, external and internal. Sakoku is ("chained country") the Japanese policy of self-isolation from the external world that lasted for two centuries from 1641 to 1853 played quite substantial part in formation of the Japanese mentality. Japanese population was forbidden to leave the country, build deepwater ships, and even to trade with foreigners under the penalty of death.

Limited space and impossibility of actual expansion (strong neighbors, isolation) have formed completely unique Japanese culture: the Japanese mentality, Japanese life style where every quality of the dermal vector has only one direction of realization, the internal one. 

They are thrifty to the point of insanity; the dermal minimalism is brought to its limit. For example, their apartments are very small, usually about 12 square feet, the furniture is miniature; the bed is absent. In Japan it is customary to sleep on the floor lying on futons (mattresses) that later on can be folded and put away into the closet in order to free up space in the room. It seems as if that is a reluctant measure because of the high population density. However, no Japanese person really suffers living in such conditions. But if we put a European person in that situation (and such person also seems to have the dermal mentality) he will feel a huge discomfort and inconvenience. 

In Japanese culture even the smallest space should be useful. For example, during rush hour in the Japanese subway passengers are pushed into the train by “special people”. 

They save on time as well, which is of course connected to high life tempo of the dermal development phase. Their train schedule is very tight; they can't be late or early. Everything is calculated up to the last second. Moreover, the Japanese culture has even the concept of “inemuri” the art of having a nap anywhere (on public transport, at work ) grabbing the priceless minutes of sleep; the Japanese are very good at that and they literally sleep anywhere.

The limitation of internal space, the space inside of the country, impacts both behavior and inner limitation of every Japanese person. They are very discreet; there is a whole codex of social behavioral norms “giri” in the Japanese culture. For example, it is considered that showing emotions in public is extremely indecent. The less movements you make while communicating with someone, the more respect you show to this person. Couples are forbidden to kiss in public; they can only hold hands. 

They are very much concentrated on their careers, their work: Japanese diligence, that is simply maniacal, has become legendary. High school students are the busiest people in the country. They study six days a week and have short vocation, big homework, constant exams, checks and tests. 

The Japanese culture teaches discipline and law obedience. The Japanese never push each other when standing in lines; they even never allow themselves to cross a street on the red light. Theft is a rear thing and they were even able to avoid looting after the 2011 events, which left mass media perplexed and ravishing. From the Vector Systems Psychology point of view there is nothing surprising in that: the Japanese simply do not mentally know how it is possible to take something that does not belong to you. A dermal type hunter does not steal inside of his own cave; he does not take something that is lying loose. Here we can see a peak of the dermal self-limitation development at the mental level and this is another way Japanese mentality is different from the USA and European dermal mentality, where the ban on theft “inside the cave” is regulated not by internal self-limitation but by the external limits of law.

Stories were composed about the dermal engineering thought in the Japanese culture. It is the high quality of all technical novelties that are being produced on the Japanese territory along with the technical equipment of the nation: from multifunctional toilet seats to vertiginous skyscrapers, and the system of high speed trains, that literally “transfixes” the entire Japanese city ranging from above-ground trains, when the platform is often placed inside of the building of, say, a shopping mall, to the multilevel subway system. 

However, having all those incredible dermal prerequisites for the engineering thought development, the Japanese haven’t invented anything fundamentally new. All the great inventions (telephone, automobile, internet) were made in different countries.

These are all the qualities of the dermal vector that manifest this way in the Japanese mentality, where the main quality - limitation is directed inside. And this list is far from being complete. The example of a dermal type child’s development shows us that such qualities as discipline, subordination, responsibility for one’s deeds that were developed prior to puberty give a dermal type individual the ability to not only obey, but also to subordinate; such person is not just being orderly himself, but he is also spreading this quality around and disciplines others receiving an adequate response from a group of people this quality is directed to. 

If we project this model to the Japanese mentality, we can say that Japan is like a child, who was completely hidden from external influence, he was stewing in his own juice developing his qualities and was supposed to get to puberty, but due to the geographical position, and the policy of isolation remained in an infantile state. 

The only Japanese expansion within the entire time of its existence that was a success was the Ainu genocide, which is closer to a conflict inside of the cave. The Japanese mentality wants to subordinate, meaning, there is a general desire to do so, but there are no developed qualities and practical mental skills to realize it. The time when there was a chance of getting this skill was irretrievably lost; and the modern reality and globalization does not present such opportunity at all. 

The entire country cannot have an upper vector mentality, but groups of people can move in an upper vector direction. This is exactly what happens in the Japanese culture, where the audial vector values (the spiritual search, eternal questions about the meaning of life) are fundamental. 

The audial direction of the Japanese culture is caused by the natural and geographical situation as well. We know that common tragedy unites people more than common joy. The unity is expressed both on a primitive level of mutual help and caring about each other and in the search for an answer “What for?”, “Why?” Conditions of constant natural cataclysms cause to the audial search for the meaning of everything that exists and comprehension of the audial questions about life and death. 

Historically this tendency was expressed in the religious life (the cult admiration of “the sakura in blossom” in order to comprehend the universe), as well as in the social life: raising harakiri to a social norm on the national level (differently from the rest of the world, where suicide is rejected by the society), kamikaze (suicide bomber attacks) and the Japanese hokku poetry that expresses totally audial senses in three lines: “The light mist does not move…The sleep has blurred my eyes" (Mukai Keraj). 

The audial direction of the Japanese culture is visible in the hikikomori phenomenon, and even in such trifles as invention of the machine that hides “those sounds” in the bathroom; the ban to talk on the phone on public transport (only text messaging is allowed) in order not to disturb other passengers, and even obligatory distribution of earplugs on airplanes, that are known to be very noisy. 

Besides, we can hardly find another developed country where sects have serious economic and political force. For example, one of the biggest political parties in Japan “Komeito” (“The Clear Politics Party”) is directly connected to the Soka gakkaj sect. 

The entire visual Japanese culture is passed through the prism of the audial vector as an attempt to express abstraction: anime, ikebana (the art of flower arrangement with a deep philosophical subtext), styles of clothing that only exist in Japan (Harajuki, Gothic, Lolit, Visual Kei - the style of Japanese rock musicians). 

And all this is the background for an endless stream of porn magazines and esoteric mangi in the stores (that is put on the same shelves with children’s books), flyers with young naked geishas in the post boxes, and explicit sexual descriptions right in the national newspapers. All the newlyweds receive a book with illustrations where all kinds of sexual games are described and portrayed, so that they won’t forget them. 

And the TV where things start with a game show “Keep you Balls”: a man is put into something similar to a gynecological chair and questions are asked to him; he receives a blow on his intimate part with a small hammer for every wrong answer. And follow with a competition of male virgins (the winner gets a chance to full around with a porn star; naturally, the whole event is accompanied by the sound of the gong, the light of sophits, and full attention of the cameras). 

We turn the TV off and open a magazine. And surprises are in store for us here again! What a great thing this Japanese manga is, where every female character has a child face and a no childish bust dressed in invariable short school uniform and white panties. And then she is being undressed and put in all kinds of poses imaginable and even unimaginable. And what about the sorts of hentai, such as tentakli (guess what it is by its name), funatari (relations between hermaphrodites), eroguro (rape, execution, necropfilia etc) and even setikon and lolikon (erotic scenes with children). 

As for sexual deviations in the Japanese culture, this can be a topic of a separate article. For example, special stores where Japanese school girls sell their worn underpants. They are put in a special vacuum jar (so that they won’t lose the smell) and then adult men buy them and receive pleasure breathing the aroma of young girls. 

Another interesting phenomenon is the art of shimbari, a bandage that is extremely popular among women. In Europe it is considered one of the sadomasochistic practices, where pain, submission, and losing the ability to move are the main components, and the main accessories include handcuffs and leather belts. In Japan the bandage has a completely different sense and purpose. Only special soft hemp and cotton ropes that leave no trace and cause no damage to the skin are used for the bandage. The girl is tied in a special way and hung up. 

Finding “right ropes” is considered the most important part that, as the Japanese insist, is the “key” to the spiritual world of the person who is being tied up. The purpose of all this is to loosen one up, making this person lose self-control by depriving him of the ability to move. Of course this is an exclusively dermal practice that was formed based on the dermal mentality. First of all, dermal type people receive a great pleasure from the stimulation of their erogenous zone, namely, their skin, secondly, this way they get rid of the stress that has accumulated because of the constant inner limitation.

The Japanese culture made a real revolution in the porn industry. Even their dolls for the pleasures of flesh are much better than the European ones: they are made of a high quality silicone that is stretched on a metal skeleton with lots of connections that enables the doll to imitate human movements. They are dressed fashionably and it is difficult to tell their faces from real ones. They just do not talk. And if one does not have enough money for such a doll, the Japanese culture allows such person to visit a doll bordello (there are 70 in Japan) and there he can chose a silicone girlfriend according to his taste. About 30 persons per day visit those places and they include men of all ages: teenagers, young men, and older men, they often bring the entire requisite including various costumes and accessories. 

Now let’s look at statistics: one third of Japanese teenagers say that they do not want sex at all. Government research shows that 35% of Japanese teenagers aged from 16 to 19 dislike sex and this number doubled compared to 2008, when it was 17,5%. 

Birth rate in the country is 1,21 child per family which is way lower than the necessary 2,08. Japanese population that now is 127 billion people will decrease to 95 billion by 2050 and it will be as low as 47,7 billion people by 2100. According to researchers the first wedding night becomes the last one for the majority of couples. Having sex once a month is the best Japanese wife can hope for. 

The audial direction led to complete asexuality of the Japanese society. Endless pornography with open access to it is an attempt to get rid of the audial depression at the mental level (like compulsive masturbation for a dermal-audial girl during puberty: it doesn't satisfy her sexually but it saves her from the emptiness of her audial desires). Some can think that this is simply the highest level of sexual perversion in the society and they will be wrong. Pornography in Japan is a safety valve, and if it is taken away from their lives, the number of suicides will be substantially higher. 

Sex in Japan has lost its intimacy forever; it stopped being a couple activity. The number of sexual crimes is small in Japan because there is no interest in sex, no desire to have it. The aduial vector completely strangles nation’s sexuality, which also leads to all kinds of sexual deviations and pornography everywhere that kills the desire for spousal sex even more. One leads to the other: the unsatisfied audial vector trying to keep going and get rid of the pressure provokes the spreading of pornography that in its turn minimizes sexual desire of the dermal vector. 

For example, at one time it was “in fashion” among Japanese schoolgirls to sleep with adult men in exchange for clothes, presents, simply for a material reward . This accepted tendency could only emerge on the basis the dermal mentality and complete absence of intimacy as a result of the audial needs. 

Anime, cartoons, virtual reality, video games craze have already become an integral part of the Japanese culture. Game mania is a national disease in Japan and jumping out of the window because of the tamagochi’s death is an easy thing to do. 

Anime is a completely unique level of the Japanese culture that has a great influence not only in Japan but outside the country as well. 

Japanese animation is fundamentally different from what they have in other countries by being directed mainly toward adult and teen audience and having a special drawing technique. Japanese animators usually pay special attention to character’s eyes and this is not by chance. The eyes can tell you character's temper, age and and his relationships. They are the mirror of the soul so the bigger they are the kinder the character is. For example, children in the Japanese drawing technique usually have the biggest eyes.

Today anime unites children’s sitcoms (the kodomo genre), productions directed to teen and adult audience-senen (anime for young men), sedze (anime for young girls) and even complete “adult” pornographic anime Hentai along with yaoj, and uri-the anime that tells the story about romantic relationships between people of the same sex (that are traditional in Japan).

The majority of anime-scripts are taken from mangi, the Japanese comics. Actually, the reason of anime craze can be explained by popularity of mangi. It is necessary to know 2500 hieroglyphs in order to read a Japanese newspaper (not to mention a book). Japanese schoolchildren usually know only one third of this number and can only read comics that's why every schoolchild reads manga and watches anime. 

If we look at this phenomenon from the point of Vector Systems Psychology, anime is the audial transference of abstract essences into the visual figurative reality. This is the way an extraordinary twisted story that often has deep philosophic implication is born. (The Textbook of Death, Evangelion). 

This is the reason for completely audial detachment of actual anime characters: they are often shown as lonely people who have just a few friends; they are strangers among their own people…. Anime-fans (otaku) organize their fun clubs and societies that are dedicated to Japanese culture. They have their own slang (adopted from the Japanese), special body language (that they copy from animated characters, the famous cosplayers), and even typical clothing. 

They attend anime-festivals where they participate in cosplays and fan art competitions.

Cosplay ("costume play") is intentional copying of an action that is performed on the screen. The cosplayers copy anime characters in everything, including hairdos, clothing, other attributes, and they sort of “turn into” them. 

Anime fans are a peaceful social group. There were hardly any incidents when they attacked anyone or when a crowd of them went to destroy shop windows. 

Interest for anime is exclusive for visual and audial type people. There they can find beautiful pictures, along with special meanings and stories reflecting Japanese culture, lifestyle, and way of thinking that seems so adequate to many audial and visual type people. 

Rabid passion for anime is the sign of either underdeveloped visual vector or that of unrealized audial vector. Visual type anime fans are often very infantile with rather narrow sphere of interests that start with continuous anime watching and end with copying their favorite characters along with Japanese culture in general. 

Audial type people can see anime as a certain way of searching for spiritual essences and answers to eternal questions. Unrealized audial vector escapes to virtual world, video game mania, and it often ends with suicide. 

 

Throughout history humanity has been searching for answers to the questions “Does God exist?”, “Where did we come from?”, and “What is the meaning of life?” In Japan this search is brought to the national level. However, the Japanese cannot boast about having a breakthrough in this sphere. 

Actually, on the contrary, this direction of the Japanese culture is at the dead end. The art of sleeping “inemuri”, the Japanese are so famous of is another argument in favor of such conclusion. The audial vector “gets additional pleasure” though sleeping. “Chronic” sleeping is the sign of non-realization of the audial vector that runs away from its internal pressure that literally prevents audial people from doing anything and thinking about anything. The audial vector is dominant and in case of lack of fulfillment, it overrides desires of all other vectors by its suffering. A sick unrealized audial vector leads to depressions, negatives states and suicide. 

An unrealized audial vector of a single person is most likely to lead to suicide; when it happens at national level, it leads to cataclysms in the country; and when it happens on a higher level, it results in irreversible consequences at the level of humanity.

It is clear that such relentless suicide statistics in Japan tells us about the “sick” and “depressed” audial vector, while the scale of national disasters shows us the dissatisfaction of the audial vector at the national level. This dissatisfaction of the audial measure at the inanimate level results in catastrophes like those that occurred in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Fukusima. This is the reason they are happening on the Japanese territory. 

However, what inimitable happiness would every inhabitant of this small island state feel if their audial vector were realized at the national level! 

This is what it is, my favorite unique Japanese culture…