(photo source: goodtryjapan.com)
It is almost the time of year – “shukatsu” (also known as job hunting season in Japan.) I am not a big fan of this word, but being a junior, it is difficult not to talk about this matter. By this time, many of the third year students in my university are doing internships and preparing themselves for the storm of life. Unlike my friends who are intelligent, I am nowhere close to deciding on what I want to do in the near future. Although it may seem like I am just complaining, I am truly against the way Japanese society holds shukatsu. To those of you who are not familiar with how the job-hunting system works in Japan, in one word, it is about contradiction. They say to show your strength by being different and creative. Nevertheless, we are expected to wear identical black suits and suddenly dye our hair back to black because that is how the typical Japanese person looks like. Where is the individuality in that? Why should they care how we dress when it is all just a cover? It is true that there are times when we judge people by their appearances. However, when it comes to work, shouldn’t they be professional enough to see the person as they really are?
Now, if I want to be really pessimistic, I would have to say that shukatsu is not the only unfortunate part about Japan. Shukatsu is based on one flaw that Japanese people just cannot get away from and that is conformity. We constantly conform to live and if I go extreme, I could even say that we live to conform. Because this is such a huge expectation in Japan, we can barely speak our minds. If you take one action that stands out such as expressing our opinion in a classroom or becoming a leader in a group, you might have some trouble fitting in. That is not necessarily a bad result though. I know this for a fact because my department of university has a lot of students who just cannot go along with what is expected in a Japanese society and yet, they create the most exciting atmosphere. Our classrooms are always lively with discussions and people are free to disagree. That is one of many things that I love about SILS (School of Internationals Liberal Studies.) However, we are only a small percentage of people in Japan and it is time for a change. If I want to work in Japan, I would have to go through with the environment of Japan. Although I am not at all ready to dye my natural brown hair to black and wear uncomfortable black heals and suits everyday, this is not something I can avoid.