Will Modesty Save the Japanese, or Destroy Them?

From childhood, Japanese people naturally absorb the idea that "being modest is a virtue" through repeated lessons from parents, school education, and interactions with friends and their surroundings.

At the opposite end of modesty, we're taught that "being overconfident is wrong."

Take Japanese middle schools, for example. After regular classes end, students participate in extracurricular activities called "部活 / club activities" where they learn various fields like sports, music, theater, and science in groups that cross age and class boundaries.

In these club activities, modesty is strongly emphasized. I was in the basketball club during middle school, and even if you were better at basketball than others, you weren't supposed to openly brag about it. When you made a winning shot, you were taught to think that the team won thanks to everyone's effort, not just your own. (Well, I wasn't a star player anyway, so there wasn't much room for me to get overconfident...)

Japanese people carry this modesty learned through school education into adulthood and continue to value it in society. Even when achieving great success at work, they consider it important not to claim credit for their own accomplishments.

But why do Japanese people still try to remain modest even after entering a competitive society where education matters, but sometimes you need to outcompete others?

In this article, let's explore the thinking behind Japanese modesty by examining the unique environment of Japanese society.

What Do Japanese People Consider Modest Behavior?

First, what behaviors do Japanese people actually consider "modest"? Let's look at more specific examples of what Japanese people think of as modest behavior.

Concrete behaviors that Japanese people consider modest include:

• When succeeding at work, saying "This success is thanks to my team"
• When learning a new sport, starting with phrases like "I'm sorry for my lack of knowledge, but..."
• Before stating your own opinion, first listening to what others have to say
• When lining up for trains or at registers, letting nearby people go ahead before joining the line

What these behaviors have in common is "prioritizing others or the group over yourself." Japanese people view such actions as being "modest."

Why Do Japanese People Prioritize Others Over Themselves?

So why do Japanese people prioritize others over themselves and consider such behavior morally correct as "modesty"?

I believe it's because Japanese people expect and trust that "prioritizing the interests of others and groups over individual interests will eventually come back to benefit the individual."

As detailed in "The Real Reason Collectivism Still Lives On in Japan", Japan still maintains many social systems where prioritizing the group ultimately benefits the individual. These include "employment relationships where companies find it difficult to unilaterally fire employees," "wage increases based on years of service and age," and "strong community bonds in rural areas."

As a result, Japanese people tend to prioritize groups even for their own benefit. To morally support this group-oriented mindset, education emphasizing modesty is provided from an early age through schools.

For example, schools teach that "not bragging even when you excel in studies or sports compared to others" and "listening to others' opinions first instead of only expressing your own" are modest and correct behaviors. Children learn from an early age that failing to act this way is morally wrong or childish, immature behavior.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Modesty

This modest attitude born from valuing others and groups creates various benefits for us Japanese people living in Japan.

For instance, when I was traveling solo through various countries, I was initially surprised to see people in some countries not forming lines for trains and casually cutting in line as if it were normal.

In Japan, forming orderly lines when waiting for trains is considered natural behavior, and if you wait in line, you can comfortably board trains in proper order as expected.

Similarly, avoiding pushing your opinions on others is considered a modest attitude, resulting in relationships where people start by asking what the other person wants. I feel that valuing modesty creates significant mutual benefits when building social relationships.

However, in recent years, there's been increasing discussion that modesty brings more disadvantages than benefits for Japanese people.

This is simply because the premise that "prioritizing the interests of others and groups over individual interests will eventually come back to benefit the individual" is crumbling in Japanese society.

For example, if a certain number of people ignore you and cut in line while you're modestly waiting for a train, it works to your disadvantage.

Also, no matter how much we're told that respecting others' opinions is a modest and morally correct attitude, in the business world you need to sell your company's products to clients. If you modestly wait without getting opportunities to make proposals, you'll lose in harsh business environments.

These changes in Japanese society relate to what sociology calls the "prisoner's dilemma." In prisoner's dilemma experiments, participants are defined as criminals who committed crimes, and researchers test how their behavior changes.

The experiment produces three possible outcomes based on how the prisoners behave:

• When both remain silent and cooperate ⇒ Both receive light punishment
• When both confess and betray each other ⇒ Both receive heavy punishment
• When one confesses and betrays while the other remains silent and cooperates ⇒ The betrayer goes free, the cooperator receives the heaviest punishment

In such experiments, "both cooperating by remaining silent" leads to the best outcome with only light punishment for both. However, this requires mutual cooperation where both parties remain silent.

When mutual cooperation can't be established, some participants rationally choose betrayal (confession) from their individual perspective, potentially resulting in the worst outcome where both confess and receive heavy punishment.

In Japanese society, I believe people traditionally chose "cooperation" when faced with prisoner's dilemma situations, thanks to dense local communication and strong workplace bonds involving shared interests. (This was also backed by punishment - betrayal meant being excluded from regional communities or company groups, resulting in lost benefits.)

However, with the explosive growth of internet-enabled communities beyond traditional companies and regions, and as people leave traditional local communities and companies, the dense cooperative relationships have weakened. In this changed Japanese society, negative opinions about modesty are spreading, with people saying "being modest alone leads to losses."

Conclusion: Should Japanese People Maintain Modesty?

In a society where being modest increasingly leads to losses, should Japanese people still maintain modesty?

Should we continue listening to others' opinions before our own, avoid bragging even when our hard work leads to success, and quietly persevere alone?

Honestly, I don't know. In today's world where communities have diversified and opportunities to join new communities have increased, many Japanese people feel they're losing out by not clearly asserting themselves. There's merit to the argument that modesty is no longer worth maintaining.

However, research on prisoner's dilemma situations shows that the optimal strategy is actually "cooperate first, then copy the other party's previous action" (results from Axelrod's iterated experiments). I personally find this experimental result hopeful for Japanese people.

If we trust these experimental results, we should start with modesty - not bragging about ourselves or acting for personal gain, but taking actions that benefit everyone. If the other party accepts this behavior and returns benefits, those benefits can continue growing infinitely. Conversely, if the other party doesn't return benefits and responds with betrayal, we should adjust accordingly - becoming less modest and starting to assert ourselves to ultimately maximize benefits.

Japanese people inherently have the modesty to prioritize others' interests first. If we can start with this modesty and then learn wise behavior that doesn't blindly trust others when relationships don't work out, perhaps a new society will emerge.

Thank you for reading.