BLOG

In this article we will take a look at a Japanese proverb about cooperation. Japan is a group-oriented society, and most people will think of themselves in terms of being members of a group, for example, one's family, school class, hobby/volunteer club, or company division, etc. Also, if your Japanese house is located in a more traditional neighborhood, there will be a "neighborhood association" (町内会 CHO-NAI-KAI) group which conducts disaster drills, nighttime walking patrols, local festivals, etc. We'll look more closely at CHO-NAI-KAI in a future article. Meanwhile, there is an old Japanese proverb about group cooperation, which is a 4- Kanji idiom (四字熟語 YOJI-JUKU-GO) that goes as follows: 共存共栄 (KYO-SON KYO-EI). The KYO/共 character means "together", while SON/存 is exist, and EI/栄 is to prosper. So, as you can see, the literal meaning of the proverb is that we should live together in such a way that we can prosper together. They key is cooperation, and while Japanese society allows for lots of freedom-of-movement and personal happiness, there is also an underlying "unspoken rule" that you must always be aware that your actions could interfere with, or inconvenience, others -- so act mindfully. To some people, this social self-restraint mechanism may seem oppressive and controlling, but over the thousands or years being crowded together in an island country, the Japanese developed the wisdom that prosperity is usually the result of people who know how to coexist and cooperate. Finally, I've always found it interesting that this saying resembles the Vulcan greeting from Mr. Spock, in the American TV series Star Trek -- "Live long and Prosper."

written by Goodfierd