Oh no, owning property and having a place in the community. What a nightmare.
IIRC, that's wrong. The documentary said that Japanese tradition is that the eldest son inherits the father's business. Jiro has two sons, so he created a clone of his business for the second. They're literally exactly the same layout except mirror images of each other.
The poignant thing that I remember is that the person who actually made the sushi for the reviewer who made the restaurant famous was not Jiro, but his son. And the wondrous thing was that the enterprise wasn't about chasing fame or fortune, but about being dedicated to excelling at a craft.
Closest thing we have are the arts, and there's the meme about the starving artist here because most artists struggle to get by, or end up having to do commissions for others (I hear furry porn is lucrative) so they don't get to do what they want.
Meanwhile in Japan you get 1000 year old roadside snack shops, brushmakers, a watchmaker that spends a year holed up in his apartment to produce a single watch, etc. That's the 'PR' side of Japan anyway, on the other there's the 14-hour workday wage slaves.
The West includes the Amish, where inheriting your father's farm, and with it a centuries old tradition, is the norm.
Meanwhile, Japan underwent modernity just like everyone else, and there, the modal (male) life story is: get a lifetime job straight out of college, and work insane hours for the rest of your life, or don't, and never get a job worth having.
There's a lot to learn from Japan, particularly about excellence in craftsmanship, and it's easy to romanticize this, particularly for those of us from countries which are only a couple hundred years old.
But I've been to a pub in Nottingham, ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which claims to have been founded in 1189 (superb ale by the way). Swiss watchmakers, French cognac distillers, Chartreuse, even Harvard: all of these things are closer to that tradition of continuity and and craftsmanship than the starving artist stereotype.
The 2nd son didn't inherit under the doctrine of primogeniture, leading the later sons to be the (often) neglected or less favored / wealthy, motivating them (for better and worse) to set out on their own and prove their worth.
Inherit, clergy or war.
Extra sons were, yep, often sent off to war. They'd either conquer their own territories or be killed. In either case, they were no longer a threat to the primary heir.
I saw another show about a small ramen shop owner who took a half day off a week and never went on a vacation for 5 years straight. That sounds more like prison than a job.
Realistically I’m guessing it’s more complex than this, depending on the family and what the business actually is.
That hasn't really changed. Taking risk is no guarantee of success. Sure, some risk takers win big, but some people win the lottery, too.
But at the same time, for many people, what they want to do is to carry on a legacy and contribute to something larger than themselves. A culture that forces all young people to build from scratch denies those opportunities just as surely as a culture that forces everyone to follow in their parent' footsteps denies opportunities to start afresh.
And, honestly, my disconnection to my past and structures larger than myself is a source of unhappiness for me. I don't know if I would necessarily advocate for my own life choices. I think I made the best choices I could at the time based on what I knew then, but there are real downsides to building a life more or less from scratch.
The purpose of these Japanese companies is the latter, integrate into society in a way that strengthens the community they surround. The purpose of SV is the opposite, advocate a culture of individualism, 'disruption' and 'freedom', and then sell you an anti-anxiety smartphone app with a subscription service because you're lonely.
When you own real estate and don’t work with a management company, that means you deal with tenants yourself. Yes, collecting rent checks is a part of some stories of maturing. Ethnic restaurants often serve as community vehicles for immigration, and will ingratiate yourself with the ethnic community. You will also have a different perspective on the ethnic role of business, and of course when you own such vehicles you also take over your folks relationships. It would be selfish to abandon all the goodwill and debts your parents leave behind, both material and social.
And for the article, we have people inheriting a 1000 year old institution. Yes, we have different stories of what we expect from our young men and women based on where they came, and we often expect that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
The responsibility which is narrated by the article is one of humble yielding before the call of legacy.
I'd chose SV over that anytime. SV at least pays on average 6x what a similar employee makes in Japan and effectively treats their staff like royalty. Flex hours, lots of vacation, space, good equipment, breaks, gyms, meals, etc...
Though, actually, even agriculture was originally presumably a dangerous and tradition-breaking innovation. Possibly we'd all be doing family hunter-gathering.
Swiddening (Agriculture but you move every year) was safer but much harder work by comparison. Higher population densities became possible.
Fixed field agriculture was safer still, but much harder again. Higher densities again.
Historically the people doing this were not usually permitted to leave (eg frequent proclamations banning them from abandoning their lands, soldiers brought in to round up those who had and bring them back to work).
The point is not to be backwards, is to be accountable to the community one exists in, be small and not indebted to foreign entities, and put communal interest ahead of profits.
If everyone acted that way we wouldn't have to interface with unaccountable industrial behemoths which can cut you off from your entire existence in a second and will do so without any second thought.
Imagine everyone around you is allowed the opportunity to choose their career. You however are the son of a plumber, and have no choice but to be a plumber. This plumbing business is 1000 years old! Why throw away the family name?! Well, because I'd rather not be a plumber and I'm perfectly capable of something else.
It doesn't work like that for most people.
> Imagine everyone around you is allowed the opportunity to choose their career. You however are the son of a plumber, and have no choice but to be a plumber.
Many people end up doing something similar to their parents. Maybe you won't be a plumber if your dads is one, but it's far more likely you'd be a blue-collar tradesman than a doctor. It's also far more likely that a doctor's one will become a doctor or a lawyer than an electrician.
Also, IMHO, this idea that the path to satisfaction by pursuing some kind of dream profession is a fairy tale.