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ANIMISTS

                                             February 18, 2017

Of late, it's seemed to me that
Japanese consumer products, e.g. the
miscellaneous items on the shelves
of Daiso in SF's Japantown, are made
with more care than American ones.

There's a creeping tendency for "American"
companies (actually, the nationality of major
corporations is increasingly a flag of                Prime example:
convenience) to sell things that are more like        Dishtowels that
placebos than things intended to be actually          don't absorb water.
useful.  It's gone far beyond planned
obsolescence, you're lucky if they actually               GETTING_A_HANDLE
function at all-- after all, most people out
there are probably people like myself who aren't
going to go out of their way to return a ten
dollar item.  I would guess you can make a fair
amount of money selling completely non-functional
garbage if the packaging looks okay and it
seems reasonably priced at first glance.

But once you're even slightly familiar
with their product line it's not hard to        Not too long ago, Dangerbaby
guess whether the Japanese chain Daiso          and I were hanging out at the
will have something to do what you want,        Yakini-Q cafe (a Korean-style
and it really will do what you want:            coffee house in Japantown)
small ceramic items, consumer electronic        with her newly organized
cables, stationary, Japanese junk food...       Kimono de Jack group-- someone
                                                had brought over a piece of
   It was not always so.    By the mid-70s,     original artwork to use as a
   Circa the 1960s, it      the quality--       business card logo for the
   was a running joke       and sales-- of      group.  She was just carrying
   about how "Made in       Japanese cars       it around loose, and I thought
   Japan" was the mark of   was beating         we'd need something better
   cheap garbage.           Detroit.            than that to protect it, so I
                                                snuck away to the Ichiban-Kan
   Then they literally      Any car I've        outlet across the street, and
   invented "quality        ever bought--       picked up an odd green plastic
   assurance".  It could    there haven't       folder/envelop to put it in.
   be there's still         actually been
   continuing national      many-- was a            One of the people in the
   pride over that          used Toyota or          group-- Japanophiles all,
   achievement, and         Honda, and I've         of course-- commented:
   they're reluctant to     never regretted         "They had the perfect
   surrender it.            those decisions.        little thing, didn't they?"
                                                    I knew exactly what she
                            (On the other           meant.
   My theory for some       hand, the lame,
   time has been that       flaky quality           If it had been, say, a
   Japanese companies       of Sony                 Walgrens-- an American
   have more of a           electronics has         chain I have some affection
   sense of personal        always amazed.)         for-- I would've found
   connection with                                  some sort of folder, but
   their customers...                               not quite as durable or
                                                    well-contained...
   The US attitude seems
   to be more like the
   insiders putting one
   over on the marks;            But lately I've been wondering
   Japanese buisnesses           if there might be something more
   think of their job as         subtle going on: it could be it's
   providing something for       rooted in the animism that's
   people like themselves.       reputed to pervade Japanese culture:
                                 they have respect for the spirit
                                 of the objects themselves, even
                                 when they're mass-produced...

                                                   EMPIRICAL_MORALITY



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