Funny that we talk about Japan as a high context culture, and it is. But Newfoundland / Canada is equally high context in many ways.
HIGH CONTEXT IS RELATIVE
When I started teaching in CBS, there was no guide for beginners. It was all "Ask Bill, he knows." Japanese schools by contrast give you a big manual with everything you need. I didn't get a manual (basically a confusing snarl of Google doc links) until a few months in.
Similarly, I have been calling CRA to set up my business account (for hiring careworkers for sonny) and it is a consistent firehose of gobbledygook that I have to stop and ask for clarification. In Japan, they have outsourced this info to specialized office workers who do your taxes.
I am finding the high context, high demand nature of Canadian worklife quite a hassle to get used to. Especially considering I have to work to support us and care for sonny at the same time.
I will prevail, I am sure. But I wonder about how hard this all is for neuro-divergent, and how my son will navigate this in the future when I am gone...
THE CASE OF JAPAN
In the two examples above, context is lowered in Japan to allow workers to seamlessly incorporate into the workplace. The manual, distributed in advance and containing every eventuality, is essential in getting new workers up to speed as quickly as possible, as well as in avoiding mishaps by having clear instructions.
Similarly, most workplaces in Japan offer to do your taxes for you. This reduces the worker's burden and lets them concentrate on what they're paid for - doing the work. In both examples, letting the employee do their best work undistracted is the goal for which the employer happily bears the costs. In Canada, costs are borne by the worker, as are repercussions if they fail in either their taxes or work duties.
For a supposed socialist country, this is a very Neoliberal of individual laborer responsibility.
HOUSING WHOAS
Housing in Canada and Japan show a similar difference in how the worker is treated. Here in St. John's, I pay $1700 plus utilities for the top half of a house. There are refugees living in the basement, and my cul de sac had 2 or 3 times the amount of cars in driveways due to most other houses being similarly partitioned by landlords. Contrast this to my last apartment in Japan which is of comparable size for well under $1000.
Japanese policy leaders understand that social harmony and worker efficiency are important, so rents are kept down in big cities and paperwork simplified. By making cities unaffordable to low cost workers and throwing up paper barriers, Canadian policy makers are creating a perfect storm of inefficiency.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
This symbolic interaction is seen in the different reactions to social upheaval in both societies. When 9-11 happened, George Bush exhorted Americans to 'go shopping.' When the twin disasters of tsunami and Fukushima happened in Japan in 2011, commercials for goods were taken off TV and replaced with PSAs of singing cartoon characters exhorting the populace to say Good Morning, Hello, and make fun friends. Where North America puts consumerism first, Japan puts social harmony.
When did we get on this destructive path? And more importantly, how do we get off it?
