Approaching Affluence

The unprecedented economic growth in Japan brought new prosperity to Mamachi. Men wear neatly-pressed dark suits of materials that compare favorably with those in middle-class America. Women dress in accord with world fashion. Many families have new cars.

Most families have made major home repairs, and many have torn down their old homes and put up new ones on the same site. The homes are now equipped with modern electric equipment and kitchens which resemble those in middle-class America. Many of the homes have new Western-style living rooms, and, not uncommonly, traditional tatami mats have been replaced by carpets.

With this progress the excitement about acquiring new material belongings has begun to fade, but it has by no means ended. Families that a few years ago were acquiring their first refrigerator or washing machine are now planning to buy their first color television, or to add on a new room, or to lay wall-to-wall carpets. Those who lack cars are likely to be planning to buy one, and those who have cars are likely to be thinking of a new one. The chance to acquire all these new objects is still sufficiently fresh that these families are not as indifferent to new purchases as are their counterparts in America.

A decade ago families made a sharp distinction between what they showed to the outside (the omote ) and what they kept to themselves (the ura .) The part of the house they showed to guests, the clothes they wore outside, and the food they served others were very different from what they had for themselves alone. They were extremely generous before others but penurious with regard to their own daily material belongings and to financial affairs within the home. The distinction between omote and ura has not disappeared, but the omote area has greatly expanded with the rise in material wealth, and the proportion of life and belongings which the family would be reluctant to show visitors has greatly declined. Families still eat plainer food for their daily meals than they would eat outside, and they still have poor material belongings which they are reluctant to show to others. The area of the ura has decreased, however, and even the distinction itself is less important than when frugality was essential for making ends meet.

It is a testimony to the rise in expectations that families are so seriously concerned about the rise in prices. Although salaries have risen more rapidly than prices, expectations have risen still more rapidly, so there is often frustration at being unable to buy more than actually can be purchased. Because desires have risen so rapidly and money does not go far enough, some husbands still complain bitterly

that their wives do not give them enough allowance for daily spending money, while wives complain that their husbands spend too much and do not leave enough for them to use for the home and the children.

The advent of the car has greatly increased family travel, making it even more common than the company outing. The increase in seashore resorts in the last several years has, in a short space of time, given rise to summer activity at the seashore comparable to that in the United States, except that crowding is more severe. But even with greater income and security there is still a feeling that one should not lock up one's home for more than a day or so. Families are reluctant to take trips for more than two or three days at a time, especially if no one is left to look after the home. Individual family members may take longer trips to see relatives or to visit friends or see some new scenery, but family trips are generally very brief. Still, an increasing number of Mamachi families have by now been able to send one or more members abroad to Hawaii, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or elsewhere on vacations. Many others in Mamachi are beginning to think of their first trip abroad. While approaching affluence, Mamachi dwellers have not yet arrived, and there are still many things they look forward to acquiring or doing for the first time.