Satoyama Near Lake Biwa: Why is it Okay to be Lazy?

If you are interested in how young naturally conscious Japanese people are reshaping the Satoyama culture from the secret to health and longevity to the secret to health, longevity, and happiness, this is the right site.

 

In the last post, I said that the young naturally conscious people who had moved into Satoyama were laid-back contrary to the local elder generation.

 

For example, they are often late for meetings while old locals arrive 30 minutes before the starting time. When young new comers organize a meeting, they sometimes start the meeting without deciding the MC, while old locals meetings are always held with the person in charge with a certain format.

 

By the way, the reason I am comparing the two sectors is that there aren’t many young locals left in Satoyama and if there are, they don’t usually participate in Satoyama preservation activities, so old locals and young new comers are the main groups who often interact. Since I am comparing the two different age groups, a lot of differences are to do with their generation gap, too.

 

So young new comers are laid-back, but isn’t that a bad thing if they are late for the meetings and things? It can be for a certain degree, but to balance with the old culture of seriousness, it can serve positively to break the pattern.

 

As I stated in Does the Meaning of Ikigai Described in the Book IKIGAI, Symbolize the True Sense of Ikigai? Part3, hard-working attitude seen in Japanese craftmanship is creating our workaholic culture and vacation less working environment. One of the reasons why Japan isn’t a happy country is that we have a little vacation and free time and we don’t have enough time to spend with family.

 

It is okay as long as they choose to live like that, but what is happening in Japan is that people have pressure to live this way because hard-working people expect others to do the same. There is a saying that if I am okay, you are okay and everybody is okay, but if I am not okay, you are not okay and nobody is okay. Another word, if you are hard on yourself, you get hard on others, too, but if you can accept who you are including the part that is not perfect, you start accepting others not being perfect, as well.

 

So young laid-back new comers are letting others to be more relaxed.

 

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