{"id":290,"date":"2016-05-19T23:46:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T14:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wazabizapto.org\/2016\/?p=290"},"modified":"2023-10-06T14:04:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T14:04:38","slug":"%e6%a8%a9%e5%8a%9b-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wazabizapto.org\/2016\/%e6%a8%a9%e5%8a%9b-power\/","title":{"rendered":"\u6a29\u529b Power"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sign<\/a>

Sign at the entrance of Mutsugawa jikkenchi: “A village where money isn’t necessary, and where life is fun” – “How about we all work together, everyone?”<\/p><\/div>\n

Alright, here we go\u2026 This is going to be a tough one. If you are not a sociologist or political science wonk, it might be a good idea to avert your eyes (although by doing so you\u2019ll miss out on cute pictures of pigs, among other sublime contributions to the Art of Photography).<\/p>\n

One of the more mysterious aspects of life in a Yamagishi community, to me, is the way power is allocated or distributed. It’s largely in order to understand more about this that I came here in the first place.<\/p>\n

The social structure Yamagishi members strive to create is, in principle, horizontal and leaderless. Each community (jikkenchi<\/em>) functions to a large extent independently from the others in Japan or abroad; there are no cadres or anyone else whose role is to coordinate the allocation of resources and labour either within a given community, nor between the different communities \u2014 at least, no one is supposed to perform this job on a permanent basis (therefore acquiring the same sort of power that cadres monopolised in the ex-USSR or nowadays in China).<\/p>\n

And yet, at least some kind of power or decision-making structure is bound to appear in any human group, if only to make things happen; structurelessness<\/a> does not exist. All the more so in the case of a complex intentional organisation like that of the Yamagishi Association.<\/p>\n

How is power allocated within a given jikkenchi,<\/em> and within the network of communities? Below are my findings so far. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

NB:<\/strong> As there are no clear-cut organisational rules governing any jikkenchi \u2014 indeed, one of the main credos of the Yamagishi Association, according to what we were told during tokkoh<\/a>, could be summed up as \u201cnothing is absolutely true, everything can be questioned\u201d \u2014 all the information here is only what I\u2019ve been able to gather in my conversations with people, and by observing everyday life situations in which I was involved; but my Japanese isn\u2019t exactly stellar yet (understatement alert!), and the informality of it all coupled with the special Japanese love for hints and elusiveness probably brought about many misunderstandings on my behalf. This is still work in progress.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT THE JIKKENCHI LEVEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

A jikkenchi<\/em> can vary in size and complexity. <\/p>\n

Tsuki jikkenchi,<\/em> where I am staying now, focuses exclusively on poultry farming, and only 13 adults work here. No need to devide the workforce into work departments: tasks are distributed informally, as in a big family \u2014 the women cook, take care of the kids and the laundry, and prepare the eggs for shipping; the men take care of the hens, harvest the eggs, repair the machines and buildings, cut the grass, etc. <\/p>\n

In a small community like Tsuki, power does seem rather equally distributed (although I\u2019m unsure if a woman would be allowed to go cut the grass instead of feeding the kids, but well, this is Japan after all \u2014 I\u2019ll come back to gender and other cultural issues later): one\u2019s work schedule and contents can be, and are openly negotiated with the others, especially during the kensan <\/em>meetings that take place at given tea-break times during the day. <\/p>\n

There is clearly someone here who is in a position of relative authority compared to everyone else: K\u014dz\u014d-san, who was one of the facilitators at my tokkoh<\/a>. He is only 30-something years old, but he radiates the sort of natural confidence and calm that is the stuff of leaders; he is also very intelligent, and has lived all his life on Yamagishi farms (he was born on one), so he has very intimate knowledge of the way things work around here. He is the guy whose name people mention whenever they mention Tsuki jikkenchi<\/em> in other communities. I don\u2019t see him giving direct orders, but it is clear he is listened to and influential \u2014 interestingly, much more than his elder brother or even his father, who live here too but seem to not have any interest in running the show or participating in meetings.<\/p>\n

\"I'm<\/a>

I’m collecting these eggs for your own good. Trust me.<\/p><\/div>\n

In Kasugayama<\/a> jikkenchi,<\/em> however, over 200 people live and work together to produce fruits and vegetables, pork meat, dairy products, noodles, and more. As a result, work is organised and coordinated in the shape of different shokuba<\/em> (\u8077\u5834 – departments): Veggies, Pork, Dairy, etc. Other departments include Kitchen, Maintenance, and Administration.<\/p>\n

In each shokuba,<\/em> a representative emerges organically, out of the respect in which people hold them, largely due to this person’s knowledge, experience, and charisma (much in the same way that K\u014dz\u014d-san emerged as the informal leader of Tsuki jikkenchi<\/em>): as I was told, \u201cnobody can know everything about everything. The representative is the person we go to when we want to understand more about veggies or pigs, for instance. This person knows their stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even though nobody was ever introduced to me as \u201cthe guy in charge\u201d in any of the shokuba<\/em> where I worked at Kasugayama, it was clear from the first tea-break collective gathering who was most listened to, and thus who initiated movement in the group.<\/p>\n

\"Nagami

Nagami Yuuki, the very informal (read: freewheeling) head of the Kasuga Pig department (center), in the department meeting room<\/p><\/div>\n

As this person is not elected, their formal authority and responsibility are limited \u2014 this \u201cposition\u201d should be seen more as halfway between that of a leader and that of a simple contact person. Yet this is the person who will represent his or her shokuba <\/em>at any of the jikkenchi<\/em> gatherings where their presence may be necessary (although it seems other members of the department can also attend if they so wish).<\/p>\n

However, becoming too much of an expert in one field or another is also recognised as a potential source of power accumulation in the Yamagishi Association (knowledge is power, after all), therefore an experienced member from a given shokuba<\/em> will normally be encouraged to move to another department once in a while, and thus try their hand at something else. I\u2019m unsure how often exactly this happens, but people seem to be aware that this should take place from time to time.<\/p>\n

In a word, decision-making in the jikkenchi<\/em> is supposed to happen in the most decentralised and bottom-up way possible, never in a centralised and top-down way. This ties in nicely with what people told me about owning\/acquiring things<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With these principles in mind, in what way are the activities of the Yamagishi Association coordinated on a national level?<\/p>\n

\"Yamagishi-san's<\/a>

Yamagishi-san’s trademark henhouses<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each jikkenchi<\/em> functions primarily by and for itself. But after all, a small community like that of Tsuki can hardly be expected to meet all its needs (especially food-wise!) by its own means, when all it does is breed chickens.<\/p>\n

For this reason, the \u201cofficial\u201d Yamagishi communities throughout Japan (yes, there are also officious communities… I\u2019ll come back to that in a future post!)<\/em> are integrated within a common network<\/a>, in order to allow for, among other things:<\/p>\n