ABSTRACT
The February 1993 cover of Tokyo Journal, an English-language monthly catering to the entertainment-hungry expatriate community, showed a close-up photo of a long, thin, somewhat crooked nail sticking up from a flat surface. It takes a second look to realise that this surface is covered with small, rather thinly printed text that repeats over and again English translations of a Japanese proverb, ‘the protruding nail is hammered down’. Each time, the proverb is in fact a quote, followed by the reference cited. The knowledgeable reader quickly realises that these sources include many of the most popular and respected English-language books on Japan, both general and academic. And there is, indeed, no single proverb that is invoked more often to illustrate the general character of Japanese society. Whoever stands out in Japan by insisting on an independent, individual position, the proverb says, will be quickly brought back into line.
