I was surprised to hear the news on CNN radio during my drive to my office yesterday morning that Japanese girls pop star AKB 48 Minami Minegishi has shaved her head and offered a filmed apology after breaking her management firm's rules by spending a night with her boyfriend. I think it seemed weird in the U.S that a 20 year old adolescent girl apologized with close-crop hair by only staying one night with her boyfriend. In the U.S, it's nothing special to flirt in public like Selena Gomes and Justin Bieber. So, I can imagine that many American people thought why she had to apologize??, why top pop idol girl had to shave her hair??
This news was teated not only in the U.S, but also in England such as BBC and Daily mail website by broadcasting her movie. Comments were separated to pros and cons that "I don't think it's too much. We should learn and respect to other country's culture" "I can't understand shaved hair apology culture".
In addition, some people understand about AKB business style and left comments like "It's just a publicity seeking" " It's one of their entertainment"
Global standard point of view, I think apology by close-crop hair is strange and difficult to understand. However, it's also weird that to change their culture easily just because it looks strange from western people. There are other original style to apologize, like Dogeza(Apologize with kneel down on the ground) in Japan. Also, I understand the American style that American people tend to NOT admit being wrong easily. However, as you may expect, I think the thing that is not fit to modern society like Harakiri in Japan should be die out.
Looking at the history of Japanese "Close-clop hair", shaving his/her hair as warning means the first step to reach Buddhahood in buddhism from ancient time. So, shaving their hair originally comes from Buddha. In addition, in late years "Sanpatsu-datto-rei"(a freedom of forming their own hairstyle-noble and warrior class to not yield their swords at all time) was proclaimed after the Meiji Restoration, and a chonmage (a type of topknot) was prohibited, and new hair style called "close-crop hair" seemed to be born by the import of hair clippers. Besides, when the conscription order was promulgated, the close-crop that is the standard hairstyle of officers seemed to take root in the nation .
These days in Japan, long hair and brown hair are common things in men's hair style and it's not so big of a difference compared to western people. However, close-crop hair culture is still remains in Japan.
For instance, close-crop is standard in high school baseball players. Also, if people who made a fault and caused a trouble to someone or they couldn't achieve their pledge, Japanese people shave their hair as for expressing their apology. Famous Japanese baseball player Yu Darvish who plays in Texas Rangers now also shaved his head as putting more sprit into himself when Japanese baseball team was defeated in a preliminary league at Beijing Olympic 2008.
Thus, I think that shaving their head as admonition is the culture that took root in Japan.
However, why does this close-crop culture never disappear in modernized Japan? I think it's a really efficient way to solve the trouble in short time, isn't it? First, it has big impact in appearance. I think it's easy to understand to everyone and it's easy to treat as media contents. Next, it's really good cost saving and fast. It has really good cost performance like taking only ten minutes with under eleven dollars. Finally, There is the word "Hito no uwasa mo 75 nichi" (A wonder lasts but nine days) and that means after troubles are resolved, the hair can get longer and be back to the original naturally. In English, It's easy to resolve only 9 days.
In conclusion, close-crop culture should be maintained as one of really efficient way for solving problems that was born in Japan. Isn't it good idea that Japan exports this culture to the U.S?
Written in Feb 2013
日本語版
丸刈り謝罪は日本の文化だ
昨日の朝、車で会社に向かっている途中にCNNラジオからAKB４８の峰岸みなみさんが男性宅でのお泊まりスキャンダルに対し、丸坊主姿で謝罪したというニュースが聞こえてきてびっくりしました。２０歳の恋愛盛りの女の子が男性とお泊まりデートしただけで丸刈り謝罪っていうのがアメリカではとても奇異に映ったようだ。アメリカのトップアイドルで同い年のセレーナ・ゴメスが公の場でもジャスティンビーバといちゃいちゃしていていてもOKな国アメリカにおいて、なんでだめなの？なんでトップアイドルの女の子が丸刈りなの？という事になりますね。
このニュースはアメリカだけでなくイギリスでもBBCやデイリー・メールの電子版で動画付きで取り上げられたようです。コメントとしては「やりすぎだとは思わない。イギリス人も海外の文化を学んで尊重すべきだ」とか「丸坊主は、理解しがたい文化だ」と賛否両論だったが、やはり日本同様「売名行為の何者でもない」「AKBのエンターテイメントの一部ではないか」というAKBのビジネスをちゃんとがわかってる意見も見られた。
グローバルスタンダードな目線でみると日本の丸刈り謝罪はとても変で理解されにくいものだと思う。でも世界的に見ておかしいからなんでも西洋のスタンダードに迎合すべきというのものも安易すぎると思う。なぜなら日本には土下座のように日本独自の謝罪のスタイルがあるし、逆にアメリカのように自分の非を簡単に認めないスタイルがあってもいいと思うからです。さすがに切腹のように現代的でない物は淘汰されていいと思いますが。
日本の「丸刈り」の歴史を見てみると古来より仏教では、己への戒めとして「頭を丸める」ことは悟りの境地へ達する"解脱"への第一歩とされて剃髪の由来は釈迦に倣ったものだそうだ。また近年では明治維新後に「散髪脱刀令」が布告されて髷（まげ）が禁止となり、またバリカンの輸入により「丸刈り」というスタイルが誕生したそうだ。さらに徴兵令が公布されると、軍人の髪型である丸刈りが国民に定着したようだ。
現代の日本に於いては長髪、茶髪はあたりまえで日本人男性の髪型は欧米人のそれと比べてもさほど変わりがなくなったと言うのが一般的な見方ですがまだまだ丸刈り文化は日本に残っているのです。
例えば日本の高校野球では今でも丸刈りがスタンダードです。また誰かに対して大きな過失を負い迷惑をかけてしまった場合や、公約を達成できなかった場合、“頭を丸める”という自粛の意味で丸刈りにすることもあります。
今やアメリカで大活躍しているダルビッシュ有も２００８年の北京オリンピックで予選リーグで負けたときも「気合いを入れ直す」といって丸刈りにしていました。このように己への戒めとして「頭を丸める」ことは日本に定着した文化だと思います。
しかし近代化した現在の日本においてなぜ丸刈り文化はなくならないでしょうか？それは問題を早期に解決する手段として丸刈りは非常に効率の良い方法だからではないでしょうか。なぜならまず見た目のインパクトが大きいこと。メディア的にも非常に伝わりやすく扱いやすいコンテンツだと思う。次に早く出来てコストが安いということ。１０分で１０００円もかからない非常にコストパフォーマンスの高い手段ですね。最後に人の噂も７５日という言葉が日本にはありますが騒動が収まれば髪はまた伸びて自然に元通りになります。英語でいうと "A wonder lasts but nine days"(不思議なことも９日まで）ですね。アメリカの方が騒動の収まりも早いので楽ですね。
結論、丸刈り謝罪文化は日本が生み出した大変効率の良い問題解決手段として残すべきです。アメリカにも輸出してはどうでしょうか？
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