Mr. A never aspired to any form of career advancement, but was contented to just get by. He resided in company housing until retirement and then moved back into his parents' house. He lacked good looks, but was nonetheless confident, optimistic and charismatic. I must note that I, in fact, still like him despite recognizing his severe limitations. He is eminently pleasant.
His "girlfriend" would drive him to the lake, where he kept the brand newest hottest jet-ski on the lake in a rented storage unit. Once he arrived, he would take off on his jet-ski for an exploration of the far shore of the lake and we would only see glimpses of him again until dusk. Some areas of the lake are off limits to jet-skis in order to protect other users. Mr. A is one of the jet-skiers who's been photographed crossing through them. Club A refuses to enforce its own rules on such infractions, because everybody just wants to have fun. (Actually, there has been a deep split of opinion, with the laissez faire-side winning out and the other side warning of disaster, but being ignored.) When the police show up again--there was already a fatal accident at the lake involving a jet-skier colliding with a windsurfer (the jet-skier died)--all Club A can do is show them the photographic evidence and hope throwing the bums out will suffice rather than banning jet-skis at the lake, the most likely outcome.
Mr. A was the eldest son in his family and by tradition was groomed to become head of the family, but they realized early on that he was not suited to any form of responsibility, so the honor went to his younger brother. It is said that when his father lay dying, Mr. A was out jet-skiing. When his "girlfriend" hit a cable and was nearly drowned, he was nearby, but ignored the event. He wasn't even curious to see if she had survived. His "girlfriend" had suffered a metabolic condition in childhood that left a faint mark on her features and made her subject to bullying at school. In later life, her "flaw" made her unmarriageable. She remains Mr. A's "girlfriend" despite the one-sided nature of the relationship. She is certain she would never find another.
Mr. A continues to participate actively in what remains of Club A. About half of the club recognizes his attitude as a serious problem, but as long as he himself causes no accidents there is not much they can do but tolerate him. There may be less visible sociopaths among the half that supports him, but I think most are simply naive and don't recognize the way he has ruined the club and recklessly endangered the safety of everyone involved by promoting a scofflaw attitude.
My husband says what tipped off most of his detractors to him early on was his lack of following protocol, a chief virtue stressed under Confucianism. In Japan, "protocol" can be extremely complicated, but basically it means showing gratitude to people who have done you a favor and maintaining harmony in society. Mr. A seems blithely unaware of others' favors. Because Mr. A never actually broke an enforced law nor exceeded other limits of toleration (he is probably studiously aware of where the line is drawn), Club A leaders had to limit the damage by talking to the other members of the club individually and persuading them as much as possible of the necessity of rules.
The abetting factors in Mr. A's case were some degree of latent sociopathic influence within Club A, probably because the exciting sport draws that type of person (in addition to others who take responsibility), and a taboo on discussing negative personality traits of others (probably taboo everywhere), which hobbled those whose background in Confucian ethics gave them an awareness of Mr. A's undesirable attitude.
I think this type of case is actually very common in Japan. The society and workplace are structured to give slackers a place they can just get by without getting in the way or getting into trouble. On the weekend, they go off and raise hell somewhere, and this is tolerated within certain limits. In hard times, these slackers are the first to lose their jobs. In the past, they were likely to be ostracized from their communities and left to fend for themselves. This and the practice of arranged marriages, in which adults with more experience and wisdom chose marriage partners for their children, probably did a lot to limit the reproductive success of sociopaths and may be one reason for the lower rate of occurrence Martha Stout ("The Sociopath Next Door") reported for Japan.
Anyone who lived in Japan in the 80s and early 90s will remember sleepless nights as hordes of punks on motorcycles roared up and down every major thoroughfare. Japan tolerated this amazingly well for year after year, until finally someone persuaded the police to crack down on it. Confucian thought stresses the creation of harmony in society by having well-defined roles for everyone. I guess this is how they deal with some of the sociopaths, by giving them a place and an outlet, and the Yakuza help deal with some of the more ambitious ones. And then there are some who are just not satisfied with those options.
Club A had the foresight and fortitude to oust case B a couple of years before the police showed up to question all his acquaintances because he'd been arrested on suspicion of murder. He denies this from his jail cell to this day, but few outside his closest family members believe him. The members of his own club considered him capable of such. The evidence was circumstantial, but nonetheless overwhelming.
The motive was clear--a loan being called in. The murderer took steps to obscure the identity of the victim and time of death. He'd gotten unlucky because someone discovered the body very soon afterward when the trail leading to Mr. B was still fresh.
Like Mr. A, Mr. B was adept at getting others to support him. Unlike Mr. A, however, he was not happy biding his time at a simple job waiting for the weekend. He was more ambitious. His first step was to organize a club, which started out as a clique within another club, Club C at the same lake as Club A. Club C has since devoted itself entirely to windsurfing and banned jet-skis from its jetty and surrounding area. Similar to Mr. A's supporters, Mr. B's clique detested rules. By the time Club C ousted them, they had evolved into quite a pack of bullies, who would park their cars blocking traffic and leave their equipment in the way of others while they went off together to have lunch.
After their ouster, they went down the shore a little way and built a spanking new jetty that was the envy of everyone else on the lake and at other lakes as well. As the newly formed Club B, they roared about the lake, ignoring all traffic rules and causing so many accidents it was astounding no one died (at least not at first). Club C meanwhile had lost many of its jet-skiers to Club B while picking up many more wind surfers in a boom engendered by Japan's faltering economy, as sportsmen downgraded. They urged their remaining jet-skiers to go to either Club A or Club B.
Everywhere I have traveled, jet-ski clubs have been roughly the same: a mob of happy-go-lucky partiers there to have fun and leaders with furrowed brows and no sense of humor from having to enforce rules. Club B stood out as different. They were open to anyone and had no rules. No rules, that is, until you crossed Mr. B. Then the rule was "watch your back." He had a really scary side that he would show to just a few people. Everyone else thought he was a real sugar daddy, so trying to warn them was pointless. Of him, my husband says, "Poor guy. No one did him the favor of teaching him a harsh lesson when he was young." From what I've read about sociopaths, though, I reckon it would have been as effective as punishing a cat.
Club B took in all the Club A rejects. They buzzed the windsurfers near Club C's jetty, which had gotten seriously crowded with new members. This is said to have once resulted in a smash-up involving twelve wind surfers and one jet-ski, which clipped the first wind surfer's board, who then ran into two other wind surfers and on down the line, with everyone recovering, except unlucky thirteen, who ran into the rocks near the jetty. As there were no injuries, most laughed it off as a joke, but this really encouraged Club B to do more of the same, even when Club C banned jet-skis from a clearly defined area near its jetty after the fatality involving a jet-skier from Club B, which prompted the police to take action. This action included closure of Club B's fancy jetty to jet-skis, because it was too near Club C's jetty, and removal of Club B's jet-skiers to a smaller jetty owned by Club A for use by visiting non-members.
Mr. B had been trying to turn his club into a profitable business by encouraging wind surfers to join and use their fancy facilities. They had a big clubhouse with a restaurant, bathhouse and on-site jet-ski storage. Mr. B drove a BMW and swaggered a lot. Everyone knew, though, that he was up to his eyeballs in debt because he owed a lot of his club members money he intended to repay "someday." A lot of somedays came and went, and not a few Club B members came to my husband to complain to someone with a sympathetic point of view.
One of these was owed a large amount that had gone into the big jetty that currently only wind surfers had access to. He'd given up on ever seeing his money again and was contemplating a lawsuit, something rarely considered in Japan, where people attempt amicable agreements or just simple forgiveness. He was sick and tired of seeing Mr. B get away with it. While my husband and I were away for a few weeks, he committed suicide under circumstances that leave us all wondering. His burnt out car was found with his remains inside far away from any place we ever knew him to frequent.
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