New-thinking nails

出るくいは打たれる (deru kui wa utareru - The nail that sticks up gets hammered down / Don't make waves!).

This is probably Japan’s most famous proverb. The other day I spoke to my cousin, who recently started learning Japanese, and he reminded me of it. It must be on some compulsory curriculum or something. It was one of the first sayings that I learned, too.
It’s a pretty quick route into the Japanese psyche. Conformity, compromise, and consensus: These ideas are valued almost to a fault.
They helped the Japanese achieve their economic miracle, allowing automation, standardisation and collectivism to prosper.
But they’re also holding them back from the innovative thinking needed to set this greying, faltering society on a new course - There's a lot that's not working right in this great country.
You have to be pretty brave to put your head above the parapet in most any country, but in Japan they’re waiting for you with a hammer in hand. Perhaps as those ageing hands weaken, new thinkers will come to the fore.
It’ll not be me though – I bruise easily!