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Yamanot.es: A music box of train station melodies from the JR Yamanote Line

(yamanot.es)
337 points zdw | 9 comments | 27 Aug 25 21:08 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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tkgally ◴[28 Aug 25 03:12 UTC] No.45047945[source]▶
A couple of months ago, riding the subway through Ginza Station for the first time in a while, I noticed that the door-closing melody was from the 1949 song Ginza Kankan Musume [1, 2]. I’m normally not very familiar with Japanese pop music, but I happen to have the song on a playlist I listen to together with my five-year-old grandson. It brought a smile to my face, as it’s a cheerful, very slightly risqué song from the early postwar period, when Japanese popular culture was enjoying renewed freedom. It was fun to hear it in a subway station in 2025.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVYpdBcso3A

[2] https://g.co/gemini/share/d584c36b99ab

replies(1): >>45048224 #
ipnon ◴[28 Aug 25 03:58 UTC] No.45048224[source]▶
I don't know how to describe this, but Japanese enjoy putting a little bit of joy into every thing, like Ronald McDonald, but real.
replies(1): >>45049827 #
1. reedf1 ◴[28 Aug 25 08:31 UTC] No.45049827[source]▶
This probably has a philosophical underpinning in Animism, almost everything is anthropomorphized and given a "soul", personality. This has the affect of humanizing the most utilitarian parts of day-to-day life, commuting, a tax office, etc.
replies(2): >>45051935 #>>45053512 #
2. toyg ◴[28 Aug 25 13:31 UTC] No.45051935[source]▶
I think it's more to do with the fact that the official ethos is all about staunch sacrifice in the face of continuous suffering and inflexible rules. People end up trying to get some relief any way they can, looking for a bit of joy in every corner of society where they won't feel judged harshly.
replies(1): >>45053878 #
3. rtpg ◴[28 Aug 25 15:34 UTC] No.45053512[source]▶
All across the western world in the post war period it was common to put faces and personalities to inanimate objects in order to sell things in advertisements.

The reduction of similar behavior in Japan to things like animism fails to capture the texture of why these things happen, and how they are reproduced in other places, and how ultimately societies across the world act similarly, but for timing issues.

People don’t talk about the Dutch being obsessed with serious work ethic and cleanliness due to protestantism and thus generating De Stijl.

I do legit wonder what the history of anthropomorphism on inanimate objects looks like though. Who was the first person to draw a toothpaste tube that smiled and talked?

replies(1): >>45054900 #
4. wanderer_79 ◴[28 Aug 25 16:05 UTC] No.45053878[source]▶
As the rare Japanese on here who speaks English, the amount of theory-crafting from English-speakers about how and why Japanese do this or that is borderline hilarious. Just shows how different our cultures are. Most people don't realize that the way they view the world is through their own ethnocentric lens.
replies(3): >>45054050 #>>45055166 #>>45064876 #
5. reedf1 ◴[28 Aug 25 16:22 UTC] No.45054050{3}[source]▶
And your first comment is shitting on those trying to understand instead of applying your own analysis? Sorry for showing an interest I guess. Hopefully the irony of you own analysis of "English-speakers" isn't lost on you.
6. bobthepanda ◴[28 Aug 25 17:42 UTC] No.45054900[source]▶
There is something referred to in the US as the Protestant work ethic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic

Japan just gets a lot of attention as 1. The earliest Asian developed economy and 2. The earlier bubble-era panic over Japanese economic dominance

replies(1): >>45090689 #
7. llmthrow0827 ◴[28 Aug 25 18:08 UTC] No.45055166{3}[source]▶
This is prevalent even among foreigners in Japan, who think they understand the Japanese better than the Japanese do, despite living here for 20 years and barely being able to hold a conversation in Japanese for 2 minutes.
8. ◴[29 Aug 25 14:49 UTC] No.45064876{3}[source]▶
9. ◴[01 Sep 25 08:20 UTC] No.45090689{3}[source]▶