If you have watched "Mikami-sensei", you would have heard this term "Kasumigaseki Bungaku" being mentioned multiple times throughout the entire drama. So what is "Kasumigaseki Bungaku" and why was this being featured prominently in the drama?
To begin with, the literal translation of "Kasumigaseki Bungaku" / 霞が関文学 is Kasumigaseki literature. As you may already know, Kasumigaseki is a district in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, where most government ministries are located so the place name is often used as a metonym for the Japanese bureaucracy. Likewise, the term Nagata-cho is used to refer to the elected government or legislative branch since the Diet of Japan and the Prime Minister's residence are located here.
While the exact origin of Kasumigaseki Bungaku is not known, what sets this form of word usage apart from daily Japanese speech is the use of terms which on their own, are easy to understand but when pieced together becomes ambiguous, difficult to comprehend and often sounds ridiculous. As such, the term Kasumigaseki Bungaku actually contains a certain degree of mockery to mean that bureaucrats often speak in a hard-to-understand and somewhat unfeeling/robotic manner to complicate simple things. On the surface, they give the impression that things are progressing smoothly but nothing is said clearly so that they wouldn't be held responsible for their ambiguous words. This is said to be reflective of the bureaucrats' mindset of always looking for a way out in case things go wrong and their tendency to avoid having their mistakes being pointed out.
Key characteristics of Kasumigaseki Bungaku speech include:
- Only answering things that they are asked
- Answering only the bare minimum and avoiding elaboration/clarification
- Using ambiguous expressions in written form which could be interpreted in various ways
- Making the subject vague, or in some cases omitting the subject, and obscuring who is responsible
Similarly, Nagata-cho Bungaku / 永田町文学 can be said to be the politicians' version of Kasumigaseki Bungaku. However, it is also said that Nagata-cho Bungaku is heavily influenced by the latter since a lot of ministers speak using scripts and statements prepared by bureaucrats in their ministries and heavily rely on them for advice since they are the subject matter experts. Over time, the use of Kasumigaseki Bungaku terms sort of "flowed over" to the political circle. Inevitably, both types of literature have identical characteristics i.e. complicated, ambiguous and unclear responsibility.
Here are some examples of simple terms vs. their complicated versions in Kasumigaseki Bungaku style:
Rubbish / ゴミ ----> General waste / 一般廃棄物
Business District / ビジネス街 ----> Specified commercial cluster / 特定商業集積
Mother Complex / マザコン -----> Excessive mother-child contact / 過度な母子の密着
Boom in learning foreign languages / 外国語ブーム ----> Increased motivation to learn languages / 語学学習意欲の高まり
For those who may be interested in knowing more about Kasumigaseki Bungaku, you can read this article from NHK.
In "Mikami-sensei", the lead character Mikami Takashi played by Matsuzaka Toori is a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology who is dispatched to a senior high school to be a teacher for a designated period of time. Given his background, it is no wonder that the things he said were sometimes or rather often delivered in the Kasumigaseki Bungaku style especially in the earlier episodes. For example, you may have remembered the following:
If my memory is correct - 僕の記憶が確かならば
It is the result of my immorality - 不徳の致すところです (used when apologising for one's mistakes)
I cannot answer anything beyond this - これ以上はお答えできません
As I do not remember, I cannot say anything beyond this - 覚えておりませんので、これ以上のことは申し上げようがありません
We will continue to improve every day - 日々、精進してまいります
From these examples, it is quite clear that while some things can be spelled out more directly and clearly, the use of Kasumigaseki Bungaku actually muddles the meaning and where responsibility lies. It can also be difficult to say and understand even when compared to business-style formal speech.
Just as the picture in this post states, Kasumigaseki Bungaku is a literary form created by bureaucrats for bureaucrats to use. While it can difficult to make sense of it at times, hopefully you will be able to appreciate the nuance and hidden meanings better when you watch a drama/movie that features bureaucrats.
