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Zembower
Mitchell Zembower

Dr. Arnzen

SEL 263 01: Global Horror

14 April 2022

The Obsession: Japanese Conformity

The town of Kurozu-Cho is a small town that is the main setting for Uzumaki. This

town’s citizens and even the town itself becomes infected with spirals and eventually the whole

town turns into a spiral. The author and illustrator of this manga, Junji Ito, wrote this in 1998

and the 90s in Japan is referred to the Lost Decade (Callen). There were a lot of technological

advances in Japan and the world in the 90s, but in Japan, employment began to decline. In late

1991, Japan suffered from the asset price bubble’s collapse in late 1991 (Goto). During this

time, a lot of Japanese people were struggling, financially, physically, and mentally. The rise of

technology, while the Japanese people were most vulnerable, is the basis of Uzumaki. With the

poor being unable to purchase the latest and greatest technological feats, the fear of exclusion

and the ability to not conform to social standards, was the biggest fear to the Japanese people. Ito

describes the terrors of conformity in the manga by showing the devastating effects of

conformity and not being oneself (Mogsam).

Japan has a long history of being a homogeneity nation. This term refers to Japanese

people of all being strictly Japanese, not mixing with Chinese or Korean individuals. This also

refers to the personality of the Japanese people. The goal of the Japanese people is to all be to

the same to be the most efficient economically. In early Japan, uniqueness is suppressed in order

meet the standard for Japanese culture (Bestor). Hideki Shirakawa, who was a Nobel Prize
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winner, refers to the Japanese culture is purely based on rice farming. Rice farming requires

rows and rows of workers, working at the same speed, requiring no individuality. Even though

rice farming isn’t as primary of a job anymore in Japan, the basis of Japanese culture is still

affected from its ancestors (Hays). As the new age of technology began to prosper throughout

the world, the identity of oneself started to fade away even more than it already has. Everyone

became obsessed with the newest and greatest piece of technology they could get their hands on,

and this causes a separation in social status. The poorer people in Japan who did not have the

funds to buy the new technology, were left behind by the wealthy. The poor feared they would

be left behind and would be even further excluded by other Japanese people. This made the poor

even more obsessed with getting their hands on technology and rising the ranks of the social

class ranking, to get on the same level as everyone else (Hays).

In Uzumaki, the spirals that infect the town, is the same way technology infected Japan

during the 90s. The townspeople of Kurozu-Cho became obsessed with these spirals, doing

anything in their power to get their hands on them, even turning into a spiral if needed.

Everyone wanted to become a spiral, either intentionally or unintentionally. Ito depicts this

obsession with the spirals in the first chapter of the manga when Shuichi’s dad becomes

obsessed. He is this first one in the town to become infected with the obsession and he

eventually turns into a spiral at the end of his life. He gave up everything in order to be one with

the spiral. This is very similar to how the people of Japan would do anything to get their hands

on the newest technology, to conform to the rest of Japan (Goto). Even today in America, people

will do anything to get the latest and greatest phone or gadget and they become sucked into the

obsession of it.
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The most vulnerable people are the ones most at risk in both cases of obsession. In

Kurozu-Cho, everyone is very devoted to each other and one’s family. They would do anything

to be with them and would do anything to save them from the obsession. For instance, when

Kirie’s hair began to turn into spirals, the spirals started to suck the life out of her. If Shuichi

didn’t cut her hair off in time, she would have perished just like many of the other people in the

town. Shuichi was devoted to her and if she did not have someone to save her, she would have

just been another victim. However, Sekino’s hair also turned into spirals, and she had no one to

save her from spirals. The spirals drained all her energy and she died from it. She had no one to

save her from the curse of the spirals. Sekino was vulnerable and the spirals knew so and took

advantage of that. The vulnerable are the most at risk for becoming obsessed or infected with the

spirals. This is much like how the obsession with technology and one’s social status is most

targeted towards the vulnerable (Hays). If someone has no outside life or people to rely on, the

obsession with being like everyone else is the greatest. If they do not have a support system to

rely on, they will fall victim to the conformity in Japan. Ito is saying that conforming to the

Japanese culture, is easier than fighting it, and the ones most at risk for this are ones who are

already weak and vulnerable (L.).

While Kirie’s hair began to turn into spirals, Sekino got very jealous of her, and she

started to want to be just like her. In Japanese culture, the Japanese people hate to miss out

(Hays). If they witness someone benefiting from something, such as Kirie’s hair, they will want

hair just like that. Sekino saw all the praise that Kirie received from her spiraling hair, and she

also became mesmerized from it. Sekino indeed got her wish of her hair turning into spirals, but

it came with the devasting demise of her death. Sekino became a victim of the terrors of

conformity. She wanted to be just like Kirie, but with every wish comes a sacrifice. Sekino lost
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herself in the process of trying to look like someone else. Ito is trying to say that being exactly

like someone can be deadly to one’s true identify. If you are just copying someone else and not

being yourself, then do you truly even know yourself? Ito wrote this about Japanese culture in

the 90s, but I can think this story can be interpreted in many ways even today about American

culture and the impact of social media on the youth. Many people try to act, look, and even think

like other people who they have never met, just because they are influencers. These influencers

make others conform to their ways. It may not be a life-or-death situation, but it can impact the

people’s mental health. Even though social media wasn’t a thing whenever Ito wrote this, he

may have had thoughts of the impact of technology already on culture.

Japanese conformity has always been prevalent in the Japanese culture, but Junji Ito was

raising awareness to the death of oneself when you conform to it. Not literal death, but the death

of one’s personality, their soul. The obsession of fitting in and living up to social standards is

not a way to truly live, and Ito shows this in Uzumaki by the people of Kurozu-Cho succumbing

to the spiral. The whole town eventually turns into a spiral by the end of the story, and this is

like how some areas of Japan are. With the rise of technology in the 90s, the need for the

Japanese people all having the newest gadget, rose along with it. The fear of falling behind or

getting excluded drove people to buy such things. This is also portrayed in the way the Japanese

people dress and act (Hays). Everyone generally dresses and acts the same way to fit into the

social norms of Japan. If not, they will be excluded and shunned. Ito’s message goes beyond the

conformity in Japan, but to everyone. If you are obsessed with how you look, dress, or act, just

to fit in with everyone else, you have fallen into the obsession of conformity. To conform to a

certain way of life, loses yourself in the process and what you stand for. After conforming, you

may never know yourself again.

Bestor, Theodore. “Homogeneity.” Asian Topics on Asia for Educators || Contemporary Japan:

Japanese Society,

afe.easia.columbia.edu/at/contemp_japan/cjp_society_01.html#:~:text=Japanese%20often

%20think%20of%20themselves,no%20ethnic%20or%20racial%20diversity.

Callen, Tim. “Japan's Lost Decade --- Policies for Economic Revival.” International Monetary

Fund, 13 Feb. 2003, www.imf.org/external/pubs/nft/2003/japan/index.htm.

Goto, Akira. “‘21st Century Innovation Systems for Japan and the United States: Lessons from a

Decade of Change: Report of a Symposium.’” National Academies Press: OpenBook,

nap.nationalacademies.org/read/12194/chapter/4#33.

Hays, Jeffrey. “Japanese Society: WA, Confucianism, Homogenity, Conformity, Individualism

and Hierarchies.” Facts and Details, Oct. 2011,

factsanddetails.com/japan/cat19/sub120/item642.html.

Itō Junji, et al. Uzumaki. Spiral into Horror. Viz Media, LLC, 2017.

L., Erika. “Conformity in Japanese Society.” The International, 4 Apr. 2019,

isshinternational.org/5925/viewpoint/conformity-in-japanese-society/.

Mogsam. “Philosophical Themes in Uzumaki.” The Vault Publication, 11 Nov. 2014,

thevaultpublication.com/2014/11/11/philosophical-themes-in-uzumaki/.