The Growth of a New Japanese Culture in Russia

Even though Russia is geographically the closest nation to Japan, most Japanese regard Russia as a distant and mysterious country. Many Japanese think that Russians are unsociable, reticent of their views and secretive about militarily nuclearization. Most Japanese have a negative image of the country and its peoples. But in fact Japanese culture is highly popular in Russia, especially food, animation and language. Japanese culture and tradition has adjusted quite well within the Russian milieu, giving rise to a “new” Japanese culture.

Recently, the variety of food Russians eat has increased. The popularity of Asian cuisine has grown rapidly. Today Japanese cuisine especially dishes made from raw fish or “sushi” has gained in popularity. Many Japanese chain restaurants serving sushi such as Planet Sushi and Sushi Vera have opened their outlets in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Within the last few years sushi has become an indispensable item in delicatessen sections of many Russian supermarkets. But the sushi Russians enjoy eating is quite different from the Japanese one. In Japan sushi is invariably made from raw eel, salmon, boiled crab paste, generally referred to as strange sushi or henteko-suhi. By habit Russians invariably do not eat raw fish. From cultural background, people do not eat raw fish so they made sushi in different shapes and sizes to make it more palatable.

Also the interior decor, menu and clientele of Russian sushi restaurants are quite different from that of Japanese sushi places. The atmosphere of a typical sushi restaurant in Russia is quite different from that of Japan. A typical Japanese restaurant has an informal style where the waiters wear traditional Japanese working coat called happi coat, the tables are made of Japanese cypress and menu from traditional Japanese paper called washi.  Compared to the dark interiors of a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant, Russian sushi restaurants such as Ninja are more like American fast food restaurants such as McDonald or Subway. People usually come to the restaurant alone or twosome, and they eat sushi while reading a book or newspaper. The Russian hospitality is quite good. The interiors of Russian sushi restaurants are quite clean, simple and highly modern. Seemingly Russian sushi bars are imitating the modern Japanese interiors rather than the traditional and ancient ones which are still popular in Japan today. About a decade ago Russian sushi restaurant usually used strange kanji character to epitomize their Japanese style but recently they have grown in their understanding of Japanese culture and customer.

Unlike some European countries, the Japanese boom in Russia is not just concerned with just the external aspects of culture but delves deep by understanding the Japanese business and work ethics. In 2010 the popularity of Japanese UNIQLO

marked a new interest in Japanese culture in Russia. As soon a UNIQLO opened in Moscow it became tremendously popular and the number of UNIQLO outlets increased. Russians also tried to follow some of the working principles of Japanese company operations. In Japan both flexibility and enthusiasm are seen as essential qualities of a successful stores manager in stores such as UNIQLO. Therefore the important staff of UNIQLO was trained for three months in Japan to study Japanese structure, system, and hospitality.

 

Many analysts predict that the recent Japanese boom in Russia will gain in popularity and become highly sophisticated. So companies cannot succeed in Russia by just selling Japanese products, they have to adapt them to suit the needs and sensibility of Russian people. Russians are now concentrating on understanding Japanese way of thinking and locate the essence of Japanese tradition.