There’s one thing to be lonely, celebrating it in the name of the culture of a country in another, and this is what Japan’s Bocchi culture is all about. Bocchi, a Japanese slang expression for aloneness or loneliness have become quite famous in Japan for people to poke fun at themselves, express a sense of isolation, or a little of both.
Japan widely allows bocchi culture, which simply means living and eating alone. Some restaurants in the country are even designed for eating in silence. There are even various forms of entertainment that seek to replace real social connections with paid or virtual substitutes.
People in Japan, especially nature lovers seem to embrace the bocchi lifestyle with pride. But this strange amusing way to loneliness is the epidemic of loneliness affecting up to 40 per cent of Japanese people.
What is Japan’s bocchi culture?
The word bocchi is short for hitoribocchi, from hitori (one person) and bocchi, a word derived from another Japanese word houshi (Buddhist priest). While these origins seem to have some Zen connotations, the modern-day word has an essence that is a more pathetic kind of loneliness.
Bocchi can be used to express sadness about being alone, but it can also be used in a humorous, self-deprecating way. The word can be used with many other words to form humours expressions like bocchi meshi (eating alone), bocchi ramen (eating ramen alone) and similar foodie examples that are especially popular.
One popular example of bocchi’s more tongue-in-cheek usage is the term kuribocchi. The kuri is short for kurisumasu (Christmas).
In Japan, Christmas is not a day traditionally spent with family, but a romantic holiday similar to Valentine’s Day. So referring to oneself as kuribocchi is a way of highlighting that you are dateless or single on this day of love.
How does Japan enable bocchi lifestyle?
Japan’s loneliness is no joke. The number of lonely deaths in elderly people is a staggering 68,000 each year. To address these troubling statistics, the Japanese government appointed its first Minister of Loneliness in 2021. But, on the other hand, several aspects of Japanese culture and infrastructure support and enable a solitary way of life.
In Japanese cities, single people tend to live alone, including university students. Sharing a home with a friend or housemate is unusual in the country, and living with a partner before marriage is much less common. But loners in Japan are well-catered to in daily life, instead of being asked to share their lives with someone.
Most restaurant chains offer plenty of single-occupant counter seats, while private internet and manga cafe rooms are designed with individual customers in mind. The country’s infamous host and hostess bars also provide paid company in the absence of a genuine date.
Many forms of Japanese entertainment are also designed to appeal to lonely consumers. The Japanese idol industry encourages para-social relationships between artists and fans. Online games known as dating sims, in which the player aims to woo a virtual love interest, are popular for both men and women.
It can be concluded how these trends might encourage isolation for individuals who aren’t otherwise socially outgoing.
(With inputs from agencies)
