What is the difference between participation and involvement?

When I returned home last night, mrs bln had some news for me. Apparently, from April it will be our turn to be the neighbourhood hancho...

The hancho is the neighbourhood leader and this Japanese word is almost certainly where the English 'honcho' comes from.

In Japan, there is a stronger sense of obligation to one's community than in the West. Of course, this probably depends on where one lives; possibly in Tokyo and other huge cities the situation isn't quite the same, but here at least, it is so.

Let's look at how it all works for a moment. In a city there will be smaller divisions or 'towns', called -cho. Each of these will be further divided into smaller communities called han. Typically, a han might consist of ten or twelve houses; sometimes more, sometimes less. Although these areas are under the control of the local town or city office, many of the day to day procedures are regulated by the community itself.

So, what are the duties of these community leaders? Well, making sure that the neighbourhood is kept clean and tidy is one. Ensuring that all rubbish is recycled properly is another. In some areas, patrolling for truants (heaven forbid!) is yet another. Organising the neighbours in times of emergency, delivering community newsletters, helping out at funerals and wakes in the neighbourhood...in short, making sure that everything in the community goes as smoothly as possible.

Now, I don't want you to get the impression that this is all done with an altruistic and neighbourly sense of purpose. For the most part, nobody wants to be the hancho, but it's shiyo-ga nai...there's no choice in the matter...

Personally, the thought of getting up at 6:30 in the morning to go and stand outside and tell people who already know very well, thankyouverymuch, where they should put their empty beer cans, pet bottles, wine bottles and cans of hairspray, doesn't fill me with an overpowering sense of excitement but since everyone else has had a year doing it and it's rotated to our turn, well, tough luck bln, just get out there and do it.

Neither am I particularly looking forward to the one Sunday a month when I shall have to get up at a similar time to go and clean my neighbourhood. I pay local taxes, y'see, I'm participating, I'm doing my bit. So the foreign devil in me asks why the hell I'm paying taxes and have to do street cleaning myself. Obviously the yen I'm paying in local taxes aren't enough to employ someone to do it for me....

Except, of course they are. I'm going to be doing it because by doing so, I'm actively involved in the responsibility for the upkeep of my area. In Japanese schools too, it is the students who have to clean their own classrooms. How messy and dirty are you going to make a place if you know that it's you who's going to have to clean it up? This, in part, is the principle behind the idea.

Boring and miserable a duty though it is, devoting time to one's community is actually not a bad thing at all. It'll give me an opportunity to develop relationships with my neighbours beyond a simple 'good morning', it'll give the neighbours a chance to learn that there's more to that strange shaven headed gaijin than they've suspected all these years, it'll give me a sense of pride to look at the clean streets around my home and know that they're clean because I got up at 6:30 in the morning to clean 'em!

Of course, I haven't actually seen 6:30 in the morning for god knows how long, so that's going to be an adventure all in itself...

(for another example of the difference between participation and involvement, think about a chicken and a pig looking in through the window one morning at the farmer tucking in to his bacon and eggs. "See," says the chicken, "I'm important to the farmer; I participate in his breakfast!" "Yeah" replies the pig, "but I'm involved"......)