Japanese Society and the "oyakusoku" vol.4

Last time was about mixi and I ended with the question, "what can oyakusoku bring to Japanese but pain?"

If I tell you only about the mixi-kind of oyakusoku, then it sounds so cruel that Japanese have to live with this for a lifetime, but that's not exactly how it is in reality. Japanese in fact do like this oyakusoku, a lot.

For example, there is this TV show called "Waratte iitomo". It's almost a historical talk show (lol, jk) being around for more than 20 years (this part is true), and the show invites different guests everyday. Like one day this actor A comes to studio, and then at the end of the guest talk A is asked to introduce a friend by phone. And then the audience gets to know who's going to be the guest for the following day. Well the oyakusoku comes at the moment A tries to call his friend (=the next guest) with the audience's huge booing of "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh...*sigh*" (note: read this with the "e" as in "pen", not as in "be").
What it means is that introducing the next guest automatically means the end of talk show for guest A, and because A won't be in the rest of the show the booing is supposed to mean sadness of letting A go. This has rooted like a ritual, so even if you don't know the guest or the talk wasn't that interesting, you have to say it if you're part of the audience. oyakusoku is a manner.

If I make it a bit exaggerated yet simple, Japanese use a variety of oyakusoku to make communication easier. By knowing the oyakusoku there'll emerge a sense of commonness and unity, which leads to the excitement of being the same with everybody (I know being the same with everybody isn't that welcome in other parts of the world).

If I were one of those audience, even though I'm rather on the cynical side of oyakusoku here, I'd probably shout out the oyakusoku "Eeeeeh!" with glee and with a wierd half-grin. Why not? Looks like fun.

But what if I had to be there everyday and keep on doing the oyakusoku booing everyday? Then it's going to be a pain like in the mixi case.

Oyakusoku enforces you to do something. And of course, that act can become troublesome.

But it's the common sense for all the Japanese people, and by acting on it we reaffirm the common sense just like animals sniffing at each other.
From a non-Japanese's point of view who more likely does not recognize that common sense (it's natural if you grow up in a different environment, right?), the oyakusoku act appears to be something only Japanese can get excited with and thus equal the idea "Japan is a closed society."

If you truly want to melt into Japanese society, try to get on the flow. But I'd tell you, even if you know oyakusoku maybe the shortest shortcut to understanding Japanese, I assume it won't be easy and will take a lot of patience.