Ninjō (人情 "human emotion or compassion") in Japanese, is human feeling that complements and opposes the value of giri,
or social obligation, within the Japanese worldview.
Broadly speaking,
ninjo is said to be the human feeling that inescapably springs up in conflict
with social obligation.
As ninjo is a culture-specific term, the
validity and/or importance of this concept is subject to a wide range of
viewpoints, inextricably tied in to one's perspective on nihonjinron as a whole.
Giri (義理)[1]:95[2] is a Japanese value roughly corresponding to "duty", "obligation", or even "burden of obligation" in English.
It is defined as "to serve one's superiors with a self-sacrificing devotion" by Namiko Abe. This value is so integral to Japanese culture that the conflict between giri and ninjō,
or "human feeling", is said to have been the primary topic of Japanese
drama since earlier periods in history.
A classic example is that of a samurai
who falls in love with an unacceptable partner (perhaps somebody of low
social class or somebody of an enemy clan). As a loyal member of his
clan, he then becomes torn between the obligation to his feudal lord and
to his personal feelings, with the only possible resolution being shinjū or double love-suicide.
Today, social critics[who?] decry the diminishing influence of giri on shinjinrui,
the new generations of Japan, who pursue an individualistic path in
life that seems quite disparate from traditional Japanese culture.
The term Nihonjinron (日本人論) literally means theories/discussions about the Japanese. The term refers to a genre of texts that focuses on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity.
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