Culture In Japanese Culture

Japan has a very rich and unique culture, unlike any other culture in the world. The Japanese are close and united, and willing to help each other, to the point that they would even risk their lives for one another. Their culture has certain aspects of it that every nation should have. In his book, John Hersey explores the effects that culture and environment have on an individual’s views and belief through analyzing a stereotypical Japanese man, an Americanized Japanese priest, and a widowed Japanese woman and how they react similarly to the bombing of Hiroshima. The influence of Japanese culture has an astounding impact on the reactions of Hersey’s characters.

People no longer use the term “Japanese American” in today's society. Instead, they are no longer thought as a separate group and are incorrectly categorized as “Asian American”, along with Vietnamese American, Chinese American, etc. Japanese Americans have an extremely unique background in terms of their origins, history, and struggle with racialization. Like many ethnic groups, Japanese Americans have been subjected to many different portrayals throughout American history. Even though cultural separation and suspicion are deemed as immoral, such practices toward them were thought to be necessary by the American Government. For a good amount of time, they suffered from racial hostility and violence. Now, in an age where cultural diversity

For many years Japan isolated themselves from the world causing them to miss out on benefits of the Industrial Revolution. Once Japan realized how far behind they were in technology, they opened their gates to foreigners. This led the Boshin War, a civil war between the remaining Samurais and the rest of the country pushing for a more modern and foreign influenced country. The film the “The Last Samurai” does a wonderful job depicting Japanese culture during the Boshin War. It shows how Japanese manners, fighting methods, clothing, honor, and ultimately their entire way of life is different from those in the U.S.

In American culture the word, conformity, seems to have a negative connotation, but in countries like Japan, conformity seems to be a way of life. Why are the Japanese so willing to conform? Why are they so willing to be just like everyone else? The following will summarize a short video about Japanese conformity, as well as provide my own analysis of the video, and my own views on Japanese conformity.

Japan is about 83 years old. Japan is an island in the Pacific Ocean. It has dense cities, palaces, mountainous national parks and thousands of shrines and temples. Population of Japan as of 2016 is 127 million. Its capital, Tokyo, is also one of the biggest cities. Their national language is japanese but there are eleven other known languages.

I am going to Japan soon. I have been thinking about the things that I am going to see and how life could be different. The culture, food and the other activities that I would do. Everything is different there. Even school.

This paper provided an opportunity to take a deeper look into the country of Japan by conducting a Global Cultural Analysis. Throughout this paper the following four research areas were explored: 1.What is the major elements and dimensions of culture in Japan? 2. How are these elements and dimensions integrated by locals conducting business in Japan? 3. How does U.S. culture and business compare with the elements and dimensions of culture integrated by the locals conducting business in Japan? 4. What are the implications for U.S. businesses that wish to conduct business with Japan?

Everything changed during the Meiji period, because Meiji implemented the strongest aspects of other powerful countries into their own society. One of the changes was a change of their culture. Other things that changed included, their values and beliefs about culture, their social system and political and economic systems. Another change was Religion. Their government wanted to replace Shintoism in the public schools, as a replacement of Buddhism and Confucianism. The government believed that doing this would bring the people of Japan together. However this did not happen because the people refused to give up their original religion, that they have always practiced and were taught to practice, for a new one. In the end the government decided to keep Buddhism and Confucianism as a religion.

Following the topic of race the Japanese society were as well not discussed about in the textbook in the appropriate way. This particular race had gone through a lot of hardship and was removed from the homes and brought to camps, which were like prisons. The reason behind the removal of the Japanese American was to get rid of them from the west side due to the fear that the Americans felt of having them in the United States was not safe. In for most the Japanese American reflected as a threat to the American and they could not handle that in result, the Americans got rid of them for the safety of the US. As having the opportunity to watch the class film, Something Strong Within it demonstrated the living conditions and the horrible lifestyle

Our group has selected Northern Japanese (Hokkaido) society as our target culture. Japan is a country that known for having a highly homogeneous society, but different region has their own significance in social and cultural patterns. Indigenous Ainu people and their cultural has been home in this region for a long time. They keep their own ways of life and did not assimilate into other regional culture pattern in Japan. Ainu defined as human. They used to pray and perform ceremonies for their gods include nature god, animal god, and more. The Fishing is one of the activity they do for their living and most of the villages were located near the sea or river.

More importantly, many cultural, political and/or religious structures were selectively borrowed from China (Japan’s closest axial centre) and Korea (Japan’s closest non-axial counterpart). For example, Perinola (2006: 131) states: “From AD 552 onwards, Yamato’s court adopted from China not only in Buddhism, but also their writing, techniques, arts and many lifestyles.” The borrowing of these certain structures, as illustrated by Perinola (2006), indicated Japan was highly receptive to external influences. Furthermore, being receptive to foreign influences occupies a major position in Japanese civilisation, for both premodern and modern developments, because it was being receptive that developed a distinct trajectory in Japan, but a problem

Due to the roles of females in ancient Japan, in Japanese culture, the ideal of a submissive women prevailed. Even after Japan re-established communication with the world, Confucian ideology prevailed over foreign western ideas (Kurihara). The preservation of the patriarchal system was promoted by Confucianism’s ‘Seven Reasons for Divorce,’ (French 89) and the Ryosai Kenbo (“Good Wife, Wise Mother”) ideology (Van Houten 19). These beliefs portrayed women as submissive wives whose only duty is to (1) please her husband, (2) please her husband’s parents, and (3) take care of the children. Also, these ideas gave women no equality in marriage and no right to divorce.

Findings of ancient culture of Japan date back as far as two hundred thousand B.C... Based on archeological evidence, between thirty-five thousand and thirty thousand B.C., homo-sapiens had migrated to the islands from eastern and southeastern Asia. Tools, human fossils, and inhabitation sites from this period have been discovered throughout all of the islands of Japan. Japan’s culture, religion, dining, and their philosophy of life in general, are all very unique and they differ from the cultural norms in America. (Japan, 2010)

The word culture normally refers to the shared beliefs, norms, interactions, effective understanding and shared patterns of behaviors among a particular group of individuals. For a particular norm or belief to be termed as a culture, it must possess some special features. One of the features is that the culture must be a learned behavior that is passed from one generation to another, especially as a person grows in a given environment. Another feature of cultures is that they are interrelated. Cultures emerge from family, educational institutions and social institutions which offer a ground for learning the basics of the cultures. Other characteristics of the cultures include; cultures are adaptive, it is shared, it is a symbol, and it is dynamic in nature.

Music plays an enormous part in the culture of Japan. Japanese music has been developing for thousands of years from the ancient times to present day and is still evolving. The Japanese have adopted many different musical instruments from many different regions and turned them into the centerpiece of their music. As the Japanese culture has evolved their musical instruments and their style of music has too. Japans musical culture is vastly different from what is was a couple hundred years ago but still showcases their identity. Today Japan has one of the largest musical industries and has a huge influence on music around the world.