Reflection Paper On Japanese Pop Culture

The Japanese are a very creative culture which have produced several fantastic science fiction movies such as Gojira, which was an allegory for the use of atomic bombs in war to the animated cartoons, known as anime in America, like Space Battleship Yamato which portrayed the story of all the nations of the planet Earth joining forces to defeat an alien invasion. Yamato and other anime like Mach-A-Go-Go had female characters in the shows that were both allies and sometimes love interest to the main characters, but still were depicted as strong female role models and were drawn with normal features and body types. However, as time has passed, women in anime have been more and more sexualized and this has had an effect on how young people look at Japanese culture and women in particular. In this paper, the effects of this practice will be observed.

Many Asian Americans were painted as evil villains or downright dangerous in the early 20th century (1900-1940s). Often they were stereotyped as "inscrutable" and often speaking in the broken English. During early 1900's, there were abudance of vicious images of Japanese being shown as forward and buck-toothed popped up in the media. The infamous journalist, Wallace Irwin, made mockery out of Japanese by publishing "Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy". He produced various of anti-Japanese stereotypes such as switching letters "L" with "R" and continuing mocking them with broken English speech "Engrish". The White leaders spoke against the Japanese Americans regarding their alleged immorality, even they liken them to the ape-like imagery just like

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

Schodt, Frederik L. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. Vol. 1, Berkeley, CA, Stone Bridge Press, 2007. Frederik L. Schodt is a famous novelist, translator, and interpreter. He is an alumni of the University of California, graduated of year 1972. He is the translator of the manga “Astro Boy”, which in 2009 became a movie. Schodt, when writing this book was having a general audience in mind, but he is mainly targeting adults and older generations. The reason for that is because he wants to explains what manga is and explains the point of manga to those you don’t know what manga is. When reading the book, the reader doesn’t need to have a very high skill level, they just need to know how to read. This book needs to have a little more examples of manga’s in the US, not just “Astro Boy”. This source and Schodt’s article of “Translating Manga” are so similar… they are by the same

After a stressful week of school and work, it is finally the weekend. People often do many activities to have fun or feel productive during the weekend. Similar to myself, I watched an anime over the weekend. Animes are animated TV shows produced by Japanese companies. Watching animes on my weekends relieves the stress from school, but also can change the point of my views seen in society. A prime example of an anime I watched this weekend was Your Lie In April. Its Japanese name is Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. Your Lie In April is a story about a young boy name Kousei Arima, who is a prodigy pianist and what lies ahead is his path to his future. In this journey, Arima faces the death of his mother, which shakes Arima’s world,

Japanese anime has been a focal point of artistic expression in eastern culture since the 1950s. By utilizing a combination of action sequences, vivid imagery, and compelling narratives these forms of art reveal the artists cultural influences as well as serving as a medium for the artist to convey his social and political beliefs. Mamoru Oshii 's Ghost in the Shell, is no exception. Ghost in the Shell is a cyberpunk version of a near future Earth where society is completely reliant on technology and cybernetic humans depend heavily on the software used to create them. Within this narrative we see a cybernetic female that exists as two cohesive entities, a cybernetic shell in which she was created into, and a ghost, a concept that serves the purpose of acting as a human conscience. Using this technological dependent reality, Oshii creates a visual masterpiece that acts as a battleground for conflicting representations of power within the concept of gender as well as representing a desire to liberate ourselves from the self-imposed gender constructs that we adhere to.

In this modern era the gulf between modernized nations and nations who are not grows constantly, and if a country hopes to bridge the growing gap they must advance quickly. As with any other growth, growing pains are routine. Among others is the pain of the existence of generations whose world is changed completely over the course of a lifetime. In few places is this effect starker than in Japan’s modern history, a country whose traditional ideals had to find a way to adapt modern westernized ideals to a historically traditional nation in a small amount of time. This era, the Meiji Restoration, put Japan through their growing pains and pushed the country to compete on the global level. Natsume Soseki offers a character whose relationships in the novel “Kokoro” are analogous to the progression and end of this Meiji era and how it effected the individual and their perceptions of change.

As an avid reader, I discovered manga while in secondary school; I was immediately hooked and actively sought out other forms of Japanese popular media. As I delved further into the culture behind the content, the cuisine, and the history of East Asia I developed a more academic interest and began to investigate means of incorporating my love of Japan into my long-term life plan.

The new Meiji Period was the starting point for Japan’s isolation from foreign countries. During the end of Edo period, Matthew C. Perry came to Japan and established the Nichi-Bei Washin Joyaku, the Japan-US Treaty of Amity and Friendship, allowing Japan to be fully open to the United States of America. Soon after, foreign officials from other countries came to Japan to make similar friendship treaties, changing Japan to be one of the global nations. From the treaty, Foreigners started to build homes and live in one of the ports opened to them, creating cultural influence on the people who had never seen foreigners. Through the opening of Japan during the Meiji Period, Westerners were able to enter and create a positive influence on

During the Kamakura period of Japan, the decline of the Buddhist law had become a problem for the Buddhist priests. The people of Japan called this the “Age of Mappo,” which literally translates as the “Age of the Decline,” or the “Age of the Decline in Law.” Buddhism had become increasingly popular during the 6th century of Japan, after being introduced from the Chinese. One of the greatest supporters of Buddhism at the time was Prince Shotoku, who created the seventeen article constitution, as well as his Three Sutra Commentary. Many changes happened during this period of Japanese history.

Western Influence on Japan Japan, as a nation, is a continually changing society. Ever since western nations became involved with Japan, its changes over recent times have increased at a substantial rate. Japan now faces cultural, economical and social differences as a result of the western involvement. The involvement was initiated by the Japanese themselves, beginning during the Meiji Period1 through current times.

Each nation has an interesting society. There's no sense in saying that one nation is more novel than another. With regards to Japan, Japan has numerous things in the same manner as Asia. Nonetheless, in some ways, it additionally looks like Europe or even the US. In numerous different ways, Japan is genuinely one of a kind. Japan has had a tremulous history loaded with wars, seismic tremors, fires, tidal wave, storms, edit disappointments and scourges. Nearby this foundation of continuous tragedies emerged a one of a kind and advanced culture(Cowley, Parker, 1996). Japanese human progress can be followed back to its first ceramics that is around 16,000 years of age. The significant occasions of Japanese history number in the thousands. In this unique circumstance, the accompanying chronicled truths are for the most part irregular, however, may be intriguing in any case Japanese culture is exceptionally fascinating, particularly to Western eyewitnesses, a number of whom quickly consider sushi, sumo wrestling, and samurai when they consider Japan(Cowley, Parker, 1996). While these three things are particularly some portion of Japanese culture and history, they just begin to

Culture is defined in different ways throughout the region of the world, with different characteristics that define culture. In this paper I will define the meaning of Japan’s culture and describe Japan’s common culture characteristics throughout their nation’s physical geography, military conflict history, and weather analysis. Culture is by the beliefs, customs, arts, a particular society, group, place or time such as music, theater, painting, their habits, and traditions. Like ways of life for their way of thinking, behaving, or working.

Many religions are popular within the Japanese culture. Two of the most influential religions, Shinto and Buddhism that help shaped a lot of Japanese values are Shinto and Buddhism, played a large role in shaping Japanese values. Numerous similarities and differences run between these two religions; nonetheless, the Japanese often believe in more than one religion at the same time. This is possible due to the polytheistic nature of most popular religions in Japan. It is not hard to say that religion is a big part of Japanese culture because a lot of religious beliefs can still be seen in their everyday lives.

Japanese people are just normal people, they can love and laugh, they can hate and cry, they can be moral and can be immoral, they have their own culture though, but it doesn’t make them any more or less “human” than people like “us” (whoever you are).