What Is A Reflection Of The Japanese Culture?

The first movie that I will examine is Spirited Away. Spirited Away was released in Japan in 2001, and was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Spirited Away follows the story of Chihiro as she tries to free her parents after they were turned into pig’s due to their greed. The family enters the spirit world and leaves Chihiro to go into a Japanese bath house in order to free her parents. From her adventures, Chihiro grows from a spoiled/whiney child, into an independent young woman. Director Miyazaki grew up in the post- World War 2 era. This upbringing is

Culture is a specific set of morals and values that distinguish a group of individuals from another. The five characteristics that define a culture are that culture is learned, shared with others, based on symbols, it's integrated throughout a nation and lastly can have dynamic. Culture is learned, we primarily see culture taught in adolescent years through our peers, school, family, and even sometimes the media. Your upbringing has an impact on your culture. Culture often shared, it's a social construct. To learn a language, behavior, or even a tradition we must interact with other people, thus making culture shared. Culture is also sometimes based on symbols. We in America know that the flag, red, white, and blue is a symbol of the United States, this a part of our culture. Culture is integrated, it’s brought to wherever you may go in the world, it’s usually mixed with other cultures which make culture integrated. Culture is also dynamic; your culture can always modify slightly, it can always change.

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

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?

In order to understand the roles of Asians in western media, sufficient data and information must be gathered to be able to comprehend why this minority group is discerned in the aforementioned manner. In addition, one of the major concerns in this paper is the term “Yellow Face”, or when a non-Asian person is pretending to be Asian. Yellow Face is usually prevalent in Hollywood movies, such as Madama Butterfly (1915), The Last Airbender (2010), and The Martian (2015).

When recreating a classic film, especially when it is through a different cultural lense, it is inevitable that the original plot, characters, and overall feeling of the movie will be skewed. Our cultural identities and social norms are so ingrained into us that they are bound to be reflected in our art. The film conversion from the Japanese made Seven Samurai to the American remake, The Magnificent Seven, is a poignant example of this. Despite having almost identical plot lines, the films emanate contrasting feelings and to a certain extent, portray different messages. When examining the role of American culture in film, one often looks to the quintessential romance or action plots, stories in which “true love conquers all” or an underdog overcomes adversity to defeat a villain. As demonstrated by these iconic storylines and The Magnificent Seven film, American culture places a strong value on individualism and the idealistic approach to life, which similar to the American dream, tells us that hard work will always be rewarded. On the other hand, Seven Samurais greatly emphasizes family, unity, and the consequences of our actions, demonstrating the importance of interdependence and realism in Japanese culture.

This book, Japanamerica focuses on how the Japanese popular culture influencing the American culture. The author, Roland Kelts take a neutral prospective in order to create this book, which is done by interviewing many significant individual who took part in establishing the popular culture in both Japan and America. Kelts investigates why the phenomenon of Japanophilia, or the “outsider’s infatuation with Japan’s cultural character” (pg.5), is occurring especially in the United States. Even though Japanophilia phenomenon arose before the twentieth century, it is increasing in number because of the anime, manga, videogames, and other medium of popular culture.

Q 1: B) Those that belong to the Japanese culture are demonstrated by the interdependent view, compared to Western cultures which are embody an independent view. Individuals that affiliate themselves as interdependent, their actions and emotions is influenced by their social situation and surroundings. ‘We suggest that for many cultures of the world, the Western notion of the self as an entity containing significant dispositional attributes, and as detached from context, is simply not an adequate description of selfhood. Rather, in many construals, the self is viewed as interdependent with the surrounding context, and it is the “other” or the “self-in-relation-to-other” that is focal in individual experience.” (Markus & Kitayama, 1991, pg. 225). They are more likely to express and display their actions and emotions based on the reactions of others, or how others around them are behaving. In sum, they are connected with social context, as their statuses, roles, and relationships are external. The Japanese are known to be the most humane, when in the context of other people. (Lebra, 1976, as cited in Markus & Kitayama, 1991). They promote other people’s goals and belong and fit in with their social groups, instead of being “unique.” They’re relationships with over individuals, in particular situations, define themselves. Independent individuals are more unique and direct, whereas interdependent individuals are not. (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).

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).

The History of Japan plays a big factor in understanding its culture. Japan is located in Eastern Asia, island chain between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula. Japan has many concerning natural hazardous features as well as environmental problems that effects agriculture as well as economy and population. Japan’s government and civil law system reflect those of German and Anglo-American structures. Learning about the people and society of Japan can be easily accomplished by understanding their religious structure, social structure, languages they speak and interest they uphold.

During the 1850s and the 1860s, a style that is known as the “Japonisme” started emerging in Western Europe, mainly in France. And in the mid-1800s, Japanese people started to trade things with the west again. Thus, as a result of that trading, so many of the Japanese imports were being sent to Europe. This French term, Japonisme describes that period of time when the art of the Japanese people influenced the western art in the 19th century. According to our book,

They are the ritualization in Japanese culture, women’s implicit expression of love, women’s hierarchy in 18th Japan, and how the landscape of Japan influences the prosperity of Geisha culture.

Japanese cinema has definitely changed over the years. In the 1940s the country entered war, fighting battles in the homeland as well as overseas. One of these wars were on-screen in the film industry. Once war broke out both the American and Japanese film industry’s converted to war production and saw great success at the pushing box-offices in a time where our economy was not the best. As we look back we can see how cinema was greatly affected before during and after the war .

Japanese culture is one of the most well appreciated yet, sometimes intriguing and difficult to understand in comparison to certain other cultures. The differences between men and women, different religious ideologies and many symbolic beliefs are characteristics that makes this a culture of world-wide study by many people from other parts of the world. Because of its complexity to understand and learn, Japanese culture not only reflects this major differences in the present day, but it follows the tradition of the ancient culture. In fact, the author of The Sound of Waves, Yukio Mishima enhances the habits of the right and unique ways of this old culture in his main characters and there, touches several important themes found throughout

Many directors use their films as a means of glorifying, criticizing, or simply depicting, a particular ideological system. These ideologies are especially visible in foreign films, as the viewer is forced to assess the film from outside his or her culture and ideology, and consider the film in its proper context. Director Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese film Seven Samurai allows the viewer to understand several important aspects of Japanese culture and ideology. First, the film depicts the Japanese social class structure and its acceptance by the masses. Seven Samurai also reveals the pride of the Japanese, as well as the utilitarian, collectivist nature of their society.