Japan is home to a lot of ancient cultural artifacts and yet serves as an example of the developed world samurais, high-speed trains, home to some of the world’s largest tech companies, and may evision Tokyo as a bustling fast paced city. Japan’s population is declining, this isn’t unusual in a time where developed countries are relying on less children.What is overlooked when describing the now 3rd largest economy on Earth is how it went from surrendering during WWII to becoming an industrial superpower. There have been many changes but one have remained constant, which is the collective drive to work and excel. It has heavily influenced the Japan we know today.
Currently, Japan is known for having a very distinct culture, cultivated due to their isolation as an island nation. However, while Japanese civilization is a highly distinctive society, it also has strong ties to Chinese culture. In fact, as early as the first century A.D., the people of Japan were sending missions to China; they established a trade and tribute based relationship. This initial relationship gave way to the later Chinese influence that would shape Japan. From these encounters, and maybe even from before, the Japanese developed a writing system similar to Chinese. In fact, according to Vogler, the earliest known examples of Japanese writing are proper names inscribed in Chinese characters. Nevertheless, Chinese influence didn’t just stop with language; it extended to art, literature, and even government. Eventually, these influences from China, often referred to as the ‘Sinification’ of Japan, would give rise to the newly civilized Japanese nation. Especially during the T’ang dynasty of China, “Both Korea and Japan were profoundly influenced by China and underwent broad centralizing reforms on the Chinese model” (Varley 19). Indeed, through religion, bureaucracy, and the arts, Chinese culture began to permeate Japanese civilization throughout the seventh and eighth centuries A.D.
China and Japan are too enormous and influential nations located in Eastern Asia. These two nations are almost always confused because of their similar culture and people, and they also happen to be right next to each other. Japan and China have never been allies and the two countries always seem to be in conflict. These two superpowers are very important to the world, and without them everything would be imbalanced in the global market. The rising superpower, China, is a nation that will continue to grow and improve their economy, while the fragile superpower, Japan, could fall apart at any moment and ruin the balance between all of the other countries.
Japan and Great Britain are two geographically isolated countries that have risen to greatness despite many challenges. Both nations have overcome their relative seclusion and grasped power, despite consequences for neighboring areas. Though Japan and Britain have an abundance of similarities, differences abound as well. While Great Britain has used its location central to Europe to gain allies and form trade deals, Japan has been less than diplomatic in grasping its power from neighboring countries. Though Britain has been an example of progress and modernity for eons, Japan has pulled itself into modernity more recently.
Between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Japan’s economy developed remarkably. China had also developed economically; however, not near as much as Japan. The Japanese government industrialized greatly and encouraged western influence, but the Chinese government did the opposite.
The plans and narratives of the Kowloon Walled City have drastically changed through the years, as it has been an unrolled and unregulated enclave between the British and Chinese governments. It began as an officially planed Chinese military fort and afterwards witnessed three distinct stages of lawlessness, demolition and rebirth as an urban garden. It all officially began in the 16th century, when the Chinese built a defensive garrison town filled with soldiers, civil officers and their families (Carney, 2013). However, when Hong Kong was leased to the British in 1898, the Kowloon Walled City became a enclave in the colonized territory, where no laws of the official state applied and everything began expanding spontaneously. The first stage of the city’s unintentional self-organization began in the 1950’s. It is widely known as the time of three vices – gambling, prostitution and drug dealing. The official regulations of the British did work on Hong Kong and were reversely reflected in the Chinese enclave. As soon as something was forbidden in the city-state, people massively poured into the un-ruled territory and let the sins to flourish. This way the Kowloon Walled City became synonymous with violence, crime and disturbance. During this period, the city and people became one, the buildings were connected by piping systems and wires, the water poured through the holes and sunlight could barely reach the lower levels. Yet, in the early 1970’s the situation started changing
During the 1980’s, Hong Kong was known for its wealth, and it was recognized for its politics, expensive real estate prices, as well as their entertainment. During that time, the manufacturing industry fell, as other economic aspects like foreign trade and personal and general community services increased. Since manufacturing
Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. To a certain extent,Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference.
As John Howard stated in 2006, “Australia has no greater friend in Asia than Japan.” This article will give an overview of Japan as a country and the links that Australia has with this country, whether it be through culture, defence and military, tourism, trade or sport. It will also look into historical events that sparked these links and how these relationships were formed and strengthened. Finally, it will go into how these links have changed the way we see Japan, and how these links have changed Australia to what we know it as today.
In the nineteenth century, after a long stretch of noninterference, China and afterward Japan went under weight from the West to open to remote exchange and relations. The Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States had made a wide hole amongst them and the West, leaving the two Asian countries behind innovatively and military. In that period, neither of them had the ability to face the Western countries, and in the end both needed to sign unequal settlements that constrained them to open their ports and urban communities to remote dealers.The responses of China and Japan to western penetration for the duration of the the 19th century have been comparable in a few approaches and distinct in others.
This investigation attempts to answer the question how the geography of ancient Japan and China are similar as well as different. The question is important because some people might assume that the geography of Japan and China is very similar while it in fact isn’t. The issues that will be addressed are how these two countries geography affected them by factors such as natural defense systems, trading, and food sources within each culture. This investigation will focus on the time period of 250-710 BCE and the places included will be China and Japan. This will be accomplished through a thorough examination using such texts as The National Geographic society’s Journey Into China as well as Jonathan Fenby’s China’s Imperial Dynasties.
In How Asia Works: Success and Failure In the World’s Most Dynamic Region, Joe Studwell explores what led countries such as Japan, South Korea, and China to economic prosperity while countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines failed to ascertain opulence. He describes this separation of success as on that creates two East Asias. He presents his arguments in a four-part narrative detailing the step-by-step process through which countries complete the ascension process. He supports his claims with a 67-page long list of references from the Meiji Restoration all the way up to present day (2014 being that the book was published then). This essay will analyze and critique one main component from each step of his three-step recipe for
In 1945, Japan was devastated and lost a quarter of the national wealth after suffering a defect in the second world war. A majority of the commercial buildings and accommodation had been demolished, and massive machinery and equipment formerly used in production for the civil market were out of service to provide metal for military supplies (Miyazaki 1967). Despite the trash and ruins had left over in Japan, Japan was able to rebuilding its infrastructure and reconstruct their economy. It is revealed that the Japanese economy was on its way to recovery, which received a rapid development since the war, and the reconstruction of Japan had spent less than forty years to become the world’s second largest economy in the 1980s. This essay will explore the three factors account for the economic growth of post-war Japan: the financial assistance from the United States, the external environment, and the effective policy of Japanese government.
The Japanese economy, the 2nd largest in the world, accounts for 7.1% Global World GDP, at US$4.6 triliion and a per capita income of approximately US$33,550 (World Bank 2006). As a result of globalisation, literacy levels are at 99% and the general living standards of the
Japan ranks as the third largest economy in the world as of 2010. The GDP at current prices in US dollars in Japan was reported at 5068.06 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Japan’s resurgence after World War II has however reached an inflection point in yearly 1989 after the burst of Japan’s asset price and real estate bubbles. As can be seen from the graph below, Japan’s GDP has hovered around the same level through more than 20 years of economic stagnation. The GDP’s slow growth has been exacerbated by the world financial crisis of 2008. A major landmark of Japan’s stagnation has been the BOJ’s fight against deflation.