Japanese Living Lifestyle Essay

1366 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Japan culture introduction essay

Japanese Living Lifestyle and Cultures
Japan is an archipelago, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. Japan is separated from the east coast of Asia by the Sea of Japan. Japan consists of over 6,800 islands and suffers 1,500 earthquakes every year. Most of Japan’s islands are also mountains, and most mountains are volcanoes. Japan has about 200 volcanoes, 60 of which are still active (Somervill, 2012). Japan covers a total area of 145,882 square miles, making it about the size of the state of Montana. The four main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
Japan has a large population in relation to its land mass. Japan is a cultural society. They live their life with key factors in mind. One factor happens to be religion. …show more content…

New Year’s Day (Oshogatsu) is the most important traditionally celebrated holiday. It is a time for ritual reaffirmations of social obligations. On December 31, at midnight, millions of people visit Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples to pray for their families. Much like Americans, one special activity includes lots of hearty eating and drinking along with fellowship and cheer.
Bon or Buddhist All Souls’ Festival, is the Japanese time of the year, according to Buddhist belief, the spirits of the dead return home to visit (Sosnoski, 1996). It takes place in either July or August. During the Bon ceremony, family members return to their parental homes to honor the spirts of the dead. Despite the different cultures, ancestor worship is an important mechanism through which the living feel that they are spiritually connected to the deceased family member.
Hanami, the Cherry Blossom viewing, which is also celebrated in the United States. The transition from winter to spring is celebrated annually in rituals ranging from Easter parades in the West to cherry-blossom viewing in parts of the East. For almost 2,000 years, the Japanese rite has been to celebrate the brief appearance of their favorite flower, the sakura (Sosnoski, 1996). The cherry blossom trees that are in the United States were a gift from Tokyo in 1912. They can be found in Washington, D.C. and reach their peak in early

Show More
Related

  • Servant Leadership In Japanese Culture

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    I did not know that much about this culture until this paper. The Japanese people are very polite and respectful. The Japanese take education very serious and nature. Their langue is a lot different they have different styles of speaking even for different social status there is a certain way of thinking. In Japan there is a mixture of the Buddha religion and the Shinto. Both beliefs have the same influence on the Japan culture. Buddhism was brought o Japan in the early 6th century from China. There are five precepts that they go by which are no killing, no stealing, no lying, no sexual misconduct, and no use of intoxication.

    Read More

  • Shintoism in History

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    A thousand torches blaze with fire in dozens of cities and towns in Japan. It is January 15th, the start of the lunar year. Before World War II, the emperor of Japan used to light fires twice a year at the four corners of his palace in homage to Kagutsuchi, the God of Fire. Today, temples across the country continue to celebrate the fire festivals, known as Dosojin Matsuri, to honor the fire deities and ask for favors. Shintoism is not a normal religion. In modern perspective, it resembles the views of many modern pagan religions—for instance Wicca—in the sense that it involves ideas like animism, shamanism and the existence of a spiritual world; nevertheless, Shintoism, unlike western modern paganism, is deeply rooted in Japanese culture including its literature.

    Read More

  • Japanese American Identity Essay

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    Masooma Alsultan representing race paper 1 March 20, 2014. The mysterious identity of Japanese American and Mexican American After the United States had gained its independence, immigrants began to arrive in the American lands. And in the late 1800s, the immigrants’ situation changed. Many Americans started to look at the immigrants, as if they were different.

    Read More

  • The Mexican Day of the Dead

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is a holiday with a complex history, and therefore its observance varies quite a bit by region and by degree of urbanization.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Japanese and American Health Care Systems

    1650 Words  | 4 Pages

    Japan's 2008 total population was 127.69 million though its younger population has decreased as the older population has increased. Japans older population is living longer than earlier generations (Wakamatsu-cho, 2008). Diet has a great deal to do with Health and traditionally Japanese meals were higher in carbohydrates due to lower economic status and rarely used beef or pork. With economic growth came changes to the traditional Japanese diet adding more fats and proteins, causing a recent decline in Japanese health and increase in obesity (Saigusa, 2006).

    Read More

  • Shinto: A Native Religion

    1637 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shinto is a native religion of Japan and the people of Japan. It is defined as an action centered religion, focused on ceremonial practices to be carried out thoroughly, to establish a assembly between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and organized in the written historical records of the Jokiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century (Nelson 7-8). Still, these early Japanese writings do not refer to a joined “Shinto religion”, but rather to a gathering of native beliefs and mythology.

    Read More

  • The Video Gaming Culture in Japan

    1609 Words  | 4 Pages

    We will explore some important facts about Japan’s cultural society and environment. The country of Japan is an island nation, which is separated from Mainland Asia by the Sea of Japan. (“Facts about Japan”) On the west side it is surrounded by the Northern Pacific Ocean. It has no land boundaries.

    Read More

  • Geography Of Japan

    473 Words  | 1 Pages

    Japan is crowded with its 130 million people would be an understatement. But add that to the fact that seventy-five percent of the nation is hilly or mountainous, and the wide open spaces for ...

    Read More

  • The Cultural and Religious Aspects of China

    1425 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Chinese New Year is a huge festival celebrated all over the country, it’s the most important festival celebrated on the calendar (13). The Chinese use a lunar calendar for their festivals so the date of the Chinese New Year is different each year (13). The date corresponds to the new moon in either late January or February (13). This is a time of good fortune and happiness. It is also considered the beginning of spring so; many also call it the spring festival (13).

    Read More

  • The Decline of Japan’s Birth Rate

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japan needs to have more babies. The population of Japan is declining, and the birth rate is a base problem. People just aren’t having enough babies anymore. This will be problematic, as Tomm says “The consequences have had negative effects as fertility rate continues to decline and life expectancy continues to increase”. After the birth rate has been declining for the past four decades, the old far outnumber the young at a ratio of nearly 2:1(“Japan Age structure”). There aren’t enough workers to pay into social security. Social problems like traditional gender roles and stereotypes negatively impact the growth of the population. Because of their work-centric lifestyles, social problems, and child related expenses, Japan’s birth rate is severely declining.

    Read More

  • National Cherry Blossom Festival

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    This year Washington D.C celebrated the Cherry Blossom’s 104th year from when the first set of 2,000 trees were sent over from the Japanese mayor in 1910, but unfortunately that set of 2,000 trees were diseased and died quickly. In 1921 the Japanese mayor sent over 3,000 more trees. He did not want the United States to think that he planned on sending us a bad set of trees and wanted to keep the peace and friendship that the United States and Japan had. ("National Cherry Blossom Festival").

    Read More

  • Chinese New Year Essay

    1979 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the traditions you will see most often is the Red Packets. Red packets are passed out to children by elders, married couples, and adults. The packages will contain yuan and is believe to keep the children healthy and suppress evil. (“Chinese New Year Traditions.”) Many people will also clean and decorate their house with Fu, Papercutting and door gods. Fu or upside down character of Fu (which means luck) will be posted because upside down it means coming, as in luck will come to those who post it. Door gods are decorative pieces which are placed on the side of an entry to ward off evil spirits. (“Chinese New Year Crafts.”) Some of the more popular foods eaten during the fifteen days of Chinese New Year are dumplings, New Year Cake, Tang Yuan, and LaBa Congee. New Year Cake is a solid cake with glutinous rice flour together with some sugar, it is most popular in eastern china. Tang yuan however is a small ball of glutinous rice flour served in boiling water. They can be filled or unfilled and are traditionally eaten on the fifteenth day or the Lantern Festival. LaBa congee is a mixture of rice, nuts, and beans cooked together. LaBa Congee is usually served at the LaBa festival, which is the 8th day of the last month of the year. (“Chinese New Year Food.”) The final foods eaten are of course noodles and dumplings, throughout the festivities they are eaten because noodles represent long life and dumplings represent wealth because they are similar to silver or gold ingots. During Chinese New Year the people celebrate by writing poetry on the lanterns as well and posting poetry throughout the house. In this poem you can clearly see how the New Year is reveled and enjoyed by the

    Read More

  • Halloween Through History

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    In order to explain, this we need to go back to the very beginning of this creepy holiday. Long ago, a people known as the Celts celebrated a holiday they called Samhain. The Celts lived two thousand years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Northern France. Celts began each new year on November first; This is the day that ends the harvest and marks the beginning of winter, cold and hard, which many then feared they had not stored enough food to survive. With that in mind it is no small wonder that this time of year was often associated with death. So the day before, Samhain , Celts believed that this world and the Deadworld boundaries blurred and th...

    Read More

  • Japan and Japanese Culture

    1178 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japan is a large island off to the east of China it is a great country that has a rich culture. The Japanese religion is based off of two main beliefs, the belief in Shinto and Buddhism many Japanese people believe consider themselves both. The Japanese people were known to be around as early as 4,500 B.C. They have constructed their government style to a constitutional monarchy where they do in fact have an emperor, but he has limited power within the country. The main power of the country is held by the Prime Minister of Japan. Japan is made up of many islands that extend along the Pacific coast of Asia. The land area is made up of a lot of forest and mountainous area that cannot be used for agricultural, industrial or residential use. Japan also has one of the largest and growing economies in the world. They are growing every day and it is all because the people of Japan work very hard in order for their economy to flourish as it has.

    Read More

  • The Japanese Culture: The Values Of The Japanese Culture

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japan is made up of 98.5% Japanese, 0.5% Korean, 0.4% Chinese and 0.6% other ethnicity. It does not seem that the small percentage of non-Japanese cultures have had much of an impact on the Japanese culture. Around 99% of the population speak Japanese and less than 1% of the population speaks Korean. Japan does not display ethnic, religious and class divisions in their social structure. Even 90% of the population consider themselves as middle class.

    Read More

More about Japanese Living Lifestyle Essay

Open Document