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Japanese Culture: Its Development and Characteristics
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The Japanese culture is quite harmonious, respectful, and hardworking. Their culture is made up highly of being respectful of others, family, and nature. They value their elders, history, tradition, religion, family, government, nature, education, and work. Japanese value respect and their reputation. It is very important for them to save face in their society. For example, The japanese believe that if they turn down someone’s request, it causes embarrassment on themselves and they lose reputation. If they cannot agree to a request, often they will say “it will be difficult” or “it’s under consideration.” instead of flat out denying the request. Harmony is also one of the things that influence Japanese manners and customs. They believe …show more content…
Starting out, they have deep respect for their elders and they care for them dearly. Elderly people are valued as important members of society as they pass down traditions from generation to generation. These traditions, which are also deeply valued, are deep-rooted that go back for millenniums. These traditions of working harmoniously and respectfully also spawn from their cultural roots in their three main religions, Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Their hardships throughout history are also considered a principle factor the the basis for their values. Other things that the japanese value are family, government, nature, and …show more content…
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.
The Japanese have a similar education system to America as they implement a 6-3-3-4 system. Japanese go to six years of elementary school, continue to three years of junior high school, continue to three years of senior high school and then around half of high school graduates go on to get a four year degree. Japan is believed to have one of the best education systems in the world accounting for a 100% enrollment rate in elementary and junior high school and their 0% illiteracy rate. Their high school dropout rate is also quite low at
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.
Throughout History, there have been many different groups or events that are still widely known today. Groups of people such as the Indians or Vikings are popular groups which are referenced constantly in today’s society. However, none of these groups is more known or referenced than the Japanese Samurai. Originating in 646 AD, these Japanese warriors developed from a loose organization of farmers to the dominant social class in Feudal Japan. Along with their dominant military and political standing, the samurai brought with them a unique code or moral belief that became the core of Samurai culture. Because of this, the Samurai and their principles still affect modern day Japanese society with social customs today deriving directly and indirectly from the beliefs of the Samurai.
The five aspects which we will examine that create Japan’s culture are: political, economic, military, social, and religious. We will take a look at some of the general facts and information about Japan and its history, more specifically, the events that led the country to its involvement in World War II. After reading this, it is my hope that many will have a better understanding of a foreign country they may not know much about.
... in body and mind, to governing of the Emperors, to the study of the martial arts. Their code of honor and loyalty are traditions that all Japanese respect and try to live up to even today. The self sacrifice of ones own life for a common cause was even seen in World War II when Japanese pilots deliberately crashed their planes into United States ships anchored at Pearl Harbor. This was a devastating attack and can show the horror caused by revenge and their belief in sacrifice and honor. They were even called kamikaze pilots after the famous samurai battle of long ago. The influence of the samurai continues to be seen in Japan today in a positive way with the stories and legends of heroic samurai and the bushido as their guide.
Another difference is that teachers in Japan write down important things on a blackboard, but teachers in the U.S. seldom write everything; they just explain orally. Japanese students are very quiet during classes, and all they do is listen to teachers and copy what teachers write on blackboards. They seldom ask questions during classes but ask friends or teac...
Japan is part of our world that not many people know, for the few that do, they know that Japan is filled with an extraordinary history. Some of the history starts with little traditions like, the tradition of kimono’s, to big ones such as their well known Japanese festivals. Ancient Japan was a series of islands and many cultural expansions which included religion, armies, art, classic traditions, and their type of clothing. Ancient Japanese is still alive today, from basic works of art, to then a following of certain religions such as Shinto and Buddhism. Many Americans don’t the cultural aspects that were attributed by many across the world, they don’t know that many of those aspects made what Japan is today in society.
Cousins,S.D. (1989). Culture and self-perception in Japan and the United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 56 (1),124-131
Since my cultural experience was on the Japanese culture, I decided I would continue on with that interest and write my paper about the Japanese culture therefor giving me a chance to do more research about the culture. The Japanese culture is really rich and diverse, there is a particular hierarchy or structure to the Japanese culture, Denison (2002) stated that “Japanese culture is structured around black and white norms for acceptable group behavior. People who do not function by there norms are viewed as outsiders who lack legitimate status. Black and white expectations of behavior produce equally clear cut conformity, resulting in high harmony and certainly of outcome, trust is early through continuous conformity”.This is a huge and really important aspect of their culture because it governs their social standing, interacting with others and the way they are seen, and when it comes to your social standing in the culture, the way you are seen and respected by those around you is very important.
Japanese attitude and values inevitably affect how we view, feel and act about things as is exemplified in relation to politics. The functioning of political institutions reflects the attitudes, norms and expectations of citizens. In times of systematic change, a supportive public can facilitate the development of a new political system, while the lack of public support can destroy the foundation of a political system. In order to understand the tendencies for present and future behavior in a nation, we must examine a country's political culture-the public's attitude toward politics and their role within the political system. It is important to recognize that political culture does not explain everything about politics
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.
The Japanese culture has allowed for very little diversity. This started very early in their history. The social controls used to eliminate diversity are the family, the power of gender, the poor treatment of minority groups, the corporate Japanese mentality, and the respect required by people in authority. However, due to globalization and the shrinking of the world, Japanese society is starting to make the change to diversity. The individualistic mentality shared by the new technology driven younger generation is putting pressure on the old Japanese status quo. The transformation is happening very slow, but as the population ages and the old conservatives are being replaced by the new liberals, the old way of thinking is also being replaced by the new.
The Japanese culture is based on its long rich history and change is not welcome, things are done the way they were hundreds of years ago. People also don’t tend to voice their opinions like we do here in the States. Anyone who speaks out usually isn’t given much attention and they fall back into their place and a majority of the population is fine with that. Everyone is fine with fitting in and personal opinion is not voiced out loud most of the time. There are multiple practices that are part of the Japanese culture that are not found in American culture. A few of these are bowing instead of handshake when you address someone, slurping or loud noises are viewed as polite and that you’re enjoying your food, and tipping is viewed as an insult. These practices are somewhat opposite in the American culture, we are much more different than some people tend to realize.
I chose to compare and contrast the United States culture with the culture of Japan. There are a few similarities between the two, such as a love of the arts, fashion and baseball. However, they are culturally different than similar in very major aspects. Japan is a very homogenous society made up of about 98% ethnic Japanese. They tend to put a lot of emphasis on family and communities, and value the group more than the individual (Aliasis, 2013).
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.
A comparison between modern Western countries and Japan emphasizes a large discrepancy in beliefs regarding cultural growth in the separate parts of the world (Leonardson, 2004). According to many scholars and much research done on Japan the culture is the perfect example of what cultural homogeneity means as a whole. The cultural homogeneity affects the Japanese youth in how they grow, develop, affect their communities, and live their future lives in the community; this also plays a role in forcing out crime in the country. It also affects the procedures of the police force when interacting with citizens and planning new procedures that require the help and cooperation of Japanese citizens. The cultural