Japan_Manley



|JAPAN [pic] |

|Definition of Culture | |

|There are many definitions of the word, “culture”. One that seems to encompass the meaning of this difficult concept is: the | |

|system of shared ideas and meanings, explicit and implicit, which a people use to interpret the world and which serve to pattern |[pic] |

|their behavior. This definition has guided the creation of this website. Rather than a list of attributes, the definition takes | |

|into account a people’s history, how that history affects outlooks on the world, and how those outlooks affect behavior. |Mt. Fuji, a symbol of Japan |

|[pic] Click here for an anthropologist’s view of Japanese culture. | |

|[pic] Click here for a fun guide to “virtual Japanese culture” written for kids. | |

| |[pic] |

|[pic] |The Shibuya district in tokyo |

|Critical Demographic, Social, and Historical Information | |

|With a population of approximately 127,000,000 people, Japan is the seventh most populated nation in the world. 99.4% of people |[pic] |

|living in Japan are Japanese, with Koreans making up most of the remaining 0.6%. |[pic] |

|[pic] Click here to learn more about the Japanese population and society. | |

| | |

|Japan is an island country, located in the Pacific Ocean just East of the continent of Asia. | |

|It is approximately 378,000 square kilometers (roughly the size of Germany). It is about 1/25th the size of the United States, and|[pic] |

|is smaller than California. 3/4th of the land is covered by mountains, making Japan very susceptible to volcanoes and earthquakes.|Japanese school children |

| | |

|[pic] Click here to learn more about the geography of Japan. | |

| |[pic] |

|The history of Japan is organized into 10 periods, starting with the Joman Period (10,000 – 300 BC. The earliest inhabitants of |Elementary School Entrance Ceremony |

|Japan were hunter gatherers. Rice cultivation began in the Yayoi period, around 300 BC. During the Yamato Period (300 AD – 593), | |

|the first constitution was established, and Buddhism was introduced. From the 12th to the 19th century, Japan was ruled by | |

|samurai, or warrior class. During this time the country was ruled by isolationist policies and was largely cut off from the outside| |

|world. Around 1920, a democratic government was formed, and Japan is now a part of the United Nations. | |

|[pic] Click here for a concise history of Japan written for children. |[pic] |

|[pic] Click here for a timeline of Japan, with links to detailed explanations of the different periods. |Japanese immigrants |

| |[pic] |

|[pic] |Immigration terminal in Los Angeles |

| | |

|Expectations for Schooling |[pic] |

|There are five stages in the Japanese educational system: kindergarten, elementary school, lower secondary school, upper secondary |Japanese youth |

|school, and university. Public education is free for children ages 6-15 (through lower secondary school). Although it is not | |

|mandatory to continue on to upper secondary school, approximately 97% of students do so. Because it is necessary to graduate from | |

|a top university in order to get a job in a leading company, competition on entrance exams is very high. Many students feel | |

|pressure to attend the best elementary and secondary schools, and attend “cram schools” after regular school to prepare for |[pic] |

|entrance exams. |Kanji symbol for “dragon” |

|[pic] Click here to learn about a day in the life of Japanese school children. Topics include school lunches, homework, recess | |

|and difficult issues for Japanese youth.. |[pic] |

|[pic] Click here to visit the web site of an elementary school in Japan. Included is information on daily life, uniforms, the |Hiragana symbls for “Hiragana” |

|teaching staff, the school building, and special activities such as digging for sweet potatoes and attending ski school. | |

|[pic] Click here for an overview of the Japanese educational system, including links to major public and private universities. |[pic] |

|[pic] |Katakana symbols for “Katakana” |

|Factors That Have Influenced Immigration to United States | |

|Japanese immigrants first started coming to the United States during the 1870’s and 1880’s. At this time, unemployment and | |

|bankruptcy were rampant in Japan, and many people came to Hawaii, drawn by the lucrative sugar industry. Some immigrants went to | |

|the mainland, but because of the sugar industry and better race relations, most Japanese living in America in 1900 lived in Hawaii.| |

|Eventually, more and more Japanese did go the mainland, and by 1920, half of the 220,000 Japanese living in the United States lived| |

|on the mainland. Both groups were affected by racism, however. In Hawaii there were laws keeping Japanese from skilled jobs, and | |

|in California, laws stopped them from purchasing land. On December 9th, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, life became much | |

|worse for Japanese Americans. They were considered to be the enemy, and were taken into custody. On the mainland, over 100,000 | |

|Japanese were taken into custody in internment camps. After the war this first generation of immigrants was released, but most had| |

|lost their homes and businesses. The second generation of Japanese Americans, however, were able to recover, and by 1969 the | |

|average income of Japanese American exceeded the national average by 32%. | |

|[pic] Click here to read a more detailed story of Japanese immigration to the United States. | |

|[pic] Click here for a website from the Smithsonian that tells an illustrated history of Japanese immigration to the US. | |

|Including first person accounts and many pictures of artifacts, this site is a great resource. | |

| | |

|[pic] | |

|Variability Within the Group | |

|Although a popular stereotype of Japan is conformity – buttoned down company men packed into the subway, a rigid educational | |

|system, etc, there is variability within Japanese society. For example, many young people are feeling a need to define themselves | |

|as individuals, and are adding a new dimension to Japanese culture. In addition to this issue, regional variability has long | |

|influenced Japanese society. These differences are influenced by geography, ethnicity, and social class. | |

|[pic] Click here to read about how some Japanese youth want to change Japan. | |

|[pic] Click here for an in depth look at plurality in Japanese culture. | |

| | |

|[pic] | |

| | |

|Characterization of Language Structure and Discourse Rules | |

|The Japanese language consists of Japanese words, words borrowed from China, and, in smaller part, words borrowed from western | |

|societies. For much of Japanese history, there was not a system of writing. About 1,500 hundred years ago, kanji (Chinese | |

|characters) was introduced. Each character has its own meaning. In addition to kanji, Japanese is now written using Hiragana and | |

|Katakana. Symbols in these systems represent syllables rather than meanings. The Japanese language is governed by strict rules of| |

|politeness and honorific rules. For example, if one is introducing their brother (someone in their group) to others, the sentence | |

|would be different than if that person were introducing someone out of their group. It is important to keep in mind issues such as| |

|age and class standing when conversing in Japanese. | |

|[pic] Click here to read about ten differences between Japanese and English. | |

|[pic] Click here for an overview of the Japanese language system, including grammar, writing systems, and regional dialects. | |

|[pic] Click here to learn and listen to some common daily expressions in Japanese. | |

|[pic] | |

| | |

|Click here to see pictures from my trip to Japan! | |

| | |

| | |

|[pic] | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download