Is Japan Losing Its Culture?

Japanese history goes back more than 2000 years, and of course, it has many kinds of traditional culture, the history of America, however, is much shorter than Japan’s. In America there are many immigrants that contribute to the original American culture, and they are effecting each other in a good way. The original American culture is changing drastically now in consequence of increase in immigration to America; of course, this change is not due only because of immigrated people. As for Japan, now, more types of western culture are starting to appear in things such as: sports, music, food, life, and language; Japan almost looks like America! Japanese people are wearing American style clothes, watching American movies, learning the American language; Japanese people love American things! Many Japanese people say that Japan is losing its culture as well as some TV news programs. Japanese people say that the Japanese old traditional cultures are becoming less dominant, such as the people who play Japanese traditional music. Japanese young people rarely know what the Japanese old traditional culture is, or how to do any of the traditional festivities, or the history. You might ask then, is Japan gaining American culture and losing Japanese traditional culture? The answer is NO. There are various reasons why the answer is no. Japan is not losing its traditional culture because the Japanese traditional culture is getting more popular in other countries. The Japanese government is also making new laws to preserve Japanese traditional culture.

Japan has many traditional parts to its culture. To begin, Japan has very traditional music. One of the most traditional of their culture is Kabuki. Kabuki means to act recklessly. Kabuki expresses the lifestyle of bad person resembling fun. “Kabuki” shows the lifestyle of the Edo era (Columbia Music Entertainment 1). They have face painting, (The Basic Color is White). The reason why they use white to paint is all because of the background. In the Edo era, Japan didn’t have a very good lighting system, so they had to paint their face white (Hitorigoto 1). They also use red, indigo blue and brown when they paint their faces. All of the colors have meaning: red shows courage, strength, and righteousness, indigo blue is always worn by the villain, and brown signifies the demon or specter (Dictionary of Kabuki 1).

A second, part of the traditional culture are sports. The traditional Japanese sport culture is called Budo, which a category name for all martial arts. Kendo is an example of Budo. Kendo is similar to American fencing; in place of swords bamboo sticks are used. However, the true direction is to get strong mind and to make ourselves; it was also used as a more protected way to train for samurai (All Japan Kendo Federation 1).

Third, Japan has their original language that has been used for an immense length of time. Japanese is one of the oldest languages in the world. They use three different kinds of characters which include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. One of the differences of the Japanese style of literature compared to the American method, is they read the characters from top to bottom (“About Japan” 1). Another difference between the two is the Japanese language only has five vowels, and Japanese grammar doesn’t have any concern of whether a noun is countable or uncountable (MISJ 2). Due to the fact that the Japanese have an original language that is very individual from other languages, there are more people in other countries across the world that are becoming more interested in learning the language.

American culture has strong power in Japan, which could become a problem. A good example is, Rock ‘n’ Roll music. It began in the 1950s and 1960s. Rock ‘n’ Roll is a compilation of many different genres of music. The music first became popular in small clubs and on the radio, later, teenagers could watch Rock ‘n’ Roll bands on television (Rock ‘n’ Roll Music 1). Young people in Japan love varieties of western music. The problem is that there are no people who buy Japanese traditional CD’s, and there are dozens of western CD’s in Japanese music stores. Japanese people don’t like Japanese traditional music because it is not fun or exciting and Japanese traditional music culture is getting weak in Japan, but other countries are adapting the traditional music of Japan; examples will be further discussed later. (Journal of land surveyor 1).

American traditional sports are affecting Japanese traditional sport culture as well. One of the examples is baseball. The overall history of baseball is profusely lengthy. The game’s name was initially bat and ball. It is from Britain, and it developed in the United States (Wikipedia “Baseball” 1). In America, baseball became much like a business and it quickly became an international game; 20% of the major-league players there have ever been were born outside of the United States. In the minor leagues, 50% of the players were foreign-born. This game has had many effects on Japan. Television ratings of major-league baseball games grew in Japan because of Suzuki Ichiro’s, (a Japanese batter), success (Gene A. Buding 54). Baseball has been a popular in Japan. Almost all of Japanese high schools have baseball clubs, and they have a big championship called Koushien (Wikipedia “Japanese baseball” 1). In 2006, the 1^st job Japanese boys wanted to be in the future was a professional baseball player. These elementary school boys are becoming more interested in other cultures, and due to this the number of people who have a traditional Japanese job will diminish steadily (Excite news 1).

America has its own language as well, English and there are many people who speak English. English is becoming world language. Now in Japan, Japanese students have to take English classes in addition to learning English for entrance exams or and for all most all major companies. The English part of the Japanese entrance exam is very hard so Japanese student have to study day and night. Japanese government believe that Japan should make English it’s second language, because English is the public language of the world; if they learn then Japanese people will have a better chance at getting international job. However, some people say that the ability of the students to learn will decrease, because they will not be able to understand fully what is being said, so Japan should not do that (Wikipedia “English” 1). Not to mention, recently, there are many more English words in Japanese conversation. Japanese people don’t care if they use English words in their conversation which is leading to many Japanese youth not knowing true Japanese conversation (Hase, Makoto 1).

It seems as though Japan is losing its traditional culture but this is not entirely true. There are a few reasons why Japan is not losing its traditional culture; however, the affair that is the fact that Japanese cultures are getting more and more popular in other countries. The first example is kabuki. Kabuki was present in places like America, India, and Europe. In Australia, the Kabuki troupe at the Australian National University has been performing a Kabuki drama each year since 1977. There are many good comments about Kabuki other countries. Kabuki is becoming another pastime of the theater of the world (Easy Learn Kabuki 3). A second example is, recently, there have been many people from other countries who are doing Kendo. In Columbia university, Oregon state university, Michigan state university and Indiana university, there are kendo club but of cause not only these university. There are a lot of kendo club in this world. Then again, In Britain they have had Kendo championships; as a result, Kendo is becoming more famous in the world than it already was. Bushido, which is “the written thinking of Samurai,” was a book that was translated and was pointed to other countries. A third example is people from other countries can learn Japanese anywhere, because Japanese companies are hiring people who aren’t Japanese, so they are forced to learn Japanese if they want the job (Wikipedia “Japanese” 1). In addition to all of this, Japanese animations are also getting more popular all over the world. So the number of people who are learning Japanese to understand Japanese anime is increasing now. (Hatena Diary 2)

There are other reasons why Japan is not losing its culture. The Japanese government has made a law to protect traditional Japanese culture. The thinking of the Japanese government is that traditional culture can make the basis of our society. It can help to create a high-quality economy. It can make a person who has immense personality, and it can make peace in the world. The Japanese government is thinking that Japanese traditional culture has very significant meaning. The Japanese government also believes that Japanese language makes our culture and makes the right Japanese spirit. Japanese people need the language to gain knowledge of something. Japanese people should learn Japanese for this reason. Alternatively, they have laws to maintain Japanese traditional culture. The law protects Japanese traditional culture by creating places to watch, join or make the traditional culture’s items. To reflex the opinion of Japanese citizens, to show and give our traditional culture to other countries, to protect Japanese traditional culture and growth, to make developing the original culture which is from each area, Japanese government recover the lively person, and consider about other country’s culture and the progress (MEXT 3). The Japanese government also has laws to learn the Japanese traditional culture at school. It will be interesting for the students, and the students will be attracted by Japanese culture (Agency for Cultural Affairs 1)

Japan is not losing its traditional culture. There are many Japanese traditional cultures. For example, kendo, kabuki, original language. It looks as if Japan is losing its traditional culture because of too much American culture. The Japanese people don’t know about Japanese traditional culture. Actually, Japan was losing its traditional culture. However, the Japanese government has creatively found new ways to prevent the loss of traditional culture. Japanese traditional culture is becoming popular in other countries. People from other countries are learning Japanese language, sports, and music. Japanese traditional culture is becoming more popular than before. This century, the Japanese traditional culture will become world culture and the Japanese culture will be known by people around the world, and will therefore not be lost.

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