In the last century Japan has experienced 25 destructive earthquakes. In some places small earthquakes are felt on a weekly and even daily basis. Japanese seismic scale is slightly different from the Richter scale used in the United States and elsewhere in the world.
Table showing Macro Economic Aggregates for 2004-2013 Analysis of Aggregates 1.) Population The current population of Japan is 127.06 million which accounts to 1.8% of the total world’s population. Its population is almost steady in the last 10 years. From 2004 to 2008 the population increased with a very low rate but from 2008 it has shown a decreasing trend. Since Japan has high life expectancy and high median age, it has the highest percentage of population of 65+ ages in the world.
In the late 16th century, the Tokugawa family created a government known as bakufu. The first Tokugawa, Toyotomi Hideyoshi became the shogun in 1603 and for the next 250 years, the Tokugawa ruled over Japan. Japan became an isolated country for the next 250 years in fear of foreign corruption. In 1853, Matthew Perry a U.S. Commodore arrived in Japan, hoping to open their market, and receive a treaty from the government. The government in Japan signed trading treaties which the daimyo and samurai were unhappy with the government decisions.
Japan has been mainly influenced by three different belief systems including Shintoism, where its effect can be seen through the traditions and politics of Japan; Buddhism, whose effect is shown throughout Japan’s celebrations and social activities; and Confucianism, which made effects on the daily lifestyle and education of Japan. Although these three belief systems all have greatly influenced Japan in multiple ways, however, Shintoism’s impact on Japan is the most evident. Shintoism’s influence on Japan is clearly shown throughout the political system and traditional pastime and activities of Japan. Shintoism is a belief system that is originated in Japan. Unlike most belief systems, Shintoism lacks religious texts and spiritual authority.
Japan is an eastern Asian island nation that has a unique cultural identity. Japan is host to four main islands, the largest is the home to the central economic, cultural and governing hub, Tokyo. The people of Japan value arduous work and customary traditions still today, keeping intact their ties to the history of their country. Samurai values, the wearing of the Kimono, Noh theater, woodblock art, and Sumo wrestling are all easily identifiable and well-known aspects of Japanese culture. The long-standing effects of these traditions and arts is still seen in Japanese culture today.
Culture Awareness on Japan Japan is an island in the east of Asia with its geographical terrain consisting of mountains (Wigen, 1992). A great part of Japan's landscape consists of mountains which make most of its population to be concentrated in the low lying area on the belt of the Pacific coast. The capital city of Japan is Tokyo. It is located on the southeastern side of Honshu where all administration structures of government are settled. Despite its mountainous terrain, Japan also has poor soil which is not suitable for agriculture (Wigen, 1992).
Unlike Korea, Japan at this point has been heavily modernized and really started viewing and embracing western ideals as practical, applying it to their nation as a whole. Already holding negative views toward the west, and by signing a treaty with Japan who is a nation that has embraced their ideals and way of life is distressing to Ikhyon. It is no better than creating relationships with the western nations that Korea has isolated themselves from for so long. Viewing from this perspective, it would allow the Japanese to eventually have power over Korean society. Their western-taught ways could heavily affect many Koreans, especially through their products, and possibly other western things such as religion could leak in.
Through the activity, Vietnamese students like me have a chance to enjoy and get to know various cultures included Japan. Yet, I’m just fascinated with Japan when watching a video series by Japanology - NKH world. My first impression of Japan is the country of natural disaster such as earthquake, tsunami, sakura, kimono, haiku poem, samurai and something like that. Then, I recognize there are still so much I haven’t known about this country. What I want to discover is its hidden beauty, especially the harmony between people and nature, modernity and tradition.
There is no doubt that the rise of certain ‘power’ languages such as Mandarin and Japanese have become more popular and desirable to learn. This has led to other languages being ignored in return. There are many minority languages in Japan however almost none of them have received official recognition from the government and many of them are close to extinction. On the contrary, the dominance of the Japanese language is unrivalled in terms of number of native speakers and foreign language learners in Japan. However, this does not mean that other languages are pushed aside in favour of one superior, national language.
“What was Japan’s Modernisation Unique?” JAPAN Japan is one of the most modernized countries. In the past, Japan was an agricultural country, then it developed into an industry country. Edo was the name of Tokyo before the Meiji began. The Japanese only had business with the Dutch, Chinese, and English. Now, they opened up to have business with other countries.The Meiji leaders thought that the best way to protect Japan from other countries was to westernize.One way that Japan changed during the Meiji Restoration was that the feudal system ended when the Meiji restoration began 1868.