Life and Culture in Japan essays

Life and Culture in Japan essays The life that we live in America is relatively the same across the entire country. We all understand the general idea of our own culture. The average stereotype is that we go to work every day at 9 am, come home at 5 pm, and do it all over again the next day. Now understanding all of this, think about the life of a person that has grown up in a small Japanese village their entire life. Think about how on this small earth there can be so many different and diverse cultures. Imagine someone coming from a small village in Japan and trying to start their adult life in a city such as Tokyo or even an American city such as New York or Chicago. This is a culture that is not only interesting but is so dramatically different than what we are used to that I makes one wonder, what would it be like to live like that? First to understand the aspects of living life in a small village one must first understand Japanese culture and government. Over the past millennia, Japanese culture and government have changed so dramatically. Their government began as a small feudal system where powerful families ruled small areas of land known as Shoens. Then it evolved into a Shogunate system or more of an empire. This empire has lasted for hundreds of years and is still in use today in Japan, even though the emperor has no true power in government. This system of government shaped the culture that we see in Japan today. For example, during the time of Tokugawa shogunate rule in Japan, the Tokugawa family cut off Japan from the rest of the world. This isolation resulted in Japan being behind in many different areas such as technology and information. This greatly hurt the modernity of Japan's culture. This isolation truly lasted till the beginning of the twentieth century when the United States forced Japan to start trading. After this trading, we see the modern Japanese culture that we know today began to form. Japanese culture is an interesting one at th...