JIC: Japan Infomation Communication

Taking off shoes

Taking off shoes

In the mid-nineteenth century, first American consul to Japan Townsend Harris shocked Japanese by walking straight into the shogun's presence in Edo Castle without removing his shoes. Foreign visitors unfamiliar with Japanese customs even today can just as easily startle or even anger their hosts by walking into a home without taking off their shoes at the door. One of the peculiarities of the Japanese home, in fact, is that outdoor footwear are left at the door, and most Japanese cannot imagine wearing shoes in the house. The custom is deep-rooted and has not changed despite the widespread shift in the typical lifestyle from that centering around tatami-mat floored rooms to Western-style interiors furnished with tables, chairs, and beds. No matter how tiny the apartment or how westernized the home, people take their shoes off.

Where are shoes removed ?
Inside the door of a Japanese house or dwelling, you find an entrance way called the genkan is considered an important place, perhaps not so much in a small apartment, but very much so in ordinary condominiums or single family dwellings, as the " face " the household shows the world outside. There are many kinds and sizes of genkan, and usually the hallway or entrance hall beyond it is one step higher. As a general rule the smaller the genkan the lower the step. When there is frequent traffic in and out of a house, shoes mat be lest right in the genkan, and usually it is equipped with a geta-bako, or shoe cupboard to put away unused shoes. Nearby, as one steps up into the house, there is likely to be a slipper rack, holding pairs of slippers to be worn in the house. Many people use slippers in their homes, although they are not worn into the rooms floored with tatami because the scuffing easily damages the surface of the mats. A separate set of slippers is provided for use in the toilet. In this way, not only is there a clear distinction between inside and outside of a home, but within the home as well between tatami rooms and wood or carpeted floors, and between the toilet and other parts of the house.

Why Remove Shoes ? The custom of removing outside footwear within the house goes back at least as far as the Heian period ( 794 - 1192 ) among the upper classes and gradually spread thereafter throughout society. One of the reasons that footwear was shed in this fashion was because of the high rainfall and the generally very damp climate. A house would be quickly dirtied if people walked in wearing mud-covered shoes or sandals. But probably what came first was the custom of both sitting and sleeping directly on the floor on straw mats or cushions laid over it. Footwear was removed at the entrance to help keep the house clean. Traditional footwear consisted of straw sandals, which allow for ample circulation of air to the feet, or clogs ( geta ) or sandals ( zoori ) made of wood or plaited cloth. After the Meiji Restoration ( 1868 ) as Western lifestyles were adopted, shoes gradually became the dominant form of outdoor footwear, but shoes actually do not permit enough air passage for comfort in Japan's humid climate. This is another reason that the custom of removing shoes indoors did not change. The practice of taking off shoes indoors is in fact very widespread in Asia, not only in Japan, but in Korea, the Jiangnan province of China and from Indochina throughout the Southeast Asian archipelago where it is also common for dwellings to be elevated off the ground. The development of the genkan space, with its shoe storage cupboard and other accouterments, as a formal space where shoes are removed, is probably a reflection of the Japanese sense of cleanliness. It also is a space that satisfies the Japanese impulse to clearly separate inside from outside. Returning from outside, the act of removing one's shoes is associated with relaxation within the home. Indeed, the answer to the question about why shoes are removed in our survey second only to "to keep the house clean" was "in order to relax."

School
Shoes are also removed at school. There is a large entry vestibule equipped with shelves or lockers for each student's shoes, where they change from outside footwear to inside shoes. Changing to indoor footwear is the rule in all schools in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Since there is an assigned cubbyhole for each student, sometimes other things besides shoes may be left there, such as love letters, as often depicted in popular girls' comics stories. Not only in schools, but in places closely associated with tradition such as shrines and Buddhist temples, in some clinics and hospitals, as well as in Japanese-style restaurants, shoes are taken off, but are worn in such places as university buildings and most business offices.

 

Genkan etiquette
Learning the proper way of leaving one's shoes in the genkan is part of the manners every child learns. When visiting someone else's house, it is proper to turn around after stepping up into the hallway, and align your shoes, placing them to one side. Before you leave, you will find they have been turned around and placed in the center, where you can slip into them easily as you depart.

information from here

posted by Ayaka Hoshino

Raising children

Raising children in Japan

Japan has two ways to calculate child support.  One is a set of charts allowing the calculation of a standard level of support based on the income of both parents and the age of the children.  This tends to produce the higher of the two estimates but is by far the easiest to compute.   The other ways is to apply a formula based on income and various expenses, including income taxes, social insurance, employment-related expenses and other special expenses, including living expenses, taken from standard tables based on where you live in Japan.  This typically produces a much lower result than the standard levels of the charts.  The final agreement, in cases where there is one, are often negotiated by the parents themselves with the courts and mediators serving only to "facilitate" the negotiation.  This way, when one parent breaks the agreement, the other parent must start a whole new multi-year civil complaint rather than simply going to a judge that made the original order and asking them for help enforcing it.  This is in the best interests of the judges and the legal system rather than the parents, since they are not bothered with complaints about court orders which they have no mechanisms to enforce.  It would just make both them and the system look impotent.  The moral is to force a judge to issue an order.  The judge may be angry and give you less than what you asked for, but in some cases t may be better than more.

In the end, child support has typically been very low compared to Europe and America. Reportedly this is typically 30,000 to 40,000 yen/month for one child and 60,000 to 80,000 yen/month for two children, based on an average salaryman's income and non-working or part-time working mother.   But this may have changed somewhat recently, as can be seen in the article below from the Japan Times.

Court-awarded child support and visitation rights are not enforced by the courts nor the police. Studies show that about 80 percent of separated fathers in Japan do not pay child support.  Should the non-custodial parent stop paying, there are legal processes to garnish wages. If he or she works at a stable company, you might end up one of the lucky 20 percent. But if he or she does not have a regular job or tries to avoid paying by changing jobs or hiding assets, courts have virtually no power to force him to pay  Conversely, if a custodial mother refuses to allow the father his visitation rights, their is very little he can do about it, except sue her which takes an inordinate amount of time. So visitation and child support often become tools of each of the parents to get what each should be doing anyways, but which courts cannot enforce.

Information from http://www.crnjapan.com/childbirthsupport/en/

Posted by Ayaka Hoshino

Punctuality

      What Americans consider being “fashionably late,” Japanese consider rebellious and egocentric.  Punctuality governs social interactions and preserves group harmony.  Without exception, individuals expect others to  be on time.  A recent Tokyo survey reported that in Japan only five percent of women and four percent of men have wristwatches that are set inaccurately.  Researchers Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff rank Japan as the country with the best “punctuality concept.”  Survey results indicate that Japanese college students are late to class less than once per week, and teachers punish lateness by lowering grades.  Even among close friends or lovers, like Hatsue and Shinji, lateness is an insult in social settings.  Punctuality dominates many facets of Japanese life.  Average walking speed, accuracy of bank clocks, and post office efficiency are the highest in the world.  In business, although deadlines are important, they do not take precedence over relationship building.   

      Japanese deadlines are realistic because, once established, they are rarely broken.  They allow people enough time to build solid relationships and reach consensus.  During octopus season, the fishermen in the novel awaken at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning, taking breakfast at a leisurely pace and allowing sufficient time to get to the shore.  Lateness is seen as an insult to the boss, and, given the importance of relationships, it is something employees want to avoid. 

     Punctuality, timeliness and sticking to commitments: The Japanese believe strongly in 'no hidden surprises' and are committed to a very high degree of predictability and consistent reliability (not just reliability). This is reflected in their business practices and everyday living, such that the train or bus schedule would read "Arrival: 8.23 p.m." and the train or bus would pull in exactly at that time!
     And Japanese trains are very punctual and efficient.

http://www.haddonfield.k12.nj.us/hmhs/academics/english/sound_of_waves/11punctuality.htm

http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/feb/21japan.htm

Posted by Jinglin Zhang

Deliver courteous customer service.

     In Japan, as a customer, we would appreciate being served with courteousness and respect. we don't have to be worshipped like a queen; just treat me with the respect that we deserve as a customer!

      For example: One time a foreinger and her sister went to an optical store to have their eyeglasses made. While they were seated, her sister was surprised when the store clerk got down on his knees in front of them, so that he was looking up to them, and they were looking down on him. After they have made their purchases, he led them out of the store and politely bowed and thanked them. Coming from the Philippines, it was probably the best customer service her sister has ever experienced. Curious, her sister then asked her if it is always like that everywhere. Not really, she told her sister. He was probably overdoing it. But while other stores do not always offer the same regal-like treatment to customers, you can mostly count on them to be polite, courteous, and even smiling (except for the big cities, I guess). I've heard of foreigners complaining that the smiles are mostly faked or forced. But who cares? Better a faked smile than a frown, right? They probably have never shopped in the Philippines. The salesclerks there are the grouchiest and rudest people I've ever encountered.

    Another example would be ordering pizza over the telephone. They have a 30 second shpiel thanking you for calling, regardless of whether the phones are ringing off the hook and there's a 2 hour wait or not. You then have to go through your details (name, address, phone number) every time, even if it's already in your computer. Then you have to order, they double-check each segment, then double-check your order at the end. I call up knowing exactly what I want and it STILL takes 3 minutes.

       Same thing with cashiers at the supermakate -- there will be a line of 20 people waiting, and the cashier takes her jolly sweet time with the niceties of each transaction, despite the fact that it slows everyone else down.

     It's great that individual service is wonderful. Honestly. But when it comes to daily things, the novelty wears off quickly, and I'd rather efficiency then a train of Keigo before my day can progress.
     The dedication isn't to the customer, and what the customer wants, it's to a manual which specifies the exact way to interact with customers. As a foreigner, sometimes we throw the whole thing off. For instance, when I first got to this country, I couldn't understand keigo well at all, so when asking for directions from a JR station attendant, I'd ask if she could please explain it in non-keigo Japanese, and she couldn't -- against the rules and all, screw what the customer actually needs!

http://www.jref.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-19951.html

     

Posted by Jinglin Zhang

   

Worldview

JAPAN'S FOREIGN POLICY 1945-2003: The Quest for a Proactive Policy, by Kazuhiko Togo. Leiden: Brill Academic, 2005, 484 pp., $ 49 (paper).

Kazuhiko Togo, one of Japan's leading strategic thinkers about foreign policy, wrote an article in the June issue of Far Eastern Economic Review calling for a moratorium on visits to Yasukuni Shrine. This article was then translated and reprinted in Ronza (August).

Togo argues that such a moratorium is essential for the national interest, especially in terms of repairing the critical Sino-Japanese relationship. The Yasukuni controversy highlights divisions within Japan about issues of war responsibility and the judgments at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi'svisits have alienated China and Korea, and nobody is convinced by his claim that he was paying his respects to the war dead to promote peace and harmony. This is because Yasukuni is a talismanic symbol of unrepentant militarism, especially given the vindicating and validating version of history presented at the shrine's museum, the Yushukan.

Togo argues that Koizumi's successor should demonstrate humility and take the first step toward rapprochement by declaring a moratorium on Yasukuni visits. This would create breathing space to promote dialogue in Japan about war responsibility and its shared history with Asia in the hope of reaching a consensus and moving forward on unresolved issues. China could also use this opportunity to reflect on its history education. Togo proposes transforming Yasukuni into a suitable venue for mourning the war dead rather than a place to learn about the worldview that led Japan into World War II. Rather than creating a neutral, secular alternative, Togo calls for "de-historicizing" the shrine complex, involving reconsideration of the enshrinement of "Class-A" war criminals, including his grandfather, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo. He also calls for establishing a museum for prewar history. This is an interesting "road map" out of the current impasse and is generating considerable debate.

In this tour d'horizon under review, Togo ably recapitulates Japan's post-WWII foreign policy. This is must-reading for those interested in Japan's policymaking involving the United States, China, Korea, Russia, the Middle East, Europe, Official Development Assistance and multilateral institutions. The narrative is spiced with side bars in which the author shares fascinating personal insights and experiences.

Togo is critical of his country's "passive pacifism" and makes a case for Japan adopting a more "realist" foreign policy. His 34-year career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives him a unique vantage to frame and critique vital policy issues. One of the many strengths of this compendium is his insider's perspective on the policymaking process. We are taken behind the scenes of diplomacy and can better understand how certain outcomes emerged and others did not.

Japan's worldview is changing. In the post-9/11 world, Koizumi strengthened security cooperation with the U.S. and broke many long-standing taboos by dispatching troops to Iraq, providing logistic support for U.S. troops in the Indian Ocean and agreeing to a missile defense system. These are the type of developments that Toho advocates, representing the fruits of the quest for a pro-active foreign policy.

Togo is keenly aware of the burdens of history and the constraints that these place on Japan's posture. As a result, he believes that the foundation for a more assertive Japanese foreign policy must rest on historical reconciliation. He agrees that, "Japan has not yet found the discourse of reconciliation and harmonization," but he seems optimistic about a rapprochement.

In calling for a more equal relationship with the U.S. and the building of a real partnership, Togo confides his concerns about the absence of true reciprocity and the Bush administration's unilateralism. In his view, Japan has a significant stake in promoting multilateralism.

Since the first Persian Gulf War, Japan has struggled to become a "normal" nation, meaning one that assumes the burdens typically shouldered by members of the U.N. Security Council, including peacekeeping operations. Normal also means jettisoning the pacifism that Togo sees as preventing Japan from asserting and protecting its national interest. Japan, in contrast to Britain, has been punching below its weight due to constitutional restraints on its military.

He cautions, however, that "any significant revision of Article 9 would require not only the strong support of the Japanese people, but also the understanding of the international community, particularly for the neighboring countries."

Toward the end of this thoughtful book, Togo states, "The effective implementation of foreign policy requires a correct sense of history." He speaks of "windows of opportunity" opening and closing and thus the need for resolute actions at the proper time.

As he contemplates digging out of the hole Koizumi dug at Yasukuni by resuming summitry with Bejing, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should bear in mind Togo's advice: "The responsibility that each individual is given at certain moments in history must not be taken lightly."

Jeff Kingston is director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan campus.

The imformation was provided byhttp://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb20061015a2.html

The photo was downloaded fromwww.ectv.org/index3.html

posted by Chen Dandan

     What Americans consider being “fashionably late,” Japanese consider rebellious and egocentric.  Punctuality governs social interactions and preserves group harmony.  Without exception, individuals expect others to be on time.  A recent Tokyo survey reported that in Japan only five percent of women and four percent of men have wristwatches that are set inaccurately.  Researchers Robert Levine and Ellen Wolff rank Japan as the country with the best “punctuality concept.”  Survey results indicate that Japanese college students are late to class less than once per week, and teachers punish lateness by lowering grades.  Even among close friends or lovers, like Hatsue and Shinji, lateness is an insult in social settings.  Punctuality dominates many facets of Japanese life.  Average walking speed, accuracy of bank clocks, and post office efficiency are the highest in the world.  In business, although deadlines are important, they do not take precedence over relationship building.   

      Japanese deadlines are realistic because, once established, they are rarely broken.  They allow people enough time to build solid relationships and reach consensus.  During octopus season, the fishermen in the novel awaken at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning, taking breakfast at a leisurely pace and allowing sufficient time to get to the shore.  Lateness is seen as an insult to the boss, and, given the importance of relationships, it is something employees want to avoid. 

     Punctuality, timeliness and sticking to commitments: The Japanese believe strongly in 'no hidden surprises' and are committed to a very high degree of predictability and consistent reliability (not just reliability). This is reflected in their business practices and everyday living, such that the train or bus schedule would read "Arrival: 8.23 p.m." and the train or bus would pull in exactly at that time!
     And Japanese trains are very punctual and efficient.

http://www.haddonfield.k12.nj.us/hmhs/academics/english/sound_of_waves/11punctuality.htm

http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/feb/21japan.htm

Silent

In Japan it is very silent in public place. For example ,we can not almost listen to kei tai's sound and also can not look somebody to call a phone in train.

Keitai in Public Transportation

Business Users as Relevant Social Actors

   In the early nineties, the keitai was an expensive status symbol identified with the executive business user. Isao Nakamura (2001) analyzes the changing image of the keitai by dividing its evolution into three stages, with particular user demographics and characteristics. According to his model, the period up to 1995 was characterized by the image of "business use," as 90 percent of keitai users were businessmen. Even with the economic downturn and downsizing that characterized the period from 1991, the keitai retained the image as a tool for "the adult man," and women office workers and teenage girls were associated with the pager rather than the keitai.

The meanings associated with the keitai at this time included the sense of "the successful businessman" as well as an image of the "self-important businessman" displaying his status as a wealthy and in-demand person. Japan Railway began announcements regarding keitai use in their bullet trains in 1991 to restrict usage. A newspaper article in this year indicates the emergent social controversies surrounding keitai use at the time:

You have probably seen the figure of a man walking briskly through town while talking on a keitai…. "The original location for phones, even when in a restaurant, is in an unobtrusive place that would not bother other patrons with the sight and sound of the call. Is it really necessary to go out of one’s way to make a call in a busy place full of people? Shouldn’t one choose a more appropriate time and place? It may be fashionable, but I wonder about walking around with on in your hand." … This viewpoint is apparently common, and Japan Railway was started an announcement on its Tokai bullet train. "keitai calls while seated are bothersome to other passengers, so please make the extra effort to make your calls in the deck area [between cars]."Indeed, in a first class car, it must be unpleasant to have to listen to a loud conversation (Yomiuri Shimbun, September 11, 1991).

At this time, adoption rates were still low, and people strutting through town with keitai were a distinct minority. Even at this time, however, we were beginning to see the first glimmerings of efforts to regulate keitai use in public space.

An Emergent Controversy

keitai use in trains emerged as a topic of widespread social concern in 1995 and 1996, along with a sudden rise in adoption rates – reaching 15 percent of the population in 1996. In 1995, keitai subscriptions surpassed pager subscriptions, and the user base for keitai was broadening. Unique styles of keitai usage by high school girls became a focus of public attention. The following excerpt from newspaper coverage provides some hint of the social consciousness at this time.

With the advent of the PHS, keitai use has suddenly skyrocketed. In commuter trains, I am starting to notice scenes of people hanging on a strap with one hand and talking on a keitai held by the other. Although keitai are convenient, complaints are also frequent: "Their voices are too loud." "It’s annoying to have to listen to somebody else’s private conversation." Although train companies are calling for manners to prevail against voice calls in trains, this is still at the level of "just a request" (Asahi Shimbun, November 29, 1995).

  NTT DoCoMo first released a handset with a "silent mode" vibration function, the Digital Mover F101 Hyper, in December 1995, so the article refers to a period when phones had to rely on the ring tone to notify users of incoming calls. Because of this, people expressed their annoyance at the sound of the keitai ringing as well as because of having to listen to phone conversations. From this time on, public voices were raised calling for "keitai manner" on trains, and keitai use joined the list of actions considered "bothersome to others" on trains.

Youth as Newly Relevant Social Actors: From Controversy to Stabilizing Consensus

From around 1997, train companies began responding to ongoing complaints by passengers by pursuing more aggressive efforts at regulating keitai usage. For example, from 1997, Japan Railway starting broadcasting a stricter announcement in its regular (non bullet-train) trains: "We ask for your cooperation in refraining from using keitai while on the train." Prior to this, announcements tended towards language such as, "Please be considerate of others when using your keitai." This was the period in time where keitai adoption was at about 22 percent of the overall population.

1997 was also the year when all of the carriers began short message services. Further, after the launch of i-mode in 1999, text communication became even more popular, particularly among young people. According to Nakamura’s (2001) three-stage model, in the period from 1995-1999 the core user group had shifted to the youth demographic. He links the growing preponderance of young users to the discourse of keitai as "social nuisances." Along with this, public discourse also began to tie together young people’s keitai usage with bad manners in public spaces like the train.

As the keitai shifted from an exclusive association with businessmen to greater association with youth, there was a matching increase in efforts to regulate their use in public space. From around 1999, during the morning and evening rush hours, Japan Railway started an announcement, "Please refrain from using your keitai," and putting up stickers in the trains to same effect. These efforts also coincided with the growth of text messaging, a timely and appropriate way to circumvent the social stigma against talking on trains.

Together with the rising tide of regulatory announcements on trains, consensus was beginning to emerge regarding manners for keitai use on public transportation. Young people’s bad keitai manners on trains were taken up widely in newspapers, magazines, and on TV, accordingly, a new social order was constructed around prohibition of keitai use in trains. At this time, the overall tendency was toward rejecting keitai use in trains, and the announcements reflected this. However, rather than a "natural" outcome of "proper" keitai use, this norm emerged from a historically specific process of both enlisting and disciplining a new social actor of "youth" in the meanings and practice of keitai. This contingent social order was achieved through a complex interaction between various social actors – public transportation organizations, keitai-adopting youth, and adults in a position of power in relation to those youth –, signage and announcements in public transportation, discourse in mass media, and changing keitai technology. The meanings surrounding keitai have shifting dramatically towards issues of regulation and control as youth became dominant actors in this space, and the case of public transportation is one arena where this shift played out.

The Pacemaker as a Newly Relevant Social Actor

As of March 2002, keitai adoption rates stood at approximately 60 percent of the Japanese population. The social consensus at this time a year before the writing of this paper is roughly the same as it is now, that voice calls are not appropriate on trains, but email is no problem. Although users try to avoid ring tones and voice conversations disrupting the space of the train car, they do not actually turn their phones off and rely on silent mode settings to keep their keitai quiet.

Within this relatively stabilized social order, however, a newly relevant social actor enters the mix, the pacemaker, or perhaps more accurately, the cyborg entity of the "passenger with a pacemaker." Up to this point, the primary social actors on the passenger side, were "youth keitai users," "businessmen keitai users," and "passengers disturbed by keitai noise." Public discussion of the relation between pacemakers and keitai electromagnetic waves emerged early as 1996. At that time, however, coverage by the popular press was still spotty, and the pacemaker was not immediately incorporated as a "relevant" and influential actor in determining keitai usage patterns on trains. Unlike the more visible and pervasive technology of the keitai, the pacemaker is an invisible and more uncommon social actor that required more explicit public advocacy to be noticed. It was only relatively recently that pacemakers and pacemaker users became relevant social actors in these negotiations. Here is an excerpt from a newspaper from 2002:

Many people simply put their phone in silent mode without turning off the power [of their keitai]. Along with the spread of mobile phones, more people feel they cannot turn off their phones because of work-related calls. Although it is important for train lines to repeatedly broadcast announcements to "turn off the power while on the train," I don’t think this alone will result in better manners. We have known of the effects of a keitai’s electromagnetic waves of pacemakers for some time now. Some of the large train lines in central Tokyo have been calling for passengers’ cooperation by setting a new rule that keitai need to be turned of in train cars with even numbers, but can be left on in silent mode in odd numbered cars, though voice calls are still prohibited. I feel that train companies should be more innovative in working to make trains an environment where people with pacemakers can ride with peace of mind (Yomiuri Shimbun, December 13, 2002).

The issue of pacemakers and keitai is still unstable due in part to the instability of the "scientific facts" surrounding the interaction between the two technologies. The outcome of this current negotiation between keitai-using passengers, pacemaker using passengers, the public, and transit facilities is still uncertain. This case, as well as the historical development of "appropriate behavior" on trains, is indicative of how social order is built through ongoing social and cultural construction and maintenance work at level of everyday interaction, institutional policies, and public and everyday discourse. As Joan Fujimura has argued about the construction of "packages" of facts, theory and practice in the sciences, "Resolutions can be short-lived or long-term, but they are rarely, if ever, permanent. Even consensus requires maintenance" (Fujimura 1996:14)

Conclusions

In many ways, the negotiations between keitai users and pacemaker users can be located in a much broader set of social and cultural negotiations between different "sociotechnical entities" (Dobashi) about what constitute appropriate cyborg couplings and cyborg behavior. Public places like trains are stages upon which these negotiations between a changing set of cyborg entities is played out face-to-face. These stages are also the object of a political process through which different social actors enlist other technologies (keitai, pacemakers, etc.) as well as other institutional entities (the press, transit agencies, etc.), and scientific facts (e.g., the relation between electromagnetic waves and pacemakers, empirical studies of youth keitai use) to their cause.

The keitai acquires new meanings and features that become naturalized through time; pacemaker users become newly visible and consequential, public transit institutions become accountable to a new set of health and social welfare issues; and intergenerational tensions are reinvigorated with the addition a youth-identified wedge technology. The web of negotiations and interactions that characterize even the particular setting of public transportation is indicative of the complexity of the process through which new technologies become established in an evolving social and cultural ecology.

The information is provided by http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/stories/060809okabeito/

The photoes were downloaded from

http://tn3-1.deviantart.com/fs8/300W/i/2005/297/5/9/cellphone_by_chiplegal.jpg

http://www.letsgomobile.org/images/news/blackberry/blackberry_pearl_cellphone.jpg

Posted by Chen Dandan

Family

The family is the earliest locus of social life for an individual, and it provides a model of social organization for most later encounters with the wider world. Yet, as uchi, the Japanese family does not have clear boundaries. At times, it may refer to a nuclear family of parents and unmarried children. On other occasions, it refers to a line of descent, and on still others, it refers to the household as a unit of production or consumption.

A great variety of family forms have existed historically in Japan, from the matrilocal customs of the Heian elite, which are described in Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji), to the extreme patrilineality of the samurai class in the feudal period. Numerous family forms, through which ran a common belief in the existence of the family-household beyond the life of its current members, coexisted particularly in the countryside. Among the upper classes and wealthier merchant and artisan urban households of the Tokugawa period, the chonin, providing for household continuity, and if possible enriching the household's estate, represented duty to one's ancestors and appreciation toward one's parents.

With the promulgation of the Domestic Relations and Inheritance Law in 1898, the Japanese government institutionalized more rigid family controls than most people had known in the feudal period. Individuals were registered in an official family registry. In the early twentieth century, each family was required to conform to the ie (household) system, with a multigenerational household under the legal authority of a household head. In establishing the ie system, the government moved the ideology of family in the opposite direction of trends resulting from urbanization and industrialization. The ie system took as its model for the family the Confucian-influenced pattern of the upper classes of the Tokugawa period. Authority and responsibility for all members of the ie lay legally with the household head. Each generation supplied a male and female adult, with a preference for inheritance by the first son and for patrilocal marriage. When possible, daughters were expected to marry out, and younger sons were expected to establish their own households. Women could not legally own or control property or select spouses. The ie system thus artificially restricted the development of individualism, individual rights, women's rights, and the nuclearization of the family. It formalized patriarchy and emphasized lineal and instrumental, rather than conjugal and emotional ties, within the family.

After World War II, the Allied occupation forces established a new family ideology based on equal rights for women, equal inheritance by all children, and free choice of spouse and career. From the late 1960s, most marriages in Japan have been based on the mutual attraction of the couple and not the arrangement by the parents. Moreover, arranged marriages might begin with an introduction by a relative or family friend, but actual negotiations do not begin until all parties, including the bride and groom, are satisfied with the relationship.

Under the ie system, only a minority of households included three generations at a time because nonsuccessor sons (those who were not heirs) often set up their own household. From 1970 to 1983, the proportion of three-generation households fell from 19 percent to 15 percent of all households, while twogeneration households consisting of a couple and their unmarried children increased only slightly, from 41 percent to 42 percent of all households. The greatest change has been the increase in couple-only households and in elderly single-person households.

Public opinion surveys in the late 1980s seemed to confirm the statistical movement away from the three-generation ie family model. Half of the respondents did not think that the first son had a special role to play in the family, and nearly two-thirds rejected the need for adoption of a son in order to continue the family. Other changes, such as an increase in filial violence and school refusal, suggest a breakdown of strong family authority.

Official statistics, however, indicate that Japanese concepts of family continued to diverge from those in the United States in the 1980s. The divorce rate, although increasing slowly, remained at 1.3 per 1,000 marriages in 1987, low by international standards. Strong gender roles remained the cornerstone of family responsibilities. Most survey respondents said that family life should emphasize parent-child ties over husband-wife relations. Nearly 80 percent of respondents in a 1986 government survey believed that the ancestral home and family grave should be carefully kept and handed on to one's children. More than 60 percent thought it best for elderly parents to live with one of their children. This sense of family as a unit that continues through time is stronger among people who have a livelihood to pass down, such as farmers, merchants, owners of small companies, and physicians, than among urban salary and wage earners. Anthropologist Jane M. Bachnik noted the continued emphasis on continuity in the rural families she studied. Uchi (here, the contemporary family) were considered the living members of an ie, which had no formal existence. Yet, in each generation, there occurred a sorting of members into permanent and temporary members, defining different levels of uchi.

Various family life-styles exist side by side in contemporary Japan. In many urban salaryman families, the husband may commute to work and return late, having little time with his children except for Sundays, a favorite day for family outings. The wife might be a "professional housewife," with nearly total responsibility for raising children, ensuring their careers and marriages, running the household, and managing the family budget. She also has primary responsibility for maintaining social relations with the wider circles of relatives, neighbors, and acquaintances and for managing the family's reputation. Her social life remains separate from that of her husband. It is increasingly likely that in addition to these family responsibilities, she may also have a part-time job or participate in adult education or other community activities. The closest emotional ties within such families are between the mother and children.

In other families, particularly among the self-employed, husband and wife work side by side in a family business. Although gender-based roles are clear cut, they might not be as rigidly distinct as in a household where work and family are more separated. In such families, fathers are more involved in their children's development because they have more opportunity for interacting with them.

As women worked outside of the home with increasing frequency beginning in the 1970s, there was pressure on their husbands to take on more responsibility for housework and child care. Farm families, who depend on nonfarm employment for most of their income, are also developing patterns of interaction different from those of previous generations.

http://countrystudies.us/japan/69.htm

Posted by Ayaka Hoshino

Seniors and Junors in Japan

    Japan's society is a society that has been said  game sweep. Game sweep of society to say that the society from top to bottom in the vertical configuration, and the people on the bottom of people from "high" to a position that seems to be. This community is on the person who is under the excuse respected, and people under many things to bring the absolute power to have it seen. That game sweep of society, such as the recent America is the ideal country to social equality and by comparison, a good reputation is not.
     The game sweep of society is one example of seniors and juniors between a human relationship. Seniors and juniors Japan relationship is seen everywhere in society - game sweep type relationships typical example of that. This relationship is a group of people together to work on the first group entered the senior people in the later people started to participate in junior division. Of course, in this case the seniors on the position to.

     The relationship between seniors and juniors to participate without observation from the outside, and then trying seniors are always the order or instruction to the junior that he asked to give only one-sided relationship seems to be maybe . However, the detail observe it, in fact so one-sided relationship is not  only prove to be. Certainly, in order to seniors, juniors are the subject of this relationship is also an important part of one's true. However, seniors and think for oneself alone is a reason not unreasonable order not to the juniors who are under so on the verge of his predecessor's views have no freedom does not have . Loose BENEDEIKUTO the American anthropologist on the Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a book, "Japanese society is a group of emphasis on the individual rather than collective interests come together for that. Therefore the experience as a senior group Planning for the decision to tell the juniors. juniors is that the decision was made to run, "he said of.

     However, Japan is still America as individual rights to the group's purpose from claims by the society, but Japan is still the collective spirit is very high society, saying it would not be an exaggeration. But in the past for the small group of the range is spreading them, we now have one country to the extent they had expected. That is to say, "Japan" in the group is loyal and law is applied anywhere to be, and individual rights and obligations such as Western ideas alone are not the good life is not I believe that. The relationship between seniors and juniors is such a loyal and strong game sweep of social life in order to have absolutely necessary tool and the old left in the modern era to be used in the fifth wheel is not. I now live in the neighborhood of HAVAHODO Japanese survey results said the overall relationship between seniors and juniors are all good for the people of decency, then seniors and juniors, what kind of human relations in society OK, so I have a good relationship and the answer was good while now that the young people of Japan and decency of human relationships that people have understood today's seniors and juniors because it is the bad side of the relationship. Moreover, I am concerned seniors and juniors in the social life of how to bring training tools, as well as to gradually change it harder for individuals to survive in today's Japanese society is not to protect people from the community to the bitter animal and dignity up the defense function as what you would not think of.

http://www.haverford.edu/jnse/4fall96/cho.html

Post by Jinglin Zhang

Japanese Personal Space

Japanese Personal Space

Do you know the word “Personal space”? This is the term of phychology. When two people are talking to eac h other, they tend to stand a specific distance apart. Each person has an invisible boundary around their body into which other people may not come. If someone pierces this boundary, they will feel uncomfortable and move away to increase the distance between them. (The major exception is family members and other loved ones.) This personal distance is not due to body odor or bad breath, but because closeness lends a sense of intimacy that is at odds with their relationship to the other individual.

              The Japanese is said that the body language (It lightly touches other party's body that taps the handshake and the shoulder) is unusually. It is possible to shine and ashamed stand previously still few overall though there are people who readily such an actions and express it in the young generation, too.

It might give birth to the impression of over-familiar, and to the hierarchical relationship in the office in annoying Japan etc. because such an act rather might become a friction after the other party too intimately.

Japanese personal space is larger than other Europe and America people and people in Asia (It is wide). There are not so many customs of uniting the shoulder, uniting the arm, walking in the friend, the family, and the lover, and kissing in the table and sufficing that are the action patterns done by the movie in Europe and America etc. like seem being natural in Japan.

People who have such a sense seem to have shown up to some young people, and there might be a part to which the movie and the culture of Europe and America are stimulated more than it says naturally and it goes so, too. It seems to take time for established because there is a person who has resistance in such the one in an elderly layer.

Young people in Europe and America having "It is shy" or "Do not approach from me" or the said impression for the Japanese also has the difference between the custom and the culture. The Japanese is sensitive compared with man who approaches suddenly , saying that "It is over-familiar" etc. , and the Europe and America people has the received difference , saying that "It is Frank" or "It is a friendly person". Reference

< Japanese national character survey (1953-present) >

        Our longitudinal survey of Japanese national character shows some stable aspects of attitudes and social values of the Japanese (Hayashi & Kuroda, 1997; Yoshino, 1994). Among others, the stability of interpersonal attitudes and religious attitudes may distinguish the Japanese from other countries.  Namely, the Japanese show a higher score on the “Giri-Ninjyo scale” than the other countries.  Moreover, one third of the Japanese have religious faith, but more than 60% of the Japanese support the opinion that religious attitudes are important (Yoshino & Hayashi, 2002; Yamaoka, 2000).
I will briefly explain certain fundamental dimensions of the Japanese social values as follows.
Fundamental dimensions of the Japanese social values
        Hayashi (1993) has identified two important dimensions that underlie the Japanese national character in the survey. That is, 1) the dimension of interpersonal relationships (“Giri-Ninjyo” attitude, or a complicated sense of humanity and obligation that is particular to the Japanese interpersonal relationships) and 2) the dimension of a modern-traditional contrast in their way of thinking.  On one hand, as mentioned before, the Japanese interpersonal attitude has been stable, at least over the last half century, and probably much longer than our longitudinal survey.  This corresponds to the first dimension.  On the other hand, for over 100 years since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan has been doing her best to overtake western science and technology and to develop it into a Japanese adaptation.  Probably this enduring effort has underlined the dimension of the Japanese traditional vis-à-vis a modern orientation in the Japanese way of thinking.
        However, the Japanese way of thinking has been gradually changing, and there appeared a generation gap between people of 20-24 years old and those older than 25 years in our survey of 1978 (note that the younger generation as born more than 10 years after the end of World War II. In 1956, an economic white paper declared, “Japan is no longer in the post-war condition,” and this symbolized the start of the high-speed development of industry and economy.  On the other hand, however, Japan had to face many social problems concerning pollution because of the high-speed industrialization around 1970. Since the signs of the younger generation’s changes appeared as early as 1978, their current way of thinking has become more complicated than ever.
         Furthermore, the Japanese are presently in the confusion of the transition period from the established social system to a system of a highly advanced information age. In this confusion, a recent survey reports the majority of Japanese people’s distrust toward traditional systems such as banking, bureaucracy, as well as of congressmen, police, etc. (Central Research Services, Inc., 2000), in spite of the stereotype of the Japanese as a highly trustful nation (Fukuyama, 1995).
  As for our book on cross-national comparative studies, see Hayashi, Yoshino, Suzuki, etc. (1998)

eduPASS/Cultural Defferences/personal space http://www.edupass.org/culture/personalspace.phtml

Work in Japan.com  http://www.daijob.com/en/columns/kate/article/921

Lov-e.com　Japanese body language  http://lov-e.com/RLSArticlesfolder/JBL1.htmlCultural Nationalim in Conemporary Japanhttp://books.google.com/books?hl=ja&lr=&id=PxINLrcRJo0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA279&dq=%22Yoshino%22+%22Cultural+Nationalism+in+Contemporary+Japan:+a+...%22+&ots=vtEK2eN5yz&sig=TaJ9rcQtRz2gYorFoahP2M3IcWk#PPA278,M1REAL

SIMPLEhttp://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/content/0,21770,1195841,00.html

Preface  http://www.ism.ac.jp/~yoshino/preface.html

Images

http://www.pbase.com/enthios/2007

Posted by Kenjiro Morita