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What Is Japanese Culture?

TANBA, Hikaru (Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology)

What do you think Japanese culture is? Is it tea ceremony, sushi or Geisha, perhaps? Today, let me talk about my experiences.

Two years ago, I had a chance to visit an Australian student when I went to Australia on a school trip. I was paired with Justina who had blonde hair and blue eyes. I thought she was so beautiful. I was excited at the prospect of speaking with her. I asked her, “Do you like your Japanese class?” and she answered, “Yes, it's my favorite subject.” I was happy to hear that, and I thought we could talk about Japanese culture. I asked her if she knew about tea ceremonies, sumo wrestling, kimonos and so on. She answered my questions, but clearly she didn't seem to be interested in them. She simply said, “Yeah.” Gradually, I grew annoyed with her behavior and was at a loss for words. There was a short and slightly uncomfortable silence between us. During which I thought to myself, “I don't want to be here any more!”

Suddenly one of her friends came to us with some music playing through her cell phone. I had never heard that music before. Justina said, “This is music from Japanese animation, you know. We are cosplay fans, too. And on weekends we dress as our favorite anime characters. This is a picture of us in costume. What do you think?” Their eyes twinkled as they talked. I was so surprised! I wasn't very interested in comics or animation and I didn't know about cosplay at all then. At that time, I was with another friend from Japan. She knew all about their favorite characters. They talked to my friend a lot about Japanese animation, even though she struggled with English. Manga and anime were what Japanese culture was for them. Looking about me, I noticed there were many people wearing manga character costumes. I was impressed by how much these people liked Japanese culture even if they didn't care about sumo and the tea ceremony.

After the school excursion, I did a little research and found Japanese comics and animation are really popular outside Japan. Naruto, One Piece, and Pokemon are especially famous Japanese animation. Actually, “manga”, “otaku” and “anime” are Japanese-English, so you can use these words in other countries as well.

From this experience I realized two things: Firstly, manga and anime are identified as an important part of Japanese culture. What I experienced in Australia taught me that traditional views are not always what other people think. Secondly, it is useful to be able to speak English, but this alone is not always enough. In fact my friend communicated with the Australian students better than I, even though she was not a good English speaker. She could relate to them, which helped bridge the gap.

Having a large stock of knowledge and experience makes it easier to communicate with a variety of people. So then, of course we must learn English and learn about foreign countries. But we must remember English is just a tool for communication. And that we should also learn to relate to others. To do this, we should keep an open mind as well as looking at our own culture from another point of view. With this in mind, we can all be great communicators, not simply good English speakers.

And now I major in medical and welfare engineering in my Kosen. And I want to make products which help people all over the world in the future. Last summer, I went to Singapore for a seminar. And I met a Japanese woman, Akiko, who graduated from a Kosen and has been working at a famous international company for a few years. Of course, she uses English in her business. Her occupation is developing molds in foreign plants. I thought I wanted to work like her. I think it is good business that's not produced in Japan, made in Japan and sold in Japan, but produced by Japanese, using Japanese techniques, made everywhere in the world and exported to other countries including Japan. But, every people has its own traditional culture and own religion. So we should understand others' culture and it is important to make products which suit each country or district. In the future, I want to become an engineer, and to make products which help people who need help to live.