A Quick Introduction into Japanese Culture (My Starting Point)

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    For my intercultural communication project, I have chosen to delve into the culture of Japan. I want to study this culture for both personal and academic reasons. My ancestry mostly goes back to Mexico, however, my great-grandmother on my mother’s side is Japanese. For most of my life, I have identified with American and Mexican culture, and I think it would serve me to recognize my underdeveloped connection to Japan and their culture. I also believe that selecting Japan would highlight starker differences in culture from America. While I could’ve chosen the Mexican culture that compliments global western values and ideas - I believe that Japanese culture would display a contrast to culture I am familiar with, providing me a path I could follow to understand other cultures outside of my knowledge. Understanding Japanese culture will make my ability to communicate and interact with people from this culture more effective because it will build respect for the culture and strengthen my capacity for interpretation. I can then use the  strategies I apply to understand Japanese culture to other cultures, allowing for myself to respond and interact appropriately with unfamiliar cultures. 

Short History of Japan

    The differences between Japanese and American culture are very apparent. At first glance, the ethnic makeup of both of these countries are extremely different; Japan is 98.6 percent Yamato Japanese while the United States’s largest ethnic group is 59.2 percent. The ethnic diversity of Japan, or rather lack of ethnic diversity, contributes to a culture that is strongly cohesive, but appears intimidating to approach as an outsider. The culture of Japan is extremely rich; tradition and history go back several thousand years for the Japanese people. This history contains the dimensions of culture that make the context for Japanese culture today. One example is food: the Jomon period, Japan’s neolithic era between 14,500 BCE and 900 BCE, came to an end partially due to the integration of techniques that allowed for wet-rice farming. Rice is an essential component of Japanese culture that dates all the way back to 900 BCE. That is just one small surface level example of how complex the culture of Japan is, and also an example of how intimidating it can be to misinterpret or incorrectly define the culture of Japan.     

    The culture of Japan has been reinforced over thousands of years of homogeneity. Collectivism is a cultural value that is strong in Japan and other cultures in the East Conformity, hierarchy, and harmony are large aspects of Japanese culture. This deeper level of culture paves the way for behavioral and concrete levels of culture in Japan. These three ideas are referenced in almost every element of Japanese culture. As this blog progresses, I will go over family structure, worldview, cultural history, communication styles, business, healthcare, and education. I will apply my perspective from an American culture when appropriate, but try to maintain an objective overview of Japanese culture. 

My Outlook

    I understand that this will be a hard task, especially since when “studying other cultures, we do so very often from the perspective of our own culture.” Even in this introduction, my first instinct is to compare Japanese culture to American culture. I claim Japan to be a collectivist culture, however from the perspective of other Eastern cultures, that statement may be exaggerated. I plan to implement strategies to mitigate this bias. I must understand that cultural norms or behaviors exist within their own context - I cannot apply behavior, values, or symbols to my own cultural context. I will also use Japanese sources in combination with other sources to gain an insider perspective. Most importantly however, I will continue this blog post with the intention to learn, not judge. There is no objectively best culture, and it is vital for me to keep this in mind.


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