Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Japan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Japan

http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/housing/index.html

Culture diversity of Japan

Japan is one of the most developed of the Asian Eastern Asian countries. Geographically comprising of over 6800 islands, Japan is strategically situated off the eastern coasts of China in the Pacific Ocean. Research shows that Japan’s history dates back to around 30,000 BC. Japanese history is maybe one of the most diverse histories in the world, with early influences of other nations and later going through long periods of isolation making Japan a very interesting part of the world as far as many aspects are concerned. Japan’s inhabitants came from many different cultural backgrounds like the Ainu people, the Yamato people and the Yayoi people who introduced wet rice farming around 500 BC in Japan. Chinese historians were the first to mention Japan in writing. Buddhism was first introduced into Japan by the Baekje, which was one of the “Three Kingdoms” as mentioned by the Chinese historians. But the later development of Japanese Buddhism was mainly influenced by China and, although faced resistance at first, it was encouraged by the ruling class and began to gain widespread acceptance at the start of the Asuka Period. However, “Pure Land Buddhism” became highly popular only much later in the 2^nd half of the 11^th century. Japan has been involved in many wars, mainly the two World Wars, which have highly affected Japan and it’s people and politics. Though victorious in WW1, Japan was tragically defeated in WW2 by the horrific atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Demographically Japan is considered one of the highest in number of residents mounting up to more than 127 million people. Out of these, over 98% are ethnic Japanese and the dominating ethnicity is of the Yamato people. The foreign minority groups include Koreans, Chinese, and as surprising as it may. There is much cultural diversity floating around the country and many religions such as Shinto which is the official religion. In the ancient mythology Shinto encourages the Japanese to be courageous about one’s own self reliance, to respect the nature’s beauty, to be polite, and reserved; another religion is Amaterasu which refers to the goddess of the sun and there are a few Catholic Christians and 3 percent Chinese and Koreans.

The population in Japan is estimated to be 135 million people, many located in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Their cultural diversity is wearing the latest motley clothes, but in business wear both men and woman wear business suits and a woman’s legs shouldn’t be revealed publically. If there is a special occasion or ceremony they wear Wufuku which usually comes in a red color.

Their behavior is very good and very strict such as their focus about one’s own loyalty, devotion, and losing your temper. They take care of the sickness by giving them face masks in the office to avoid contagions; they never talk about politics in public and never hurt other people’s feelings and when they meet strangers they greet by bowing or by closing their hands together. They always think about the future and heading to the right path although they never forget about the age and traditional ways. In Japan there are a lot of cultures that date back especially with the language, food, traditional dress, holidays and celebrations. First, 130 million of Japanese are talking Nihongo Language which is a primary language in Japan. However there are Chinese characters of the combination of three scripts with the written Japanese language; the first character is Kanji while the other two are Hiragana and Katakana. Second, the two primary foods of the Japanese are rice and noodles, and they can be served with sea food and beef. For example Sochi (fresh raw sea food with rice), Sashimi (fresh raw sea food with soy sauce) and Sukiyaki (paper- thin slices of beef or chicken with vegetables and cubes of tofu cooked in broth); these are famous delicious foods in Japan. They also drink tea, but the green tea is the national beverage in Japan. Third, the favorite traditional dress of Japan is the Kimono which is generally made of silk and it has large sleeves reaching from the shoulders all the way down to the heels and it is tied with an Obi; this Obi is a wide belt. Kimonos are now usually specially worn at weddings, special occasions and festivals. However, there is another kind of the traditional dress called Yukata and it is often worn in summer by children and young adults at festivals and other special occasions. Fourth, there are a lot of holidays in Japan, such as citizens’ holiday on May 4. Finally, in Japan they have a special traditional ceremony such as The Tea Ceremony and they are doing this ceremony to keep their culture ongoing. However, there are a lot of other ceremonies, for example The Birth Ceremony, The Marriage Ceremony and The Death Ceremony.