Feb 07 2010
A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are Especially Welcomed)?
I’ ve just graduated from a Chinese high school and will be a freshman soon. I’m a little intersted in Japan and Japanese. So I ask a few questions. My English is not good enough. So the inconvenience caused by my sentences may be disturbing. Sorry for this.
1.How about the status of the Emperor of Japan for Japanese people?
Is he only a symbol of Japan or a symbol of invincibility and inviolability?
2.Why does Japan not accept Christian era but the chronology that involves the emperor’s era?
3.How do Japanese people think of China, Chinese culture and Chinese people?
4.In Japan, do people have to strictly mind their words in case not to cause any offense to other people, even if the probable offense may not be serious?
5.Is the consciousness of social class very deep-rooted so that it cannot be easily detected by Japanese people themselves? (For example, basically, only old and mature Japanese males have the
privilege to manage a big corporation or enter an advanced research area.)
6.How do Japanese people think of Chinese think of Japan and Japanese citizens and society?
Related posts
10 Responses to “A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are Especially Welcomed)?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[...] Read more from the original source: A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are … [...]
[...] Here is the original post: A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are … [...]
Interesting questions. I’ve been living in Japan for more than 4 years, and have had discussions about some of these topics with Japanese people.
1. Most people think of him as just a symbol. He is generally respected, though is regarded merely as a figurehead. Some older people have a higher regard for him, though.
2. Japan does accept CE and uses it frequently. The Japanese system is also used a lot. Many younger people are very familiar with their birth year in CE, while older people have to think a long time to figure out what their birth year is in CE. Official documents are commonly in the Japanese system, though many can accommodate both.
3. Japanese people respect China, Chinese culture, Chinese food, Chinese people, and regard China as a very important place to do business. There is some friction regarding illegal immigration into Japan, though. And much of the negativity towards China has to do with the government, not the people or culture.
4. Most people do have this sense to not disturb others or offend others. If 2 people bump into each other, it doesn’t matter whose fault it was, both people apologise. In business, people do everything they can not to offend customers (in Japan, the customer is almost 100% always right, even if they are completely wrong) or superiors in a company. People don’t want to disturb the peace, so they graciously back down. But due to Japan’s fast business pace, there are a lot of impatient people who will get angry at any little thing and shout very loudly at anyone that is related to the offending person/company.
5. Old and mature males tend to manage big corporations all over the world, not just in Japan. It’s not unique to Japan at all. Things are changing, though men are usually in charge of companies. Advanced research is quite mixed, though.
6. Difficult question for me to answer, as I haven’t discussed this much. However, I think there is a very old grudge about what Japan did during and before World War II in China. Most people in Japan were born after World War II, and have no connection to Japan’s actions before they were born. They’re confused about why some people in China are constantly thinking about the past, and not the present.
[...] A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are … [...]
I’m not japanese
1) yes and no , for most japanese the emperor is a figurehead similar to queen elizabeth for uk but for a minority the japanese royal family are to be revered.
2) don’t know and don’t understand why .
3) generally they think that other nations are inferior to japan. it’s especially true of other asian nations i feel.
( i don’t think that viewpoint is uncommon for many nations, eg the uk. usa france)
4) yes, giving offence no matter how trivial is problematic.
5) it’s still a patriarchy but is changing
6) this sounds a bit strange but i think that the japanese think that the chinese think that japanese society is to be emulated.
1. As our Constitution says, the Emperor today is no more than “a symbol of the nation.” However, meaning of “the symbol” varies from people to people. It is hard to generalize in this democratic country of Japan.
2. We use both, depending on the context.
3. Believe or not, we respect China, Chinese culture and Chinese people. We learned a lot from China. But, we do not like Chinese Communist government today, seeing their atrocities against people in Tibet, Shinjang Uyghur and Falun Gong.
4. No. The Japanese today are not that sensitive. What about Chinese? If all of us on this planet were that sensitive to each other, the whole world would be much more peaceful, wouldn’t it?
5. “Social class” theory, in this democratic country of Japan doesn’t work at all.
6. We know that Chinese people still have a strong grudge against the Japanese for what we did during wwII, but majority of the Japanese today were born after the war. We know Nanjing Massacre and the Unit 731′s terrible crimes. But what do you expect us to do to sooth your feeling? As long as you are looking backwards, we cannot be friends.
Many Japanese respect Chou En-lai. Why? http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/c…
[...] A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are … [...]
1.Emperor is only a symbol of Japan.
2.Japan accepts both eras and they are going well together.For calendars and time tables they use Christian era but for company documents written in japanese,they use emperor era.
3.Japanese love Chinese culture and people,but they don’t really agree with Chinese government staff and I think you know why.
4.They don’t HAVE TO STRICTLY mind their words,nobody force them to do that.It’s rather a matter of manner.If you are spoken with respect, you should speak with respect too…
5.The answer is yes but is not because is deep-rooted;It’s just simply because NOBODY in Japan would give a beginner the job to manage any corporation.You need years of experience to get a promotion…and
I think that all over the world is the same.
6.To tell you the truth… Japanese are a little too busy to think about all that staff…but no bad toughts at all …about Chinese Think of Japan.haven’t heard anything soo far…
[...] A Few Questions About Japan (answers From Native Japnaese Are … [...]
1, He’s just a symbol of Japan. And ordinary Japanese do not care him so much.
2, I don’t know what you mean.
3, Japanese do not like the fact that hazardous materials have been found from Chinese products many times so far.
4, I think other people would mind it, too. Or don’t they?
5, Well, it’s true that most people in management of big corporations are male old people. Would you call it a class?
I think researchers of advanced technology are not only “male old people”.
6, We do not care it so much.