Social and Cultural Dilemmas in Japan - Essay Example

Social and cultural dilemmas that mark early 20th century Japan Introduction In the late ninetieth century, Meiji was restored as the Japan head of a country that was previously with a weak military. Before United, States had forced the Japan nation to sign treaties that limited the control of overseas businesses and made them have the crimes that are committed against the foreigners been tried in Western courts. In early twentieth century, Meiji died and left Japan with highly educated people and well-developed communication and transport networks. In an attempt to bring together the country and respond to the challenges posed by the Western, the leaders of Meiji formed an ideology that was centered on the emperor. The emperor had no political implications to the society but was portrayed a symbolism of the culture of Japan and some form of the historical continuity. The new leaders of the Meiji took the emperor to the national prominence and replaced the Buddhism as the religion of the nation (Mori and Rimer 20). The imperial line was associated with the Shinto at the time when the country had the oldest house that was ruling and the legendary symbol of powerful national unity. People were executing duties of the emperor without questioning anything as a way of respect, honor and to show the unity they had. The emperor never ruled, but a small group of advisers were the one responsible for deliberating on various issues that affected the people of Japan. The consultants were supposed to devise reforms and rule at the capacity of the emperor. In the same period, there was the abolition of the feudalism that marked some tremendous change to the social perspective. People were at liberty to choose any occupation of their choice and move everywhere without restrictions. The introduced a number of changes to the social systems (Mori and Rimer 28). These changes included the constitution and the national educational framework. These changes were done to enable the national growth and earn respect from the Western world. Social and cultural dilemmas The country tried to amass support from the other neighbors, and the educational system brought a lot of popularity and it spread to a number of places. The government used the education system to educate its citizens on the need to acquire some basic knowledge and the necessary skills. By the end of the tutelage of Meiji period, many Japanese people had attended the compulsory and free public schools for not less than six years. The government monitored the schools carefully and made sure that the students got skills not only to the fields of mathematics or reading but also a moral training on importance of their work to the emperor, nation, and the families. Japan made some changes to the legal system where before they were forced to sign the treaties in the earlier century (Mori and Rimer 30). The country adopted a legal system of civil and criminal code that was modeled from the Germany and Fran. This act made the country earn its Western recognition. The constitution was given to the people by the emperor leader, but it was only possible to be amended by either the emperor himself or the advisers. The Meiji reforms of the early twentieth century brought numerous changes to the Japanese world affairs. The early Meiji was preoccupied with the quest for the civilization of the Japanese nation. The Japan intellectuals thought that the country to catch up with other Western countries it should not waste even a single date in a week so as to try to make a close track of the other civilized countries in the world. When the new constitution was promulgated it had the hidden agenda of bringing back the Restoration but was disguised as the symbol of bringing loyalty to the emperor and the repulsion of the barbarians (Mori and Rimer 32). The Meiji formulations were very complicated in a manner that they contained the early threads. For instance, the Shinto rites should have been long ignored but the truth was opposite. The nation though had become independent it continued to dependent on the lessons they learned from the Western World some long time back. This idea brought some sense of the crisis of consciousness to the people of Japan in regard to the steps they had made towards the liberation from the ideological dependence. The social change that happened was brought into question since the only main agenda as to why the nation strived a lot was like to get on the constitution and the Diet opening. There was concern about some issues like the shakai where even the proponents claimed to be far from the ninetieth century but the idea of the civilization was very far them which were to be the next step in attaining their first goal and was a social affair. The actual feeling of the profound concern of state to society was not the main reason given by the contemporaries of their ever growing interest towards it, but the idea was the failure to stick to the early set objectives and goals. There was confusion in the national language as compared to the earlier state of the ninetieth century (Mori and Rimer 24). The nation lost the common ideological property and was in a state where idea never wholly belonged to the opposition, government or any group. The country developed the idea of moving from the 1880s status quo when it reached the twentieth since people were expecting to have a nationalistic government, but it never was. It even led to some of the opposition members to rally for the call to have a change of the government so that people may have a feeling of a sense of nation. Women were still excluded from the active politics as it was happening in the earlier centuries. It was expected that things would change and improve the status of the women in the society. The surprise was that the government had even sent some women to America to go and study, but they were not yet trusted with power and leadership. There was an issue of prohibiting women from participating from the political meetings, which adversely affected women alone in the society. This scenario was a contradiction as people were expecting to have social freedom. There was another policy that detrimental to women in the case of marriage where the woman had no choice and the power in the marriage (Mori and Rimer 250). The mans authority was supposed to go unchallenged in the home, and all decisions were made by the man of the house. The only least expected scenario came in 194 when the modern girl took the center stage by going against all odds by getting to the political struggle and. She advocated for the human rights which highly denied to them due to the policies that were made that never allowed the women to be free and express themselves. The girl had liberated herself from the backward thinking society and the old traditions that were she reordered the power and the reconstruction of the gender. She advocated for the women and championed for the change that women should be given equal opportunities as their male counterparts and given time to shine. This aspect of the modern girl going a step to challenge the male-dominated leadership and expression of the physicality and the spirit of man was a tremendous change that changed the social and cultural perspective of many in the society. The modern girl also brought a sense of new beginning as she was depicting some freedom from the old social and cultural slavery where the even the fashion was restricted to the traditional attire. The modern girl shows that what many believed was meant to be done by men even the women could perform it better (Mori and Rimer 260). The cultural belief of the tasks that are specially intended for men was put into question. Some people had a backward thing about what the girl was up to; they thought she was a sexual transgressor. People argued that the modern girl was doing her activities in broad daylight where everyone could be able to see. Thus, they accused the modern girl of being promiscuous and making matter worse what she was doing was done in daylight, not like the way sin is normally done in darkness. Conclusion There was some change in social and cultural aspects in the lives of the Japanese after the end of the ninetieth century where women were trying to have their voice heard in the society. This act of women of attempting to liberalize themselves was viewed by many as a disrespect of the traditions and the cultural values. The modern society depicts that what men were believed to be good for also the female counterparts are right at them. There were lots of opposition from the community that is filled with people who had the thinking that the traditions and the cultures that they found there when they were born they should not leave. The people of Japan struggled to get the constitution and the Diet for the people but failed to stick to the goals so as to meet the social expectations of their citizens. Works Cited Mori, Ōgai, and J. Thomas Rimer. Youth and Other Stories. 4th ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008. Print. Read More