Japan Modernisation and Loss of identity - Essay Example

Did Japan’s Modernization involve a Loss of Japanese Identity? Full November 4, 2008 Did Japan’s Modernization involve a Loss of Japanese Identity? National consciousness has played a significant role in Japan’s modernization. But does modernization mean the loss of Japan’s cultural or national identity? If so, what is the effect of the modernization movement? Although Japan is an example of a country that set out on the route of modernization without having been colonized by a Western country (Lu, 1997), these questions are more crucial because Japan is considered part of the Western world in many ways. The identity crisis confronting present day Japanese people deals with how modernization has strongly affected Japanese people and how it has influenced their attitude toward their culture, as well as their identity in the background of history. These issues are discussed because some doubt on the values of a highly modernized society exists. Modernization of Japan When the Meiji emperor was reestablished as chief of Japan in 1868, the nation was a militarily unsound country, was mostly agricultural, and had small technological development (Beasley, 1999). It was ruled by hundreds of semi-independent feudal lords. The Western mighty forces, Europe and the United States, had coerced Japan to sign treaties that restricted its influence over its own foreign trade and obligated that crimes concerning foreigners in Japan be arbitrated not in Japanese but in Western courts (Nakakita, 1998). When the Meiji period concluded, with the demise of the emperor in 1912, Japan had a remarkably centralized bureaucratic government, a constitution establishing an elected parliament, a well developed transport and communication system, a highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions, an established and swiftly growing industrial sector based on the latest technology, and a powerful army and navy (Sugiharo and Tanaka, 1998). Japan had retaken whole control of its foreign trade and legal system, and, by fighting and winning two wars (one of them against a major European power, Russia), it had secured full independence and equality in international affairs. In a bit more than a generation, Japan had surpassed its goals, and in the process had changed its whole society (Nakakita, 1998). The achievement of Japan in modernization has stirred big interest in why and how it was able to take on Western political, social, and economic institutions in so short a time. Definition of Modernization It is recognized that modernization, as far as technology and science are concerned, appeared after the Industrial Revolution. This was brought about by the invention of spinning machinery in England during the late eighteen century (Jansen, 1980). In Japan, just like in other Asian countries, modernization has often been confused with Westernization. This is because modernization, when it happened in those countries, usually meant accepting Western culture and caused major changes of everyday life. However, the difference between modernization and Westernization, as pointed out by Jansen (1980), is that Westernization would mean that a particular native cultural aspect of the traditional East is replaced by the invading Western aspect, and the practical role of the former is taken over by the latter. Modernization, on the other hand, basically means to reshape a cultural system into a new style. Some people argue that the sketch of modernity is undoubtedly of European roots, but is it primarily European? To them, it does not appear possible to modernize without westernizing. Somehow, collecting the benefits of Western creativity requires an immersion into the Western culture that made it. Furthermore they think modernity does not survive by itself, but is inseparably connected to its makers (Hall, 1965). In the case of Japan, the selection of Western food, clothing, fashion and music can be considered as a part of Westernization. Even though these things gave Japanese people some convenience and a taste of new culture, the tasks they performed were quite similar as those which their original substitute had accomplished before. For instance, the entry of telephones, television, airplanes, mass communication, bureaucratic institutions, and computer control systems can be regarded to be a part of modernization because they possess the potential for improving the faces of life and broadening ones perspective, and furthermore changes ways of thinking, patterns of behavior and world views. It definitely means reshaping a cultural system into a new form. This reshaping, however, will not always create good results such as a comfortable lifestyle and social stability, although it is essential and important for improving the living standards of each citizen. This is because introducing western components into non-Western countries may at times create significant friction and tension with the traditional cultures (Norbeck, 1976). Dramatic changes in Japanese Culture Traditional culture, if understood in a wide sense, denotes all human activities such as religion, philosophy, moral standards, laws, politics, economic, society, history, literature and art, that have been preserved, learned and transmitted in a given community or group over a long period of time (Nakane,1970). The Classical arts and skills of Japan have decreased over the last two centuries and at a quite disturbing rate since the end of World War II (Lu, 1997). The new generations have not bothered to reestablish these traditions, but have become victims to the forceful vigor of consumerism and modern culture. This is possible because of the overpowering glamour of western culture and entertainment. This exposes the apathetic and almost negligent attitude of the youth toward Japan’s time classical traditions. Western culture presents immediate gratification through the comparable short period of time that is necessary for learning many modern arts. However, one cannot contradict the worth of those old traditions, which encourage patience, knowledge, dedication, and passion for the arts. Certainly, these past traditions were the real definition of Japan once. Even though quite a few of Japanese still perform these old arts, majority of them are elderly (Jansen, 1980), and if they are young, those children were lucky enough to be brought up in a family where the past is respected as a priceless treasure in conserving the Japanese spirit for future generations. While culture and the arts had prospered during the time of isolation, the scientific and industrial revolutions had spread around the unaware Japanese (Sugiyama, 1994). This had to change for Japan to compete in the modern world. Japan however proved the need to modernize was greater than their need to retain their way of life. Loss of Identity? Loss of identity may be an inevitable step to modernization. The present generation is realizing that it does not know too much about Japanese culture, and it is a huge enough feeling of loss to motivate different efforts to get back some of that Japanese culture back With the swift changes of post-war Japan, the Japanese are enduring a psychological delay (Reischaur and Jansen, 1995). The greatest consequence falls on the businessmen who must adjust to these changes more quickly than any person in Japan, for economy and commerce are the most responsive to modernization. The work place has transformed from being safe and family-like, to a battlefield of competitions. Indeed the home is now less in number with only the nuclear family living together, and so there are fewer people who can extend each other comfort (Boyle, 1993). With the tendency to live away from the family because of business, and the tendency to over-work, loneliness is expanding like an illness. Furthermore, with smaller families, it is true that children in this modern world do not learn as much from the family as before, especially regarding relationships. Every individual is more or less isolated. Children do not understand what it is like to share a house with a dozen other family members from at least three different generations, or constantly to have someone at home for comfort. And older Japanese feel lost as they understand that now there is no one else but themselves (Jansen, 1980). These circumstances of loneliness, brought about by the swift changes of modernization, surprise the originally community-oriented Japanese very hard, as they psychologically suffer from their environmental changes. Conclusion: Can it be attributed to Modernization? In the definition of the past, a culture was the aggregate of all the conduct of people, along with everything that they produced such as clothing, food, housing, rituals, and so on, while taking account of the complex network of relationships between all these cultural artifacts (Beasley, 1999). In the present model, however, culture has to be understood to mean not just the observable cultural experience themselves, but the plan for living that is passed on from one generation to another. This pattern may be, and often is, changed from one generation to another as new influences are given to the society to be carried. This brings up the question: When the facts do not fit the model, do we change the facts or discard the model? Cultures are able to last for hundreds of years regardless the many changes they go through. A prominent example of this is Japanese culture. What does life in urban Tokyo today, with men and women in Western business dress commuting to work by subway or bullet train, share with the days of the armed samurai and the daimyos they served? On the surface of it all, there is not much. But could there not be a spirit that could be called Japanese, however hard it may be to express the descriptions of this spirit? Could it have to do with the proper politeness that Japanese offer to those with whom they deal? Is it related to the conservativeness of Japanese design, the inclination for concentrating on a distinct feature and somehow finding all of life materialized in one leaf or one tree? Perhaps not any of these actually comes near to totaling up what it means to be Japanese. However, it does indicate that there may be a mix of distinguishing traits that goes into the making of a Japanese, even in a teenager with spiked red hair who sleeps on a park bench when he is not skateboarding. This does not mean that Japan should practice its traditional arts only for the sake of conserving history. If this were the case, these elegant arts would become a shell of their former selves, with only a shallow understanding and appreciation. Rather, these arts should be conserved because of their priceless value as artistic embodiments, instruments for self-improvement, and a part of the soul of Japan. They should persist in evolving with the culture of Japan as it develops, finding their own place within modern life. Not all these traits can be expressed, not all of them are even distinguishable, and indeed not all of them are to be seen in every individual from the Japanese culture. But there is a mark of how life is supposed to be lived that is passed down from one generation to the next through the social environment with its thousands of personal interactions, each depicting in some way how people are supposed to conduct themselves. Despite modernization, the Japanese have somehow still been able to retain its unique identity. References Beasley, W.G. (1999). The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. Boyle, John Hunter. (1993). Modern Japan: The American Nexus. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. Hall, John W. (1965) Changing Conception of the Modernization of Japan. ed. Marius B. Jansen, Changing Japanese Attitudes Toward Modernization. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Jansen, Marius B. (1980). Japan and Its World: Two Centuries of Change. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Lu, David J. (1997). Japan: A Documentary History. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Nakakita, Koji (1998), The Politics of Economic Reconstruction in Postwar Japan. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai. Nakane, Chie (1970). Japanese Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Norbeck, Edward (1976). Changing Japan. 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.  Reischaur, Edward O., Jansen, Marius B. (1995). The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. Sugihara, Shiro and Tanaka, Toshihiro eds. (1998), Economic Thought and Modernization in Japan, Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar. Sugiyama, Chuhei (1994), Origins of Economic Thought in Modern Japan, London: Routledge. Read More