Interpretation of the Japanese Culture - Essay Example

Cultural aspects have been used to influence the field of economics through the production of commodities and products that are culturally oriented to tap into an economic market (Rumi, 2011, pp. 99-117). To understand the relationship between cultural aspects in the global environment and the economic sector, this paper will analyze and interpret Japanese culture and its influence on global economics through a focus on the global sushi boom.

Sushi is a Japanese food that consists of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients. Sushi is often combined with seafood, vegetables, and fruits of various kinds. The food can either be prepared with brown or white rice, but is usually combined with raw seafood. The original sushi was first made in Japan along the Mekong River, with the word sushi meaning, “sour testing” in the Japanese dialect. Other than being food for the Japanese, sushi has hit the global market and can be treated as a case of culturally oriented food that is economically sold due to its orientation to a particular culture (Rumi, 2011, pp. 99-117). In the 1960s and 70s, the global sushi boom hit the American market and quickly spread to many parts of the world.

With the increased association of the food with Japanese culture, most people who wished a test of the Japanese culture favored sushi making the food a market viable product. Currently, there are sushi restaurants in most cities in Europe, Asia, Russia, India, and Latin America. An increased number of Japanese restaurants overseas have in the past led to high-profile media coverage of the success of the Japanese culture overseas in the country. However, with the glory of the success of sushi, Japan has in the recent past attempted to certify genuine sushi overseas, a move that is seen by other nations as Japan's attempt to create a “sushi police”.

The development of sushi, which is a culturally oriented food to a global commodity, has given Japan pride and challenges with equal measure. In Japan, following the success of the product in the 1960s, they developed a popular discourse of “they” eating “our” food. The Japanese media fueled this popular discourse as a show of pride in the superiority of the Japanese culture to an extent that it is craved by the global community. Even though sushi was a product that originated in Japan, the Japanese have found it hard to accept that modern sushi can be associated with some other cultures since a French chef could make French sushi and link it to the “old culinary culture” (Rumi, 2011, pp. 99-117). The success of a culturally oriented product could be termed as an aspect of cultural innovation that when properly applied to an economic sector, could be used to derive economic values.

The success of sushi, for instance, could point to how the innovation that resulted from the Japanese culture has revolutionized the relationship between culture and trade in the current world making culture a key recipe for economic benefit.BibliographyRumi Sakamoto & Matthew Allen. There’s something fishy about that such: How japan interprets the global sushi boom.