the role change of Japans culture :: essays research papers

The Role Change of Japans Culture     My experiences in Japan have been surreal in that the cultural behaviors are approximately an exact opposite to those with which I had grown up. The order of daily life story is solely dependent on the roles and duties of each individual. When people begin to go against the regular flow of the excepted norms, great controversy is created. Japanese culture patterns hail a specific code that is rarely altered. When they are disturbed, there is scare caused by the insecurities of change.     The identity of Japanese culture is collectivism. Japans culture is dependent on the community of the people. The Japanese do not strive for individual success, exactly rather for group accomplishment. It is better for the group as a social unit to be healthy than for one soul to achieve higher status. The Japanese do not believe in leaving one person behind, they would rather slow the entire group down until that person undersurface catch up. In addition, the person who is slowing the group down exit feel shame because he has hurt his "family". For example, I volunteered in a Kindergarten in Shinagawa the last four months, and one day there was a little boy who was moving his chair into the group much to a greater extent slowly than the other students. The other students sat quietly watching him. When he finally put his chair down and the teacher was ready to begin, the student did not have his materials ready and had to go back up to the closet to function things. The teacher became agitated and went after the boy. She pointed to the clock and spoke to him sternly. Then she looked at the students and held him so they could all look at him as she reprimanded him. The child did not scream or cry for his mother as I expected. or else he looked down as tears flowed down his cheeks. The other students went back to looking at the teachers chair and she returned and did the lesson wi thout the boy. The boy continue to stand still until the group finished and then he rejoined them. I had seen the students hitting each other and misbehaving many times, but I neer saw a student get punished by a teacher until this day. This boy, at four years old, was feeling Haji (shame). He had hurt the group by cutting their time short.