Communication Between Cultures

Japanese History

The history of Japan is largely a product of geography. Proximity to its two closest

Northeast Asian neighbors—China and Korea—produced a lengthy historical record

of interaction. Approximately 100 miles of ocean separate Japan from the Korean

Peninsula, and China is just 500 miles to the east across the Yellow Sea. This near-

ness facilitated the early importation of ideas and artifacts from the two nations, par-

ticularly China. For example, Confucianism and Buddhism, both brought from China

through Korea, exerted a significant and enduring influence on the development of

Japanese society. The use of Chinese ideograms is a daily reminder of Japan’s histori-

cal connection to China. Despite this legacy, however, the Japanese are defined by

cultural characteristics quite different from those of its two nearby neighbors.

A relatively small nation composed of four major islands and several thousand

smaller ones, Japan was accessible only by sea until the early twentieth century. This

insularity made Japan relatively immune to large-scale immigration from the Asian

mainland, and the sea often stymied invading foreign armies. This natural isolation

was further encouraged by over 250 years of governmentally imposed national seclu-

sion during the Tokugawa, or Edo, era (1603–1867) and resulted in Japan’s cultural

distinctiveness and self-image.

Historical isolation, low immigration rates, and a feudal-based system of gover-

nance produced a society characterized by its relative cultural homogeneity. This

senseofethnicsimilarityhasbecomeadefining characteristic among the Japanese.

As Dower writes,“Although all peoples and cultures set themselves apart (and are

set apart by others) by stressing differences, this tends to be carried to an extreme

where Japan is concerned.”^69

One expression of cultural homogeneity is the Japanese approach to foreigners.

As a result of the country being closed to outsiders until the mid-nineteenth cen-

tury, when it was forcibly opened by Western powers, the Japanese developed an

ambivalence toward all foreigners. Demographic separation and geographic isola-

tion“produced in the Japanese a strong sense of self-identity and also an almost

painful self-consciousness in the presence of others.”^70 This self-consciousness per-

sists today and can sometimes be encountered by foreigners when traveling beyond

Japan’s major urban areas, where they may find themselves treated as curiosities or

even politely overlooked. Such behavior isfrequently a result of uncertainty on the

part of the Japanese about how to interact with a non-Japanese individual. While

their culture specifies the appropriate behavioral and communication protocols for

TABLE 5.4 Country Statistics: Japan^68

LOCATION EAST ASIA

Size 377 ;915 km^2 ; sixty-second-largest country

Population 127.10 million (July 2014 est.); eleventh-largest population

Ethnic groups Japanese 98.5%, Koreans 0.5%, Chinese 0.4%, other 0.6%

Government Parliamentary

Language Japanese

Religions Shintoism 83.9%, Buddhism 71.4%, Christianity 2%, other 7.8%

Note: Total exceeds 100% due to many people practicing both

Shintoism and Buddhism.

Contemporary Social Issues 177

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