Research paper about Japan culture and education

Research Paper

Culture of Japan

EDSN 626

Sadikova Shakhnoza

Professor. Klein

We live in New York that is the centre of diverse cultures, perspectives, and people from

variety sphere. There is a famous opinion about United States as ‘US is a full of with great

opportunities and everything created for human needs’. This is one of the reasons why people

from other countries want to come to see ‘The Magic Country’. Diverse Cultures make society

colourful and interesting in my opinion, people can enlarge outlook even perspectives through

learning other culture and find the reasons to change own cycle based on learned factors. In this

Research Paper I’m going to highlight about one of the famous country and culture around the

world, where Education is the highest level among the population and the country. This country

is famous for Cherry Blossom annual festival, Samurai or the best known Animas. May be when

I mention about Sushi or Tea ceremonies auditory can easily find what country I’m going to

highlight – Yes, it is Japan. Japan is famous for its unique traditions, traditional arts, and its rich

history which attracted me and reasoned to choose this country for getting familiar with.

Japan is one of the most literate countries in the world which has 126,529,100 populations. Japan

is very technically advanced and initiatives to create the latest new technologies. Japan naturally

placed in East Asia and covered with mountains.

At the end of 19th century Industrialization was completed, and textile industry played essential

role in economy stage. The World War II seriously impacted on economical level of country and

reasoned to collapse it. However, fishing was number one trade and highly developed. At the end

of 1970’ Japan could return his prior level of economy and had the second largest industry after

United States.

Japan is society that entertains valuable ancient culture, traditions and nationality. However

Japan is modern industrialized country, society values education the most, family honor and

family bonding plays key roles in Japanese culture. On the other hand, result of developing

industrialization and urbanization, generation raised in towns rather than villages. ‘Japan is a

collectivist society where group needs and wants are placed above those of the individual and

Japanese people tend to be other-directed (Ritts, 2000)’1 . It means that individualism is not

appropriate or general used views among Japan culture. The culture prefers parents’ hierarchy or

choice for younger generation and their future. This point reminds enmeshed family structure in

this culture and family has significant power which influences to younger generation. ‘Kazoku’

which means family used to live with elderly parents and to support them till end of their lives.

Moreover, grandparents role in Kazoku is primary than parental, because of family hierarchy

every child nurtured with responsibility for elderly people in the family. Every Japanese family

teaches to their children how important the parents in their life and decisions, and traditions

which their families value and keep as a family traditions. According to Family structure, Japan

has still male gender upper level rather than woman. Male gender presenters considered is a

fundamental supporter of family who earns money. The role of women is primary caregiver to

family and responsible for teaching family traditions. Moreover, Geisha which means ‘person of

art’ is female gender presenter and famous among Japan culture. Geishas are the part of Japanese

culture and always represent their unique among other country cultures. At the end of 18th

century Geishas became very popular and had beneficial role in traditional art.

There are two main religions in Japan and people try to follow both of them. One of them is

Shinto which defines as primary religion in Japan and roots to Japanese tradition. ‘Shinto is

based on the worship of nature and ancestors. The essence of Shintoism is “kami”, the divine

spirit found in all things in heaven and earth – (http://bigmyth.com)’. Another one is Buddhism

which people used to follow to complete Shinto’s full requirements.

Official Language of Japan is Japanese, which is used as primary and official spoken language.

The history Old Japanese (Kanbun) roots to China, ‘Kojiki’ is the first Japanese text belongs to

early 8th century and written using ancient Chinese hieroglyph. Development period of Modern

Japanese language is between 17th century and 19th century during Edo stage and adoption of

Western cultures influenced on common use and development of the Modern Japanese. The

three alphabets are components of Modern Japanese which are:

Kanji

Hiragana

Katakana

Education system of Japan is highly developed and counts one of the literally optimized country

in the world. Japanese value Educational system and this commonly links with cultural factors of

Japan. Japan is more steadfastly meritocratic according to many observers, while children are

from wealthier families are statistically more likely get higher paying jobs than less wealthy

children. In Japan it seems to be due to greater financial investment in a child’s education and

less due to social connections (Stevenson and Stigler, 1992; White, 1988). Schools are parallel

responsible for child’s academic achievements and equal behavioral. Due to this reason

reputation of schools depends on students’ educational performance and behavioral points.

Based on articles related to school sphere, if student breaks the school rules or violations happen

by his side, both parents and school administration and teacher have to apologize for student’s

behavior. This rule works the same way with group working times and responsibilities are the

same. ‘Ryo Watanabe, Director of International Research in the National Institute for Education

Policy Research, believes that “Japanese students have done so well on PISA because of the

curriculum. Japan has national curriculum standards, or courses of study that define the content

to be taught by grade and subject, and every ten years they re-devise this curriculum. Throughout

the country, teachers teach based on the national curriculum standards.” https://www.oecd.org’

In Japan, 95% of children attend some form of preprimary school for at least one year. Of these,

the vast majority attends for two years and nearly half attend a full three years (Moriue, 2000).

This pattern contrasts strongly with the situation in the United States, where only 26% of

children are enrolled in a child-care center or preschool (U.S. Department of Education, National

Center for Education Statistics, 1998). Youchien which means preschoolers- children aged 3-5

are encouraged with social and educational encouragement rather than full time caring.

However, private schools offers full day extended program for families who need full time

caring and parent who work. The number of students is larger than world standards; there are 35-

40 students in one classroom and all type of students learn in similar classroom. There is no any

type of gifted programs; all instructions are provided whole group type; all teachers’ approach is

to work through curriculum and students’ managing level. One of the important point is despite

of highly industrialized, education system does not allow to use more instructional technology

or instructional aids as other countries. Curriculum prefers to use hands on activities or real

based problem solving examples for developing academic achievements. The method which is

commonly used among Japanese teachers to engage whole class with 35-40 students in

heterogeneous classroom is to create optimized lesson plan which presents practical problem.

‘Teachers in Japan are important symbolic figures in the school, an embodiment of the traditions

and character of the school’ – David B. Willis and Patrica Horvath. ‘Sensei’ defines as a teacher

in Japan and had significant role in child’s life. Sensei is a Virtues person in Japan and family

members believes that person, who has high level of education, that person has a virtue value.

Merry White (1987) notes, ‘In East Asian tradition, teaching is respected profession, a lifetime

commitment a much sought after occupation. Because learning and ensuing academic credentials

are the most valued pursuits and goals in contemporary Japanese life, teachers are still greatly

valued’. Teachers not only instruct the lessons, they try to communicate with students as their

friends and plays key characters each level of school life. Pre-k and elementary teachers

characterized as elder sisters and brother who inspire the love to school and develop teacher-

student collaborations. Upper grade teachers like super parents who involve students into lessons

and encourages with additional support or what they need. After each term of school year each

teacher represents own speech about inspiration from students and whole class for straightening

teacher-student collaboration. Based on White (1987) notes, ‘We have to learn from the Japanese

about commitment, expectations, and effort. What I call ’high energy engagement’ of good

teachers is something our society should learn to recognize and reward the Japanese are vigilant

in keeping their cultural values and practices at the core of the educational practices.’

As a summarizing my research paper, my assumptions changed at all, because from the

beginning of the writing and researching my chosen country I did not have enough information

about its culture, role of teacher and family hierarchy. I’m sure one more time that I found a lot

of information based on my research paper and enlarged my outlook about one of the highest

developed counties culture and educational system. One important thing I learned from Japanese

teacher’s approaches is to collaborate with children parallel as like friend or someone who can be

familiar to them after parents and can be feel safety near to teacher.

References:

1. The Teaching Profession : A view from Japan – David B Willis, & Patrica Horvath

retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198811_willis.pdf

2. The Japanese Preschool’s Pedagogy of Peripheral Participation – Akiko Hayashi &

Joseph Tobin Retrieved from

https://www.waunet.org/downloads/wcaa/dejalu/may_2013/hayashi.pdf

3. Asian Culture Brief : Japan – James D. Brightman CRC Retrieved from

http://www.ntac.hawaii.edu/downloads/products/briefs/culture/pdf/ACB-Vol2-Iss6-

Japan.pdf

4. A POLICY ON LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN JAPAN: BEYOND NATIONALISM

AND LINGUICISM REIKO HATORI University of Hawai‘I Retrieved from

https://www.hawaii.edu/sls/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/6-Hatori-Reiko.pdf

5. https://www.oecd.org/japan/46581091.pdf

6. https://www.globalizationpartners.com/2017/12/11/japanese-culture-and-tradition/