To Japanese Posters: come on in and share your stories!

Interesing question, I guess nobody knows. They found some evidences of people living here at least 40,000 BC I think; clam shell reminents,fire, etc.

Probably people came in waves. The oldest would be the Ainu, they are racially different. There may be an "austrolo-pacific island" wave that came up from the south. Undoubtedly some Korean and Chinese blood is included, maybe mongols or Manchurians too....I am guessing these people all intermingled at different stages.

Its kind of a touchy subject for some people; the "creation myths" of Shinto say Japanese are a divine peoples, the people in other East Asia don't like this and associate it with the war. I think science can dispense with illusions however.



Japan has two main religions, Shinto and Buddhist. Shinto was first, then Buddhism came in the early middle ages. For a long time they intermingled and there was no separation of them (so-called "shinbutsu-shugo" or "combination Shinto-Buddhist" (?)). Then in the later period the government ordered Shinto and Buddhism to be separated. I am not sure why but I think it was to break the power of the big temple/shrine complexes which grew very wealthy. By splitting them into strictly definined separations, the government did "divide and conquer."

For the most part religion in Japan has been "live and let live." (there are some exceptions in history but not many conflicts about religion here.) You can be both Shinto and Buddhist. It is less about what you "believe" and more about what you "feel" IMHO. The monotheistics are always argue what is "true" or "false" but the Asian religions see words as slippery and not reflecting real reality, which is transcendent and non-verbal. Actually most Japanese say they are athiest but I think this is not quite 100% correct. It is a problem of translation. The word "religion" is "shukyo" in Japanese but that has more the nuance of "doctrine" or "dogma." I think many people have a vague sense of spirituality and go to the temples and shrines to pray, conduct rituals, etc. But not so many arguments about intllectual dogma (theology) in the west. Japanese violence has always been more about raw power than about dogma.

I would say this is a one of the great video.

[Japan shinto]The Japan that Japanese dont know -The Kumano Kodo (Kumano Ancient Path)3 [1/2]
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

.... Around Part 2 and Part 3 there is alot of things about Shintoism.

Shintoism is a native Japanese religion, older than any major religion, which accepts any belief - whether it be Christian, Islamic, Jewish, or whatever. It means Gods Path and is very open. If you believe Jesus is god, then that is your path. If you believe in yourself, you yourself is a god.

Shintoists do not go out and preach to anyone how things should be. Alternatively, they do not keep anyone or anything out. In a climate of religious hostility such as in Israel, Lebanon, Korea, it is nice to see a religion that is not, should I say competitive.

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and may off topic of this but

I'd like to pass on this story.


- Celebrity stands up to talent agency 'stalker' - Ikumi Yoshimatsu
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

-The current Miss International, Ikumi Yoshimatsu, filed criminal and civil charges Wednesday against one of Japan’s most powerful talent agencies’ executives for stalking her and attempting to ruin her career. The harassment began shortly after Yoshimatsu became the first Japanese to win the title in the pageant’s 52-year history and then refused to sign up with a problematic talent agency.

[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]

Shinto has a long history and has been thinking of many ways by many different people, times, and places.

One of the key facts of Japanese religion is in the nature of the land. Many mountains and valleys. For most of history such kind of little valleys were not easy for most travels and people were isolation. So they shared also of the same basic idea, but developing in may different ways in different valleys. The same is to be said for food, too. As with Italy, very small areas have very distinct food culture.

thanks

Thank you that link was awesome!
It seems like its very hard to get attention in Japan, so the freax go 100% freak. I Love it. My plan was always to get to Tokyo some day.
But now Fukushima destroyed that dream. Fucking sad.

all great responses thank you guys for participating

I hope this thread can turn into an archive of great info about a culture which, from a westerner's POV, seems to be shrouded in mystery

I have another question that requires some knowledge into the history of the Japanese culture.. looking back at photos of Tokyo in 1950 \ it's amazing to see how that whole country has changed going through the 70s, 80s 90s....

[link to farm4.staticflickr.com]

to any Japanese natives, why do you think Japan mostly turned towards entertainment as a primary industry & export? I know the Japanese economy is very diverse much like any larger country...

but almost every major video game corporation started in Japan. Sony, Nintendo, Square/Enix, GameFreak, Natsume, I could go on and on. what I've noticed is that America ADOPTED these games from the Japanese, paying translators and setting up their own North American offices to work back-and-forth.

but bottom line Japan loves their games and it seems to stem from a period shortly after WWII. even the old arcade games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong(with Mario climbing the ladders) originate from Japan.

NES, SNES, Gameboy, PS1, N64, GBA, PS2, Gamecube.... Japan had it first.

why do you think this shift happened during the 60s-70s most notably in Japan? why didn't China or even America become the primary video game creator/distributor instead? this may be a stupid question with no real answer(ex: it's just the way things are) but it is true that Japan dominates this market even today in 2013. I'd love to hear from young folks or some old-timers who may have opinions

Last Edited by SteamrolledGobias on 12/19/2013 06:08 AM

an extra little follow-up is beyond the video game market -- but how Tokyo has become a seemingly advanced technological city... all the neon lights and the tremendous buildings, it really seems like a futuristic landscape. always intrigues me how that happened in such a short period of time

for anymore responses

I haven't understood much about Shinto.. skimmed wikis and some other threads at times.. I remember all the stuff posted by Shinto Trainee it was great stuff

Thread: They are going to close my town

Thread: The Shinto concept "Kokoro" involves triple (at least) resonance and is not translatable onto English.

Thread: Some Thoughts on Fukushima and Japanese Psychology -- By a Japanese

bampy

Thread: Japan is poised to pass a bill which would outlaw most reporting on Fukushima

I think most or possibly all of Japan was banned from GLP over the last week. I was unable to access this board from multiple computers.

Thanks for having me back.

that's very curious I wonder what would be the cause..

I'm very very interested to read about any opinions related to magic mushrooms in Japan

are they still popular today? the Mario mushrooms always make the connection for me(and I know the colors indicate a different strain)

Last Edited by SteamrolledGobias on 12/29/2013 04:36 AM

come in Tokyo ?

might as well give this a quick bump for any late-night Japanese friends lurking the forum

good thread

Back in the 50's, growing up in California, I remember whenever we would buy something that had a 'Made in Japan' label it was sort of considered to be 'junk' or cheaply made. (No offense intended, just a historical perspective). There was an effort to improve quality by Japanese manufacturers (TQM) to the point where suddenly 'Made in Japan' implied consistent high quality and reliability. Anyone in Japan care to comment on this transformation from your perspective?

this is very interesting and it's interesting how Japan still exports a lot

nowadays it seems China handles more of the generic products and Japan is more of an entertainment export culture.. also strange how this is true of Korea and other eastern countries

great question!

Hey man, you are good people. Cheers.

It's been rough for J-posters around here lately with all the mass-banning. Somebody is fucking with citizen Perth or something. I don't know, I doN't pay any attention to the Fukushima threads but I've only been able to post here a handful of days this year because of something like that.

Edward Demmings. His TQM program was rejected by US manufacturers. Our loss and Japan's gain. The rest is history especially pertaining to the quality of automobiles.

Sorry guys, I was busy shagging my j-idol gf. What do u
Need?

This!

But a Forum that is banning a whole Nation is laughable!

Admin need a Realitycheck.

able to share any cool memories about Japan from your youth?

how would you describe the culture? especially in comparison to the western world(Europe, UK, USA, etc)

I dont think Perth is from Japan his IP would be from Australia

very strange and that's probably why this thread has so few Japan AC responses. I'll keep trying every-so-often cause I know you fellas are out there