Zhichao Diao
Interviewee: Shuhei (Japan)
Place: Lawrence lounge
10/30/2009
ENG 191 sec 21
Pre-report on Japan
Japan is such a small country that people wouldn’t believe that’s the 2nd largest economic group. And it only took few decades for this islands country to turn into a developed country with advanced technology from a defeated nation after WWII. While Japanese culture and Bushido is getting more and more popular around the world with manga, there’s much more about this culture we should know behind the surface.
Japan is located at east of Asia, consists of several thousands of islands, of which Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku are the four largest. The Sea of Japan separates the Asian continent from the Japanese archipelago. Japan’s area is comparable to that of Germany or California. Japan's northernmost islands are located on a similar geographical latitude as Milan or Portland, while her southernmost islands are on a similar latitude as the Bahamas. More than 50% of the country is mountainous and covered by forests. Due to the risks of earthquakes, there’s an extremely high population density in the habitable zones that are mainly located in coastal areas, Japan is one of the most desenly populated countries in the world.
In Japan’s political system, power is held chiefly by the prime minister of japan and other elected members of the Diet and power of emperor is very limited. The prime minister of japan is the head of the Cabinet and appoints and dismisses the ministers of state, a majority of whom must be Diet members. Historically influenced by Chinese law, Japanese legal system developed independently during the Edo period. And judicial system has been largely based on the civil law of Europe.
The population of Japan stands at 127.7 million as the 11th most populous country of the world which contributes 25 of the total global population. The formal language is Japanese language Sumo is considered Japan’s national sport and it’s a popular spectator sport in Japan. Judo, football, baseball and golf are also very popular in Japan in modern days.
Japan is also known as one of the world’s leaders in the development of new environment-friendly technologies. The most striking feature of Japanese agriculture is the shortage of farmland. However, the land is intensively cultivated, which rice paddies occupy most of the countryside. Fishing industry also has long history in Japan and Tokyo also has one of the world’s largest wholesale markets for seafood.
Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality food, quality of ingredients and presentation. It has developed over centuries as a traditional Japanese food. Examples of traditional informal Japanese clothing are cotton yukata, woven cotton haori and dyed ikat kimono.
References
Wikipedia Oct 27, 2009 < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan>
CIA Oct 27, 2009 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
Japanese geography Oct 27, 2009 < http://www.japan-guide.com/list/e1000.html>
Post interview reactions
My interviewee’s name is Shuhei, an exchange student from Japan, University of Fukuoka. This is his 3rd year in college. He lives next to my dorm in Lawrence and we see each other pretty often. When I asked him if he’s willing to be my interviewee, he answered yes right away.
We agreed to hold this interview at 3:30 pm, Friday in the lounge of Lawrence hall. That’s a really quiet and comfortable place for students to relax. Therefore I choose to interview here to make him not feeling nervous. In order to be well prepared for this interview, I memorized my question and rehearsal a few times in front of mirror and improve my questions to be more brief and to the point. I recorded this conversation so that I could review and write the transcript.
My focuses on this interview are education and cultures. Shuhei has already been studied English for more than 7 years since he was about 13 years old back to Japan. He is currently majoring in English, more like teaching English as a second language. About study experience in American college, one thing he likes the most that student could change major. He said students in Japan have to choose major before enter college and can’t change anymore before graduation. Shuhei chooses Yukichi Fukuzawa who was a famous author, writer and teacher to be symbol of Japanese culture because his ideas about education and social institutions changed Japan a lot. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan.
One thing that impressed a lot in this conversation is that Shuhei noticed there are some misunderstandings about Japanese and Japanese cultures. For example, in JP net work, the Japanese cultural club on campus, lot Americans get excited about Otaku and Yakuza to be topics of “Japan night” because they think that’s cool and funny. However, Shuhei said in japan, Otaku is a relatively small group of people that barely communicate with others. They stayed at home, spending most of time playing games and watching mangas instead of going out and attend social activities. Japan society thinks of this group to be a little strange because some of them also might have some psychological problems. In addition, Yakuza is a generic term for Japan mafia group and gangs which obvious inappropriate to represent Japanese culture. Shuhei and his friends talked to JP network to and then changed the topic.
The other thing that I was interested during the conversation is spirits of Japan culture. Shuhei emphasized that hard working is extremely highlighted in Japan culture and that’s one of the major reasons that Japan could develop rapidly after WWII. Friendship and group work are also critical parts of Japanese spirits.
This interview is successful and I’ve learned a lot about Japanese from this conversation. It helped me a lot to have a better understanding about another culture from a person who is from that particular country. However, there is still something I should improve and keep in mind for next interview. During this conversation, our talk has been off the topic for a few times because both of us were too much into the topic and didn’t move along. I was also kind of emotional and being too active instead of being neutral and listens to interviewees quietly. Those could potentially make interviewee feel pressure and nervous. And the questions could be more broad instead of going too deep on a particular one. That also requires more research before the interview. I’ll work on those problems and make it better next time.
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