Nihongo Shark Japanese Core 2000

Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 include native OS support for displaying Japanese text by default. To input Japanese on a non-Japanese version of the OS, however, the Japanese input method editor must be enabled from the Region and Language (Windows 7 and 8) or Regional and Language Options (Vista) section of the Control Panel. The Core 2000 deck is a great choice for beginners, as it features the 2000 most used words in the Japanese language. While I do not recommend doing all of the “Steps Eof the Core 2000, the first two decks (Steps 1 and 2) are a good starting place for beginners.

NihongoShark - Learn Japanese. 2,191 likes 42 talking about this. How to actually learn Japanese. You'll find it here. Daily lessons, courses. The official and predominant language is Japanese (Nihongo). Broadcasting Politics in Japan, 2000. Conflict in Japan, 1984. It has developed many differences and aspects which are indigenous to Japan.Japanese popular culture encompasses the modern popular culture of Japan. It includes Japanese.

This is the pre-loaded vocabulary deck created.

European names for the country probably originated with Marco Polo, whomost likely adopted a name for Japan used in a Chinese dialect.The name 'Yamato' is used by archaeologists and historiansto distinguish Japanese artistic genres from their Chinese counterparts.When used as a contemporary term, Yamato has strong associations with theimperial system, and thus with conservative nationalist ideologies.Contemporary Japan is considered a highly homogeneous society, butregional variation in social and cultural patterns has always beensignificant. Pride of place and identification with local culturalpatterns remain strong. Japanese people often attribute personality traitsto people from particular regions, and regional identity often isexpressed through local culinary specialties and dialects.Location and Geography.The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands and oversix-thousand minor ones, covering approximately 234,890 square miles(378,000 square kilometers), and has enormous climatic variation. The fourmajor islands are Hokkaidō, Honshū, Shikoku, andKyūshū.

The southern island group of Okinawa (theRyūkyū Islands) is geographically, historically, andculturally distinct.Japan faces the Pacific Ocean along the entire eastern and southerncoastline. To the north and west are the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan,and the East China Sea. The Korean peninsula is the closest point on theAsian mainland. Japanese life has always been oriented toward the ocean.The currents that converge offshore create fertile and varied fishinggrounds.The climate is shaped by Asian-Pacific monsoon cycles, which bring heavyrains from the Pacific during the summer and fall, followed by icy windsfrom North Asia during the winter that dump snow in the mountains.There are approximately 1,500 volcanoes, and because the islands lie onmajor fault lines, earthquakes are common occurrences.

Only about 15percent of the land is level enough for agriculture, and so the populationdensity in coastal plains and valleys is extremely high. Because of thesteep mountains, there are almost no navigable inland waterways.Demography.The population in 1999 was 127,000,000.

The country is heavily urbanized,and urban areas have extremely high population densities. JapanMeiji Restoration in 1868, the government attempted to create a strongcentralized state. Linguistic unification was a step toward shaping thenational identity. Through the national educational system and themilitary, a dominant national dialect replaced local and regionaldialects. The resulting dialect,hyōjungo('the standard language'), was based on the linguisticpatterns of Tōkyō's samurai ('warrior')classes and has become the norm in the educational system, the mass media,government, and business.Japanese is linguistically related to Korean, and both languages arethought to be members of the Ural-Altaic family. Despite similarity insyntax, vocabulary, and grammar, the contemporary languages are mutuallyunintelligible.

Japanese alsohas close connections to various Oceanic (Malayo-Polynesian) languages,suggesting that in prehistoric times the archipelago may have been settledby populations from Oceania as well as from the Asian mainland.Although Chinese and Japanese are fundamentally unrelated and differ inphonology, syntax, and grammar, Chinese has had enormous impact on theJapanese language and civilization. The Chinese system of writing wasintroduced along with Buddhism in the sixth century, and Chineseorthography was used to transform Japanese into a written language. Untilthe nineteenth century, stylized versions of written Chinese remained ahallmark of elite culture.The introduction of Chinese characters 1,500 years ago establishedsemantic and orthographic systems that make Japanese one of the mostcomplicated languages in the world.

The contemporary language relies on anenormous number of words and terms that are Sino-Japanese in origin aswell as words derived from indigenous Japanese terminology. Most writtencharacters can be read in contemporary Japanese with both a Sino-Japanesepronunciation and a Japanese reading.In addition to the adaptation of Chinese characters to preexistingJapanese vocabulary, two phonetic systems of writing were developed afterthe ninth century.

Those orthographies made it possible to write Chinesephonetically and to write spoken Japanese terms that had no equivalentChinese characters. Literacy therefore became attainable for people noteducated in the Chinese classics, and many masterpieces of classicalJapanese literature, including theTale of Genji,were written in those scripts.The writing systemrōmaji('Roman characters') is used to transcribe Japanese intothe Roman alphabet.Rōmajiis widely used on signs, in advertising, and in the mass media. Analternative system, adopted but not mandated by the government, is muchless commonly used.Although spoken and written forms of Japanese are largely standardizedthroughout the nation, there are several linguistically distinctive ethnicand regional dialects. The most distant dialects are those spoken in theOkinawan islands. Okinawan dialects are considered by many linguists to bedistinct from Japanese.

After the Kingdom of Ryūkyū wasannexed in 1879, the national government tried to replace the use of theRyūkyū language with standard Japanese, but the isolation ofthe islands, their lack of development before World War II, and theAmerican occupation until 1970, enabled Okinawans to maintain the use oftheir dialects.Other linguistic minorities include the Korean-Japanese and the Ainu. MostKorean-Japanese are bilingual or, especially among the youngergenerations, monolingual speakers of Japanese. There are only a handful ofnative speakers of Ainu.Symbolism.National identity and unity are formally symbolized by a number ofconventional icons and motifs, including the cherry blossom, the red andwhite national flag portraying the rising sun, and the chrysanthemum.These symbols have contested meanings because they are associated with theimperial family and World War II.

The chrysanthemum, for example, servesas the crest of the imperial family, and cherry blossoms were invoked inwartime propaganda to represent the glory of kamikaze suicide pilots.Progressive political groups resist flying the national flag and singingthe national anthem (Kimigayo) because of their wartime associations.Stereotypical images that are deployed in foreign representations ofJapan, such as Mount Fuji, geisha, and samurai, are not regarded byJapanese people as symbols of contemporary identity.Contemporary Japanese culture emphasizes symbolic expressions of local orregional identity. For example, local identity and pride are commonlyexpressed through 'famous local products.' Almost everyvillage, town, and city is famous for something, often a locallydistinctive folk craft, a local culinary specialty, or a traditional songor performing art. History and Ethnic RelationsEmergence of the Nation.The peoples of the Jōmon period (8000B.C.E.–300B.C.E.) were Neolithic hunting-and-gathering bands. During the Yayoi period (ca.300B.C.E.– ca.

300C.E.) extensive cultural contact with and migration from the Asian mainlandoccurred, and a society arose that was based on irrigated ricecultivation. The basic genetic stock of the population and the fundamentalpatterns of the language were established during that period.Japan came to the attention of China in the fourth century. During theYamato period (300C.E.–552C.E.), small chieftainships coalesced into a rudimentary state-level society.The mythologies of the indigenous Japanese religion, Shintō, datefrom that period; they intertwine accounts of the divine origins of theislands with chronicles of strugglesamong gods whose descendants eventually came to be regarded as theimperial family, which claims an unbroken line of descent since thisperiod.In 552, emissaries from the Korean kingdom of Paekche established contactwith the Yamato rulers. They introduced Buddhism and thus brought Japaninto systematic contact with Chinese civilization.

Almost every aspect ofJapanese life—agricultural technology, written language,philosophy, architecture, poetry, medicine, and law—wastransformed. The Yamato state adopted the conventions of the Chineseimperial court and tried to model society along the lines of Chinesecivilization.In the late eighth century, a new capital was established at what is nowKyōto, and during the Heian period (794–1185) Japaneseclassical civilization blossomed. Kyōto became the aristocraticcenter of a refined culture that was influenced by contact with China butdeveloped independent and sophisticated aesthetic, literary, and artisticstyles.The Tale of Genji,the world's first novel, epitomizes the culture of the Heianperiod.By the end of the Heian period, economic, social, and military power hadshifted to provincial landholders and warriors. From the beginning of theKamakura period (1185–1333) the imperial court appointed aShōgun: a supreme military commander who acted in the name of theimperial court but was in fact the supreme political authority. Severalsuccessive hereditary dynasties occupied this position until 1868. Centralcontrol was in the hands of the Shōgun's court, whileregional lords governed individual provincial domains and commanded thepersonal loyalty of warrior retainers (samurai). The Kamakura period andthe following periods were characterized by a warrior culture, includingthe development of Japanese forms of austere Zen Buddhism, martial arts,and the philosophic code of warrior life now calledBushidō.The medieval period ended in a century of civil war lasting from the latefifteenth to the late sixteenth century.

Contacts with the West began inthe mid-sixteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese Jesuitmissionary Francis Xavier. The introduction of Western weaponry hastenedthe consolidation of power among a few increasingly dominant warlords whounified the country and ended the civil war.In 1603 Tokugawa Ieyasu decisively defeated most of the remainingopponents, and established a dynasty that lasted until 1868. For over 260years, Japan experienced political stability, peace, and risingprosperity. Ieyasu established his capital in Edo (renamedTōkyō in 1868), which commanded the Kantō region andwas distant from the imperial court in Kyōto. The Tokugawa regimeruled through a complicated network of alliances with approximately 250regional lords, some closely allied to the Tokugawa and others inopposition but permanently subdued. Each fief retained its own castletown, and as a political strategy, some fiefs maintained a high degree ofeconomic, social, and cultural autonomy.During the Tokugawa period, culture and society became codified andsomewhat uniform across the country. Patterns established during thisperiod shaped, propelled, and constrained the country'smodernization after 1868.

By the 1630s, the Tokugawa regime had ruthlesslysuppressed Christian communities and broken off most ties with Europeannations. It disarmed the peasantry and imposed rigid householdregistration requirements to keep the population spatially and sociallyimmobile. Traffic along the great highways was scrutinized at heavilyguarded checkpoints. Trade was controlled through feudal guilds, anddetailed sumptuary regulations governed the lives of all social classes.These social policies reflected the ideology of neo-Confucianism, whichvalued social stability and the social morality of ascribed status.Tokugawa social structure was organized around principles of hierarchy,centralized authority, and collective responsibility. Individuals wereexpected to subordinate themselves to the specific obligations of theirascribed social roles, and virtue consisted of perfecting one'sability to fit the requirements of one's role. In the upper reachesof society, the kinship system upheld neo-Confucian ideals of the familyas a microcosm of the social order. Neo-Confucianism also established arigid system of ranked social classes: warriors, peasants, artisans, andmerchants.

Status reflected ideals of social utility, not wealth. Beyondthose four hereditary official classes, Tokugawa society included a tinystratum of imperial nobility, a large clerical establishment, and apopulation of outcastes.Throughout this period, regional castle towns and the major urban centersunder the direct control of the Tokugawa authorities became increasinglyintegrated into a national economic, social, and cultural network. Urbaneconomic power increased over the agrarian sectors. This underminedTokugawa political power, which depended on the control of agriculturalland and taxes.In the cities, bourgeois culture flourished:kabukidrama,bunrakupuppet theater,sumōwrestling,ukiyo-ewoodblock prints, and geisha entertainers. Irrigated fields in front of a housing development nearKyōto. Only about 15 percent of Japan is level enough foragriculture.were all creations of the urban culture.

Japanese cities equaled orsurpassed their European counterparts in infrastructure and publicamenities, but Japanese urbanites lacked a political voice commensuratewith their economic and cultural capital.Tokugawa social patterns and institutions laid the foundations formodernization. The urban merchant classes stimulated the development ofsophisticated national economic institutions and the beginning ofindustrial production.

Literacy and computational ability were widespreadamong samurai, merchants, and the upper levels of the peasantry. Thesamurai became a hereditary class of bureaucrats whose qualifications forleadership depended on education. Society was characterized by disciplineand regulation.The Tokugawa dynasty surrendered its authority to the imperial court in1868 after a long struggle. The political crisis included major internaleconomic problems and the unexpected confrontation with the Western powersprecipitated by the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and a squadron ofAmerican warships in 1853.

Opponents of the Tokugawa demanded that it takea firm stand against foreign intrusions and then overthrew the regime. Theresult was a largely peaceful coup known as the Meiji Restoration, whichmarked the beginning of the nation's modernization.The Meiji regime reconnected imperial rule with civil political authorityand military power. Under the nominal leadership of Emperor Meiji, theimperial government was run by the young samurai who had defeated theTokugawa dynasty. They were fiercely nationalistic and attempted to bringJapanese society into parity with European and North American powers.Society was thoroughly transformed as the leaders created a strongcentralized state centered on the imperial line, built a modern military,avoided European colonization, began imperialist expansion into otherparts of East Asia, and launched industrialization and economicdevelopment.Although they had come to power under the slogan 'Revere theEmperor; Expel the Barbarians,' the Meiji leaders built a strongstate and society along the lines of an industrial European country.

Meijileaders balanced Western powers again each other to avoid domination byany single patron. The government sent delegations to study legalinstitutions, commerce and industry, science and technology, militaryaffairs, architecture, arts, and medicine in Europe and North America.Foreign experts were hired, and young Japanese were sent to study atWestern universities. The new slogan was 'Eastern values; Westernscience.' Meiji leaders also emphasized the imperial family as the foundation of thestate and strengthened institutions and ideologies, includingShintō religious beliefs, that supported the imperial family. Fromthe late nineteenth century until 1945, an official cult (StateShintō) dominated the national ideology. The Meiji grafted thetrappings of contemporary Western monarchies onto the sacred imperialinstitution, creating a court nobility that resembled Europeanaristocracies. Samurai ranks were abolished in 1872.

The centrality of thestate was strengthened by a new national educational system, and a growingmilitary.Treaties signed by the Tokugawa regime had created zones where Westerncitizens lived independently of Japanese laws. These 'treatyports' were important sources of Western influence, and manyschools, hospitals, and other institutions created by foreign missionariesbecame prominent. The system of extraterritoriality, however, wasconsidered degrading, and the government tried to transform social lifeand culture in ways that would command the respect of the Western powers.Japan rapidly built a Western-style navy and army and attempted to expandits influence in East Asia. It annexed the Ryūkyū islands,took control of Formosa (Taiwan) after its success in the Sino-JapaneseWar, and was granted equal status with the Western powers in dealings withChina. Extraterritoriality ended in 1899, and victory in theRusso-Japanese War (1904–1905)—resulted in the possession ofseveral islands north of Hokkaidō and Russia's extensiveinterests in Manchuria. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea.

By the 1920s, Japanconsidered itself a world military power.This military might was made possible by industrialization after the1870s. The state built industries such as shipyards, iron smelters, andspinning mills and sold them to well-connected entrepreneurs. Domesticcompanies became consumers of Western technology and applied it to theproduction of goods that could be sold cheaply on the world market.Industrial zones grew enormously, and there was steady migration from thecountryside to the newly industrializing centers.

Industrialization wasaccompanied by the development of a national railway system and moderncommunications.In addition to state-sponsored innovations such as uniform nationaleducation and the creation of a single national dialect, popular interestin Western life increased throughout the Meiji period, starting at elitelevels and eventually extending to almost all social groups, especially inthe largest cities. Not all social changes were modeled on the West,however. The goal of the state was to promote nationalistideolōgies centered on imperial institutions and the Shintoreligion and to preserve a strong consciousness of national identity.

Manyaspects of tradition and history were codified. From Shintō tosumō, from the celebration of political loyalty and socialconformity to the organization of kinship patterns, almost all aspects oflife were suffused with consciousness of the national identity.Nation building and industrialization were complete by the early twentiethcentury. During the Taishō period (1912–1926), the politicaland intellectual climate became more liberal, shaped by the large newmiddle classes that formed in major urban areas. Mass media and popularculture developed in parallel to the Jazz Age in the West.

Politicaldemocracy was encouraged; and leftist groups agitated for politicalfreedom and workers' rights.With the beginning of the Shōwa period in 1926 (when Hirohito, theEmperor Shōwa, succeeded to the throne), society shiftedincreasingly toward the right. The military assumed a larger role inpolitics, and conservative forces made international'respect,' military expansion, and the sanctity of imperialinstitutions the cornerstones of public life. Throughout the 1930s,military and colonial adventures in Manchuria and elsewhere in China ledto open war, and society became increasingly militarized. The war in Chinagrew more intense, and international condemnation of Japanese atrocitiespoisoned relations with the Western nations. Japan joined with Italy andGermany in the Axis because its military planners saw the United Statesand its interests in Asia as inimical.Diplomatic relations with the Western powers grew worse, and on 7 December1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Japan almost simultaneouslyattacked all the major territories claimed by Western colonial powers,including American possessions such as Hawaii and the Philippines.

Thestated goal was to create a 'Greater East Asian Co-ProsperitySphere' in which Western imperialism would be banished.In the first year and a half of the Pacific War, Japanese forces were onthe offensive, but by 1944, Allied forces were recapturing the WesternPacific. Allied naval victories destroyed Japan's fleets andshipping, and bombing raids began in 1944. They destroyed most of thedomestic infrastructure and took an enormous toll on civilians.Anticipating that an invasion of Japan would be a bloodbath, Americanmilitary planners proceeded with the development of the atomic bomb.American military. A Japanese bride and groom hold their champagne glasses during atraditional Shintō wedding ceremony. Japanese weddings areelaborately staged and usually held in banquet halls or hotels.scientists developed the atomic bomb in secrecy, and it was dropped onHiroshima and Nagasaki after the Allies called for Japan'sunconditional surrender. On 15 August 1945, the Emperor announced that hisgovernment had capitulated.From 1945 until 1952, Japan was occupied by Allied troops under thecommand of U.S.

General Douglas MacArthur. The early postwar years were atime of massive rebuilding. Millions of people were homeless, and millionsmore were repatriated from the former colonies. The economy was shattered,and mass starvation was a threat.

Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of SpaceJapan today is a highly urbanized society. Cities have a long history,beginning with the first imperial capitals, such as Nara and Kyōto.Those cities were patterned after the Chinese T'ang dynasty capitalof Ch'ang-an and reflected the architectural principles of theChinese imperial court, with walls and gates enclosing a checkerboard gridof streets organized around the institutions of imperial power andcentered on an imperial compound.During the civil wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, thecharacteristic urban place was the castle town, a fortified city thatserved as headquarters for the provincial warlord. Castle towns. Rows of apartment houses in Osaka. Approximately 65 percent ofJapan's population lives in cities.remained the key regional administrative and economic centers throughoutthe Tokugawa period. They were spatially segregated along class lines, andtheir spatial layout and social organization put priority on the defensiveneeds and domestic convenience of the lord and his retinue.After the Meiji restoration, many castle towns declined as migration tonew centers of industrial and economic opportunity led to areconfiguration of the urban network.

In several 'treatyports,' enclaves of Western and Asian traders formed thrivingcosmopolitan communities. Industrialization centered on established citiessuch as Tōkyō and Ōsaka but also on towns and citiesthat flourished around mining, shipbuilding, and textiles.

The corridoralong the Pacific seaboard between Tōkyō and Ōsakagradually emerged as the central axis of the industrial complex.Almost all the cities were heavily damaged by bombing during World War II.They were rebuilt quickly after the war, and a massive urban migrationoccurred throughout the 1950s and 1960s as a result of large-scaleindustrialization and economic development. By the 1960s, urban sprawl hadcreated enormous megalopolises.

Roughly a quarter of the population livesin the greater Tōkyō region, and less than 10 percent of thepeople live in rural areas. During the 1950s and 1960s, the concentrationof heavy industrial facilities in densely populated areas causedenvironmental pollution on an unprecedented scale. Quality of life issues,including population density, environmental pollution, and the quality ofthe housing stock, continue to be problems.The earliest forms of architecture are reflected in the austere simplicityof some Shintō shrines. This style is thought to reflectprehistoric influences from Oceania and Austronesia. Its features includefloors raised off the ground and steeply pitched roofs with deepoverhanging eaves.In the sixth century, Chinese architectural styles were adopted,particularly for Buddhist temples and imperial structures.

Theconstruction style of such buildings proved to be resistant toearthquakes.During the aristocratic Heian period, a distinctively Japanesearchitectural style began to develop. Its features include the use ofthick straw mats on floors, the use of sliding and folding screens topartition larger spaces, and the use of verandas and covered walkways tolink rooms. Many elements of this architectural style were adapted to moreordinary living circumstances, and by the Tokugawa period, samurai andwealthy merchant homes included many of these elements.Since World War II, housing has been built along Western lines. Many homesstill have traditional elements, but the majority of living space isequipped with generically modern furnishings. Contemporary apartments andcondominiums are even less likely than single-family dwellings to haveJapanese-style rooms.Contemporary cultural attitudes toward and uses of space rely on cleardistinctions between public and private spaces defined along thedimensions of sight, sound, touch, and smell. In crowded public spaces,bodies are pressed together without comment, while in many privatesettings it would be unthinkable to touch a stranger.Within private settings that are used and occupied by a group of people onan ongoing basis, clear spatial patterns reflect the internal hierarchiesof social position within the group and between the group and others.

Food and EconomyFood in Daily Life.An extremely varied diet makes use of culinary elements from around theworld, including the cuisines of Korea, China, South and Southeast Asia,Europe, and North America. However, notions of 'traditional'Japanese cuisine are an important element of cultural identity.The defining characteristics include ingredients, styles of preparation,and aesthetics. White rice is a staple component of virtually every meal;other typical ingredients include soy products and seafood that is servedgrilled or raw. Vegetables and seafood are often prepared as pickles. Thecuisine does not rely on intense flavorings. Meals ideally contrastflavors and textures among different dishes and include many small dishesrather than a main course. The visual presentation of a meal is important.During the premodern period, meat was proscribed under the tenets ofBuddhism.

Vegetarian cuisine prepared in Zen monasteries relied heavily onsoy products, including miso soup and tofu.Since the late nineteenth century, tastes have been influenced by foreigncuisines, many of which have been adapted and absorbed into the nationaldiet. Since World War II, consumption of dairy products, beef, bread, andother Western foods has increased dramatically.Eating habits have been reshaped by changes in domestic life. Families eatfewer meals together, and sophisticated kitchen appliances havetransformed domestic cooking. Food manufactures have created vast numbersof prepared dishes.Basic Economy.The cornerstone of the economy is high-quality, high-technologymanufacturing, with a focus on exports.Commercial Activities.The wholesale, retail, and service sectors have grown dramatically asdomestic standards of living have risen.

Despite economic problems in the1990s, Japan continues to be a major financial market. Primary sectorssuch as agriculture, fishing, and forestry have declined enormously sinceWorld War II. In 1999, less than 5 percent of the labor force was employedin agriculture, compared to 21 percent in manufacturing, 23 percent in thewholesale and retail sectors, and 26 percent in service industries.Major Industries.Keiretsu—groups of companies that are closely linked through overlappingstock ownership, preferential supply relationships, coordination ofeconomic activities, and extensive subcontractingrelationships—play a central role in the economy.

The flagships ofsuch groups are heavy industrial firms, banks, and general tradingcompanies, and the largest keiretsu control dozens of firms in sectorsthat range from mining to mass media.Since World War II, business and government have maintained extremelyclose ties. Government agencies set both broad economic policies andmeasures targeted at specific sectors, and business generally cooperateswith government planning. The business establishment has been a majorbacker of the Liberal Democratic Party, and its successors. Social StratificationClasses and Castes.Japanese society has been portrayed as being essentially classless or ashaving a class structure in which very tiny elite groups and underclassesbracket an enormous number of middle-class people. A farmhouse in Hokkaido.

Only a small portion of Japan's workforce is employed in agriculture.from stigmas associated with Shinto and Buddhist beliefs about purity andpollution. The status is hereditary, but the people so stigmatized areindistinguishable from other residents in terms of language, ethnicbackground, or physical appearance.Other marginalized urban social categories include a large floatingpopulation of day laborers and migrant laborers, who have been joined byan increasing number of illegal and quasi-legal immigrants from China,Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.Symbols of Social Stratification.One of the most important determinants of social stratification iseducational attainment. Japanese people refer to a'credential' society, and educational credentials have oftenbeen regarded as the most important criteria for employment and marriage,particularly among the urban middle classes. Political LifeGovernment.Japan has been a constitutional monarchy since the Meiji constitution of1890. In 1947, a new constitution was drafted by advisers to the Alliedoccupation forces and adopted by the parliament. This constitutionguarantees equality of the sexes, extends suffrage to all adult citizens,underscores the emperor's postwar renunciation of claims to divinestatus, and assigns the emperor a symbolic role as head of state.Japan's parliament, known as the Diet, consists of the House ofCouncilors and the House of Representatives.

Upper House members areelected from national and local constituencies; Lower House member areelected from local constituencies. The political power of the Lower Houseis much greater than that of the Upper House; prime ministers are electedfrom the Lower House, and most cabinet positions are also filled from themembership of that chamber.At the local level, each prefecture has an elected governor and an electedassembly.

Prefectures have limited authority over taxation and legal codesand act primarily as agents of the national government. Cities, towns, andvillages have elected chief executives and assemblies. Municipalities alsohave limited autonomous powers and are primarily providers of dailyservices. Education, police, and fire protection are organized aroundmunicipal units but are controlled or standardized at the national level.Administratively, the country is divided into forty-seven prefectures thatvary in terms of their political structures. There are forty-threeordinary prefectures, three metropolitan prefectures with specialadministrative powers, and one administrativeregion for the northernmost island.

Lower levels of local government andadministration include counties and municipalities that are classified bypopulation size: cities, towns, and villages.Leadership and Political Officials.Throughout most of the postwar period, the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP), a conservative party with close ties to business and the nationalbureaucracy, dominated national politics. The LDP was in effect acoalition among leaders of semiautonomous factions, and its hallmark wasintricate compromises and backroom deals. In 1993, the LDP split apart,and many of its factions have become independent political parties.At the national level, government ministries wield enormous power. Sincethe late nineteenth century, the elite levels of the national bureaucracyhave been accorded enormous respect. In many areas, ministries set policyand politicians ratify the opinions of the bureaucrats. The prestige andrespect accorded to government ministries have plunged since the 1980s inresponse to the economic downturn and widely publicized incidents ofcorruption and incompetence.Military Activity.The constitution of 1947 renounced the use of military force and forbidsthe state from maintaining armed forces.

However, Japan maintains a'self-defense force' with substantial personnel andweaponry, supported by a growing budget. Social Welfare and Change ProgramsThere is a long-standing ethos of support for education, public safety,and public health, which have been government priorities since thenineteenth century. However, many aspects of social welfare continue to bethe responsibility of families, communities, and other social groups.Traditionally, villages were organized around mutual assistance, andcultural norms still encourage social groups to take care of the needs oftheir individual members. Care for the elderly was traditionally a familyresponsibility, but it has become an enormous public issue because ofJapan's rapidly aging population and the decline inmulti-generational households. Nongovernmental Organizations and Other AssociationsJapanese religious traditions have not emphasized charity or philanthropy.Since the nineteenth century, however, Japanese Christians have beenleaders in social reform movements, and many educational, medical, andother institutions have been sponsored by Christian groups. The growth ofsocial movements has been limited because of deferential attitudes towardthe state's role in public affairs.

Nihongo Shark Japanese Core 2000 Lincoln

Throughout the twentiethcentury, the government harnessed or supervised the activities of manynominally independent social groups and organizations. During the 1960sand 1970s, citizen movements that confronted the government became common,particularly in response to environmental issues. Since the early 1990s,there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers and range of activitiesof nonprofit organizations, stimulated in part by skepticism over theefficiency of government, the failure of government agencies to respond tomajor public issues and emergencies, and the desire to create institutionsthat will give more autonomy to citizens in shaping social policy. Gender Roles and StatusesDivision of Labor by Gender.Because of Shintō beliefs about ritual purity and pollution, womenwere excluded from many aspects of ritual life. Women were not permittedto enter certain sacred spaces, and in some communities were forbidden toboard fishing vessels or enter mines or tunnels.

Most of theseprohibitions have vanished, but in some ritual contexts they continue. Forexample, women are still excluded from sumō wrestling rings.Neo-Confucianism defined all social roles in terms of hierarchicalrelationships; including the domination of husband over wife and of fatherover children. In the late nineteenth century, when new legal codesinstitutionalized family norms, the control of husband over wife wascodified.

In virtually all legal, political, and social contexts outsidethe home, women were subordinate to the male household head.The Relative Status of Women and Men.Authority and autonomy for women traditionally were confined to domesticmatters. A male household head represented the family to the outside worldand controlled its public affairs; within the home, his wife mightexercise great control in managing the day-to-day life of the family.Changes in family structure since the end of World War II have eroded thepatriarchal domination of households.The constitution of 1947 made equality of the sexes an establishedprinciple, and the legal framework of the traditional family structure hasbeen dismantled. However, the practical impact of legal changes onwomen's status has been gradual. Downtown Hiroshima and the memorial of the atomic bomb. The bombingof Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought Japan to unconditional surrenderin World War II.new employment laws, equality in education, and employment, careeradvancement remains an ideal, and 'glass ceilings,' gendergaps in salaries, and different educational and employment tracks remaincommon.Women's social participation also reflects various gendereddivides.

The Japanese language includes sharply divergent styles of speechfor men and women. Women often are expected to use a more polite andformal style of speech that implies deference and observance of theestablished hierarchy. Marriage, Family, and KinshipMarriage.Marriage is generally based on mutual attraction between individuals;this is known as a 'love marriage' in contrast to thetraditional 'arranged marriage' in which a go-betweennegotiated a match in a process that might give parentalopinions more weight than those of the prospective bride and groom. Somevestiges of arranged marriage continue and many couples rely onmatchmakers to find mates.

Background checks on a prospective spouse andhis or her family are routine.Weddings are almost always held in hotels or wedding halls, with a lavishbanquet for several dozen guests. The ceremonies blend elements fromShintō marriage rituals and stylized adaptations of Christianweddings. Weddings are elaborately staged, and the bride and groomtypically go through several changes of costume.Domestic Unit.Most families, especially in urban areas, are nuclear, consisting of theparents and their children.

Slightly extended families, such as an elderlyparent living with a married couple and their children, are not uncommon,but in general extended kin groups no longer play a major role inpeople's daily lives.Inheritance.The primary imperative of the family as a social institution was tosurvive across the generations. The household head's role ideallywas to be steward for a family's intergenerational fortunes,honoring the memories of ancestors who had established the family'sposition and ensuring that family assets, traditions, and social standingwould be passed on intact to an unbroken line of future heirs.In traditional agrarian life, land was almost never divided, because to doso might imperil the next generation's ability to survive. So inmost cases, inheritance was by a single child, usually the eldest son. Inthe case of an extremely prosperous family, they might be able toestablish other children in newly independent family lines, which wouldremain forever subservient to the original line.Various kinds of fictive kinship modeled on patterns of adoption andrelationships between family banches have been used to sustain other kindsof social relationships. Patron-client relationships sometimes arereferred to as parent-child ties, and may involve elaborate formal ritualsof bonding.

Traditional artistic life is structured aroundmaster-apprentice relationships that involve adoption and theestablishment of lineages.Kin Groups.The kinship system before World War II was based on upper-class familypatterns established during the late Tokugawa period. In the latenineteenth century, the Meiji government put in place legal norms andstandards that defined an ideal family structure. It established clearrules about membership, inheritance patterns, and the authority of thehousehold head over assets. Women in costume at the Needle Festival in Tokyo.marriages. This legal structure was radically altered after World War II,by reducing patriarchal authority, increasing the legal rights of women,and requiring that estates be shared among children and widows.Patterns of traditional kinship still shape the social conventions offamily life. The traditional family system was organized around amultigenerational household with a single central authority: the malehousehold head. Inheritance of a family's estate and succession toa family's occupation, social position, and obligations devolved toa single child.

In most regions, this involved inheritance and successionby the oldest son. All other children were expected to leave the natalhousehold and become members of another family system through marriage oradoption. In terms of social participation, the household was consideredas a single unit rather than the sum of its members.

SocializationInfant Care.Infants and young children are doted on, and child rearing is aconsidered a very important responsibility for women in their twenties andthirties. Many women give birth to their first child after little morethan a year of marriage, and married couples without children areuncommon.Child Rearing and Education.Child rearing involves a high degree of physical and emotionalinteraction between mother and child; fathers are less involved.Traditionally, sons were favored over daughters, and the oldest son wasraised quite differently from the other sons. Particularly close bondsbetween oldest sons and their mothers were not uncommon.

EtiquetteEtiquette can be a full-time occupation, especially in the context oftraditional artistic pursuits, such as the tea ceremony, where itsprinciples are incorporated as elements of performance. Even in moreprosaic circumstances, many points of etiquette are elaborately codified,including an extensive vocabulary and grammar for polite conversation;specific principles for the selection, presentation, and reciprocation ofgifts; and standards for bowing and exchanging name cards. Many peoplefind the intricacies of etiquette daunting, and books that offer advice onthese situations are steady sellers. Etiquette hinges on principles ofproportional reciprocity in social hierarchies based on determinations ofrelative status between superior and subordinate.

These relative statusesmay reflect an individual's age, gender, or social role or mayreflect relationships among different social institutions. ReligionReligious Beliefs.Shintō is the contemporary term for a system of gods and beliefsabout the relationship between people, the natural environment, and thestate. Shintō teaches that Japan is uniquely the land of the gods.The religion has no formal dogma or scripture. During much of Japanesehistory, Shintō and Buddhism have coexisted and influenced eachother.

Shintō is closely linked to the imperial family and anationalist ideology.Buddhism was introduced into Japan from Korea and China during the sixthcenturyA.D.It consists of two major branches, known as Teravada and MahayanaBuddhism. Teravada Buddhism, in general, is the branch practiced in SouthAsia, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia, and Mahayana is the branch thatinfluenced Chinese, Korean, and Japanese civilizations. In essence,Teravada (a Sanskrit term meaning 'the lesser or smallervessel') teaches that salvation is available only to an elect few,those who strive to achieve enlightenment and practice good works thatwill enhance one's ability to transcend the snares of mortalexistence. The Teravada tradition emphasizes monastic communities.

The light of dawn falls on a sign at the Tsukiji Fish Market duringa tuna auction. Japanese did not become a written language until thesixth century, when Chinese orthography was introduced.Mahayana (a Sanskrit term meaning 'the greater (larger)vessel') teaches that the grace and mercy of the Buddha and thebodhisattvas (saints) lead them to intercede on behalf of the masses ofhumanities, and that through proper devotion anyone can hope for salvationwhile, during their lives on earth, remaining a part of the mundane world.The sects of Buddhism popular in Japan have emphasized the accessibilityof salvation and enlightenment of ordinary people.

Medicine and Health CareMedical practice includes sophisticated biomedical research facilities andadvanced training of physicians. An extensive system of national healthinsurance provides access to high quality health care for almost allpeople through a combination of public hospitals and physicians in privatepractice.East Asian medical traditions, including herbal therapy, acupuncture, andmoxibustion, are widely practiced and incorporated into popular andprofessional medical conceptions of health and illness.

Traditional EastAsian medicine is based on holistic principles that view the humanorganism in terms of its integration with the social and physicalenvironment. The goal of these treatments is to restore or enhance flowsofki(energy or spirit) within the body and between the human body and itsenvironment. Foods, weather conditions, types of activity, humanrelations, and organs of the body are regarded as possessing varyingqualities ofinandyō, and if these qualities are out of balance, the flow of energy within thebody is impaired. A healthy body must maintain a dynamic balance, and thegoal of therapy is to preserve or restore that balance by introducingcountervailing elements. Treatment ideally addresses all the aspects of aperson's condition from diet and sleep to exercise, personalhabits, and work.Although traditional East Asian medicine is still widely practiced, sincethe late nineteenth century, the dominant form of medicine has beenWestern-oriented biomedicine. The Arts and HumanitiesSupport for the Arts.Support for and appreciation of artistic activities is widespread interms of popular participation and governmental encouragement.From the high school level onward, there are public and private schoolsthat emphasize training in the arts, and there are many arts colleges andacademies in which students can prepare for careers as professionalartists.The Ministry of Education is responsible for most official support andpatronage of the arts, including arts education in the schools andmuseums, libraries, and other institutions.

The ministry generally takes aconservative stance that favors traditional arts and crafts and'high culture.' One interesting aspect of Japanese arts policy is the designation of'national treasures ' by the Ministry.

National treasuresinclude great works of art—paintings, sculptures, or architecturalmasterpieces—but also include art forms and artists. Many folkcrafts, for example, have been designated as 'intangible culturalproperties,' and sometimes specific individual artists—anoted potter, or a weaver, or a sculptor—will be designated as a'living national treasure.' The State of the Physical and Social SciencesScientific and technological research is a priority of both government andindustry, and since the early twentieth century the Japanese haveconducted sophisticated research. In some technological fields,particularly in commercial applications of technology, Japan has been aworld leader. Scientific research is carried out through universities,government research institutes, and research and development (R&D)laboratories of private industry. High levels of investment in R&Dwere long regarded as a critical component of industrial success.In the social sciences, economics and econometrics are the most widespreadand highly developed fields. Psychology, political science, sociology,geography, and cultural anthropology are important academic fields, as issocial history.

The government has an elaborate statistical system thatproduces detailed data with a high level of reliability. Public opinionpolling is carried out by government agencies, the mass media, tradeorganizations, and academic researchers. BibliographyAllinson, Gary D.Japan's Postwar History,1997.Allison, Anne.Nightwork,1994.——.Permitted and Prohibited Desires,2000.Befu, Harumi. (ed.).Cultural Nationalism in East Asia,1993.Ben-Ari, Eyal, et al. Eds.Unwrapping Japan,1990.Benedict, Ruth.The Chrysanthemum and the Sword,1946.Bestor, Theodore C.Neighborhood Tōkyō,1989.——.Tōkyō's Marketplace,2001.——, Patricia G. Japanese society custom culture are Japanese society and culture today.Japanese popular culture is coming to have a global influence and a deep influence on the psyches of many people around the world.Japanese architecture has as long of a history as any other aspect of Japanese culture.

Originally heavily influenced by Chinese architecture, it has developed many differences and aspects which are indigenous to Japan.Japanese popular culture encompasses the modern popular culture of Japan. It includes Japanese cinema, cuisine, television programs, anime, manga and music, all of which retain older artistic and literary traditions, and many of their themes and styles of presentation can be traced to traditional art forms.By the 19th century, Japan's influence have solidified as far as Europe and the Americas. Today, Japanese culture outside Japan can be seen in almost all countries in the world, with major pronouncements in United States, Europe, China, Korea, Canada, Palau, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Australia.