Japan is a mysterious country.
Especially, for foreigners who are in the outside of this closed country.
But, why many people cannot understand about Japan?
There are many reasons should be in there.
It would be different by some points of views of individuals.
But I think it has mainly three reasons in there.
The three reasons are as follows:
- Difference of history
- Difference of religion
- Lack of information about Japan in English
So, anyway, let me explain about these reasons very shortly.
At first, 1. Difference of history is a very simple reason. Because Western history and Eastern history cannot be the same. The roots of the history is fundamentally different between them. For instance, Western history ; mainly such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Britain and the United States, has the roots came from ancient Greece and ancient Rome. But, Eastern history ; mainly such as India, China, Thailand, Vietnam, North & South Korea and Japan, has the roots came from ancient India and ancient China. So, to make a long story short, the roots of history is very different, so this is because the most of foreigners cannot understand about Japan and other Eastern cultures.
Secondly, 2. Difference of religion is a little bit complicated reason. Japan has a philosophy of Buddhism in the deep part of their society. This philosophy is based on an ancient China’s Buddhism and an ancient India’s Buddhism. And Confucianism is in their society, too. This philosophy came from China and Korea. And an animism is in the deep part of the most Japanese people’s practices, too. This philosophy is very closed to Shinto. And Utaki in Okinawa is closely related to animism and I think Japanese animism was affected by Southeast Asia’s animism, such as Philippine’s, Indonesia’s, and so on. To put it shortly, these three philosophies are mixing each other, so Japanese religion is very complicated in the present day. And this is the one reason makes Japanese culture more complicated for many foreigners. The most of Western religions are monotheism. But Japanese religion is a kind of polytheism. So this difference of religion makes the understanding difficult for many foreigners who belongs a religion which is based on monotheism, especially in Western culture.
Finally, 3. Lack of information about Japan in English is the most important part in this article. This is why I started to write an article on Medium. I think many information about Japanese culture is still lacking in English today. Of course, I know there are many information about Japan in the Internet and they are very helpful for foreigners to understand what Japan is. But I think it is necessary to get more information about Japan than ever. Because I’m Japanese, and I can read Japanese language. So I can reach a rare information about Japan. But the most of foreigners cannot read Japanese language, so they cannot get a special information sleeping in the deep part of Japanese society. I think this rare information about Japanese culture isn’t sufficient in the information which foreigners can read in English yet. And I’m thinking these rare information will be helpful for many foreigners to understand about Japan and to do business with Japanese people, too. So, from this point of view, I will write the articles which tells you the rare information on Medium from now on. And I will do it under the name of Japanese Information Archives.
“But, what information are you talking about ? ”
You would think that way if you read this article until this line.
It’s natural for you to think so.
Because this article is a little bit abstract one. So you couldn’t take the main point of this article.
This is because that I haven’t decided what information I’ll choose from a lot of Japanese culture. So I couldn’t say it clearly.
But, one thing, I’ve decided already.
That is a kaki persimmon/Japanese persimmon.
Kaki persimmon is a famous fruit in Japan. But this fruit is not famous in the outside of Japan, especially Western countries. As far as I know, only Fuyu, Jiro, and Tsurunoko are a little famous variety in the world. But there are more persimmon that you don’t know about in Japan. So I will mainly tell you about Japanese persimmon’s information on Medium from now on.
And I’m thinking of writing an article about a Japanese green tea (especially matcha:抹茶 in Japanese word) and a Japanese paper (called washi:和紙 in Japanese) and so on.
So, if you have an interest in these information, please follow me!
I’ll give you a valuable information as much as I can.
