Japan Culture

Japan Culture

Japan is an island country located in the Pacific Ocean and is situated on the East side of Asia. Japan’s current population is 127,236,671 people. Shinzō Abe is Japans 57^th prime minister, and has been leading Japan since 2012.

Food

Japanese cuisine is a delicious known all around the world. Japanese cuisine includes sushi, rice, fish, noodles and sashimi. Many towns and cities in Japan are known for their local food, specialty. Rice has been in Japan for around 2000 years and is still in many different Japanese foods, local and expensive.

Sport

Sport is a important part of the modern Japanese lifestyle. Although modern sports are very popular, Japan is better known for their more traditional sports. Sumo wrestling is a bewildering traditional sport from Japan. The aim of sumo wrestling is to try to push the other man out of the ring. You probably think that sumo wrestling is funny, but in Japan they take it very seriously holding tournaments every few months. Karate, Kendo, Judo and Aikido are all martial arts Japanese people created. Kendo is the oldest Japanese martial art, but the most well-known martial arts from Japan are Karate and Judo. Some more modern sports the Japanese enjoy playing are baseball and football. Baseball is the most popular sport Japanese people like to play, with the second most popular being football. Adopting the foreign sport from America, Japanese kids and adults enjoyed playing baseball as soon as it was introduced. Japanese people were very fond of all sports that focused on teamwork.

Social Etiquette

Bowing in Japan is a way to show respect and gratitude to the person you are bowing too. You bow when they say hello, goodbye, thank you or sorry. In some occasions you don't necessarily have to bow. For example, if you entered a shop or restaurant, you might get a bow from the staff as a sign of respect to you as a customer, but that doesn't mean you need to bow back. Another way of showing respect is to take off your shoes before entering a house, temple or occasional restaurant. People take off their shoes not only as a sign of respect, but also to keep the room/building clean.

Religion

Shintoism and Buddhism are the two major religions in Japan. Religions in Japan are rarely discussed in everyday life, as most of the Japanese do not worship or claim to be a certain religion. Temples and shrines can be found everywhere in Japan, but the difference between them is that temples are Buddhist and shrines are Shintoist. 

Art

There are many different beautiful art works in Japan, but the most popular by far is manga and anime. Manga books are generally printed in black and white and are basically the Japanese version of comics. Anime is a Japanese animated tv series which is mostly inspired from Manga, but can also be created off other things. For example, the Pokémon series was a worldwide known video game before the anime came out. Some examples of anime are Pokemon, Death Note, Sword Art Online, Naruto, One Piece.

References

https://www.insidejapantours.com/japanese-culture/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

Written by, Jasmine Chang