Nihonica

If you were plopped in the middle of downtown Tokyo, I doubt you’d be able to tell whether or not you were in New York City or Tokyo (unless you happen to be a Tokyo-aficionado).  Starbucks, Nike, Forever 21, Gap,  McDonald’s, and dozens of other Made in America companies line the fashionable streets of Ginza and Harajuku. For Americans in Japan, it’s a blessing to have little pieces of home with you even when you’re 6,000 miles away.  But doesn’t that take away from the whole idea of being 6,000 miles away from home?  Japan is a country that had been sheltered away from the world until Commodore Perry decided to visit in 1874.  It’s culture up until that point had been strictly Japanese, which is to say, unique and very traditional.  Kimono, sumo, geisha, and other exclusive bits of culture couldn’t have been found anywhere else.  Although now, nearly everyone has heard of geisha (thanks Arthur Golden), or seen some form of a kimono at a costume party (trust me, if it were a real kimono, it wouldn’t have been that short and the person wouldn’t have been able to breathe). 

            In America, you can’t swing a cat without hitting a sushi restaurant.  Luckily for Americans, we get a taste of Japanese culture from the comfort of home.  And fortunately for Japanese, they have a plethora of American culture at their fingertips.  All of my girlfriends from Japan love Taylor Swift, One Direction, and Harry Potter, and the typical things American teens do.  

For all those who have yet to study Japanese history (or did and forgot it all), good old Commodore Perry was to first to cut the ribbon that opened Japan to the world.  After the arrival of the gaijin, Japan was forever changed.  Dress evolved from traditional kimono and geta to suits and pants and shirts.  Those who dressed in the “old ways” were considered uneducated and lower in society than those who dressed in Western clothes.  Despite having centuries of a rich and strictly Japanese culture, within half a century, societal standards had dramatically changed Japan to be more like the West, all the while still retaining nearly all the aspects of Japanese culture.  "A ping pong match between eastern and western." (Gwen Stefani, Harajuku Girls)  This cultural exchange put in place new standards, many of which are still in place today.

Japanese girls dress and like a lot of the same things as American girls: One Direction, Forever 21, Coach, etc.  On the other hand, they also enjoy many aspects distinctive to Japanese pop culture: anime, manga, J-POP, karaoke, purikura.    Sadly for Americans, these parts of Japanese culture are hard to find in the U.S.  After coming back from Japan, I scoured the streets of Boston and New York looking for purikura, but to no avail. The negative effects of this cultural exchange is that it takes away from the culture of Japan and makes it harder for a very Japanese one to emerge after having so much Western influence.  On the other hand, it offers more variety to Japan, and an awareness of other cultures, and also creates a huge industry for American companies in Japan, which is the third largest economy in the world.  However, despite the strong influences from the West, Japan has retained its fabulous culture.  As Sam Abell once said, “For sheer majestic geography and sublime scale, nothing beats Alaska and the Yukon. For culture, Japan…”