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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Japan's Impact on the Asian Image
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:29 PM)
t has long been seen as the fountainhead of consumer electronics technology. Its cars are consistently among the world's most admired. Its corporations own two major Hollywood studios. Its kiddie culture has all but killed off Mickey Mouse and Barbie. Its $4 trillion GDP is number two behind the U.S. and its workers earn 25% more per head than Americans.
Bravo Castrati!
That's how many Asian Americans see Japan. A nation that should command the stature of a powerhouse -- and elevate the image of all Asians in the process -- possesses the geopolitical profile of, say, Switzerland, a nation a thirtieth its size. Japan's leaders are seen as mere hand puppets in a sad half-century charade of democracy. Its homes are cramped. Its men function as soulless drones whose women fly into the arms of western males. Even its vaunted economy has been on the ropes for ten years and looks ready to go down for the count. What little testosterone it possessed seems to have left with Ichiro.
A nation that should champion the Asian image has only reinforced every insulting stereotype. To many Asian Americans, Japan has done less than its smaller, poorer neightbors. Little Hong Kong exports asskicking action stars. South Corea exports people who take hooey from no one. Taiwan exports tech entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. Impoverished China, Vietnam and even nutcase North Corea showed balls in standing up to the west. But mighty Japan? Spiritually it seems never to have recovered from its defeat in World War II.
Is Japan carrying its weight or slacking in the Asian image department?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
this is just BS from Bictory!
Takayuki Kaneko
Wednesday, December 25, 2002 at 21:52:58 (PST)
[218.229.233.144]
B as in bictory:
I am born in Tokyo Japan, I won't be ashamed of what I am, I feel in disagreement of what my country did to the other neighbor countries during WW2 and I work for Japanese company and I spend little time with my wife and my children, I teach my kids the best I can, always with a wide-open point of view about things, I also teach them to not be closed minded and to help and accept everybody in how they are...with or without defects.
As Japanese, worker,husband and father I feel that my duty with my family is to work hard and give my best to them.
sayonara
Takayuki Kaneko
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 at 21:14:40 (PST)
[218.229.233.144]
To Takayuki Kaneko:
To the Japanese people's credit, they were the first East Asian nation to develop a European-style economy and industry, having been inspired (or some would say shocked) by how much more advanced the Western powers were when Admiral Perry put his ships into Yokohama harbor.
Unfortunately, their position as the most advanced nation in Asia (at least in terms of industrial capacity and military capability) in the first half of the 20th century led Japan to commit many of the sins of their European counterparts - namely colonialism and a racial superiority complex. Japan's conquest of Corea and invasion of China are in many ways similar and were inspired by some of the same reasons that Germany invaded Poland and Russia.
While Japan was defeated in WW2 (and their military has been severely restricted by law ever since) they, like Germany, have risen from the ashes to become powerful players in the global economic community. To have East Asian nations in the community of elite countries, formerly occupied exclusively by European powers and the United States, is definitely something that Asians and Japanese in particular can take pride in.
As far as Japanese culture and its influence on non-Asian perceptions of Asia and/or AAs, I think it is on the whole a positive. Many have lauded Japan's low crime rate, the cleanliness of its citizenry, the orderliness of its cities, and the relentlessness with which Japan has carved out its high economic standing. Japan's pop culture in the form of Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and such is generally thought of as relaticely harmless, compared to American culture, which celebrates individualism, violence and discord just for discord's sake.
"B" as in "bictory"
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 at 04:48:42 (PST)
[63.98.74.2]
LSD:
Thanks for such emotional message, I'm so moved by it, my heart is in peace, I assure you that. You are just right.
Takayuki Kaneko
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 at 00:35:41 (PST)
[218.229.233.144]
To Mr. Takayuki Kaneko,
There needs to be more undestanding between the Asian countries.
Japan, China and Korea needs to get rid of their past conflicts with one another, so that Asia will become a more prosperous and stable region.
I hope younger generation can change the situation.
Yes, every country is guilty for many past sins.
Japan is a changing nation, so is China and Korea. I hope they can change for the better!
LSD
Saturday, December 21, 2002 at 10:51:05 (PST)
[66.212.81.229]
huu76
man I'm so proud of your opinion about us, thank you for backing us up, since so many people hate us in here, having few like you around make me feel in such deep gratitude...yet again, thanks a lot. I dont pretend to erase Japan's terrible and shameful past but going on and do good for humanity, learning about our mistakes without offend my fellows and loved ones..
I got many friends from China and Korea and they agreed with me on this!
Just go on and be good people!
Takayuki Kaneko
Friday, December 20, 2002 at 23:50:37 (PST)
[218.229.233.144]
You say Japanese workers earn 25% more per head than Americans. Where do you get this statistic? Last I checked, Japanese per capita income was about 80% of the US level. Or are you trying to say that Japanese blue-collar wage levels are higher than in the US?
Economist
Friday, December 20, 2002 at 23:23:23 (PST)
[12.85.98.94]
[Japanese per capita GNP is about 10% higher than that of the U.S. ($33,000 -$38,000 depending on exchange rates and who you happen to talk to at any given time -- econ is hardly an exact science but mostly guesstimates, conjectures and extrapolations). However, the average Japanese worker (not blue-collar workers, not retired persons, but average working citizen) earns significantly more than the average American worker because there is far less wage-inequality in Japan and there are far fewer recent/illegal immigrants willing to work at sub-par wages. Also, unlike American execs, very few top Japanese execs make 50 or 100 times as much as line workers). This board isn't about economics, so don't expect us to waste time providing citations for tangentia. (You've already forced us to waste 3 minutes). You probably know plenty of academic econ sites. Go knock yourself out. --Ed]
My God in Heaven!!!
As Japanese I feel soooo much pity reading this poor post stuff in here!!
There is no way this pathetic crap will change my mood today, I just need to remind myself how much I love to be Japanese and how much I love Nihon!!
However there is so much to talk about Koreans and Chinese people if I have to discuss civil and human rights in their poor countries, like in North Korea, how much they enjoy showing off their "female" army, that nasty arrogant looking president of them and so many issues regarding human torture and slavery...when it comes to China, its all about the same thing, human rights vanished, nacionalism, more deep nasty stuff about army and weapons....Koreans raped people too!!!!!!!!!!! Chinese tortured many others!!!!!!!
Want more??? You know you can't talk about Japan if you don't check your country's back history first!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't be fool, ok? This site seems to be managed by chinese and koreans since 99% of the post are against my country though....What a shame! So much cowards in here! Ya'll have no courage after all but only typing like women and disgracing Asia's Pride
Takayuki Kaneko
Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 22:14:16 (PST)
[218.229.233.144]
Be Fair,
Actually, Japan (along with the U.S.) helped develop S. Corea's industrialization. Japanese manufacturing has also spread to Vietnam and China. True it can do more, but then again, they haven't exactly received any gratitude for it.
i.e. Honda, Toyota and Kawasaki open plants in China. Chinese love Japanese cars and motorcycles, yet they hate the Japanese and only have negative things to say about them.
huu76
Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 22:03:33 (PST)
[65.95.193.102]
Some Japanese military commander during World War II once said (more or less), "The future generation will be paying for this."
Well, you see it know. The current Japanese generation has virtually no link to their once proud history.
I don't mean to offend anyone here, but have you noticed that Japanese people tend to look mixed? Have you ever noticed that they tend to date outside of their race/culture? Have you ever noticed that they try to be "non-Asian" by getting Afros, etc.?
They want to be everything BUT Japanese. It's pretty sad to lose your cultural identity.
bl
Monday, December 16, 2002 at 09:08:14 (PST)
[64.152.162.208]
Personally I think the area of entertainment in Japan has begun to have a large influence on the USA in many regards.
One area of entertainment that Japan is dominating in the USA is anime, or cartoons. Every other popular anime show in the USA is now a Japanese import. Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Yugioh, Cowboy Bebop, Inu-yasha, CardCaptors....the list is endless. Granted in the USA the production companies cut and edit the show for more mainstream appeal. So kids these days are just as likely to want Japanese toys as they are to want domestic toys. I think in the long run this will hopefully open children, future adults, to foriegn cultures, values, and ideas. Which would be a good thing.
The other aspect of Japanese entertainment industry which is not so optimistic for asians in America. Is their prolific adult industry. As the economics of the internet was founded and fueled by the adult paysite. I find the distrubing development of the asian niche in the adult paysite industry. Granted the asian niche is relatively mature, it is also one of the largest niche on the internet. Most of the content orginate from Japan one way or another.
Whether or not this is a "chicken or the egg" situation, where since Americans desire to see asian adult content, or where Japan has a prolific industry in adult content. I feel that this aspect of Japanese entertainment distorts the reality of asian women in the eyes of America.
AC Dropout
Sunday, December 15, 2002 at 08:08:53 (PST)
[24.136.115.189]
Getting back to topic of the post, exactly how many Japanese Americans do we really know or see in the media?
The only one that I really have a softspot for is George Takei. Others might be the figure skater Yamaguchi or the general Shinseki. After that, I really can't say who else. I mean, to be fair, I can't name any Korean Americans except may be Rick Yune, the army of dry cleaners, green grocers, and 24/7 deli owners.
I think the vast bulk of the American consciousness formulate their opinions about Asian Americans primarily by looking at Chinese Americans or China, who happen to be in America longer and in greater numbers then any other groups. People know about Korean Americans, because of the many small mom/pop stores they own, but I rarely see Japanese Americans owning small mom/pop stores catering to the mainstream American populace.
I hope I'm not offending any Japanese Americans here, but I think that the JAs have been very quiet and as a result, they didn't really leave a large mark on the "image" of asians in america.
I mean, some "image" built is shared by all asian americans in general--the image of hard-working, nerdy, professional, etc. But Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodians, etc seemed to be marginalized by the larger Chinese community here in teh U.S. (by marginalized i mean, not by chinese americans to the other groups, but marginalized mentally by the general american population.)
To provide "proof" of what I'm trying to say, just look at what people tend to discuss on Asian American websites like this one. There just seem to be more Chinese represented, by the sheer fact that there seem to be more Chinese Americans then other groups. When do we even talk about South Asian or Central Asian communities? When America lumps "Asian Americans" they usually don't mean Afghan americans or Persian americans--they usually mean Chinese or Japanese, or if they are "educated" Koreans--and if more educated "South and North Koreans."
Even racial slurs I heard as a youth was usually "chinese" oriented "chinks" instead of say "nips". (although i suppose "gook" would have been more appropriate in my case)
ka
Friday, December 06, 2002 at 11:19:54 (PST)
[168.103.180.35]
[This page is about the impact Japan has on the AA image, not the impact of J-A. Your post is interesting, however, and worth making an exception for. --Ed]
Dear all,
Before Japan became a developed country, the common perception was that no Asian country could be a developed one. Japanese people changed that perception. From what I have read in People's Daily, the Japanese people seem to be genuinely happy with the economic development in China.
Having said these, I have to admit that there are certainly bad feelings toward Japanese people due to the suffering inflicted on people of other Asian countries during WW II. Japan has not offered as much help to other Asian countries as one would have expected.
Be Fair
Monday, December 02, 2002 at 10:53:46 (PST)
[146.18.173.71]
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