Choose one of the following topics to write about. This reflection is due Sunday @ 10 p.m.
Current event —
Provide a link to an article related to something going on in Asia. Then, write a brief summary of the article and discuss its relevance to topics covered recently in this course.
Modernization: Japan vs. China —
Both Japan (after WWII) and China (after the Cultural Revolution) needed to rise from the ashes after complete political, social, economic, and cultural disaster. In your opinion, why has Japan been more successful in embracing change and modernization than China? Consider just one aspect (political, social, economic, cultural) that contributes to Japan’s faster advancement.
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I think that even though both countries have made advances, Japan has overall been more successful because of their foreign relations. Even before WWII, Japan as more willing to accept other countries with relations to trade and commerce, as well as negotiations and alliances during WWII. China has followed a policy of moderate isolation throughout a lot of their history. Even though Japan also had a strict period of isolation, it was relatively short compared with China's, and Japan ended it ready to open their doors to other countries. This gives the Japanese a better economy, because they have more people to trade trade with. They'll also have a better base on which to open foreign relations with new places, because the Japanese already have a number of people they do trade with. I think there were a lot of things that Japan did that helped to advance their economy, but this is a big one.
Japan has become more successful in embracing change and modernization than China because of their political views with other countries. Japan has been known for their technology and change throughout the years. They have been more successful in modernization than China and the U.S. Since Japan has come in contact with our modernization, Japan has adapted our standards. They have seen these ideas, only coming to change them to their standards now today. They have more futuristic ideas than most people do. They have more engineers that have these ideas. They move Japan through so much faster modernization wise than any other country because of their engineers and determination to come up with better ideas. As an example, they have created one of the first electric cars that you need to plug in to charge. They use this idea as an environmentally friendly vehicle than others that tend to use gas and cause emissions. China on the other hand, has more engineers who are slower, and don’t have futuristic ideas as Japan does. China has been slowly working been working their way to the future, but still tend to keep the same culture values as they have been many generations ago.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011666813
The article I found is about how an earthquake hit Japan on Sunday July 20. The earthquake was a 6.6 on the Richter scale and it hit the eastern coast of Japan. The article also mentioned that Japan sits on four tectonic plates so they experience lots of earthquakes, aftershocks and resulting tsunamis. No one was reported dead or injured, but some of the buildings in the capital swayed. For a long time in Japan, cities expanded out instead of up because of all the earthquakes. When it said that some buildings swayed, it makes me think maybe they should have continued to expand out because if they are on four tectonic plates, they should expect to have buildings knocked down.
I think that Japan has been more open to embracing changes and modernization because its culture is newer. China, as a culture, has been around a lot longer than Japan. Because of this, Japan was behind China in terms of having fully developed, original ideas. In an effort to “catch up” to China, Japan adopted practices and ideas from China that were working well for China. Japan has been embracing the modern practices and ideas of China since nearly the beginning so embracing changes from the West or other parts of the world would not be a far stretch for them. By embracing the “newest” ideas and practices, Japan, in spite of its late start, could boast about being one of the modern advanced cultures and societies in the modern world. China on the other hand would find changes and modernization a threat because China’s only influence up until the Cultural Revolution was itself. China did not look to a neighboring country like Japan did for ideas. All of the practices, traditions and ideas that were a central part of Chinese culture have roots in only Chinese society. They did not pull ideas from other cultures. Because of this, China would have felt a deeper connection to the traditions of its culture, making it harder to give up the traditions and embrace modernization.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7514322.stm
During a police briefing about the new gun control laws in China three reporters were shot by a home made gun that a police officer was using as part of the demonstration. No reporter was killed of seriously injured. This article shows the new laws China is making before the Olympics.
Japan rose to power much faster after such a devastating loss because of their political acceptance. They had simply let go of the old ways faster than China. After the cultural revolution China continued to use the dynasty system to rule their country. This wasn’t the most efficient system to use in the first place, let alone to continue to use after they had gone through such a turbulent period of their history. Japan on the other hand was quick to let go of the old ways and make way for the more efficient western ideas. Japan had already become masters of adoption and adaption, so they used this to their advantage in taking western ideas as well. These western ideas that they adopted, like those similar to democracy, and letting go of emperors and shogunates gave them a significant jumpstart on the rebuilding of their country. China’s rebound from loss was much slower because of their reluctance to let go of their ideals. In many ways this was pride related, the idea of having western ideas adopted into their own way of life most likely seemed ridiculous to those who were strongly tied to traditions. Over time of course they eventually came to realize that their sticking to traditions idea would bring them down. But Japan was already booming with industry by that time. They even had westerners training their armed forces and leading them into battle. This also gave them significant military might. The U.S. and Britain had some of the strongest armed forces on the planet at the time. Japan simply looked at this like an opportunity to make their own armies better. In short Japan made a quicker come back by being more open to ideas that China was still rejecting in place of their own traditions and ideas. The governments of course were making these executive decisions to take in or reject western ideas, this shows that the Japanese government was very capable of being open minded and willing to learn, while the Chinese government was still looking at themselves for answers.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKT26723420080719
Japan’s electric engineers are building a new advanced battery for the next generation cars. Several Japanese companies are working together to se up standards for lithium-ion batteries. Japan, a country advanced in technology has always had a goal to make their country better. Japan has invented a way to improve the performance of pure electric vehicles. Japan is also thinking economically, by creating this new battery it would help the company help cut costs and later gain an edge over overseas rivals. With new inventions that Japan is trying to make, like the battery, it its strengthening its economy. Today, technology is one of the basis of having a good economy, which is why Japan is one of the leading economies in the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/world/asia/14japan.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=japan&st=cse&oref=slogin
This article stated that Buddhism might be dying out in Japan. When people have funerals, they don't have Buddhism ones. They believe that the Buddhism funerals do not fill their spiritual needs. The lack of new chiefs will cause many temples to close and ultimately lower the amount of people following the Buddhist ways.
"Not only has the number of temples in Japan been dipping — to 85,994 in 2006, from 86,586 in 2000, according to the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs — but membership at many temples has fallen."
After China’s Cultural Revolution and Japans take in World War II, both countries were left in ruins and despair. Both of these countries had to rise from their remains and rebuild their entire nations. Japan has exceeded China in attempts to modernize their country. Japan could see the benefits of modernization long before China could. Japan decided to at least listen to the foreigners and their ideas while China rejected them immediately.
Throughout the years Japan progressed rapidly and catching up with the rest of the modernized world. Japan has a very distinct culture, yet open to new ideas and other cultures influence. Japan has adapted quite easily throughout the world, accepting new changes and coping with what they have. This is why Japan has progressed more than China; they have seen the benefits in modernization and learned how to adapt new with old and incorporating different aspects of different cultures to make their culture unique and stable but they did not lose all their old traditions.
--Kacie Young
Japan has overall been more successful than China as far as embracing change and modernization mainly because of their advanced engineering and technology which they have slowly created. For example, Japan started to prepare for the days when the world was going to need alternate sources for oil. They have already created electric cars which i'm sure will over time become more and more popular. Japan's engineers' are smart this way, by not just coming up with inventions for the present time, but also looking past that and taking note of the inventions that could tremendously help people and become extremely useful in the future. China on the other hand is very advanced in technology, however hasn't been able to quite keep up with some of Japan's inventions. This is only one of the many reasons as to why Japan has economically advanced more successfully than China.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080719p2a00m0na023000c.html
The article that I chose to write about is all about the U.S. navy working towards fixing a fire-damaged aircraft carrier that will be scheduled to arrive in Japan in late September. There were supposedly some worries of safety and if it was going to be ready in time for the Japanese port. Navy Secretary Donald Winter said that the structural repairs that need to be done are relatively minor, including repainting. Some of the worries were due to the idea of safety to the ship’s nuclear reactor. This was an issue not only because of the safety, but also because it is the first ever nuclear-powered vessel to be permanently stationed in a Japan harbor. The cause of the fire to the USS George Washington is still unclear, although they do know that it started near the auxiliary boiler room in the aft of the ship, and then later spread through one of the passageways for cables. They also said that the fire grew because of improperly stowed flammable materials. Luckily, the fire did not start anywhere near the ship’s nuclear reactor and did not have any affect on the power source of the ship. Even though the fire had no serious damage, many Japanese are against the large ship entering their secure harbor. 13,000 protestors gathered last Sunday near Yokosuka to demonstrate against the USS George Washington. The USS George Washington relates to what we just recently studied, by way of Japan allowing foreign powers into their country. History is still being made, and by September of this year the first nuclear-powered vessel is to be permanently stationed in Japan.
Japan has most certainly had a better success when it comes to modernization. But that's only because they had the benefit of borrowing some things from other countries, one of the them mainly being China. However, although they borrowed some technologies, they had it rougher when it came to the land itself. Although they knew how to grow rice,but they had a much harder time growing it compared to the Chinese. Japan also had the benefit of foreigners coming over to trade with them. The way I see it, Japan had it easier when it comes to getting what they needed, but the process of actually "doing" it was harder for them.
-Kyle Sugii
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-07-20-japan-suicides_N.htm
This article is about the increasing number of suicide deaths in Japan. Many of these deaths are caused by the mixture of toxic chemicals, which creates hydrogen sulfide. In Japan, suicide isn’t considered a total bad thing but something of good quality. Suicide in Japan may be caused by unemployment. Some men in debt found suicide as a way to get his family his insurance money. It is said Japan is sometimes known as a “nation of suicide.” This is for their previous history of seppuku, disembowelment and kamikaze planes in World War II.
This article relates to our discussions in class because it talks about seppuku, the suicidal ceremony for warriors and samurai. In 47 Ronin, seppuku is an honorable thing to do. Like the article said, for the Japanese, suicide is not always a sin.
-patrice
Japan had an advantage over China from the beginning. Since they are a younger country, they could look at China’s history and see what worked and what didn’t for them. Therefore Japan only borrowed the successful ideas, which probably saved them a lot of trial and error. Their system of adopt, adapt, and adept worked pretty well, so they had no problem catching up with China technologically, if not passing them.
In the very beginning China turned away foreigners that wanted to trade with them because they thought they were better than everyone else, the “center of the universe”. This traditional thought probably also made it harder for them to try new things, especially things that they didn't develop themselves, even though those new things were the future. However, the Japanese welcomed the Westerners and learned a lot from them.
China is also a really big country, which has a lot of land. The other countries all wanted a piece of that land, so they all teamed up on China. Japan, however, is a small island that doesn't have much fertile land, so it is less likely to be attacked. With less foreigners attacking them the Japanese probably had an easier time advancing.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20080720a1.html
In Japan the price of eel has raised by almost 10% because of poor catches and quality of Chinese imported eel. There have been concern with the chemicals used in growing the eel causing less to be imported. Imports also fell last year because of mass food poisoning in the frozen gyoza the eels were put in. Last year Japan's supply of eel was 20% domestic and 60% imported from China. This is a small part of the economic relationship that China and Japan have, its strong but turbulent.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/JB08Dh01.html
Georgia Kelliher
This article was about the recent “health panic” in Japan over a shipment of poisonous dumplings, or gyoza. No one knows for sure how the dumplings got poisoned and whether it was while they were being shipped from China’s company, Nissin Food Products, or when Japan Tobacco received them. So far several thousand people have had to go to the hospital, luckily in fair condition. The food was made in Tianyang Food Plant in a city southwest of Beijing, China. Masahiko Komura, Japan’s Foreign Minister said on February 1 that because of the dumpling incident it might ruin the trade ties between Japan and China. At first China bad been accused of the poor quality of food and been called out on, poor hygiene, but after inspections it is not certain whether or not it is their fault. Yoichi Masuzoe, Japan’s Health Minister, said on Februaru 6th that the poisoning of the dumplings was planned and on purpose and was an attempted murder. This was later decided to be false and accusations were dropped. The whole incident has affected both Japan’s and China’s companies in a negative way and effected the trading between the two countries.
China and Japan have both come a long way, but I think Japan was the one that embraced change and advancement quicker than China. The reason I believe this is because China was so set on their idea of them being Middle Kingdom. China was reluctant to change and was stubborn when it came to other nations and their influence. Japan also had alliances with the European nations to help them take a bigger step in the technology. Japan was also smart enough to practice "culture borrowing", like their calligraphy, bronze/iron, and arts from China. China was the biggest nation and they didn't have a country as a role model. Since Japan was a younger country so they were able to look at other countries and culture borrow to influence them.
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