Explaining Japanese Civilization
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Date: 2024-05-25
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Comments and reviews: 20
whatifalthist
My little piece of information here:
I grew up in the first region to receive Japanese immigrants in Brazil, thus having having contact with their culture in a constant basis. The Japanese community in Brazil became the most successful among all of the around 100 we have/had. What led me to apreciate their mindset to a high degree. Later on in life after I worked for few International Japanese companies I was invited by a friend to a speech of one if the executives of Toyota that were coming to Brazil to celebrate an important mile stone of the company in Brazil. Then I was struck with just a single thing, that man said the Brazilian factory of Toyota was the most efficient one in the world and no factory could give so much efficience, even in Japan itself. And he continued to talk about how much Japaneses need the iron hyerarchy structure to enforce its goal. But in Brazil it flows into everyones mind as naturally as a breeze in the spring. It literally means Brazilians are the complete oposite in every aspect but we are a perfect match for coupling in order to achieve something big.
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My little piece of information here:
I grew up in the first region to receive Japanese immigrants in Brazil, thus having having contact with their culture in a constant basis. The Japanese community in Brazil became the most successful among all of the around 100 we have/had. What led me to apreciate their mindset to a high degree. Later on in life after I worked for few International Japanese companies I was invited by a friend to a speech of one if the executives of Toyota that were coming to Brazil to celebrate an important mile stone of the company in Brazil. Then I was struck with just a single thing, that man said the Brazilian factory of Toyota was the most efficient one in the world and no factory could give so much efficience, even in Japan itself. And he continued to talk about how much Japaneses need the iron hyerarchy structure to enforce its goal. But in Brazil it flows into everyones mind as naturally as a breeze in the spring. It literally means Brazilians are the complete oposite in every aspect but we are a perfect match for coupling in order to achieve something big.
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user-ys8xe1xd2x
Japanese people have an instinct to belong to groups. But fanatical slaves suffer from that instinct. The Japanese sought ideas abroad to destroy their collectivist instincts.
From India (Buddhism, death as salvation.
From China (Confucianism, stricter laws.
From Western Europe (imperialism, the modern self.
From America (human rights, the spirit of freedom.
Japan's isolation from world history gives the Japanese people a sense of inferiority as an inferior race. There is a famous Japanese saying, There is no philosophy in Japan. '' There are no philosophers in Japan, and although research is being done on foreign philosophers, there is no thinking on their own.
There are many studies of Japanese civilization by Japanese people, but the answer is simple. There is no such thing as Japanese civilization, and the Japanese are just a patchwork of world civilizations, with no originality whatsoever. Japanese people are not even humans, they are a subspecies of monkeys and robots.
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Japanese people have an instinct to belong to groups. But fanatical slaves suffer from that instinct. The Japanese sought ideas abroad to destroy their collectivist instincts.
From India (Buddhism, death as salvation.
From China (Confucianism, stricter laws.
From Western Europe (imperialism, the modern self.
From America (human rights, the spirit of freedom.
Japan's isolation from world history gives the Japanese people a sense of inferiority as an inferior race. There is a famous Japanese saying, There is no philosophy in Japan. '' There are no philosophers in Japan, and although research is being done on foreign philosophers, there is no thinking on their own.
There are many studies of Japanese civilization by Japanese people, but the answer is simple. There is no such thing as Japanese civilization, and the Japanese are just a patchwork of world civilizations, with no originality whatsoever. Japanese people are not even humans, they are a subspecies of monkeys and robots.
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anotherbacklog
A few side notes to add
07: 00 Japanese, or Yamato people came from Korea. Very few Japanese knows this and will get seriously offended if you tell them that.
24: 00 As a result of the caste system/ rigid social hierarchy theres hardly any intermarriage between the samurai class and peasant class. To the extent that the samurai decedents looks quite different from the peasant descendent. Japanese with larger eyes and strong facial features are more likely to be of samurai descendant than Japanese with smaller eyes and flatter facial features.
29: 00 Japanese art’s idea of finding beauty in imperfection is one step above the dualism of western art. For a Japanese artist dystopian hell can still be aesthetically pleasant. Western post-modern artists will probably just slap some dirty messy disgusting filth on your face and justify it as reality.
This is how Japan has powerful cultural export punching way above its weight.
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A few side notes to add
07: 00 Japanese, or Yamato people came from Korea. Very few Japanese knows this and will get seriously offended if you tell them that.
24: 00 As a result of the caste system/ rigid social hierarchy theres hardly any intermarriage between the samurai class and peasant class. To the extent that the samurai decedents looks quite different from the peasant descendent. Japanese with larger eyes and strong facial features are more likely to be of samurai descendant than Japanese with smaller eyes and flatter facial features.
29: 00 Japanese art’s idea of finding beauty in imperfection is one step above the dualism of western art. For a Japanese artist dystopian hell can still be aesthetically pleasant. Western post-modern artists will probably just slap some dirty messy disgusting filth on your face and justify it as reality.
This is how Japan has powerful cultural export punching way above its weight.
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tomasvrabec1845
anime and it's consequences
Well that does sound negative but anime is so broad that your isage of the term essay lacks any logic.
You have anime which is odd, very intriguing but frankly very odd and illogical as it's core.
On the other jand you have anime which carries through japanese folklore and cukture and inbeds it into the cukture as a firm of Myths revival. Quite similar to what Tokein tried to do with English folklore when he made lord of the rings.
Especially as the codes of honour and cuktural normsnare all very present in a lot of anime.
However, if you aren't looking into anime as an outsider, you would only see whatever gets talk about in your bubble. In yours it would quite likely be that its a gay mess with degeneracy.
It's like saying the word media when tou talk about any genre of booms, tv or other.
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anime and it's consequences
Well that does sound negative but anime is so broad that your isage of the term essay lacks any logic.
You have anime which is odd, very intriguing but frankly very odd and illogical as it's core.
On the other jand you have anime which carries through japanese folklore and cukture and inbeds it into the cukture as a firm of Myths revival. Quite similar to what Tokein tried to do with English folklore when he made lord of the rings.
Especially as the codes of honour and cuktural normsnare all very present in a lot of anime.
However, if you aren't looking into anime as an outsider, you would only see whatever gets talk about in your bubble. In yours it would quite likely be that its a gay mess with degeneracy.
It's like saying the word media when tou talk about any genre of booms, tv or other.
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herbertgearing1702
I am not a weeb, I have what is likely considered a problematic(only because I am a white guy) level of in group preference for people of European decent. However I cannot help but respect and appreciate the Japanese people and their historical achievements. They are definitely the most European like Asians, and they always seem to be capable of punching above their weight so to speak on the global stage whether militarily, economically, or culturally. If you catch them flat footed once and give them a black eye, rest assured next time you meet they will have adapted and prepared for the opportunity to even the score. I have to respect it, and I am of Scottish hillbilly decent. Collectivism is anathema to my nature, but as long as I am not being forced to participate, live and let live.
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I am not a weeb, I have what is likely considered a problematic(only because I am a white guy) level of in group preference for people of European decent. However I cannot help but respect and appreciate the Japanese people and their historical achievements. They are definitely the most European like Asians, and they always seem to be capable of punching above their weight so to speak on the global stage whether militarily, economically, or culturally. If you catch them flat footed once and give them a black eye, rest assured next time you meet they will have adapted and prepared for the opportunity to even the score. I have to respect it, and I am of Scottish hillbilly decent. Collectivism is anathema to my nature, but as long as I am not being forced to participate, live and let live.
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aasifazimabadi786
3: 46 I would disagree with you on this. In ancient times, Buddhism was India’s greatest export. In modern ones, Awaara (1951) exemplifies how Bollywood is such a fascinating international phenomenon across the former Soviet Union, China, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. I had a friend from Senegal at CUNY Queens College that was a fan of Mumtaz, for crying out loud. Yes, Japan is a cultural powerhouse, but Hindi and various South Indian films are gaining popularity beyond the Indian Subcontinent. Yoga, ayurvedic remedies including but by no means limited to turmeric, bhangra, shampoo, satyagraha, and the zero are just a few of the legacies of Indic influence on the rest of the world.
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3: 46 I would disagree with you on this. In ancient times, Buddhism was India’s greatest export. In modern ones, Awaara (1951) exemplifies how Bollywood is such a fascinating international phenomenon across the former Soviet Union, China, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. I had a friend from Senegal at CUNY Queens College that was a fan of Mumtaz, for crying out loud. Yes, Japan is a cultural powerhouse, but Hindi and various South Indian films are gaining popularity beyond the Indian Subcontinent. Yoga, ayurvedic remedies including but by no means limited to turmeric, bhangra, shampoo, satyagraha, and the zero are just a few of the legacies of Indic influence on the rest of the world.
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whatifalthist
There is definitely a relationship between Arab, Asian, and Indian men in regards to not knowing how to perform in the individualistic West. The only difference being Arab men are slightly more likely than the other two to protest for men's rights. If we were to use uprising dates as a sports championship date, the last time Arab men rebelled was in 2011 (Arab Spring, Asian men in 1899-1900 (Boxer Rebellion, and Indian men in 1900 (Quit India movement.
Compared to the West, the story's somewhat different though. In America it would be 1960 (Civil Rights marches. In Europe it would be France 1871 (Paris Commune, Germany 1918 (German Revolution, and 1980 (Eastern Europe anti-Communist protests.
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There is definitely a relationship between Arab, Asian, and Indian men in regards to not knowing how to perform in the individualistic West. The only difference being Arab men are slightly more likely than the other two to protest for men's rights. If we were to use uprising dates as a sports championship date, the last time Arab men rebelled was in 2011 (Arab Spring, Asian men in 1899-1900 (Boxer Rebellion, and Indian men in 1900 (Quit India movement.
Compared to the West, the story's somewhat different though. In America it would be 1960 (Civil Rights marches. In Europe it would be France 1871 (Paris Commune, Germany 1918 (German Revolution, and 1980 (Eastern Europe anti-Communist protests.
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MaitlandJones
Dealing with Japanese bureaucrats have always been a quick and painless process. Once I went with a friend who needed to fill out paperwork at the ward office, and after we left, we milled about the city for a few hours.
Suddenly one of the ward office employees show's up, apparently my friend missed a box to sign in. This lady managed to track us down after all that time. They could have called another day and say hey you got to come in again and redo your paperwork. But Japan has managed to instil a sense of honor in it's managerial class, and it shows.
Every interaction I've had with the bureaucracy has been, quick, painless, and ultimately beneficial.
reply
Dealing with Japanese bureaucrats have always been a quick and painless process. Once I went with a friend who needed to fill out paperwork at the ward office, and after we left, we milled about the city for a few hours.
Suddenly one of the ward office employees show's up, apparently my friend missed a box to sign in. This lady managed to track us down after all that time. They could have called another day and say hey you got to come in again and redo your paperwork. But Japan has managed to instil a sense of honor in it's managerial class, and it shows.
Every interaction I've had with the bureaucracy has been, quick, painless, and ultimately beneficial.
reply
darthutah6649
29: 39 It recently occurred to me that guilt culture encourages dogmatism. This is because guilt is based on the idea that there's an objective right way of doing things. Shame cultures are more ideologically flexible because the main focus is on social harmony.
Europe literally fought wars over religion. Freedom of religion was brought forth by the enlightenment as a reaction to those wars and persecutions.
The US kind of takes this to the extreme. Leave it to the US to be the only country which had to fight a war to end slavery. This might also explain why the US is more religious than Europe since being a devout Christian is the right thing.
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29: 39 It recently occurred to me that guilt culture encourages dogmatism. This is because guilt is based on the idea that there's an objective right way of doing things. Shame cultures are more ideologically flexible because the main focus is on social harmony.
Europe literally fought wars over religion. Freedom of religion was brought forth by the enlightenment as a reaction to those wars and persecutions.
The US kind of takes this to the extreme. Leave it to the US to be the only country which had to fight a war to end slavery. This might also explain why the US is more religious than Europe since being a devout Christian is the right thing.
reply
misubi
As a Chinese person, what is odd to me about the Japanese is their devotion to the social group. Chinese society is based around the family which biologically make sense and so people act out of self-interest around their families fates and then generally disregard strangers outside of it. But Japanese are based around some devotion to a feudal lord or company or even rockabilly dance group at the park on Sunday afternoons. Also, the very Japanese phenomenon of Hikkokomori, shut-ins who isolate from society, has always seemed to me to be a form of self-punishment in a society where social groups are so important.
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As a Chinese person, what is odd to me about the Japanese is their devotion to the social group. Chinese society is based around the family which biologically make sense and so people act out of self-interest around their families fates and then generally disregard strangers outside of it. But Japanese are based around some devotion to a feudal lord or company or even rockabilly dance group at the park on Sunday afternoons. Also, the very Japanese phenomenon of Hikkokomori, shut-ins who isolate from society, has always seemed to me to be a form of self-punishment in a society where social groups are so important.
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ShimobeSama
I like the optional walls of text for the most part, but you really need to proofread them before you publish. Almost every single one has one or two massive, glaringly obvious, embarrassing grammatical errors (or at the very least just really bad punctuation, and it's almost agonizing to read sometimes. It's kind of weird to imagine showing one of your videos to someone when a lot of people will just ad hominem the apparent inability to type English normally and write it off, when a lot of the content and insights are pretty novel, relevant, and applicable to a lot of things.
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I like the optional walls of text for the most part, but you really need to proofread them before you publish. Almost every single one has one or two massive, glaringly obvious, embarrassing grammatical errors (or at the very least just really bad punctuation, and it's almost agonizing to read sometimes. It's kind of weird to imagine showing one of your videos to someone when a lot of people will just ad hominem the apparent inability to type English normally and write it off, when a lot of the content and insights are pretty novel, relevant, and applicable to a lot of things.
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bigheadrhino
Little known fact, prior to WW2 Japanese immigrants revolutionized farming in California. They played a major role in tilling the land and turning California into the agricultural powerhouse it is today. Because they came from such a harsh land for farming they were extremely efficient and massively outproduced the white farmers at the time. There are records of white farmers writing to washington complaining and demanding intervention. When Pearl Harbor happened, all the japanese were put in internment camps and their farms were given over to white farmers.
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Little known fact, prior to WW2 Japanese immigrants revolutionized farming in California. They played a major role in tilling the land and turning California into the agricultural powerhouse it is today. Because they came from such a harsh land for farming they were extremely efficient and massively outproduced the white farmers at the time. There are records of white farmers writing to washington complaining and demanding intervention. When Pearl Harbor happened, all the japanese were put in internment camps and their farms were given over to white farmers.
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-. -1328
Hey Rudyard, I've been watching your videos for quite some time now and I was always wondering, how you would describe your own approach to history. As far as I can tell, you try to get behind the mechanisms that drive human history, but I’m not sure, if there is a distinct field of study dedicated to that, you would identify yourself with. Feel free to correct me. As someone that is just starting to get into history, I was wondering, if you could give me any advice as to how to study history systematically, so I can skip the spray-and-pray-part.
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Hey Rudyard, I've been watching your videos for quite some time now and I was always wondering, how you would describe your own approach to history. As far as I can tell, you try to get behind the mechanisms that drive human history, but I’m not sure, if there is a distinct field of study dedicated to that, you would identify yourself with. Feel free to correct me. As someone that is just starting to get into history, I was wondering, if you could give me any advice as to how to study history systematically, so I can skip the spray-and-pray-part.
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Tremont24
You’ve got to read more recent scholarship bro. You can’t possibly judge modern Japanese society based on theses from books written in the 1940s and 1960s.
Btw, to say the Japanese have no technological innovation is absolutely absurd. I’m literally watching this video on my Toshiba TV. They innovated in the automobile industry, home appliances, and saved the video game industry. They continue to dominate the automobile industry and electronic video games. Love your videos but you need to do more research and check your biases my guy.
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You’ve got to read more recent scholarship bro. You can’t possibly judge modern Japanese society based on theses from books written in the 1940s and 1960s.
Btw, to say the Japanese have no technological innovation is absolutely absurd. I’m literally watching this video on my Toshiba TV. They innovated in the automobile industry, home appliances, and saved the video game industry. They continue to dominate the automobile industry and electronic video games. Love your videos but you need to do more research and check your biases my guy.
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gabingston3430
35: 43 I would put higher stock in the Japanese existing in their present form in 200 years than pretty much any country in Western Europe, or possibly any country in Europe, period. The West is simply too individualistic to ever get its act together in regards to demographic revival, but East Asia's collectivist culture might enable that. South Korea aside, they're too far gone and have imported too much Western influence. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if North Korea conquers it by the end of the century.
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35: 43 I would put higher stock in the Japanese existing in their present form in 200 years than pretty much any country in Western Europe, or possibly any country in Europe, period. The West is simply too individualistic to ever get its act together in regards to demographic revival, but East Asia's collectivist culture might enable that. South Korea aside, they're too far gone and have imported too much Western influence. I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if North Korea conquers it by the end of the century.
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Pattern_Noticer
You can tell he's a hue. He will choose to consistently leave out Germany in areas where they excel while making grand overtures to draw attention to the typical WWII myths and the guilt/shaming. Meanwhile he will regularly, overtly and loudly mention his ancestry and he is obsessed with mentioning his success and wealth.
Otherwise great content but one must be careful that any observations he makes and advice he gives is purely to benefit his own. This is why he has so much soft lefty apologia.
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You can tell he's a hue. He will choose to consistently leave out Germany in areas where they excel while making grand overtures to draw attention to the typical WWII myths and the guilt/shaming. Meanwhile he will regularly, overtly and loudly mention his ancestry and he is obsessed with mentioning his success and wealth.
Otherwise great content but one must be careful that any observations he makes and advice he gives is purely to benefit his own. This is why he has so much soft lefty apologia.
reply
gabingston3430
6: 50 The American Right does this, though they don't have much influence in the public education system outside of the reddest of states. Even then, the Right in the U. S. acknowledges that slavery existed in the U. S. and that White people aren't the first inhabitants of North America.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the French being more patriotic in their telling of history than other Europeans is a reason why France's birthrate isn't as catastrophically low as their neighbors.
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6: 50 The American Right does this, though they don't have much influence in the public education system outside of the reddest of states. Even then, the Right in the U. S. acknowledges that slavery existed in the U. S. and that White people aren't the first inhabitants of North America.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the French being more patriotic in their telling of history than other Europeans is a reason why France's birthrate isn't as catastrophically low as their neighbors.
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ShimobeSama
The contrast with Britain is kind of weird since their history that far back is basically the same, and it's highly subjective to call the Germanics who settled England invxdxrs but not the Yayoi. Japan also had waves of settlers that were distinct from each other (Ainu, Jomon, Yayoi) that were similar to the waves in Britain (Basque-like Stonehenge people, Celts, Germanics, and China and Korea played a similar role in Japan that Greco-Rome and France did in Britain.
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The contrast with Britain is kind of weird since their history that far back is basically the same, and it's highly subjective to call the Germanics who settled England invxdxrs but not the Yayoi. Japan also had waves of settlers that were distinct from each other (Ainu, Jomon, Yayoi) that were similar to the waves in Britain (Basque-like Stonehenge people, Celts, Germanics, and China and Korea played a similar role in Japan that Greco-Rome and France did in Britain.
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skyleonidas9270
The fact that you have such a mischaracterisation of the spanish conquest of america makes me mistrust you good judgement of history. Bringing an entire continent from the stone age to the renassance in 200 years is not burning everything down, also there are other unconquered places that suck, Ethiopia, Oman, Yemen, etc. Also, plenty of places that have been conquered multiple times and dont suck, the entire europe for example, including england, multiple times
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The fact that you have such a mischaracterisation of the spanish conquest of america makes me mistrust you good judgement of history. Bringing an entire continent from the stone age to the renassance in 200 years is not burning everything down, also there are other unconquered places that suck, Ethiopia, Oman, Yemen, etc. Also, plenty of places that have been conquered multiple times and dont suck, the entire europe for example, including england, multiple times
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mirozkapeluszem
For me the most mind blowing information about Japan was that they didn't have the concept of religion or God and despite that they functioned as a society and established a moral code. They've got kami deities but in a sense of a personalised force or spiritual beings that govern a certain aspects of nature or life. Not God. Supposedly when the Christian missioners came to Japan to spread the gospel Japanese people had no idea what a religion is.
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For me the most mind blowing information about Japan was that they didn't have the concept of religion or God and despite that they functioned as a society and established a moral code. They've got kami deities but in a sense of a personalised force or spiritual beings that govern a certain aspects of nature or life. Not God. Supposedly when the Christian missioners came to Japan to spread the gospel Japanese people had no idea what a religion is.
reply
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