Sakura

With the advent of Spring come the blossoms as Japan enjoys its rebirth. Spring to me is symbolic of the beginning of life, and each successive season passes until you fall into a wintry death. This is why I conject that the Japanese word for all seasons is Spring Summer Fall Winter shunkashuto, but it could have to do with an old calendar system here in Japan. If my last sentence confused you, I'm sorry. It's difficult to understand how Japanese can take polar opposite words (e.g. many and few) and create a single word e.g. manyfew (tasho) which means both the many and the few. My first encounter was the word morningevening, but that is a whole different road I've already wandered down to far.

So to get back to the sakura or cherry blossoms, Kyoto is approaching full bloom this week just as the blossoms are in DC right now. The only difference is that it is legal to sit and drink under the blossoms here in Japan whereas you have to stand in a designated area to do so in DC.

Why drink under the cherry blossoms? I can only conjecture on this question as well since I've never read an answer. I have heard though that cherry blossoms are significant to Japanese culture because they symbolize how life is fleeting. The cherry blossoms bloom into very beautiful flowers only soon to wither and fall from their tree (usually after a storm). People too are born, blossom into adulthood, and soon wither and die. The fact that you can see all of this in a matter of a week or two may bring you to drinking if you think like that.

However, it is more about making the best of the time you have, especially with the ones you care about (hopefully you are drinking under the blossoms with them!). I will be drinking with my colleagues this Wednesday after I go get a checkup (don't want to screw with my health before that....). I'll be drinking to life and the fact that I still have one. Cheers!

Korean Influence

Those that have studied Japan know that Japanese people have positive feelings toward Korea and Koreans even if the favor is not so much returned. Consult my friend's blog on Korea if you want to know more about the situation over there, but Korea is an interesting country trapped between the giant (America) and the dragon (China). From my limited studies, popular sentiment seems to be with the dragon while the elites tend to side with the Americans creating an interesting tension. Japan is associated with the Americans because of the U.S.-Japanese alliance, but they have the added stigma attached to them from their wartime aggression and the whole "comfort women" problem. Never mind the fact that the Korean government has been found to have supported prostitution around American bases along the DMZ.

However, this is a blog about Japan and Japanese feelings are a lot less associated with nationalism and more interested in cultural. Specifically, Japanese housewives (primarily) are in love with Korean "drama" and the K-pop (Korean pop) culture that comes from Korea. I recently went to a small concert of one of these K-pop hits and was surprised by the ratio of middle aged women to younger girls (I was one of two men beyond staff at the concert.....). When I asked why there were so many older women there, the response was that they love K-pop because the young singers remind them of their kids i.e. they're cute.

In a discussion of soft power, that power that countries exert through the power of influence rather than money or might, scholars discuss more the lack of influence Japan has over countries rather than what they do have. J (Japan) -pop has failed to take hold of Asian markets like American movies and music or the way K-pop has in the Japanese market. Part of the reason for this was the restrictive laws placed on Japanese exports in markets where Japan used to be the colonial ruler such as Korea and Taiwan. Singing music in Japanese along with the publication of all newspapers and books in Japanese was a part of this colonialism. People even needed to adopt Japanese names during this period to facilitate the Japanification during the period of colonialism.

Instead, when discussing soft power, states usually look to Japan as the first one to develop into a modern state. One scholar told the story of a man in Singapore in the 1960s who bought his first rice maker from a Japanese maker. Singapore at this time was nothing like it is now serving as a financial hub of Asia. People looked up to Japan, a place where they had machines to cook their rice!

Unfortunately the Japanese have taken a serious hit in this direction as well following the bubble collapse in the early 90s and the Asian Financial Crisis of 97-98. The Official Development Assistance they used to give freely to other Asian countries is also on a steady decline with the stagnation of the Japanese economy.

Manga (Japanese comics) and other such media read all over the world, but they are usually changed to the market they are heading. For this remember Power Rangers with American actors doing the non-action scenes while some of the action scenes were imported.

The Korean influence in Japan is far greater than the influence of Japan in Korea for the reasons listed above. What this has to do with actual policy is far from certain. The Japanese never really were able to turn their influence through the boom years into influence in the region (of course they had the Cold War to deal with), and they don't really seem to know how to use what influence they have left. How Korea can use this influence is also beyond me, but that is partially because I don't really study Korea. Something my friend in Korea can sure help me correct.

According to the cherry blossom forecast, they will be blooming next week. I'll report on this with pictures if I can keep sober enough take them.