英語で紹介する日本文化Ⅱ 2009年11月20日
Lesson 8: Views of
(Citation from “Views
of Japan from the Washington Post Newsroom” Kodansha International, 1996)
企業参拝式
“Oh sacred spirit Daikoku-sama, we humbly ask you to watch over The Washington Post Company and take diligent care that the honorable Washington Post newspaper not lose out to its competitors in the year to come.
That’s how it went today at the altar of Kanda Myojin shrine.
Western
visitors to
But as the Japanese know the nation's leadership, public and private, works hard to produce it.
将門塚の祟り
Amid the towering glass-and-steel structures of the city's downtown business district in Otemachi, a tiny Japanese garden with a stone tablet marks the spot where, according to legend, Masakado's head came to rest.
To
the frustration of
日本のトップの美徳
It's an age-old
Japanese ritual as well-scripted as seppuku, the samurai's
rite of suicide. Scandal shakes a major Japanese company. Its reputation is on the line. So its top executive announces
he takes full responsibility for the misdeeds, even if he was unaware of
them, and resigns. Going out his way wouldn't occur to most
Many
Americans, tired of what they see as buck-passing in society's upper echelons when things go wrong, might
welcome a system of high-level responsibility. But critics say that in
日本のニュース・キャスター
The
firing of Connie Chung has raised new questions as to whether a talented woman
can ever reach the very top in television news. The answer may be iffy on American networks, but in the world's
second-richest TV market, the issue is settled. On
But the female anchors who dominate the network news here now are experienced, opinionated journalists. Most of them speak English. They are also generally older than the male reporters on their programs―a crucial distinction in a Confucian society where seniority and respect generally go together.
All this has happened in a country that is not exactly famous for gender equality.
“Connie Chung made $2 million per year?” gasped Japanese TV reporter in disbelief. “That's about, what, 200 million yen? In one year? Nobody in our TV net works is looking at money like that.”
アメリカが日本の「お巡りさん」を導入
The koban concept, in turn, is part of a broader American movement toward “community policing.”
But
another factor in
ヤクザの指を再生するお医者さん現る
Here's
an item to file in the category of
necessity as the mother of invention. A Japanese doctor has popularized a procedure to replace fingers sliced off by
The necessity that motivated this medical breakthrough is a tough new federal law―the first comprehensive anti-gang law Japan's history―that took effect in March. Facing increased pressure from police, hundreds of gang members have decided to go straight.
That's where the finger problem comes in.
An ex-yakuza member who wants to look like a normal Japanese salary man can let his hair grow so he no longer has the tightly curled crewcut standard for gangsters here. He can wear clothing that covers the elaborate tattoos that mark yakuza members. But the lost finger is hard to hide, given Japanese social customs.
On first meeting here, it is common for people to exchange business cards. In a society where the form of things always matters, it is essential that the card be held in both hands when it is passed to a new acquaintance. For ex-gangsters, this rite calls attention to the missing fingers.
日本人が持つ人種的偏見
Little Black Sambo, the racist caricature that most Americans thought had died a well-deserved death years ago, has been resurrected across the Pacific as the mascot of a hot-selling line of Japanese toys and beachwear.
Sambo and other stereotypical depictions of blacks some with grotesquely fat lips and ethnic dialect―have become something of a fad here this summer in what appears to be an attempt at internationalization gone gravely awry.
Despite the recent trend toward global travel and overseas investment, the Japanese remain a strongly insular people, with little understanding of or empathy for foreign cultures.
ハチ公の吠える声
If a
national election were held to pick
Unquestionably,
unequivocally, the choice for
The Culture Broadcasting Network obtained a hitherto unknown recording of Hachiko's bark.
Hachiko said, “Wan-wan.”
“Wan-wan”
is how the Japanese render the sound of a dog's bark,
rather than bow-wow. For the matter, cats in
Having a hefty “wan-wan” is considered a sign of health and good karma for a dog here. And to everyone's relief, Hachiko had a healthy, wan-wan.
日本の大工
At age 4, Nishioka began learning the craft's manual skills and oral traditions.
“The old builders were people of art who approached their work with religious devotion” he said.
“In our craft, we have a set of unwritten principles,” he explained in his home, located just outside the temple's walls. “One is, ‘Don't buy trees, buy a mountainside.’” A temple’s wood should come from a single site. Wood should be positioned in the orientation at which it grew as trees, with beams from the mountain's north side on the north, and so on.
Each tree, shaped by its soil and decades of wind and rain, has a unique personality, artisans say. The builder, then, must understand and exploit these traits.
