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A leading authority on Japanese society, culture, and education, as well as U.S.-Japanese relations, David McConnell is an associate professor of anthropology at The College of Wooster. His teaching and research interests include anthropology and education, family and childhood in cross-cultural perspective, education and socialization in East Africa and contemporary anthropological theory. McConnell received his bachelor's degree from Earlham College. He then went on to earn his master's degree and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. In 1991-92, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University as well as a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Many awards and honors have come McConnell's way, including a Spencer Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, a Fulbright Grant, a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. McConnell's latest book, Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program, (University of California Press, 2000) was awarded Japan's prestigious Ohira Prize in 2001 by the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation. |
Good study habits are essential to academic success at all levels of education, especially at the college level. Unfortunately, many students never develop effective study habits, so that by the time they reach college they are unprepared for the volume of work that awaits them. Pam Rose, director of the Learning Center at The College of Wooster, has a number of ideas and suggestions for students looking to improve their study habits. What are some of the significant differences between Japanese and American cultures? It's probably easier to talk about the similarities between the two countries because over the past century the Japanese have become every bit as urbanized, educated, mobile, and technological as Americans. In some ways the story of Japan since 1900 can be characterized as a gradual transition from farms to cities, fish and rice to meat and wheat, tatami to carpet, and extended households to single-family dwellings. The Japanese, however, prefer to think of this as a process of modernization, not Westernization. Differences do persist, however, particularly in the Japanese emphasis on reciprocity in human relations. For example, Americans greatly value individual choice whereas Japanese are much more accepting of social roles and obligations handed down or imposed on them. Even though the idea of Japan as a "group society" can be a dangerous stereotype (it is not at all the case that Japanese lack individuality), it is true that people there are still socialized to subordinate individual desires for the good of others. Is the Japanese work ethic stronger than the American work ethic? The Labor Standards Act, amended in 1993, stipulates that the norm for working hours in Japan is forty hours per week, and recent statistical comparisons show Americans and Japanese working roughly an equal number of hours per annum. However, these aggregate statistics mask the fact that Japanese usually take less than half of their entitled paid annual leave of 20 days. Moreover, employees often use part of their paid recreational leave as sick leave. I have always been struck by the strong work ethic in Japan, particularly among career-track people, whose devotion to the workplace is considerable. On the other hand, there has been a concerted effort by the government in recent years to encourage employees to use their leisure and vacation time, and many companies and schools no longer require employees to work on Saturdays. How important is family in Japan? Family is extremely important in Japan and always has been. In prewar Japan, the ie, or stem family, was a mutually supportive group devoted to the success of the family business. The oldest son was expected to inherit the family enterprise, and women were to be supportive of the males in their lives. Even today husbands and wives tend to have separate spheres of influence, and child-rearing responsibilities usually fall to the mother. Several forces are changing family life today. For one, most women now work outside the home out of necessity. In addition, the birth rate in Japan has plummeted to about 1.3 children per married couple, one of the lowest rates in the world. (No one quite knows why this is the case, though one pundit suggested it may be because the men are so tired from working). Finally, the divorce rate is slowly rising, though it is still very low compared to most Western countries. What is the role of religion in Japan? If asked directly, many Japanese will say they have no religion, and there is no tradition of weekly attendance at religious institutions. In fact, it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between the "religious" and the "secular" in contemporary Japan. The lives of ordinary Japanese, however, are strongly influenced by several different religious traditions, including the indigenous Shinto cosmology (a life affirming worship of local kami, or gods ) and imported Buddhist beliefs. Most Japanese visit Shinto shrines for life crises and rites of passage and Buddhist temples for funerals. Syncretism, or the capacity for blending and integrating elements from different religions, is a strong characteristic of the Japanese approach. Interestingly, the exclusivity of Christianity is one reason the number of converts still number less than 2 percent of the population, in spite of a long history of missionary efforts. More subtle Christian influences can be seen, however, in schools, hospitals and even some wedding ceremonies. Is Japan losing its status as a world power? There is no question that the current recession in Japan has led to a perception here that the country is in decline. Japan's star is not as bright as it was in the 1980s, when everyone was rushing to discover the secrets of the "economic miracle," and there were widespread fears that Japan was "buying up" the U.S. But Japan still has the second largest economy in the world and exhibits a level of affluence comparable to that in the U.S. In terms of political and military power, however, Japan is still struggling to find a role commensurate with its economic achievements. In an effort to strengthen its leverage in this area, Prime Minister Koizumi is now pushing to overturn the constitutional ban on Japan's mounting of offensive forces. But Japan already possesses considerable "soft power" in the realm of cultural influence, as is evident by the growing worldwide popularity of sushi, karaoke, anime, and Pokemon. Does animosity from World War II still exist between the two nations from Japan's point of view? Given the magnitude of the conflict, I think it's inevitable that some animosity will remain, especially among older individuals on both sides who fought in the war or who lost loved ones. The recent criticism of the film Pearl Harbor for its historical inaccuracies and lack of context, as well as the ongoing protests in Japan and Asia over the nationalist slant to Japanese history textbooks, show that the legacy of the war is still hotly debated. But to my mind the degree to which both Japan and the U.S. have embraced each other in the postwar period is truly extraordinary. Even American and Japanese fighter pilots have come together in very emotional reunions. The overwhelming majority of Japanese see the United States as a friend and an ally. Many say it is a good thing that Japan lost the war because the military leaders at that time were going in the wrong direction. I still see a real desire on the part of the Japanese people to reach out to Americans. |
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| Last updated: January 10, 2006 · For more information, contact John Finn | ||
