Politeness in Japan

This is second post that I am writing specifically about Japan's culture. After I've written first post, I became more careful to look at many things around me in order to find what's out there that symbolize Japanese culture. So in this post I would like to introduce couple of things that best described Japan's culture. The polite behabior of holding toilet paper in triangle for the next person and correct manner of sitting in seiza are symbolization of Japan's culture.

The politeness is good example of Japan’s culture and this can be seen in places such as in toilet. There are people who clean rest room and when they clean it, the toilet paper is usually holed into triangle.

 This is not done only by those who clean the rest room but also by the public people because we learn this method when we are in elementary school. By holding it in triangle it makes not only neat atmosphere but also easy to pull the toilet paper. Therefore, even though they will not get credit for doing this, many people in Japan has politeness to think about others (in this situation, thinking about the next person) which I believe this is important in Japan’s culture. I feel that this is important part of our culture because in Japan many people try to keep harmony in a group or in society and the ability to thinking about other people is necessary. That’s why many toilet paper are holed this way and it shows politeness.

                   Moreover, having the right manner is also important perspective in Japan because there are many rules in Japan that can be lead to be seen as a polite person or not. In Japan it is polite to sit in seicza like this picture.

 However, many people would not sit like this on the chair but on tatami. By sitting like this, it allows us to have personal space around us and others. Furthermore, sitting up straight and having unified legs allow others to have good impression due to the vestige of tea ceremony and samurai. 
                   In conclusion, holding toilet paper in triangle and knowing polite behavior is considered as Japan’s culture because it both concerns about other people and other people’s eyes so that they can maintain the harmony in society. Having the polite feeling and behavior it will allow us to feel good. Therefore, Japan’s culture is can’t be described without hospitality spirit like these.

What do Japanese people do?

When I heard this topic, “what do Japanese people do?”, サラリーマン(sales man) first came to my mind because I had a teacher who always said that “Japanese people work too hard that Karoushi  became universal language.” So I took this picture that my friend, Tatsuya, is working in suit which relates to this stereotype. However, I thought there are more to this topic.

As I think about this deeper and deeper, I came to the conclusion that Japanese people tend to adjust to people around them by forming a group or by 空気を読む(reading the air in order to keep harmony in relationship). For example, Japanese people try to line up and form a line every time. Even in 3.11, Japanese kept patience to form a line for gasoline or food.  

This gave big impact to the world. However, as native Japanese, I think this is natural because we get trained in the school such as in elementary school or in kindergarten. Like this (please see the picture below) .

When we’re doing physical education, we first learn the correct way: 1. the first person in line should put their hand in the waist 2. People after that should make fist size space between the person in front. 3. People should have their arm stretched forward so that they can make a straight line by adjusting to shoulder bump in front. Therefore, I observed that it is education and culture that have big influence on Japanese in forming the line.

Moreover, Japanese like to have fun with group member by going to karaoke or izakaya. This picture below is famous cheering that people do when going to izakaya. Sometime I feel that I adjust to too much to other people but I think that’s what Japanese people do.

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More interesting information(movie) of forming a line and adjusting to the team is linked below. I took a picture of アルゴリズム行進(algorthim march) because I thought this is great symbol of Japanese people.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYJ-eVDH6OE