Nippon

The land of the rising Sun, Nihon/Nippon...
A small island nation, yet powerful and plays an important role internationally.
Japanese are a industrious lot. They are bound by strong ethics. I admire the respect they shower to the smallest of things. They believe in discipline, trust, valor... The list goes on! Of course there are exceptions but to a large extent we can say so about the people of Japan. Japanese continue to be traditional and are very proud of their tradition and language. However the new generation are a mix of both modern/western ideas with a mix of tradition, something not very surprising as technology has influenced this change in almost all younger generations in all progressive countries.
Even after the propulsive effect of World War II, Japan has grown positively in all directions. The main reason being the rise in literacy levels ( currently it boasts 99% literacy). Not every nation is able to do so even though it is a well known fact that literacy directly contributes to a nation's well-being. Japan's education system has played a central part in enabling the country to meet the challenges presented by the need to quickly absorb Western ideas, science and technology, and it was also a key part in Japan's recovery and rapid economic growth in the decades following the end of World War II.
Somethings that I have liked about the Japanese culture is "bowing" for greeting people and the style of bowing depends from person to person. They use both the hands to present/give any thing. While presenting a document to a person, it is turned in such a way that the receiver can see the contents of the document. I recently found out about "Respect for the Elders Day" where they show their respect to elders. Their culture teaches them to be humble, a Buddhist teaching. Japanese believe in utilizing their resources efficiently. This aspect is easily observable to anyone. Recently I came across "Capsule Hotel" where the Hotel utilizes space very efficiently and is very popular in Japan. Japanese are a resilient lot. Even with frequent earthquakes they are able to live prosperously till today, I guess they are the only nation who enjoy the occurrence of earth-quakes. They have adapted very well to their natural surrounding!
I admire the way the people of Japan are ready to accept change and move on. Though Japan was a traditional nation, they realized the need to learn new things due to which they were able to improve upon in the fields of science and technology to become one of the advanced nations.
Asia’s race to the Moon began today (15th sept 2007) when Japan launched an unmanned lunar probe, the most ambitious mission of its kind since the United States’ Apollo missions of the 1970s. The lunar orbiter Kaguya, named after a Moon princess in a Japanese fairytale, was launched from Japan’s space centre on the small southern island of Tanegashima.
It is amazing just how such a small nation can grow so progressively and beat the odds. Japan's industrialized, free-market economy is the world's second-largest purchasing power parity (PPP) after the United States. The most striking feature of Japanese agriculture is the shortage of farmland. Around 60% of its total food supply is imported. Its economy is highly efficient and competitive in areas linked to international trade although productivity is lower in areas such as agriculture, distribution, and services. Japan has few natural resources, and trade helps it earn the foreign exchange needed to purchase raw materials for its economy. Japan has a comparatively small defense allocation especially after World War II which has helped them focus on more important issues and has helped them to become a more stronger nation.
In the book "Art of War" by Sun Zu, a Chinese philosopher quotes that one shouldn't make use of one's might and should use it only for defense. The art of war is in avoiding war, being smart and efficiently using one's resources. In my opinion Japan truly symbolizes this philosophy following their World War II debacle.
Coming to Japanese language, its very special. They have adopted the western language through Katakana. The influence of Chinese brought Kanji script which is the pictorial representation of words, While maintaining Hiragana which is their own script. With the rich confluence of these 3 scripts and also writing vertically and horizontally has given the Japanese books more style. Though at first it might look difficult to learn Japanese it isn't. Moreover learning Kanji is an added advantage as such pictorial representations help improve your memory and thought-creation as well as creativity. Yet to be frank it is tougher compared to other European or Indian languages.
Last but not the least, Japanese have utmost importance to quality. Be it any industry they maintain high quality standards. It tells upon their maturity in understanding the simple process of work/labor and productivity. With this I would end my blog with "Soreja mata" meaning "Then see you again", with one more blog, one more thought! Sayonara!