Christmas in Japan

Since we had the option of writing about anything, I decided follow up with the religion theme that we had for last week. Starting from the end of October, everyday when I walked from Kansai Gaidai back to my seminar house, I noticed a new person affluently decorates his/her house with colorful Christmas light. I think how the West perceives and celebrates Christmas is not how it is celebrated in Japan. In the post below, I discussed how Buddhism and Shinto are the two major religions in Japan and that only one percent of the population is estimated to be Christmas. Thus, with globalization and migration of people to Japan, the Japanese people have adopted many Western customs pertaining to Christmas. Additionally, globalization has really also made this holiday become more popular and become more of a commercial event rather than a holiday pertaining religious meaning. Christmas in Japan is not seen as a holiday where one spends time with one’s family. For young teens and single women, due to the influence of the media, it is a time to spend with that special someone in a romantic setting. For young kids, Christmas is about receiving presents from "Hotei-osho", a Buddhist monk who is equivalent of a Santa Claus. Like the US, it is common for parents to give presents to their kids but it is very uncommon for kids to give presents to their parents. This is phenomena exists because it is believed that Santa clause is the only one who brings presents and as long the kids believe then presents are given. However, in the US, the giving and receiving of presents reciprocates. Furthermore, the traditional Japanese Christmas food is the Christmas cake, which is made of sponge cake topped with strawberries and whipped cream, and fried chicken from KFC. I think the whole concept of eating fried chicken during Christmas is such an interesting concept. Do you know how this fried chicken became associated with Christmas?

Religion in Japan

As I have learned from my Japan and Globalization class, when Japanese people are asked about what they religious views, they are most likely answer that they are not affiliated with any one religion. In Japan, there are many religions that exist but the two major religions that people follow are Shintoism and Buddhism. Japanese people incorporate both Shintoism and Buddhism in their religious practices. For example, when a child is born, the celebration takes place at a Shinto shrine but when someone dies, the funeral arrangements are held in Buddhist tradition. Shintoism is defined as people believing in the spirits that exists in nature, which can be almost anything like a tree, a rock etc. Shintoism does make people follow any set of rules that Christianity or other religion has. I think the reason that people are not devoted to one religion or do not define what is religions means to them is because the role of religion has changed from what it once was. And not having a definite meaning attached to religion gives people the freedom and the flexibility. “We don't try to define it because we know that our definition would be either so wide as to be meaningless, or so narrow that it would leave out ever so many important things- The most we can expect at the moment are operative ad hoc definitions, adequate for the specific purpose which we have in mind…” (http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/CRJ-111.PDF). Even when religion does not play a huge role in people’s lives, they do still attend religious ceremonies at temples and shrines on certain occasions like a birth of a baby, wedding, funerals, religious holidays, new years etc.

These two pictures were taken at Kyoto during my orientation week at Kansai Gaidai. This shrine was one of the places that we visited in our small groups. When we arrived at this shrine, I saw a lot of young couples and especially groups of girls buying these wooden blocks and writing their wishes. This seemed like a common practice when visiting a shrine. Trying to follow the norm and tradition, we too purchased our very own wooden block and wrote down our wishes so they would come true. I asked one of the Japanese Gaidai tour guides, what kind of things we should write and she said whatever I wanted. When writing these wishes, we were not thinking of any religious figures; instead we were just writing to get our wishes be heard and maybe for our own self to know what we want and the kinds of relations we want to formulate with others.

Gender & Inequality

Everyday after my classes have all finished, which is around 5:30, I stop at Top World in hopes to purchase something fresh for my dinner. When I enter the grocery store, I usually see only the mothers carrying their kids like in the picture shown as they try to figure out what they will shop for dinner. It is almost a rare case to see a guy shopping for food at this hour. This is because most working mothers will get out of work early so they can be home before dark so they can prepare dinner for their families. The household chores are seen as the real role of the women and this means that women must take care of the kids, the family, clean the house, cook, etc. It seems that the household chores are not shared equally among the husband and the wife. However, men are not expected to rush home and help their wives with household chores. This is because Japan is a male dominated society where women are subservient to the male authority. Thus, men have the privilege of staying later at work, going out with their co-workers after work for a drink and not having to worry about household chores. I think it is just shocking to think about how much time and effort Japanese women put in their family. For example, when I visited my friend for dinner at his host parents’ house, I was really amazed and more shocked to see how unfairly the housework was divided between the husband and the wife. For instance, the host mother was in the kitchen the whole time preparing the dinner while the host father watched the TV and drank his beer. He did not for once get up and offer to help. He expected his wife to make dinner and serve it to him while he relaxed from his hard day. In a way he did not think that maybe her day was long and maybe she too was tired. He just followed the common belief that women belong in the kitchen and that they are expected to fulfill the needs of the men. Furthermore, even after dinner was over, he did not even get up to help clear the dishes from the table; he just sat and continued to drink his beer. And the wife accepted his behavior as normal and continued to clean.

Further Readings on Gender Roles:

http://marklsl.tripod.com/Writings/japan.htm
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080224x1.html