Cultural History and Worldview

Cultural History

This blog post examines how Japan transformed from its early establishment, the foundations of the Yamato period, to the modernization of the Meiji era, and to its post-World War II economic miracle, reflecting development and transformation. Building on the introduction, this post will go deeper into the different historical aspects.

The Yamato period laid the foundation for modern Japan, introduced Buddhism, brought tribes under a single central authority, and created a form of imperial authority (Yamato Period). Emperor Nintoku is credited with the establishment of the Yamato state. During his time as Emperor, he influenced nearby trade with the outside world, creating alliances and exchanging cultures. This helped establish Japan’s early state structures.  

Yamato period


Centuries later, the Meiji Restoration was the official modernization and westernization of Japan (Britannica), which changed the development of the education systems that reflected Western practice. In this era, according to Britannica, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was created, which included the alliance between Japan and the United Kingdom (Britannica). This is significant as it would be the first recorded time a Western power has treated Japan as an equal based on its concern about Russia’s growing power (Britannica).


Following World War II, Japan would enter its economic miracle, which has influenced Japan’s development in many ways, such as technological change, quantity and quality of labor, international trade, and more(Berkeley). As said in the Yamato period, the development of Japan was greatly advanced by Emperor Nintoku, as he expanded imports and exports. Japan's post-war strategy was to provide tax deductions for overseas sales, which contributed to the rise in international trade (Focus Economics).

Japan's current economic success positions it’s self at the world’s third-largest economy. In 1980, Japan was the world’s second-largest economy and was close to surpassing the U.S. This was achieved by the massive industrial growth and advancements in technology, the automobile industry, and pop culture.


Something interesting I found during my research was when watching the film linked below, in 1985, the “Plaza Accord”, where European, American, and Japanese politicians agreed that the U.S. dollar was too expensive compared to other foreign currencies. As a result of this, Japan sold massive amounts of its dollars to appreciate the yen and to depreciate the U.S. dollar in the process (Britannica and Documentary).

Japan’s economic expansion during the 1980s is clearly summarized in this thirty-five-minute documentary that examines the policies behind its rapid growth, while also going into deep detail on different methods, such as window guidance and the stock bubble, offering insight into the strategies Japan used to rise economically.  

 The Economy of Japan: how a Superpower Fell from Grace in Four Decades


My historical timeline:

 

Worldview 

 

             In Japan, there are two major religions that the citizens adhere to: Shinto and Buddhism.  Shinto's direct translation means “the way to kami” (kami means god); the core beliefs revolve around purity, harmony, ancestral solidarity, and finally divine guidance. According to Britannica, “divine power came into use to distinguish indigenous Japanese beliefs from Buddhism” (Britannica), so what are the core beliefs of Buddhism? There is no creator God, karma, engaging in happiness, or moral foundation. (Buddhist info), It’s important to know that the beliefs mentioned are not all of the core beliefs; I only mentioned a few at the beginning and will be explaining and diving deeper soon. With everything we know now, we can assume the majority of the population is composed of Buddhist and Shintoists as the religious aspect, but there is also a significant number of people who don’t have a religion and are spiritual.

            To understand this more fully, I will now explain each religion further in more detail to help us understand the culture and how religion ties it all together, starting off with Buddhism. Some of the worldviews are monism, karma, reincarnation, and nirvana. To summarize, monism is to act as a group instead of as individuals and to act well and deserve what comes to you. The last two I mentioned talk more about death and how death in this religion is not something to necessarily be scared of or to be ashamed about, like how other religions have boxed it into. Buddhists see it more as a continuation of life, and if you did wrong in your previous life, then you would be reborn into a bad situation.


Moving on to Shinto, the worldview is more based on harmony and worship of ancestors, as well as nature and sacred spaces. This being said, as mentioned in my first blog, shrines are very important in Japanese culture.  As stated above, the direct translation to Shinto is “a way to kami,” and a shrine is seen as a gateway to god. Additionally, when thinking of harmony, Japan is a collectivist; we work as a community and work in harmony. 


When it comes to the Japanese culture as a whole, it is very much a collectivist culture, and so to go out of your way to either encourage members or to embrace religious beliefs that may differ from what is seen as the norm in Japan is very much looked down upon, just as we talked in class about “hammering the nail down”. This can also be seen in the Shintoists, whose biggest value is harmony. When we think of harmony in the sense of Shintoists, it means to “Exist in all things must be maintained against imbalance” (Encyclopedia). Subsequently, there is a recent uprising of Christianity, only taking up 1-2% of the population, and other religions taking up 4-9%. These people are very much looked down upon, but with the rise in Americans coming to Japan, the influences are changing culturally and religiously.



Lastly, I wanted to wrap everything up and add my personal experience as a Japanese Buddhist,  I was raised as a Buddhist with the belief of death not being something to be scared of and something as a continuation to our life, the only difference is in some cultures there is a belief that you will turn into what you eat, but I was not taught that, it might just be my family and how I was raised but after watching the documentary that was something that stood out to me. Another thing that stood out to me was how there really isn’t a God when it comes to being a Buddhist. I was always raised without the knowledge of God, but then again it was contrary since people like me who didn’t believe in God would still go to shrine s for blessings and prayers as well as pray to our ancestors, this is very interesting to me as in a way it doesn’t make sense but in Japanese culture, ancestors and shrine are the most valuable things to exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

10 Essential Beliefs of Buddhism - Buddhism Info. (2025). Buddhism.info. https://buddhism.info/10-essential-beliefs-of-buddhism/

Britannica. (2023). Japanese religion. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Japanese-religion

Cartwright, M. (2017, April 3). Shinto. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Shinto/

Hirai, N. (2019). Shinto. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto

Nakamura, H., & Kitagawa, J. M. (2019). Buddhism. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism

Wikipedia Contributors. (2019, May 25). Religion in Japan. Wikipedia; Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Japan

Britannica. (2019). Russo-Japanese War. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Russo-Japanese-War

Britannica Editors. (1998, July 20). Takeshita Noboru | Liberal Democratic Party, Japanese politics, economic reforms. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Takeshita-Noboru#ref701801

Focus Economics. (2024). Japan Archives. FocusEconomics. https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/japan/

Hannah Shiohara. (2023, January 26). The Japanese Economic Miracle. Berkeley Economic Review; BER staff. https://econreview.studentorg.berkeley.edu/the-japanese-economic-miracle/

The Economy of Japan: how a Superpower FELL from Grace in Four Decades. (2021, March 22). Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU_yyadYgG8

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2014). Anglo-Japanese Alliance | British-Japanese history. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anglo-Japanese-Alliance

Yamato Period: A Look at Japan’s Early Path to Unity - Sakuraco. (2023). Sakuraco | Japanese Snacks & Candy Subscription Box. https://sakura.co/blog/yamato-period-a-look-at-japans-early-path-to-unity#Why_is_the_Yamato_Period_an_important_part_of_Japanese_history

 

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