Japan Boom in East Asia
January 30th, 2008 by James
Here’s a pretty interesting Fuji TV news report on the current popularity of Japanese language and culture in East Asia:
A quick summary of the Shanghai portion of the video:
- -The couple interviewed at the beginning of the segment says they are buying anime stuff because they’ve watched and enjoyed anime since they were children.
- -We are shown a Japanese anime/game store in Shanghai, which is usually crowded with young people on the weekends.
- -A 22-year-old Chinese guy allows the reporters to come to his apartment, which he shows them his love of Japanese culture by playing Wii and singing along with some popular Japanese songs. He also likes Samurai-era Japanese history, talking about Tokugawa Ieyasu in Japanese.
- In addition to the anime/gamer scene, events where Chinese people studying the Japanese language and Japanese residents of Shanghai gather in parks to practice what they have learned and socialize.
- A Japanese language school in Shanghai is shown, with individual classrooms named after areas of Tokyo [Odaiba, Roppongi, Ikebukuro, etc.]. Sometimes classes involve one-on-one conversation with Japanese teachers, but the school also has its students watch anime for listening practice. Many of the students interviewed mention anime and games as their motivation behind studying the Japanese language.
And a summary of the second half of the video, which takes place in Taiwan:
- A narrator mentions that about 55,000 Taiwanese people took the Japanese Language Proficiency test last year.
- Apparently there is a Japanese language study boom going on in Taiwan, and many mothers are signing their children up for private language schools like the one shown in the video. We are shown some of the typical lessons held there, which include playing karuta (a game in which players attempt to slap and capture cards representing certain words or phrases), singing, and dancing. As part of the total immersion environment, the kids all pick Japanese names for themselves. The school claims it can teach kids to read and write Japanese within a 2-3 year period.
- The mother of a little girl studying Japanese says that it is not uncommon for Taiwanese children to study both Japanese and English these days.
- Interest in Japanese culture and work/business are given as the two major reasons for the current Japanese language boom going on in East Asia.
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The New Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
Note that they emphasized the cultural differences between China (Taiwan) and Japan, using words like ibunka.
Taiwan has many Japanese speakers, especially among older Taiwanese. Some positive feelings about the Japanese have not died since the end of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Many older Taiwanese have a sort of nostalgic view of that time. It is odd in a way.
Yo, we were suppose to keep that ikebukuro shit a SECRET.
One thing that surprised me the most was that they gave Japanese names to the children.
I’m all for learning foreign languages, but isn’t that kind of a weird identity issue… Maybe it’s done to highlight the fact that Asians in Japan often hide their true names from fear of discrimination…
To me, it’s not weird at all because I had to choose an english name for english class in school.
It makes learning english (or any language) easier as you don’t have to alternate between native and foreign pronounciation within a sentence or decide which language to use for the real names, as you would either sound weird or twist your tongue.
Most Chinese/Taiwanese/HK people seem to have English names for when they are speaking English…. It’s a bit weird but I guess it’s because Chinese names are so hard to pronounce for everyone else, and if you lose the tones they all seem to have the same names as well (Li etc)!
When I studied Spanish in High School I took a new name. Its apart of the language immersion.
I’m not very surprised about this news. Apart from English language; Japanese and Mandarin are now the other top 2 foreign languages which lots of young people in my country, Thailand, are keen to learn.
For Japanese language : person who are crazy in J-culture, J-Pop, anime, manga, J-series, J-movie, wanna work with J-companies.
For Chinese language : Person who are keen on Chinese culture and realize about China’s economic boom.
And Korean language is seem to be the third popular choice for people(mostly women) who are Big fans of Korean Wave led by Mr. Rain, Yon-Sama, Super Junior etc.
Found a Nikkei article on 2chan the other day about “日本沈没” – basically they projected that in 60 years the UK will overtake Japan both in terms of population and economy, thanks to higher fertility rates but most importantly lots of immigration. The authors suggested that Japan starts accepting more immigrants as well – the 2chan reaction seemed to be “No way, let’s reinstate SAGOKU!!”
Anyway, watching this I can’t help thinking that Japan has a great opportunity to absorb some of these people as immigrants! It will probably be more difficult for Japan to get used to immigration than European countries, but they do have the opportunity to start from a clean slate and learn from the mistakes of Europe. The kind of people in this segment obviously have a genuine interest in Japan and the Japanese language and would probably integrate well – provided they are not put off by some Japanese people’s xenophobic attitudes.
I’m not surprised that 2channelers would respond that way -_-
I think Japanese have preferences, and chinese are not or on the bottom of the list.
This article from the Japan Times from last year actually says that the amount of Chinese permanent residents has grown to 25%: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070103f1.html
I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future some of these people in the video might also immigrate, if they are still interested in Japan. They certainly have an enthusiasm for it.
The trend is an old one, yet it seems that Japan has only recently been aware of it. I’d hazard a guess that these countries have had a sizable population interested in Japan for decades.
Growing up in a community where there were many Chinese from all backgrounds (those native to Taiwan, from Hong Kong, from the Mainland, from Southeast Asia), I was always aware that there seemed to be a strong level of interest with Japanese traditional and modern culture. When I got to college I realized that Koreans were quite fond of Japanese products as well. Yet my Japanese friends, at the time, seemed totally unaware of the level interest Asians had in their country. When I finally got to live in Japan, my cultural exchange program allowed to me get in touch with several foreign professionals, and this included a very large number of Chinese residents. I walked away from such conversations with a greater level of understanding regarding Chinese interest in Japan. It’s still surprising that the foreign community is often equated with us “Westerners” yet the Asian community in Japan is enormously larger, and often it seems, invisible to Western gaijin.
To a certain extent I believe that news tends to be dominated almost exclusively by negative historical issues, with scant attention given to inter-cultural relations. It’s unfortunate, but negative news sells much better after all. Which seems more interesting, roving crowds of racist anti-Japan protestors, or bands of pro-Japan enthusiasts?
I think what many of us in the West fail to appreciate the depth and history of the complex interactions between Japan and its neighbors China, Taiwan and Korea. I remember taking upper division modern history classes on China and Japan, and noticing the astonishing level of interconnectivity of the two in many matters, from educational exchange, drug lords, musical legends, to literary figures and political intrigue. Very interesting and oftentimes strange stuff. Japanese products, including cultural ones, quickly became quite popular in mainland China in the early twentieth century, and once again when that country opened its doors to economic reform in the late 70s, and characters like Doraemon and Nausicaa were extremely popular (despite the tribulations of war and protests). My Chinese history professor spent a small but substantive amount of time focusing on the complexity and depth of Sino-Japanese ties, I would think that the same level of attention should be paid to China in any modern Japanese history class, but my sense is that this is unfortunately not true. Yet as the importance of their bilateral relationship increases, I think more time should be spent exploring the issues of historical and cultural exchange. This news segment is hopefully a harbinger of better things to come.
Very nice analysis here, and I agree with you.