The Japanese have developed by working together in their society. Due to harsh climates and other environmental hurdles, the Japanese found it most beneficial to work as a team in farming, agriculture and everyday life . Also, most of them lived very close to each other because of the geography of Japan. As the text says, "Japan is also a mountainous country and does not have a great deal of inhabitable land; as a result, people had to live close together in communities in which everyone was well acquainted with one another. (10)" As a result of being so close to one another the Japanese began using a form of ambiguity know as aimai to keep harmony in the communities. This means that Japanese do not give direct yeses or no's but rather give and answer that is more in between; while giving expressions to help indicate what they really mean. "Nobody expects to be told no directly, even if the other person is really in disagreement. (11)" This is all to insure wa (harmony) in society. Another example is, if a Japanese person is asked, "which will you have, tea or coffee? (13)" A Japanese person will respond with "either." In Japan this is a very polite and harmony supporting answer but if this was told to an american, it may seem confusing to the american. Altogether, aimai is simply ambiguous communication with the reason of existence, that is, to insure peace and harmony, wa.
Uchi to Soto:
In Japan the Japanese refer to people as either insiders (uchi), being a Japanese person, or outsider (soto), being a foreigner. "Uchi can be defined as (1) inside, (2) my house and home, (3) the group that we belong to, and (4) my wife or husband; in contrast, soto means (1) the outside, (2) outdoors, (3) other groups, and (4) outside the home. (217) Now for the Japanese every other pure blood Japanese is considered uchi to Japan. Whereas, every person who is a foreigner even if they speak perfect Japanese or were born in Japan are considered soto. Japanese can easily reveal, for the most part, if someone is soto because of differences in appearance, poor Japanese, etc. Over all the terms uchi and soto bring with them unpleasant baggage. By referring to people as soto brings discrimination. As the text says, "Even today, if a person's language, skin color, habits, or appearance are different, many Japanese will regard them as soto, and will ignore them in order to live more easily in harmony among members of their own uchi groups. (219)" The result of this discrimination is often hurt felt individuals. In america discrimination is always talked about. But here in America we try to not discriminate to the best of our countries abilities.
Danjyo Kankei:
Danjyo and Kankei is the relationships of men and women in society. Up to this day in age womens equality to mens has significantly increase. At earlier times in Japanese culture women were to be house wives. That being that they were to work at home, raise children etc. Once confucianism interred society the view of women inside, and men outside (working that is) became more of the norm (62). This was an earlier time in Japanese history when confucianism made way. During the modern era women's rights increased. Men and women both received education. The only thing is that the women's education taught them mainly how to be "good wives and wise mothers (62)." Today women are able to have nearly all the same opportunities as males. This change mainly refers to work opportunities. Though women do have, according to law, equal opportunities there is still restricting matters that my hold them back. One being that many Japanese still except the philosophy of confucianism, or in short the "inside wife." Also, aimai plays a large role as well since women may choose to abide by confucianism as to not upset the wa of society. In turn harmony and the norm is remained constant. I think this is assumed, as most all nations in this day in age now do this, but many relationship between opposite sex are freer at a younger age and before marriage. Freer mean that many individuals engage premaritally. In retrospect, the evolution of Danjyo and Kankei has developed but many of that development has happened on the female end. Males seem to always have most of the authority and power from the beginning of the ages in male female relationships. So only the female rights and reaching of equality is easily evident.
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