12 - Japan

Summary

INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Although one of several countries around the rim of the traditional Chinese empire, Japan was able to develop its own distinctive indigenous culture without being overwhelmed by Chinese influence. Unlike Korea or Vietnam, Japan was physically separated from the Asian continent by over one hundred miles of water. It was never invaded by China. Japanese absorption of Chinese culture – its writing system, Buddhist religion, and Confucian ethics – was slow, gradual, and voluntary. John King Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, & Albert M. Craig, East Asia: Tradition & Transformation 324 (rev. ed. 1989). See also John Owen Haley, Authority Without Power: Law and the Japanese Paradox 31 (1991) (law was a small, although still important, element in borrowing from China).

The origins of the Japanese “people” in the islands dates back one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand years, based on archaeological evidence. The Japanese language is a member of the Altaic family, similar to Korean, the languages of north and central Asia, and ultimately, Turkish. Therefore, despite extensive borrowing of vocabulary from Chinese, its distinctiveness has contributed to the maintenance of a separate ethnic identity from China. Fairbank et al., supra, at 326-27.

When Admiral Perry sailed into Yokohama harbor in 1854, to compel Japan to open its doors to foreign trade, the country had been virtually closed to all outside contact for 250 years.