The Life and Culture of

Japan

Location and Culture

Japan’s surroundings are the republic of

Korea, China and Russia. The four main

islands in Japan are Hokkaido, Honshu,

Shikoku, and Kyushu. Japan is surrounded

by sea. Japan really defines the seasons with

cherry blossoms in spring and beautiful,

natural reds, oranges, and yellows, of the

autumn leaves. Japan’s capital is Tokyo. The

population of Japan is 126,926,000. The

land area is 377,873. Japan’s religions are

Shinto, Buddhism, and Christianity.

Government and Daily

Living

Japan’s constitution went into force in

1947.

Japan’s lifestyle made an extreme change

after World War II. Traditional Japanese

houses are made of wood and are supported

by wooden pillars. They eat foods such as

breads, noodles, and pastas. They also eat

traditional dishes like sushi, tempura, and

sukiyaki. They eat foods such as rice and

miso soup. Also one food that is very

popular is hamburgers, but instead of

hamburgers they call them hanbagu.

Tokyo Tower

The Tokyo Tower is located South of Tokyo

station. The height of the tower is 333

meters tall. The tower was opened in 1958.

The Tokyo Tower weighs 4,000 tons. It is

much lighter compared to the Eiffel Tower

which weighs 7,000 tons. 164 floodlights

light up the tower at night.

Writing Japanese

Around the 6th century Japan began using

the Chinese writing system to represent their

own language. This was very hard because

Chinese and Japanese belonged to unrelated

language families, so their sound systems,

grammar, and vocabulary are completely

different. In Chinese, each character

represents a one-syllable word with a

pronunciation and a meaning. To adapt this

character to the Japanese language, the

writer might decide to ignore its meaning

and use it for its sounds alone, that is, to let

it stand for words or parts of that sound like

“mao” in Japanese.

Sports and Recreation

The most ancient and traditional sport in

Japan is sumo

wrestling. Martial

arts are very

popular; those are

things like judo, karate, and aikido. They

also play golf; it is considered a sport for the

wealthy and is a symbol of prestige. Kids

enjoy things like kite flying and origami

which is the ancient art of paper folding.

Japan has a wide variety of sports and arts.

Schools

Japanese schools have a string social code of

cooperation. The code is called “wa”, which

means harmony. One way that they show

cooperation is by cleaning up the school 20

minutes after school. They also have PE,

lunch, and recess just like we do. Most of

there schools are very historical and they

really take care

of their school.

Their field day is

very different

from ours

because when

they have field day the girls have to perform

different dance routines. Students also have

to make a pyramid to show strength. There

school works differently from ours.

Clothing

The traditional dress of Japan is the kimono.

Kimonos are usually made out of silk, have

large sleeves, and reach from the shoulders

all the way down to the heels. Kimonos are

usually worn on special occasions.