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tions in the world being isolated by both geography and choice for many years. There are relatively few linguistic differences among different parts of the country; peoples' lifestyles are quite similar and the degree to which rich people and poor people are economically differentiated is much less than Europeans are familiar with. Moreover Japanese are ethnically homogeneous, since there are no real foreign populations in Japan: some 98,5% of the residents of Japan are ethnic Japanese and the remainder are mostly Koreans and Chinese. Marrying a foreigner has always been virtually taboo and, although it has started to become a little bit more respectable, it is still not encouraged.

Japan possesses a long and rich cultural history; although many of the basic elements originated abroad, especially in China, they are extremely different from the European and the American ones. There are some well-know peculiar Japanese culture aspects such as origami, ikebana, tea ceremony, martial arts, mangas etc, but most of the keys aspects of this ancient culture are still hidden or at least Europeans are not familiar with.

Even if Japanese people usually regard their own culture as unique, actually it is surprisingly eclectic and open to outside influences: the written language comes from China and the Buddhist religion from Korea; the Japanese language itself is full of English words which are generally liked and used widely.

Despite the general homogeneity, there are some minor regional differences that it worth to analyse; in particular the Eastern areas facing the Pacific Ocean are seen as more outward looking when compared with the parts facing the Sea of Japan. Another important difference exists between Kansai (the old traditional area that includes Kyoto and Osaka) and Kanto, the Tokyo area, which represents modern Japan: accents, art and cooking styles all differ.

The consciousness of being Japanese is part of a strong nationalism even if this feeling has been tapped by Japanese firms which for years successfully sold the idea that import goods are generally inferior, are not suited to local habits or lifestyles, or might even be dangerous to health. The outcome of this strange idea is, for instance, that many Japanese believed that they cannot eat imported rice without suffering indigestion.

Similarly, consumers often used to prefer to buy Japanese products even if they were more expensive in order to demonstrate their nationalism. This was one of the several reasons why foreign firms found it difficult to penetrate the Japanese market. But in 1991 the financial recession that Japan had to face brought a high rate of unemployment and people began to seek cheaper products even if they were imported. This phenomenon allowed foreign firms to access Japanese market more and American cash-and-carry stores opened.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Extremely interesting in the Japanese culture is the role of the individual 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。