Quote:
Originally Posted by RealJames
the concept of preserving Japanese culture and heritage by reducing immigrants is nonsense,
most kids nowadays in Japan have no strong feelings towards Japan and are getting more and more westernized by the day. the place is rapidly losing it's cultural significance and they have almost all descended into cheap tourist traps and souvenir items.
yes, cultural heritage is more vibrant in Japan than in many other countries, I'm just saying it's in rapid decline, and that before long it'll be museum material
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I'm sorta half and half with you on this one.
Maybe culture protection by reducing immigrants does sound silly, but it must work. When you have groups of foreigners, they make their little base in whichever city they're in. After that, that area will lose its culture because it's a bas for a certain group of people. Either by having children or by natives following their ways, their base and culture spread out until there is significant native culture loss. That's how I see it working anyway.
Remember when Japan was totally isolated before Perry came? They had no contact with anyone outside of Japan, and THAT made them keep their culture so different for so long. I also think it's part of the reason why Japanese are so shy to foreigners today. Now of course I'm not suggesting complete isolation again, but I think that immigrants definitely play a part in culture loss.
I definitely agree that kids are exposed to a lot of Western culture and there is a lot of conversion caused by that. But when you say that kids don't care about their traditions any more, I'm not so sure. With a lot of kids it just seems so natural for them to go through shrine etiquette or put out those little things that pray for rain (don't know what they're called). But I guess it is changing rapidly. All I can do is hope that it doesn't turn into just museum relics like you said.
Maybe what Nyororin said a few posts up from this is true, about them maturing back into liking their own culture. He/she (please forgive me, I'm not sure if Nyororin is a man or woman
) raised some good points about people who always find that the grass is greener back home when they try something different in the long term.