Impacts of globalization in The culture of Japan

Globalization is the exchange of ideas and the international integration of governments, businesses, and individuals (“”Globalization“”, 2016, p.647). The exchange of ideas, products, and other components of the world is what drives this process. Since humans and later corporations have been trading goods across great distances for thousands of years, globalization is not a new concept.

The present wave of globalization is policy-driven and has opened up economies on both the domestic and global levels. The adoption of free-market economic systems by numerous nations has greatly increased their own levels of productivity and opened up a wide range of possibilities for international commerce and investment.

During the Tokugawa era (1600–1867), was described as a closed nation (Jones, & Yoon, 2006, p.12). Japan had to adjust their structures in order to take advantage of new opportunities for development in the highly competitive market. Currently, Japan is a developed country in many aspects; culture, economy, and technology. It is taking steps in globalization from a very young age, for example, children start learning English at a very young age (Jones, & Yoon, 2006, p.16). This is to encourage them to get involved in global business.

Companies like Apple, Google and Samsung depend on Japans skill technology. The country has established itself in the global economy in all types of aspects (Cohn, Card, & Kreuger, 1996, 541). A noble prize was won by 3 Japanese scientists for the invention of new energy-efficient and eco-friendly LED lights. Japan is also involved in fashion as they have a delicate and advanced skill of textile which has impressed the world.

Japanese culture has been as from many countries. For example, Japan adopted some American values in World War 2. Japan is one of the largest economies right now. It has grown aggressively with selling their talent of inventing small products of technology, medical products and eco-friendly inventions overseas making Japanese companies perform well.

The Japanese economy has also faced some disasters affected the economy. On the other hand, the country has to yet connect with the world in education. Globalization in education in Japan is lagging behind compare to other countries with International Baccalaureate for secondary students. As a result of this university education is affected because the number of students who would want to study abroad will decrease. Even the number of students from other countries that study in Japan is decreasing.

Japan has a large population of around 127 million but there is a threat that the population is shrinking (Hannum, Park, & Butler, 2010, p.20). This is because of two reasons. One of them being that the population is prioritizing the elderly. Currently the elderly are overlapping the population of children. The other reason is that the women give work more priority as compared to having children. This is because the globalizing business involves a lot of efficient women. The fertility rate of Japan is down making it hard for Japan to take on the world as it is without young people to contribute to it (Hannum, Park, & Butler, 2010, p.37). Japan is, therefore, growing step by step into globalization using culture, talent and the knowledge they have. In different aspects, they are yet to connect with the world throughout economics and accept change within (Hannum, Park, & Butler, 2010, p.56).

Purpose of the study

Japan as a country has quickly adapted to the changes in the economy even after being affected majorly by the Second World War. The country has as risen to its ranks due to their ability to produce small products of technology making other countries especially big companies do business with them. We are going to look at the effects that globalization has brought in Japan as the country adapts to change and tries to keep up with the rest of the world economies.

Objectives of the study.

The main objective of the study is to examine the effect of globalization on the Japanese culture and society. The next objective is to understand the causes of globalization from a cultural perspective of Japan.

Globalization in the Japanese culture.

The world has become small with the on-going globalization. The Internet has taken a big role in assisting this process by making it easier for people to access the different culture of people. Back when the internet did not exist, it would take days or even months to get news about a neighboring village or country.

As a country, Japan believes that the key to economic growth and making it economy vital lays in the continuous participation and expansion of Japanese corporation in overseas markets combined with the creation of a Japanese domestic environment which encourages inward Foreign Direct Investment from foreign capital interests (Shizuka, 2014, p. 22).

In order to continue participating in the global economy with an extensive international business interest across the globe, Japan is mandated to liberate and open world market objective to the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Shizuka, 2008, para. 8). The need for improved access to the international legal system also stimulated acceptance that the liberation of Japanese legal system would be faster if the local corporations could access foreign lawyers.

With competition in the world market and conformance to international standards recently becoming important in the context of globalization, the direction of higher education policy in Japan has been strongly affected by accountability. Women have also become empowered and become part of the working society (Hizuka, 2010, para. 9). The country has also become aware of the changes in the economy and tries to adapt to the changes around.

In Japan, the enrolment rate held steady at 36–7% throughout the 1970s and 80s, but started to increase thereafter, reaching 45.2% in 1995, 51.5% in 2005, and 55.1% in 2013 (Hizuka, 2010, para. 8). These figures only cover full-fledged universities, colleges, and junior colleges. A quantitative expansion of higher education and enrolment rates on this level naturally requires substantive changes in the higher education system and in the universities and colleges themselves—changes that can no longer be postponed. These trends are as result of globalization.

Japanese economy currently operates with a high level of national saving making it impossible for them to consume their own products and therefore these products are sent abroad as exports (Takehiko & Rappleye, 2010, 24). This made it develop good relations with nations that consume their products. Globalization has changed people’s perception towards marriage and family as more families are becoming “touch and go” due to workplace demands and lack of time spent together. Mothers or wives nowadays work for longer hours making it almost impossible to perform their duties (Takehiko & Rappleye, 2010, 41). Globalization has affected businesses in many ways that has made business much more difficult, complex and at the same time profitable. Leadership styles for countries are different and that does not mean that a good leader in one country will be a good leader in another country (Takehiko & Rappleye, 2010, 33). So a leader has to choose a style that will fit Japan in order to manage the company efficiently.

Globalization on Workforce

Globalization has brought an increase of demand for more skilled workers at the expense of less-skilled ones. This has made the income gap between these two groups broad. The higher unemployment and widening income inequality has corresponded with globalization. It has made the government, labor and managements to get new ways of coping with challenges with their industrial relations system in order to maintain competitiveness that Japan was known for (Osawa & Kim, 2014, p.17). The Japan Federation of Employers (Nikkeiren), the key employer group, the government, and private companies all pointed to the need to break away from an enterprise-centered approach to a more market-driven approach.

The Japanese government has taken steps to gender diversity management despite it being amongst the countries that have the largest gender gap in the economy (Maguchi, 2011, p.30). High hopes are being pinned on women as a potential workforce and also as the gender that can give birth (Maguchi, 2011, p.31).

There has been a qualitative change of steady, unionized labor into flexible labor. This means more jobs whether requiring skilled or unskilled labor have been transformed from long-term contractual and with benefits and union representation, to contingent, part-time, and non-contractual (Cohn, Card, & Kreuger, 1996, p.541). This will lead to the increase of women’s participation in the labor force globally, has been identified as the ”feminization“ of the work (Hizuka, 2010, para. 6).

Globalization has helped Japan to achieve a rapid economic growth and it is a real support in the return of its economy. Globalization has had a major impact on japans trade flows and consumers. The government has been trying for decades as it saw the opportunity for economic growth and development (Osawa & Kim, 2014, p.15). It provides details, surveys, services and policies that help businesses trade and therefore promoting it.

Globalization makes progress in an economy but there are criticisms that the culture becomes westernized. This, on the other hand, means that the people of Japan are adapting to cultures from other regions while their culture diminishes (Hizuka, 2010, para. 3). Globalization has influenced culture in a major part nut not only has it influenced it negatively, there are some positive changes. A good example is the empowerment of women to work in the global economy. It has also encouraged the ability to trade openly with other countries which help in improving the economy and also the acquisition of goods and services that are not available in the country.

Every economy needs to adapt to the market change in order to keep up with the competition of other economies. Despite some negativity, globalization assists in the improvement of Japan and also encourages innovation so that they can keep up with the economy and make there much better.

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