Enjo-kosai in Japan

As the writer showed, there is enjo-kosai – teen prostitution or “sexual dating for money” in Japan. In the text, the writer showed the example of sawako, a Japanese girl who seems a “fast” girl. Her skirts are too short and her socks are too loose. It is surely a typical image of a current Japanese high school girl. Of course, not all the high school girls are like her but girls like her are not so unusual in Japan. In the story, her mother worried that sawako might do enjo-kosai. Reading the text, I felt that the writer is saying “enjo-kosai is not so unusual thing for Japanese girls.” However, I would like to tell that it is actually not common thing in Japan because it is a kind of crimes. If only such image of Japanese school girls were empathized, many foreigners would think that Japanese girls easily sex for money. On the other hand, I cannot solve this problem by only saying “enjo-kosai is what evil people do. Although enjo-kosai is not common thing and many Japanese people hate this, it actually exists in Japan. Because it is now one of the serious social problems, we cannot say “it is not our business.” I wonder if girls who does enojo-kosai really wants to do it. No one wants to have sex with stranger she does not love even if the person gives her much money. I think this problem deeply relates to their home environment or school life. At least, I can tell that their purpose of enjo-kosai is not only for money. The writer should have described deeper about this problem. Empathizing wrong images can be really dangerous, I think. What do you think about it?

Family in Japan

I think that the style of family in Japan has dramatically changed. At first, I want to talk about fathers in Japan. The typical image of father in Japan was “kaminari-oyaji” or father like a thunder as is written in the textbook. The fact meant that father had authority in Japan and was very strong. However, many fathers are now hated by daughters and cannot feel comfortable in their home. Such fathers do not have authority which fathers had in the past. Second, I talk about mothers in Japan. The typical image of “mother” was “okusan” or a person who is always in the house. However, many women came to work after they married and even they had children. The idea that wife should be in the house and do housework is now old. Although many women are working today, discrimination still exists. So they have to work harder than men to be promoted. I have once heard that Japanese women are one of the strongest women in the world. I agree to this idea to some extent. Although they worked hard in the old time, they now work harder than that time. They had to be strong to be independent. It may be able to say that mothers became strong and fathers relatively became weaker in the family. However, there are some “tyoiwaru-oyaji” or a bit dandy father. Such fathers are cool and liked by Japanese people. They might change the typical image of recent weak fathers. As I explained, Japanese family style dramatically after World War II. It can be said that the social changes caused life style changes, then the life style changes caused this dramatic change of Japanese family style.

Dating in Japan

In Japan, dating is more private than that in the U.S. Actually, teenagers do not like to meet their classmates or their family when they are dating. They feel embarrassed to be seen dating by such people. On the other hand, it can also be said that they treasure their own memories or secrets. They do not want their relationship to be interrupted by anyone. They usually do not tell about their boyfriends or girlfriends even to their parents. So, in Japan, there are many cases that parents do not know about their children’s dating.
Of course, dating with cool boy or pretty girl positively affects their status also in Japan. However, I think Japanese people do not tell that they date to raise their own status. So, most of the boys tell that they date with their girlfriends because they just love their girlfriends (vice versa). They do not like to tell that they are dating because their partners’ status is high. However, partner’s status is actually an important factor for people to date with. Many Japanese women say “I want to marry with a man whose annual income is high.” It simply indicates that Japanese women think that men’s income (status) is important. To summarize, in Japan, partner’s status is actually one of the important factors for dating to some extent though they do not permit it.
In short, dating in Japan is more private than that in other countries and many Japanese people unconsciously think that their partners’ status is important. I think Japanese dating so closed that they do not like to talk about it correlating with social status but that status certainly influence dating.

Peer groups in Japan and America 日本、アメリカにおける仲間集団

　僕が、テキストを読んだり授業で議論したりしていく中で、アメリカの学生たちについてまず特徴的だと思ったのは、学校の中で様々なグループが存在し、そのグループが単に共通の趣味とか好きなことを通して繋がっているというだけでなく、そのグループが人種やその学生らの経済状況といったものを反映していて、格付けのようなものが存在している点や、そのグループの区分がはっきりしているという点です。
　僕の通っていた学校では、たしかにグループは存在していたと思います。そのグループというのは、スポーツ好きで集まるグループ、オタクで集まるグループ、ちょい悪な雰囲気な人で集まるグループ、まじめな人ばかりで集まるグループ、などと区分しようと思えばいくらでもグループ分けできたように思います。しかし、そのグループの間で格付けのようなものは全く存在せず、またその区分もはっきりしていません。例えば、スポーツ好きの人が、オタクの人達が話しているのを聞いて共通の話題があれば、一緒におしゃべりをするし、その逆のこともあります。これは、一人の人が複数のグループに属していると言うこともできるかもしれません。つまり、確かにグループは存在するものの、グループの区分があいまいだということです。その結果もちろん、グループの間で力関係が生じたりすることはなく、どのグループに属しているからその人のステータスがどうこうということはありません。グループはただ単に共通の話題や趣味といったもので結びついていると思います。
　これまで、授業を通して学んだアメリカの学生のイメージと僕の日本の学校での経験について述べてきましたが、それがアメリカの、また日本の全ての学生にあてはまるというわけではありません。こうして日米の学生の比較をすると、特定の限られた情報に基づいて議論を進めているのに、それが日本全体について、アメリカ全体においてあたかも一般的なことを議論しているかのように錯覚してしまうところが多々あると思います。また、日米での違いばかりが気になってしまい、日本の学校だけの特徴と思っていたものが、実はアメリカの学校でも当てはまったというような共通点を見つけることがあまりできなかったように思います。
　アメリカの学生の文化と日本の学生の文化が違うものだとして議論していくだけでは、その議論自体が、「アメリカの学生」と「日本の学生」というグループを新たに作りだし、そのグループの区分を強化してしまいます。日米間の文化を違ったものとして捉えるだけではなく、実はこんなにも同じ特徴を持っているんだということにも気付いていければ、より深いアメリカの学生文化が理解できると思います。

自己紹介 self-introduction

Hello, nice to meet you!
My name is Takayuki Kin.
I am a freshman at Department of School of International Liveral Studies(SILS), Waseda University.
I have never been to foreign country, so my English may not very good.
However, I'm looling forward to talking to you.
Let's enjoy this class!!

こんにちは、初めまして！
僕の名前は金武　孝幸（きん　たかゆき）といいます。
僕は早稲田大学の国際教養学部（SILS）の一年生です。
海外に一度も行ったことが無いので、僕の英語はあまり上手ではないかも知れませんが、皆さんと話ができるのを楽しみにしています。
このクラス、楽しんで行きましょう！！