In what ways are the views of Japan and it’s people (presented in both Japanese and Western media) accurate and/or false representations of Japan

The media has many ways of representing different cultures and societies. This may vary because the views of directors and production teams are reflected in their media. The views of Japan and its people is one which differs through Japanese and Western media of all forms, including films, television and print.

The film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, was a written in 1950, and it received mixed responses from Japanese and Western critics. The Japanese Critics actually stated that Rashomon was too western, and it did not truly reflect the Japanese culture. This could show how some of the presentation in Rashomon, may lead us to a false conclusions about Japanese people, because it actually represents western people. For example, the ideas on gender in Rashomon suggest that women are the weaker sex, when the woman in the film is powerless without a man to protect her and very emotionally unstable. This is an idea that was around at this time in Western society, so may not reflect the true Japanese idea on gender.

In work from Studio Ghibli (anime studios in Japan) women are presented quite differently to how they are shown in Rashomon. First of all, many of the main roles in these films are taken up by the female gender, including My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, The Cat Returns, Spirited away and many more. These characters are often strong and courageous females, for example Chihiro takes on a large responsibility over her parents in Spirited Away when she must seek help from more powerful spirits to save them from their fate. These films are spread across 1988 – 2002, which suggests the ideas of women being strong and independent, has been present for many years.

This contrasts with the ideas in Rashomon, and represents the Japanese culture as encouraging powerful, female roles. The female roles in Western animation, such as Disney’s films, are shown to be fragile and gentle creatures, which contrasts dramatically with the princess in Princess Mononoke, who is vicious and aggressive.

But this representation may not be the ideas held by the whole of Japan, it may just be the ideas of Hayao Miyazaki. He said “When a man is shooting a handgun, it's just like he is shooting because that's his job … When a girl is shooting a handgun, it's really something.” which reflects his personal belief of how women are much stronger than they may seem. And this is shown in Princess Mononoke, with the females being given the opportunity use typically male weapons by Lady Eboshi.

Miyazaki also shows his personal ideas of the traditional ways of Japan, unpolluted and natural, living in peace with the environment. In Spirited away with trash deforming the River God and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes, which further indicates that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, comes from within the Japanese society.

Another idea that is seen in the Japanese media could represent the Japanese culture as holding strong values of close family bonds. This is seen in My Neighbour Totoro, when the family comfortably bathe together. To a western audience this could be seen as strange or odd, but it is simply part of the Japanese culture which often involves close family relationships.

Community spirit is also reflected in some Japanese media, which suggests they are a nation that prides them to have friendly neighbourhoods. In Princess Mononoke, amongst the devastation and destruction, we as an audience are introduced to the very different communities in harmony. In Irontown, Lady Eboshi is seen as a hero for helping the women in the brothels and the lepers, who everyone else turned away. She helped to create peace in the community. In amongst the many different spirits in the Forest, there is harmony with the wolf God caring for her cubs and her “daughter” (the princess).

This is also seen in another of Akira Kurosawa’s work, The Seven Samurai, as 7 swordsmen come to the aid of a village in torment from bandits. This film was later remade by John Sturges into a ‘classic western’, The Magnificent Seven, but there were some large differences in the plot which highlights the differences between Western society and Japan at this time. For example, the samurai were swordsmen, not gun fighting cowboys, so it could be said the Japanese like to be more traditional in the weapons they use, and samurai sword fighting goes back into Japanese history.

I think that television also tells us a lot about the Japanese Culture, as well as the type of people they are. The program Takeshi’s Castle is one which documents a large group of Japanese volunteers attempting to complete a near impossible obstacle course. The people are outrageously entertaining to a western audience, when they fall off things and ‘make a fool’ of themselves. But they do not take it seriously, compared to some shows we have shown in Western societies such as Total Wipeout. This portrays Japan as people who are idiosyncratic and eccentric individuals.

Their religion, Shinto, is reflected in some Japanese media. In Rashomon, the psychic tells one side of the story through a spirit and the court takes this very seriously. This belief is spirits is also in the horror, Ju-on (The Grudge), directed by Takashi Shimizu, where there are ghosts tormenting people who enter the cursed house.

The media therefore gives mixed representations of Japanese culture and it’s people, and it also depends on the audience who are viewing the media, because they will interpret it differently according to their own cultural values. So a Western audience viewing a Japanese program like Takeshi’s castle, may take it that all Japanese people are eccentric and ‘crazy’. But in Japan they may be aware that it is only a small minority of people who would go on the show. So, what does the media represent about Japan? It shows Japan to be a nation of family and community values, who are spiritual and creative. But, also people that encourage strong female leaders and independence/individuality.

Japanese Settlement in Studio Ghibli

Japan is a collection of thousands of islands, something that is featured greatly in many of the Studio Ghibli anime. For example, Laputa: Castle in the Sky was based around the fictional legend of many floating Islands in the sky, which could be a metaphor for the way in which Japan is distributed as land. My Neighbour Totoro details several important cultural references through the setting of the film.

For example, the house that the family move into is a stereotypical portrayal of a rural Japanese home. The sliding doors that they first walk through are a key feature in many houses of this type and are typically kept open during the day and closed at night. A second key feature of their home would be the way in which the foundations are constructed. They do not have cellars but instead shallow foundations, just big enough to crawl under. This is shown when Mai follows one of the smaller Totoros into the cellar. The community which Satsuki and her family have moved into is a typical agricultural town. The rice paddies are visible throughout the movie. Rice cultivation is one of the most important industries in Japan, as rice is a staple of the Japanese diet. This is also shown in Princess Mononoke, when the white wolves interrupt some workers transporting rice over the mountain.

Princess Mononoke is set in a feudal Japan, a time of upheaval of samurai and isolated villages. The ideas of settlement show clear implications that nature (the forest spirits and creatures) are fighting back against the human citizens, who are trying to exploit the natural recourses available on the rural land. Eboshi (the female leader of the settlement) has discovered a powerful secret - gunpowder. This shows how a once rural Japan has now hit a dramatic expansion, and with it's developments of new weaponry, has become more powerful than it's natural surroundings.

The landscapes in Princess Mononoke also has specific references to landscapes in Japan, such as the ancient forests of Yakushima, of Kyūshū, and the mountains of Shirakami-Sanchi in northern Honshū. Princess Mononoke could be seen as a message from Miyazaki to Japanese society. It seems he is trying to convey that wat, violence and disrespect for nature by humans, destroys the delicate relationship between humanity and nature.

Spirited Away contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts, the struggle with dissolving traditional culture and environmental pollution. Chihiro, as a representation of young Japanese women, may be seen as a metaphor for the Japanese society which, over the last decade, seems to be increasingly in limbo, drifting uneasily away from the values and ideological framework of the immediate postwar era.

Miyazaki brought an element of 'old Japan' into this animation, as Chihiro and her parents initially travel past this old abandoned fairground, which is a symbol for Japan's broken economy. There are environmental links, just as there are in Princess Mononoke, with trash deforming the River God and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes, which further indicates that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, comes from within the Japanese society.

This Ghibli film could be a reflection of how Japanese economy growth is causing the environment great pollution. Also shows how the environment has now become poisonous for us to live. The film shows this when Princess Nausicaa discovers the poisonous forest.

Themes Japanese culture

Gender Roles
Religion/Spiritualism
Economy
Nature and the Environment
People
War and Conflict
Settlements