Globalization and why Japan is ruining my college dietary habits

The trend continues: a continued influx of odd foreign culture into the once pure nation of Japan. Baggy pants, loud music, garish makeup, with those who choose to wear such dastardly facepaint having the audacity to apply it in public places. Even the apparent innocence of a magic show is naught but the Grim Reaper knocking on the door of good culture. Goodbye, o halcyon days.



Or so some say.

While criticisms of Japan's modern, "less-Japanese-y" age are not always leveled at the menacing spectre of foreign influence, such alarmist views are by no means hard to find.

The idea of sullied or somehow unpure "modern" Japanese culture becomes a bit more ludicrous, if not laughable, when one takes a step back in order to realize that the trend has been continuing since the Meiji restoration, where land reformations begat tales of "Poison women" using new systems to exploit others and the rebellious youth were flowing from their cozy agricultural lives to thriving urban centers, forsaking the old ways. Finishing schools for the modern woman and new housing structures putting emphasis on filial harmony with little regard for tradition threatened to destroy what is and always has been(TM). All that and it's not even 1930.

While I don't want to delve too deeply into why Japan has never been "Japan" due to general unawareness on the part of both preceding and succeeding generations, it is something to consider. However, the hodgepodge of historical confusedness pales in comparison to the fact that



I can barely eat pizza here. Mayonnaise, corn, teriyaki sauce, all manner of weird toppings is tantamount to blasphemy. While my opinion has little consequence in the matter I have a hard time believing that most anything I find here pizza-wise would be considered anything other than Japanese overseas. Yes, that includes California. I also understand the slightly ludicrous criticism that a food that originated in Italy, made from a fruit native to South America, of which the style I consume was localized in the States, does not translate in the exact same way in Japan.

The idea is that while the views of nay-sayers on the topic of Globalization are not entirely invalid, the tendency for an "influencing" culture to be countered, warped, and localized to the point it becomes unique if not entirely recognizable from its point of origin is an especially strong one. There are quite a few objects, food (PIZZA!), clothing (of course, kimonos haven't been en vogue as everyday attire for quite a while), landmarks (America Town, save for the tiny statue of liberty and being a monument to endless consumerism, has very little "American-ness" about it) most likely would not be easily reabsorbed into the countries which supposedly spawned them.



An issue to ponder is what exactly makes something adoptable? Why does one mode of expression from a "foreign" culture spark a movement in a separate social space where the social dynamic can range from just slightly dissimilar to drastically different. So-called "World Culture" as represented in the myriad of fashions, music, art, and any number of other things is a very real phenomenon. However, the culture in which those foreign seeds are planted tend to give rise to very different interpretations of the same idea.