I know both of you (three if you count Ms. Nelson) have long awaited the debut of this fascinating new blog. Hopefully, in months or days I'll look back on this post and laugh at how naive I was to only be addressing my comments to a small group of people I'm familiar with, versus hundreds if not thousands of readers across the internet.
Regardless, I'd like to start off by introducing the concept behind this blog. The general goal is to talk about Japan. I'm interested in majoring in International Relations next year in college, and one of the areas of the world that intrigues me is East Asia, so I figure the sooner I start studying it, the sooner I'll know if I want to devote considerable academic energies to it. Within this general framework, I'll be talking about Japan's culture and politics, and how language is used in both of these contexts to explain history or move towards common goals. Also, I'll be comparing these trends to those in our own country. (Hence the name: Japan and Us.) I thought I was being clever because "US" could be United States or us.
The natural question to answer now is "Why Japan?"
Three reasons-
1. Japan is fascinating. They've had five prime ministers in the last five years, and just completed an election in which the architect of the long time opposition party which seized power last year challenged the current prime minister from his own party and lost.
2. Japan is relevant. They're our cornerstone ally in Northeast Asia, and in many ways have, since World War II, allowed the US to underwrite regional stability that has facilitated economic prosperity, and even the rise of China.
3. Japan is different. When Ichiro Ozawa (the architect) announced that he was going to challenge Naoto Kan (current prime minister) he said, "I am of humble ability and not worthy of the post." Can you imagine any American politician saying anything like that ever?
I hope I've gone some way towards persuading you about how fascinating Japan is. More importantly, I hope you enjoy reading this blog.
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