This presentation will try to explain importance of religion and language in the culture of Japan and also how do the culture of Japan relate to the culture of the United States. This paper will also seek to probe into the inter-relationship between political systems and the languages and religions. Finally the paper will delve into the question how is the political geography of Japan different from that of the United States.

Analysis

1.0 Importance of religion and language in defining the culture of Japan

When asked which language was most important for doing business, one Japanese answered, “ my customers,”.
Culture is embedded in language, by identifying set, idiomatic expressions and body language. Language is a manifestation of culture. The two are inter-dependant. This is true for Japan as much as it is true for any other nation state. There is a relationship between linguistic form and meaning i.e. communicative goals and functions. The same function can be achieved by a simple expression or by a sequence of simple sentences, and the same expression can fulfill a number of different functions or different meanings. Japan's only official language is Japanese. Linguistically, it is a almost entirely a homogenous nation, with more than 99% of the population using the same language. Japanese take pride in their language and they have no ‘second’ language, as do many other countries in the world.

Japan's two traditional religions are Shinto, the indigenous religion that is as old as the Japanese people, and Buddhism, which came to Japan from China in the 6th century. The two religions have coexisted peacefully for most of Japan's history and have jelled together.

The history of religion in Japan is a long process of mutual influence between religious traditions. In contrast to Europe, where Christianity overwhelmed local pagan traditions, the indigenous religion Shinto has continued as a part of the lives of the people from the earliest days of an organized Japanese state up to modern times. When Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century, Shinto and Buddhist beliefs began to interact. This is the defining characteristic of Japanese religion.

This is the result of a pen-pall survey, which is not official but is merely indicative.

On the question whether they are religious or not, 55% of the Japanese respondents replied that they were not religious, and just 16% answered to be religious. On the other hand, 55% of the Americans replied that they were religious. Furthermore, one third of the Japanese respondents indicated not to know whether he/she is religious or not. Among the American survey participants, this percentage is only 17%. (Survey: Religion in Japan 2004)

The next question asked the participants about the importance of religion in their daily life.

Half the Japanese respondents answered that religion has no importance at all in everyday life, for 38% it is a little bit important, and for only 12% it is either important or very important. (Survey: Religion in Japan 2004) Judged by Western norms of religiosity, the lifestyle of most Japanese clearly cannot be said to be religious. Such usual and common features as frequent participation in religious services, study of doctrines and scriptures, and religiously inspired social service do not form a matter of interest for most Japanese. Confucianism does order the ethical perspectives and familial and societal relationships for most Japanese and they follow it whether consciously or unconsciously. (Religion in Contemporary Japanese Society 2004)

Unlike Europe where Christianity overwhelmed local pagan traditions Japan has retained the long religious tradition that started in the earliest stages of organized Japanese statehood.
2.0 Contrast of Religion and culture: In Japan and America
The available writings suggest that the role and influence of religion in Japan is much higher in the United States than in Japan. In the United States too there are some sections, such as the evangelists across the Bible belt, who are more ardent and vocal about religious matters than the others. In the Japanese culture there is much greater respect and reverence accorded to the family elder/s as well as to heads of business organizations. The Japanese never do anything to offend their elders. There is no such tradition in the United States where the elderly are often packed off to the old-age peoples’ home. The elderly a re left to fend for themselves in a phenomenon that is known as the empty nest syndrome.

3.0 Inter-relationship: political systems, languages and religion
It is difficult to conceive of any sort of relationship between language and political systems. Political systems exist in all parts of the world and in these parts there are myriads of different languages that are spoken. This itself disproves any correlation between these two.

Language and religion do influence each other. For instance much of the Christian world uses roman script and likewise much of the Muslim world uses Arabic. This is not universal though. For instance Muslims use Persian (in Iran) and Urdu (in Pakistan) and Bengali (in Bangla Desh). Likewise Christians in the say former Soviet states like Latvia, Lithuania etc. do not use Roman script.
Political and religion interdependence can be seen in western democracies where there is freedom of choice in respect of following a particular religion and also in the degree to which a person chooses to practice his religion. As against this in socialist and communist countries there are obvious restrictions on choice and extent to which religious activities can be performed.
4.0Political Geography: Japan and United States

The contrast between Japan and the United States is great here. While the United States has of late started to follow the doctrine of unilateral intervention in the way other countries run their affairs Japan has no such ambitions. The United States has assigned to itself the role of the world’s policeman where there is no such thing in the case of Japan. The United Sates also advocates pre-emptive strikes and this is not agreeable to Japan. The United States has weapons of mass destruction, which Japan does not possess. The United States has used lethal ammunition like the smart bombs, cruise missiles and rained death and destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq but Japan has taken no such hostile action since World War II.