Graduation ceremony

I examine about Graduation ceremony at school in Japan. I went to graduation ceremony of Kansai Gaidai University on last Saturday. Most female students wear onnahakama and some women wear kimono. On the other hand, most male students wear recruit suits and some men wear haorihakama. In junior high school and high school, all students wear school uniform.

In Japan, graduation ceremony is one of school event and ritual as the same as opening ceremony, closing ceremony, entrance ceremony in elementary school, junior high school, high school. According to government guideline for teaching, in graduation ceremony, so as to host a nation flag and national anthem, teachers have to instruct students.
In graduation ceremony, certification presentation is the main event. There are three certification styles. One is class teacher call their students’ name in turn, all students stand on the platform and they receive certification from a principal.

Second pattern is class representative receives certification from principal. Class teacher calls their students’ name, and then students answer and stand up. After called all students’ name, class representative stands on the platform and receive certification from principal.

Third pattern is representative of department or school receives certification from president.

In junior high school and high school, students sing aogeba totoshi(仰げば尊し) and hotarunoholari(蛍の光). These are really famous song in graduation ceremony.

Please look at this picture; this is a graduation ceremony at junior high school. What do you think about it? All students wear same uniform and line like military; moreover Japanese flag is on the center of platform. I think this situation is like communism like North Korea. To host Japanese flag shows patriotism, and also students and teachers seem to be controlled by government unconsciously.

Please look at this picture. This picture shows graduation ceremony in universoty. In graduation ceremony, most students take pictures with their professors, and their position is decided in most cases. As you can see, a professor is sandwiched between female students. This situation is called ryote ni hana in Japanese. It literally means a man has flowers in his both hands. Females are refered as flowers. I think this picture and the term represent male dominance. Female role is to make male outstand in this picture. In Japan, female position is lower than male still now, especially the position of working women. Therefore this picture represents the condition of Japanese society.

comics

I went to shopping mall in Hirakata last weekend, and I found interesting thing. There were many foods which were covered with animation characters’ plastic bag. Some of those are come from foreign countries. For example, comic of peanuts was born in America in 1950. It was written by Charles M Schulz. It have been really popular in the world and comic of peanuts was published totally more than three billion copies.

In Japan, peanuts was started to be published in 1967, translated by Shuntaro Tanikawa who is a famous writer in Japan. Japanese tend to think Snoopy is the main character of peanuts stories, because company of Sanrio sells many snoopy goods, and also peanuts’ cartoons appear Sannkei news paper on Sundays now. Peanuts’ characters entered in Universal Studio Japan, which is one of big amusement parks in Japan in 2001. Peanuts characters are really loved by many Japanese.

While peanuts become famous, those characters are used as targets of consumer by some companies. For example, Softbank which is one of Japanese cell phone companies made cell phone decorated by pictures of snoopy. It seems to target young female consumers.

Also, I went to a sweets shop in Hirakata. Almost all sweets are covered with simple case; however, a few sweets are covered by snoopy’s small plastic bag. There is not peanuts’ goods shop but they use picture of snoopy to sell sweets. I think it is interesting.

I think some comics that are from foreign countries are really popular in Japan; however they tend to be used to make a benefit by some companies. I think those comics should be used more preciously in Japan.

Japanese family

I examine about Japanese family in a holiday. Last Sunday, I went to a park around my house in Hirakata.There were many children who were playing with their parents.

Japan has a traditional concept. It is housework is for female and work for male. Most fathers leave home early in the morning and go home late at night, and also I often see mothers who ride bycicle with two children almost every day. It means that to take care of children is regarded as abslutely mothers’ work. So, traditionally holidays are only days that fathers take care of their children and children can play with their all family menbers. It is said that most boys play catch with their father. That’s why I think these pictures represent one of Japanese culture.

This culture is really important for us, because this situation also represent the condition of Japanese society. For example, still now to take care of children is regarded as exclusively female’s job; however, if male starts to take care of children rather than female, we must see different Japanese family style and it shows that the moment of generating new Japanese culture. So we need to keep our eye open Japanese families.