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All cultures are blended. Most of the things you think of as uniquely Japanese are in fact imports, or the hybrid cultural offspring of imports. Kanji was stole

All cultures are blended. Most of the things you think of as uniquely Japanese are in fact imports, or the hybrid cultural offspring of imports. Kanji was stolen wholesale from Chinese Hanzi, sushi evolved from fermented fish dishes from the Mekong, pagodas are a Chinese import, Buddhism is an import from India via China, the kimono came from China, manga is based on ukiyo-e which is based on Chinese woodblock printing techniques, kare raisu came from India via the British Royal Navy. I could go on ad nauseum. Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture. If you perceive your cultural environment as homogenized, it's your own damned fault for being a passive consumer rather than an active participant.

fromthestart 7y ago
>Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture. There's a difference between gradual assimilation of cultural elements over hundreds of years, and flooding a country with change on the scale of a generation. It's perfectly reasonable to want to preserve what amounts to a cultural identity by limiting cultural influx. >Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture Nonsense. The fact that a given culture contains elements from others does not mean that it is not itself pure. Culture is simply information - in the form of practices, foods, clothing, ideals - and while there may be a great deal of overlap among the basis vectors that could be combined to represent the world's cultures, purity could be approximately gauged by a principle component analysis, which would most certainly show distinct, tight groupings for more homogenous, isolated cultures like that of Japan, and a more diffuse, homogenized cluster among westernized cultures.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  The ancestral post of this thread is bemoaning supposed cultural deracination in Japan because of changes to immigration policy. It is hysterical to presume that the Japanese are about to flood their country "with change on the scale of a generation". > does not mean that it is not itself pure By what metric is a culture pure? How can information be pure? How far back in the timeline do you want to gauge purity? And at what point is it relevant to policy?
  - wallace_f 7y ago
    Japan is an extroardinarily unique place. Even Australia, NZ, the UK and America have not just lot in common when you compare them to Japan, but a surprisingly lot. Japan really does have its own culture and identity. The Japanese have always wanted to protect their culture, identity, and economy, going back to where n Perry shot off a cannon to get them to open up the West's plans. As a foreigner who loves Japan, I think there is a stretch between letting particularly interested individuals enjoy to the country--which is already possible--and opening itself up economic migration--which is what Western countries now experience. Look at Singapore. It's such a god damn hell compared to Japan even though on paper they should be doing better. There is really no other place like Japan on earth, it will be sad to see it homogenize with the rest of it.
    - Apocryphon 7y ago
      Again, it seems highly dubious that opening up to economic migration means the same set of policies used everywhere, and the same results everywhere.
      - wallace_f 7y ago
        I know you keep wanting to broadcast that opinion, but it is obviously not clear to be true. For reasons you can see in my comment, and also see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19988198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19988198
        Apocryphon 7y ago
        So either Japanese culture is "extraordinarily unique" and has a strong sense of identity, allowing its people to pursue immigration policies with different results from other nations, or its culture is already no better or worse or different than those aforementioned nations- and immigration will lead to the same conclusions. So which is it?
      - Nadya 7y ago
        We've seen the same results in every country that has attempted it, so why would one more country be any different? How many repeating occurrences of something occurring do you need before you can look at the data and go "There's a strong correlation there." without being called or implied to be a racist?
GoblinSlayer 7y ago
Aside from inheritance there are mutations that are not based on previous work and are unique.

fromthestart 7y ago

>Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture. There's a difference between gradual assimilation of cultural elements over hundreds of years, and flooding a country with change on the scale of a generation. It's perfectly reasonable to want to preserve what amounts to a cultural identity by limiting cultural influx. >Anyone who espouses cultural purity is simply ignorant of culture Nonsense. The fact that a given culture contains elements from others does not mean that it is not itself pure. Culture is simply information - in the form of practices, foods, clothing, ideals - and while there may be a great deal of overlap among the basis vectors that could be combined to represent the world's cultures, purity could be approximately gauged by a principle component analysis, which would most certainly show distinct, tight groupings for more homogenous, isolated cultures like that of Japan, and a more diffuse, homogenized cluster among westernized cultures.

Apocryphon 7y ago
The ancestral post of this thread is bemoaning supposed cultural deracination in Japan because of changes to immigration policy. It is hysterical to presume that the Japanese are about to flood their country "with change on the scale of a generation". > does not mean that it is not itself pure By what metric is a culture pure? How can information be pure? How far back in the timeline do you want to gauge purity? And at what point is it relevant to policy?
- wallace_f 7y ago
  Japan is an extroardinarily unique place. Even Australia, NZ, the UK and America have not just lot in common when you compare them to Japan, but a surprisingly lot. Japan really does have its own culture and identity. The Japanese have always wanted to protect their culture, identity, and economy, going back to where n Perry shot off a cannon to get them to open up the West's plans. As a foreigner who loves Japan, I think there is a stretch between letting particularly interested individuals enjoy to the country--which is already possible--and opening itself up economic migration--which is what Western countries now experience. Look at Singapore. It's such a god damn hell compared to Japan even though on paper they should be doing better. There is really no other place like Japan on earth, it will be sad to see it homogenize with the rest of it.
  - Apocryphon 7y ago
    Again, it seems highly dubious that opening up to economic migration means the same set of policies used everywhere, and the same results everywhere.
    - wallace_f 7y ago
      I know you keep wanting to broadcast that opinion, but it is obviously not clear to be true. For reasons you can see in my comment, and also see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19988198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19988198
      - Apocryphon 7y ago
        So either Japanese culture is "extraordinarily unique" and has a strong sense of identity, allowing its people to pursue immigration policies with different results from other nations, or its culture is already no better or worse or different than those aforementioned nations- and immigration will lead to the same conclusions. So which is it?
    - Nadya 7y ago
      We've seen the same results in every country that has attempted it, so why would one more country be any different? How many repeating occurrences of something occurring do you need before you can look at the data and go "There's a strong correlation there." without being called or implied to be a racist?

GoblinSlayer 7y ago

Aside from inheritance there are mutations that are not based on previous work and are unique.