Bakayama class #2

Another refreshing class at the Bakayama… started out with Paul Wadden seducing us with his amiable smile. Well, not really because I didn’t feel any sort of thing as he was not a total stranger to me (Maki and I took a peek into Paul’s lecture for 5 minutes), and Rab asked him to do it. The first question that came up today was whether Barna’s article was outmoded or not, and all of our group members agreed that it was still up-to-date. When I was reading this article, I did not become inquisitive of when the article was written because the points that she raised are still applicable today. For example, Barna mentions that the Japanese people may be seen as “inscrutable”, which is still a popular adjective that many people from other countries still attribute to Japanese people.

Next topic was age restrictions and maturity levels. In the U.S., the term “sweet sixteen” is popular while in India, it is the “sweet seventeen”. Jewish people celebrate their children’s 13 year-old birthday as the entrance to the adult world. Yet, the Japanese borderline seems to be 20 when we wear the fancy kimonos and assemble in different regions to listen to lectures from “adults” or over twenty year-old people. 20 is also the voting age in Japan as well as drinking and smoking. Personally, I think 20 being the crossing line between child and adult is too late as it makes them less motivated to be responsible for themselves from an earlier age. This is where our group drifted off into taking about Japanese students’ general apathy for politics. Generally speaking, U.S. students are more interested in the politics of their own country than Japanese students are. I remember being embarrassed while I was overseas when a classmate asked me whether I was left-wing or right-wing. The only thing that came up in my mind was, “why are we suddenly talking about birds?” Including myself, many Japanese students are not profoundly knowledgeable of the politics in our country, and one possible explanation that Shiho raised was the voting age being too high. If the voting age was lowered to say 18, perhaps students will be more interested into the political affairs of their country (or feel more responsibility to know about it)  since their votes have the possibilities of altering policies and solving social problems. Although I do think that the voting age should be lowered in Japan, I do not necessarily think that one certain age should be a universal age in restrictions. It is legal for Japanese students to finish Junior High and go straight to work, so the age those people start working would be 16. Supposing that the universal age was 16, smoking starting at the age of 16 would undoubtedly bring serious health problems as he or she becomes older. Also, voting at 16 seems too young for me. In my case, I was not taught politics and economics in junior high, so I would feel as if I have sufficient knowledge to vote.