10 IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF JAPAN TO HUMANITY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Japan's contributions are undeniable. Japanese civilization has millennia of history; Its cultural, scientific and technological manifestations have had a great influence on the history of humanity.

The contributions of Japan cover spaces as wide as medicine, entertainment and ethics, and in each field there are exponents whose contributions have been transcendent.

File: The history of Japan, giving an account of the old and current state and government of that empire - its temples, palaces, castles and other buildings, its metals, minerals, trees, plants (14748879204).

Trains moving at 500 kilometers per hour, robot-assisted brain surgeries, wise martial arts, and the importance of forgiveness are just some of Japan's contributions to the world.

Many Japanese have left their mark on humanity, and they have done so by putting into practice the most outstanding characteristics of the culture of Japan: order, beauty and honor.

Main contributions from Japan

Robots and artificial intelligence

The Japanese robotics industry began by developing prototypes for automobile and electronics factories, with the intention of relieving employees from physically demanding and dangerous jobs.

The development of the industry led Japan to diversify production: it has created robots capable of performing rescue functions in catastrophic situations, exoskeletons that increase the physical capacities of people with motor limitations, and prototypes that supply medicines to patients and perform brain surgeries.

Currently, Japan is the country with the largest export of robots in the world.

Video game

Although Japan was not a global pioneer in the video game industry, it became the main reference during the 80s and 90s.

Nintendo positioned itself as the main device to play from home. Several of the most iconic video games in history are contributions from Japan: Space Invaders, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros are the ones that exerted the greatest influence.

Starting in the year 2000, the US industry grew exponentially and Japan suffered a decline in this area.

However, it remains at the forefront by currently leading the smartphone gaming market, making use of its historic effectiveness with hand-held devices or handheld computers.

Martial Arts

The origins of Japanese martial arts are linked to the samurai, an elite class in 15th century Japan. Samurai were warriors skilled in the use of the sword and in hand-to-hand combat.

The practice of martial arts, initially allowed only to samurai, was spreading to cover different areas of society at that time, which allowed its transcendence to other times and horizons.

In addition to the popular karate, other disciplines evolved from the original martial arts and became popular in the West, where they are considered practices to strengthen the body and mind; some of these Japanese contributions are judo, aikido, kendo, ninjutsu and jiu-jitso.

Anime: Japanese animations

Anime, Japanese animated films, has more than ten million fans in the world.

Unlike Western animated films, anime is not directed solely at children; the stories cover different areas: from dramas and comedies to action plots.

Anime is considered a cult manifestation that in 2017 celebrates 100 years since its first manifestations.

Heidi, Dragon Ball, Pokémon and Sailor Moon are just some references that were strong influences in the West and spanned several generations, so they are considered great Japanese contributions.

Manga: Japanese comics

Many films of the anime genre were born from manga, a term given to traditional Japanese comics.

Among the original manga artists is Katsushika Hokusai, who lived between 1760 and 1849 and left a legacy of more than 30,000 drawings. Even today manifestations of this art considered cult continue to emerge.

In fact, between 2016 and 2017, the Japan Foundation carried out an exhibition with which it seeks to show the collection of Hokusai's sketches and highlight the manga as a contribution from Japan, by exposing the most important differences between classic and contemporary anime.

Modern medicine

Japan has been the cradle of different advances in medicine that have resulted in important benefits for humanity.

Not surprisingly, Japan has four winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine: Tonegawa Susumu, in 1987, who discovered the genetic principle by which diversity of antibodies are produced; Yamanaka Shin'ya, in 2012, for developing stem cells from human skin cells; Satoshi Omura, in 2015, for discoveries around a therapy against infections generated by intestinal parasites; and Yoshinori Osumi, in 2016, for their research related to autophagy, the degradation and recycling process between cells.

Advanced technology

Although many of Japan's technological advances focus on robotics, there are other areas developed by Japanese whose contributions look promising for the near technological future.

The development of a technology that replaces the current Internet with a faster and more secure platform, obtaining solar energy directly from space and sent to Earth via microwaves, and the creation of a new generation of high-speed trains They move through magnetic levitation.

These are just some examples that, despite not currently being considered the greatest technological power, the contributions of Japan continue to be of great importance in the development of humanity.

The seventh art

The first manifestations of Japanese cinema date back to 1899, and from 1950 it began to spread to other cultures.

Akira Kurosawa is considered the film director who brought Japanese cinema closer to the West; in the 1950s he won an Oscar for his film “Rashomon”, and from that moment on he became an influential figure for directors like George Lucas.

One of the characteristics of Japanese cinema is, among others, the constant reference to its cultural manifestations with an emphasis on the beauty of the image.

Literature

The origins of Japanese literature date back to the 18th century. This cultural manifestation has been an important influence on Latin American writers such as Octavio Paz, and two exponents of this art have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature: Yasunari Kawabata, in 1968; and Kenzaburō Ōe, in 1994.

According to Nobuaki Ushijima, a professor attached to the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at the University of Tokyo, Japanese literature is characterized by tending towards the concrete, the emotional and the vital.

The importance of honor

Another contribution of Japan to the world is to recognize honor as a fundamental virtue for life. Samurai had very strict codes of ethics and honor, and that tradition has become part of the essence of Japanese culture.

The act of asking for forgiveness is part of this honor code; For this reason, senior executives or members of the Japanese government have publicly apologized in recent history when they have been accused of fraud or illegal acts.

References

1. Danielle Demetriou. (2017). Snake-like robot developed in Japan to help in disaster zones. United Kingdom. Recovered from telegraph.co.uk
2. Shusuke Murai (2016). Neurosurgery theater in Japan embraces cutting-edge 'smart' tech, robotics. Japan. Recovered from japantimes.co.jp
3. Japan's oldest cartoons shown to mark 100 years of anime. (2017). Japan. Recovered from bbc.com
4. Manga Hokusai Manga: Approaching the Master's Compendium from the Perspective of Contemporary Comics. (2016). Japan. Recovered from jpf.go.jp
5. Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. (2005). U.S. Recovered from encyclopedia.com
6. Hirabayashi Hisakazu. (2015). Video Games: A Winning Strategy for Japan. Japan. Recovered from nippon.com.