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Why Japaneses copy everything?

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You know...

this whole thread started on the mention of Tokyo Disneyland. Well, in that respect (as was already mentioned) it was not so much copied, as the Disney corporation decided to branch out and make a little (more) money! The same is true with McDonalds, A&W, Universal Studios, etc...

As for saying that a country copies another is ridiculous! Everyone in some way copies someone else. You see something cool. You say "wow, that looks cool, I'd like to have one of those" or "I'd like to try that". How is that considered copying? Japan has taken many ideas from other people/countries and improved upon them! Obviously electronics...made them smaller, faster, better, but you can also say that about the Koreans, and the same is true now in Taiwan and India. Now days you never know where a product is truly designed or assembled!

I'm sorry...I just feel that this entire thread was useless. I know, I know, no one forced me to read it, or even to comment but that was my own undoing! Anyway just my thoughts! Have a great night!
 
byp said:
European copied arabic writing, too... and if you'r using this kind of writing, your are a copier too...
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well, now i have to correct you: we copied only the arabic numerals but the letters are european (latin/greek) origin.
 
Sessha said:
well, now i have to correct you: we copied only the arabic numerals but the letters are european (latin/greek) origin.
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yes, yes, you are right. sorry, I should have given the precision. thanks for correcting me. I thought it was common knowledge.
 

Thanks!

When I saw the "Project X" episode on Tokyo Tower it was exaplined that it was built as a broadcast tower.

But trying to emulate the hair color of Westerners by dying their hair blonde is getting ridiculous.
 
Hmm.. Sorry I don't see it as emulation in the hair dying respect.. Think about it.. It is an extremely homogeneous society.. everyone naturally has black hair.. dying it is just to be different.. not to be Western.. I don't have blonde hair.. and it's not really the typical western hair color.. personally I'm not really fond of blonde hair.. well, on guys anyway.. heh..
 
I also think that countries copying anothers is ridiculous. When you say "Japaneses" D), that's creating a stereotype already. And we know what stereotypes are.

Keiichi

 

I have thought about it for a long long time. I've written on the subject in the Rafu Shimpo newspaper in Los Angeles.

Some Japanese (of course, not all) don't care for being Oriental. That's why they try to look more like white people by coloring their hair, and through cosmetic surgery. I wouldn't be surprised if you took a national poll among the 18-40 age range if they had a choice of having an Oriental face or a white face which would they choose?, and more than half said non-Oriental.

I was watching a Japanese TV show about determining the country with the most beautiful women. Just out of curiosity to see what kind of idiotic comments the panel of guest celebrities would make. There were all kinds of suggestions from Argentina to Armenia, but NOT ONE mentioned Japan.
 
Hello everyone, I'm new here --- yoroshiku onegaishimasu.


"Why do the Japanese copy everything?" Funny question. Very stereotyped. (Silly examples, too - Disneyland!) It invites some questions in response:

Do the Japanese copy everything?

Do they copy more than other countries do?

Is that a bad thing?

I think the Japanese do copy a lot, but not everything. They don't copy things that go against their values. For instance, they address each other with surname and title. They haven't copied the American habit of calling everyone by first name. In Britain, everyone used to do the same as the Japanese (surname and title), but recently, they have copied the American custom. Why? Hard to say. Is it a good thing that Britain did this, or should they have resisted? Also hard to say.

As to whether they copy more than other countries do, well historically (from the Meiji period up to the 1970s or so), I would say the Japanese copied a huge amount from the West, and before that, they copied perhaps even more from China, but now, though they still copy, they don't do so as much. Basically, its because they're so advanced now, there isn't much for them to copy any more. Now, they invent so much, the rest of the world is copying them. South Korea copies Japan a lot, and so do China and other countries in Asia (to a lesser extent). The West copies Japanese design (and has done since the 19th century), as well as other arts.

It is a bad thing? I don't think it is a bad thing to copy, in general, if you copy the right things from the right people for the right reasons. Copying successful people increases your own chances of success. Copying skillfully-made things enables you to learn a lot of techniques. After a certain amount of copying, it becomes easier to invent at a high level. Copying, discriminately, from a wide range of sources, is a sign of open-mindedness. There are some societies that barely copy anything from anyone, because they are too wrapped up in their own narrow ideas. Such societies tend to get left behind. Compare North Korea, which scarcely copies anything, with South Korea, which is extremely good at copying practically everything. Which is doing better?

It seems to me that we can turn the thread question on its head: instead of asking why the Japanese copy everything, we should maybe ask, why do we in the West think that this is a reason to criticise someone? I think there is a popular idea in the West that copying is bad because it is the opposite of originality, but we forget how much we copied in the past (rugs from India; porcelain, ink, paper, printing, gunpowder and more from China; algebra and bookkeeping from the Arabs, etc.), and how much great artists and inventors copied each other in the past, as well as how much copying goes on in general between everyone. Maybe we should ask ourselves what the world would be like if there were no copying. Perhaps the first university in the world would be the only one, and the first newspaper and the first train and the first car, and so on. What a strange world it would be! We in the West are weird for thinking that copying is bad.
 
Why not?

I dunno... I have a feeling this foot_power person is not even from the West...

Anyway, why does Japan copy everything?

Why not? I would say Japanese people have a humble learning attitude. After all, not everybody can "copy" everything and be good at it.
 

It might seem a bit boastful and nationalistic to mention Japan in that context, though.
 
Golgo_13 said:
Some Japanese (of course, not all) don't care for being Oriental.
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Why should they? They should look for what suits their individuality, not some racist (oops, I mean racial) features.

That's why they try to look more like white people by coloring their hair, and through cosmetic surgery.
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Like having made their nose bigger?

That's pretty normal, isn't it? If you ask something like that in Germany you'd find a large number of people voting for "exotic" countries. What's exotic is often considered pretty.
 
chikazukiyasui said:
Hello everyone, I'm new here --- yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

What a strange world it would be! We in the West are weird for thinking that copying is bad.
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If the thing you're copying has copyright protection.

bossel said:
Why should they? They should look for what suits their individuality, not some racist (oops, I mean racial) features.
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By your logic, it is okay for a black person to not like having black features.
 
Sessha said:
well, now i have to correct you: we copied only the arabic numerals but the letters are european (latin/greek) origin.
Click to expand...

Still, the alphabet is copied, though. The English copied their alphabet from the Romans, who copied (and modified) the Greek alphabet, who copied theirs from the Phoenicians. As a matter of fact, every alphabet in the world, except for Hangul, is - ultimately - copied from the Phoenician alphabet (I'm not counting the Japanese syllabaries as alphabets). Funny thing is, the English alphabet is an extremely bad fit for the English language. We have about sixteen to twenty vowel sounds (depending on who you ask) and only five vowel letters! In most respects, English is a pretty easy language, but the spelling is a pain. An excellent example of uncritical copying.

If we admit that the English copied their alphabet from the Romans, what does that say to other accusations of copying that we make? F'rinstance, if it is "silly" for a Japanese woman to dye her hair blonde, is it equally silly for an Italian woman to do so? Or for a blonde German woman to dye her hair black?

Golgo_13 said:
If the thing you're copying has copyright protection.
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That kind of copying, most people don't object to at all. Someone who doesn't rip mp3s or buy pirate DVDs is look on as a mug by a lot of people. The kind of copying we find in Huis Ten Bosch is of a completely different order, and Westerners tend to comment on it negatively, as if it is somehow very weird and wrong to do such a thing.

HTB ｜Huis Ten Bosch Resort
 
chikazukiyasui said:
F'rinstance, if it is "silly" for a Japanese woman to dye her hair blonde, is it equally silly for an Italian woman to do so? Or for a blonde German woman to dye her hair black?
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No, it's not silly. Italian, German, and other white people have various hair colors. You parents could have hair of a different color than you.

Japanese only have one.


What's the good thing about being a Japanese blonde?
You only look dumb, you're still intelligent.
 
Golgo_13 said:
By your logic, it is okay for a black person to not like having black features.
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Yep, it's up to the individual.

There are a lot of Europeans who want to have a smaller nose & have it operated? Many (if not most) European women dye their hair. Many European women try to get a darker complexion by sunbathing or using a sunbed.
So what?

What's the good thing about being a Japanese blonde?
You only look dumb, you're still intelligent.
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You're either racist or want to seem dumb yourself (oh well, usually racist is only a synonym of dumb). Hair colour doesn't show intelligence (neither does skin colour).
(edit: or was that just another of your weird jokes?)
 
Even if Japan does copy everything, they sometimes make them better and doing it well. Like Microsoft, they copy everything, but they make'em well (well... they're raking in the dough that's for sure).

Keiichi

 
you could also ask the question of the US copying anime animation styles to try and make lots of money? and why is Hollywood copying lots of things that were originally invented in japanese films and chinese cinema to use in their films? oh and why are they using all they japanese and chinese movie directors to direct hollywood blockbusters?
 
Why does coloring of the hair mean that Japanese want to look white? Maybe it is just because a person likes the color. Does a western person who makes their hair black want to be Asian?
 
Saing said:
Why does coloring of the hair mean that Japanese want to look white? Maybe it is just because a person likes the color. Does a western person who makes their hair black want to be Asian?
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People everywhere change their hair color, it just stands out more on a japanese person.

And byp, i had a look and couldnt find anything unusal at the intersection of flinders and King William road. What are you refering to? :?
 
i had my hair dyed blue for a while, doesnt mean i didnt want to be white/western or that i wanted to be an alien, i just like blue.

but i guess since im not japanese i can dye my hair whatever color and thats just peachy pfffft
 
jeisan said:
but i guess since im not japanese i can dye my hair whatever color and thats just peachy pfffft
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Go jeisan! ;-)
 
jeisan said:
i had my hair dyed blue for a while, doesnt mean i didnt want to be white/western or that i wanted to be an alien, i just like blue.

but i guess since im not japanese i can dye my hair whatever color and thats just peachy pfffft
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you wanted to be a japanese anime character!

OMGWTF J00 CPOIER!!111one
 
byp said:
DO THEY REALLY ??????

The Eiffel Tower was a good idea ( by the way, the engineer that actually designed it and calculated it is... swiss, from Basel.
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Where did you get that? What's his name? The Eiffel Tower was built to represent France at the Universal exhibition!
 
I don't think Japan copies anything. I think it learns what are good for it from other countries. I heard from my friends that it 'learned' some of its cultures from China or Korea?.?
 
Go have a look at all the things that were created in China, then we could say the West has copied it all!
 
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