Modernity Japan, Today’s Technology… Pre-Olympics.
The year is 2020 and we have entered a new age in contemporary times. The Metropolis that is the Tokyo of today was not always littered with florescent lights and it’s infrastructure not always reminiscent of the latest Haruki Murakami Novel, with special interest on the novel, “Kafka on the Shore.”
The city’s dreamscape and imagery is one of self-sufficiency and perpetual economic boom, with roots deeply embedded in it’s technology and the people’s propensity for opulence. Sociology is the study of human societies & cultures and their development. It makes for Japanese peoples systematic outlook on life, where even in light of the Middle American SME owner no longer turning to them for spare parts and other forms of engineering, they speak of an unrelenting survivor.
Tokyo, Japan circa 1964, the beginning of a Modernist Utopia.
Beginning in the year 1964, the year Tokyo hosted the Olympic games(when it all began — the beginning of their heads down approach to technological advancement), the then new Tokaido Shinkansen line was the first of many bullet train tracks, which were to be installed in the coming years. But, the bullet train is not the only thing to speak off in the year 1964. This key turning point in Japanese industrial history spoke of many other wonders. Certain other key amazement’s begin to take shape around this period on Japanese culture including the new Metropolitan Highway, open since 1962 and built, expanded and finally ready for the Olympics in 1964, it still remains as a landmark in Japan’s Cultural hub and Capital City, and serves as the main highway to the Capital City of Japan… till this day.
Other exemplary examples of Japanese innovation come in abundance, also of the time, the Kasumigaseki Building(opened in 1965), the first skyscraper in Japan, standing at 147 meters tall and the National Stadium built for the event in highlight circa 1964 still stand and operate today as landmarks in Japanese Engineering know-how. Other references to Japanese Opulence shall be, for the sake of argument, regarded as a standard for the day… the name Kenzo Tange, winner of the Pritzker Prize in architecture, 1987 speak of the overall mood of the city center, but his personal pledge to modernity is a another story.
Prior to the Olympics Games of Tokyo 1964 the city would look very different without all the spotlights mentioned above.
Seventy-Six years of economic struggle come full circle, 1964–2020
The Summer Olympics of 2020 are fast approaching and Tokyo being the host of this auspicious event brings their economic struggle full circle. Justified over what would be close to 80 years of economic strife Japan is again arms-to-the-ready and gearing up for round 2.
The IMF now forecasts Japan’s economy will expand 0.7% in 2020, up from a 0.5% forecast in October 2019. And, despite the U.S.-China “phase one” agreement, Japan will weigh in on the external sector. That said, the economy should benefit from ultra-low interest rates, positive spillovers from the 2020 Olympics and low employment. Where the now increasing rigors of the benefit Japan had seen from the aftermath of World War II now becoming a huge factor, capitalism may be on the table for discussion, Japan’s Cultural influence will in effect be more than expected as a result of the discourse at hand, speaking in hindsight of both potential outcomes being played out. Where the Social-Economic Debate is all that is implied here, for the sake of our own harangue, the Anthropomorphic study is what we are concerned about for the time being. The big question; How is Japanese Cultural Influence going to feel following the Olympic Games?
With these key and distinct points in place the Japanese Economic Leaders predict that within the next 10 years The Social Economic Influence of the region can and may stretch further than the east and extend into the out reaches of the West as well.
Cultural Anxiety Disorder: The Repercussions Awaken
With an economic foundation laid down as a basis for argument, perhaps assumptions as grandeur as the ones I am making now can go with a certain level of disbelief suspended. But, perhaps a simpler argument will suffice. Filial Piety has long been known to distinguish the East with the West, where in the West raising socially responsible children are a must, in Eastern Philosophy Children are mostly required to fulfill their duty to their parents. Japan is no exception, where young adults become successful simply because they speak well of their guardians, essentially raising themselves up to fulfill the expectations of their authority figures. It is with this study are we better able to understand the social influence better laid down by our forefathers, not to mention put aside the bigotry ladled of any ill-conception otherwise implied of the grandiosity of our statements.
Akira Kurasawa’s influence on the original Star Wars trilogy(later exported back to Japan) would, just as with many Americans, have had lasting effect on it’s people socially. Where American culture is skewed of their four major sports, Japan and it’s people began to build their infrastructure from the ground up, choosing technology as a gateway into the future. With Western influence spreading it’s hand far and wide and over Japan especially, Tokyo began a revolution of their own. From rebels to filial piety one generation to the next began to change culturally. It’s people began to change.
Just as with any person across the globe, the Japanese people are also influenced by the same media subscribing to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Spotify and DAZN amongst many others. But, Western Influence does not motivate us in the same fashions as they do with Westerners, an argument I will draw up in the coming moments — a case study of sorts.
“Forty years on Star Wars and it’s relationship with Japanese Fans only deepen,” says Japan’s Number One Migration Resource Portal, Gaijinpot.com.
Eastern Philosophy is heavily regarded in Western Cultures as Poetry, looking at Yin and Yang, perhaps then it is not too far a stretch to assume that with similar influences our cultural roots will only force us down different paths. Where heroes and renegades are born of Luke Skywalker’s appeal, the same philosophy gives rise to revolution in the East — the land of the rising sun. For much of Sociology speaks of the evolution of a people and with so many people, and more specifically engineers required to lay down the foundations for a technologically advanced Japan, Circa 1964, Tokyo moving forward.
Tokyo Today, The Roots of Heroism
It is at this point that I would like to call upon the German Film by film-maker Fritz Lang, of which said film now sits at a the number one spot on the American Film Institute’s top 100 Films of the last One Hundred Years list, “Metropolis,” the cityscape is for the time being looking for a hero, who will come to bridge the gap between the working class and the city planners. The Olympics have always been a symbol of goodwill and indicative of political agendas.
The year is 2020 and we have hit a plateau in human understanding. Yesterday the beginning of the revolution… today, yet another benchmark in the geopolitical landscape that is reshaping the world today — Tokyo, Japan Circa 2020, home to the Modern Olympics and a benchmark in the aides of Modernist Appeals.
