In conversations about globalization the world is often divided into the West and the rest, or the developed vs. the non-developed world, which are meant as the same places in the world. While the West refers to parts of Europe, USA, Canada and sometimes Australia, New Zealand, parts of South America 1 and the developed world consists of Canada, Japan, United States, and part of Europe 2. While Japan is not the West, it is a developed nation. It has high educational achievement 3, industrialized4, and wealthy 5. And yet it’s not discussed in conversations of the global world as part of the wealthy, developed world. It’s not disused in the same way—or in the same sentence as are other industrialized nations. I find this curious and wonder why.
Let’s pause for a minute. I’m pointing out and exploring a complex system of conversations of globalization. I’m looking at the parts of conversations of globalization that compare us—the developed world and simultaneously the West, vs. them—the developing world. I don’t have space to question this language, that’s a different paper. Because I must limit myself to a small subject, I cannot discuss in depth, what it means to be part of the West, vs., to be part of the developed world, vs. the developing world. I noticed a slight difference in which countries where to be understood as “the West” and “the developed world” in conversations of globalization, along with other areas or world comparison. While these are good issues to discuss, it is not for me to explain in this post. I also recognize that Japan is not the only quark in the different words to describe the West vs. the developed world. I could also discuss South American countries which are not considered developed but are sometimes argued to be Western. In short, I choose to discuss Japan’s place in the language of globalization because I want to, because I find it curious.
To look at speech patterns of language of globalization I will mostly rely on Globalization: The Translation of Social Worlds by D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca Zinn 6. Why this book? It is a collection of essays written by several different people, in many years. I think it is a good representative example of general language usage in the United States.
In the text book there are many variations on how the West and its global domination is described. The Preface disuses the US egotism (pg. ix). Chapter one (pgs. 1-8), which is the introduction on what globalization is, discusses spread of US culture (pg. 7), and West vs Middle East (pg. 7). Chapter 2, Debating Globalization (pg. 16) makes interesting connections to West, industrialized nations, Westernization…, on pg. 19 instead of using the word West, “America or Europe” is written out. These are a few examples of how the West is described. An interesting examination of world power dynamics is in Chapter 6 (pg. 145- 184 reading 20: 151) about Hip-hop in Japan—this article is about cultural globalization—hip-hop moving from the USA to Japan, and the way the spread of hip-hop is talked about is in the format of cultural globalization—from the powerful to the less powerful, from the USA to the rest. Now I will continue with examining several reasons why Japan is in the “rest” category.
One reason Japan may not be discussed along with other developed countries is Geography. When talking about the West, japan is considered to be in the East. The West as a geographical unit is a ridiculous notion for a round planet. There is some geographical closeness to the West, most of it being concentrated in Europe, but a geographical West falls apart because Canada, the USA are in the West and are across the Atlantic Ocean. The concept of the West is geographically global, lading me to further question why a developed nation isn’t part of it.
I would suggest two important reasons are race and religion. Japan is not a white Christian nation, which is sometimes cited as a reason a country would be in the West. I counter this idea by noting there are white, Christian nations that are not part of the West8. I think these are important factors to explore, but also complex ones, that I think are worthy of a different paper.
Another reason Japan may be excluded from discussions maybe History, specifically history of colonization. Europe has a history of colonization, and so does the USA. This has led to global domination 9, and the world thinking about things as the West, or Euro-America (which includes Canada), or as Eurocentric vs. the rest. Japanese history has been more closed off 10. Because of Euro-America history being about us, spreading our ideas though colonization, while Japan’s history of closed-offenses, and lack of egotism Japan may be left out of conversations about developed nations in the world stage.
What countries are part of the West is an opinion. Most would agree that it includes the USA and several countries in Europe, all developed nations. But who else is included is up for question. I have chosen to question why the developed nation of Japan is not part of the West. I’ve explored many reasons, all related to globalization, and USA’s 11 understanding of each topic as to why this might be. I think these are interesting points to consider and give insight into my inquiry. I know there are more points to consider, that this is a starting point, and not a conclusion. Hope I got you thinking and wondering.
This is a very interesting point you have made here in this text. I had not thought a lot about Japan not being considered part of the western world. The “western world” is often used as a replacement for the “developed world,” even though Europe is part of the western world and south america is geographically more west than Europe but not necessarily always part of the western world discussion. I liked the part where you said “The West as a geographical unit is a ridiculous notion for a round planet.” This made me laugh but also stop and think about how we use language to describe things that don’t necessarily have meaning in the literal sense. Very interesting read!
This blog post really made me stop and think, particularly about US egotism. It really is an absurd notion to identify the West as a geographical unit since we do live on a round planet and I think this largely has to do with our ego. I think that we tend to block out other nations in the east, probably because they are so different from Western or American culture. I thought this blog was really well written and easy to follow as well. I wonder more about the cultural factors that go into this concept and why we are so set in the belief that developed countries are heavily concentrated in the West? – Annabelle Allen