People experience culture shock when they visit other countries for the first time. I should know — I’m experiencing it right now.
I arrived in the United States from Japan at the beginning of June. This is my first time in the United States and therefore everything catches my eyes as new and surprising. I was shocked when I saw the huge frozen foods aisle at a Wal-Mart and puzzled by all the soda fountains in convenience stores. I’m enjoying it all with excitement and a little nervousness, of course.
The biggest surprise I’ve had so far though is how many students at the University of Nevada, Reno wear T-shirts with school logos on them. It strikes me as odd because I have never seen college students in Japan wear school T-shirts as daily apparel.
While many people may shrug this off at first, I have come to find this is a big cultural difference between America and Japan.
American fashion is more simple and perhaps more comfort-oriented when compared to Japanese fashion. For the most part, Americans put on jeans or sweatpants and T-shirts, whereas Japanese people are more attentive to their fashion. While Americans are not necessarily less fashionable, Japanese fashion is generally more innovative on a consistent daily basis. To put it another way, we wouldn’t just put on sweatpants if we’re late for class. We just were not raised to do that.
The point of Japanese fashion is to harmonize the total style. It means you have to think about the color and the shape of the clothes when you coordinate them. If you want to go even further, you need to care about your footwear, bags and hairstyles to create your own style. Japanese fashion is full of variety and creativity.
I believe these differences in fashion are a direct correlation between our two country’s differing senses of the individual. Generally speaking, the United States is an individual-oriented society, while Japan is a group-oriented society. Japanese people try to act in cohesive units and strive to express the same opinion as others. It is important for us to harmonize with others.
Therefore, Japanese students have difficulties studying with American students in the same class environment at first. It is difficult for us to speak our own minds and opinions in front of many students because we were not taught to do so when we were growing up.
In regards to fashion, we rarely show patriotism or affiliation with a school like Americans do. We have an inherent pride in our country and institutions we are a part of, and we do not feel the need to express it visibly on our T-shirts. Therefore, it is surprising to us that Americans put their right hands on their chests when they sing the national anthem, wear school or American pride T-shirts.
Instead, we distinguish ourselves from others through our fashion. Take Harajuku in Tokyo, for example, which is one of the most famous fashion capitals in the world. Various kinds of shops gather there, from secondhand clothes stores to famous brand shops, to create a melting pot of extreme fashion statements to stand out among the small and crowded place. You would be utterly surprised by the range of fashion there because it is very unique and quite different from anywhere else in the world.
Perhaps Japanese people are poor at expressing themselves through words, but we make up for it through our fashion.
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