Japan has a reputation of being a land of innovation. When people first think of Japan, they most commonly associate the country with stereotypes. Many think of hard workers, robots, Nintendo, strict familial units, car companies, and plenty of seafood. While these things can be incorporated into the Japanese culture, Japan, and the Japanese, are obviously much more than the misconceptions surrounding them. In this essay: the following paragraphs and pages follow the story of Aiko Kagoshima, and her coming of age into a bustling and highly developed society.
Aiko grew up in Miyagi prefecture, where her family are rice farmers. She has two brothers, one younger, one older. When she was younger, her family never pressured Aiko or her siblings …show more content…
However, because she knew that most medical offices and hospitals did need people to file, keep track of patient history and hospital records, she figured it would be a happy medium in between what she wanted and what she could have. (Kurotani, pg: 88, 2014) She finished her degree after two years, but because of difficulty finding a job had to move back to Miyagi prefecture to live with her parents while she tried to find work. During this time, in her attempts to find a long-time job or “Shūshoku Katsudō” and move out, (Gordon, pg: 78, 2004) her older brother- Tadashi married, causing Aiko’s parents to ask her when she was going to do the same. This shows the aspects of Japanese culture surrounding marriage, while Aiko is looking for work, her parents rather inquire about whether she is looking for a husband. During the time her brother was home for the wedding with his new bride, she reconnected with many of her friends from high school, to find out many of them were also in-between jobs, or doing part-time work like she was (Roberts, pg: 48, 2014). This is uncommon in Japan after the lost decade began. With an influx of youth trying to find work after they finished school, the job market is very competitive amongst new