Culture Difference: Japan vs Philippines

(PICTURE TAKEN FROM: www.crossed-flag-pins.com)

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Every country has its own preserved or adapted cultures. Cultures may differ from many things, like celebrating certain occasions and/or engaging with our daily lives. But our focus is the culture of Japan and Philippines. This article might help you a little if you’re a Japanese citizen planning to visit the Philippines, a Filipino citizen planning to visit Japan someday or maybe just interested in the topic.

Japan and Philippines are two different countries located in Asia and one of the differences between them is culture. They culture are different since Japan is a first world country which explains they preserved culture while Philippines was conquered by different countries that explains our different cultures that we adapted.

Anyway, enough with the intro and let's start our adventure!

Let's start with the greetings!

In Japan, Japanese citizens bow to their elders to show respect. Bowing is a sign to show respect, greetings or to apologise. Another thing is greeting is very important to them they greet each other depending on the time. They greet each other like ‘I’m home’ and ‘Welcome back!’ when dealing with their families at home.

In the Philippines, close friends hugs and kiss(Beso-beso) when they greet one another while close male friends may hug each other and tap their backs or just by a handshakes. We smile and wave at other people whenever we greet them.In greeting our elders here in the Philippines, we usually lay our forehead in the back of the hand of our elders to show respect. It is also use when parents arrived home to show respect.

In greeting with names, Japanese citizens call each other with their last names while adding suffixes like ‘-kun’ and ‘-san’until they are allowed to call them by their first names.

While in the Philippines, we use Mr., Ms., Mrs. + their surname in adressing until they are allowed to call them by their name or nickname.

After reading and knowing that you must be hungry!  So let’s head to the diet section of Japan and Philippines.

Before you eat, we need utensils. As you can see at the picture above, Japanese uses chopsticks while Filipinos uses Spoon and fork. Japanese people use chopsticks because it is considered more lacquer ware friendly than other sharp eating utensils. While we Filipinos prefer the easy way and use spoon and fork. After the eating, everyone crave for dessert right? We Filipinos like sweets while Japanese prefer fruits. Lastly, Japanese people had a maintained diet. They only eat mostly 80% full and continue with their lives compared to us Filipinos which eat all we can until we are satisfied.

After that delicious part, lets head with the cheesy part of this article which is Marriage!

Now, before Marriage people use to date right? Now let’s talk about that a little. In Japan, they have group dates. In New Year, they go to shrines, and girls with their kimonos. They usual date venue are amusement parks, and lastly the couple splits the bill. Compared in Philippines, we usually have a date or double date. In New Year, the couples visit each other’s family and eat with them. They usually date at the mall, probably watch a movie, and the guy would pay for the date.

After dating, It may lead to a messy break up or a beautiful marriage!

In Japanese marriage, they wear Kimono, for the bride, and Hakama, for the groom since it’s their traditional outfits. The picture of a tea set there signifies the Japanese tea ceremony, which is also called the ‘Way of Tea, it’s a Japanese cultural activity for newly married couples. Lastly, Traditional Japanese weddings are held in the Shinto Shrines with a Shinto priest leading it.

In the Philippines, weddings are held like the modern western style weddings. The bride and groom wear the common wedding gown and suit. After the wedding, a flock of doves were released in the sky that signifies peace and harmony for the newly marriage the bride had a bouquet of flower thrown in the air and according to our traditional beliefs that whoever catches the thrown flower would be the next in line for marriage. Lastly, weddings are held in a church lead by a Christian priest since most of the Filipinos are Christians.

(PICTURE TAKEN FROM: http://shushuro.deviantart.com)

As our journey ends, we come to the conclusion that Japan and Philippines has its own unique culture and traditional beliefs that made them a country. They both continue their culture thus preserving them and keeping them alive. We must always remember our own culture when we visit other countries and we also need to respect the countries culture to avoid unnecessary conflict that may arise or to keep ourselves from embarrassment. Remember the things that you've learn and apply it in your life. Until next time, Ciao~