==JAPAN: Tokyo==

National boundaries have become lower and lower. The development of transportation allows people to travel all over the world easily. One can also immediately contact others who live on the opposite side of the earth by using phone, fax, Internet and so on. The Japanese lifestyle, as well, has become convenient and seems affluent. As the borders become blurred, people experience increasing influence from foreign countries.
In this busy coming and going situation, a serious problem has occurred. Many Japanese people have accepted cultural changes without consideration. They do not even care about what disadvantages such changes will bring to them. Especially a lot of young people accept new styles just because they are new and throw out old customs just because they are old. Quick Westernization, for instance, is caused by this tendency. People have eagerly followed the brand new civilization, but have not seriously thought about keeping or growing their native one. For example, if people are asked to show symbolic things of Japanese culture, some of them will point out welknown temples. However, there must be ones who cannot tell what they mean and why they were made.
This is a dangerous situation. Such ignorance will cause hollowing out of their culture. The word "culture" originates from the Latin word "cultura" which means "farming." Then the word changed from "land farming" into "mind farming." Thus, culture is something which farms mind of people. In other words, a wonderful culture enriches the spirits of human beings. If Japanese culture became empty, who thinks people in this country will have fertile minds? People should make efforts to make their culture better so as to produce suitable environment where their children can have fruitful minds.
Cultural change is not a bad thing, though. It is rather necessary. Japanese have imported cultures from others and made them into their own since ancient times. Kanas, or the Japanese letters are a good example. They imported Chinese characters and invented new ones, Hiragana and Katakana. However, they did not quit using Chinese only because it was "old". They knew its value: 1) Chinese characters have meanings in one letter and that enables people to understand them by their structure. 2) They will work as a "sign" so that sentences sill be nicely varied. If all writings are written in Kana, it will take more time to read and to understand. 3) The shapes of Chinese letters are beautiful. Hiragana is useful for expressing gracefulness and tenderness of words. Katakana makes it easier to write imported new words from foreign countries. By keeping all the three types of characters, the Japanese writing system gained great depth.
What is learned from this story is, first of all, that people need to have a good eye for genuine things to create a better culture. If a new one, which was introduced from other countries seemed beneficial in some aspects, they should accept it, and in the same way, if they felt an old one did not fit to their lifestyle anymore, they should bring it to an end.
Changing education must be the most effectual way to enrich culture, because studying their own and other cultures 1)will be an opportunity for students to think about their origin and to appreciate all the people who support(ed) their homeland's culture, 2)will develop their flexibility to accept different ideas 3)is necessary for students who are the torchbearers of the culture which is to be transmitted to the next generation.
At schools, the first step teachers should take three steps. The first one is to tell students why improving their culture is so important. As it is written above, the answer is that "wonderful culture enriches the spirits of human beings."
Then, they need to show what Japanese culture is like and how it has been made. Their mind will be cultivated while they study about these things. Giving young people a time to think what factor should have been or should not have been changed will be a good practice for evaluating the history.
Finally, students will be ready to expand their interest toward the world. They will be able to make a better judgment when they meet a new civilization in the future. The above-mentioned two steps tend to be skipped recently, but they are foundations for the final one. If they suddenly learned about the Western culture only, and if teachers rate it highly, they will naturally try to imitate the "new" style.
The present education system crams students with only knowledge. In this system, scores of paper exams decide the most of their destiny. Under such a pressure, students will not afford to share time for thinking about their culture. It is desirable to increase a choice of life and allow young students enough time for "mind farming".
Note: 1 From A Standard Dictionary of English Etymology (ed, Tadao Shimomiya et al., Taishukan Publishing Co., 1989)