The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the years, from the country's original Jomon culture to contemporary times, which combines influences from Asia and the West. After several waves of immigration from the continent and nearby Pacific islands (see history of Japan), followed by a heavy importation of Chinese culture, the inhabitants of Japan experienced a long period of relative isolation from the outside world under the Tokugawa shogunate, until the arrival of the 'Black Ships' and the Meiji era. As a result, a culture distinctively different from other Asian traditions developed, and echoes of this persist in the country today, with Japanese popular culture now the mainstream.The Japanese language (日本語 Nihongo) has always played a significant role in Japanese culture. Spoken mainly in Japan and by some Japanese communities around the world, it is an agglutinative language - grammatical units link together in long 'strings' to make words. For example, 食べたくなかった tabetakunakatta[1] 'did not want to eat' is composed of the morphemes tabe- 'eat', -ta- 'want', -ku- 'adverb', -na- 'negative', and -kat- and -ta - both signifying that the action is complete, i.e. in the past. Phonologically, its 'sounds' consist mainly of consonant-vowel units that cannot be split up, such as bu, ni and ka, which are written as single symbols.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different scripts. Chinese characters (漢字 kanji) are used for the most meaningful words such as most nouns and verbs; these take some time to learn. Two further scripts, hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ) write moras, equivalent to but not the same as syllables, and to a degree can indicate pronunciation. The Roman alphabet, roomaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese.
Ainu
The Ainu language ((アイヌ・イタㇰ, Aynu itak) is spoken by one of Japan's indigenous peoples, mainly in Hokkaido. Ainu is endangered, with few fluent speakers, but measures to maintain the language are ongoing. Historically, Ainu was an unwritten language, but it is now rendered in a modified form of the katakana script.
MARTIAL ARTS
Martial arts are popular in Japan, especially Japanese ones; they may combine elements of competitive sport with self-defence, fitness training and spectacle, and many Japanese train in, compete in and watch these along with combat sports. The best-known Japanese martial arts sport outside the country is sumō (相撲) wrestling, which includes elements of the local Shintō (神道) religion. Other Japanese martial arts include jūdō (柔道, 'gentle way'), karate (空手, 'empty hand'), aikidō (合気道, 'way of harmony') and kendō (剣道, 'way of the sword'). Judo is perhaps the most popular, as high schools and universities have teams for interscholastic competition.
Some martial arts, such as aikido, iaidō (居合道, 'way of drawing the sword') and kenjutsu (剣術, 'fencing') are practiced almost solely for non-competitive reasons. Some martial arts also play a spiritual or religious role in Japan. Kyūdō (弓道, 'way of the bow'), or Japanese archery, has become related to and involved in the study of Zen Buddhism. Aikido is considered in Japan to be a religion and philosophy as well as a martial art.
Mixed martial arts and similar combat sports have also become popular in Japan in the past few decades, with the most well-known example being the mixed martial arts organisation known as the Pride Fighting Championships. Shooto (修斗 shūto 'learn combat') as a sport has been popular, with techniques derived from shoot wrestling. Professional wrestling, or puroresu (プロレス), is also popular, although this is technically not a combat sport as such events are typically 'works' (staged) and not true competitions.
