Since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan has been blindly pushing forward its Westernization in order to catch up with European and American culture standards. As a result, many traditional customs, items, and social conventions have disappeared or declined to minor existence. Now, Japanese people pay for lessons to learn how to put on a kimono; Japanese have unlearned to sit on rice-straw tatami floor-mats, and daily conversation does not work anymore without foreign vocabulary. Although the nation is struggling in order to find its lost cultural identity, a contemporary culture rapidly evolves that is quite detached from traditional values and yet not sufficiently realized by the Japanese themselves. Approaching the essence of this dilemma in contemporary Japan, one may notice though how mindset and certain ideas of the ancestors are subconsciously being kept and utilized.

Yoko Fukuda, Tokyo