Dear Language Enthusiast,
Greetings from Transparent Language! The first half of this newsletter, which you
will find below, is in English, but you can also practice your Japanese skills by reading
the text in Japanese characters. We hope this helps you with your Japanese language
learning.
As we approach the year 2000 many questions arise around the issues of Y2K, as well as
cultural and religious responses to the new millennium. Here at Transparent Language, Inc.
we thought this would be a good opportunity for you to look at a contemporary topic and
how Japan is managing it. Included below are some interesting articles dedicated to the
Y2K issues and a historical view toward the new millennium in Japan.
You will also find tips for using JapaneseNow! appended to the articles.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
In English:
In Japan, where only one percent of the population is Christian and the majority of
people consider themselves Buddhists, the advent of the new millennium has little
significance. In fact, the idea of a millennium was unfamiliar until the book, Millennium:
A History of the Thousand Years by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was published in 1996.
Fernandez-Armesto distinguishes the publication of Genji-monogatari (the Tale of Genji),
the world-famous Japanese classic written by Shikibu Murasaki, as the first event
occurring in this millennium.
When Shikibu Murasaki--designated by UNESCO in 1964 as one of the world's greatest
people--launched her 54-chaptered romantic tale in Kyoto in 1001, nobody in Japan knew
that it was the beginning of the second millennium. For them, it was just Choho 3, the
third year of the Choho period, because the Japanese calendar measures time according to
the reigns of its emperors. For instance, 1999 is Heisei 11, meaning the current Emperor
Akihito has reigned for 11 years.
Christianity was introduced to Japan in 1549 (although it was soon banned). Consequently,
the Western calendar was never officially incorporated until very recently, when computers
began to play an active role in daily lifestyles. Despite the clumsiness of the
traditional calendar--Shikibu Murasaki was born in Ten-en 1 and died in Chogen 4. Can you
figure out how long she lived?--the Japanese maintained the tradition.
Even though Japan had isolated itself from Christianity and the Western calendar, the two
different religions shared a common denominator. Mappo, the Buddhist idea of the end of
the world, is similar to the Western idea of doomsday or the biblical Book of Revelations,
which prophesizes the destruction of the world. Two thousand years after the death of
Buddha, people believed Buddhism would perish and chaos would rule the world for 10,000
years until one Miroku Bosatsu emerged as a savior; 1052 was believed to be the year Mappo
would begin. In fact, when Shikibu Murasaki died at the age of 58 in 1031, the prosperity
of the Heian period had already passed. Toward the end of the era, all kinds of
disasters--famines, droughts, floods, earthquakes, and plagues--were horrendous enough to
make everybody, from emperors to peasants, believe that Mappo was surely approaching. Even
Yorimichi Fujiwara, an 11th century equivalent of a prime minister, built the Amida Hall
at the exquisitely beautiful Byodo Temple in Uji in an effort to save his country from
Mappo.
We can only guess how the people felt as they approached 1052, but historians are certain
Mappo was a nation-wide threat. So far, nobody has ever heard of today's prime minister
building temples to prepare for another nation-wide threat called Y2K. Instead, the
Japanese government has proclaimed the year 2000 the end of the 20th century and 2001 the
start of the 21st century (in accordance with the Greenwich Royal Observatory's decree
that the first year of a millennium begins with number one, not zero). The government has
issued a stern warning to every business to prepare for computer-related disasters. MITI
(Ministry of International Trade and Industry), for instance, installed a 2000 nen
kauntodaun kurokku (The Year 2000 Countdown Clock), in its main lobby, but the clock never
mentions a celebration; it only says, "Is your computer ready for the year
2000?" The policymakers of the Japanese Big Bang project, a major financial overhaul
launched in April 1998 by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, have targeted its
completion by 2001.
Rather than celebrating the year 2000, the Japanese people are cautious about
computer-related catastrophes. For the modern Japanese who cannot possibly live without
computers, the year 2000 is not a celebration at all. It's a modern version of Mappo.
Tips for JapaneseNow!
The following are some hints to help maximize your use of JapaneseNow!
Don't miss the Grammar information in the Grammar Window in the lower right-hand corner of
the screen! This window tells you the part of speech of the selected word in the Title,
along with other information.
LanguageNow! also includes a special Grammar Basics file to help you focus on grammar. To
open it, choose 'Reference / Grammar Basics' to see the first page of Grammar Basics, or
select a word in the Title, click the 'Word Tools' button, and select a grammar topic
which applies to that word to go directly to the appropriate topic.
