Исследовательская работа по английскому языку «Восток или Запад? Где современное поколение питает вдохновение?»

Муниципальное образовательное учреждение

гимназия №15

г.о.Орехово-Зуево Московской области

Исследовательская работа

по английскому языку

«Восток или Запад? Где современное поколение питает вдохновение?»

ИСПОЛНИТЕЛЬ                                           Борисовская Валерия, 9б класс

РУКОВОДИТЕЛЬ                                    Иноземцева Ольга Владимировна

г.о.Орехово-Зуево,

2013

Gymnasium 15

English

Research work

“What nourishes new generation:

the East or the  West?”

Student                                                                   Borisovskaya Valerie, class 9b

Teacher of English                                              Inozemtseva Olga Vladimirovna

Orekhovo-Zuevo,

2013

Contents

Introduction ……………………………………………………..……........page 4

Part 1. General information…………………………………………………page 5

The 1970s and 80s – decades of Stagnation Era……………………………page 5

The images of Japan…………………………………………….……….... page 6

Part 2. Cinematograph………………………………………….…….….....page 7

Film making industry ………………………………………….………......page 7

The definitions of “animation”……...……………………………..…..…...page 8

What are anime and manga like? ……………………………………………page 9

Different types of manga……………………………………….………..... page 11

The distinguishing features of anime…………………………….….….…. page 12

Categories and genres of anime………………………………….………... page 14

Cosplay movement…………………………………………….……….….. page 14

Part 3. Modern types of Japanese music …………………….……….….... page 15

KUBANA festival………………………………………………….….…... page 18

J-rock successors in Russia…………………………………………….…... page 19

Part 4. Fashion……………………………………………………..…….… page 22 

The background for the development of fashion industry………….……… page 22

What is in? ……………………………………………………….……….. page 23

The Japanese youth as an independent group………………………….……page 25

Types of “street fashion”……………………………..………….………… page 27

Part 5. Literature…………………………………..……………….…...…. page 28

Three periods of ups in Japanese literature from Russian audience……...... page 28

The underlying reason for cultural relations between Russia and Japan…... page 31

Part 6. Practical part of the research work…………………………………..page 31

Conclusion ……………………………………………………………...…. page 32

Bibliography ……………………………………………………….…….....page 34

Appendix1 Surveys.………………………………………………………....page 35

Appendix2 The results of surveys……………………………………..….....page 40

Introduction

Nowadays the problem of cultural clash in the minds of the new generation is very actual and significant. The period of globalization when leading companies (mainly from the West) tried to control the economies and cultivated the Western-American standards to the whole world have come to an end and now young people have to make up the social and cultural activities and lifestyle with something that goes above any standards or rules and let them freedom of thoughts, a new type of mentality.  The choice between the East and the West has always been a controversial topic, as Russia is the centre of both extremes and through its history it has been revolving around and deriving its strength from both of them. “Which cultural values attract new generation more? Where do they draw inspiration from?” those are hot issues in Russia at present. In my work I am going to talk about the influence of different aspects of Japanese culture on making the world-view of modern young people.

 The purpose of this research work is to explain why Asian culture pulls up young people; what they are short of in the national cultural heritage and find historical connections and ties between Russia and Japan.

The object of the study is Japanese culture.

The purpose of the study is the influence of Japanese lifestyle on the new generation of people and their keen interest to Asian cultures.

The method of research is reading through books on Japanese history and culture, collecting information from Internet resources and forums, interviewing young people from my school.

This work has both theoretical and practical value; it can help people to learn more about the reasons of the increased interest to Japan and Asian cultures in whole and give the opportunity to understand those changes which have happened in the minds of the new generation because of it.

Part 1. General information

The 1970s and 80s – decades of Stagnation Era

We should not forget Stagnation Era in the 1970s and 80s in the USSR, when the cultural life was at a loss. The ideological purpose was to show the advantages of Soviet lifestyle and Soviet person against the Western ones, though keeping undesirable information about international or domestic policy in secret. A campaign of depicting a “positive character” was launched in filming industry. The demonstration of peaceful Soviet policy was opposed to aggressive and military actions of capitalist systems. Speaking about television and newspapers, all articles and programs were aimed to bring up a new sort of the person who followed the ideology of the country. But there were lots of people in Russia who expressed their dissent and. first of all. It was intelligentsia. The birth of cordless radio, portable radio sets let the audience listen to overseas radio stations. People thought that those radio stations broadcasted information objectively. The distribution of banned books, video cassettes and the first cassette player, electronics, cars were outbreaks.

The 1980s were a decade when the whole world wanted to copy the European and American lifestyle. The legendary bands of that time like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, Grand Funk, Soft Machine, Black Sabbath defined the further development of modern music. They turned rock into the real art and set the standards which were difficult to outdo for the following generations of rock musicians. The unique identity of artists and their naturalness were valued, but ripping-off was shameful. A great number of other bands was moved back, so punk and rock overwhelmed the public. The time of discotheque heroes was short as myriads of pop stars were rather moderate. Nowadays it is clear that those years have gone never to return and such legendary bands will never appear again, that is why young people are turning towards the East.

What was specific about the fashion of the 1980s? Tastelessness was at the top. The abundance of acid colours, light green or pink synthetic footless tights, mini-skirts, weird backcombing, short (but wide) tops, tapered leg trousers, too bright make-up, shoulder pads, huge jackets were in. All created the impression of the overdose. To understand the terrible fashion of the 70s and 80s it is better to analyze the economic background. The world economics went through the crisis of the 70s and were at their boost. The years of Margret Thatcher's government had a slogan “Greed is good”. The standard of living was raised, people had an opportunity to keep fit and build up their health. The ideal of beauty was Cindy Crawford, a tall American girl with dark eyes, dark hair and a birthmark above the upper lip. Later another German-born supermodel was considered the perfect beauty. Her name was Claudia Shiffer: tall and slim, blue-eyed, suntanned, athletic-looking with long blond hair. Having a fine figure was the dearest wish. And if the body didn’t meet the standards of the beauty (60-90-60), women had to hide themselves under the bunches of cheap bright jewellery or draped themselves in a puffed blouse. All fashion designers of that period worked in the same way.

Nowadays there are some people who miss that period with all the heart and soul, but modern generation shows interest in something unique, provoking and giving opportunities for learning new spiritual values and cultures. Hence there has been aroused an interest to oriental countries, especially the Japanese culture, since the 1990s.

The images of Japan

Each country has its own unique culture and traditions. What is Japan like? I am definitely sure that the most common images of Japan are people wearing a kimono or ukata (a summer kind of kimono), samurais, karate and Japanese cherry trees. But these images of Japan are not exact ones. Modern Japan is highly developed postindustrial country with high technological progress and culture which the Japanese try to preserve unchanging through times. Japan is situated in the east of Russia. It borders on China, Korea. And these Asian countries have an influence on Japan. But more than forty years Japan has been suffering from globalization and culture progress from the West.  This contact with Western culture has been painful and sharp for the development of the country. Japan has to adopt Western traditions to be up-to-date, but at the same time tries to keep its own ones and develop in its unique way. Definitely, the struggle between the East and the West couldn’t get past the young Japanese generation and they have changed their ideas about culture. If in the 70ies and 80ies the whole world was crazy about European music, Hollywood films, Western fashion and culture and everyone adored Cindy Crawford, listened to the Beatles, nowadays it is time when the East is gaining fans’ favour more and more.

Japan is our neighbor. There are some narrow stripes of sea straits which separate the areas of both countries. There are 43kilometres between the islands of Hokkaido and Sakhalin. Japan is an insular state which stretches a long arch of 3400kilometres from the north to the south along the eastern part of Asian mainland. Japan is situated on four large islands of Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku and possesses about nine thousand small islands with an average area of 372,6 thousand square kilometers. The cultural capital of Japan is Tokyo. Japanese youth is met in Tokyo with its diverse life, culture and interests.

It is a well-known fact that after a violent discovery of Japan, it has become greatly dependent from the West. This progressive part of the world made Japan follow its rules and Japan had to submit to them. The eternal opposition of the East and the West couldn’t have had an effect on the youth. Then there was a great change in the cultural ideas. Some decades ago the whole world tried to copy Western culture, music, fashion; nowadays there are more and more people who try to adapt Eastern ideas on life. Even today Russian young people are really interested in Japanese culture. That is why I would like to have a deep look at Japan in my work.

Part 2. Cinematograph

Film making industry

Unfortunately, the most part of Eastern films have been kept in the background for long time. In particular, Japanese and Korean films get the least popularity. It is unbearably disappointing that the names of Asian actors, film directors and screen writers are little known. The cinema of the Eastern Asia has always been perfectly original and unlike European or American motion pictures. Oriental producers make their films full of aesthetic value and depth of thoughts, though Western films depict the aspects of social and personal life of people full with violence, cruelty and antihumanistic values. Oriental cinematograph was not known to the Russian public till the 1950s, when Japanese cinema appeared in Europe and America. The second period of Japanese film booming industry started in the 1990s and continues up to now. Equally with Japanese films, movies from China, Hong Kong and South Korea are widely favoured by general public nowadays. Besides, in the 1980s a kung fu artist Bruce Lee was popular in the West.

There are several unique genres in the oriental cinematograph. They are martial arts films which are especially popular in Hong Kong; Tokusatsu (特撮) that are Japanese fantasy films with monsters of Godzilla  type (ゴジラ); anime which are Japanese cartoons with the typical plot and aesthetics. There are some other well-known type of films: horror films which are popular in Japan; criminal films where Chinese triads and Japanese mafia yakuza (ヤクザ or やくざ ) are stared; historical action films which have been shot  a lot in China recently.

The definitions of “animation”

The word “animation” originates from the Latin word “multiplicatio” which means multiplication, growth, reproduction in quantity. Animation includes some techniques which create the illusion of moving images with the help of the sequence of fixed frames changing with the certain rate. The French word “animation” means liveliness, vivacity. Animation is the Western name of animated cartoons, which is a type of film art and its production (or a cartoon) plus the corresponding method. The famous Russian animator Fyodor Hitruk considered the appearance of the words “animation” and “animator” in Russian classical drawn cartoons was caused by the harmony with the word “application” where the pictures of characters were put over the sheet of paper. According to the rules of art, “animation” is a sort of art where cartoon techniques are the main elements.

Both adults and children like watching cartoons as it is a part of the human culture. The better known cartoons in Western animation are made by Disney Company. Most people watched “The Black Cloak”, “Tom and Jerry”, “Aladdin”, “Mermaid”, “Bambi”, “Atlantics”, “Cinderella”, “The Beauty and Beast”, “King Lion” and others in the childhood. Even now Disney Company is producing new cartoons for children, but they are not often shown on television. That caused the appearance of the television channel called Disney for watching cartoons twenty-four hours a day. The most popular cartoons nowadays are animated cartoons like “Futurama” (from Latin “futūrum” which means “future”) and “Family Guy” which are aimed for more mature audience as they have not been passed by the censor because of dirty words. It influences the psychology of children and can even worsen it.

What are anime and manga like?

In very simple words the definitions are the following: manga are Japanese comics, while anime is Japanese animation. It is often thought that both terms are limited by certain genres (for instance, fantasy) or icon-based styles (true to life, “large eyes”). That is wrong. The terms “manga” and “anime” define just key features which are a background for creating these works of art. There is no more country in the world where so much attention is paid to comic books or animation. Fathers of the most popular Japanese comics are rather well-to-do people and national celebrities. For example, Takahashi Rumiko is one of the richest women in Japan. One fourth of the issued printed matter in Japan belongs to manga and it is read by people of all ages, sex and social position. The position of anime in the whole culture is more modest, but nevertheless takes a significant place. Actors which dub animation (called “seyu” in Japan) are generally recognized, respected and treated with big love in Japan. Japan is an only country where not a full-length film, but a full-length cartoon was nominated for Oscar’s best foreign film. Speaking about the whole world, there is a tendency that animation parasitizes a film-making industry, what doesn’t happen in Japan. The situation is even quite opposite there. Watching serials on TV there are lots of actors who play in anime style. Music videos of new-born stars are made up in the style of anime or Kawaii. The same tendency is seen abroad where Japanese style is copied more and more. Vachovsky's brothers who are film-makers of “Matrix” confessed that they set themselves the task of creating Japanese cyberpunk (in the first place it was “The Phantom in the Amours”). In Japan there are even feature films in the style of anime. But who knows about it except devoted fans? But the film “The Phantom in the Amours” was shown around the world, including Russia (it was on the festival of Japanese film art).

Most national cultures are afraid of losing its unique identity if they adopt something from other cultures. But the Japanese fail to have this fear, though there are some alarmist conservatives. In Japanese fantasy there are not only werewolves in traditional Japanese or Chinese style, but also elves and gnomes with European look. In one fantasy there is even a Soviet tank. All these don’t threaten to its identity, on the opposite side, European elves become Japanese females, European gnomes turn into Japanese males, and Soviet tanks reincarnate into national cat ghosts. It is an interesting fact that even when manga or anime makers try to create something perfectly European or American they cannot forget Japanese culture which is in their blood and bred-in-the-bone. That is the explanation while their artistic experiments don’t destroy Japanese culture, but on the contrary, they make it more complete and enrich with sample methods and ideas.

In addition, anime and manga are good opportunities to trace not only how modern Japanese reflect and experience their age-old traditions, but also trail what motives and stories have been borrowed from other cultures and adopted in the Japanese plots. This second part is much more important and interesting to learn. The person should feel the Japanese language and have a big experience of speaking it fluently, understand Japanese mental setup and have to practice in studying Japanese literature to see clearly the difference between Japanese and European versification. But to see the difference between Japanese elves and Tolkien’s ones it would be enough to watch one or two Japanese serials. So anime and manga give a chance to get to know Japanese mental setup, putting a thousand and half-year-old tradition of the country a little aside and getting wholesome and nice enjoyment. Now let’s take each aspect more closely.

Different types of manga

Russians are fond of manga. There are thousands of sites on the Internet where manga are translated from Japanese and English into Russian. What do manga mean? Manga (漫画, マンガ) are Japanese comic books, which can be also called komiccu (コミック). Manga are read by people of all ages in Japan and they are considered both as a form and as a kind of literary work. They originate from an early stage of Japanese art, though since the Second World War they have been influenced greatly by traditions from the East.

There are different types of manga on numerous topics such as adventure, romance, sport, history, humour, science fiction, horror, business and others. Manga have become a huge field of industry in Japanese book publishing with a turnover of $500 million in 2006. Manga have become popular around the world, even in the USA where the average sale of it was $175-200 million in 2006. The main feature of manga is that they are drawn black and white, though there are colorful ones which are even called “Colorful”. Sometime popular manga are very long and unfinished and they can be shot. This sort of filmed manga is known as anime. The screen version can be adopted and it is usually softened and doesn’t contain violence or sex, mortal combats or blood-and-thunder. A manga-maker is called 漫画家 [man΄gaka]  in Japanese. There are cases when manga are based on a film, for example, “Star Wars”. But it is a fact that anime or otaku hadn’t appeared without manga as very few production directors would spend time and invest money and in a project which wouldn’t gain popularity as a comic book or manga.

Speaking about Russia, manga are badly represented on the market. It is explained by the fact that comic books are not popular in Russia. Comics are often thought as an infantile or kid literature in Russia, but actually manga are considered for more mature audience in Japan. And because of this culture gap there are a few legal publishing houses in Russia. One of them is “Sakura-Press” where “Ranma ½”, “Comics Factory”, “Palma-Press” and some other manga were published. “Comix-ART” that is the partner of publish house “Eksmo” has got a license to produce more commercial manga like “Death Note”, “Naruto” and “Bleach”,  and even “Gravitation” and “Princess Ai”. Russian publishers don’t see difference between manga and 만화 [΄manhwa]  and often mix the names. First of all, 만화 [΄manhwa] is a Korean comic book, which have  much in common with manga, but each of them has got their own character traits such as the story and drawings which conform to the culture and history of  the country. “Comix-ART” try to pass “Bizenghast” and “Van-Von Hunter” for manga  which are both in fact Amerimanga, that is original English-language manga. What is more, surfing the official site of the publishing house “History comics” they try to pass  漫畫 [΄manhua] “Cat” (Confidential Assassination Troop) by Taiwanese author Fung Chin Pang for manga, too. All these facts of deliberate mixture can be explained by some commercial interest. So amateur translations of manga have covered Russia and in our country they are known as a “scanlate”. For example, there are almanacs of Russian version of manga published by “Comics Factory”. In 2008 a scanlate “Manga Café” was issued.

The distinguishing features of anime

Sometimes people think that the place where they live is not the best one, they suffer from that disappointment and dream about other places for living. Young generation deeply feels the negative effects of global crisis, and don’t want to put up with real life. They prefer cyber life which is much more enjoyable as it is bright, fills up with romance and friendship, without misfortunes or stress which are common in every day routine life. Why should they accept the rules of cruel reality, while it is more pleasant to live in the world where people can choose their own ways of life? Anime has become an example of this cyber world for most young people. It is like a breath of fresh air from the East with its unique opportunities for dreaming and existing in.

Anime is seen a new interesting ideology after western MTV, hamburgers and Britney Spears. Those who consider anime to be just ordinary Japanese cartoons make a big mistake. In fact, anime is based on serious and deep topics which cause its success and popularity. And the comedy presented in anime is the display of Japanese sense of humour. This is a typical point of view of any fan, not matter which country he can be from.  Though the representative of Anime channel states that American cartoons are for younger age-specific groups, while Japanese anime has well-structured stories which are interesting for adults. First of all, anime is a style of life where the whole world is not interpreted in the way which most people brought up by MTV standards have. Eastern philosophy has added much new what Western culture can’t give - they are traditions, respect to symbols and history.

On the whole, in Japan anime is a general term for any animated cartoon which can be made not only in Japan or of the definite style. Anime is an abbreviation of the English word “animation” (or [әnimasj΄on] in Japanese). While Japanese animation with its stylistic features was spreading overseas, the term “anime” has become the definition for Japanese animation only. In the Collins glossary there is the following definition of anime given: “a type of Japanese animated film with themes and styles similar to manga comics”; but other glossaries define anime as “an animated style originated and developed in Japan”.

Some distinguishing features of anime are too large eyes (often drawn in details), the nose and mouth depicted with rough lines, lengthened upper and lower extremities. The eyes expressing emotions and feelings of characters are borrowed from Western cartoons, particularly Walt Disney Company. The man who first used the technical skill of too large eyes was  Tezuka Osamu (he is known as “a god of anime and manga” and a creature of a cult film “Astro Boy”) who was inspired by the peculiar features of animated characters of Walt Disney. But it does not mean that all modern anime follow the strict rules of this artistic style. Wrinkles and folds of fat on the face are widespread, prominent lines on the forehead are seen if the character is sad. Sometimes it is a common scene when an angry anima-girl can get a big hammer from nowhere and hit with it. The special term “hammer space” was introduced because of it. Speaking about anime-boys, they often have bleeding caused by female charms. If the character is shy, in this case he often sweats a lot. Anime characters are not humanoids, but the type of hybrid – robots, spirits, and demons. The accent is made on the marks connected with the change of seasons. All these peculiar standards, stereotypes of iconic art, ideas are the distinctive features of unique Japanese culture. The linear patterns of anime style are influenced by Japanese calligraphy and paintings. The stroke of the round ink brush which is typically used for writing kanji and painting helps to produce the line able to change its fatness. Anime borrows some elements from manga such as words on the background.

Categories and genres of anime

There are five age-related categories of anime: syodjo (少女) (for girls from twelve to eighteen years old), syonen (少年)(for boys from twelve to eighteen years old), seinen (青年) (for men from eighteen to forty years old), djosei (女性) (for women from eighteen to forty years old) и kodomo (子供) (for kids – boys and girls).

The types of anime vary from futuristic fantasies and reckless love stories to historical and realistic scenes. There are also some specific minor genres in anime. There are emotional subjects in the plot, complicated relationship and personal growth in most dramas. Japanese modern and ancient mythology is rich in supernatural stuff that is shown in horror. Science fiction is based on high technology of the future. Cutting-age anime is very stylized genre. All scenes are focused on battles either of military kind or physical strength such as martial arts.

Cosplay movement

Nowadays anime is developing rapidly and gaining its popularity among fans. There is a movements Cosplay (Costume play) - groups of people who try copy the atmosphere of anime in their lives. These young people have seen anime and got a lot of inspiration in it, so they decided to represent the plot from anime in real life. They can buy costumes or make them on their own, get indispensable accessories, make themselves up as characters from anime in order to make anime more alive. This hobby has seized more and more people. Some are mistaken by the fact that members of Cosplay are losing connections with real life, down-to-earth problems and they are only interested in the play. On the contrary, the artistic abilities of Cosplay members go forward, advance and make their lives bright, emotional and interesting.

Anime, Cosplay, manga are types of leisure activities for modern young people in our country. In simple words, manga is a comics book, but without silly kid themes; manga has rather a complicated plot with a moral at the end, so each can learn a lesson after reading it.

Part 3. Modern types of Japanese music

Modern music is an important part of life for young people. They listen to it everywhere. Some people just relax; others find new solutions from the problems listening to music. According to public opinion polls, certain types of music have a negative impact on socializing process. Music can cause undisguised violence, vulgarity, dissoluteness and lead to crucial change of ideals, mentality of the youth. Music is different and it can have different effects on different people, especially young people. But music can be an accelerator for new ideas. When people listen to a new piece of music, they learn the lyrics, become more open, as they absorb new ideas of different people and their points of view on life (like reading a new book or article, or just taking a look at some paintings).

Modern Japanese kinds of music are J-pop, J-rock and J-rap. Russians do not pay too much attention to the last one.

J-pop is an abbreviation from Japanese popular music and this term is used for commercial Japanese music. Modern music began to develop in the second part of the twentieth century. Folk music and American one were popular at that period of time. And new Japanese bands could gain popularity only if they played folk music or recorded songs for films, television and anime. In the late 80s, using modern music technologies, newly appeared Japanese performers could force foreign artists out and in the 90s the popularity of Japanese bands covered the neighbouring countries. Such groups as “Chage & Aska”, “B’z”, “Southern All Stars” and “TUBE” were on the top for fifteen years, what means their phenomenal success. “Chage & Aska” is a duet of Shibata Shudji and Miyadzaki Shigeaki. They became the first Asian band that performed in “MTV Unplugged”. The music played by this duet was everywhere – in anime and films like “Street Fighter” и “Judge Dredd”. Next year “Chage & Aska” will celebrate their 30th anniversary.

Modern representatives of J-pop are Rina Aiuchi and Ayumi Hamasaki. They are both talented pop singers. Rina Aiuchi writes lyrics for her own songs. Ayumi Hamasaki known as Ayu is one f the most successful artists in the history of Japanese music industry and has a title of “the Empress of Japanese pop music”.

J-pop is an integral part of mass culture in Japan. It can be heard everywhere – in anime, films, television programs, on the radio and computer games.

The term “J-rock” means Japanese rock music. Some people think that J-pop includes J-rock, but in fact they are separate types of music, there is a clear difference between them.

J-rock is a definite style of music which is extremely popular in Japan. It is difficult to push it into the certain frame which can limit it; on the contrary, it has mixed everything in itself: Gothic style, hard rock, punk and many others. In the mid-80s a band “X-Japan” appeared thanks to the development of all musical industry. It is considered the first real “J-rockers”. This band made it popular and led the way to it from the underground. The image, music videos, eccentric conduct of “X-Japan” at the concerts have specified the way of pop music development in the Land of the Rising Sun. “X-Japan” play not only the traditional rock instruments, but also the violin, the piano and others. Songs of “X-Japan” are tuneful and the singing is performed in the best traditions. Various national musical instruments are used in J-rock.

The key phenomenon in J-rock is “Visual kei”. It is the derivative genre of J-rock and glam-metal which appeared in the 80s thanks to “X Japan”, “Seikima II” and other bands . “Visual kei” is a special look of artists, which makes them more attractive and brighter for fans. As a rule, a lot of make-up, original outfits and a little bit frightening image – all these are expressions of “Visual kei”. One more peculiarity of “Visual kei” is the creative work diversity of bands. Most bands add elements of other music styles to their music and do not follow efficiently the certain genre of music. Most bands play rock with the elements of electronic music (“Adapte”, “Blam Honey”) and pop music (“T.M Revolution”). J-rock musicians pay a lot of attention both to their appearance and music itself. For J-rock musicians music and image are equal ranking conceptions which are interchangeable and supplement each other. It happens that male artists often change their clothes into female ones and like using Gothic style in their outfits. The prominent representatives of “Visual kei” are “Dir en Grey”, “Malice Mizer”, “Moi dix Mois”, “Larein” and many others. Besides “Visual kei” bands there are some rock bands like “Pierrot”, “Buck-Tick”, “L’Ark~en~Ciel” whose artists wear usual clothes.

There is one more special feature of J-rock: all bands are divided into “Majors” and “Indies”. “Majors” are the bands which record their music and release at giant sound recording companies like “Sony”. “Indies” are the bands which make records and release at small independent record companies or on their own. “Visual kei” is common “Indies”. A brand new sound and interesting “Visual kei”-projects can be born among “Indies”. Vocalist Dio Distraught Overlord is one of the most prominent representative of metal in “Visual kei”.

Metal and hard-rock influence J-rock, so most bands use harder tuned guitars. So scream is heard in the songs of J-pop band “An Cafe” and more often harder accompaniment than in the west oriented bands. Metal dominates clearly among such west oriented bands as “X-Japan”, “Metal Safari”, “Galneryus” and in the trend visual kei Kote kei. Hard rock and its subdivisions are especially popular among modern “youth band” and bands of the trend Nagoya kei.

J-metal is a subgenre which has typical features for all Japanese metal bands. The most popular groups are power and neoclassic metal. The difference between modern new metal bands (new metal, modern metal, alternative metal) and power or neoclassic metal is that the first ones are stick to “Visual kei”, while the second ones have more European sounding which caused their popularity. The most popular power and neoclassic bands are “Concerto Moon” and “Galneryus”. The guitarists of these bands have popularity and recognition in Europe and the USA. The bands of more extreme classic styles are less popular because of “Visual kei” wide popularity, while black metal bands “Sigh” and “GalHammer” are well-known among the fans of this music direction.

J-Ska is a modern style of Japanese music which is considered both as an independent style and a type of J-punk. It has Jamaican tunes with a mixture of J-punk, J-rock, Jazz. The leading bands are “Muramasa” and “OreSkaBand” with female staff. J-Ska is a part of Japanese culture and can be seen in anime. The J-Ska band “OST” is very popular among the fans of anime and manga.

The data portal www.jame-world.com is engaged in the promotion of Japanese bands around the world. A bigger part of fans are in Russia, the USA, Spain and France.

KUBANA festival

The music festival KUBANA is multinational. The artists from Europe and the USA change with ones from Jamaica and England, Israel and Scandinavia. The members of distant Asia are absent to make the picture of the whole world culture complete. In 2012 a vivid guest of honour from Japan arrived at the festival and filled the gap of missing Asian culture. The famous Miyavi is not a samurai with a guitar, he has a cosmic image and his performance is supernatural with breathtaking visual show, dancing and music. The mixture of styles in his performance (there is a neovisualism,  kabuki-rock and J-rock) will be a theme of research for culture experts from all over the world.  On one hand, the androgynous Japanese art should be alien to the Russian soul; on the other hand, there is a team of Miyavi fans in Russia. His tour around Russia has always full house, his fans are really mad on him and show devoted love to his idol. At KUBANA festival everyone could watch Miyavi’s ability of playing the guitar skillfully and his brand new mind-blowing show.

This year music festival KUBANA-2013 will take place in the town Blagoveshchensk from the first to the seventh of August. The Japanese band “The GazettE” will perform there. It will be the first tour of “The GazettE” abroad, while the band has a numerous number of fans and a wide popularity in Russia. So everyone hopes that the long-expected and the only one of its kind concert in Russia will be an exclusive opening night of “Visual kei” leaders. The public expects the kaleidoscope of colours, unbelievable hairdos, brand shows, glam-metal powerful hooks of the 80s based on the alternative of 2000 and let them through the ethnic flavor of Japanese melodic patterns.

J-rock successors in Russia

J-rock has influenced the appearance of bands abroad: Swedish team “Seremedy”, Russian bands “Lycro” and “Akado”. Day after day the number of fans of newly appeared band is increasing.

 “Lycro” is a visual rock band from Moscow. It is a young team which appeared in August 2011 but has very perspective prospects. The band has taken part in some large music festivals and has released several singles for less than a year of its existence. The band uses the traditional “Visual kei” associations: weird brave costumes, striking make-up, impressive hairdos. Inspired by the creative works of “Malice Mizer”, “Due le Quartz” and “Versailles”, “Lycro” tries to express its individual style and transfer it to the audience. “Lycro” music is a harmonious mix of hard punk-rock and melodious, elegant classical music. This year the band is creating new songs, new look, new photographs. The guitarist Kira had an idea of creating the band. His favourite style is “Visual kei”, but he hated the fact that this style was not popular in Russia. He found it undeserved and wanted to show “Visual kei” to the wide audience. He stated that people with European look should not avoid “Visual kei”, it is suitable for them and it applies equally to both Europeans and Asians.  All these lead to the birth of the band “Lycro”. The band plays Gothic-glam-melodic rock, but they call it “Visual rock”. They write music and lyrics themselves – at first it was done only by the guitarists Kira, then by his joint effort with soloist Syrax. Later when Syrax left the band, “Lycro” had to cancel their shows temporary. Nowadays a new soloist has been found and in April and May the band is planning to start its activity again. “Coming back” is a challenging process as there is too much to be prepared to return to the stage in the true sense of the word.

“Akado”( 赤道 in Japanese means “a bloody way”) is a Russian rock band which positions its style as Intelligent Visual Rock. This style is an eclectic combination of visual glam and J-rock traditions with elements of “Visual kei” and an accent on productivity done by only male offspring. The sounding of the band includes a big number of styles such as industrial, Gothic-metal and dark- ambient. The band was formed in 2002.

The very first band organized by Nikita Shatenev in his schooldays was “Blokada”. In 2001 not far from Vyborg in a settlement Sovetsky four classmates created a band. They were Nikita Shatenew (a vocalist and guitarist), Igor Likarenko (a bass guitarist and recitative) with the nickname “Lackryx”, Alexander Grechushkin (a guitarist) and Gregory Arhipov (a percussive player) known as “Green”. In 2002 the team recorded and released its demo album called “Calm Genealogical Self-expression” with a smaller circulation of 500 disks with 13 compositions only. The circulation was sold out and the band was invited to different arrangements and consequently appeared on some open air and night concerts even in Tampere [΄tampere], Finland.  Nikita Shatenew described the style of the band as “Visual rock” and made its first costume from his own sketches. At the same time “Akado” recorded its first demo “Animism” at the Saint Petersburg music record studio “DDT”. Unfortunately, the album was not put on sale as the main computer which was used for recording and storing the information with ready-to-be-released soundtracks was broken. That fact led the leader of the band “Akado” Nikita Shatenew to log in the first official website of the band www.akado-site.com with the help of Rubtsov. With the time the image Nikita Shatenew had created for himself gained popularity among the audience and the rest members of his band “Akado” agreed to enrich the visual components of his image by letting him design costumes for all participants of his band. At the same time “Akado” recorded and downloaded online the track called “Ostnophobia”.

For about five months the band didn’t exist actually. After it Nikita Shatenew concluded a commercial agreement with “Diagilev Production” about being the line producer of the band and he remained the position of artistic and music production director of “Akado” himself.  In 2008 after long searches a new stuff of the band was filled up. The new team consisted of the drummer Vasiliy Gorshkov called “Ghost”, the bass-singer Artyom Kozlov known as “Miomi” and the guitarist Dmitry Yugai or “Kelly” for a short.

Nikita Shatnew picked up the best from old songs and the band started to rehearse hard, making new acoustic backing of the old compositions and creating new soundtracks. All in all, on March 28th 2008 the band “Miomi” made its debut at the club “B2” in Moscow showing the concert program and images of “Akado”. Soon a new commercial agreement was concluded with the sound record company “Uniphonix” and the band “Miomi” started to record a new album “Oxymoron 2” with the sound track “Oxymoron 2” and the hit of that time “Dirty Easter”. There were some remixes including the acoustic version of the song “Oxymoron 2” and its remix made by the British DJ In’r’ Voice recorded at the London music record company Spiral Starship Studio. The disk was released with a small circulation of 1000 copies and was sold out for a month. The debut music video “Oxymoron 2” was done. The producer was Eugenie “Priest” and the filming was shooting by the Saint Petersburg company “Project Helix”. The music video “Oxymoron 2” was shown on the special occasions in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and on music channel. Then the band enlisted the support of the concert agency “SYN Promotion” and set off the tour  “Join The Oxymoron Tour 2008-2009”around 30 cities in Russia and the near abroad.  The tour “Join The Oxymoron Tour 2008-2009”had three parts.  

At the beginning of 2009 the band “Akado” cooperated with three companies: the Danish manufacture of musical equipment “TC Electronic”, the Russian producer of guitar lamp amplifiers “R’n’R Sound” and American clothes manufacture for young people “Iron Fist”. So in April 2009 the band “Miomi” left for “Iron Fist Tour 2009”. The same year “R’n’R Sound” produced the limited batch of guitar lamp amplifiers “AKADO — Kelly R’n’R Signature Model” specially designed to satisfy the preferences of the guitarist Kelly. Returning from the tour the band has been working on the debut album which is about to be conceptually new. The draft name of the album is “AKADO Convergence XX XII”. The band has recently appeared in the film about Russo on the Japanese TV channel BBC. The film is about the influence of Japanese culture on Russian music.

Part 4. Fashion.

The background for the development of fashion industry

There is a deep influence of Western culture behind all trends in Japanese fashion and society. At first, the Japanese were negative towards the Europeans. Portuguese missionaries arrived in 1543 got the nickname nambanjin ( 南蛮人 or southern barbarians). Later the same nickname was applied to the Spaniards. Residents of Germanic nations such as the English, Dutch and Germans were called komo (紅毛 or red-haired). The appearance and garments of the Europeans were considered ungraceful, lacking in beauty and that is why they were made fun of. But gradually Western standards penetrated into the Japanese culture. The first display of it was the appearance of djimabaori (陣羽織). Djimabaori (a waistcoat without sleeves) is one of the main items of clothing of samurai. It was an original Japanese version of tabard which Daime and Segune wore. When Tokugava came to power, all Europeans were driven out of the country and any adoptions and loanwords were stopped. But great and small used to wear short trousers called matahiki, long underwear called momohiki (股引) and a short cloak called kappa (合羽) which is a version of modern cape. All these alien things were called “Christian fashin” as they copied the look of Western missionaries.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a result of Meiji politics there was the second wave of copying Western fashion. But that time there was a total replacement of traditional Japanese clothes into Western one. Western type of look was considered stylish and some Japanese were ready to put on a hat or any other piece of Western clothing to suit kimono. In the 1920s there was a group of women following Western trends in fashion, listening to jazz and ignoring the traditional rules of behavior for Japanese women. But that tendency disappeared in the 1930s because of political situation of that period.

After the defeat in the Second World War and American occupation the Tokyo district Harazuku was invaded by American soldiers and their families. Japanese youth was dissatisfied with conservatism of traditional Japanese culture and used to visit Harazuku intending to join Western culture. In the 1950s Harazuku became the symbol of Western culture which attracted more and more young Japanese people. Girls started to abuse solarium to get a bronze suntan and to look like hip-hop stars. They used to die hair blond in order to resemble foreigners. That tendency coincided with the popularity of American and British glam-metal and formed the base for Visual kei in Japanese music.

What is in?

In fact nowadays Japan is a huge corporation. The most part of the life for the Japanese is concentrated in the office where they wear the suits of the same type. They are crazy about work. “The more you work the better life you have”- this rule was true until recently. As soon there appeared a new generation of the Japanese whose parents have achieved welfare and prosperity and possess everything they need. So young Japanese women and men have a new kind of mind and think differently from their parents. They rise in revolt against monotonous and boring weekday. They create their own rules to follow. They want to do mad things and activities, manifest themselves in new type of actions as each person is individual. And the clothes is a way to show the whole world the own uniqueness. Each one should choose his unique style to be a personality.

Japanese fashion includes a variety of colours and shapes; it is a mixture of everything around the world – soft hats, motley coats and bags of different size, shapes and colours. They wear one item of clothes above the other one, even in the warm spring girls can put on a skirt above jeans, guys wear a lot of shirts … They mix incompatible items of clothes, trying to look trendy and exclusive. Most of young Japanese live with their parents and work part-time. They spend most money on clothes. Some Japanese are crazy about fashion – they are shopaholics – they can buy all things of the same brand to fill the flat with and be happy. Japan is a type of an outburst. One time there was a dramatic rise in the industry, nowadays something similar is happening in fashion industry.

It is pleasant to meet a well-dressed man in such a great way that everyone accepts that this man has unique identity and individuality. It is more pleasant to know that more and more people nowadays are doing experiments trying to find the style which match them perfectly. They are persons for whom there is only one way to call the soul their own or to be “per se” in Latin.

For young Japanese women fashion is a sort of pomp, youth and freedom. It is impossible to fail to see the pretty Japanese girls in the streets of Tokyo. They are madly keen on fashion, they are young and wear leather mini-skirts, high heeled boots, and they carry mobile phones. They are easily seen near the shopping malls. One of the main places to get together for them is a street with not expensive boutiques, where they can buy either vintage items of clothing, second-hand or something worth wearing. They can get a tattoo in Japanese style or are made to buy local memorabilia. One more meeting point is Store 109. It is a trendy boutique where they can have a manicure or a haircut done. Shop assistants can offer customers there sweaters of all incredible colours, tight trousers matching any skin complexion, inconceivable outfits. Shop assistants are as young as their clients. Young Japanese women agree that fashion is a riot of colours. Nowadays the situation of the late 60s when young Japanese generation dropped a bombshell to old generation accepting weird stereotypes of European fashion repeats again. At that time there appeared an expression “unknown quantities”.  The attributes of modern Japanese girl image are bows tied in hair, on jackets and coats, leopard colours of the fabric, high heeled jackboots, multilayer mini-skirts, large knitted caps with pompoms. There is a tendency to tag big playthings on to mobile phones, to have hair lightened and made longer, to lengthen eyelashes and dream about wide eyes.

The Japanese youth as an independent group

The Japanese youth of the present day generation is considered to be a separate and independent group. What are the reasons for it? First of all, it was guided by the USA. Despite the fact of American invasion to Japan during the Second World War and huge damage caused by it, everything stimulated the development of different fields of science, culture and way of life. That powerful start leaded to such a social phenomenon as Japanese youth. That phenomenon was in progress for some time and has reached its top now. The second factor is the language itself. In spite that Japanese youth speaks Japanese, the Japanese language has been changed and become more allergic and less imperative. Young Japanese people avoid using words and expressions which show frankness, truthfulness or straightness of the speech, but they seem to be more tactful in choosing what to say, trying to keep off expressing directly.

There are loads of dialects in Japan. The major are Kansai-ben, Tohoku-ben and Kanto-ben, which is spoken in Tokyo and its suburbs. The differences between dialects are so strong that people speaking different dialects in Japan cannot understand each other. But if they speak the standard dialect which is based on Kansai-ben and often called “common language”, everyone can be understood even a foreigner as the very dialect is taught in all educational institutions in Japan. Let us return to the Japanese youth. Against the dialect background there are some dialects in the language of the Japanese youth.

The first one is called “toka”(tokaben) that means something unwarranted and senseless from the point of view of literary language as “toka” in Japanese means the conjunction “or”. In the language the conjunction “or” is traditionally used for listing homogeneous parts of the sentence. In the language of the Japanese youth the conjunction “toka” is used to make the speech sound less imperative, to show uncertainty or indecision of the speaker. This word can be used several times in the sentence as a carelessly spoken word. Such use of the conjunction is either the unwillingness of the speaker to be a bore or the reluctance to be responsible for what he or she has just said, that is a tendency to make the spoken words more obscure and evasive.

The second dialect is known as “bimyo” (bimyo:ben), where the accent is on the use of the word “bimyo” which means “tactful” or “subtle” in the standard Japanese language. Using the word “bimyo” the speaker gets away from giving the direct answer to the question, trying to avoid a detailed reply or explanation. In most cases the use of the word “bimyo” shows that the speaker disagrees with the opponent, but tries to sound polite in order not to hurt the feelings of the opponent and does not wish to be responsible for said words.

The third dialect is “tteyu:ka” (tteyu:kaben). The “tteyu:ka” is used in the standard Japanese language when the speaker seeks for the right word or expression. In the language of young Japanese it has another meaning. The word “tteyu:ka” sounds when the speaker avoids the conflict or want to change the topic. It has the same meaning as Japanese words “soreyori” (means “rather, sooner”) and “tokorode” (means “by the way”).

The fourth dialect is “teki” (tekiben). The Japanese suffix “teki” can not form nouns in the standard Japanese language. Using “teki” young people do not want to sound categorical, on the contrary, they wish to be flexible, ready to accept  another point of view.

The fifth dialect is “ja nai des ka” (janaideskaben), that is the use of “ja nai des ka” at the end of the sentence. In the standard Japanese language it is used to form a tag question. “ja nai des ka” indicates that the speaker informs something new, but does not want it to be confirmed by the opponent. The speaker expects that the opponent agrees with the words but does not need to show the agreement. Young people use the ending “ja nai des ka” when the information is obvious.

By the way, young Japanese people use the mixture of all the mentioned above dialects. It means that the language spoken by Japanese youth is different from the standard Japanese language.

The third and the most important factor which makes the Japanese youth an independent group is fashion. The fashion of the Japanese youth consists of several trends. There are some “stylish districts” which are popular among “street fashion” fans. They are Harajuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Odaiba and Shinjuku. The concept of “street fashion” has some subdivisions.

Types of “street fashion”

The first type of “street fashion” is “Lolita” or “Lolita fashion”. This direction originated from the time of the Victorian style in clothing and Rococo. “Lolita” added some gothic and original designer elements into these styles. So the trendy “Lolita” was divided into some smaller styles and became the one of the most popular trends in Japanese street fashion. Knee skirts and dresses, various tires and capping (from bows to hats), blouses, knee socks and stockings with high heeled shoes or platform ones have become hot numbers of “Lolita” style.  The fans of this style intensify the childish look carrying teddy-bears or dolls. “Gothic Lolita” is a subdivision which combines both Gothic and “Lolita” styles. Dark colours like black, dark blue and purple dominate in “Gothic Lolita”. The most spread range of colours is black-and-white. In contrast to other subdivisions, less attention is paid to small details in “Gothic Lolita”. The second subdivision is “Amaloli” (or Sweet Lolita). “Amaloli” was fallen under the influence of Rococo style and manga. So the most attention is paid to childish and fairy-tale motif, that is light colours (pink or pastel)  and infantile accessories (cherries, ribbons, cakes, hearts, bows) prevail in “Amaloli”. There are smaller subdivisions such as “Classical Lolita’, “Punk Lolita”, “Wa,kwi Lolita” which is a mix of the classic Japanese fashion and trendy “Lolita” style. There are also minor ones as the majority of clothes is made not in stylish fashion salons or work houses, but handmade.

The second kind of “street fashion” is Ganguro/Gyaru. Nowadays it is not so popular as it was in 2000. Nevertheless there are some admires of this style. What are the distinctive features of Ganguro/Gyaru. Girls dye their hair blond, orange or silver-grey colours. Eye shadows and lipstick match the colour of the hair, but face and hands complexion should be covered with a bronze toner imitating a suntan. Platform shoes and bright colours in clothes are very popular among Ganguro/Gyaru. fans. The extreme subdivision is “Yamanba” where light colours are lighter and the dark suntan is deeper. The public does not support “Yamanba” as its images oppose the common idea of beauty.

It seems unbelievable but most Japanese fashion models have lots of hang-ups such as they do not like their own appearance as the ideal beauty should be tall, blue-eyed and blond-haired like Valkyrie (in Norse mythology Valkyrie was called any of the beautiful maidens who served Odin and rode over battlefields to claim the dead heroes and took them to Valhalla). Young Japanese models are shameful of their short height, dark hair and narrow eyes, that is why they try to dye their hair blond and wear blue contact lenses. The beauty of Japanese women is definitely in their natural, primeval look. The famous Japanese models are Miwa Oshiro, Natsumi Abe, Rina Uchiyama, Maria Ozawa, Erina Mano have the average height of 155cm, dark hair and dark eyes. They are either actresses or singers.

Part 5. Literature

Three periods of ups in Japanese literature from Russian audience

Russians took an interest in Japanese literature long ago. In Soviet times the versions of Japanese writers were published side by side with the translations of authors from any Asian-Pacific area. Nowadays Japanese works are being translated with high rate. Last century there were three periods when Japanese literature was of interest in our country. The first period took place after the Russian-Japanese War. Our country awoke interest in Japan as the country showed splendid results in military operations and chauvinism (aggressive or fanatical patriotism). There appeared first country research articles and versions of Japanese literature in journals “Grain Field” and “Russian Wealth”. The second period was in the 1960s and 1970s. The works of Abe Kobo, Akutagava Ryunosuke, Oe Kenjaburo, Kavabata Yasunari were translated at that period. The keen interest was caused by Japanese cinematograph. The ideological authorities were tolerable to Japanese authors as, firstly, Japanese writers confessed the influence of Russian classical literature and, secondly, antibourgeois source of inspiration was common for both cultures at that time. Readers found the combination of something exotic and valid in the versions of Japanese first-class writers. The third and the most efficient period of liking for Japanese literature started in the 1990s and goes on up to now. The 90s were a decade relating to perestroika, and the popularity of Japanese martial arts, Zen Buddhism devotion among the intellectuals have changed into the ardour for Japanese cinematograph and fashion, anime, manga and Japanese cuisine. Japanese literature is definitely hard for comprehension because of differences in the mentality and lifestyle of the Japanese and Russians. But this fact makes it interesting for studying. Moreover, Japanese literature has become the part of the world culture.

The shortest poems in the world Haiku are also popular in Russia. Saint Petersburg publisher “Giperion” has recently issued modern and ancient Japanese works of literature in the series “The library of Japanese classical literature” and “Collected works of Japanese classical literature”.

There are close connections between Russia and Japan in the humanities. Our country shows the interest to the Japanese decorative art of flower arrangement known as ikebana, tea drinking traditions. Japanese game “Go” and the art of Bonsai have gained popularity, too. Speaking about such martial arts as judo and karate, they have been at the top in Russia: the first  one since the 1960s and the second one since the 1980s.

The underlying reason for cultural relations between Russia and Japan

Why have been there such close cultural relations between Russia and Japan since the period of Meiji? Japan is a small insular country while Russia is a great continental world power; both countries have different religions and mentality. Why do they adopt each other cultures?

There can be several reasons. The first one is that both countries were backward in the 19th century. The Japanese intellectuals came into contact with West European individualism and liberalism, developed the awareness of true ego and the sense of own individualism, but at the same time they could keep traditional feudal elements of social life. Consequently, the contradictions between personality and society and the conflict between the old and new generations were much deeper than in Western Europe and America. The same situation took place in Russia. People who had waken up to get individual freedom, had to face with absolutism and suffered heavily. So the problem of personality and personal freedom was not on occasion in the novels of Dostoevsky “Karamazovy Brothers”, “The legend of the Great Inquisitor”, “Crime and punishment” and “The demons”. That problem reflects the important existential problem for the Japanese, too. The Russian intelligentsia was tormented with the eternal problem of the “breath of life” or “purpose of life”. Though the Americans failed to understand Dostoevsky’s views on life until Henry Miller’s works appeared. As the Americans are pragmatists, optimists and idealists. Quite the contrary, the main issue of the works by Soseki Natsumi was the problem of ego. The first person who discovered the Russian literature to the Japanese was Shimei Futabatei. He showed the novel “children and fathers” by Turgenev with its problem of nihilism (a complete denial of all established authority and institutions). The Japanese found the problem of generations familiar as it was an urgent problem for them when younger generation denied everything done by older generation. So the reason of Japanese love to Russian literature is caused by the fact that the problems raised in our literature are deeply related with Japanese society problems and personal freedom, that is the humanism problem. Both in Russia and Japan the intelligentsia fighting with the old system cannot fail to prove its identity. Reading Lihachev’s works, there is a mutually urgent problem of training refinement in oneself. The refinement can keep physical and moral health and help to be a man of culture. Consequently, literature itself having deeply social nature expresses the struggle with feudalism, absolutism and old habits. Toson Shimazaki (1872–1943), Takashi Nagatsuka (1879–1915), Takuboku Ishikava (1882–1912) wrote in their naturalistic or realistic works of art about the problems of making society and personality free. Such writers as Saneatsu Mushakoji and Takeo Arishima tried to realize Leo Tolstoy humanism into the Japanese way of life.

Though Japan and Russia differ from each other greatly, speaking about the consciousness of common problems, Russian and Japanese intelligentsias have the same social and historical background. The interest to the Japanese culture was not caused by the desire for exotics only. The interest can be explained by the fact that Russian intelligentsia needed to impart the court culture of the epochs of  Heyan (794–1185), Higashiyama (1441–1490), Murumati (1336–1568) and the urban culture of Edo (1603–1867) period where the Japanese were depicted with elegance and grace.

 The deep history of cultural connections between Russia and Japan allows to hope for a new type of relations between both countries.

Part 6. Practical part of the research work

To prove that there is a tendency of keen passion to Japanese traditions, culture, lifestyle I have formulated a questionnaire which was sent out among students of the ninth, tenth and eleventh forms of my gymnasium (See Appendix1). The respondents were modern teenagers both males and females with their own tastes and views on life. Nevertheless the results of the poll are rather interesting (See Appendix2).

The first survey is about favourite types of Japanese films. The top answers get anime (22.97%), then 16.06% share dramas (melodramas) and all sorts of Japanese film production, nearly the same amount of respondents (15.65%) prefer watching horror films. These positions are at the top among respondents, though 7.72% have not made up minds about film preferences.

The second survey is about favourite kinds of music. The majority of young people (42.31%) listen to J-rock, 17.03% just listen to all sorts of Japanese music without any certain preferences in styles, 12.45% are keen on J-pop. So young people are fond of J-rock and J-pop, while other Japanese types of music such as J-rap, hip-hop, trance are not popular and they are listened by 2.54%. But some respondents (11.18%) are still carried away by Western music. New generation does not find Russian music stars worth listening to as only 2.03% marked this position in the survey.

The third survey is to compare European and Asian styles of clothing and make-up in different situations. The Bar chart results show that choosing clothes for everyday and formal situations more respondents give preferences to Asian style, while Asian make-up and outfit for parties are at a disadvantage. The dramatic result has revealed the question about the hairstyle which reflects the unseen of modern teenagers. The majority of the respondents (96%) considers the Asian hairstyle more akin to their anima. It proves the idea that new generation does not wish to stint itself in any shapes, standards or rules, but prefers something creative and sweet and this truly expresses their identity.

The fourth survey is aimed at discovering preferences in literature. The bar chart makes the comparison between European and Asian works of art clear and illustrates the dominance of the latter one.

All surveys show the close connection between Russia and Japan which has boosted recently. The cultures of both countries affect deeply each other, giving an opportunity to create new without forgiving local traditions. The youth does not want to frame its mind, but on the contrary, taking an interest in Asian culture, learning oriental languages, drawing manga, listening to new types of music new generation develops itself and becomes closer to the mentality of Asian countries.

Conclusion

 In the research work we tried to have a deep look at different areas of youth’s life activities such as fashion, animation, cinematograph, literature and music. We drew a conclusion that nowadays the youth has turned more to the East and oriental cultures from which new generation strengthens and enriches own cultural values with those borrowed from the East. In particular we researched Japan and should take notice that Japan had more influence on Russia than any other Oriental country. Both Russia and Japan are related with each other by historical and cultural contacts. The connection started with literature during the Russian-Japanese War and the most efficient rise in Japanese culture began in the 1990s and continues up to now. The youth is into manga, though in Russia manga are presented worse than in other countries. But Russian young people do not lose hopes. They draw actively manga themselves, translate them from other languages and read. The youth is also keen on Cosplay. In this way they try to revive situations and the atmosphere from manga, anime and favourite Japanese films. Those fans who even in real life have the same behavior as their heroes are called “Canons”. Japanese music does not sidestep the youth either. Russian young people set up successfully Visual kei bands which have scored a success because they do not blindfold the West and do not create clone bands similar to British or American ones, but have been able to reach a new level creating their own style of playing music. The peculiarity and value of these bands that they play the style of music which they like themselves, but which is not just trendy. Nowadays the new generation do not forget the West completely, and there are still young people who can leave home, families, friends and rush into a new place and country for adventures.

So the struggle between the East and West get the new generation of young people contradictory character traits, cultivate all-round interests. The East and West are the main centers of cultural and spiritual values. Their cultures differ greatly; men from the East and West have different types of mentality, views on life, nature and stay. The East is the picture of composure. The representative from the East would never interfere in further developments, would observe the reality and life itself. Exactly these features of Japan attract more and more young people from all over the world. The surveys carried out in my school prove that Japanese culture is urgent and in demand nowadays among young people.

Bibliography

Вакамоно-котоба ва мондай на но ка («Молодёжный язык» - это проблема?»)// Бунсё:-хё:гэн С,рэпо:тосю: (Сборник статей по стилистике)//Васэда-дайгаку нихонго кэнкю: кё:ику сэнта:, 2005

Гаджиева Е.А. «Страна Восходящего Солнца. История и  культура Японии», Ростов-на-Дону, «Феникс», 2006

Prokhorov I. «Literature of foreign countries», Moscow, «Music», 2003

Suzuki T. «Reflections on Japanese language and Culture», Tokyo, 1997

Wilson K. «Ideas and Issues Upper-Intermediate», Britain, «Chancerel», 2001

http://japantoday.ru 

http://jrock-sugoi.3dn.ru

http://miuki.info 

http://ru.wikipedia.org 

http://vk.com/im?sel=142796141

http://vse-pro-kino.biz

http://www.akado.ru/

Appendix 1

MOVIE SURVEY

What is your favourite type of Japanese films?

• Horror films
• Science fiction films
• Catastrophe or disaster films
• Comedies
• Dramas and melodramas
• Action films / adventure stories
• Thrillers (without mystics)
• J-dorama(serials)
• Anime
• Another alternative
• All sorts of Japanese production
• I have not decided yet

MUSIC SURVEY

What type of music do you listen to?

• All sorts of Japanese music
• Japanese classical/ national music
• J-pop
• J-rock
• Other Japanese types of music (hip-hop, rap, trance and so on)
• Western music
• The music of my country
• Other kinds of music

FASHION SURVEY

1What style of clothes would you prefer: European or Oriental/Asian?

     European style                            Oriental/Asian style                      

2 Which make-up is more attractive?

3 Which hairstyle reflects the unseen of modern teenagers?

4 What would you put on for a party?

5 Which clothes are more comfortable?

FILM AND LITERATURE SURVEY

1. Would you like to read a book by Suzuki Kodjior Stephenie Meyer?

2.  Which poem is better for the declaration of love?

YourName (JessicaBlade)

Красная роза шепчет о страсти,
Белая – чуть дыша, говорит о любви.
Красное – сокол, белое – голубь,
Что в небе летают: горд и красив.

Но я подарю тебе тот белый бутон,
Что с алой каемкой на всех лепестках.
Словно любовь, что светла и чиста,
С поцелуем мечты на губах.

Танка Есии Исаму:
Как меня поразило
в тот раз появленье твое!
Поздно ночью, без стука,
ты, промокшая под дождем,
вдруг шагнула через порог….
Берег песчаный.
На лодку рыбачью присев,
тебе внимаю-
этой повестью о любви
зачарован и опьянен…

Я прелестным «цветком»
очарован -и даже в разлуке
не забыть мне о нем,-
о, когда же суетной страстью
перестанет сердце томиться?
Занемог я в пути-
и ночью снова мне снилась
та, с кем счастлив я был,
тот «цветок любви» одинокий…
Настает осеннее утро.

3.  Which film would you take your partner to a date?

4.  What authors do you read in your spare time: European or Asian ones?

5. Which sort of manga do you like more: European or Asian?

Appendix 2

The results of the movie survey

The results of the music survey

The results of the fashion survey

The results of the film and literature survey