To Japanese people, America = What?

I'd have to disagree that most Japanese have knowledge about US states / capitals.. While the older generations (People let's say, 35 and older) seem to be pretty intelligent, younger people not only in Japan but around the world, seem to be pretty stupid when it comes to thinking outside their own borders.

Those who have or desire to travel abroad are of course the exceptions. But if you were to do a bit of "Jay-walking" in Shibuya and ask random people, you would be very disappointed at the lack of intelligence displayed.

images of america that japanese people whos never been to america hold:

spacious
everything being big
junk food (fast food)
idiot president
Disney
Hollywood
Whie people being friendly
guns

these are the things i can think of - these stereotypes are pretty much true, i think. someone above said the way japanese people look at america are exactly the same as how americans view japan - NOOOOOOO WHAT!? yeah of course japanes view on america are somewhat stereotypical but americans are much more ignorant... trust me. most of them cant even spot a single japanese celebrity... a lot of them think jackie chan is japanese... they just see east asian as one country that pisses me off

Im not sure if I can name a very current Japanese celebrity, closest I can perhaps become is PM Morri?
From not too distant past: Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune?

Even though I was an original fan of the great old "Ninja Butai Gekko" show of the 1960s,(look it up on youtube, you will see how great it was, very culty) could not name them...or the Japanese stars of You Only Live Twice.
Can name perhaps several celeb Japanese Americans/Canadians: David Suzuki, Pat Morita, George Takei..
Thats just about it, apart from examples from the more distant past, which tend to be unfortunate infamous examples.

oh, yes. Yoko Ono.Bringing up the rear of the set.

Forgot also "Mako"..a veteran actor.

Heck many people in other countries probably couldn't name some famous Japanese celebrities if they saw them right in front of them. Japanese media is really localized to Japan and somewhat Korea.

I don't see why you're singling out Americans on that part, I'm sure you'll get the same exact results in Canada, the UK, Germany etc, show a bunch of Japanese Celebrities and if they aren't some Japanophile couldn't name them.

I'm sure ur right about that.

But I was sure that average person anywhere including Japan could name capital city of USA..even if they replied Washington which is not strictly speaking the full complete answer but acceptable(as both Washington the place and Washington the person are so frequently mentioned in US TV/Movie)
Also "California" as a particularly famous state.
California and Texas are perhaps the most heard of states internationally.
Im sure that 70% of Australians on a streetwalk would name Tokyo as the major city and probably capital of Japan.I admit I cant think of anything much else the average person might identify, apart from Japanese car and electrics famous brands.
Mount Fuji postcard might be a pretty famous Japanese image if shown a picture.Many people might ID this, but many would not.
Perhaps on a longer shot..a bullet train.

Perhaps Japan needs a Paul Hogan style promotion campaign.

How many people are REALLY so stupid in these surveys, or is it ''cooler'' to appear ignorant and stupid in front of your friends, than like a professorial ''nerd''?

I am an American. I am an English teacher in Japan. I asked my middle and high school students this same question (aka, please list good and bad things about America) and asked them to be honest. They didn't write their names on the papers. Most of their responses were very similar, and for the record, only about three or four of them (out of 600) have ever been to the US. Most who go to the States just go to Hawaii on vacation. However, I don't think a Hawaiian Vacation is exactly representative of The United States as a whole. =) Maybe it's just me.

Anywho. Here were the most common responses:

Bad:
Big. Very big. Guns. Gangs. Danger. Crime. War. Army. Fat Man. Fat Woman. Fat people. 80 kilo~100 kilo people [Note: Those are kilograms, so that's about 175 to 220 pounds.]. Fast Food. Bad food. Eat only beef. No rice. "ONLY ENGLISH!!! VERY VERY FAST ENGLISH!!!! ITS DIFFICULT ME!!!". [Note: Lol, I liked that answer.]

Good:
Big place. Pretty girl. Handsome boy. Ikemen [Note: Lol, that means "Hot Guys."] Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Tall person. Big Chest. "F"-word. [Note: I've censored the word. The student wrote it out though. Not sure why that was in the "Good" column.... lol]. Disney. Mickey. Hollywood. Johnny Depp. Michael Jackson. The Beatles. Avril Lavigne. [Note: The Beatles and Avril are not American, but more than a dozen kids wrote it, so...]. Cowboy. Texas. New York. Hawaii. Seattle. Los Angeles. Washington DC. Washington [Note: These kids also meant DC. Most Japanese people don't know that Washington (State) and Washington DC are two different places at opposite ends of the country. The ones that DO know are usually baseball kids that idolize Ichiro Suzuki (the Japanese baseball player that plays for the Seattle Mariners).]. Hot Dog. McDonalds. Kentucky [Note: Lol, they mean KFC]. Big Car. Music. Dramas [Note: They mean TV Shows]. Ichiro. Obama. YES WE CAN!


Aaaaand there you have it, folks! "America" through the eyes of about 600 middle and high schoolers who've (mostly) never been to America, or any other country for that matter (though a few have been to Korea).

Oh! One last note: Lol, give them a break on mixing up capital, state, and city names. I'm constantly surprised that they can even name as many places as they do. I know that I, for one, had NO idea how many prefectures were in Japan until I went out of my way and Google'd it. I certainly didn't learn that in school. Heck, I don't even know how many provinces/states are in Mexico (and I certainly can't name even two of them) ---- and Mexico shares a border with the U.S.! To these kids, the US is just one of many other countries in the world, just like Lithuania or Zambia. You can't expect them to be able to know and rattle off the names of states and capitals at the drop of a hat. After all, would YOU be able to tell the difference between the names of states, provinces, and cities in, let's say... Laos? Or even a country that speaks your own language, like New Zealand? ;D

Cheers!

@ Patrick-Australia

I'm not really sure why japanese people should know the US capital. I mean seriously, why should anybody waste their time with such random knowledge....

Thank you for this insightful post, Eigo J-Go. It was quite interesting. To be honest, I am not surprised about the gun/crime answers. When you have a country with complete gun control, compared to my city where there are an average of 300 homicides alone each year (and they make a homicide map! - http://www.philly.com/inquirer/multimedia/15818502.html), obviously that is going to stand out. However, people should by no means think the USA is not safe, as this is definitely not the norm. Many other countries have it much worse.

And if they think KFC is good, Japan seriously needs a Chick Fil-A!

Someone used knowing Japanese Celebs vs. American Celebs as proof of Americans not really knowing Japan.

Just as a counter-point, I'm American and I hardly even know my own country's celebs. Like if I see them on TV or something, I'd be like "I've seen that guy before!" but if its just their name I have no idea who they are. Like it wasn't until last year I learned who Paris Hilton was, not that I wasn't up to date but more that I just didn't care about celebrities.

Same applies while I'm in Japan, and also thinking about Japanese culture. While yeah celebrities have some influence on cultures, they are really only a small portion of the culture. If not they're just other human beings who happen to get a lot of attention.

@Eigo J-Go

That's not just the Japanese way of thinking, other cultures base their image of USA on Hollywood movies and TV shows too. And these become more and more shallow every year presenting USA in a rather negative manner.

Most people either think that USA is a fairy land where everyone is beautiful and lives rich and happy life working almost nothing and having fun all the time - or that it's a country full of crime, violence, fake morality, shallow and/or fat people, obsessed with their looks and finding another sex partner.

USA is far away from other countries and many never go to visit it. Mass media show a very stereotype picture of it, as they always do about every culture in the world and most people accept it without much thinking. I know many people in my country who sold everything they had and went to USA to start a new life basing their expectations on happy and shiney Hollywood movies who taught them all their lives that there's nothing better than America. Some got disappointed, other didn't...

One shouldn't expect that other people know ANYTHING about his/her country and culture, no matter how important it is in the world at the moment. :)

I spent two weeks in Japan last summer - one week in the country (where they hardly ever see foreigners) and one week in Tokyo. I speak a passable amount of Japanese (after 5 years of study - tough language!) but all of the Japanese people I had personal interaction with were warm, friendly, patient and helpful!!

In Tokyo on the street people going to and from work generally keep to themselves and staring or approaching you for no reason is simply not what they do, even among other Japanese strangers. But whenever I needed to ask a question (in my broken Japanese) or said 'sumimasen' to get off a crowded train, they were kind and considerate and always accommodating with a warm smile and nod.

In the country, I was a bit of a marvel. I was traveling with a few Japanese friends and welcomed into family homes for tea or dinner and the local people were so thrilled I had come so far to visit their little town. They were stuffing me with food and gifts and showing me all around their prefecture (Fukushima - now tragically mostly in rubble) with a warm excited pride. The fact an American knew any Japanese or Japanese customs or history totally thrilled them. It was AWESOME!! And I pray for them know and offer what I can of help from America for all the kindness they showed me.

The Japanese are calm and collected in public which I can see some might misinterpret as 'cold to foreigners' but learn a few words of Japanese and they open right up warmly! I found some people I met fear their ability to speak English well so may shy from Americans at first. There was one lady I spoke only Japanese with for two days before I discovered she was more fluent in English than I was in Japanese! She just needed some time to feel comfortable enough in her speaking. By the last day we were speaking mostly English.

Japanese kids are the best! They are learning English in middle school and are anxious to 'try it out' on you. I had a whole soccer team run up to me at a beach shouting out every English word they knew, giggling. It was a highlight of my trip!

So the message I'm sending is - learn a little Japanese, it goes a long way!

I recently started to like Japan, but if they really think we're all fat, lazy, disrespectful people who carry around guns and have bad manners, that's all wrong.
Sorry, I'm just getting protective over my country. I've lived here so long I couldn't bear the thought that the people in the country I've started to like think we're lazy and don't have manners.
In fact, I've never left America. I'm really hoping to visit England or Japan sometime.
I've even started to try to learn Japanese! :D

(Please consider my above comment before reading this.)
I know not all Japanese people think that about America. I might have misread something, but I've been researching this subject for the last couple hours and those were the results I came up with. I was also quick to jump to conclusions. (I was also home sick today. My fever's doing something to my head right now, lol.)
Also, I read some more posts from people who have visited Japan on other websites. They seemed to have had pleasant experiences. I'm still pondering this subject, and I apologize for my earlier comment. I know people can take comments badly if they don't know the emotions of the person who is expressing their thought.
I'm jumping all over the place, so please forgive me if I get something wrong.

I'm really wondering how younger people in Japan think of America in recent times, because I'm a teenager and I'm hoping to visit sometime. What's going to Japan like when you're a teenager? What are good things to do?

I'm mainly curious about how Japanese people act around Americans. I don't want to go there and have people ignore me or or stare and I don't know what's going on.

Interesting topic so far. I think most people that are suprised or critical about the lack of knowledge of Japanese should take a look elsewhere. For example in Europe.

In my country, The Netherlands, we are constantly being influenced by American products and media. A lot more than in Japan even. Prime time television in Netherlands is probably 50% American TV Shows (a typical wednesday night: According to Jim, Two and a Half Men, Criminal Minds, Law & Order, The Big Bang Theory etc etc etc...) all these and many more shows are available on daily basis for us.

Next, we learn a lot about America in school. We learn about the discovery of America, the civil war, the slavery period, geography, a little bit topography, the economic and political system and so on.

And yet, in spite of all this. There are plenty of Dutch who think that New York is the capital of America. We probably know that California is a state, but the capital thing is very confusing for us. Not just about Washington DC, but many of your states have suprising capitals (you should ask us about the capital of California, most of us will tell you LA).

The thing is, when I saw all the keywords Japanese elementary school students wrote about America, especially about the 'bad' keywords, I think they will not be all that different from a sample taken in a Dutch high school, even I (a university student) will agree with some of the keywords, for instance:

Bad:
Guns.Crime. War. Army. Fast Food.

These are most certainly parts of the image that Europeans have about America. And might I once again add that Netherlands is very much influenced with American culture. In other more nationalistic European countries (France, Italy, Spain etc) the stereotypes will probably match those of the Japanese even more!

Good:
Big place. Blonde hair. "F"-word. Disney. Hollywood. Michael Jackson. Cowboy. Texas. New York. Los Angeles. McDonalds.KFC. Big Car. TV Shows.Obama.

These are the positive (although I have no clue why the F-word was considered positive, because it evens ruins the Dutch language these days) that I certainly share with Japanese high school kids.

When I think about America, I think:
spacious, capitalism, republicans, paranoia, war, fast food restaurants, hollywood movies, sweet potatoes (somehow), NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, Lance Amstrong, barack obama (because he's the best darn president you had in a long time, and you don't appreciate him properly imo), gun owners, lack of knowledge about the world.

That last keyword is another thing I want to mention: Europeans are stunned by the (rumored) lack of knowledge many Americans have about the world, just a you are stunned by the lack of knowledge Japanese have about America. We have a saying that goes: To an american Europe consists of England and Paris. When I told some Americans I was from Holland, they did not know where it was (except, somewhere in Europe) and the only keywords they had for me where: cheese and marihuana, go figure...

The question you (Americans) should ask yourself is: What do I know about Japan? The people on this forum will know a lot because this is a very specific forum about Japan, but what do you think the average American thinks about Japan? sushi? martial arts? polite people? kamikaze? hiroshima? pokemon? what more could they know? The media is such a powerful and convincing source of information for all of us, and unfortunately it chooses not to educate, but to entertain the people with stereotypes and prejudices, not suprising that we all think about one another in stereotypical ways...

A very interesting thread here.

I agree with Dutchman's post almost 100%, and would like to add I was surprised by his failure to mention the whole Dutch / Holland / Netherlands thing. This has been a source of great confusion to me as a guy from the UK / GB / England, which no doubt confuses others just as much.

The points I find ironic in here are how critical some people are of the media for portraying countries in one particular way, and worse than that how some people are misled by the media. I am going to Japan in 3 weeks time, and have never been before. I therefore have to base all of my understandings of the country on 2nd hand knowledge, and as it is the other side of the world to me, it isn't a regular holiday destination for my friends and family. I therefore have to rely on the media, printed literature etc to help me gain a better understanding of the country. That is not to say that what they portray is wholly incorrect, but perhaps just the side they want to promote. However, as a level headed (reasonably intelligent) adult I can appreciate the various motivations behind the media and accept that they will not always provide the most balanced view. For example, I expected Japan to be at the forefront of technology and efficiency, always pushing the boundaries etc etc. But then I read that my credit and debit cards won't work in some ATMs, and that the ATMs aren't open all the time, that using cards to make small purchases is nowhere near as common as here in the UK (where using your card to spend ��3 / 400Y on groceries is not unheard of) - what happened to the technology driven and foreward thinking Japan I was told about by the media.

Its also worth considering how much the media impacts us all now. How else do we get our knowledge and information? You can't even rely on books as being 100% unbiased and unjaded towards one particular ideology.

I'm kind of interested to know what Japanese people think of the British.

Well I found out some interesting things about America that I didnt know..... Like Washington and Washington DC aren't the same thing and that California is a state and not a city.

I have to admit, I couldn't even tell you my own capital city up until a few years ago. But who cares about that stuff? (Mind you, I finished school and am now 24 years old)

I have recently come back from a holiday in Japan and I noticed that the people we conversed with we're much friendlier when we said we were from Australia rather than America. Might be due to the fact that the Americans f***ed them up so bad not that long ago. Or that through the media/movies and whatnot they may get a bad image of America. I know here in Aus we get an awful image of America, so much so that I don't think I'll ever want to visit there.

Just my opnion though. Every person is different in little ways and every person has a slightly different view of the world.

It really isn't fair to judge anyone based on just the country they come from. But it's really stupid to view an entire country based on what you've seen in movies or on t.v. and decide from that which countries you'll visit and which you'll forego. Educate yourselves, please.

I think the recent earthquake/tsunami has changed American's views on Japan compared to our culture. They see how giving and selfless the Japanese have been during this disaster. I have seen several comparisons made to Katrina, where people here were looting and police were brought in to maintain order. It has made many people think highly of Japan. Take a look at this article:

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/why-is-there-no-looting-i...