The Role of Bushido in Modern Japan

Bushido, or the way of the warrior, is commonly defined as the moral and behavioral code of the samurai. It is often considered a foundation stone of Japanese culture, both by Japanese people and by outside observers of the country. What are the components of bushido, when did they develop, and how are they applied in modern Japan? Controversial Origins of the Concept It is difficult to say exactly when bushido developed. Certainly, many of the basic ideas within bushido—loyalty to ones family and ones feudal lord (daimyo), personal honor, bravery and skill in battle, and courage in the face of death—have likely been important to samurai warriors for centuries. Amusingly, scholars of ancient and medieval Japan often dismiss bushido and call it a modern innovation from the Meiji and Showa eras. Meanwhile, scholars who study Meiji and Showa Japan direct readers to study ancient and medieval history to learn more about the origins of bushido. Both camps in this argument are right, in a way. The word bushido and others like it did not arise until after the Meiji Restoration—that ​is, after the samurai class was abolished. It is useless to look at ancient or medieval texts for any mention of bushido. On the other hand, as mentioned above, many of the concepts included in bushido were present in Tokugawa society. Basic values such as bravery and skill in battle are important to all warriors in all societies at all times, so presumably, even early samurai from the Kamakura period would have named those attributes as important. The Changing Modern Faces of Bushido In the lead-up to World War II, and throughout the war, the Japanese government pushed an ideology called imperial bushido on the citizens of Japan. It emphasized Japanese military spirit, honor, self-sacrifice, and unwavering, unquestioning loyalty to the nation and to the emperor.   When Japan suffered its crushing defeat in that war, and the people did not rise up as demanded by imperial bushido and fight to the last person in defense of their emperor, the concept of bushido seemed to be finished. In the post-war era, only a few die-hard nationalists used the term. Most Japanese were embarrassed by its connections with the cruelty, death, and excesses of World War II. It seemed like the way of the samurai had ended forever. However, beginning in the late 1970s, Japans economy began to boom. As the country grew into one of the major world economic powers in the 1980s, people within Japan and outside of it once again began to use the word bushido. At that time, it came to mean extreme hard work, loyalty to the company that one worked for, and devotion to quality and precision as a sign of personal honor. News organizations even reported on a sort of company-man seppuku, called karoshi, in which people literally worked themselves to death for their companies.   CEOs in the west and in other Asian countries started to urge their employees to read books touting corporate bushido, in an attempt to replicate Japans success. Samurai stories as applied to business, along with Sun Tzus  Art of War  from China, became best-sellers in the self-help category. When the Japanese economy slowed into stagflation in the 1990s, the meaning of bushido in the corporate world shifted once again. It began to signify the peoples brave and stoic response to the economic downturn. Outside of Japan, the corporate fascination with bushido quickly faded. Bushido in Sports Although corporate bushido is out of fashion, the term still crops up regularly in connection with sports in Japan.  Japanese baseball coaches refer to their players as samurai, and the international soccer (football) team is called Samurai Blue. In press conferences, the coaches and players regularly invoke bushido, which is now defined as hard work, fair play, and a fighting spirit. Perhaps nowhere is bushido more regularly mentioned than in the world of martial arts. Practitioners of judo, kendo, and other Japanese martial arts study what they consider to be the ancient principles of bushido as part of their practice (the antiquity of those ideals is debatable, of course, as mentioned above). Foreign martial artists who travel to Japan to study their sport usually are particularly devoted to an ahistorical, but very appealing, version of bushido as a traditional cultural value of Japan. Bushido and the Military The most controversial usage of the word bushido today is in realm of the Japanese military, and in political discussions around the military. Many Japanese citizens are pacifists, and deplore the use of rhetoric that once led their country into a catastrophic global war. However, as troops from Japans Self-Defense Forces increasingly deploy overseas, and conservative politicians call for increasing military power, the term bushido crops up more and more often. Given the history of the last century, military uses of this very militaristic terminology can only inflame relations with neighboring countries including South Korea, China, and the Philippines.   Sources Benesch, Oleg. Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Marro, Nicolas. The Construction of a Modern Japanese Identity: A Comparison of Bushido and The Book of Tea,  The Monitor: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 17, Issue1 (Winter 2011).The Modern Re-invention of Bushido, Columbia University website, accessed August 30, 2015.

Comparison of Literacy Rate of Pakistan with SAARC Countries

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY OF KARACHI INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS TERM PAPER TOPIC: COMPARISON OF PAKISTAN’S LITERACY RATE WITH SAARC SUBMITTED TO: Dr. ABDUL WAHEED SUBMITTED BY: INBISAT JEHAN ZAFAR SEAT NO.: B0655047 DATED: 29th Sept. 2010 Literacy is a tool for empowering our communities and ourselves. It can free us from many personal, economic and social constraints, by helping to eradicate poverty, reduce child mortality, curb population growth, achieve gender equality and ensure sustainable development, peace and democracy. The goal of the United Nations Literacy Decade is to enable people everywhere to communicate effectively within their own communities and with the outside world. The motto is â€Å"Literacy for All: A†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â€" ª More than 50 million illiterate citizens in Pakistan. ââ€" ª Primary school enrolment was less than 70percent and even in this, as many as 30 percent get dropped out before acquiring basic literacy skills. ââ€" ª NCHD gets funds of Rs. 2.7 billion during the current financial year. [pic] It needs to be highlighted that from census to census the definition of literacy has been undergoing a change, resultantly the literacy figure has vacillated irregularly during the last 5 census. An update of the five censuses is as under; | |Literacy rate |Definition of being literate | | |Male | | |1972 | |40.0 % |50.6 million | Bangladesh being an underdeveloped nation has a literacy rate lower than that of Pakistan. The reason may be that the Bangladesh government cannot afford to allocate large amount of funds to the educational sector. Another reason of Bangladesh’s low literacy rate may be gender disparities. 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Interpersonal Management and Communication

Question: Discuss about the Interpersonal Management and Communication. Answer: Introduction: Interpersonal communication also known as face-to-face communication is defined as the process through which people exchange their ideas, feelings, meaning and information through either verbal or non-verbal messages. It not only means the actual words/ message being said but also the language, tonal variation, facial expressions, body language and gestures used between the sender and the receipt. Some key elements of interpersonal communication that have been identified are a) the communicators; b) the message; c) noise; d) feedback; e) the channel; and f) the context (Baker, 2013). At the workplaces, it is important to provide feedback in a constructive and an effective manner without being offensive or causing confusions. Under interpersonal communication skills, effective feedback should be heard clearly, understood, and accepted. There are several ways in which the communicator can use to ensure the effectiveness of the feedback provided. One, the feedback provided should focus on behavior and not personality (De Janasz, et al., 2014). Two, the feedback should communicate how the message has affected you. Three, the feedback ought to be specifically focussed on the original message which it intends to respond to. Four, the feedback ought to be timely: the response becomes irrelevant as time passes by. And lastly, the feedback should pick a moment when the communicator is ready for it (Sommer, 2012. Conversely, the recipient of the feedback should be a good listener. He/ she should just listen attentively and stop thinking about the reply. He/ she should conc entrate on the non-verbal elements as well (Beebe, et al., 2014). The application of interpersonal communication is important to the organizations, especially when relating to the employees. First, it helps in giving and collecting information. Second, it helps in maintaining and forming relationship with and among the workers. Third, helps in expressing personal needs as well as in understanding each other (Baker, 2013). Fourth, contribute to solving problems and making decisions. And, lastly, interpersonal communication skills assists in regulating power (Sommer, 2012). References Baker, A., 2013. Feedback and organizations: Feedback is good, feedback-friendly culture is better. Canadian Psychology, 54(4), pp. 260-268. Beebe, S., Beebe, S. Redmond, M., 2014. Interpersonal Communication: relating to others. 7th Edition ed. Boston: Allyn Bacon. De Janasz, S., Crossman, J., Campbell, N. Power, M., 2014. Interpersonal skills in organizations. 2nd ed. North Ryde, NSW: Mc-Graw-Hill Education. Sommer, K. L., 2012. Does constructive performance feedback improve citizenship intentions and job satisfaction? The roles of perceived opportunities for advancement, respect, and mood. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 23(2), pp. 177-201.

Serial Position Effect

Introduction Serial Position Effect describes a situation where the ability to recall items in a list varies as the position of an item on the list changes. It states that items at the start of the list and at the end have a higher chance of been remembered as opposed to items in the middle. Primacy Effect is the tendency to remember an item in the beginning of serialized items.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Serial Position Effect specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On the other hand, the ability to recall items at the end of a list is called Recency Effect. Reasons have been developed to explain this phenomenon. However, the earliest reason for Primacy Effect is long-term memory while the reason for Recency Effect is immediate memory (Neely LeCompte, 1999). This paper looks into a more detailed look into Serial Position Effect through an analysis of an article that discusses similarity of semantic similarity to irrelevant speech effect (Neely LeCompte, 1999). Research Findings Previous research has found that irrelevant speech has the capacity to disrupt immediate recall of short lists. When the lists to be recalled have a semantic resemblance to the speech, there is significantly little effect in the ability to recall according to Neely LeCompte (1999). Hence, it has an insignificant effect to the Serial Position Effect theory. However, many researchers have delved into this matter with great interest. That is the bedrock for the research conducted by Neely and LeCompte (1999). The researchers carried out one experiment. In experiment one, the researchers ensured that they conduct a series of trials in front of their academic peers who had previously shown interest in this field. The research was designed to remedy previous researches’ perceived weaknesses. The weaknesses were mainly in less participation and the assemblage of the stimuli. A stimulus refers to the items on the li st. The researchers perceived that there was a minimal number of participants in the previous studies and that the stimuli did not adequately capture the extensiveness of a list (Neely LeCompte, 1999).Advertising Looking for essay on psychology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The experiment findings showed that indeed there was a significant increase in the irrelevant speech when the items to be remembered were semantically similar to the lists that participants were to remember. This was because of the serial recall capacity brought about by Serial position effect. This theory’s placement hypothesis shows that an items position matters when asked to recall. In this experiment, the researchers used semantically disruptive words. Hence, the participants found it hard to form a mental pattern in their recall (Neely LeCompte, 1999). This was designed to discredit further the fact that items in a particular list may form a pattern that participants find easy to memorize. However, this was further discredited when studies that are more current showed that Serial Position Effect was not only in semantics but also in visuals (Neely LeCompte, 1999). In relation to irrelevant speech, Serial Position Effect may not be affected. This is because, as original explanations put it, Serial Position Effect is because of long term and virtual memories. Hence, it is possible that the new lists that effectively reduced formations of a pattern did not affect participants in this study. Serial Position Effect is strengthened by these research findings because it effectively follows that ability to recall rests in the Recency and Primacy effects developed. It also discredits possibility of irrelevant speech affecting Serial Position Effect (Neely LeCompte, 1999). Real Life Example In real life, Serial Position Effect is quite possible. It is easier to remember items in the beginning and end of a list. However, this may be because of the emphasis that individuals place on these two places. In games, in school and all competitions, persons at the beginning of a list are lauded and those in the end perceived weakly (Neely LeCompte, 1999). In the English Premier League, it is always quite easy to remember the first teams. Additionally, it is easier to recall teams at the end. While teams that win this competition win the English Premier League trophy, teams that eventually finish at the tail end are punished by relegations.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Serial Position Effect specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Hence, it is actually a real life thing to engage those two places in a list. The majority of the teams that lie in the middle do not get any limelight. This is because their position is perceivably irrelevant according to Neely LeCompte (1999). Reference Neely, C.B. LeCompte, C.D. (1999). The Importance of Semantic Similarity to Irrelevant Speech Effect. Memory and Cognition, 27(1): 37-44. Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2FBF03201211#page-2 This essay on Serial Position Effect was written and submitted by user Amber K. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.