Social Time and Modernity in Japan: An Exploration of Concepts and a Cultural Comparison

Abstract

The assertion that time and space are not easily exchangeable between cultures is explored with reference to the nineteenth-century processes by which the Western system of time regulation became adopted by Japanese society. Particular attention is paid to the role this transformation played in the construction of cultural identity.

The Time of Our Lives: The Experience of Temporality in Occupation

“…Specific to this paper, the habitus of time or the cultural time logic is of interest. For example, industrial society has developed a view of time which is based on industry's need for adherence to clock time and the synchronization of occupation across local cultures (Shimada, 1995). Time is viewed as a limited economic and personal resource.…”

‘Times’ and Images of Others in an Amis Village, Taiwan

“…6. According to Shimada (1995) 'the Meiji government introduced the Western form of time regulation in 1872 with the intention of leading Japanese society into "civilization"' (p. 254). This Western form of time regulation includes two systems: 'The international meridian (the 24-hour system with twelve o'clock midnight as the beginning of the day) and the Gregorian calendar' (Nishimoto, 1997: 244) 7.…”

Introduction

“…In the late 19th century the translator of Samuel Smiles's bestseller Self Help, Nakamura Keiu, could not find a simple word to express 'punctuality' and had to render the term with the somewhat bulky construction: 'to not mistake the agreed upon time (teiki o ayamarazu)' (Kinmonth, 1981: 40-1). In recent years, a number of researchers have investigated how and When the Japanese Have Become Hasty (Oda, 1997), as one author puts it (for research in English and German see Shimada, 1995;Nishimoto, 1997;Kuriyama and Hashimoto, 2002;Zöllner, 2003;Steger, 2004: 63-106). They elaborate on the influences of railway systems, school and so on, and come to the conclusion that the westernization in Japan after the opening of the country in its various ways was crucial for the development of a time consciousness that includes a sense of punctuality and of 'time as money'.…”