Summary Of Bruce Feiler's Learning To Bow

In the book Learning to Bow, written by Bruce Feiler, Feiler is sent to Japan to teach Japanese students about American values, customs, and its language. Feiler discusses his life and teaching experience in Japan during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In what became more of a learning lesson however, the author was able to understand what it truly meant to be Japanese. Feiler is better able to understand what it means to be Japanese through his immersion into Japanese society, as well as comparing his Americanized ideals with that of Japan. He is enabled through this immersion to better understand the vast similarities and differences between these two distant countries.

Feiler’s trip to Japan came from the invitation of the Japanese Ministry

Japan may have dominated global markets; however, its citizens were still isolated from other cultures. Japan is an island and has a long history of isolation that contributes to these conditions. Feiler introduces Japanese students in the city of Sano, located in Tochigi Prefecture 50 miles from the capital of Tokyo, to the outside world in his teaching. By forming relationships with his peers, and students, Feiler is able to dissect the issues plaguing Japanese society and their schools. Students in Japan know the rules of English, but they did not know how to apply them. Feiler first attempts at tearing down the social customs of Japan are unsuccessful. Japanese schools inspire strict obedience and conformity within their students and teachers. To the Japanese, exams are more important than individualism. “As it had done in the past, Japan adopted a foreign prototype and transformed its alien character by implanting a Japanese heart.” Feiler’s findings are based on the transformation of Japan’s school system by the Americans after WWII in which an emphasis of “democracy” and “individual freedom” were meant to be the core of student’s education. Feiler argues this plan

Feiler’s student, Kenzo Saikawa was a part of the burakumin class or, eta. This class was an excluded class in Japanese society. Kenzo Saikawa, who was bullied for being different decided to end his suffering and jumps from a balcony to his death. Feiler provides an expectation placed on the youth of Japan of trading individual aspirations for national conformity. Why does Japan still to this day have such high suicide rates? Feiler debunks the myth that youth suicide is more common that adult suicide. However he defines suicide in Japan as a “long and honorable tradition” Feiler wants change in Japanese schools to decrease their “high level of stress in the form of pressure to conform and comply with the rules”

–SOURCE DISCUSSION- -

Legacy of “Americanization” still holds true in today’s Japanese society as present in Feiler’s experience. One can argue there is a heavy American cultural influence in Japan.