In white’s book, it is said that teenagers in Japan are asexual and eager to study, compared to Americans. Indeed, Japanese have the image for American which is like more open about their sex than Japanese, so that somehow White’s statement is still right. However, compared to past in Japan, I would say Japanese teenager is no longer asexual. As I wrote in school essay, the entrance exam system for university, which require students to study for so long time, still exists in Japan. So the fact that teenager is eager to study is not much changed but their attitude toward their sexuality is getting more open years by years.
I heard it was thought having chat about sex are embarrassing, because sexuality was private matter. But when I was in high school, my friends talked about sex, even when some girls join the conversation. In daily at school, we sometimes talked about sex seriously, sometimes as a joke or foolishly. And also, I know many boys and girls who have had sex before graduating from high school. Maybe around me, I guess about half of teenagers have done. In addition, enjokousai which is one of the teenagers prostitution, was huge problem in Japan. Many teenagers concerned with it. From this view point, (of course it is not good thing), we can tell the attitude about sex has been changing Still between parents and children, it is rare to talk about sex. But I guess it is all the same in all over the world. So I could say teens in Japan are not asexual anymore. I think attitude for sexuality depends on people, so it is really hard to tell which American teenagers and Japanese teenagers are more open to sex but Japanese getting more open about sex than past.
Maybe, backgrounds of this change strongly related to Hollywood movies or other American cultures. Hollywood movies are popular in Japan, and it shows us open sexuality.
However, I think social attitude about sex in Japan has not much changed. The one good example is school sexual education. It does not teach student clearly, just remained vaguely. So many misunderstand sex, and rapid AIDS spreading are serious problem in Japan. The change of the society cannot reach the change of the teenagers attitude about sex.

In this chapter, White tries to describe two different types of friends, which are “the group friends” and “the best friends”. As she says, indeed it can be seen both types of friendship in Japan. Generally speaking, Japan is said its value is based on the collectivism so that Japanese suit others more often than other foreigners do. This is why many people think the group friends are more sufficient role in Japanese daily life. It grasped points briefly. I could say that it is not far from right track.

As for my experience in my all school, indeed, the group friends are more important matter especially among girls. Girls join at least one group, sometimes a few groups, and they are always together. Even when they go to bathroom, they go there chatting each other. Almost all of the group is formed by their clubs members or just close friends. So if some of them in one group has bad relationships with one of the other group member, their relations between two groups between them gets worse though most people in one group have nothing with the quarrel. In my opinion, I suggest this is the reason why many bullying happen in Japanese school. Among boys, that happens less than girls but still does.

According to best friends, I think it depends on people, I mean how each person feel about it. I think I have some. But I don’t know the clear line to divide the best friends from the group friends. I usually speak of myself to the best friends, and also I do to the group friends.

Throughout this chapter, many kinds of ways how marketing industry tries to form trends and to influence teenagers to buy things have discussed. As it says in this book, the magazines are the one of the main source to shape trends and influence teenagers to buy things in Japan and USA. In Japan, especially for girls, the magazines have a big impact on their life. They get images for their fashions, information about brand new movies, celebrities, books and music, and particular knowledge such as love or sex from the magazines. There are many kinds of magazines. I think there are more kinds of magazines in Japan than introduced in this book. So it is common to choose one they are interested or they like. However, usually no matter which magazines they choose, it contains more than one specific topic; even it is fashion magazine, they also have information about music, movies, sex, and so on. So that, to buy a magazine means for teenagers indeed to know about one specific topic, fashion in this case, but also to know how the world around them is going on. This is common in Japan, and also in United States though there are few differences such as; in Japanese magazine, the idol’s sexual or love relationships are considered as taboo because Japanese youth might loose interests to them ,on the other hands, in American magazines like to report on the star’s love life, which is showed in this book. Another example of ways how to promote in Japan is to make up ‘the special holiday’ such as ‘White day’ or ‘pokki no hi’ as we discussed in our group discussion. The industries make new holidays for the goods for their campaign. According to White day, which is on the 14th of March, it was made up by candy industry because on the day, boys have to give cookies to girls for return of Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is holiday around the world but White day is only in Japan. That is why it was made up by Japanese industries. According to pokki no hi, that day does not totally have special meaning.

School system is really different around the world. As a whole, all school exists for providing students with academic knowledge but somehow, school system is different because the country focuses on which educational points are more important. In this book, White has tried to make clear the differences between United States and Japan. The some of what she says is right, but some seems to be on the wrong track. So I would like to talk my experience in high school, and tell what Japanese schools are like.
In this book, Japanese school is stricter, hard-working, and more unified academics. In my high school, that was true, there are many strict school rules such as not dying hair cooler, no pierces, and boys not having long hair. I think, in my opinion, high school in Japan has almost same such a same rules. However, public school rules are less strict than private school in common. And also I could say the higher schools which is called 進学校, the school which more concentrated on studies of entering into colleges, are less strict than not-進学校. So, my school was public 進学校（shingakkou）so that my school is less strict than others. Usually, it is easy to get suspension or write “statement of regret” if students break the school rules. But in such a school, if they break the rules, teachers do not care too much. Because teachers care about students academics more than what students do or think in their life.
The more serious matter is studies for entrance exam for college. All students focused to unify their knowledge. There are high school rank in Japan, and it is made by degree of how many students enter the famous, popular, and high-academic universitie. For example, the school which the more students send to Tokyo university, Waseda university, and Keio university is considered as good,and high ranked school. So teachers only think about how they improve students test’s score. In my opinion, that looks like hard working. However, there are no home work specially here. To study or not is students choice. If they do, they can enter good university, if they not, just they cannot.
Therefore, I think Japanese high school system has a lot of points they shold think about. Like American school ,as it say in the book, we shold try to cultivate students interest more in high school. As for me, it is more important to know what students want to be and study. In Japanese high school system, it is hard to do so. So maybe that is why there are less students who has clear their future view here than in United States

The most interesting point in discuss of this chapter is that there are different feelings toward their parents between American teenager and Japanese teenager. In Japan, It is said usually that they cannot get along with their father. I think Japanese girls prefer their mothers to their fathers. On the other hands, in class discussion, it was said girls prefer fathers to their mothers in U.S because their mother are too strict on daughters. I personally think that will rarely happen in Japan. So that made me wonder why there are so different feelings about their parents between two countries. And also I have question about presser of studies in Japan in the article. Actually, there is the pressure but not among all of the students. I think half of them are not concerned with it. In Japan, it is easy to graduate from school, there less homework and just for students who want to go difficult university have to work so hard. I personally think it does not matter which countries’ study pressures.

Hi, I’m Shingo Onozawa,from Sapporo but now I live in Tokyo by myself for the college.
I used to live in Indiana for a year when I was in high school, so I also have some friends who go to the university in Colorado from Indiana. I hope great time in this class with the class at Colorado, and it helps me study English.
よろしくね

Test