Nate Rodriguez

History
East Asia
East Asia is one of the most populated regions in the world containing China, Mongolia,
South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. While many of these nations are developing
countries, some of them contain very wealthy civilizations, which are primarily located in Japan
and China. However, East Asia has had a fair share of internal and international conflict
amongst neighboring countries, and even today, China and Japan are considered to be significant
rivals of one another, which is possibly why both countries are undergoing such rapid economic
development. Nonetheless, East Asia, primarily China and Japan, has had a large history of
cultural, political, economic, and environmental development.
While both countries have been occupied for thousands of years, Japan was not recorded
in history as a country until around the first century. It was around this time that Japan was
recorded in Chinese and Korean sources, and Japans contact with China and Korea brought
significant and drastic changes to Japan. In fact, China had a strong hold culturally over Japan
until the Tang dynasty. A person can see that the Japanese and Chinese cultures are very similar
to one another. In fact, a person can see many areas in the Japanese culture that China influenced
the development of Japan. A primary example is the adoption of the Chinese script. When both
cultures were beginning to communicate with one another, the Japanese adopted the Chinese
writing and over the years both languages have developed into its own unique language. One
unique difference between both languages is that the Chinese language has evolved into multiple
dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, and Wu, but there is only one written language,
Chinese. Japan, on the other hand, has a variety of written languages including Katakana,

Hiragana, Rmaji, but only one spoken language, Japanese. Furthermore, China and Japan are
very similar culturally because of the majority of the Japanese population adopted Confucianism
and Buddhism when the two cultures met. However, a large number continued to practice
Shinto, but with the large conversion, many shrines and temples were built, which lead to
architectural similarity amongst the two nations.
Other than the shrines built for religious purposes, the architectural similarities stop there.
The first major difference between Japanese architecture and Chinese architecture before
modernization and the drastic increase in population, China preferred breadth over height and
they had an emphasis on the use of wood. On the inside of the house, the Chinese decorated
their house according to the concept of Feng Shui. Japan, on the other hand, raised their houses
a few inches from the ground in order to cool the inside during the hot and dry summers.
Economically and technologically, Japan and China started off very different. Japan, of
course, is an island, which caused it to be very isolated and allowed countries like China to take a
giant leap forward compared Japan. It wasnt until the Meiji restoration when Japan began to
adopt many western technologies that allowed it to compete with nations all over the world.
China, on the other hand, is one of the oldest civilizations in the world and was a world leader in
arts and sciences. However, the nation was crippled after years of famine, civilian uprising, and
foreign occupation. Another distinct characteristic that separates China from Japan is the
population size. China is one of the most populated countries in the world and is ten times the
size of Japan.
China and Japan also had distinct and different philosophies that helped raise them to
economic power. China was heavily influenced by the ideas and concepts of Confucius.
Confucius helped develop a sense of national identity. He believed and practiced the highest

standards of morality, which were stressed with five virtues: humanity, courtesy, honesty,
knowledge, and integrity. However, Japan based their principles off of hard work ethic and
many scholars believe that this loyalty to work hard stems from the sense of responsibility to
work for one anothers sense of well-being. Japans concept of working has possibly helped
them rise to economic power in this modern era, while Chinas concept of Confucianism has
possibly hurt them more than helped them. This is more than likely due to the fact that
Confucius stressed the importance of agriculture, but did not stress the importance of commerce,
and the idea of making a profit is looked down upon.
Another key difference between the two nations is the type of government that runs both
countries. This is more than likely the key difference that caused China and Japan to diverge
from one another. China, under Mao Zedong, was a planned socialism. This allowed Mao
Zedong to implement a communist dictatorship allowing China to be a sovereign country, but
constricted the rights of the citizens. However, Deng Xiaoping eventually changed the
government from a planned socialism to market socialism. This allowed him to decentralize the
economic decision making while being able to maintain a strict political control on the people.
Japan, at the start of their development, tried to implement the same type of government as
China. They had a centralized and organized government, however, after World War II, Japan
began to implement a market based capitalism that was introduced by America. After the
installation of the new type of government, Japan and China have diverged into their own
separate ways.
While both nations are a powerhouse in the new world, China was able to take a drastic
leap forward compared to Japan at the beginning of their development because of the resources
that China had. China was able to make use of the natural resources, which includes coal, iron

ore, petroleum, natural gas and many others. Japan, on the hand, had very few mineral resources
and has been able to export fish. The natural resources that China had allowed them to export
and become a very profitable and powerful nation. However, as time went on and technology
became more and more advance, Japan has made use of the technology and is now one of the
leading technological producers.
All in all, China and Japan were very similar during the beginning of their development
because China was the first form of contact that Japan had made with a large nation. However,
as time went on and with the pressures of outside influences like the environment, government
and political factors began to push China and Japan into separate directions.