Japan has a particularly homogeneous culture. In fact, both racially and culturally, Japan is the most homogeneous of the world's major nations. This situation has allowed Japan to Westernize its economy and yet maintain a unique sense of identity. It began in 1639, when Japan's rulers begin to notice the conversion of thousands of Japanese to Catholicism by Portuguese missionaries and by the potential for dissidents to form military alliances with foreign nations that suppressed Christianity and Japan sealed the island form the rest of the world. It was not until 1853 with the arrival of an American naval squadron under Commander Matthew Perry that Japan was opened to the outside world. The Japanese had developed a strong sense of national consciousness and pride in their own culture. The Japanese realized in the 1860's that they had to adopt Western technology, to modernize their society if they were to avoid Western domination. Their culture was able to absorb foreign influences without losing its uniqueness. Thus, the Japanese proved themselves extremely flexible in borrowing from other cultures while maintaining their own.

dle class society. Those at the bottom of the social scale are either foreigners, Koreans, or native Japanese. Japanese think of themselves as belonging to a relatively classless society, even though they are mainly a middle class society. Many working-class Japanese rank themselves as middle class because of Japan's prosperity in the 1980's, which allowed them to enjoy high level of consumption of goods and services. Thus their sense of well-being inflated their self assessment of class position. An estimated four percent of Japan's population qualifies as upper class. The upper class consists of those who run the large corporations, the conservative politicians, and senior bureaucrats that collaborate to make up Japan's ruling stratum. The middle class, by contrast, consist of owners of small and medium size businesses, supervisors and managers, professional and technical workers, and some farmers. The middle class accounts for an estimated thirty-five percent of the Japanese class structure. Another forty to fifty percent of the population is represented largely by blue-collar workers and farmers also know as the working class. Ten to fifteen percent are lower class and consist of a variety of semiskilled and unskilled workers in industry and agriculture. One percent of Japan's population is on welfare.

The Japanese were plagued by colonialism. They had to show the Western world that they could become modernized in order to prevent them from being colonized. The first thing was to switch the economy from agricultural to industrial. The Japanese brought in help from other countries such as Britain and Germany. The Japanese learned to modernize their navy from Britain and modernized their army with the help of Germany. Means of transportation increased,

railways were built to connect major cities with the addition of new ports and facilities. The second order of business was to reconstruct the government. The new system of the government was modeled after the Western political system, with components such as executive branch, legislative branch, judicial branch, and political parties and leaders. During this period of modernization some of the Japanese customs/traditions began to fade from the forefront, such as the samurai warrior

Some common words found in the essay are:
Japanese Japan, Japanese Japanese, War II, Germany Means, Perry Japan, Japan Living, Meiji Restoration, KoreaThe Japanese, Japan Japan, Japan Westernize, branch families, ie system, middle class, extended family, main family, percent japanese, western technology, nineteenth century, outside home, employed outside home, parents family, commander matthew perry, nineteenth century japan, middle class society, day-care facilities children,
Approximate Word count = 1522
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)