These ideals filtered out of the samurai class and eventually rooted deeply into the national character of Japan. Conformity is required through this ideal because an individual mentality would not consider loyalty to be as important as society viewed it. In addition, by behaving out of the norm, shame would be brought to a family. The individualistic mentality runs contradictory to the traditional family structure in Japan. Women and minorities in Japan have been traditionally viewed as second class. Equal rights were not granted to women until the Occupation Era following World War II. The modifications that were made to the existing Meiji Constitution gave women the same rights as men for the first time in the countrys history. Prior to that they were seen as servants, dominated by their husbands, in what can only be described as a master / slave relationship. The new Japanese Constitution of 1947 empowered the Japanese women for the first time in the countries history. Minorities were persecute throughout Japans past. Native Anglos were hunted down and slaughtered. The surviving numbers were driven north onto the smaller surrounding islands. The closed era of Tokogawa Shogunate tried to remove all of the diversity within society. Any thought other than the Shinto/Buddhist/Confucianism that dominated was society was expelled. The violent massacre of Christians during this period only supported conformity to the ideals of the ruling class. The stance they took on foreign thought and technology insured that no outside influences would affect Japanese culture. This view lasted over 200 years until the country was opened to foreigners again. The long period the Japanese spent with no diversity combined with the loyalty and honor themes of Bushido, made it impossible for them to accept diversity after the country was opened again. The xenophobic sentiment of the Tokogawa Era only added to the strict view that Japanese...
