User:Amagase~enwiki

Brief biography

This user lives in Japan. この利用者は日本に住んでいます。

I was born in the old Japanese city of Kyoto. I received my master's degree in Architecture at Kyoto University. My research subject was the development of farmhouses in the medieval Kinai region. The thesis was not so good, yes I knew I was not so brilliant to be a scholar. Now I work in a design office in Osaka as an architectural designer. Although this is a truly interesting job, Im getting a little bit tired of hearing the phrase "more budget cuts please".

I started editing Wikipedia, adding pictures scanned from copyright-expired books. Check my commons user page.[1] Currently I am engaged in the Japanese ancient history articles.

Criticism by a scholar

Although I don't know whether this page is the appropriate place, I leave a note here about an important notice. A respected scholar threw harsh criticism against the article of Jōmon period and Wikipedia itself.[2] The author, Charles T. Keally is an archaeologist and a professor at Sophia University, who studies in the Japanese ancient periods. He is known as one of the earliest critics against the previously-evaluated Fujimura Shinichi's works.

Keally criticized not only the factual errors in the article but also the Wikipedia's philosophy, which he recognized as being incompatible with scientific methods. He emphasized it is difficult to determine the appropriateness of references in the Wikipedia system. I regrettably approve his opinion, and think the reliability of Wikipedia should be carefully assessed in the present state. I also suppose the situation will not dramatically improve in the future.

I know my activities here are not scientific works, although I try to keep my references in mainstream views. I'm just working to protect articles from been vandalized... yes, it is not constructive but someone need to do it.

Notes for the US Library of Congress Country Study

In Japan-related subjects in the English Wikipedia, many of the articles were based on the Japan section of the Library of Congress Country Studies. It is highly understandable to start writing articles with copyright-free materials by the government, but I noticed some descriptions were overly poor and biased. Here are some examples;

Preschool education provides the transition from home to formal school for most children. Children's lives at home are characterized by indulgence, and the largely nonacademic preschool experience helps children make the adjustment to the group-oriented life of school and, in turn, to life in society itself. [3]

In interpersonal relationships, most Japanese tend to avoid open competition and confrontation. Working with others requires self-control, but it carries the rewards of pride in contributing to the group, emotional security, and social identity. [4]

Relative status differences define nearly all social interaction. Age or seniority, gender, educational attainment, and place of employment are common distinctions that guide interaction. Without some knowledge of the other's background, age and gender may be an individual's only guidelines. A Japanese person may prefer not to interact with a stranger, to avoid potential errors in etiquette. [5]

The Japanese worldview is characterized also by a pragmatic approach to problem solving, in which the technique may be less important than the results. Thus a Japanese who is ill may simultaneously or sequentially seek the assistance of a medical doctor, obtain medication from a person trained in the Chinese herbal tradition, and visit a local shrine. Each of these actions is based on a different belief in causation of the illness: the physician may say that the illness is caused by a bacterial infection; the herbalist regards the body as being out of balance; and the basis of the shrine visit is the belief that the mind must be cleansed to heal the body. In the West, these explanations might be viewed as mutually exclusive, but the Japanese patient may hold all of these views simultaneously without a sense of discord. [6]

Note that neither sources nor writers are shown in the US Library of Congress web pages. I recommend you to check the reliability of this source before you import the articles.