変わるポピュラー・カルチャー — anime, music, martial arts and festivals (テーマ２・１)

From one bare fact — Japanese comics and animation are read and watched outside Japan, and the government has promoted them — build a paragraph of essay-register Japanese in about 150 characters that states, complicates, attributes and concludes.

1. 01State the fact without exaggerating it

   日本の漫画やアニメは、現在では多くの国で読まれ、見られている. 読まれ is the ます-stem of the passive 読まれる, chaining into 見られている in written register — an efficient way to coordinate two passives without repeating ている. 多くの国で uses で for the place where the action happens. Notice what the sentence does not claim: not that they are the most popular, not that everyone watches them, only that this happens in many countries. Overstating in the first sentence forces you to defend the overstatement for the rest of the paragraph.

2. 02Introduce the policy as a fact and the causal claim as a claim

   日本政府もこれを文化の輸出として位置づけ、クールジャパンという名前で支援を行ってきた. として means as, and 位置づける is to position or frame something as — a precise verb for what a policy does to a phenomenon. ～てきた marks the support as having continued up to now. も on 政府 signals that the government joins something already happening, which quietly does the argumentative work of the next sentence before you make it explicit.

3. 03Now make the causal question explicit

   ただし、人気が政策の結果なのか、それとも政策が人気を追いかけたのかについては、意見が分かれている. のか…それとも…のか is the structure for laying out two alternatives as a genuine question; ～については marks the matter under discussion; 意見が分かれている says opinions are divided. This is the sentence that converts a description into an analysis, and it costs one sentence. 追いかける, to chase after, is a vivid and entirely ordinary verb for a policy following a trend.

4. 04Give the stronger side of the argument a reason, not just a label

   少なくとも、漫画雑誌や単行本という出版の仕組みは政策より古く、その意味では産業が先にあったと言える. 少なくとも is at least and is the honest way to concede that you can settle part of a question and not all of it. という attaches the description 出版の仕組み to the nouns before it. その意味では, in that sense, restricts the claim to the sense you have just specified — a precision move worth having. ～と言える, one can say, is the right strength for an inference you have supported.

5. 05Conclude within what you have shown

   したがって、政策の役割を否定する必要はないが、それだけで人気を説明することはできないだろう. This concludes exactly what the paragraph demonstrated: policy is not nothing, and policy is not everything. ～必要はない, there is no need to, concedes gracefully; だけで…できない refuses the single-cause account. A conclusion that went further — say, that policy was irrelevant — would exceed the evidence the paragraph laid out, and the AO4 grid rewards conclusions that are justified rather than conclusions that are bold.

6. 06Check the katakana and the register

   Katakana check first, because this aspect is full of it: アニメ, クールジャパン. The chōonpu ー is required in クール and the nakaguro ・ is not used inside クールジャパン, which is conventionally written as one run. Then the endings: 見られている, 行ってきた, 分かれている, 言える, ないだろう — plain register throughout. Then length: about 160 characters, a quarter of a Section C answer.

Result: 日本の漫画やアニメは、現在では多くの国で読まれ、見られている。日本政府もこれを文化の輸出として位置づけ、クールジャパンという名前で支援を行ってきた。ただし、人気が政策の結果なのか、それとも政策が人気を追いかけたのかについては、意見が分かれている。少なくとも、漫画雑誌や単行本という出版の仕組みは政策より古く、その意味では産業が先にあったと言える。したがって、政策の役割を否定する必要はないが、それだけで人気を説明することはできないだろう。

Translate into Japanese. Karaoke began in Japan in the 1970s and soon spread abroad. Younger listeners now choose their own music through streaming services, whereas older audiences still enjoy enka, a genre with its own conventions. Some say that live concerts matter more than ever, precisely because recordings are so easy to obtain.

1. 01Sentence 1: a loanword stays a loanword, and began is 始まる not 始める

   カラオケは一九七〇年代に日本で始まり、まもなく海外にも広がった. カラオケ is Japanese in origin and is written in katakana, so no translation decision arises. 始まる is intransitive — the thing began, nobody began it — and 始まり is its ます-stem chaining forward. 広がる is likewise intransitive: it spread, rather than somebody spread it. Both choices avoid inventing an agent the English did not supply, which is the transitivity discipline from the grammar topic applied live. にも on 海外 adds also.

2. 02Sentence 2, first half: choose their own is 自分で選ぶ, and services is a borrowed word

   若い世代は、音楽配信サービスを通じて自分で音楽を選ぶようになった. 若い世代 is younger generations, more idiomatic here than 若い聞き手. ～を通じて is through or via, a formal alternative to で that suits an essay. サービス is a borrowed word and stays katakana, but 音楽配信 is the established Japanese compound for streaming and should be preferred over an invented ストリーミング alone. ようになった marks the change to a new practice, matching the English now choose.

3. 03Sentence 2, second half: whereas is 一方で or のに対し, and enka needs an apposition

   一方、年配の聞き手の間では、独自の様式を持つ演歌が今でも親しまれている. 一方 is the concessive whereas; のに対し would also serve and is slightly more formal. 独自の様式を持つ is a relative clause supplying the English apposition a genre with its own conventions — Japanese prefers to front such material as a modifier rather than to append it after a comma. 親しまれている is the passive of 親しむ with ている: is loved, is enjoyed, a register-appropriate rendering of still enjoy that keeps 演歌 as the grammatical subject.

4. 04Sentence 3, first half: some say is a reported view, again

   ライブの重要性がかえって高まっているという意見もある. ライブ is a borrowed word in ordinary Japanese use for a live performance and stays katakana; コンサート would also be correct. かえって is on the contrary or if anything, and it carries the English more than ever, precisely because — it signals that the result runs against expectation. 重要性 is importance, formed with 性 from 重要, a productive suffix worth knowing. ～という意見もある reports the view without endorsing it.

5. 05Sentence 3, second half: precisely because is からこそ

   録音された音楽が簡単に手に入るからこそ、実際に演奏を聞く経験に価値が生まれるという. からこそ is the construction for precisely because and is exactly what the English asks for; ので or から alone would lose the emphasis. 手に入る is an intransitive idiom for something being obtainable. 価値が生まれる, value is born, is more natural Japanese than 価値を持つようになる here. The final という attributes the whole reasoning back to the people whose opinion the previous clause introduced.

6. 06Check the katakana, the register and the particles

   Katakana used: カラオケ, サービス, ライブ — all genuine borrowings, none invented. Native forms kept: 音楽, 演歌, 聞き手, 演奏. Register: 広がった, なった, 親しまれている, ある, という — plain throughout. Particles: は on the three topics, を on the objects of transitive verbs, が on 演歌 and 価値 as subjects, では for the framed group. And no giving-or-receiving verb appears, so that error class does not arise here.

Result: カラオケは一九七〇年代に日本で始まり、まもなく海外にも広がった。若い世代は、音楽配信サービスを通じて自分で音楽を選ぶようになった。一方、年配の聞き手の間では、独自の様式を持つ演歌が今でも親しまれている。ライブの重要性がかえって高まっているという意見もある。録音された音楽が簡単に手に入るからこそ、実際に演奏を聞く経験に価値が生まれるという。 The culture-word rule applied: borrowed words stay in katakana (カラオケ, サービス, ライブ), established Japanese compounds are preferred where they exist (音楽配信), and an English apposition becomes a Japanese pre-modifier (独自の様式を持つ演歌).

Appendix 2 lists する versus なる and the four forms ことになる, ことにする, ことになっている and ことにしている. Write six sentences about martial-arts training that use them correctly, and say what each one claims about who decided.

1. 01The underlying contrast: somebody acts, or a state comes about

   する is transitive and agentive; なる is intransitive and describes something becoming the case. 練習を静かにする, make the practice quiet, has an agent; 練習が静かになる, the practice becomes quiet, does not. In Japanese the preference for なる is much stronger than English speakers expect, and choosing なる where English would choose an active verb is one of the quickest ways to make a sentence sound Japanese rather than translated. This is the same agency question as the transitive and intransitive pairs, one level up.

2. 02ことにする: I decided

   来年から柔道を習うことにした. ことにする takes the plain form of a verb and says the speaker made the decision. The past ことにした is the ordinary way to report a personal decision, and it is far more natural than 決めた in this frame. Use it whenever an essay reports a choice a person made for themselves — including in the personal-response register a first-year answer often needs.

3. 03ことになる: it was decided, or it came about

   中学校で武道を学ぶことになった. ことになる says the arrangement came to be, without naming who arranged it, which is precisely right for a curriculum decision taken by a ministry. Compare 中学校で武道を学ぶことにした, which would absurdly say the school children decided it themselves. This pair is the clearest instance in the language of grammar carrying a claim about agency, and it is exactly the distinction the specification's error taxonomy is protecting when it warns about verbs whose subject is unclear.

4. 04ことになっている: a standing rule

   道場では、稽古の前後に礼をすることになっている. ことになっている describes a rule or a convention that is in force — it is the arrangement, and it continues to be. This is the form for describing customs, regulations and institutional practice, and it is a high-value structure for every cultural topic in this specification. Notice how much it conveys in four syllables of grammar: not somebody decided once, but this is how it is done here.

5. 05ことにしている: a personal habit I maintain

   私は毎朝、型の練習をすることにしている. ことにしている is the personal counterpart of ことになっている: I have made it my practice to. It is not simply a habit — ています would do that — but a habit maintained by decision, which is why it fits a discipline like 稽古 so well. The four forms together give you a matrix: personal or institutional, one-off or standing, and choosing among them tells the reader something no adverb could.

6. 06Then check that なる has not been over-ruled by English instinct

   Read your paragraph and look for places where you wrote an active Japanese verb because English had one. 規則を厳しくした, they tightened the rules, may be better as 規則が厳しくなった, the rules became stricter, if your source did not say who tightened them. That is not a stylistic preference: writing an agentive verb asserts an agent, and asserting an agent you cannot name is the same error as inventing a statistic, in miniature.

Result: 来年から柔道を習うことにした。／中学校で武道を学ぶことになった。／道場では、稽古の前後に礼をすることになっている。／私は毎朝、型の練習をすることにしている。／規則が厳しくなった。／指導者が規則を厳しくした。 The matrix: ことにする for a personal decision, ことになる for an arrangement whose author is unnamed, ことになっている for a standing rule, ことにしている for a maintained personal practice — and behind all four, the する and なる contrast, which decides whether your sentence asserts an agent or does not.

Your research subject is 変わっていく行事. The unseen text describes a town whose summer festival was suspended for several years and then restarted with a shorter programme and a new committee of younger residents. The statement is: 伝統的な行事は、形を変えれば失われたことになる。あなたはどう考えるか。Plan and open the answer.

1. 01Read the statement precisely, and find the word doing the work

   The load-bearing phrase is 形を変えれば失われたことになる — if it changes its form, it amounts to having been lost. That is a definitional claim, not an empirical one: it says what counts as loss. So the argument is not about whether festivals change, which is not in dispute, but about what criterion of continuity we should use. Identifying that in the first two minutes is worth more than any amount of festival knowledge, and it is exactly what the AO4 grid means by critical analysis of the statement.

2. 02Map your three aspects onto paragraphs before writing

   Section C is 40 marks at approximately 600 to 700 characters in a recommended 1 hour 25 minutes, and you must cover all three aspects of your research subject. Paragraph one: 伝統的な祭りや現代的なイベント, establishing that the boundary between the two is already blurred. Paragraph two: the unseen text, which supplies your central case. Paragraph three: 西洋行事の流入, where imported occasions were reshaped on arrival, showing that change and identity coexist. Paragraph four: 観光業の影響, the third aspect. Paragraph five: conclusion.

3. 03Open by refusing the definition, politely

   確かに、形が大きく変われば、以前と同じ行事だとは言いにくくなる。しかし、行事が「失われた」かどうかを形だけで判断するのは適切ではないだろう。 確かに…しかし is the concessive frame; ～にくい from Appendix 2 gives it becomes hard to say; ～かどうかを…で判断する is to judge whether by. The second sentence does not deny that change occurred; it denies that form is the right measure, which is a much stronger and much more defensible position than arguing that nothing changed.

4. 04Propose your own criterion, and make it testable

   むしろ、その行事を担う人がいるかどうか、そして地域の人がそれを自分たちのものだと考えているかどうかが重要ではないか。 担う, to bear or carry, is the right verb for the people who sustain an observance. Two かどうか clauses give two criteria that could in principle be checked, which is what makes this a criterion rather than a preference. ではないか advances it as a proposal. You have now given the examiner something to follow for the rest of the essay.

5. 05Make the unseen text do the central work

   本文が紹介している祭りは、この点で示唆的である。数年の中断を経て、若い世代が中心となって再開されたということは、形は変わっても担い手が受け継がれたことを示している。 The AO2 grid out of 10 rewards using the text to contribute to your argument, and this does exactly that: the text is not decoration, it is the instance that satisfies your criterion. ～を経て is after passing through; ～が中心となって is with somebody at its centre; 受け継ぐ is to inherit or carry on. Note that the text supports your criterion rather than proving your conclusion, and say so with 示唆的.

6. 06Bring in the third aspect, then conclude within your own criterion

   西洋から入ってきた行事が日本で作りかえられてきたことも、同じことを示している。ホワイトデーのように、輸入された行事が新しい形を得て定着した例は少なくない。…以上のことから、形の変化そのものを喪失と見なすのは早いと考えられる。行事が失われるのは、形が変わったときではなく、担う人がいなくなったときであろう。 The final sentence restates the criterion as a conclusion, which is what a conclusion should be. ～のは…ときではなく…ときである is a clean contrastive frame worth memorising.

Result: Opening and closing as drafted: 確かに、形が大きく変われば、以前と同じ行事だとは言いにくくなる。しかし、行事が「失われた」かどうかを形だけで判断するのは適切ではないだろう。むしろ、その行事を担う人がいるかどうか、そして地域の人がそれを自分たちのものだと考えているかどうかが重要ではないか。…以上のことから、形の変化そのものを喪失と見なすのは早いと考えられる。行事が失われるのは、形が変わったときではなく、担う人がいなくなったときであろう。 The method: identify the statement's definitional claim, refuse the definition rather than the facts, propose a testable criterion, make the unseen text satisfy that criterion, cover all three aspects, and conclude in the criterion's own terms.

The recording is a local shopkeeper who says the festival could not continue without visitors, because the town's population has fallen and the costs are high. The written text is a resident who says the festival now starts later and lasts longer to suit visitors, and that residents have stopped taking part. Write 5(c), the evaluation, in approximately 400 to 500 characters.

1. 01Name the disagreement exactly before evaluating it

   二つの資料は、祭りの存続について正反対の結論を出しているが、事実そのものについては対立していない。人口が減っていること、観光客が増えたこと、祭りの形が変わったことは、どちらも認めている。 This opening is worth a great deal because it proves you understood both sources, which is what the AO1 out of 6 and AO2 out of 6 grids measure. It also sets up the real analysis: when two people agree on the facts and disagree on the conclusion, the disagreement is about values or about criteria, and that is something you can examine.

2. 02Locate the disagreement precisely

   違いは、何をもって祭りが続いていると見なすかにある。店主は行事が毎年行われることを重視し、住民は地域の人が参加することを重視している。 何をもって…と見なすか is by what standard one regards something as — a compact way to say that the two are using different criteria. 重視する, to place importance on, attributes a value to each speaker without caricaturing either. You have now converted a shouting match into a comparison of criteria, which is what evaluation means.

3. 03Test each criterion against the other's evidence

   店主の基準では、観光客がいなければ祭りは中止になるため、来訪者は不可欠である。しかし、その基準では、地域の人が全く参加しなくなっても祭りは続いていることになってしまう。 ～ば…ため chains a condition to a reason; ～ことになってしまう says it would end up amounting to, with しまう marking the unwanted consequence. This is the sharpest sentence in the answer: it takes one speaker's criterion seriously and follows it to a conclusion that speaker would not accept.

4. 04Do the same to the other side, so the evaluation is symmetrical

   一方、住民の基準では参加が中心になるが、費用をどう賄うかという問題は残る。参加したくても、祭り自体がなくなってしまえば参加はできない。 賄う[まかなう] is to cover a cost. ～たくても…できない is the concessive even if one wants to. Treating both criteria to the same test is what makes this an evaluation rather than a preference, and it is also the surest way to avoid the trap of agreeing with whichever source spoke last.

5. 05Take a position, and make it a criterion rather than a side

   したがって、どちらか一方が正しいというより、利益が地域に残り、地域の人が運営に関われるかどうかが判断の分かれ目になると考えられる。 ～というより, rather than saying that, softens the rejection of the either-or framing. 分かれ目, the dividing point, is a precise noun for what decides a question. This position is not a compromise between the two speakers; it is a third criterion that explains why each of them is right about part of it.

6. 06Close, then count and check

   観光客を受け入れること自体が問題なのではなく、その利益と決定権がどこにあるかが問題なのであろう。 The ～のではなく…のである frame is the plain-register way to correct a misplaced emphasis, and であろう hedges the whole to the right strength for a conclusion. Now count: the whole 5(c) runs to roughly 430 characters, inside the 400 to 500 guide. Then check that both sources have been used — the AO1 and AO2 grids are separate, so a brilliant answer that forgets the recording loses six marks it never touched.

Result: 二つの資料は、祭りの存続について正反対の結論を出しているが、事実そのものについては対立していない。人口が減っていること、観光客が増えたこと、祭りの形が変わったことは、どちらも認めている。違いは、何をもって祭りが続いていると見なすかにある。店主は行事が毎年行われることを重視し、住民は地域の人が参加することを重視している。店主の基準では、観光客がいなければ祭りは中止になるため、来訪者は不可欠である。しかし、その基準では、地域の人が全く参加しなくなっても祭りは続いていることになってしまう。一方、住民の基準では参加が中心になるが、費用をどう賄うかという問題は残る。したがって、利益が地域に残り、地域の人が運営に関われるかどうかが判断の分かれ目になると考えられる。観光客を受け入れること自体が問題なのではなく、その利益と決定権がどこにあるかが問題なのであろう。