Third essay: Creating connections
The third essay is intended to help you formulate some final thoughts about the broader themes of the course. Please select one of the following three options. Whichever you choose, I am particular interested in your ability (a) to synthesize various materials we have read and viewed and discussed during the semester and (b) to draw on specific examples from these readings, lectures, films, and discussions. I think you can compose a perfectly adequate answer in three to five pages (about 800-1000 words).
Option 1: Throughout the course, we have made reference to what theorists have proposed to be general features of modernity and the construction of modern societies, and we have measured Japan against these general propositions. Reflect back on the various topics (e.g., schooling, family, gender, economic organization, ethnicity) and compose an essay on how you now think that Japan helps us to understand modernity and how a theory of modernity helps us to understand Japan.
Option 2: In the second half of the course, we have considered six types of new social actors, whose behavior may be bringing fundamental structural change to Japanese society. Compose an essay that describes just how and why these new breeds are challenging the organization of mainstream Japanese society. As a thesis statement, speculate on which of them you think may be bringing the greatest change to Japan as the Japanese have experienced it over the last several decades.
Option 3: If Elisabeth Bumiller went back to Tokyo now in 2011, what do you think she would find of the Tanaka family? What kind of lives would they now be leading?
Note: If you take this option, please be aware that you need to be very analytical in your paper. You need to make the significance of the changes your are describing very clear. For instance, it might be helpful to imagine yourself as an anthropologist paid by Bumiller to go back and check on the Tanaka family. Do they still represent the mainstream culture? Did they ever? If you choose this paper option, you will need to make the significance very clear, and should directly address claims of why the family remains interesting and important to think about.
This essay is due on dropbox by 5pm on Monday, Dec. 12.