week one: INTRODUCTION – WHY STUDY JAPAN?
Tuesday, August 23: Introduction to the course
no readings due
Thursday, August 25: Stereotyping Japan: The Perils of National Character
readings due:
Clyde Haberman. "Some Japanese (One) Urge Plain Speaking." New York Times, March 27, 1988.
Andrew Pollack. "Rice Farmers Dig In: For Them, The Land Is Sacred." New York Times, February 18, 1993.
Nicholas D. Kristof. "In Japan, Nice Guys (And Girls) Finish Together." New York Times, April 12, 1998.
Nicholas D. Kristof. "Japan's Feminine Falsetto Falls Right Out of Favor." New York Times, December 13, 1995.
Martin Fackler. "Japan, Home of the Cute and Inbred Dog." New York Times, December 28, 2006.
Martin Fackler. "Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place." New York Times, October 20, 2007.
Friday, August 26
Writing due: Assignment #1
week two: CREATING CULTURE
Tuesday, August 30: Japanese Culture: It's not in the Blood
readings due:
Anne Allison. 1996. "Japanese Mothers and Obento," In her Permitted and Prohibited Desires. Boulder: Westview Press. Pages: 81-103.
James Stanlaw. 2004. "The Dynamics of English Words in Contemporary Japanese: Japanese English and a "Beautiful Human Life." In his Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press. Pages: 11-43.
Thursday, September 1: Authenticity and Western-ness
Viewing due:
The Japanese Version. Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, dirs. 1991. 56 minutes.
Reading due:
Viewing notes from Dr. William Kelly (Yale University) and a rejoinder against showing this film from Dr. Henry Smith (Columbia University).
Friday, September 2:
Writing due: Assignment #2
week three: CONSTRUCTING DIFFERENCE
Tuesday, September 6: Samurai and the Invention of Tradition
readings due:
Harold Bolitho. 1984. "The Myth of the Samurai." In Japan's Impact on the World. Alan Rix and Ross Mouer, eds. Nathan, Queensland: Japanese Studies Association of Australia. Pages: 2-9.
David E. Sanger. "Loyal Samurai's Suicide: An Alarm Bell for Japan?" New York Times, May 19, 1989.
Ken Belson. "Japan's Samurai Past Thunders into the Present." New York Times, December 7, 2003.
Thursday, September 8: Globalization and Domestication
readings due:
George H. Lewis. 1995. "Of Love and Power: Chocolate and the Meaning of Valentine's Day in Japan," The World & I 10(2): 248-257.
Catherine Rosair. 1993. "Men Rush to Buy Candy, Panties for White Day" Reuters, March 12.
Viewing due:
Reinventing Japan. Alex Gibney, dir. 1992. 60 minutes.
Friday, September 9
Writing due: Assignment #3
week four: NATIONAL PROJECTS
Tuesday, September 13: The national projects of "affluence" and "identity"
reading due:
Elisabeth Bumiller. The Secrets of Mariko. pp. 1-150.
Viewing due:
Living Through a Miracle. 1990. 50 minutes.
Thursday, September 15: Mainstream Consciousness
reading due:
Elisabeth Bumiller. The Secrets of Mariko. pp. 150-332.
>>> Friday, September 16: FIRST PAPER DUE at 5pm. More details about the assignment are here.
week five: WORKPLACES AND WORKERS
Tuesday, September 20: The "salaryman" and the large organization model
readings due:
Thomas P. Rohlen. 1974 "The Office Group," in his For Harmony and Strength: Japanese White-Collar Organization in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 93-120.
Katô Tetsurô. 1995. "Workaholism: It's Not in the Blood," LOOK Japan. February: 8-10.
Tanaka Hiroshi. 1990. "Tanaka-kun." Mangajin 1(1): 26-31.
Viewing due:
Being Japanese. 1990. 50 minutes.
Thursday, September 22: Office Ladies
readings due:
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 1-113.
Akizuki Risa. OL shinka-ron, volume 1 ("Survival in the Office: The Evolution of Japanese Working Women"). Jules Young and Dominic Young, translators. Kodansha, 1999. .
Friday, September 23
Writing due: Assignment #5
week six: RESISTANCE AND MERIT
Tuesday, September 27: Cushions around the Core
readings due:
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 114-168.
Thursday, September 29: The "Credential Society": Education for a meritocracy
readings due:
Yoshio Sugimoto. 1997. "Diversity and Unity in Education," chapter 5 from his An Introduction to Japanese Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages: 107-135.
Thomas P. Rohlen. 1983. "Five High Schools," chapter 1 in his Japan's High Schools. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 11-44.
Viewing due: The Learning Machine. 1990. 50 minutes. The film is streaming from the “Kaltura Media Gallery” tab on Collab, under “Site Library.”
Friday, September 30
Assignment due: Assignment #6
week seven: PATHS AND TRANSITIONS
Tuesday, October 4: The "Credential Society": Education for a meritocracy
readings due:
Catherine C. Lewis. 1994. "Learning and Caring," chapter 7 in her Educating Hearts and Minds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages: 149-177.
Rebecca Fukuzawa.1994. "The Path to Adulthood According to Japanese Middle Schools," Journal of Japanese Studies 20(1):61-86.
Peter Frost. 1991. "Examination Hell." In Windows on Japanese Education. Edward R. Beauchamp, ed. New York: Greenwood Press. Pages: 291-305.
Thursday, October 6: Transforming Japan?
readings due:
William Kelly and Merry White. “Students, Slackers, Singles, Seniors, and Strangers: Transforming a Family-Nation.” In Japan and Asia: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism. Peter Katzenstein and Tadashi Shiraishi, eds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
>>> The first draft of your second paper is due at 5pm on Friday, October 7th on dropbox.
week eight: TRANSFORMING JAPAN
Tuesday, October 11: No class meeting
Reading Period -- no (new) reading due
Thursday, October 13: Parasites or Pragmatists?
readings due:
Masahiro Yamada and Yuji Genda. 2000. A debate on "Japan's Dependent Singles," Japan Echo, June: 47-56.
Lynne Nakano and Moeko Wagatsuma. 2004. "Mothers and Their Unmarried Daughters: An Intimate Look at Generational Change." In, Japan's Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Pages: 137-154.
Viewing due:
Shall We Dance? 1997. Suo Masayuki, dir. 118 minutes.
Friday, October 14
writing due: Assignment #8
week nine: SOCIAL ILLS AND MORAL PANICS
Tuesday, October 19: New Students in a Faltering School System
readings due:
Gesine Foljanty-Jost and Manuel Metzler. 2003. "Juvenile Delinquency in Japan: Reconsidering the 'Crisis'". In, Juvenile Delinquency in Japan: Reconsidering the "Crisis." Gesine Foljanty-Jost, ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Pages 1-17.
Yuki Honda. 2003. "The Reality of the Japanese School-to-Work Transition System at the Turn of the Century: Necessary Disillusionment," Social Science Japan. February: 8-12.
Thursday, October 21: Media and Consumption
readings due:
Gabi Lukacs. 2010. “Imaged Away: Agency and Fetishism in Trendy Drama Production and Reception.” In her Scripted Affects, Branded Selves: Television, Subjectivity, and Capitalism in 1990s Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.
Gabi Lukacs. 2010. “Iron Chef around the World: Japanese food television, soft power, and cultural globalization.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 13(4): 409-426.
** Dr. Lukacs will be speaking on campus on Friday, October 22. Details are here and will be happy to give extra credit to students who are able to attend. **
Viewing due:
Train Man (Densha Otoko). 2005. Murakami Shosuke, dir. 101 minutes. Film will be on the Collab page.
Friday, October 22
writing due: Assignment #9
week ten: THE POSSIBILITIES FOR FREEDOM
Tuesday, October 25: Divorce and its Reverberations
readings due:
Allison Alexy. 2007. "Deferred Benefits, Romance, and the Specter of Later-life Divorce." Contemporary Japan [Japanstudien] 19: 169-188.
Allison Alexy. 2011. “Intimate Dependence and its Risks in Neoliberal Japan.” Anthropology Quarterly 83(4).
Thursday, October 27: Slackers, Temps, and other Economic Marginals
readings due:
Gordon Mathews. 2004. "Seeking a Career, Finding a Job: How Young People Enter and Resist the Japanese World of Work," In Japan's Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Pages: pp. 121-136.
Yuki Honda. 2005. "'Freeters': Young Atypical Workers in Japan." Japan Labor Review 2(3):5-25.
>>> The second and final draft of your second paper is due at 5pm on Friday, October 28th.
week eleven: AGING AND RE-IMAGINING THE LIFE COURSE
Tuesday, November 1: The New Seniors in an Aging Society
readings due:
Diane Bethel. 1992. "Life on Obasuteyama, or, Inside a Japanese Institution for the Elderly," In, Japanese Social Organization. Takie S. Lebra, ed. Honlulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pages: 109-134.
John Traphagan. 1998. "Contesting the Transition to Old Age in Japan." Ethnology 37(4): 333-350.
Thursday, November 3: What Burials Say about Social Change
readings due:
Mark Rowe. 2011. Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ** At the moment, the scans have an annoying stripe on them. I’ll post these now but will update to a stripe-less version as soon as I can make new scans.
Friday, November 4
writing due: Assignment #11
week twelve: MULTI-ETHNIC JAPAN
Tuesday, November 8: New Strangers in the National Family
readings due:
Joshua Roth. 2002. Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pages 1-91.
Thursday, November 10: Constructing and Deconstructing Multi-ethnic Japan
readings due:
Joshua Roth. 2002. Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pages 92-145.
Viewing due: Go. 2001. Yukisada Isao, dir. 122 minutes. The film is posted on our Collab page.
Friday, November 11
writing due: Assignment #12
week thirteen: JAPANESE FANTASIES AND FANTASIES OF JAPAN
Tuesday, November 15: Authenticity and Coolness
readings due:
E. Taylor Atkins. 2005. Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ian Condry. 2000. "The Social Production of Difference: Imitation and Authenticity in Japanese Rap Music." In, Transactions, Transgressions, and Transformations. Heide Fehenbach and Uta G. Poiger, eds. New York: Berghan Books. Pages: 166-184.
(optional) Paul Beatty. 1996. Chapter nine from his The White Boy Shuffle. New York: Picador. Pages: 165-173.
Thursday, November 17: No class meeting - American Anthropology Association meetings
no readings due
Friday, November 18
No writing assignment due
week fourteen: BLACKNESS IN / AND JAPAN
Tuesday, November 22: People and Ideas
viewings due:
*All films are on Collab.
Remixed in Japan. 2006. Director: Melody Wienstein. US. 60 minutes.
Samurai Champloo. 2004. Episode One, "Tempestuous Temperaments (Shippu Doto)." Fuji Television. 24 minutes.
Afro Samurai. 2007. Episode One "Revenge." Gonzo Entertainment / Spike TV. 22 minutes.
Writing due: Assignment #14
Thursday, November 24: No class meeting - Thanksgiving break
week fifteen: RISK AND DISASTERS
Tuesday, November 29: Domestic Terror
readings due:
Haruki Murakami. 2001. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. New York: Vintage.
Thursday, December 1: Natural Terror
readings due:
Ryan Sayre. 2011. "The Un-thought of Preparedness: The Concealments of Disaster Preparedness in Tokyo’s Everyday." Anthropology and Humanism 36(2).
Evan Osnos. 2011. “The Fallout - Seven months later: Japan’s nuclear predicament.” The New Yorker. October 17, pages: 46-61.
Friday, December 2
writing due: Assignment #15
week sixteen: FINAL THOUGHTS AND FUTURE QUESTIONS
Tuesday, December 6: Group reflection - what have we been doing?
No new readings due
>>> Third paper deadline TBA.