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Japan Unmasked: The Character & Culture of the Japanese (Tuttle Classics)
by Boye Lafayette De MenteThe growing globalization of world business, culture and communication--and Japan's increasingly important role as a leader in that world--makes understanding Japanese culture critical for business people, diplomats, students, educators and anyone else with an interest in Japan.<P><P>Westerners have recognized--and analyzed--the many unique aspects of Japanese culture since they first set foot in Japan in the 16th century. The special talents (and weaknesses) that characterize the Japanese way of life are by now well-documented. But few Westerners really understand the beliefs and values that underlie how the Japanese think and act, how and why these attributes have been preserved in Japanese culture from ancient times through the modern day, or the critical role they play in today's Japanese society.In Japan Unmasked veteran Japanologist and author Boye Lafayette De Mente explores the social, cultural, and psychological characteristics responsible for the unique nature of modern-day Japanese culture-- the real "face" behind the "mask"--and demonstrates how they have brought the Japanese to their central role on the world stage.
Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U. S.
by Roland KeltsJapanamerica is the first book that directly addresses the American experience with the Japanese pop phenomenon, covering everything from Hayao Miyazaki's epics, the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime, and Puffy Amiyumi, whose exploits are broadcast daily on the Cartoon Network, to literary novelist Haruki Murakami, and more. With insights from the artists, critics, readers and fans from both nations, this book is as literate as it is hip, highlighting the shared conflicts as American and Japanese pop cultures dramatically collide in the here and now.For more information visit http://www.japanamericabook.com/
Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S.
by Roland KeltsContemporary Japanese pop culture such as anime and manga (Japanese animation and comic books) is Asia's equivalent of the Harry Potter phenomenon--an overseas export that has taken America by storm. While Hollywood struggles to fill seats, Japanese anime releases are increasingly outpacing American movies in number and, more importantly, in the devotion they inspire in their fans. But just as Harry Potter is both "universal" and very English, anime is also deeply Japanese, making its popularity in the United States totally unexpected. Japanamerica is the first book that directly addresses the American experience with the Japanese pop phenomenon, covering everything from Hayao Miyazaki's epics, the burgeoning world of hentai, or violent pornographic anime, and Puffy Amiyumi, whose exploits are broadcast daily on the Cartoon Network, to literary novelist Haruki Murakami, and more. With insights from the artists, critics, readers and fans from both nations, this book is as literate as it is hip, highlighting the shared conflicts as American and Japanese pop cultures dramatically collide in the here and now.
The Japanese A Cultural Portrait
by Robert S. OzakiIn eleven informal essays, The Japanese: A Cultural Portrait explores the character of Japan and its people. Once i n variably praised for it's "quaint Oriental charm", Japan is now strikingly western in appearance.However, in the rush to analyze. its rapid ascension to world prominence, manyWesterners forget that Japanese habits, fears, and values are rooted in centuries of feudal agrarianism. This book reminds us that although the Japanese are capable of accepting enormous change, they can also be resolutely determined to remain Japanese. Their cultural makeup has not changed as rapidly as the nation's economic landscape. To illustrate these points, various topics are examined: Japan's first encounters with the West; Japanese philosophies of government, law, and ethics; and the way that modern institutions like the bureaucracy and the corporation rely on a strong sense of group affiliation . The Japanese: A Cultural Portrait provides absorbing insight into how modernization has been accomplished without loss of national identity.
The Japanese Adult Video Industry (Routledge Culture, Society, Business in East Asia Series)
by Heung-Wah Wong Hoi-yan YauUnlike many other books on pornography which concentrate on arguments about restricting or not restricting pornography, this book focuses on the production of adult videos. It outlines and examines the industrial dynamics of the industry, its strategies, technological capabilities and organisational structure. It discusses the socialisation of those who participate in the industry, the role of censorship, the nature of markets and the wider cultural impact of the industry.
Japanese Adult Videos in Taiwan (Routledge Culture, Society, Business in East Asia Series)
by Heung-Wah Wong Hoi-yan YauThis book explores the debate between those who argue that globalisation is leading to worldwide cultural homogeneity, with American cultural good predominating, and those who argue that cultural goods are always adapted and contextualised in the particular setting in which they are used. Based on extensive original research on how Japanese adult videos are consumed in Taiwan, it presents a rich picture of how Japanese adult videos are transformed into something Taiwanese, and how they are incorporated into both male and female Taiwanese sexual culture.
A Japanese Advertising Agency: An Anthropology of Media and Markets (ConsumAsian Series #No. 3)
by Brian MoeranThis is the only book of its kind - written by an anthropologist who spent twelve months doing fieldwork in a major Tokyo agency and who has spent the past 30 years studying and living in Japan.By examining the production of advertising, this book turns other semiotics, media and cultural studies theories on their heads. By analysing the social structure of a modern media organization from the inside, it makes anthropology relevant and intellectually stimulating. By treating the Japanese as a more-or-less normal and rational people, it explodes the usual myths of exotic Japan and steps boldly into a global arena that embraces 'east' and 'west' in a new theory of values.
Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development: Inescapable Solutions (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by David Leheny Kay WarrenInstead of asking the usual questions about Japanese aid — Why is Japanese aid so different from that of other donors? Is Japanese aid effective? — this collection takes it as axiomatic that Japanese aid actors are now working in a contentious environment affected by changing global norms of aid. Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development analyses the changing political contexts, both at home and abroad, within which Japanese aid officials develop their programs. It tracks the tensions facing aid officials as they seek to negotiate between a long-term organizational bias in the Japanese government of promoting "growth-oriented" policies, and new demands for Japan to engage a broader array of "human security" concerns. In the third section, contributors provide case studies of new policies designed to cope with transnational human security issues, particularly involving environmental protection, gender equality, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Finally, the book turns its lens back to Japan with chapters on how changing aid relationships alter Japan’s ability to cope with transnational problems like refugee flows, sex trafficking, and terrorism. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the politics and culture of global development, Japanese politics and foreign policy, international relations and international law.
Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934-1990
by Lon KurashigeA history of the struggles over identity within the Japanese American community, using ethnic festivals to reveal the conflicts from the 1930s (a period of wealthy Japanese enclaves) through the WWII internment to the late 20th century influx of investment from Japan.
Japanese-American Civilian Prisoner Exchanges and Detention Camps, 1941-45 (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia #3)
by Bruce EllemanThe important and previously undocumented event in the history of the Second World War: the negotiation of 'prisoner' exchanges between the United States and Japan during 1941 to 1943, is examined here by Bruce Elleman.Approximately 7000 American citizens had been arrested by the Japanese authorities while visiting Japan as tourists, conducting business, teaching English or carrying out missionary work. The same amount of Japanese citizens living illegally in the United States had to be repatriated to secure the Americans' release.Challenging the conventional perceptions regarding the role and justification of the detention camp, this insightful book addresses questions regarding the diplomatic agreement between Japan and the United States, the Japanese-American detention camps and the role of one of the most successful minority groups in the United States today: the Japanese-Americans.
Japanese American Ethnicity: In Search of Heritage and Homeland Across Generations
by Takeyuki TsudaTraces the contemporary ethnic experiences of Japanese AmericansAs one of the oldest groups of Asian Americans in the United States, most Japanese Americans are culturally assimilated and well-integrated in mainstream American society. However, they continue to be racialized as culturally “Japanese” foreigners simply because of their Asian appearance in a multicultural America where racial minorities are expected to remain ethnically distinct. Different generations of Japanese Americans have responded to such pressures in ways that range from demands that their racial citizenship as bona fide Americans be recognized to a desire to maintain or recover their ethnic heritage and reconnect with their ancestral homeland. In Japanese American Ethnicity, Takeyuki Tsuda explores the contemporary ethnic experiences of Japanese Americans from the second to the fourth generations and the extent to which they remain connected to their ancestral cultural heritage. He also places Japanese Americans in transnational and diasporic context and analyzes the performance of ethnic heritage through the example of taiko drumming ensembles. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with Japanese Americans in San Diego and Phoenix, Tsuda argues that the ethnicity of immigrant-descent minorities does not simply follow a linear trajectory. Increasing cultural assimilation does not always erode the significance of ethnic heritage and identity over the generations. Instead, each new generation of Japanese Americans has negotiated its own ethnic positionality in different ways. Young Japanese Americans today are reviving their cultural heritage and embracing its salience in their daily lives more than the previous generations. This book demonstrates how culturally assimilated minorities can simultaneously maintain their ancestral cultures or even actively recover their lost ethnic heritage.
Japanese American Internment Camps (Cornerstones of Freedom, 2nd Series)
by Gail SakuraiDiscusses the mass relocation of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II, profiling individuals such as Daniel Inouye, Yoshiko Lchida, and George Takei.
Japanese American Midwives: Culture, Community, and Health Politics, 1880-1950
by Susan L. SmithIn the late nineteenth century, midwifery was transformed into a new woman's profession as part of Japan's modernizing quest for empire. With the rise of Japanese immigration to the United States, Japanese midwives (sanba) served as cultural brokers as well as birth attendants for Issei women. They actively participated in the creation of Japanese American community and culture as preservers of Japanese birthing customs and agents of cultural change. The history of Japanese American midwifery reveals the dynamic relationship between this welfare state and the history of women and health. Midwives' individual stories, coupled with Susan L. Smith's astute analysis, demonstrate the impossibility of clearly separating domestic policy from foreign policy, public health from racial politics, medical care from women's care giving, and the history of women and health from national and international politics. By setting the history of Japanese American midwives in this larger context, Smith reveals little-known ethnic, racial, and regional aspects of women's history and the history of medicine.
Japanese American Millennials: Rethinking Generation, Community, and Diversity (Asian American History & Cultu #204)
by Michael Omi Dana Y. Nakano Jeffrey T. YamashitaWhereas most scholarship on Japanese Americans looks at historical case studies or the 1.5 generation assimilating, this pioneering anthology, Japanese American Millennials, captures theexperiences, perspectives, and aspirations of Asian Americans born between 1980 and 2000. The editors and contributors present multiple perspectives on who Japanese Americans are, how they think about notions of community and culture, and how they engage and negotiate multiple social identities. The essays by scholars both in the United States and Japan draw upon the Japanese American millennial experience to examine how they find self-expression in Youth Basketball Leagues or Christian youth camps as well as how they grapple with being mixed-race, bicultural, or queer. Featuring compelling interviews and observations, Japanese American Millennials dislodges the dominant generational framework toaddress absences in the current literature and suggests how we might alternatively study Japanese Americans as a whole.
Japanese-American Relocation in World War II: A Reconsideration
by Roger W. LotchinIn this revisionist history of the United States government relocation of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, Roger W. Lotchin challenges the prevailing notion that racism was the cause of the creation of these centers. <P><P>After unpacking the origins and meanings of American attitudes toward the Japanese-Americans, Lotchin then shows that Japanese relocation was a consequence of nationalism rather than racism. Lotchin also explores the conditions in the relocation centers and the experiences of those who lived there, with discussions on health, religion, recreation, economics, consumerism, and theater. He honors those affected by uncovering the complexity of how and why their relocation happened, and makes it clear that most Japanese-Americans never went to a relocation center. Written by a specialist in US home front studies, this book will be required reading for scholars and students of the American home front during World War II, Japanese relocation, and the history of Japanese immigrants in America.<P> Emphasizes the importance of war on Western society and explains the relationship between war and race.<P> Explores a clearer definition of the concept of racism and restores the idea of complexity of motivation to the relocation narrative.<P> Encourages a more realistic understanding of historical narratives, minimizing the concept of racism.
Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens: Hikaru Iwasaki and the WRA's Photographic Section, 1943-1945
by Lane Ryo Hirabayashi Kenichiro ShimadaPhotographs by Hikaru C. IwasakiForeword by the Honorable Norman Y. Mineta In Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi gathers a unique collection of photographs by War Relocation Authority photographer Hikaru Iwasaki, the only full-time WRA photographer from the period still living. With substantive focus on resettlement - and in particular Iwasaki's photos of Japanese Americans following their release from WRA camps from 1943 to 1945 - Hirabayashi explores the WRA's use of photography in its mission not only to encourage "loyal" Japanese Americans to return to society at large as quickly as possible but also to convince Euro-Americans this was safe and advantageous. Hirabayashi also assesses the relative success of the WRA project, as well as the multiple uses of the photographs over time, first by the WRA and then by students, scholars, and community members in the present day. Although the photos have been used to illustrate a number of publications, this book is the first sustained treatment addressing questions directly related to official WRA photographs. How and under what conditions were they taken? Where were they developed, selected, and stored? How were they used during the 1940s? What impact did they have during and following the war? By focusing on the WRA's Photographic Section, Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens makes a unique contribution to the body of literature on Japanese Americans during World War II.
Japanese American Resettlement Through the Lens
by Kenichiro Shimada Lane Ryo HirabayashiIn Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens, Lane Ryo Hirabayashi gathers a unique collection of photographs by War Relocation Authority photographer Hikaru Iwasaki, the only full-time WRA photographer from the period still living. With substantive focus on resettlement - and in particular Iwasaki's photos of Japanese Americans following their release from WRA camps from 1943 to 1945 - Hirabayashi explores the WRA's use of photography in its mission not only to encourage "loyal" Japanese Americans to return to society at large as quickly as possible but also to convince Euro-Americans this was safe and advantageous. Hirabayashi also assesses the relative success of the WRA project, as well as the multiple uses of the photographs over time, first by the WRA and then by students, scholars, and community members in the present day. Although the photos have been used to illustrate a number of publications, this book is the first sustained treatment addressing questions directly related to official WRA photographs. How and under what conditions were they taken? Where were they developed, selected, and stored? How were they used during the 1940s? What impact did they have during and following the war? By focusing on the WRA's Photographic Section, Japanese American Resettlement through the Lens makes a unique contribution to the body of literature on Japanese Americans during World War II.
Japanese Americans and the Racial Uniform: Citizenship, Belonging, and the Limits of Assimilation (Asian American Sociology)
by Dana Y. NakanoHow race continues to shape the citizenship and everyday lives of later-generation JapaneseAmericansJapanese Americans are seen as the “model minority,” a group that has fully assimilated and excelled within the US. Yet third- and fourth-generation Japanese Americans continue to report feeling marginalized within the predominantly white communities they call home. Japanese Americans and the Racial Uniform explores this apparent contradiction, challenging the way society understands the role of race in social and cultural integration.To explore race and the everyday practices of citizenship, Dana Y. Nakano begins at an unlikely site, Japanese Village and Deer Park, a now defunct Japan-themed amusement park in suburban Southern California. Drawing from extensive interviews with the park’s Japanese American employees as well as photographic imagery, Nakano shows how the employees' race acted as part of their work uniform and magnified their sense of alienation from their white peers and the park’s white visitors. While the racial perception of Japanese Americans as forever foreigners made them ideal employees for Deer Park, the same stigma continues to marginalizes Japanese Americans beyond the place and time of the amusement park. Into the present day, third and fourth generation Japanese Americans share feelings of racialized non-belonging and yearning for community. Japanese Americans and the Racial Uniform pushes us to rethink the persistent recognition of racial markers—the racial body as a visible, ever-present uniform—and how it continues to impact claims on an American identity and the lived experience of citizenship.
The Japanese and Europe: Images and Perceptions
by Bert EdstromNot another 'misunderstandings and misconceptions' volume, but a wide-ranging review of intellectual traditions, mutual and alternative images, and case studies of people and events that mirror the focus of this book.
Japanese and Hong Kong Film Industries: Understanding the Origins of East Asian Film Networks (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)
by Shuk-ting, Kinnia YauDrawing on first-hand materials collected from the Chinese and Japanese literature as well as interviews with more than twenty filmmakers and scholars Kinnia Shuk-ting Yau provides a solid historical account of the complex interactions between Japanese and Hong Kong film industries from the 1930s to 1970s. The author describes in detail how Japan’s efforts during the 1930s and 1940s to produce a "Greater East Asian cinema" led to many different kinds of collaborations between the filmmakers from China, Hong Kong and Japan, and how such development had laid the foundation for more exchanges between the cinemas in the post-war period. The period covered by the book is the least understood period of the East Asian film history. Filling the gaps surrounding one of the most important but least understood periods of Asian film history this books discusses facts and resources once obscured by controversial issues related to wartime affairs with new insights and perspectives. This book is an invaluable source of information for understanding how the current East Asian film networks came into existence by looking beyond conventional single-case studies and adopting a transnational perspective in tracing the connections between different film industries.
The Japanese and the Jesuits: Alessandro Valignano in Sixteenth Century Japan
by Mr J Moran J. F. MoranThe Japanese and the Jesuits examines the attempt by sixteenth century Jesuits to convert the Japanese to Christianity. Directing the Jesuits was the Italian Alessandro Valignano, whose own magisterial writings, many of them not previously translated or published, are the principle source material for this account of one of the most remarkable of all meetings between East and West.Valignano arrived in Japan in 1579. In promoting Christianity, he always sought the support of the ruling classes, but an important part of his strategy was also to have the missionaries adapt themselves thoroughly to Japanese customs, etiquette and culture. He was insistent that they must master the Japanese language, and he brought to Japan a European printing press, which turned out grammars and dictionaries for the missionaries, and works of instruction and devotion for the Japanese Christians.Following Valignano's death, Christianity was proscribed and missionaries banished from Japan. This does not detract from his remarkable achievements. He understood perfectly well that foreign missionaries by themselves were not capable of converting Japan to Christianity, and one of his principal concerns was the training of Japanese Jesuits and priests, and breaking down the barriers between them and the Europeans. Few people have ever been more acutely aware of, or grappled more determinedly with, problems in Japanese-Western relationships.
The Japanese and the War: Expectation, Perception, and the Shaping of Memory (Asia Perspectives: History, Society, and Culture)
by Michael LuckenMemories of World War II exert a powerful influence over Japan's culture and society. In The Japanese and the War, Michael Lucken details how World War II manifested in the literature, art, film, funerary practices, and education reform of the time. Concentrating on the years immediately before and after (1937 to 1952), Lucken explores the creation of an idea of Japanese identity that still resonates in everything from soap operas to the response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster.Lucken defines three distinct layers of Japan's memory of World War II: the population's expectations at the beginning, the trauma caused by conflict and defeat, and the politics of memory that arose after Japan lost to the Allied powers. Emphasizing Japanese-language sources, Lucken writes a narrative of the making of Japanese cultural memory that moves away from Western historical modes and perspectives. His approach also paints a new portrait of the U.S. occupation, while still maintaining a cultural focus. Lucken sets out to capture the many ways people engage with war, but particularly the full range of Japan's experiences, which, he argues, the Japanese state has yet to fully confront, leading to a range of tensions at home and abroad.
Japanese Animation in Asia: Transnational Industry, Audiences, and Success (Routledge Culture, Society, Business in East Asia Series)
by Heung-Wah Wong Marco PellitteriAnime is a quintessentially Japanese form of animation consisting of both hand drawn and computer-generated imagery, and is often characterised by colourful graphics, vibrant characters, and fantastical themes. As an increasingly globalising expression of popular art and entertainment, and distributed through cinema, television, and over the internet, anime series and films have an enormous following, not only in Japan but also in Asia. This book provides a comprehensive survey of the historical development, industrial structure, and technical features of Japanese animation and of the overall dynamics of its globalisation in key contexts of the Asian region. Specific chapters cover anime’s production logics, its features as an ‘emotion industry’, and the involvement of a range of Asian countries in the production, consumption, and cultural impact of Japanese animation.
Japanese Apologies for World War II: A Rhetorical Study (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by Jane YamazakiPost-war Japan offers a compelling case study of national apologies for past wrongdoings. Actions of the Japanese Army and government during the Second World War caused enormous suffering and distress throughout Asia, leaving a legacy of resentment and distrust. Beginning in the mid-1980s, apology for wartime actions became a recurring issue for Japan. Repeated calls for apology from various quarters as well as repeated apologies by Japanese officials provide a rich source for the study of national apology and how public apology discourse develops over time. Unlike most rhetorical studies that focus on apologia in the broad sense, this study concentrates on the strategy of the ‘true apology.’ The study combines rhetorical, sociological and historical approaches to address multiple examples of Japanese apology during the period 1984 to 1995. The author suggests that motive is more complex than the ‘image restoration’ theory that is prevalent in rhetorical theory. More specifically, this study emphasizes repair of relationships, self-reflection leading to a ‘new’ improved identity and affirmation of moral principle as reasons for apology.
The Japanese Are Like That
by Ichiro KawasakiHere is a different book about the Japanese. A far cry from the purple prose of the starry eyed Western visitor or the sterile style of the government gazette, The Japanese Are Like That is a down·to·earth scrutiny of the so· called "inscrutable" Japanese. Armed with a cool head, the gift of clear expression, and an objectivity born of years of foreign residence, the author discusses with refreshing candor the national traits and ways of life of his countrymen, and compares them with those of other peoples, letting the chips fall where they may. Despite his background as a career diplomat, Mr.Kawasaki in this book dispenses with top hat and striped trousers and pulls no punches in exploding some popular myths and romantic illusions about Japan and the Japanese. This book is certain to provide the reader with new insights into little· known facets of Japan which very few authors have cared or dared to treat so openly. The author states his purpose in his preface: "I hope that other lands will gain a clearer understanding of 'what sort of people' the Japanese really are and that my discussion of their more lamentable characteristics will contribute to more realistic thinking about Japan.'·