For many people around the world, Japan and the Japanese remain an enigma. It is a nation and a people long viewed primarily through stereotypes: kimono'd geisha, samurai swordsmen, cloistered housewives, Zen Masters, and economic animals. Today, while some of the images are changing—women are out in force, Pokemon is cool in the U.S., Korean pop culture is "in”—other issues refuse to go away. Treatment of the Pacific War in Japanese textbooks raises hackles from Singapore to Shanghai to Seoul; disputed islands dot the Japan Sea (or is it the East Sea?); and Japanese politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine to honor the war dead lead to protests in the streets of China.
The general outline of Japan's recent history is well known. Devastated by its ill-fated militaristic ambitions in the first half of the twentieth century, Japan had assumed a place at the forefront of the world economy by the 1980’s. The economic "bubble" then burst, and Japan went, in the minds of many, from economic miracle to the economic has-been.
What is the real nature of contemporary Japan? This seminar aims to go beyond the stereotypical views of this country and its people to examine the nature of Japan's place in the evolving geopolitical landscape of Asia, and to explore the current allure of Japanese popular culture abroad. By some counts, anime and manga are named by over ninety percent of Americans currently studying Japanese in school. What are the roots of these popular cultural phenomena? What is their significance? With Tokyo as its classroom, this seminar will invite participants to explore these and other questions with people who have devoted their lives to understanding them.
This nine-day seminar takes place in Tokyo and combines formal presentations with related field trips into a variety of the city’s districts.
