Contemporary Japanese Research Articles

Parallels between Traditional Indian Philosophy and Contemporary Japanese Management

The purpose of this paper is to explain some significant parallels between traditional Indian philosophy found in The Gita and modern Japanese management practices. Philosophy is a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour. Thus, to the extent that management is part of life, philosophy can be expected to influence management behaviour. Further, to the extent that Buddhism is a significant part of modern Japanese life, it can be expected that since Buddhism has its origins in India, traditional Indian philosophy has an influence on modern Japanese management behaviour. This paper is groundbreaking because there does not seem to be any other published work dealing with this cross cultural topic.

신미(1811) 통신사의 회화 활동과 19세기 전반의 한일 회화 관계 : 이의양筆 倣谷文晁山水圖를 중심으로

Yi Uiyang(1768-?), a painter who accompanied Sinmi(1811)-Tongsinsa, painted landscape paintings in imitation of a painting by Tani Bunchō(1763-1840). And he stated that fact on his signature. Landscape Painting (Busan Museum) is assumed to be painted in 1811. This painting shows a typical style of Southern School, only using ink on a Japanese-made paper. From the late 18th century, Joseon intellectuals’ perception of Japan became relatively amicable. Influenced by this transition, Tongsinsa attendants in 1811 were able to emphasize with Bunchō’s paintings. This work should be a result of these particular circumstances. Moreover, Bunchō’s Gagakusai zukō (dated around 1812, Tahara Municipal Museum, Japan) is in the spotlight. Because there is a sketch which seems to be the original version of Landscape Painting.BR 7 years later in 1818, Yi Uiyang painted Summer Landscape (Sen-oku Hakuko Kan, Japan), which is very similar to Landscape Painting. The inscription was written by Kim Jeonghui, who had Bunchō’s paintings in his collection due to his close social relationship with Tongsinsa attendants in 1811. In the same year, Jin Dongik, who left the inscription on Landscape Painting, was sent to Tsushima domain as Munwihaeng. It should be related to the introduction of Summer Landscape to Japan. In 1825, this work was gifted to the Sumitomo family by Kojima Uzaemon, an officer of Tsushima domain. This can examine aspects of Korea-Japan exchanges of painting and roles of Tsushima domain after severance of Tongsinsa in the early 19th century.BR At the beginning of 19th century, the end of early modern Korea-Japan relations, Yi Uiyang painted landscape paintings in the style of a contemporary Japanese painter, Tani Bunchō. This fact is a good example to prove changes of Joseon intellectuals’ perception of Japan from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. Therefore, Yi Uiyang’s Landscape Paintings in Imitation of a Painting by Tani Bunchō can be considered a landmark case throughout history of Korea-Japan relations mediated by painting.

A contrastive study on the contemporary Japanese verbal suffix [shiteiru] and the contemporary Korean verbal suffixes [-ko iss-],[-e iss-] and [-ess-] -with special attention to the suffix [-ess-] in the so-called adjectival verbs

A contrastive study on the contemporary Japanese verbal suffix [shiteiru] and the contemporary Korean verbal suffixes [-ko iss-],[-e iss-] and [-ess-] -with special attention to the suffix [-ess-] in the so-called adjectival verbs

Two Different Perspectives of Contemporary Japanese Writers Tracing the Memories of Colonial Taiwan - Tsushima Yuko’s Too Savage and Yoshida Shuichi’s Road

Two Different Perspectives of Contemporary Japanese Writers Tracing the Memories of Colonial Taiwan - Tsushima Yuko’s Too Savage and Yoshida Shuichi’s Road

Morphometric analysis of sex differences in contemporary Japanese pelves using multidetector computed tomography

Sex estimation of decomposed or skeletal remains is clearly important in forensic contexts. Recently, contemporary population-specific data has been obtained using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) scanning. The main purpose of this study was to investigate skeletal pelvic dimorphism in a contemporary Japanese forensic sample and to quantify the accuracy of sex estimation using various pelvic measurements obtained from three-dimensional (3D) CT images. This study used a total of 208 cadavers (104 males, 104 females) of which postmortem CT scanning and subsequent forensic autopsy were conducted between December 2011 and August 2014. Eleven measurements of each pelvis were obtained from 3D CT reconstructed images that extracted only bone data. The measurements were analyzed using descriptive statistics and discriminant function analyses. All except one measurement were dimorphic in terms of sex differences. Univariate discriminant function analyses using these measurements provided sex classification accuracy rates of 62.0–98.1%. The subpubic angle was found to contribute most significantly to accurate sex estimation. Multivariate discriminant functions yielded sex prediction accuracy rates of 63.9–98.1%. In conclusion, the pelvic measurements obtained from 3D CT images of a contemporary Japanese population successfully demonstrated sexual dimorphism and may be useful for the estimation of skeletal sex in the field of forensic anthropology.

An Examination of Cultural Anthropological Research on Contemporary Japanese Society -Reviewing Ethnography of Japan from the 1990s to the 2000s-

An Examination of Cultural Anthropological Research on Contemporary Japanese Society -Reviewing Ethnography of Japan from the 1990s to the 2000s-

Adapting the Medium: Dynamics of Intermedial Adaptation in Contemporary Japanese Popular Visual Culture

Abstract With respect to adaptation studies, contemporary Japanese popular culture signifies a unique case, as different types of media (be those textual, auditive, visual or audio-visual) are tightly intertwined through the “recycling” of successful characters and stories. As a result, a neatly woven net of intermedial adaptations has been formed - the core of this complex system being the manga-anime-live-action film “adaptational triangle.” On the one hand, the paper addresses the interplay of the various factors by which the very existence of this network is made possible, such as the distinctive cultural attitude to “originality,” the structure of the comics, animation and film industries, and finally, the role of fictitious genealogies of both traditional and contemporary media in the negotiation of national identity. On the other hand, the essay also considers some of the most significant thematic, narrative, and stylistic effects this close interconnectedness has on the individual medium. Special attention is being paid to the nascent trend of merging the adaptive medium with that of the original story (viewing adaptation as integration), apparent in contemporary manga-based live- action comedies, as the extreme case of intermedial adaptation. That is, when the aim of the adaptational process is no longer the transposition of the story but the adaptation (i.e. the incorporation) of the medium itself- elevating certain medium-specific devices into transmedial phenomena.

Social functioning and socioeconomic changes after introduction of regular dialysis treatment and impact of dialysis modality: a multi-centre survey of Japanese patients.

Patient socialization and preservation of socioeconomic status are important patient-centred outcomes for those who start dialysis, and retention of employment is a key enabler. This study examined the influence of dialysis inception and modality upon these outcomes in a contemporary Japanese cohort. We conducted a survey of prevalent chronic dialysis patients from 5 dialysis centres in Japan. All patients who had been on peritoneal dialysis (PD) since dialysis inception were recruited, and matched with a sample of those on in-centre haemodialysis (ICHD). We assessed patients' current social functioning (Short Form 36 Health Survey), and evaluated changes to patient employment status, annual income, and general health condition from the pre-dialysis period to the current time. A total of 179 patients were studied (102 PD and 77 ICHD). There were no differences in social functioning by modality. Among them, 113 were employed in the pre-dialysis period with no difference by modality. Of these, 22% became unemployed after dialysis inception, with a corresponding decline in average working hours and annual income. The odds of unemployment after dialysis inception were 5.02 fold higher in those on ICHD compared to those on PD, after adjustment for covariates. There were no changes for those who were already unemployed in the pre-dialysis period. Employment status is significantly hampered by dialysis inception, although PD was associated with superior retention of employment and greater income compared to ICHD. This supports a positive role for PD in preservation of socioeconomic status and potentially other patient-centred outcomes.

Early Twentieth-Century Terms for New Verse Forms (‘free verse’ and others) in Japanese and Arabic

In the first half of the twentieth century, when Japanese and Arabic poets began writing free-verse poetry, many terms were proposed as labels for the new form. In addition to the calques on “free verse,” neologisms were created to name the new poetry. What is striking is that, in these two quite different literary spheres, a number of the proposed neologisms were the same: for example, in both Japanese and Arabic the terms prose poetry, modern poetry, and colloquial poetry were proposed (among others) as alternatives to the label free poetry. This essay provides an annotated list of the neologisms in Japanese and Arabic, with a list of English terms for comparison; and by referring to the contemporary Japanese and Arabic criticism on the topic of poetic innovation, this essay attempts to explain the similarity between the Japanese and Arabic neologisms. In short, the Japanese and Arabophone arguments in favour of adapting the free-verse form were based on similar premises regarding modernity, freedom, and a vision of literary history that was rooted in an evolutionary theory of genre development.

Apocalypse in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction by Motoko Tanaka (review)

Apocalypse in Contemporary Japanese Science Fiction by Motoko Tanaka (review)

World Literature and Japan: Tokyo, Worlding and Murakami Haruki

AbstractFollowing on from the publication of The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms, this essay develops understandings of the worldliness of world literature as part of a more inclusive system of exchange, circulation and multidirectional flows that could create new spaces for multiple world perspectives in literature. Arguing that the world in World Literature should be theorised as a concept as opposed to a marker of scale, Eric Hayot's On Literary Worlds (2012) forms the theoretical and conceptual foundations for analysing the scope and limits of a more sufficiently global view of the nature of worlding in Murakami Haruki's contemporary Japanese fiction. Building on David Damrosch's seminal work What is World Literature (2003a), the aim of this essay is two‐fold: to renew common conceptions of the spatial implications attached to the overarching singularity of the word ‘world’ in world literature; and to expand the categories of ‘world’ and of ‘literature’ as individual ‘whole’ parts that together create new overlapping spaces in the history of worldedness as a cultural phenomenon. Overlaps between anthropologists, sociologists, urban planners, urban rhythm analysis, linguistics and academics are discussed with reference to worlding in Murakami's depiction of Tokyo's multiple world‐passages with particular reference to his 2011 trilogy IQ84. Ultimately, this essay aims to present Japan as a (re)creator of global worlds in which the rebuilding of post‐war Tokyo comprises shifting spatial boundaries pertaining to both our world totality and our capability for (re)reading infinite world spaces. Reading the spatial liminality of Murakami's Tokyo in IQ84 while historicising the building of Tokyo as a world city aims to place transculturation and transliteration at the forefront of developing a multiple worlds perspective for our understandings of the world as a concept.

Easternization of the East? Zen and Spirituality as Distinct Cultural Narratives in Japan

Zen Buddhism has for decades fascinated the West, and the former elitist tradition has in contemporary times become part of broad popular culture. Zen is for Buddhists, but it is also part of a general “Easternization” and alleged “spiritual revolution” narrative. In Japan, both Zen and “spirituality” are important factors in both media and the lived religious environment. This article aims to investigate how and to what extent “Zen” and “spirituality” are related as narratives and religious practices in a contemporary Japanese context. While there are overlaps, it is argued that the two domains are separate and that such a division is based on general differences in culturally constrained narratives (Western/Japanese, Zen/spirituality). Besides focusing on a concrete Japanese context, the article also contributes to research on global and transnational (Zen) Buddhism as well as to the field of comparative spirituality.

Major factors affecting contemporary Japanese business environment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing contemporary Japanese business environment mainly in the field of strategic management and, therefore, having influence on corporate performance and its measurement in selected manufacturing companies located in Japan in respect to their key business perspectives focused on people, processes and systems, innovations, finance, social responsibility and ecology, and that in relation to ongoing economic crises and a fundamental transformation of mature societies (in particular in USA, Japan and Western Europe). Design/methodology/approach – The research involved assembling key academic and other literature on the subject of trends in strategic management and performance measurement in Japan as well as semi-structured interviews with managers within manufacturing companies located in Japan that deal with performance measurement, finance, strategic management, etc. and a review of various internal management reports. Findings – The resea...

A Study on Contemporary Japanese Theatre after the 3 · 11 Earthquake: Current Location and Haisui on Koto

A Study on Contemporary Japanese Theatre after the 3 · 11 Earthquake: Current Location and Haisui on Koto

Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts by Tomohito Shinoda (review)

Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts by Tomohito Shinoda (review)

Engelbert Kaempfer, Genemon Imamura and the origin of the name Ginkgo

AbstractThe unusual spelling of the genus Ginkgo has long attracted scholarly interest. It is well known that Linnaeus took the name from the Amoenitatum exoticarum of Kaempfer, and that Kaempfer relied on the 17th century Japanese illustrated encyclopedia Kinmo Zui for some of the names he took for Japanese plants. But why Kaempfer transliterated the name as “Ginkgo”, a pronunciation that does not exist in contemporary Japanese, has been debated. The recognition that Kaempfer’s young assistant was Genemon Imamura, a native of Nagasaki, provides a new perspective. Analysis of the plant names in the Amoenitatum exoticarum and comparison with the names in the Kinmo Zui shows that Kaempfer sought to faithfully transcribe the pronunciations of Genemon’s late medieval Nagasaki dialect into his transliterations. Ginkgo is one of several examples for which transliteration of the Nagasaki dialect accounts for Kaempfer’s unusual spelling of a word or name.

Analysis of Kawaii Codes appearing in Contemporary Japanese Fashion - focusing on Tokyo Girls Collection -

Analysis of Kawaii Codes appearing in Contemporary Japanese Fashion - focusing on Tokyo Girls Collection -

Contemporary Japanese Migration Process in Spain: Cultural Boundaries and Social Networks

Contemporary Japanese Migration Process in Spain: Cultural Boundaries and Social Networks

Frequency and safety of intracoronary acetylcholine provocation testing compared to coronary interventions: Analysis of a contemporary Japanese multicenter PCI registry

Vasospastic angina (VSA) is recognized as an important cardiovascular disorder characterized by transient myocardial ischemia due to epicardial coronary artery spasm, particularly in East Asians [1,2]. The Japanese Circulation Society guideline suggests that the findings from intracoronary acetylcholine (ACh) injection are crucial for the diagnosis of VSA. However, its real-world execution rate, diagnostic results, and safety remain largely unclear. Furthermore, VSA is becoming increasingly recognized in Western countries [3], and this information remains to be explored under universal definition.

Shinro Ohtake and Post-war Japanese Avant-garde Art

Shinro Ohtake was born in 1955 in Japan when the country first entered its period of major economic growth. Post-war Japanese society was being heavily influenced by American consumerism and its cultural hegemony. Ohtake was no exception: American Pop Art, and Andy Warhol in particular, significantly affected his artistic development. The course of his successful debut in the early 1980s, his subsequent fluctuating career and the recent establishment of his artistic status both in Japan and abroad encapsulate the significant issues of Western-influenced, contemporary Japanese art. This article aims to identify the nature of his Pop Art–style creations by examining his key working methods and the underlying concepts relating to the whole body of his extraordinarily diverse work. In particular, the avant-gardism of Ohtake's art will be examined with reference to Gutai and Mono-ha, the recognised ‘traditional styles’ of the country's post-war avant-garde art. The significance of his anarchism will also be discussed in relation to Japanese art of the 1980s and 1990s. By doing so, the article intends to contextualise his creations in the complex development of post-war Japanese avant-garde art, and at the same time explore the potential for transnational engagement of a contemporary artist who lives and practices in the age of globalisation.