Japanese Cultural Policy Research Articles

National Archetypes in Modern Content of Japanese Cultural Policy Model

The purpose of the article is to reveal the content and main directions of implementation of the model of cultural policy in Japan. Its peculiarities related to the traditional worldview, visuality, sensuality, and oriental aesthetics, and combined with the orientation towards human values are substantiated. This model, the main recipient of which is young people, unlike many models of Western countries, is implemented within the framework of mass culture, significantly influences American culture and is attractive to residents of other regions. The researchmethodology consists in the use of such approaches as synchronic and diachronic analysis, phenomenology and hermeneutics in the selection and analysis of works of art, strategies of cultural policy of Japan. Scientific novelty of the work is the first cultural analysis of the combination of traditional and modern cultural heritage in such leading genres of Japanese visual art as anime and manga. Conclusions. Due to the sensual nature of the authors' nature, the products of the Japanese creative industry reflect on such important universal problems as ecology, social injustice, moments of important emotional experiences of teenagers at their tender age and family values. The important contextual content of anime and manga is presented in an extremely aesthetic visual form, which often makes animation and literature equal to works of art. Many animated films and series are considered by connoisseurs to be an example of an ideal balance of visual and semantic load, which allows both to plunge into philosophical reflections on the meaning of life, one's place in society, or the existence of the dichotomy of good-evil, and simply to satisfy aesthetic needs in contemplation of beauty. Thus, the combination of Japanese thought and Western technology was realised in products – anime and manga – that became desirable in European and Western countries. Key words: cultural policy, Japan, anime, manga, Shinto, visual thinking, tradition, universal values.

From aims to results: justifying and implementing Japanese cultural policies in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT In 2014, the Japan Foundation and the Tokyo International Film Festival commissioned three films from Japanese, Cambodian and Filipino directors to represent the theme ‘Reflections: Living Together in Asia’. This was the first edition of a government-sponsored film co-production entitled the Asian Three-Fold Mirror. Running from 2014 to 2020, this initiative aims at improving mutual understanding between national audiences. This project shows a shift towards reciprocity and active collaboration and away from a unidirectional Japanese cultural diplomacy. However, it casts Japan as a primary actor for a successful regionalization of Southeast Asia, thus undermining the advertised reciprocity of the initiative. Through a juxtaposed analysis of the policy papers that led to the funding of this project, and of the creative content and reception of the films, this paper analyses the aims of these policies, and evaluates how the project of the Asian Three-Fold Mirror relates to these goals.

유리건판으로 보는 북한 사찰 불교회화의 현황과 과제

The National Museum of Korea holds about 38,000 gelatin dry plates produced as part of a Japanese survey project on historic remains in Korea during the Japanese colonial era. These plates represented a new modern photographic medium at the time. They now provide significant documentary materials evidencing Japanese colonial cultural policy. This paper explores the value of Buddhist paintings at notable temples in North Korea through these gelatin dry plates and examines the perception of Buddhist cultural assets during the Japanese colonial era. Buddhist paintings were not a main subject of research in the survey on historic remains in Korea conducted by Sekino Tadashi and others. Compared to the numerous gelatin dry plates of Buddhist sculptures and stone cultural properties, only a few plates illustrating Buddhist paintings survive. Nevertheless, they are significant considering that many temples were destroyed, and Buddhist cultural properties were lost during the Korean War and given the division of contemporary Korea.<BR> The 1911 Temple Law enacted by Japanese authorities to manage Korea’s institutional Buddhism altered the perception of Buddhist cultural heritage. Seongbo (聖寶, sacred treasures) which had formerly simply been worshipped at temples came to be perceived as possessions with a monetary value. A portrait of a Japanese monk from the Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism was enshrined inside the Suchungsa Hall built for honoring righteous monk soldiers who fought against the Japanese forces during the Japanese Invasions of Korea (Imjin Waeran, 1592~1598) at Bohyeonsa Temple. Master Naong’s certificate of ordination was submitted to the Joseon Mulsan Gongjinhoe (Joseon Industrial Exhibition) convened in 1929 to celebrate the twentieth year of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. These indicate some of the circumstances faced by the Korean Buddhist community during the Japanese colonial era.<BR> The paper also scrutinizes changes in the Korean Buddhist community during the port-opening period by focusing on monk-painters who were active on Geumgangsan Mountain, including Hyeho, Cheolyu, and Chukyeon. The development of roads and railways drew new visitors to major temples on Geumgangsan Mountain. Monk-painters began to be introduced as masters in newspapers, compete with other artists, produce self-portraits expressing their personal identity, and sell their works to foreigners (or at least heavily advertise them). The combination of the information on gelatin dry plates with official documents issued by the Japanese Government-General of Korea that operated policies on the colony’s cultural heritage will facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the circumstances faced by Buddhist temples in North Korea in the twentieth century.

Transformation of Japanese Female Characters in the European Live­Action Films (1945–2015)

The aim of this paper is to define characteristic images of Japanese women in European live-action films of the second half of the 20th century — the early 21st century. Research methodology . The author applied the imalogical method which has to do with the analysis of one nation’s image in the perception of another one, at that the source of the research is the mass culture of a recipient. The basis of this method is the comprehensive approach. Results . A woman was perceived as Different in most cultures for extended periods. At the same time, a woman had a major impact on the development of the people in almost all spheres of its life. For a long time, Japanese women were perceived as a secondary member of a society. In the context of globalization, gender roles are changing even in traditional Japanese society. The identification of characteristic images and the study of the transformation of the female characters’ images will help to more accurately determine and characterize the image of Japan in European live-action films. Imagology is a young scientific field that explores the image of one nation in the minds of another. The subject of imagology is a cultural tradition in all its manifestations, including the position of women in the society. The study of female images and their evolution helps to determine the image of the country as a whole. Cinema, as one of the most popular types of popular art, is capable of simultaneously relaying the public opinion and creating new social myths. The characteristic images of Japanese characters are revealed: an object in a patriarchal society, an object of a foreigner’s love, a woman creator, a woman warrior, a keeper of cultural traditions, and a modern Japanese woman. It is specified that the artistic and dramatic principles of the images are changing, depending on the genre features of the film. It is determined that a woman acts as a metaphor for the whole country, for which the postcolonial discourse, the features of intercultural communication, the consequences of the events of the Second World War are reflected. Novelty . The novelty of the results is a cultural conceptualization of the image of a Japanese woman, formed under the influence of cultural and historical factors and reflected in cinematography. For the first time, the transformation of cinematic images of Japanese women under the influence of Japanese cultural policy and intercultural communication is traced. The practical significance. An analysis of the image of female characters in live-action films is an important step in the study of the cultural and artistic representation of Japan in Western cinema of the 2nd half of the 20th century — the early 21st century.

Cultural heritage protection system in Japan: Current issues and prospects for the future

Japan has been modernizing for the past 150 years, wiping out the old for the sake of socio-economic progress. Since the end of World War II (WWII) in particular, Japan’s new constitution renounced war and Japan placed a strong focus on economic development. In many cases, the protection of cultural heritage was marginalized. However, in recent years, Japan’s society and economy have matured, and the national demand for a better quality of life has increased. Demand for non-material satisfaction has led to growing concern about social cohesion, local identity, and culture. On the other hand, due to structural changes in the economy and production, industries have also increased attention to the importance of utilizing culture for the creation of economic value. Thus, cultural heritage has been integrated into local communities and has gradually come to be considered an important component of a high-quality lifestyle as well as a precious resource for regional development through cultural tourism and the creation of high value-added products. Accordingly, the cultural heritage protection system has evolved to meet these socio-economic changes. The main purpose of this paper is to overview the major achievements of cultural heritage protection in general, which comprises the core of Japanese cultural policy. Also the underlying socio-economic changes will be addressed. Then, current issues and prospects for the future will be considered. This paper is largely based on GRIPS Discussion Paper 14-10, written by the author, and was revised for this journal with the support of JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 26380292. Except as otherwise cited, data used in this paper are based on Agency for Cultural Affairs (2001, 2016).

전후일본에 있어서 문화정책관련법의 동향

The post-war Japanese government recently recognized culture as a means of promoting the state, building local communities, internationalization, nation building, and eliminating human discrimination. It has also recognized the importance of a comprehensive welfare system, and the role of cultural exchange can play in the future. Based on that recognition, the government, local authorities, and companies are encouraged to pursue this cultural policy as an important part of their business. Especially, the expansion of global thinking in the twenty-first century has enabled cultural policy to create considerable value in a number of areas. This study attempts to analyze the extent to which the characteristics of Japanese laws relating to cultural policy actually support cultural policy in contemporary Japan. In post-war Japan, laws relating to Japanese cultural policy include laws such as the Japanese Constitution, the Fundamental Law of Education, the MEXT Equip Law, and the various city ordinances. Those laws regulate the ideas, aims, direction, and the practice of cultural policy in post?war Japan. In conclusion, Japanese laws relating to cultural policy were characterized as being responsible for expanding or creating cultural development and for promoting exchange between the international society and Japan through cultural policy. In the meantime, Japanese laws relating to cultural policy in post-war Japan were found to reflect thoughts of age, and to influence areas of political, economic, social, and cultural significance in the nationally or internationally society.

Did manga conquer America? Implications for the cultural policy of ‘Cool Japan’

This paper explores the efficacy of an international cultural policy based upon the export of a nation’s popular culture through the case study of Japanese comic books, called manga, in the USA. I begin by exploring the origin of the historical and theoretical underpinnings of ‘Cool Japan’ and providing a concise account of the Japanese cultural policies in this vein. Then, drawing upon participant observation and seventy in-depth, semi-structured interviews from informants in and around the American manga publishing industry, I discuss in detail what is actually involved in publishing Japanese comic books in the USA post-2007. Arguing that what they do is first and foremost to make manga American, I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the likely fortunes of ‘Cool Japan’ and any other cultural policy premised upon exporting popular culture.

Okakura Kakuzō and Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita): A Brief Episode

Okakura Kakuzō and Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita):A Brief Episode John Rosenfield (bio) Ideals of the East (1903), Okakura Kakuzō's first book in English, is an impassioned defense of premodern spiritual traditions in Asia.1 Still in print, it continues to inspire persons throughout the world who resist such aspects of modernity as the secular sciences, capitalism, or industrial technology. Okakura had developed his ideas while lecturing in Tokyo, and in 1902, during his sojourn in India, he translated them into English with the aid of Margaret Elizabeth Noble, an Irish woman living in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Okakura had excellent command of English,2 and although Noble claimed that she intended only to preserve the music of his prose, she injected Hindu ideology and grandiloquent Victorian rhetoric into the body of the text. She wrote a long introduction and signed it "Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekānanda"—thus directly linking Okakura's book to a powerful Indian spiritual-political movement called Advaita Vedanta (explained below).3 The unlikely collaboration of a Japanese art scholar and an Irish expatriate woman was a by-product of the presence in India of foreigners greatly inspired by Eastern spirituality. Okakura travelled to India to meet the charismatic Swami Vivekānanda, and the Swami's Western disciples befriended him. The identities of these disciples, the paths by which they came to India, and the roles that they played in Okakura's career are the subjects of this essay. The Protagonists Swami Vivekānanda (1863-1902). Vivekānanda was a disciple of the most famous Indian prophet of modern times, Swami Ramakrishna (1836-86). Born in Bengal, Ramakrishna had led a movement called in Sanskrit a'dvaita vedanta (the undivided totality of the Vedas), which held, inter alia, that each of the great faiths—Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic—embodied the ultimate truth. Focused on ancient [End Page 58] Vedic texts and the classic Upanishads, the movement emphasized spiritual self-realization admixed with strong undercurrents of Indian nationalism. When Ramakrishna died in 1886 he was succeeded by a brilliant young Bengali, Narendranath Dutta (given the monastic name Vivekānanda), who aimed to establish Ramakrishna centers of worship and social welfare throughout the world. Vivekānanda came to Boston in 1893 and, remarkably fluent in English, opened the still active Ramakrishna Vedanta Society located near Boston University.4 In the same year he managed to attend the famous Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago—part of the World's Columbian Exposition, a great landmark in American cultural history.5 The religion congress, which lasted for thirteen days, featured representatives of many creeds, and though Vivekānanda had arrived late, he was added to the roster of speakers. With a soaring vision of the transcendent unity of all spiritual creeds, he spoke of Advaita (non-duality)—"All alike were roads to the One Real." Amazingly, his talk was recorded and is freely available on the Internet.6 We can hear his voice and understand how he electrified the audience—"like a tongue of flame it fired the souls of the listening throng."7 Suddenly a celebrity, he spent the next four years in America and Europe, lecturing on Vedanta, going as houseguest from one charmed host to another, and collecting funds for his Ramakrishna centers. He met with such influential thinkers as William James, Robert Ingersoll, Josiah Royce, Max Müller, and Romain Rolland, and was offered (but declined) teaching posts at Harvard and Columbia universities. Another eloquent young Bengali, Swami Saradānanda, came to take charge of the Vedanta Society in New York and remained Vivekānanda's loyal associate for years. Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) and Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908). Both men had occupied powerful positions in Japanese art education, museum administration, art collecting, and government cultural policy.8 Okakura, for example, was a counselor for the Japanese mission at the Chicago exposition of 1893. There the Japanese government at great expense built the elaborate Hōōden, a display building modeled on the famous Phoenix Hall (Hōōdō) in the Byōdōin, the eleventh-century Buddhist temple in Uji.9 But in 1896, only two years later, Okakura was forced for political and...

A Compartmentalization Strategy as Japanese Cultural Policies

A Compartmentalization Strategy as Japanese Cultural Policies

Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective, and: Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (review)

Reviewed by: Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective, and: Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism John H. Boyle (bio) See Heng Teow. Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective. Harvard East Asian Monographs, vol. 175. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1999. xiii, 310 pp. Hardcover $39. 50, ISBN 0-674-47257-8. Louise Young . Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998. xii, 487 pp. Hardcover $45.00, ISBN 0-520-21071-9. Among the most punishing of the terms extracted by the foreign powers from the dying empire of China following the defeat of the Boxer Uprising in 1900 was a staggering assortment of indemnities. Japan, Britain, Russia, Germany, France, the United States, and a host of other countries awarded themselves financial redress in the amount of 450 million silver taels. Funds that might have gone into modernization schemes or armaments were to be diverted to pay foreign bondholders of China's debt for decades into the future. According to one calculation, the interest and payments, intended to be paid out until 1940, would have amounted to a grand total of U.S. $739 million. In a gesture of goodwill unusual for the day, the United States in 1908 notified China that it intended to return the excessive portion of its share of the indemnity to China. The move triggered some calls for similar remissions from other countries but it was not until World War I that other creditor nations, including Britain and Japan, agreed to follow the American example. Japan indicated its intention to remit in 1918 and did so a few years later. By 1924, all the nations signatory to the Boxer Protocol had followed suit. The debts were not simply canceled or waived. In each case, the imperial powers specified how the remitted funds were to be used, and this provides See Heng Teow with the intriguing basis for his "Comparative Perspective." The author concentrates on Britain, Japan, and the United States. From the beginning the Chinese government made it clear that it would prefer to use remissions to foster industrial development in the empire. And from the beginning the American government rejected such uses in favor of cultural and educational projects. "Indemnity scholarships" allowed for hundreds of Chinese to study in the United States, and Tsinghua College was established to better prepare students for an American education. In part to address Chinese concerns that the United States would interfere with the Chinese educational system, and in part because of the belief native to Americans that cultural matters properly resided in the private sphere, the U.S. government itself played relatively little role in directing the cultural and educational projects in China. In sharp contrast to [End Page 552] Japan, no American governmental cultural institution was established to run the indemnity enterprises there. Great Britain, writes Teow, was more "chameleon-like" in its cultural approach (p. 118). Initially, Britain was anxious to compete with the United States in the race to expand cultural and educational ties with China. By the late 1920s, however, and increasingly in the depression-ridden 1930s, London's goals began to shift in the direction of economic endeavors such as railway construction and river conservancy. Allocations for the purchase of British materials to implement such programs had a special appeal. Teow argues that Japanese remission policies differed from American and British policies with respect not so much to goals as to means—each nation was motivated by a mixture of pragmatic interests, ethnocentric rivalries, and idealism. Far from turning funds over to China, Japan enacted legislation creating a special account, which was placed under the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo, and then, in 1923, established the China Cultural Affairs Bureau to use these funds and to plan and supervise, on a long-term basis, its cultural activities on the continent. Among all the Boxer Protocol signatories, "Japan stood out as the only country that used its remission to institutionalize a cultural policy toward China" (p. 197). In stressing their own cultural affinity to China and in...

Japanese Cultural Policy toward China 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective. See Heng Teow

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsJapanese Cultural Policy toward China 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective. See Heng Teow Lincoln LiLincoln Li Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 44Jul., 2000 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2667525 Views: 5Total views on this site Copyright The China JournalPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective

Japanese Cultural Policy toward China, 1918-1931: A Comparative Perspective

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War 2. Edited by Grant K. Goodman. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1991. P. xii, 223. Bibliographies, Index.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War 2. Edited by Grant K. Goodman. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1991. P. xii, 223. Bibliographies, Index.

Lt. Shigenobu Mochizuki and the New Philippine Cultural Institute

This paper illustrates the Japanese cultural policy towards the Philippines through the example of the New Philippine Cultural Institute, an educational institution created by the Japanese military to inculcate the Filipino youth with patriotism and to nurture the future leaders of the “New Philippines”. This organization developed later into a volunteer army which showed determination to fight against the returning U.S. forces.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. Edited by Grant Goodman. New York: St Martin's Press. 1991. xi, 223 pp. $39.95.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. Edited by Grant Goodman. New York: St Martin's Press. 1991. xi, 223 pp. $39.95.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II

(1993). Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 43-43.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. Edited by Grant K. Goodman. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. x, 223 pp. $39.95.

Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia during World War II. Edited by Grant K. Goodman. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. x, 223 pp. $39.95.

Book reviews

Book reviews

Japanese cultural policies in Southeast Asia during World War 2

Japanese cultural policies in Southeast Asia during World War 2

New book: Grant K. Goodman (ed.),Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia During World War 2

New book: Grant K. Goodman (ed.),<i>Japanese Cultural Policies in Southeast Asia During World War 2</i>