Japanese Dreams Research Articles

LOSING STEAM: THE DEMISE OF THE “JAPANESE DREAM” AMONG PROSPECTIVE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Much like immigration, reasons to study abroad often relate to push and/or pull factors. Although attractive programs and courses can be major pulls for some prospective international students, financial matters such as tuition, living costs, and pathways to employment also have a significant influence. Since 2010 when Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) initiated projects and activities to promote the internationalization of universities, the number of inbound international students in Japan was steadily increasing, most of which were coming from East and Southeast Asia. This trend continued up until around 2018, and, understandably, rapidly declined in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and implementation of rigid border restrictions. While the pandemic undoubtedly played a major part in this downtrend, one cannot overlook the fact that enrollments and interest in studying in Japan was already losing steam. With its university rankings increasingly losing out to competitive universities in China and Singapore and its relatively low entry-level salaries amid a long-term recession, which has further been exacerbated by the weakened yen, the “Japanese dream” is arguably past its prime. While taking into account the contextual factors which influenced this trend, my study involved a critical discourse analysis of MEXT’s ambitious plan to somehow reverse this trend by bolstering further internationalization, attracting highly-skilled foreign talent and essentially saving a sinking ship. The findings from this study may give institutions in the education and employment sectors an opportunity to reassess their current support systems and programs for lucrative foreign talent.

Examining the association between cultural self-construal and dream structures in the United States and Japan.

Cultural differences in self-construal, human relationships, and values between Western and East Asian people have been suggested. The aim of this article is to investigate cultural difference in dreamers' self-construal based on their dreams. We examined the dreams sampled via online questionnaires from 300 non-clinical participants from America and Japan, respectively. The free response for the contents of "impressive dreams in childhood" "recent impressive dreams" was categorized into the five general dream structural patterns. Besides, the participants were asked to answer the scales to investigate participants' cultural self-construal. The current results revealed the prevalence of the independent view of self in American participants and the interdependent view of self in Japanese participants. In addition, we found significant cultural differences in the dream length and structural patterns. For American dreams, the dream-ego had a clear will and strong mobility, and there were obvious ends of dream events. Conversely, for Japanese dreams, the weak agency and vague conscious of the dream-ego were shown, and others could play a main role in one's dreams. These results suggested that each characteristic of the American and Japanese samples may be influenced by the differences in self-construal or in the process of self-formation between American and Japanese cultures.

On the relationship between the sense of self and the structure of dreams examined through questionnaire research for Japanese university students.

In this paper, the author attempts to show some structural changes in the adolescent mind in modern Japan through examination of our quantitative research of the dreams of university students. Two questionnaires, Scale of Anthropophobia Mentality and Scale of Sense of Self, were administered while asking students about the contents of their 'impressive dreams' in childhood as well as their recent dreams. By paying attention to the relationship between the sense of self of dream-ego and the structure of dreams, the author demonstrates the subjects' difficulty, or inability, to 'have' anxiety and thereby become active enough both on the surface of their consciousness and in the depth of their unconscious to effect change in their situation. The author concludes with a suggestion regarding the necessity of a cross-cultural study in this field and adds some points of comparison between German and Japanese dreams reported in psychotherapies.

日本人の「夢」は変わってきたのか？:－NHK日本人の意識調査（1973-2008）を手がかりに

日本人の「夢」は変わってきたのか？:－NHK日本人の意識調査（1973-2008）を手がかりに

Japanese dreams: Kurokawa Kishō’s annex to the Van Gogh Museum and its later re-appropriation

ABSTRACTThis paper traces the history of a Japanese-funded annex to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam over the past twenty-five years. The analysis focuses on three key years in the building’s history: 1991, 1999, and 2015. Critically examining public debate and media coverage of the building in contemporary Dutch- and Japanese-language sources, I argue that changing claims and public perceptions of Japan reflected the country’s shifting economic fortunes and international position during the period. The sources consistently framed the Japanese-designed building within a language of dreams. However, the dreams gradually transformed from desires and nostalgic projections to sleepiness and inactivity. Japan, and the annex as its symbolic embodiment, remained a ‘place of dreams’, but the nature of those ‘dreams’ changed dramatically over the period studied.

Anti-Russian Secret Actions - The Kokuryūkai and the Russo-Japanese War

The Kokuryukai was founded in 1901 to foster the outbreak of a Russo-Japanese War. For these sake, the members of the society started spying in Korea, Manchuria, China and even Russia and prepared the image of a despotic and weak country, which would not be able to counter Japanese aspirations on the Asian mainland anymore. In 1895 the Triple Intervention under Russian leadership had finished the Japanese dreams of getting the Liaodong peninsula as a compensation for the Sino-Japanese War. And just some years later as a consequence of the Boxer Rebellion Russia seized Manchuria and was not willing to negotiate about its abandonment. Finally, the Japanese nationalists saw no alternative than founding another secret society to prepare the Japanese army and public for war. Due to this, information about the possible opponent needed to be collected and an anti-Russian propaganda campaign was started by the members. This made Russia the enemy number one and many publications like Uchida Ryohei's Roshiaron started to provide a negative image of the future enemy on the battlefield for Asian hegemony. An article will outline the establishment of this anti-Russian image by analyzing the measures of the Kokuryukai members from its foundation until the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.

Rejection, understanding, strategy: Japanese political studies in Korea after the Second World War

'It is true that Japan dealt a devastating blow to Korea's development as a nation and that we Koreans should never forget this historical fact. However, we cannot live with an iron wall between Japan and Korea. While we must learn from our history to better cope with the future, allowing emotions from the past to overwhelm the current possibilities for a pragmatic relationship is not rational. Regardless of whether we like it or not, Japan is our neighbor, as close as a raindrop on a leaf. We should know Japan. And if we want to know today's Japan, we must understand what is happening there since the Second World War. We must gain insight into what the Japanese dream about, what obstacles they deal with, what they hope for, and what influence all this could possibly have on international politics.'

Japanese dreams: culture and cosmology.

Attitudes to dream evaluation vary depending on culture. Dreams are considered important, real, and public in some cultures, but absurd, irrational and personal in others. Japan has its own history of dreaming, which can be well reconstructed due to rich sources of archeological and documentary material. In this paper dream evolution in Japan is described. Phase 1 is the prehistoric Jomon period, where people believed dreams were part of reality. From Phase 2, the sophisticated philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were introduced and changed the social and mental system of Japan in phase 3. At phase 4, the amalgamation of local and alien cultures occurred and supernatural beliefs prevailed. In this society dreams played a very important role. Phase 5 is the period when the Samurai class ruled Japan. The pragmatic thinking of the Samurai succeeded in fostering good preconditions for the receipt of scientific Western culture in phase 6. The importance of dreams in Japan evolved in such a way. However, the elements of each phase continued and accumulated similar layers. Thus, a majority of the phases seemed to retain animism from the Jomon period.