Japanese Self Research Articles

Anatomy of Conflict

<p>This essay explores physicality in the context of intercultural theatre and the conflicts, challenges, and questions that arise in bringing my Japanese self into the Western classroom. My inquiry revolves around the internal process of rethinking the physicality of actors through various lenses: space and body, emotion and body, logic vs. ambiguity, and Western horizontality vs. Japanese verticality. Special attention is given to the relationship between body and space, with reference to the work of a Japanese director and playwright Ōta Shōgo. Through an excavation of my roots and reflections on my past experiences, juxtaposed with discoveries in my current classroom, the essay tracks a gradual shift in my soma (body) as I entangle my Japanese/Western construct, move toward a reintegration of the two, and embrace the question of whether a universal approach to potentiality in performance is possible.</p><p> </p>

Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience

ABSTRACT Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply industry appearing in Japanese vernaculars, I show that railway technology constitutes an integral component of the contemporary Japanese identity narrative, which has been built up through a particular technopolitical regime. These narratives consistently refer to the purported safety, reliability, and punctuality of Japanese railways as one manifestation of the high-quality technological skills underpinning Japanese identity construction. However, the narratives also reveal an inherent irony, whereby the confident Japanese Self at once reveals a countervailing, inexperienced Japanese Self, in which the Japanese railway technopolitical regime realizes that its own domestic strength has resulted in a lack of international experience compared to its European, and increasingly Chinese, rivals. I conclude by suggesting that the Japanese railway identity follows a complex construct involving a confident Self in contradistinction to an inexperienced Self both reproduced in opposition to the European and Chinese Other.

Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife

What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service professional. Drawing on my ethnography at Japanese-style gay bars in Shinjuku Ni-chōme (Tokyo) and other Japanese urban centers, and from studies on the Japanese self, religious practice and authenticity, I propose in-sincerity as an analytical tool to describe how service professionals orient their practice. At Japanese-style gay bars, in-sincerity represents a strict approach to work involving withdrawing parts of one’s self and concocting subjunctive selves (customized versions of one’s self that occupied an illusive 'as if’ dimension) for customers’ entertainment. The co-creation and reproduction of bar legends at Zenith bar exemplifies the surfacing of these subjunctive selves by inextricably entangling factual information and the imaginary worlds of both service professionals and customers.

The interval between humans: A probe into the possibilities of being

By taking as background a few examples from Japanese culture and society, as well as an ethnographic insight, this article reconsiders the way anthropology usually deals with and talks about issues regarding cultural differences in human relations. These issues, which start from the fact that different cultures articulate human relations in different ways, have as one of their main theoretical outcomes the analysis around the categories of “self” or “person.” However, within this move lies something akin to a “gestalt misconception” that reduces a shared moral understanding (human relations) to an analysis of conceptual categories and their cognitive, psychological, subjective (or other) processes. Alternatively, the article proposes a more dialogical approach informed by Gadamer’s idea of “dialog” and “fusion of horizons,” where one aims to learn from other cultures and not about them. As a result, some reflections of a philosophical, moral, and practical character are presented, leaving theoretical formulations about the “Japanese self” out of the equation. This article’s general purpose is not an exploration of “Japaneseness,” but rather a probe into the possibilities of Being.

Ethno-essentialisms of the self: A critique of the cultural scripting of obesity in Japan.

In challenging the 'validity' of the body mass index (BMI), the construct of metabolic syndrome has been used to comprehend how obesity affects Japanese people. This article is grounded in an adaptation of the 'sexual scripting theory' (Gagnon and Simon, 2005) and proposes the concept of 'ethno-essentialisms of the self' to explore the cultural scripts underpinning the development of metabolic syndrome. Ethno-essentialisms of the self indicate a dialectical relationship between a Japanese healthy self and a non-Japanese unhealthy Other, where ethno-racial susceptibilities might make a Japanese self prone to develop metabolic-related diseases. Despite these susceptibilities, Japanese 'biopedagogy' (Wright, 2009) to control bodyweight is oriented by a proper daily calculation of food consumption in relation to calorie-burning. Biopedagogy in the form of food and nutrition education has largely translated into unyielding efforts to (re)traditionalise eating habits to prevent the supposed Westernisation of Japanese food. Overall, medical knowledge serves to propagate ethno-essentialisms of the self, whose unintended consequence could be 'clinical iatrogenic disease' (Illich, 1976).

Tabaimo: innovación e identidad. La sociedad japonesa desde la Bienal de Arte de Venecia (2011)

Esta investigación analiza la obra de la artista japonesa Tabata Ayako (Nagano, 1975) desde las perspectivas de innovación e identidad, centrándose en el trabajo de su participación en la Bienal de Arte de Venecia de 2011, un punto decisivo en su carrera, al ocupar el puesto de abanderada en estas llamadas “olimpiadas del arte”. A lo largo del artículo se encuadra su trabajo en la Bienal en el contexto de la diplomacia cultural, y se desgranan los planteamientos de la artista que intenta poner de relieve que las verdaderas aportaciones de las que se cree capaz proceden del color y el sabor local, considerando que su yo japonés es la aportación propia con la que puede contribuir al mundo del arte de forma singular. Sin embargo, un apartado dedicado a estudiar el significado del término nippon en sus títulos nos hace ver que este posicionamiento no deja de lado una crítica hacia su propia sociedad, pidiendo a sus compatriotas mayor capacidad crítica e implicación personal en la sociedad. Por otro lado, analizando su obra se hace evidente que la identidad no es algo anclado en el pasado, como ella misma demuestra zambulléndose en el mundo digital. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se ha empleado una metodología fenomenológico-hermenéutica que nos ha permitido alcanzar una serie de conclusiones particulares sobre su obra, pero también con un carácter más general sobre el tema de la identidad, la innovación y las interrelaciones artísticas.

Chinese university students’ multilingual learning motivation under contextual influences: a multi-case study of Japanese majors

ABSTRACT This study closely examined the motivational language selves of Chinese university students in the process of multilingual learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve Japanese specialist majors. The qualitative data revealed the complex interplay between the participants’ language selves and complicated contextual influences. The participants seemed to have strong ideal English self especially in the workplace and relatively weaker ideal Japanese self. They had strong ought-to Japanese self and their ought-to English self was suspended to some extent. Apart from their English and Japanese selves, they also constructed a multilingual self. The cultural, social and pedagogical contexts in which the participants were embedded exerted mixed influences on their self constructions. The findings suggest the neoliberal emphasis on the instrumental value of language and the negative impact of English as a global language on Japanese learning in such social discourse. This article is concluded with some pedagogical implications for language teachers.

The Olympics and Japanese national identity: Multi-layered otherness in Tokyo 2016 and 2020

ABSTRACTHow are Japanese identity narratives constructed in the Tokyo 2016 campaign and the Tokyo 2020 bid and organisation? The earlier narratives of Tokyo 1940 and 1964 bids entailed invoking Western Otherness to emphasise Japan’s Asian affinity while simultaneously emphasising Japan’s un-Asian characteristics, effectively employing dual Otherness to tell the story of Japanese Self. Tokyo’s position as a global city today means that Japanese Self is now constituted through multiple Otherness involving the West, Asia, as well as the primacy of Tokyo in opposition to the relative neglect of the periphery, constructing a more complex story of Otherness. There are concerns Tokyo is hoarding infrastructure investment ahead of Tokyo 2020, just as the regions affected by the March 2011 disasters require capital infusion, fuelling a sense of Tokyo versus the rest. Hence, on top of the residual dual Otherness that can still be witnessed, Tokyo 2020 grafts another layer of Otherness, this time at the domestic level. In this article, I explore identity narratives by policy elites and opinion leaders to show the complex nature of multi-layered Otherness in the Tokyo 2016 and 2020 bidding and organisation.

Transformation of JSDF image in recent Japanese animation

Since Shinzo Abe elected as the Prime Minister of Japan, he had concentrated his effort to change Japan to be a “normal” country by trying to change article nine of Japanese Constitution. But even if Shinzo Abe had tried since 2006 to change the constitution, this effort still opposed by the Japanese people. Mass media is one of the tools that could be used to communication through people. Gate : Jieitai Kano Chi te kaku tatakaeri, is one of Japanese anime that represent Japanese Self Defense Force in mass media. Through this research author will analyse the narration of Gate Jieitai Kano Chi te Kaku Tatakaeri, and show how have Japanese Self Defense Force have been represent in this anime in its relation to the Special Region, which I argue was the representation of the country that Japan had been invade during the world war II.

Repackaging national identity: Cool Japan and the resilience of Japanese identity narratives

ABSTRACT‘Cool Japan’ is an instance of Japanese government's nation branding exercise as part of its soft power projection in which the unique selling point is identified as Japanese national identity. In this paper, I examine the relationship between Cool Japan and Japanese national identity and highlight a tension in the construction. Cool Japan is about emphasizing Japan's attractiveness for public diplomacy, while the top-down nature of the branding undermines the imagery that the branding is designed to convey. I show that policy elites resolve this tension by invoking the traditional Japanese identity narratives that construct Japan into both a non-Western and an un-Asian entity, reproducing the myth of Japanese uniqueness. I argue that the elite narratives surrounding Cool Japan readily replicate the language reminiscent of prewar identity construction. Despite the contemporary popularity of manga and anime, the purported ‘coolness’ of these products are framed within older constructions of Japanese Self that can trace their pedigree back to the nineteenth century. Using the minutes of committee meetings, policy documents, as well as media interviews given by policy- and business elites, I show that Cool Japan is effectively a twenty first century rendition of the familiar Japanese identity construction.

自称詞の歴史社会言語学的研究―「拙者」から「僕」へ―:Modernization of Japanese self ―from Sessha to Boku ―

自称詞の歴史社会言語学的研究―「拙者」から「僕」へ―:Modernization of Japanese self ―from Sessha to Boku ―

Linking cosmopolitan and multispecies touch in contemporary Japan

This article argues that one novel way to understand the slow death of a homogeneous Japanese identity, viewing it in perhaps a more positive light than simply loss, is to consider how Japan is increasingly ‘post-familial’ (Hansen 2013). In sum, there is an emergent shared (or ‘common’) sense of being Japanese moving beyond the myth of a monolithic or unified political-national/socio-cultural/familial Japanese self towards a desire to get ‘in touch’ with an individual, surely individuated, identity, alongside a concomitant openness to be ‘touched by’ Others who exist beyond the rigidly defined social-political subjectivity of ware ware nihonjin (we Japanese). Engaging in these increasingly ubiquitous cosmopolitical connections may or may not be chosen (Beck 2009), but two influential arenas where encounters of touch are clearly on the rise in Japan are the increase in the number of non-ethnic Japanese residing in the country, with some becoming Japanese citizens, and, less discussed, the sharp rise in the number of urban household pets, specifically dogs, over the past two decades. This article draws together two levels of analysis, the virtual world of multimedia advertising and the ethnographic everyday, in order to discuss how seemingly distinct registers of touch in contemporary Japanese culture have emerged and coalesce in questioning simplistic readings of belonging and identity.

Representación de América Latina <em>en</em> y <em>para</em> Japón: un análisis de la prensa japonesa

Este texto parte de los conceptos de alteridad y sistema social autopoiético para analizar la representación contemporánea de lo latinoamericano según el periódico The Asahi Shimbun. Las noticias sobre América Latina publicadas en este diario durante dos décadas se abordan con los métodos de investigación de la comunicación, el análisis de contenido y el análisis textual. De esta manera, se discute cómo la representación resulta primordialmente en una imagen del latinoamericano como deportista o como transgresor del orden, imagen que, a su vez, es el fundamento para la construcción de un otro latinoamericano necesario en la dinámica de producción y reproducción de lo japonés.

Interrogating self and other: Mutuality in the visual art of pre-war Japan

In pre-war Japan, the visual artist often played a complicit role in the circulation of dominant imperialist and militarist discourses. Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958) and Fujita Tsuguharu (1886-1968), for example, produced images extolling Yamato military might. This ‘might’ is evident both in the metonym of Yokoyama’s soaring Fuji-san images, often with rising sun ascendant, and in the more realist representation of Fujita’s Soviet tanks under assault at Nomonhan by ‘triumphant’ Japanese troops. Some pre-war and war-time visual art, however, resists being viewed as a conventional ‘hagiography of Japan.’ This, paradoxically, is especially the case in images depicting sites occupied by Japanese military and capital interests. These images, in fact, often reveal the highly tenuous nature of the discursively constructed border that divided the naichi Japanese self and the gaichi colonised other. Rather they convey a sense of mutual subjectivity in which the agency of the ‘other-ed’ subject insists on asserting itself. This presentation will provide a detailed examination of three pre-1945 works of visual art and consider how these uncover the mutuality inherent in old notions of self and other in pre-war Japan. The first is a 1937 image entitled ‘K?nan no haru’ (Jiangnan Spring) by Arishima Ikuma (1882-1974), a scene from the rural environs of Shanghai featuring two young women in Chinese dress and an Imperial Army soldier mounted on a white horse. The second is a 1942 image entitled ‘Shimai heizaz?’ (Sisters Sitting Side-by-Side), painted in Beijing by Umehara Ry?zabur? (1888-1986). The third is a 1944 work by Tsuruta Gor? (1890-1969) entitled ‘Shiganhei no wakare o tsugeru Taiwan no hitobito’ (People of Taiwan Farewelling the Volunteer Troops) which depicts indigenous people of Taiwan saluting as their countrymen depart for war. Each image confirms the precarious nature of Japanese discursive practice, revealing instead a mutual interplay that refuses dominance of one subject over the other.

The federalist papers of Ueki Emori: liberalism and empire in the Japanese enlightenment

ABSTRACTUeki Emori (1857–1892), a prominent thinker and activist in the Japanese enlightenment of the late nineteenth century, denounced imperialism as a form of ‘greater barbarism’ and large-scale slavery and called for the unification of all nations in a global federation that would end empire-building and allow maximal individual freedom. Yet he also endorsed Japanese aggression and colonialism abroad. This paper examines the epistemological and ontological foundations of Ueki’s thought to argue that his worldview emerged from a radical liberalism that held the autonomous subjective self as sacrosanct but that easily mobilized behind nationalist and racialist culturalism. The paper thus suggests that the liberalist construction of the modern Japanese self occurred in reciprocally reinforcing dialogue with the construction of global empire, and it reflects on the problem of global knowing and individual being after the collapse of Japanese early modernity.

Replicating the White Self and Other: Skin Color, Racelessness, Gynoids, and the Construction of Whiteness in Japan

ABSTRACTThis article explores representations of whiteness in contemporary Japanese culture. Specifically, I argue that although representations of caucasian whiteness pervade Japanese media and popular culture, they have largely remained racially unmarked, scholarly and popular discourse presenting caucasian whiteness in cultural not racial termes, where it finds expression in notions of an idealized, fetishized, cosmopolitan westernness. As a result, the discourse of whiteness in Japan has largely escaped the kind of sustained critical commentary in Japan and the United States that characterizes the discourse of blackness and other explicitly racially marked Others as well as the literature on whiteness studies, which has yet to fully engage constructions of whiteness outside the (post)colonial experience and the Euro-Americocentric black/white binary. I discuss how representations of whiteness provide a template through which Japanese reflexively construct both the foreign White Other and the ‘white’ Japanese Self, the evaluation of these selves often being ambiguous and conflicted. I conclude that as Japan’s exposure to whites and non-whites increases and as its own internal diversity becomes more visibly salient, Japanese have begun to contest and more critically interrogate (re)presentations of themselves and to renegotiate their place within given racial and aesthetic hierarchies.

Living in the tide of change: explaining Japanese subjective health from the socio-demographic change.

Today, countries around the world are caught in the tide of change toward Gesellshaft, or individualistic socio-demographic condition. Recent investigations in Japan have suggested negative impacts of change on emotional and motivational aspects of the Japanese self (Norasakkunkit et al., 2012; Ogihara and Uchida, 2014). Building on previous findings, in Study 1, we measured socio-demographic change toward individualistic societal condition during 1990–2010—two decades marked by great economic recession—at the levels of prefecture and city using archival data. In Study 2, we tested whether Japanese adults' general health, satisfaction with life, self-esteem, and perceived social support were negatively predicted by the change using social survey. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed small but unique negative effects of the change on several health measures, suggesting that this change had an impact on health, above and beyond individual personality traits, and demographics. Additionally, interdependent happiness, the type of cultural happiness grounded in interdependence of the self (Hitokoto and Uchida, 2014), showed an independent positive relationship with all aspects of health examined. Implications for health studies in changing socio-demographic condition are discussed in the context of Japanese society after economic crisis.

Nagai Kafū’s Occidentalism: Defining the Japanese Self by Rachael Hutchinson (review)

Nagai Kafū’s Occidentalism: Defining the Japanese Self by Rachael Hutchinson (review)

A longitudinal study for incidence of low back pain and radiological changes of lumbar spine in asymptomatic Japanese military young adults

The relation between radiological abnormalities on lumbar spine and low back pain (LBP) has been debated, presumably because of potential biases related to heterogeneity in selection of the subjects, radiological abnormalities at entry, or its cross-sectional observation in nature. Therefore, the aim of this study of a selected population of asymptomatic Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF) young adults male with normal lumbar radiographs was to investigate the incidence of newly developed lumbar degenerative changes at middle age and to study their association to LBP. In 1990, 84 JSDF male military servicemen aged 18 years, without a history of LBP and radiological abnormal findings, were enrolled. After 20 years, 84 subjects were underwent repeated X-ray and completed questionnaires on current LBP and lifestyle factors. The prevalence of LBP was demonstrated 59 %, with 85 % of them showing mild pain. Analysis of lumbar radiographs revealed that 48 % had normal findings and 52 % had degenerative changes. The association between LBP and life style factors was not demonstrated. Lumbar spine in subjects with LBP was more degenerated than in those without. Although disc space narrowing and LBP did not achieve a statistical significance, a significant correlation existed between vertebral osteophyte and LBP in univariate and multivariate analysis (OR 3.0; 95 % CI 1.227-7.333). This longitudinal study demonstrated the significant association between vertebral osteophyte and incidence of mild LBP in initially asymptomatic and radiologically normal subjects. These data provide the additional information concerning the pathology of LBP, but further study is needed to clarify the clinical relevance.

A longitudinal study of radiological changes in the lumbar spine in asymptomatic Japanese military young adults

High prevalence of vertebral osteophytes has been observed in men associated with heavy physical activity and found to be associated with low back pain (LBP) in recent reports. However, development of vertebral osteophytes and identification of their predictors in longitudinal observational studies are not well known. In 1984, 45 Japanese Self Defense Forces male military parachutists aged 18 or 19 years, without a history of LBP and radiological abnormal findings, were investigated. After 25 years, 40 subjects were contacted and underwent repeated X-ray. At the 25-year follow-up evaluation, we studied developed lumbar degenerative changes. All 40 subjects completed questionnaires on current LBP and lifestyle factors. Univariate analysis was performed to study the risk factors of LBP. Association of vertebral osteophytes development with various factors was studied using univariate and multivariate analyses. The prevalence of vertebral osteophytes, disc space narrowing or facet joint osteoarthrosis was 70 %, 48 %, or 57 % respectively. Current LBP rated as mild pain was demonstrated in 60 %. We did not find a significant association between LBP and various factors, although vertebral osteophytes showed a greater odds ratio. Among various variables in multiple logistic regression analysis, the number of parachuting descents (≧250) and disc space narrowing were significant predictors for the development of vertebral osteophytes. In asymptomatic and radiologically normal young male parachutists, frequent parachuting descents and disc space narrowing were associated with vertebral osteophytes formation.