week one
Tuesday, August 26: Introduction to the course
no readings due
Thursday, August 28: Stereotyping Japan: The Perils of National Character
Clyde Haberman. "Some Japanese (One) Urge Plain Speaking." New York Times, March 27, 1988.
Andrew Pollack. "Rice Farmers Dig In: For Them, The Land Is Sacred." New York Times, February 18, 1993.
Nicholas D. Kristof. "In Japan, Nice Guys (And Girls) Finish Together." New York Times, April 12, 1998.
Nicholas D. Kristof. "Japan's Feminine Falsetto Falls Right Out of Favor." New York Times, December 13, 1995.
Martin Fackler. "Japan, Home of the Cute and Inbred Dog." New York Times, December 28, 2006.
Martin Fackler. "Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place." New York Times, October 20, 2007.
Friday, August 29
Short writing assignment due.
week two
Tuesday, Sept. 2: Japanese Culture: It's not in the Blood
Anne Allison. 1996. "Japanese Mothers and Obento," In her Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, Comics, and Censorship in Japan. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Pages: 81-103.
James Stanlaw. 2004. "The Dynamics of English Words in Contemporary Japanese: Japanese English and a "Beautiful Human Life." In his Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Press. Pages: 11-43.
Thursday, Sept. 4: Othering Japan
The Japanese Version. Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker, dirs. 1991. 56 minutes.
All films for this course can be found on the Collab page for our class. Click on Kaltura Media Gallery and then “site library.” The films will stream faster and better if you are on grounds.
Please watch the film before you read these two responses to it: Viewing notes from Dr. William Kelly (Yale University) and a rejoinder against showing this film from Dr. Henry Smith (Columbia University).
Friday, Sept. 5
Short writing assignment due.
week three
Tuesday, Sept. 9: Samurai and the Invention of Tradition
Harold Bolitho. 1984. "The Myth of the Samurai." In Japan's Impact on the World. Alan Rix and Ross Mouer, eds. Nathan, Queensland: Japanese Studies Association of Australia. Pages: 2-9.
David E. Sanger. "Loyal Samurai's Suicide: An Alarm Bell for Japan?" New York Times, May 19, 1989.
Thursday, Sept. 11: History and Responsibility
Norma Field. 1991. “Prologue” and “A Supermarket Owner,” in her In the Realm of a Dying Emperor: Japan at Century’s End. New York: Vintage. Pages: 5-104.
Friday, Sept. 12
Short writing assignment due.
week four
Tuesday, Sept. 16: Postwar Social Institutions
Elisabeth Bumiller. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and her Family. New York: Random House. Read chapters 1 through 5, pages 3-140.
Thursday, Sept. 18: Mainstream Consciousness
Elisabeth Bumiller. The Secrets of Mariko: A Year in the Life of a Japanese Woman and her Family. New York: Random House. Read chapters 6 through 10, pages 141-284.
If you want to finish the book, you’re welcome to read the last two chapters, which do include the titular “secret.” But for our class’ purposes, you only need to read through chapter 10 (i.e. to the end of chapter 10).
Friday, Sept. 19
No writing assignment due. Use this time to work on the essay due next week.
week five
Tuesday, Sept. 23: Salarymen
Thomas P. Rohlen. 1974 "The Office Group," in his For Harmony and Strength: Japanese White-Collar Organization in Anthropological Perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 93-120.
Katô Tetsurô. 1995. "Workaholism: It's Not in the Blood," LOOK Japan. February: 8-10
Shall We Dance? Suo Masayuki, dir. 136 minutes.
(opitional) Motomiya Hiroshi. “Salaryman Kintaro” comic book. Please click to read an early volume (translated into English) online. Read as much as you’d like. Even a little will give you some sense of how salarymen are represented. Be aware that this site is full of silly ads and also that you need to read from the upper right to the bottom left of each page. Although they’ve translated the Japanese to English, the art is still organized in the Japanese way.
Thursday, Sept. 25: Creating Corporate Bonds
Dorinne Kondo. 1990. “Disciplined Selves.” From her, Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pages: 76-115.
Friday, Sept. 26
Your first paper is due at 5pm.
week six
Tuesday, Sept. 30: Cushions around the Core
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 1-113.
Akizuki Risa. 1999. OL shinka-ron, volume 1 [“Survival in the Office: The Evolution of Japanese Working Women”]. Jules Young and Dominic Young, translators. Kodansha.
Thursday, Oct. 2: Power and Resistance
Yuko Ogasawara. 1998. Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pages: 114-168.
Friday, Oct. 3
Short writing assignment due.
week seven
Tuesday, Oct. 7: The Education System
Catherine C. Lewis. 1994. "Learning and Caring," In her Educating Hearts and Minds: Reflections on Japanese Preschool and Elementary Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages: 149-177.
Rebecca Fukuzawa.1994. "The Path to Adulthood According to Japanese Middle Schools," Journal of Japanese Studies 20(1):61-86.
Thursday, Oct. 9: Changing Japan?
William Kelly and Merry White. “Students, Slackers, Singles, Seniors, and Strangers: Transforming a Family-Nation.” In Japan and Asia: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism. Peter Katzenstein and Tadashi Shiraishi, eds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Thursday, Oct. 9 and Friday, Oct. 10
No writing due, but complete this assignment before coming to section.
week eight
Tuesday, Oct. 14: No class meeting
Fall break
Thursday, Oct. 16: Parasites or Pragmatists?
Masahiro Yamada and Yuji Genda. 2000. A debate on "Japan's Dependent Singles," Japan Echo, June: 47-56.
Lynne Nakano and Moeko Wagatsuma. 2004. "Mothers and Their Unmarried Daughters: An Intimate Look at Generational Change." In, Japan's Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Pages: 137-154.
Friday, Oct. 18
Short writing assignment due.
week nine
Tuesday, Oct. 21: Educational Changes and Challenges
Peter Cave. 2014. "Education after the "Lost Decade(s).” In Capturing Contemporary Japan. Satsuki Kawano, Glenda S. Roberts, and Susan Orpett Long, eds. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Pages: 271-299.
Thursday, Oct. 23: Labor Market Shifts
Gordon Mathews. 2004. "Seeking a Career, Finding a Job: How Young People Enter and Resist the Japanese World of Work," In Japan's Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society? Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, eds. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon. Pages: 121-136.
Train Man (Densha Otoko). 2005. Murakami Shosuke, dir. 101 minutes.
Friday, Oct. 22
No writing assignment due. Use this time to work on the upcoming paper draft.
week ten
Tuesday, Oct. 28: Divorce and its Reverberations
Allison Alexy. 2007. "Deferred Benefits, Romance, and the Specter of Later-life Divorce." Contemporary Japan 19: 169-188.
(optional) Allison Alexy. 2011. “Intimate Dependence and its Risks in Neoliberal Japan.” Anthropology Quarterly 83(4): 897-920.6.
Thursday, Oct. 30: Labor and Intimacy
Akiko Takeyama. 2005. “Commodified Romance in a Tokyo Host Club.” In Genders, Transgenders and Sexualities in Japan. Mark McLelland and Romit Dasgupta, eds. London: Routledge. Pages: 200-215.
The Great Happiness Space. 2006. Jake Clennell, dir. 76 minutes.
Friday, Oct. 31
No writing assignment due. Use this time to work on the upcoming paper draft.
week eleven
Tuesday, Nov. 4: Different Ways to be Japanese
readings due:
Joshua Roth. 2002. Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pages 1-91.
Thursday, Nov. 6: Japan’s Diversity?
readings due:
Joshua Roth. 2002. Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pages 92-145.
Viewing due: Go. 2001. Yukisada Isao, dir. 122 minutes.
This film is split into two files (called “Go, part 1” and “Go, part 2”) in the Collab Kaltura media gallery / site library.
Friday, Nov. 7
Rough draft of your second paper is due.
week twelve
Tuesday, Nov. 11: Authenticity and Coolness
readings due:
E. Taylor Atkins. 2005. “The Japanese Jazz Artist and the Authenticity Complex.” In his Blue Nippon: Authenticating Jazz in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press. Pages: 19-44.
Ian Condry. 2000. "The Social Production of Difference: Imitation and Authenticity in Japanese Rap Music." In Transactions, Transgressions, and Transformations. Heide Fehenbach and Uta G. Poiger, eds. New York: Berghan Books. Pages: 166-184.
Thursday, Nov. 13: African Americans in / and Japan
viewings due:
Remixed in Japan. 2006. Director: Melody Wienstein. US. 60 minutes.
Samurai Champloo. 2004. Episode One, "Tempestuous Temperaments (Shippu Doto)." Fuji Television. 24 minutes.
Afro Samurai. 2007. Episode One "Revenge." Gonzo Entertainment / Spike TV. 22 minutes.
Friday, Nov. 14
Short writing assignment due.
week thirteen
Tuesday, Nov. 18: New Funerals among an Aging Population
Satsuki Kawano. 2004. “Scattering Ashes of the Family Dead: Memorial Activity among the Bereaved in Contemporary Japan.” Ethnology 43(3): 233-248.
Thursday, Nov. 20: Domestic Terror
readings due:
Haruki Murakami. Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel, trans. 2001. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. New York: Vintage. Pages: 3-44; 247-276; 292-303.
Friday, Nov. 21
No writing assignment due. Use this time to work on future assignments.
week fourteen
Tuesday, Nov. 25: Natural Terror
Tom Gill, Brigitte Steger, and David Slater. 2013. “The 3/11 Disasters” in their Japan Copes with Calamity: Ethnographies of the Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Disasters of March 2011. Bern: Peter Lang. Pages: 3-24.
Nuclear Nation: The Fukushima Refugees Story. 2012. Funahashi Atsushi, dir. 96 minutes.
Thursday, Nov. 27: No class meeting - Thanksgiving break
Friday, Nov. 28
No writing assignment due. Use this time to work on future assignments.
week fifteen
Monday, Dec. 1 - Notice the unusual day!
Short writing assignment due
Tuesday, Dec. 2: Final Thoughts and Future Questions
Group reflection - what have we been doing?
No new readings due
Thursday, December 4
No class meeting. I am participating in the annual conference of the American Anthropological Association and therefore need to cancel our last meeting. I really don’t like canceling class but the AAA scheduled part of my panel at the same time as our class meeting. I also imagined that, at this time of year, many of you might appreciate a bit more time to work on projects for this and other courses. This year, the AAA meetings are being held in Washington DC. Although the timing might be bad for many of you (this year they fall just before our finals period), I highly recommend any interested students consider attending part of the conference. If you are interested, please feel free to talk with me. There are many, many panels, discussions, and films. You could have a fun weekend of anthropology if you are so inclined!
Final Paper due
Monday, December 15th at 5 pm to dropbox.