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Sex And Censorship During The Occupation Of Japan, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This chapter entitled “Sex and Censorship During the Occupation of Japan” is excerpted from Mark McLelland’s Love, Sex and Democracy in Japan during the American Occupation (Palgrave MacMillan 2012). The book examines the radical changes that took place in Japanese ideas about sex, romance and male-female relations in the wake of Japan’s defeat and occupation by Allied forces at the end of the Second World War. Although there have been other studies that have focused on sexual and romantic relationships between Japanese women and US military personnel, little attention has been given to how the Occupation impacted upon the courtship …

Evaluating Women’S Labour In 1990s Japan: The Changing Labour Standards Law, Kirsti Rawstron

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article outlines the legislative changes regarding Japanese working women in the 1990s, specifically the changes to the Labour Standards Law. Th is Law was altered in 1997 (effective 1999) by the removal of a number of provisions known as the Women’s ‘Protection’ Provisions (josei hogo kitei). These gender-specifi c provisions restricted Japanese women from working particular jobs and hours, and limited overtime and holiday work. The role of these gender-specifi c provisions is examined through a collection of articles from four of Japan’s mainstream daily, widely-circulated newspapers: the Asahi Shinbun, the Mainichi Shinbun, the Nihon Keizai Shinbun, and the …

Changing Media Understandings Of Gender Relations: Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Law In 1985 And 1997, Kirsti Rawstron

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper examines the portrayal of gender relations and issues in theJapanese media through a case study of discussions in mainstreamnewspapers surrounding the introduction in 1985 of the Equal EmploymentOpportunity Law (EEOL) in Japan. This law was introduced as part of Japan's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of AllForms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The debate surroundingthe changing EEOL is examined through articles from three mainstreamdaily national newspapers, notably the Asahi Shinbun, the Nihon KeizaiShinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun. The articles reflect and reinforce thechanging cultural understanding of gender relations in Japan over thisperiod. The newspapers …

“Kissing Is A Symbol Of Democracy!” Dating, Democracy And Romance In Occupied Japan 1945-1952, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Japan’s defeat at the end of its fifteen years’ war in 1945 saw widespread changes to the family and gender system. Women were given political rights for the first time and were recognised as independent agents at work, in the home and in their romantic relationships. Whereas war-time ideology had brought about the “death of romance” in popular culture, with the relaxation of censorship at the war’s end, there was a sudden proliferation in discussion about the qualities of the “new” or “modern” couple and the popular press saw the rise of an eclectic range of “experts” offering advice on …

Undermining The Occupation: Women Coalminers In 1940s Japan, Matthew Allen

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

During the period from 1943-1945 Japan's big coalmines faces a severe labour shortage. Korean 'colonials' and the Chinese and western prisoners of war were brought in to help meet the dire labour shortage in te coalmines created by conscription, and women who had been sorting coal at he pit-top also found themselves pushed into working on the coalface (Sonoda 1970). This signalled a radical change in policy from large mine owners and their labour overseers, who were forced to address a number of overlapping issues: the shortage of male labour; intensive government pressures to maintain production' and an existing culture …

The Honbako Is Bare: What's Become Of Japan/Australia Fiction?, Alison E. Broinowski

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Complementary opportunities seemed to favour Australia and Japan at the outset. A shared modern history of 150 years might be expected to be long enough for the two antipodal countries to have seeded and cultivated their relationship, and watched it flourish, bear fruit, and multiply. Opposites could be expected to attract, empathy would be stimulated by difference, and cultural interchange should thrive spontaneously without the need for frequent applications of official fertiliser. The harvest should be plentiful, not only for government, business, education, and tourism, but for the two cultures.

Necktie Nightmare: Narrating Gender In Contemporary Japan, Vera C. Mackie

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

...the thing I hated most of all was the necktie.
When I wore a necktie, there was just no doubt that I was a man.
The image was of a salaryman! The mainstay of the house! The symbol of manhood!

These are the words of Nomachi Mineko in the autobiographical account of her transition from male to female. The book (adapted from a blog) appeared in late 2006 under the title O-kama dakedo OL yattemasu (I'm Queer But I'm An Office Lady). The book's publication coincided with a range of mainstream representations of trans-gendered lives - in television …

The Role Of The 'Tojisha' In Current Debates About Sexual Minority Rights In Japan, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

‘Speaking as a tojisha’ has become an important strategy in establishing ‘correct knowledge’ about sexual minority cultures in contemporary Japan. Originally developed in a legal context where it referred to the ‘parties’ in court proceedings, in the 1970s tojisha was taken up by citizens’ groups campaigning for the right of self determination for the ‘parties concerned’ facing discrimination and has become a central concept for all minority self-advocacy groups. In the 1990s the discourse of tojisha sei (tojisha-ness) was adopted by gay rights groups and by spokespersons for lesbian and transgender communities in a battle to change public perceptions of …

'Race' On The Japanese Internet: Discussing Korea And Koreans On '2-Channeru', Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper investigates discourse about race on the Japanese Internet, particularly regarding resident Koreans and their relationship to the Japanese. One board relating to arguments about Korea on the notorious ‘Channel 2’ BBS, Japan’s most visited Internet site, is investigated, since it is one of the main public forums in which racial vilification takes place, perpetrated by both Japanese and Korean posters. Nakamura’s (Cybertypes) contention that the Internet is ‘a place where race is created as an effect of the net's distinctive uses of language’ is taken as a starting point to investigate the differences between Japanese and Anglophone notions …

Review Keyes, Roger S. 2006. Ehon: The Artist And The Book In Japan., Helen Kilpatrick

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This handsome tome is based on an exhibition of Japanese picture books held by the New York Public Library from October 2006 to February 2007. Despite the more contemporary connotations associated with the term ehon, this is not a catalogue of books for children. The collection is best described as a volume that traces the traditions of Japanese artists’ books. With the inclusion of two more recent works by non-Japanese (American and German) artists, the volume also features international entries that are currently ‘‘contribut[ing] to the living Japanese book tradition’’ (p. 313). Although it excludes neither children’s nor contemporary books …

How To Be A Girl: Mainstream Media Portrayals Of Transgendered Lives In Japan, Vera C. Mackie

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Just before the turn of the twenty-first century changes to Japanese laws concerning the modification of reproductive capacity resulted in the removal of some legal barriers to the surgical modification of sexed bodies. These operations are variously known as "sex change", " sex adjustment", or "sex reassignment" , operations. Medical facilities that perform such surgery usually do so ony after the client has spent a substantial period of time living as a member of the gender they wish to acquire. Now there is a significant number of individuals in Japan who have undergone such surgery or are planning to do …

Internet Domains Between China And India: Beyond Anglophone Paradigms, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper critiques the current Anglophone bias in much Internet studies research and argues for an internationalization of Internet studies that takes account of the different histories, technologies and trajectories of Internet development in an Asian context.

Socio-Cultural Aspects Of Mobile Communication Technologies In Asia And The Pacific: A Discussion Of The Recent Literature, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper reviews the recent literature published on mobile communications, cell phones and the Internet in Asian cultural contexts.

Japan’S Original Gay Boom, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper looks at the rise of the category gei boi (gay boy) in postwar Japanese media.

Diplomacy Interrupted?: Macmahon Ball, Evatt And Labor’S Policies In Occupied Japan, Christine M. De Matos

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

Historiography on the Australian political and diplomatic role in the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) gives disproportionate attention to the meetings between the Australian Minister for External Affairs, H.V. Evatt, and the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan (SCAP), General Douglas MacArthur, in Tokyo during 1947. These meetings are then linked to the subsequent resignation from the Allied Council for Japan (ACJ) of William Macmahon Ball, an Australian academic representing the British Commonwealth, and used to justify the claim that Australian policy towards Occupied Japan was unpredictable and ad hoc. This attention to Ball’s resignation has distorted analysis …

The Occident In The Orient Or The Orient In The Occident?: Reception Of Said's Orientalism In Japan, Yoko Harada

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

[extract] “Although Edward does not appear in the film, he exists in every aspect of it” commented Mariam Said, a widow of Edward W. Said (Siglo 2006, Yuri 2006a, p. 30). In April and May 2006, a documentary film called Edward W. Said: Out of Place was screened in Tokyo. The film was produced by a Japanese film director Sato Makoto who visited places and people in the Middle East with the guide of Said’s well known autobiography Out of Place: A Memoir (Siglo 2006). Sato starts his journey from Lebanon, where Said is now resting. His camera catches scenery …

Power Play: The Japanese Situation, Sharon Beder

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Japanese electricity industry is currently being gradually deregulated in the hopes that high electricity prices can be reduced. At the same time the government is keen to encourage more use of nuclear power. It is aiming to reuse nuclear fuel in order to close the nuclear fuel cycle and thereby reduce Japan’s reliance on imports to fuel electricity generation.1 However deregulation in other parts of the world has not brought prices down, nor has it been conducive to investment in nuclear power. More importantly, the competitive pressures encouraged by deregulation do not encourage reliability and safety, issues which are …

Salarymen Doing Queer: Gay Men And The Heterosexual Public Sphere In Japan, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper looks at the difficulties gay men in Japan experience in discussing their sexuality in the Japanese workplace.

From Sailor-Suits To Sadists: Lesbos Love As Reflected In Japan's Postwar "Perverse Press", Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper looks at a range of narratives positioning women's same-sex sexuality in the popular sexological press of the early postwar period in Japan.

From The Stage To The Clinic: Changing Transgender Identities In Post-War Japan, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper looks at the transformation of male-to-female transgender identities in Japan since the Second World War. The development of print media aimed at a transgender readership is outlined as is the development of bars, clubs and sex venues where transgendered men sought both partners and commercial opportunities. The origin of various transgender 'folk categories' such as okama, gei bōi, burūbōi and nyūhāfu is discussed and their dependence upon and relationship to the entertainment world is outlined. Finally, the paper looks at how the resumption of sex-change operations in Japan in 1998 has led to a new public discourse about …

Interpretation And Orientalism: Outing Japan's Sexual Minorities To The English-Speaking World, Mark J. Mclelland

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

The growing visibility of Japanese gay men and lesbians who articulate their identities in a manner similar to activists in the west has been heightened by two recent English books Queer Japan and Coming Out in Japan. While acknowledging the need to listen to a plurality of voices from Japan, this essay critiques the manner in which the coming-out narratives in these books have been framed by their western translators and editors. In the introductions to both books, Japan is (once again) pictured as a feudal and repressive society. In their efforts to let the homosexual subaltern speak, the translators …