Japanese Studies Commons^™

Igniting A New Legacy: 
The Olympics And Sustainable Development At The Tokyo Olympic Games, Alena Ulrichova

Master's Projects and Capstones

With a decreasing number of cities bidding to host and organize the Olympic Games, we see that various places find the prospect of embarking on this mega-event project less appealing and lucrative then in the past. Moreover, in looking at the history of the Games, we recognize a troubling pattern: money is often spent irresponsibly and does not bring any benefits to citizens even though their tax payments and state lottery contribution are used as main source for funding the Olympics. In order to shift this trend, the movement towards the global call for sustainability—as presented mainly by the United …

The Battle Of The Powers: Newly Obtained Benefits From The Revitilised Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Scott Halsted

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement would have been the most sizeable free trade agreement in history. The agreement was set up by the Obama administration as an economic benefactor plus geopolitical tool to maintain the balance of power in the Asia Pacific region, rivaling the power of China. However, numerous politicians within the Trump administration, plus multiple political opposers including Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, were major advocates for the U.S. removal after realistically adjusted estimates of the TPP showed economic benefits not equating to original estimates. However, the United States withdrawal raises significant successes that can be …

In The Shadow Of Shuri Castle: The Battle Of Okinawa In Memory, Blake Altenberg

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The memory of the battle of Okinawa was shaped by politics. The memory of the battle for Okinawans emphasizes war crimes committed against them and the devastating impact that was inflicted upon their peaceful island. Their emphasis on sole victimization led to other Okinawan narratives being either downplayed or outright denied. To remove American bases off their island, gain recognition for Japanese atrocities plus reparations, the Okinawans portrayed themselves as a peaceful people that were the sole victims of the battle of Okinawa. The United States glossed over the crimes committed by the Japanese on Okinawa and Asia to use …

The Tale Of The Tokugawa Artifacts: Japanese Funerary Lanterns At The Penn Museum, Yoko Nishimura

East Asian Studies Faculty Publications

That previously stood at the back of the quiet inner courtyard of the Penn Museum waited many years for its significance to be rediscovered. It is one of the Tokugawa lanterns that long illuminated the shogunate family’s grand mausoleums during the Edo period (1603–1868 CE) in the Zōjōji temple in Tokyo, Japan. Photographs taken around 1930 show the lanterns flanking the Museum entrance in the Stoner Courtyard. The prominent placement of these objects suggests that, in those days, the Museum acknowledged the significance of the lanterns. One of the lanterns was subsequently moved to Museum storage after suffering damage from …

Persecutor’S Remorse: Mimetic Desire, Institutions, And Shūsaku Endō’S Loving Gaze On Persecutors, Jirayu Smitthimedhin

Masters Theses

Building on Mark Williams’ thesis that Endō’s characters often reconcile with an unconscious Other within themselves, I will argue that Endō’s “weak” characters are trapped by mimetic desire and are drawn toward acts of persecution; their status as persecutors depends on their relationships—whom they wish to imitate or whom they imitated in their past. While Williams and other Endō scholars often focus on the psychology and existential choices facing Endō’s characters, I point out how contextualizing Endō within the postwar Daisan no shinjin writers reveals Endō’s criticism of institutional powers, particularly because institutions can become “centers of desire.” Drawing on …

Culture Of Mobile Phone Novels In Japan: A Comparison Of Cultural Particularities Of Mobile Phone Novels And Service Providers, Sarah Trinh

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Honor thesis on the Culture of Mobile Phone Novels in Japan: A Comparison of Cultural Particularities of Mobile Phone Novels and Service Providers.

1999 Aaa Jrpg Quality And How A 2019 Indie-Game Developer Can Meet It, Kailynn Haskell-Harbert

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper is a delve into 1999 JRPG AAA video games and how small developers can make something of similar quality with contemporary technology. This is explored by using Final Fantasy VIII and Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete as a 1999 AAA standard, then comparing that standard to modern indie-games as well as my own experience in indie-game development. The ultimate goal of the paper is to prove that small indie-game studios can create 1999 AAA quality JRPGs with relatively minimal investment.

From Inspiration To Aspiration: Emerging Diversity In Digital Portfolios In The Beginning Japanese Courses | インスピレーションからアスピレーションへ：初級学習者の日本語デジタルポートフォリオに現れる日本語学習についての多様性を考える, Atsuko Takahashi

East Asian Languages & Cultures: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Food Culture And National Identity: Japan And The International Whaling Commission, Emma Fahey

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This research project focuses on the contentious issue of whaling in the 21^st century and attempts to make sense of Japan’s whaling policy in terms of food culture and national identity. Using a constructivist theoretical framework, I analyze the impact of the whaling issue on Japan’s bilateral relations with other nations, in both the East Asian subregion and the larger global community. The results of this paper indicate that whale meat carries a deep symbolism in Japanese national identity and that the general issue of whaling has little effect of Japan’s bilateral relations with other nations. Much of the …

The Casualties Of U.S. Grand Strategy: Korean Exclusion From The San Francisco Peace Treaty And The Pacific Pact, Syrus Jin

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

From August 1945 to September 1951, the United States had a unique opportunity to define and frame how it would approach its foreign relations in the Asia-Pacific region. As the dominant power in the Pacific after World War II and claiming direct authority over vanquished Japan, the United States had the liberty to design its own post-war vision for the entire region. Until 1951, American State Department diplomats and government planners, attempted—ultimately unsuccessfully—to harmonize the competing motivations of lingering World War II multilateralist idealism and Cold War geopolitics in a postcolonial, postwar world. This thesis examines U.S.-Korean relations in context …

Transpacific Resonances And Affiliations In Leanne Dunic’S To Love The Coming End And Ruth Ozeki’S The Tale For The Time Being, Michel O'Brien

English Faculty Scholarship

This article examines methods of tracing affiliations across transpacific critiques through a reading of Leanne Dunic’s To Love the Coming End and Ruth Ozeki’s The Tale for the Time Being. The article proposes that, rather than reproducing a nation-bound framing of the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku that envisions it as a solely Japanese crisis, Dunic’s and Ozeki’s works explore what it would mean to read the earthquake and its aftermath as a transpacific event. It argues that these works facilitate new relations between national cultures and the global, suggesting that, by narrating the earthquake and …

Landscapes As Identity And Cultural Heritage In Animation– The Australian Bushland, Japanese Urban Agglomeration And Eurasian Steppes, Zilia Zara-Papp

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Animation adapted from literature, folk tales and ancient myths showcases diverse approaches towards reimagining elements of geographical landscapes as cultural identity. This paper aims to compare elements from Australian, Japanese and European animated works where geographical elements are used in order to recreate the original world of the literary work the animation is based on, where landscape defines the identity of the individuals and groups of enchanted animals and human custodians of the land and location. Case studies of Yoram Gross (Dot and the Kangaroo, 1977) Australia, Takahata Isao / Studio Ghibli (Racoon Wars Pom Poko, …

New Directions For Kabuki Performances In America In The 21st Century, Narumi Iwasaki

Dissertations and Theses

Transitions from the first kabuki performance abroad in Russia in 1928 to the recent performances around the world show various changes in the purpose and production of kabuki performances overseas. Kabuki has been performed as a Japanese traditional art in the U.S. for about 60 years, and the United States has seen more kabuki than any other country outside of Japan. Those tours were closely tied to national cultural policy of both Japan and the USA in the early years. The first kabuki tour to New York in 1960 helped to reestablish the U.S-Japan relationship after the war.

However, recently …

Nidoto Nai Yoni "Let It Not Happen Again": The Effect Of World War Ii And Mass Incarceration On Japanese American Women's Gender Roles, Laura Bohuski

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis analyses the experiences, memories, and events of the World War II mass incarceration of Japanese Americans to determine what changes this traumatic event engendered in the gender roles of Issei and Nisei women. The events of incarceration separated families and broke down traditional societal norms leaving a deeply emotional and psychological scar upon the Japanese American community. Ironically, new opportunities arose for Issei and Nisei women as both a result of the effects of the mass incarceration upon the Japanese American community and because of governmental pressures such as labor shortages and the cost of housing over one …

One Nation, One Race: An Analysis Of Nationalist Influence On Japanese Human Rights Policy, Garrett J. Schoonover

International Studies Honors Projects

Nationalism has continued to be prevalent in Japanese society, the legacy of Japan’s period of modernization. This thesis examines the relationship between nationalism and human rights in Japanese policy, focusing on the question, “How do nationalist organizations in Japan influence government policies related to human rights?” It begins with a historical analysis in order to determine the remaining influence of nationalism in Japanese society at large, before determining the direct influence nationalism, through nationalist organizations and individuals, influence Japan’s laws and policies. I argue that much of Japan’s policy making is influenced by the nationalist movement, and as result, human …

Mother Of God, Mother Of Christianity: The Development Of The Marian Tradition In Early Modern Japan, Alaina Keller

Student Publications

The Christian figure of the Virgin Mary, first introduced as Jesus’ mother in the Bible, has since been repeatedly reinterpreted in various roles and imagery through her incorporation into different cultures. This project analyses the historical adoption and adaptation of Mary among Christian converts in Japan, from the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in 1549 to the end of the Tokugawa era in the nineteenth century. An examination of doctrinal prayers, the rosary, and Marian iconography within Japan illustrates Mary’s role as the Mother of God and compassionate intercessor for early Japanese Christians. Moreover, their affinity for Mary enabled Christianity to …

Gambaru-Ando: Las Familias De Los Desaparecidos De La Colectividad Japonesa (Fdcj) Y Su Lucha Por La Memoria, Verdad, Justicia, Y Visibilidad / Embodying Gambaru: Nikkei Families Of The Desaparecidos And Their Fight For Visibility In The Movement For Memory, Truth, And Justice, Mieko Kuramoto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En los años del último gobierno militar en la Argentina, 30.000 mil personas fueron desaparecidas en una campaña de terrorismo de estado. Entre esos miles, 17 de los desaparecidos eran argentinos de ascendencia japonesa, o ‘nikkei.’ Este proyecto estudia la lucha de sus familias para ganar visibilidad y borrar el estigma que rodeó a los desaparecidos dentro de la colectividad japonesa, a la vez de luchar por su reconocimiento en la sociedad argentina. Para estudiar su “doble- lucha,” este proyecto también toca temas de interseccionalidad, identidad y traumas nacionales sufridos por las comunidades minoritarias, y examina el trabajo que hizo …

Osvobození Jako Revoluční Praxe: Opĕtovné Promyšlení Buddhistického Materialism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

In this article, first published in English in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics 20 (2013), pp. 461–99, James Mark Shields analyzes the possibilities and problems of a “Buddhist materialism” constructed along Marxian lines, by focusing in particular on Buddhist and Marxist conceptions of “liberation.” Although it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “free- dom” and “agency,” the thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for many centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation”—along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical implications. With the development of Marxist thought in …

Brazil And Bashō: Negotiating Japanese-Brazilian Hybrid Identity Through Mujōkan In Adriana Lisboa’S Rakushisha, Suzanne Noelle Shibuta

Theses and Dissertations

Hybrid identities occupy a unique space within the field of identity and culture. Due to the instability and transitory nature of hybrid identities, individuals who fall within the category of hybridity often struggle to recognize and accept their identities. Do such individuals identify with one culture, the other, neither, or both? Adriana Lisboa’s novel Rakushisha offers new insight into the realm of hybridity through the exploration of mujōkan, a uniquely Japanese awareness of impermanence that also helps to explain the cycle of suffering, continuity, and regeneration that Lisboa’s characters experience. Although hybrid identities by nature are unstable, constantly in motion …

Constitutionality Of Non-Contentious Cases In Japan, Thomas Makoto Naruse

Japanese Society and Culture

In the United States, there was a debate on vesting Article 3 Court extrajudicial authorities, and United States Supreme Court have often denied vesting such authority. In contrast, in Japan, extrajudicial authorities (including those without element of dispute) are vested in courts since the age of Meiji Constitution, and only recently, questions are posed. Today, many scholars are struggling with this issue, and some approaches are shown: one is to conceive the limit of authority which courts can handle according to the distance from properly judicial power, which has dispute as the core element, and the other is to change …