Japanese Studies Commons^™

Healing And Trauma: Memories Of Children Survivors Of The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Chikako Nakamura

Asian & Asian American Studies Student Research Symposium

Over 1,700 children were orphaned by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Great East Earthquake was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters ever to hit Japan and its damage was enormous and still continues today. Reconstruction Agency, a government agency, reported (2015) that 241 children under 18 lost both parents and 1537 children lost a parent in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures.

How Are Western Holidays Interpreted And Celebrated In Japan?: Christmas, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Aya Kaneko

Asian & Asian American Studies Student Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Renewable Energy: A Solution To Japan’S Energy Crisis, Sunny Kwan

Scholars Week

As world population increases steadily, fossil fuel deposits around the world continue to be consumed; estimates state that all current known deposits will run dry by 2088. Fossil fuel consumption not only causes environmental pollution, but its resulting greenhouse gases accelerate global warming, leading to destructive changes in climate patterns and rising sea levels. On one hand, fossil fuels are an indispensable part of daily life, but they also cause irreversible damage to the environment. On the other hand, renewable energy sources are more expensive and less convenient to develop compared to fossil fuels, but they are a great alternative …

The Taiko Connection: Reclaiming History, Activating Equality, Tamiko Cavey

History

Taiko drumming has been a Japanese cultural art form from as early as the fifth century. A taiko "boom" in which ensemble groups gained popularity took off in Japan post-WWII, and in the United States during the late 1960s-early 1970s amid the Asian American Civil Rights Movement. In discussing the historical experiences of the burakumin outcastes of Japan and Japanese Americans, this paper explores how taiko has been used as a form of social activism for these marginalized groups, and how this cultural reclamation facilitates the process of developing self-identity.

Anesaki Masaharu's Reception Of Leo Tolstoy And His Failed Attempt At Finding The Faith, Susanna Fessler Phd

East Asian Studies Faculty Scholarship

Among the voices opposed to the Russo–Japanese war of 1904–5 was that of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, who published an essay titled Bethink Yourselves, arguing against hostilities. The essay was translated and published in Japanese, but gained little traction among the intelligentsia in Japan. There was, however, one strong voice that supported Tolstoy’s ideas: that of the religious studies scholar Anesaki Masaharu. Anesaki’s response to Tolstoy’s essay was at once a commentary about the spiritual state of Japan at the turn of the century and also a veiled criticism of the Japanese government.

The Progressive Distribution Of Sentences Containing Relative Clauses In Japanese Textbooks Of English, Risa Nakagawa

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Relative clauses have been researched and found to be one of the more difficult English grammar items for people who speak English as a Second Language (henceforth, ESL) and people who use English as a Foreign Language (henceforth, EFL). In particular, objective relative clauses are one of the most challenging items for English learners. (Gibson, 1998; Gordon, Hendrick, & Johnson, 2001; Mellow, 2006; Hawkins, 1994; King & Just, 1991; Otsuka & Aburai, 2003). By examining the frequency of subjective and objective relative clauses in six English textbooks which are being used in middle schools and high schools in Japan, the …

A Meaning-Based Approach To The Language Of The Toefl Test And Japanese Efl Textbooks: A Functional Analysis Of Patterns Of Lexico-Grammatical Meanings And Structures, Koshin Fukuyoshi

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The primary objective of this research project is to show varying degrees of textual and semantic contributions that semantic density and grammatical metaphors make in the way that TOEFL iBT reading sections and Japanese EFL textbooks are used. This research is conducted from two theoretical perspectives within the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The first analysis is to investigate logical and semantic relationships within clause complexes in order to identify structural variations and their textual distributions. The second analysis focuses on the use of ideational and interpersonal grammatical metaphors and on the way that they further compact or untangle textual …

Review Of Seeing Like The Buddha. Enlightenment Through Film By Francisca Cho, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Korean Contributions To Japanese Buddhism, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Indian Foundations And Chinese Developments Of The Buddha Dharma, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Making Japan Great Again: Japan's Liberal Democratic Party As A Far Right Movement, Wesley Yee

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent years, far right-wing political parties have gained power around the world. Far-right movements build a populist, anti-establishment support base through the use of ethno-nationalism and xenophobic policies and slogans. This article applies the models and party frames used to study European far-right movements and applies them to the case of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), a party whose policies under prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe have pushed the party from having a center-right stance to having more of a far-right nationalist and populist one. Using this framework I find that the LDP has utilized …

X-Rated And Excessively Long: Ji-Amari In Hayashi Amari's Tanka, Jon P. Holt

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a fixed 31-syllable form of short poetry, Japan's tanka is one of the world's oldest forms of still-practiced poetry, with examples perhaps dating back to the fifth century. In the modern periods of Meiji (1868-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926), poets radically reformed the genre, expanding diction beyond millennium-old classical limits, thereby allowing poets to write not only about cherry blossoms and tragic love but also about things like steam trains and baseball games; although today many tanka poets in practicing circles still employ classical Japanese, many modern masters innovated the genre by skillfully blending in colloquial language. Like their modern …

Finding Home After Fallout: The Future Of Fukushima's Forests, Katy N. Spence

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This long-form journalistic piece is about radioactive forests in Yamakiya, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, and how locals are dealing with it. Residents of Yamakiya were forced to evacuate their village in April 2011 following an explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

One Yamakiyan, Hidekatsu Ouchi, stepped into the role of community leader and is the focus of this story. He hopes Yamakiya can use the radiation, rather than condemning it. Ouchi’s devotion to his community is connected to the Japanese concept of furusato, which refers to an individual’s obligation and nostalgia for family, community and place. The story asserts …

ภาพความสัมพันธ์ไทย-ญี่ปุ่นในวรรณกรรมเยาวชนเรื่อง นิฮนจิน โอะอิน และเรื่อง นิตโต โนะ โบเก็นโอ, ชมพูนิกข์ ล้อมวัฒนธรรม

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้ มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อวิเคราะห์ภาพความสัมพันธ์ไทย-ญี่ปุ่นในวรรณกรรมเยาวชน เรื่อง นิฮนจิน โอะอิน (1932) ของโอะซะระงิ จิโร และเรื่อง นิตโต โนะ โบเก็นโอ (1937) ของมินะมิ โยอิชิโร โดยเชื่อมโยงกับบริบททางสังคมวัฒนธรรมญี่ปุ่นในทศวรรษ 1930 จากการศึกษาพบว่า วรรณกรรมทั้งสองเรื่องนำเสนอภาพความสัมพันธ์ไทย-ญี่ปุ่นในลักษณะที่ญี่ปุ่นเป็นมิตรกับไทยหรือสยาม และร่วมมือกันปกป้องสยามจากการรุกรานของศัตรูต่างชาติ ซึ่งมีนัยยะหมายถึงการเข้ามารุกรานแสวงหาผลประโยชน์ของประเทศนักล่าอาณานิคมตะวันตก ภาพความสัมพันธ์ไทย-ญี่ปุ่นที่ปรากฏในเรื่องสะท้อนถึงทัศนะของญี่ปุ่นต่อไทยในช่วงทศวรรษ 1930 ที่คล้ายคลึงกัน คือถูกกำหนดด้วยแนวคิดอาณานิคมนิยมแบบญี่ปุ่น หรือ "นันฌินรน" แนวคิดขยายดินแดนลงสู่ใต้ที่ส่งเสริมให้คนญี่ปุ่นปรารถนาจะออกไปแสวงโชค ตั้งรกรากทำมากินในต่างแดน โดยเรื่อง นิฮนจิน โอะอิน นำเสนอภาพความสัมพันธ์ที่เป็นมิตรและอยู่ร่วมกันอย่างสันติ พึ่งพาซึ่งกันและกัน เพื่อปกป้องผลประโยชน์ของทั้งสองฝ่าย ส่วนเรื่อง นิตโต โนะ โบเก็นโอ สะท้อนภาพญี่ปุ่นกับสยามเป็นมิตรกันแบบพี่น้อง โดยญี่ปุ่นเป็นเสมือนพี่ผู้ให้ความช่วยเหลือปกป้องสยามจากการเอาเปรียบของชาติตะวันตก เน้นความร่วมมือกันเพื่อความเจริญรุ่งเรืองของสองประเทศ แต่ในอีกทางหนึ่ง วรรณกรรมทั้งสองเรื่องก็นำเสนออัตลักษณ์ทางชาติพันธุ์ญี่ปุ่นที่เหนือกว่าสยาม อันหมายถึงความพยายามในการครอบงำทางวัฒนธรรม ซึ่งเป็นวาทกรรมที่ประเทศเจ้าอาณานิคมมักใช้อ้างความชอบธรรมในการจะเข้าไปบุกเบิกครอบครองพื้นที่ แสวงหาผลประโยชน์ในดินแดนอื่น นอกจากนั้น ในฐานะวรรณกรรมเยาวชน วรรณกรรมทั้ง 2 เรื่องยังมีบทบาทในการปลูกฝังแนวคิดอาณานิคมนิยมที่ถูกสอดแทรก ตอกย้ำอยู่ในตัวบทให้กับผู้อ่านซึ่งเป็นเยาวชนอีกด้วย

The Downward Spiral: Postmodern Consciousness As Buddhist Metaphysics In The Dark Souls Video Game Series, Paolo Xavier Machado Menuez

Dissertations and Theses

This paper is about locating the meaning of a series of games known as the Dark Souls series in relation to contemporary social conditions in Japan. I argue that the game should be thought of as an emblem of the current cultural zeitgeist, in a similar way one might identify something like Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums as an emblem of the counter cultural 60s. I argue that the Dark Souls series expresses in allegorical form an anxiety about living in a time where the meaning of our everyday actions and even society itself has become significantly destabilized. It does …

Japan's Employment 'Catch-22': The Impact Of Working Conditions For Women In Japan On Japan's Demographic Population Crisis, Mary Perkins

Master's Theses

This thesis examines Japan’s aging population crisis and gender inequalities in the workplace. This topic presents an interesting and challenging phenomenon for Japan, as Japan’s economy and technology have developed more rapidly than almost any other country, establishing Japan as one of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Yet Japan still significantly lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to women’s rights and opportunities for advancement in the workplace. This is in turn hampering efforts for Japan to address a population crisis, with an older population growth rate far outpacing the growth of demographic groups that would support the …

Anti-Japanese Sentiment Among Graduates Of South Korean Public Schools, Jamal Barbari

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper aims to explore how South Koreans, who have graduated public high school within the past seven years (from 2010 to 2017) view Japan and Japanese people, and what (if at all) information concerning Japan and Japanese people was established and received during their presence in the public school system. Through a brief analysis into the history and intricate relationship between Korea and Japan, introduction into hidden curriculum and its significance in this context, as well as ten personal interviews with South Korean graduates who fit the criteria for this research, this capstone paper offers a distinctive insight …

Curating Contemporary Japanese Art: Exhibition Catalogue Production For Hidden Landscapes: Yasuaki Onishi And Invisible Space, Emily Lawhead

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the last decade, there has been a telling increase of attention given to contemporary Asian artists exhibited in the United States and Europe. Since 2008, artists from China, Japan, South Korea, and Central Asia have been featured in exhibitions from the Venice Biennale to the Whitney Biennale, and are becoming ever more present on the Western art stage. Meanwhile, curatorial practice, once focused on the care of objects, is shifting to encompass a wider range of creative activity. Curators are taking time to engage with living artists in a collaborative setting, rather than as impartial facilitators. This capstone seeks …

Untitled Nonsense, She, And Contradictions By Yoshihara Sachiko, Carol Hayes, Rina Kikuchi

Transference

Translated by Carol Hayes and Rina Kikuchi from Japanese

Four Love Poems From One Hundred Poems Of The Dharma Gate By Jakuzen, Stephen D. Miller, Patrick Donnelly

Transference

Translated from Japanese and Chinese by Stephen D. Miller and Patrick Donnelly