Japanese Studies Commons^™

Immigration And Naturalization: A Possible Solution To The Japan Crisis, Samuel Dehaan

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

This study examines the current demographic crisis in Japan, namely the lack of eligible adults in the workforce, a lack of relationships and marriages, and an aging population, which has led to a declining population. This study suggests that a possible solution to the crisis would be to include foreigners in the Japanese workforce through immigration and naturalization. This thesis first examines the historical relations that Japan has had with the West and its Asian neighbors and then places that within a cultural context. It further examines how the modernization of Japan under the Meiji Restoration led to a cultural …

Interactional Competence In Japanese As An Additional Language: An Overview, Tim Greer, Midori Ishida, Yumiko Tateyama

Faculty Publications

Speaking a language involves more than just knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation: It also requires the abilities to interpret what your interlocutor is saying, to formulate a relevant response, and to deliver it in a timely manner. In addition, it entails skills such as dealing with trouble in talk when it arises and being able to identify an appropriate moment to start speaking. In short, it requires interactional competence (IC). As this applies to speaking a language other than one's first, this volume of Pragmatics & Interaction examines specific interactional competences {ICs) that speakers of Japanese as an additional …

Developing Recipient Competence During Study Abroad, Midori Ishida

Faculty Publications

Partly as a response to Kinginger's (2009) call for studies that examine the interaction in which L2 speakers participate during study abroad and its relationship with long-term development, this chapter explores what features of social interaction might afford L2 speakers opportunities to "form new practices" (Pallotti & Wagner, 2011, p. 1), especially when using receipts.

The Otaku Phenomenon : Pop Culture, Fandom, And Religiosity In Contemporary Japan., Kendra Nicole Sheehan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation centers on the otaku subculture and their subsequent incorporation of Japanese religious elements into their consumption of Japanese popular culture. This phenomenon highlights the intersections of popular culture and religion in Japan, which is emerging in religious sites. Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples are incorporating popular culture as a means to maintain relevancy, encourage growth of parishioners, and raising revenue by capitalizing on the popularity of manga and anime. The relevance of this research connects to the continued impact of Japanese popular culture through globalization. The first chapter provides a theoretical background examining this socio-religious …

Strange Women: The Evaluation And Comparison Of Female Characters In Akira Kurosawa's Films, Alice Jiron Jang

History

The successes of Akira Kurosawa’s films have shaped and influenced Western views on Japan after World War II. While the male characters in Kurosawa’s films have been analyzed extensively, there is a focus on the subservience of this female characters. With the growing number of independent working women in a seemingly patriarchal society, it is important to study what has caused these women to break free from their traditional roles as housewife and mother. While some of Kurosawa's female characters are designed to be powerful and independent, others are submissive and obedient. The events that occur in postwar Japan have …

The Use Of Evidentials In Hearsay Contexts In Japanese And English, Tomomi Matsumura

Dissertations and Theses

Evidentials are one of the language codes that convey the speaker's beliefs in terms of the degree of reliability of information and how the speaker obtained information (Chafe, 1986; Ishida, 2006; McCready and Ogata, 2007). Evidentials play an important role in communication since they also function to show the speaker's attitude toward the interlocutors by making a sentence softer (Trent 1998). In his theory of territory of information, Kamio (1990, 1997, 2002) proposed that pragmatic rules of evidentials are different in Japanese than in English. Ishida (2006) studied these differences and argued that learners of Japanese (JF learners) face difficulties …

A Historical Overview Of The Impact Of The Reformation On East Asia, Christina Han

Consensus

No abstract provided.

The Revolution Will Not Be Politicized: Political Expression In The Manga Adaptations Of KanikōSen, Benjamin Robert Burton

Dissertations and Theses

Kobayashi Takiji's (1903-1933) Kanikōsen (The Crab Cannery Ship, 1929), the outstanding work from the proletarian literary movement, experienced an influx of new adaptations into various mediums during the years that preceded and followed the "Kanikōsen boom" of 2008. This thesis focuses on two manga adaptations that provide readers with starkly different takes on the original story. Using theories by Scott McCloud and Azuma Hiroki, I first attempt to draw parallels between the form of manga and that of the novel. Then, I examine the manner in which the most explicitly political content of the novel is adapted …

From Grade Schooler To Great Star: Childhood Development And The “Golden Age” In The World Of Japanese Soccer, Elise M. Edwards

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This chapter, by Elise Edwards, explores how, in its quest for success in the men’s FIFA World Cup, the Japan Football Association encourages parents to enroll preschoolers in its kids’ program to increase the number of children playing soccer and the quality of their training, emphasizes the importance of physical activity and play for children, and promotes the notion of a golden age between the ages of nine and twelve when the opportunity for physical development is said to peak. This popularizes a vision of a segmented childhood determined by age grades and developmental stages underpinned by a fear that …

Tadoku: Extensive Reading In Japanese, Rika Saito

Academic Leadership Academy

My Instructional Development project is Tadoku 多読 that translates as Extensive Reading (ER) for Japanese language education. Tadoku or ER refers to “many readings” “reading a lot,” the idea of which in foreign/second language teaching has been practiced and theorized since 1950 in the US and Europe. In Japan, ER classes and promotional events, such as workshops and presentations for instructors, are sponsored by a Non-profit organization “Tagengo Tadoku” or “Tadoku Supporters.” This organization was established in 2002 by Japanese educators who originally explored effective reading methods in English language education. Tadoku Supporters later developed ER methods in Japanese.

I …

Sukima: Vertical Views Of The Floating World (2017), Theory & History Of Art & Design Department, Elena Varshavskaya (H791 Instructor)

Ukiyo-e Prints Course | Exhibition Catalogs

"Sukima is a Japanese word for a crack in a door, a narrow space that opens up when the panels of the sliding doors are pushed to the sides. ... You’ve seen enough to electrify your imagination and let it complete the picture. This is what happens when you look at a long and narrow ukiyo-e print in a pillar format – hashira-e. Or perhaps this partial sight only unleashes your curiosity and, craving a fuller view, you expand the narrow slit and can now enjoy broader vistas replete with details. For such cases ukiyo-e designers came up with …

Beginning Japanese For Professionals: Book 2, Emiko Konomi

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This is the second book in a three book series and includes Lessons 5 - 8. Book 1 and Book 3 are also available for download.

This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school.

As a beginning level textbook, this book includes many elementary grammar patterns (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Levels 5 and 4), but the vocabulary and situations are selected specifically …

One Endless Dance: Tanaka Min's Experimental Practice, John (Zack) Fuller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work is the first in-depth study of the work of avant-garde Japanese dancer/choreographer Tanaka Min, and focuses on his extensive innovations in the fields of improvised dance, training, and choreographic method. These interrelated aspects of his experimental practice are intimately concerned with the relation between space and the body, employ collaborative methods, and are strongly influenced by the life and work of Hijikata Tatsumi (widely to considered to be the founder of the butô movement). They are also deeply informed by his choice to live his daily life as an organic vegetable farmer, a choice that I argue constitutes …

The Politics Of Shorter Hours And Corporate-Centered Society: A History Of Work-Time Regulation In The United States And Japan, Keisuke Jinno

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Shorter working hours drew much attention as a means of fighting unemployment and crisis in capitalism during the first half of the twentieth century. Nowadays, shorter work-time is rarely considered a policy option to fix economic or social issues in the United States and Japan. This dissertation presents a history of work-time regulation in the United States and Japan to examine how and why its developments and stalemate took place.

In the big picture, developments of work-time regulation during the first half of the twentieth century were a part of concessional modifications of class relations, a common phenomenon in many …

What Is The Nature Of The Conflict Experienced By Japanese Workers In International Companies Based In Japan And What Type Of Conflict Management Do They Access?, Tomoko Shinohara Le

Dissertations and Theses

The aim of this thesis was to identify and analyze workplace conflict by enquiring into the nature of conflict, conflict management, and human resources (HR) strategies for conflict management in international companies based in Japan (ICBIJ). This study explores one part of a conflict system comprising cultural issues, HR strategies, conflict, and its effect on retention. The research question is "What is the nature of the conflict experienced by Japanese workers in international companies based in Japan and what type of conflict management do they access?" 16 Japanese workers were surveyed yielding qualitative and qualitative data. Findings indicate that workplace …

Hiroshima On Peace Education And Problems With U.S.-Centric Historical Narratives In A World Without Survivors, Matthew S. Thome

International ResearchScape Journal

As time passes, the number of survivors from major world tragedies like the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki grows fewer and fewer. These survivors are a powerful resource for educating students of all ages about the importance of world peace. Drawing on the writing of Richard Moody and Frans Doppen, as well as Paul Ham, and Herbert Feis respectively, I outline the important role of hibakusha, or a-bomb survivors, in peace education at the secondary and collegiate levels. I explain how personalized survivor testimony provides an alternative and highly effective and necessary counterweight to teaching solely a U.S.-centric historical …

Not Just Child's Play: Neo-Romantic Humanism In Ogawa Mimei's Stories, Nobuko Horikawa

Dissertations and Theses

During the early twentieth century, Japan was modernizing in all areas of science and art, including children’s literature. Ogawa Mimei (1882-1961) was a prolific writer who advanced various literary forms such as short stories, poems, essays, children’s stories, and children’s songs. As a writer, he was most active during the late Meiji (1868-1912) to Taishō (1912-1926) periods when he was a socialist. During that time, he penned many socialist short stories and children’s stories that were filtered through his humanistic, anarchistic, and romanticist ideals. In this thesis, I analyze Mimei’s socialist short stories and children’s stories written in the 1910s …

Review: Oleg Benesch, Inventing The Way Of The Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, And Bushidō In Modern Japan, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Immanent Frames: Meiji New Buddhism And The 'Religious Secular', James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

The secularization thesis, rooted in the idea that “modernity” brings with it the destruction—or, at least, the ruthless privatization—of religion, is clearly grounded in specific, often oversimplified, interpretations of Western historical developments since the eighteenth century. In this article, I use the case of the New Buddhist Fellowship (Shin Bukkyō Dōshikai 新仏教同志会) of the Meiji period (1868–1911) to query the category of the secular in the context of Japanese modernity. I argue that the New Buddhists, drawing on elements of classical and East Asian Buddhism as well as modern Western thought, promoted a resolutely social and this-worldly Buddhism that …

A Coffee-Scented Space: Historical, Cultural, And Social Impacts Of The Japanese Kissaten, Claire A. Williamson

Student Work

A 2016-2017 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Claire Williamson (Jonathan Edwards College '17) for her essay submitted to the East Asian Studies Program, “A Coffee-Scented Space: Historical, Cultural, and Social Impacts of the Japanese Kissaten.” (William Kelly, Professor of Anthropology and Sumitomo Professor of Japanese Studies, advisor.)

Japan has a long and well-documented history as a tea culture, from everyday practices to the refined aesthetics of the tea ceremony and its associated arts. Yet modern Japan is also a highly developed culture of coffee, and this is the topic that Claire Williamson …