Capturing Contemporary Japan

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Capturing Contemporary Japan

Author : Satsuki Kawano
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824838688
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Capturing Contemporary Japan by : Satsuki Kawano

Download or read book Capturing Contemporary Japan written by Satsuki Kawano and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are people’s life experiences in present-day Japan? This timely volume addresses fundamental questions vital to understanding Japan in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Its chapters collectively reveal a questioning of middle-class ideals once considered the essence of Japaneseness. In the postwar model household a man was expected to obtain a job at a major firm that offered life-long employment; his counterpart, the “professional” housewife, managed the domestic sphere and the children, who were educated in a system that provided a path to mainstream success. In the past twenty years, however, Japanese society has seen a sharp increase in precarious forms of employment, higher divorce rates, and a widening gap between haves and have-nots. Contributors draw on rich, nuanced fieldwork data collected during the 2000s to examine work, schooling, family and marital relations, child rearing, entertainment, lifestyle choices, community support, consumption and waste, material culture, well-being, aging, death and memorial rites, and sexuality. The voices in these pages vary widely: They include schoolchildren, teenagers, career women, unmarried women, young mothers, people with disabilities, small business owners, organic farmers, retirees, and the elderly.

Capturing Contemporary Japan

Author : Satsuki Kawano
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082483870X
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Capturing Contemporary Japan by : Satsuki Kawano

Experimental Buddhism

Author : John K. Nelson
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824838343
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Experimental Buddhism by : John K. Nelson

Download or read book Experimental Buddhism written by John K. Nelson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, it is one of the first studies to give readers a sense of what is happening on the front lines as a growing number of Buddhist priests try to reboot their roles and traditions to gain greater significance in Japanese society. The book profiles innovative as well as controversial responses to the challenges facing Buddhist priests. From traditional activities (conducting memorial rituals; supporting residences for the elderly and infirm; providing relief for victims of natural disasters) to more creative ones (collaborating in suicide prevention efforts; holding symposia and concerts on temple precincts; speaking out against nuclear power following Japan’s 2011 earthquake; opening cafés, storefront temples, and pubs; even staging fashion shows with priests on the runway), more progressive members of Japan’s Buddhist clergy are trying to navigate a path leading towards renewed relevance in society. An additional challenge is to avoid alienating older patrons while trying to attract younger ones vital to the future of their temples. The work’s central theme of “experimental Buddhism”provides a fresh perspective to understand how priests and other individuals employ Buddhist traditions in selective and pragmatic ways. Using these inventive approaches during a time of crisis and transition for Japanese temple Buddhism, priests and practitioners from all denominations seek solutions that not only can revitalize their religious traditions but also influence society and their fellow citizens in positive ways.

Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture

Author : John Whittier Treat
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture by : John Whittier Treat

Download or read book Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture written by John Whittier Treat and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Gender and the Koseki In Contemporary Japan

Author : Linda White
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131720106X
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Gender and the Koseki In Contemporary Japan by : Linda White

Download or read book Gender and the Koseki In Contemporary Japan written by Linda White and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese koseki system is the legal and social structure keeping record of all Japanese citizens. Determined by the Civil Code and the Koseki Law, for activists challenging it, the koseki is also an ideological structure, which has produced patriarchal control through single-surname households. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo, this book engages with issues of gender hierarchy and structural inequality in Japanese society. Studying several decades of feminist activism and critique of the koseki system, it analyses the strategies of activists who have creatively circumvented koseki rules in order to maintain their natal names in marriage. It examines the case studies of members of the fūfubessei (separate surname movement) and the movement to end discrimination against children born out of wedlock, and in so doing this book illuminates the contradictions in current family law and koseki practice that have animated a generation of feminists in Japan. Demonstrating the effect of the koeski on family, gender, and national identity, this book will be useful for students and scholars of Cultural Anthropology, Gender Studies, and Japanese Studies in general.

Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan

Author : Genaro Castro-Vazquez
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317265343
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan by : Genaro Castro-Vazquez

Download or read book Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan written by Genaro Castro-Vazquez and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an ethnographic investigation of intimate and reproductive behaviour in current Japanese society, grounded in the viewpoints of a group of Japanese mothers. It adopts a new approach in studying the decreasing fertility rates which are contributing to the ageing population in modern Japan. Based on the accounts of 57 married Japanese women, it employs symbolic interactionism as a framework to examine the various factors affecting decision-making on childbirth. The influence of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), abortion and contraception in the daily interactions and experiences of the mothers are analysed to offer a new perspective on the Japanese demographic conundrum. With strong contextual information as the foundation, the book contributes fresh insight into how Japanese women perceive the idea of childbirth in a modernized society, and also assists our understanding of the factors causing Japan’s ageing population. Further, it places the mothers’ experiences within current global debates to highlight the salience of the Japanese case. As the first book to provide an in-depth examination of the social process underpinning the decision to become a mother in Japan, it will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, Gender Studies, and Sociology.

Kyoto Revisited

Author : Jennifer S. Prough
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824891686
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Kyoto Revisited by : Jennifer S. Prough

Download or read book Kyoto Revisited written by Jennifer S. Prough and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2022-02-28 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a charm to Kyoto. Surrounded by lush green hills, the city feels alive with nature, history, culture—and tourists. At once ancient capital, modern city, and home to numerous cultural heritage sites, Kyoto looms large in the promotion of Japanese culture at home and abroad. In the wake of years of economic recession followed by the national promotion of “cool Japan” in popular culture and tourism of the twenty-first century, anthropologist Jennifer Prough sets out to examine how the city’s history and culture have been mobilized to create heritage experiences for today’s tourists. The heart of her book, Kyoto Revisited, centers on what it means to produce these for visitors, why seeing and feeling culture and tradition appeal to both domestic and international travelers, and the challenges faced by a heritage tourism city. As Prough’s study suggests, heritage has multiple meanings. It is created as interested parties—state and local, public and private—tell different stories about the past, which are marketed in response to tourists’ desire for face-to-face engagement in an experience economy. Her work examines several prominent features of Kyoto tourism, including promotion plans, heritage neighborhood renovation, the role of the seasons and traditional aesthetics in citywide events, the appeal of sites commemorating the Meiji restoration, and the trend of walking in the heritage district in a rented kimono. Throughout Prough brings together scholarship from Japanese studies, heritage studies, and the anthropology of tourism to highlight the interplay between the romantic desire for heritage tourism and the emphasis on “personal experience” (taiken) in the visitor industry today. Experience has long been an integral part of tourism—even as what counts as experience has shifted across time and place (from taking a photo to staying with locals to trying one’s hand at a traditional craft)—yet these touristic desires take on a new tinge in the experience economy. Kyoto Revisited demonstrates not only how the past has been used to construct the city’s identity and shape understandings of Japan for travelers, but also how these speak to broader trends in our contemporary moment.

Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan

Author : Hiroko Takeda
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134830017
Total Pages : 650 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan by : Hiroko Takeda

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan written by Hiroko Takeda and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan presents a synthesized, interdisciplinary study of contemporary Japan based on up-to-date theoretical models designed to provide readers with a comprehensive and full understanding of the dynamics of contemporary Japan. In order to achieve this, the Handbook is organized into two parts. Part I, ‘Foundations’, clarifies the state of contemporary Japan topic by topic by referring to the latest theoretical developments in the relevant disciplinary fields of politics, international relations, economy, society, culture and the personal. Part II, ‘Issues’, then offers a series of concrete analyses building upon the theoretical discussions introduced in Part I to help undergraduate and postgraduate students learn how to conduct independent analysis. Locating Japan in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this Handbook is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Asian studies and global studies.

Single Mothers in Contemporary Japan

Author : Aya Ezawa
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498529976
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Single Mothers in Contemporary Japan by : Aya Ezawa

Download or read book Single Mothers in Contemporary Japan written by Aya Ezawa and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-05-12 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on life history interviews of single mothers in Japan, this detailed study examines the socioeconomic consequences of becoming a single mother and pursuing a lifestyle outside of the married mother and housewife norm in contemporary Japan.

Becoming a Farmer in Contemporary Japan

Author : Niccolò Lollini
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000993574
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Becoming a Farmer in Contemporary Japan by : Niccolò Lollini

Download or read book Becoming a Farmer in Contemporary Japan written by Niccolò Lollini and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-10-27 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an agricultural cooperative running a training programme for aspiring farmers, this book explores the possibilities of agrarian and land-based modes of livelihood in contemporary Japan. The book is organised around the four key hurdles faced by new agricultural entrants: the acquisition of land and housing, farming know-how, capital, and market outlets. New farmers look with fresh eyes at agricultural issues, and their experiences provide a vantage point over the institutions shaping rural and agricultural life. The book documents the mounting problem of land and house abandonment in regional Japan, the role of agriculture in the revitalisation of rural communities, and the transformation of Japan’s agrifood system. To avoid reinforcing Japan’s exceptionalism, agricultural policy, farming practices, and fresh food distribution are analysed from a comparative perspective, shedding new light on processes of agrarian change in developed market economies. Providing an in-depth insight into pro-rural migration in the face of Japan’s shrinking regions and its declining agricultural sector, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Japanese society, agrarian policy, and rural sociology.

Drawing on Tradition

Author : Jolyon Baraka Thomas
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824835891
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Drawing on Tradition by : Jolyon Baraka Thomas

Download or read book Drawing on Tradition written by Jolyon Baraka Thomas and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2012-10-31 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Manga and anime (illustrated serial novels and animated films) are highly influential Japanese entertainment media that boast tremendous domestic consumption as well as worldwide distribution and an international audience. Drawing on Tradition examines religious aspects of the culture of manga and anime production and consumption through a methodological synthesis of narrative and visual analysis, history, and ethnography. Rather than merely describing the incidence of religions such as Buddhism or Shinto in these media, Jolyon Baraka Thomas shows that authors and audiences create and re-create “religious frames of mind” through their imaginative and ritualized interactions with illustrated worlds. Manga and anime therefore not only contribute to familiarity with traditional religious doctrines and imagery, but also allow authors, directors, and audiences to modify and elaborate upon such traditional tropes, sometimes creating hitherto unforeseen religious ideas and practices. The book takes play seriously by highlighting these recursive relationships between recreation and religion, emphasizing throughout the double sense of play as entertainment and play as adulteration (i.e., the whimsical or parodic representation of religious figures, doctrines, and imagery). Building on recent developments in academic studies of manga and anime—as well as on recent advances in the study of religion as related to art and film—Thomas demonstrates that the specific aesthetic qualities and industrial dispositions of manga and anime invite practices of rendition and reception that can and do influence the ways that religious institutions and lay authors have attempted to captivate new audiences. Drawing on Tradition will appeal to both the dilettante and the specialist: Fans and self-professed otaku will find an engaging academic perspective on often overlooked facets of the media and culture of manga and anime, while scholars and students of religion will discover a fresh approach to the complicated relationships between religion and visual media, religion and quotidian practice, and the putative differences between “traditional” and “new” religions.

A Lateral View

Author : Donald Richie
Publisher : Stone Bridge Press
ISBN 13 : 0962813745
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (628 download)

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Book Synopsis A Lateral View by : Donald Richie

Download or read book A Lateral View written by Donald Richie and published by Stone Bridge Press. This book was released on 1998-07-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing look at the Japanese through the window of their contemporary culture.

Storytelling in Japanese Art

Author : Masako Watanabe
Publisher : Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN 13 : 1588394409
Total Pages : 122 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (883 download)

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Book Synopsis Storytelling in Japanese Art by : Masako Watanabe

Download or read book Storytelling in Japanese Art written by Masako Watanabe and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2011 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents 17 classic Japanese stories as told through 30 illustrated handscrolls ranging from the 13th to 19th centuries.

Enduring Identities

Author : John K. Nelson
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824822590
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (225 download)

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Book Synopsis Enduring Identities by : John K. Nelson

Download or read book Enduring Identities written by John K. Nelson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enduring Identities is an attempt to understand the continuing relevance of Shinto to the cultural identity of contemporary Japanese. The enduring significance of this ancient yet innovative religion is evidenced each year by the millions of Japanese who visit its shrines. They might come merely seeking a park-like setting or to make a request of the shrine's deities, asking for a marriage partner, a baby, or success at school or work; or they might come to give thanks for benefits received through the intercession of deities or to legitimate and sacralize civic and political activities. Through an investigation of one of Japan's most important and venerated Shinto shrines, Kamo Wake Ikazuchi Jinja (more commonly Kamigamo Jinja), the book addresses what appears through Western and some Asian eyes to be an exotic and incongruous blend of superstition and reason as well as a photogenic juxtaposition of present and past. Combining theoretical sophistication with extensive fieldwork and a deep knowledge of Japan, John Nelson documents and interprets the ancient Kyoto shrine's yearly cycle of rituals and festivals, its sanctified landscapes, and the people who make it viable. At local and regional levels, Kamigamo Shrine's ritual traditions (such as the famous Hollyhock Festival) and the strategies for their perpetuation and implementation provide points of departure for issues that anthropologists, historians, and scholars of religion will recognize as central to their disciplines. These include the formation of social memory, the role of individual agency within institutional politics, religious practice and performance, the shaping of sacred space and place, ethnic versus cultural identity, and the politics of historical representation and cultural nationalism. Nelson links these themes through a detailed ethnography about a significant place and institution, which until now has been largely closed to both Japanese and foreign scholars. In contrast to conventional notions of ideology and institutions, he shows how a religious tradition's lack of centralized dogma, charismatic leaders, and sacred texts promotes rather than hinders a broad-based public participation with a variety of institutional agendas, most of which have very little to do with belief. He concludes that it is this structural flexibility, coupled with ample economic, human, and cultural resources, that nurtures a reworking of multiple identities--all of which resonate with the past, fully engage the present, and, with care, will endure well into the future.

Intercultural Communication in Japan

Author : Satoshi Toyosaki
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1315516926
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (155 download)

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Book Synopsis Intercultural Communication in Japan by : Satoshi Toyosaki

Download or read book Intercultural Communication in Japan written by Satoshi Toyosaki and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-24 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is heterogeneous and culturally diverse, both historically through ancient waves of immigration and in recent years due to its foreign relations and internationalization. However, Japan has socially, culturally, politically, and intellectually constructed a distinct and homogeneous identity. More recently, this identity construction has been rightfully questioned and challenged by Japan’s culturally diverse groups. This book explores the discursive systems of cultural identities that regenerate the illusion of Japan as a homogeneous nation. Contributors from a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches investigate the ways in which Japan’s homogenizing discourses are challenged and modified by counter-homogeneous message systems. They examine the discursive push-and-pull between homogenizing and heterogenizing vectors, found in domestic and transnational contexts and mobilized by various identity politics, such as gender, sexuality, ethnicity, foreign status, nationality, multiculturalism, and internationalization. After offering a careful and critical analysis, the book calls for a complicating of Japan’s homogenizing discourses in nuanced and contextual ways, with an explicit goal of working towards a culturally diverse Japan. Taking a critical intercultural communication perspective, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Japanese Culture and Japanese Society.

Capture Japan

Author : Marco Bohr
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350186783
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Capture Japan by : Marco Bohr

Download or read book Capture Japan written by Marco Bohr and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-12-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capture Japan investigates the formation of visual tropes and how these have contributed to perceptions of Japan in the global imagination. The book proposes that images are not incidental in the formation of such perceptions, but central to notions about identity, history and memory. From a tentative western ally in 1952 to a 'soft power' superpower with a huge global influence in the 21st century, the book locates questions about Japan in the global imagination to the country's transforming geopolitical position. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, with a multiplicity of perspectives from around the world, Capture Japan goes beyond binarisms to uncover how images can also produce discourses that challenge, subvert or even contradict each other. The word 'capture' in the title of the book recognises both the deeply problematic role that images have played in relation to colonialism, as well as the potential dominance that visual spectacles can wield in a contemporary context. Diverse essays from a wide range of perspectives investigate the institutional framework that has allowed certain types of images of Japan to be promoted, while others have been suppressed. In doing so, the book points to a vast network of images that have shaped the perception of Japan both from within and from outside, revealing how these images are inextricably linked to wider ideological, political, cultural or economic agendas.

Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan

Author : Denis Gainty
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135069905
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan by : Denis Gainty

Download or read book Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan written by Denis Gainty and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1895, the newly formed Greater Japan Martial Virtue Association (Dainippon Butokukai) held its first annual Martial Virtue Festival (butokusai) in the ancient capital of Kyoto. The Festival marked the arrival of a new iteration of modern Japan, as the Butokukai’s efforts to define and popularise Japanese martial arts became an important medium through which the bodies of millions of Japanese citizens would experience, draw on, and even shape the Japanese nation and state. This book shows how the notion and practice of Japanese martial arts in the late Meiji period brought Japanese bodies, Japanese nationalisms, and the Japanese state into sustained contact and dynamic engagement with one another. Using a range of disciplinary approaches, Denis Gainty shows how the metaphor of a national body and the cultural and historical meanings of martial arts were celebrated and appropriated by modern Japanese at all levels of society, allowing them to participate powerfully in shaping the modern Japanese nation and state. While recent works have cast modern Japanese and their bodies as subject to state domination and elite control, this book argues that having a body – being a body, and through that body experiencing and shaping social, political, and even cosmic realities – is an important and underexamined aspect of the late Meiji period. Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Meiji Japan is an important contribution to debates in Japanese and Asian social sciences, theories of the body and its role in modern historiography, and related questions of power and agency by suggesting a new and dramatic role for human bodies in the shaping of modern states and societies. As such, it will be valuable to students and scholars of Japanese studies, Japanese history, modern nations and nationalisms, and sport and leisure studies, as well as those interested in the body more broadly.