07s-02
PERSPECTIVES FROM INSIDE AND OUT:
AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Beverley Anne YAMAMOTO (School of Human Sciences)

Objective
  This course offers students a general, but critical introduction to contemporary Japanese society. It is expected that by the end of the course students will be able to identify and deconstruct literature written in the so-called Nihonjinron genre and offer a more nuanced analysis of contemporary Japan. In addition, students should be able to discuss from an informed sociological perspective key issues concerning the main institutions of Japanese society – the work place, education, politics, religion, the media and the family. Finally, through the assessed assignments, students should by the end of the course be able to display a reasonably in-depth understanding of one of the following critical issues as pertaining to Japan today: the low birth rate/ageing society, gender equality and globalization. Assignments will assess the degree that an individual student has achieved the above course objectives.

Course Outline
  How does Japanese society view itself and how do others view it? What relationship do these insider and outsider perceptions of Japan have to each other and reality? Do they in fact structure reality? The first part of this lecture course will explore the issue of Japanese identity both from the inside and outside, and questions the assumption of homogeneity found in much of the mainstream literature. It will look at gender, age, class and ethnicity as the primary stratifying principles in society that produce, often unacknowledged, diversity. We will then move on to look at key areas of Japanese society: work, education, politics, religion, the media and the family. Finally, we will pick up on a couple of key critical issues facing Japanese society at this time: the problem of the low birth rate/ageing society, gender equality and globalization.

Textbook
  Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society (Second Edition), Cambridge University Press.

Supplementary readings
  (A precise list with specified chapters to read will be supplied nearer to the start date of the course)
  Gelb Joyce, Gender Policies in Japan and the United States, Palgrave Macmillan.
Hane Miko, Eastern Phoenix Japan Since 1945, Westview Press.
  Hara, Junsuke and Kazuo Seiyama Inequality amid Affluence: Social Stratification in Japan, Trans Pacific Press.
  Kosaku Yoshino, Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A Sociological Enquiry, Routledge.
  Imamura Anne (ed.) Re-imaging Japanese Women, University of California Press.
  Ishida Hiroshi, Social Mobility in Contemporary Japan, Stanford University Press.
  Inoguchi, Takashi, Japanese Politics: An Introduction, Trans Pacific Press.
  McVeigh Brian Japanese Higher Education as Myth, M.E. Sharpe Inc.
  Ogasawara Yuko Office ladies and Salaried men: Power, Gender and Work in Japanese Companies, University of California Press.
  Pharr, Susan and Ellis Krauss (Eds), Media and Politics in Japan, University of Hawai’i Press.
  Weiner Michael, Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, Routledge.

Grading
  Attendance and contribution to classes 20%
  Midterm presentation 30%
  Term paper 50%