Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Japan

Kunimitsu KAWAMURA (Graduate School of Letters)

Course Objective
   The purpose of this course is to outline the cultural and linguistic diversity of Japan and invalidate the long-established myth that Japan is a homogeneous community. The course will focus on various attributes and subcultures of Japan, including such topics as Japanese geography, gender, minorities, religions and so on. The lecturers belong to the Sections of Human Geography, Japanese Studies or Japanese Linguistics.

Course Content
   Introduction. "The Visual Representation of 'Nippon': The Art Works by Woman Artists in Contemporary Japan", "Second language identities", "Japanese New Religions and Shamanism", " Social and Cultural Changes in the Edo Period(1603-1867) ", "Koreans in Modern Japan : Centering around Colonial Voyages from Chejudo in Korea to " Manchester of the Orient "before World War II", "Japanese 'Anime': Society, Gender, and Culture", "Regional Changes in Japan: Cases in Depopulated Regions"

Class Plan
(1-2) Megumi KITAHARA: INTRODUCTION. "The Visual Representation of 'Nippon': The Art Works by Woman Artists in Contemporary Japan".: What do woman artists create and express in Japan? How do they describe the family, the role as housewives and women, the history and war, the memory, sexuality, gender and so on? We will explore the Japanese society from the representation by their works.
(3-4) Naoko AOKI: "Second language identities".: Identities are something verbally and nonverbally performed, negotiated and constructed. Second language identities are constructed by using your second language. In this part of the course I shall discuss a variety of second language identities constructed in Japanese to help you construct your own.
(5) Kunimitsu KAWAMURA: "Japanese New Religions and Shamanism ".: The purpose of this lecture is to outline Japanese new religion, the characteristics of its founders, and shamanism. The characteristics of new religion is that there are many female founders. They belong to the long tradition of shamanism which is practiced from ancient times in Japanese folk religion.
(6-7) Shoya UNODA: " Social and Cultural Changes in the Edo Period(1603-1867) " . : The first aim of this section is to give students the basic knowledge of the history of the Edo period and the second aim is to promote students' multi-dimensional understanding of premodern Japan from 17th to mid-19th century. This section not only outlines the history of the Edo period but also examines Japanese society and culture in this period from various perspectives.
(8) Toru SUGIHARA: "Koreans in Modern Japan : Centering around Colonial Voyages from Cheju-do in Korea to "Manchester of the Orient" before World War II".: The main route of emigration from modern Japan and immigration into modern Japan was between Japan and Korea. Why are so many people from Korea living in Osaka? When did they come and what part of Korea did they come from? To answer these questions, my lecture will focus on the history of Korean immigration to Osaka in the modern era.
(9) - (14) Matthew BURDELSKI: "Japanese 'Anime': Society, Gender, and Culture": : Japanese anime (animation) is an intensely popular form of leisure and entertainment for many people across the globe. Yet, from an academic perspective, anime is also a robust site for the reproduction and representation of Japanese society, gender and culture. In these lectures we will discuss and critically examine anime, and also manga (graphic novels), in relation to gender, hierarchy, politeness, cuteness, power, emotion, relationships, and technology. We will also discuss continuity and change in anime over socio-historical time. In addition to lectures, short clips and some full episodes of anime from various genres will be viewed and discussed, and students will be required to write up their reflections.
(15) Kenji TSUTSUMI: "Regional Changes in Japan: Cases in Depopulated Regions". : In fact, depopulated areas in Japan account for 57% of the national land area. The aim of this lecture is to offer the outline of depopulated regions in Japan in order to show the situation of regional differentiation in this country and to think some problems about such regions.

Textbooks
   References etc. will be suggested at the class.

Grading Policy

• Quizzes: 60%
• Term paper to be submitted at the end of the course: 40%
  (The term paper can be connected to only one of the 7 themes of the course.)