2013-2014 Academic Year
July 29, 2013
Lecture: Zero Yen Architect: Kyohei Sakaguchi + MUJI: New Ideas about Architecture and Housing in Economically Tight Times
Speakers: Kyohei Sakaguchi, Architect; Tomizaburo Hagiwara, MUJI
Organizer: Dana Buntrock, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Kyohei Sakaguchi argues that architecture can be built for and by anyone, even those who are the most poor. The March 2011 earthquake in Japan and its aftermath has pushed him further; today, he claims to be the "Prime Minister" of a new Japan, built on new ideals.
Tomizaburo Hagiwara’s talk "Rebirth of Community: Making Space for Living" will present MUJI’s latest residential projects, especially House Vision: Furniture House, developed jointly with Shigeru Ban. Although MUJI prefers to challenge consumerism with "brand less" products, it is also known to have designed affordable prefabricated homes with Kengo Kuma and Kazuhiro Namba.
September 4, 2013
Symposium: Why do Marxian Social Sciences Survive in Japan?
Speakers: Hiroshi Onishi, Keio University; Kazuyasu Miyata, Hokkaido University of Education; Akio Kamitani, CJS Visiting Scholar, Sapporo Gakuin University
Moderator: Andrew Barshay, History, UC Berkeley
More than 20 years have passed since the collapse of Eastern European socialist systems. It was thought that the world would move towards greater peace and democracy. But instead the gap between poverty and wealth has expanded worldwide, which has caused an increase in war and terrorism.
Due to these circumstances, we now see Communist Parties and socialist forces, that had been once despised, are regaining their power. The Communist Party in Japan, which started in 1922, has survived adverse winds against communism and socialism. The party made great progress in elections recently and has become what many see as the only alternative to the conservative governing body.
While the study of Marxian social sciences has been retracted in economics departments in universities worldwide, it still remains an important discipline. At this symposium we will present the possibility of Marxian social sciences and the Communist Party’s survival, and how they could maintain their influences.
September 6, 2013
Panel: Monkey Business: New Voices from Japan
Speakers: Masatsugu Ono, Writer; Yoko Hayasuke, Writer; Roland Kelts, Writer; Ted Goossen, York University; Motoyuki Shibata, Writer
Japanese writers visit the Bay Area to discuss their writing, Japanese culture, and what it feels like to live in post-tsunami Japan. They will be joined by Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, Ted Goossen and Motoyuki Shibata, the editors of Monkey Business, the only English-language journal focused on Japanese literature, manga and poetry. There will be readings, discussions, and a Q&A session.
Co-sponsors: The Japan Foundation and the Nippon Foundation
September 12, 2013
Colloquium: 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan
Speaker: Richard J. Samuels, MIT
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Japanese political entrepreneurs have used the March 2011 catastrophe in Tohoku (3.11) to nudge national policy in the direction of their own choosing. For some, 3.11 was a warning for Japan to “put it in gear’’ and head off on a new path. For others, the catastrophe was a once in a millennium “black swan,” so Japan should “stay the course.’’ Still others declared that 3.11 taught that Japan must return to an idealized past and rebuild what was lost to modernity and globalization. Battles among these perspectives on change-- and contested appeals to leadership, community, and risk-- defined post-3.11 politics and public policy in Japan, particularly in the areas of national security, energy policy, and local governance.
September 14, 2013
Workshop: Obento: Japanese Culture in a Box
Speaker: Debra Samuels, Cookbook Author; Visiting Scholar, CJS
In this hands-on workshop, cookbook author Debra Samuels will introduce Japanese food history, discuss the comparison between U.S. and Japanese bento (弁当) cultures, conduct a cooking demonstration, and instruct the audience in how to prepare Japanese food in a bento box.
September 17, 2013
Colloquium: How to Live as Full-time Writer in Japan
Speaker: Toh Enjoe, Writer
Award-winning author Toh Enjoe explains the system behind modern Japanese literature from his point of view as a writer. From the peculiarities of the modern Japanese written language, to the way Japanese writers balance their household finances, to their relationships with publishers, and to the trends of modern Japanese literature, the topic will extend from the micro (Japanese characters) to the macro (social life).
Enjoe will also describe how it is possible for Japanese literature writers who write in Japanese to live in North America under the current system. In addition, he will give examples on how Japanese writers would respond when faced with the “global literature market.”
September 24, 2013
Colloquium: Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts
Speaker: Tomohito Shinoda, International University of Japan
Moderator: T.J. Pempel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Decentralized policy-making power in Japan had developed under the long reign of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In the 1990s, institutional changes were introduced, fundamentally altering Japan’s modern political landscape. Tomohito Shinoda tracks these slow yet steady changes to today in the operation of and tensions between Japan’s political parties and the public’s behavior in Japanese elections, as well as in the government’s ability to coordinate diverse policy preferences and respond to political crises.
Electoral reform in 1994 resulted in the selection of Junichirō Koizumi, an anti-mainstream politician, as prime minister in 2001, initiating a power shift to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and ending LDP rule. Shinoda also details these government and administrative institutional changes and reveals how Prime Minister Koizumi took advantage of such developments to practice strong policymaking leadership. He also outlines the new set of institutional initiatives introduced by the DPJ government and their impact on policymaking, illustrating the importance of balanced centralized institutions and bureaucratic support.
September 27, 2013
BAKAI: Graduate Student Presentations
Moderator: Elizabeth Reade, EALC, UC Berkeley
Inadvertent Norm Entrepreneurs: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Anti-Military Norm
Benjamin G. Bartlett, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Death in the Colonies: Spectacular Suicide in Yumeno Kyûsaku’s Detective Fiction
Aileen Cruz, EALC, UC Berkeley
Unveiling Open Secrets of Japanese Modernity in Kitahara Hakushû’s Memories
Marianne S. Tarcov, EALC, UC Berkeley
October 2, 2013
Colloquium: Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan—and Japan to the West
Speaker: Frederik L. Schodt, Writer
Discussant: Andrea Horbinski, History, UC Berkeley
On New Year’s Eve, 1866, Professor Risley arrived in San Francisco from Yokohama, Japan. He was accompanied by the Imperial Japanese Troupe of acrobats and performers, who under his direction would amaze not only the residents of San Francisco, but also huge audiences on the East Coast and in Europe.
Risley was a famous acrobat in his own right, and the story of how he introduced circus to Japan, and how he triggered a craze in Japanese performers in the West (and contributed to the Japonisme movement), is part of a fascinating lost-but-recently-uncovered history. In this presentation, award-winning author Frederik L. Schodt will reveal the story of Risley and his troupe, who gave the world one of its first glimpses of Japanese popular culture.
October 8, 2013
Colloquium: Gutai's Phase Zero: When Pollock came to Osaka
Speaker: Reiko Tomii, Art Historian
Moderator: Miryam Sas, Film & Media Studies, Comparative Literature, UC Berkeley
One of the most experimental postwar Japanese collectives, Gutai Art Association is vital to our study of world art history and transnational art history. However, although its “prehistory” has been studied by examining the leader Yoshihara Jirō’s prewar and wartime experiences in the domestic contexts, little attention has been paid to the decisive moment in 1951 when he had a firsthand experience with the work by Jackson Pollock and other Abstract Expressionists in Osaka.
Taking a cue from the critic Haryu Ichiro’s 1979 comment on Gutai, in which he compared the off-the-wall group to the alien Martians, this paper reexamine another moment of Martian visit, the special display of the 1951 Yomiuri Independent Exhibition, which for the first time introduced the new American abstraction to the Japanese audience. To understand the radical nature of Yoshihara’s embrace of the Irascibles at the time, this lecture will examine Tokyo’s “period eye” (Baxandall), which was definitely skewed toward the eclectic French modernism. Yoshihara’s eye will then be contrasted with it, through a close reading of two hitherto little studied texts on Pollock Yoshihara published in 1951 (Kansai bijutsu and Asahi shinbun), which contained the kernel of ideas that would become his guiding principles for Gutai.
October 29, 2013
Forum: Multicultural Coexistence in Global and Local Contexts: Challenges and Opportunities
Speaker: Toshiya Hoshino, International Public Policy, Osaka University
Discussant: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
In this talk, Professor Toshiya Hoshino will discuss one of the greatest challenges for multicultural innovators - coexistence between groups of people with historical transgressions between them. While Japan’s relations with the United States demonstrate how two countries can reconcile their differences, Japan’s bilateral relations with China and Korea reveal how difficult it is for people to live together with the past. Moving toward greater multicultural innovation is difficult when sentiments of discrimination and hatred must be overcome. But by examining this question from different points of view, we may be able to identify solutions to “non-coexistence” conflicts caused by cultural or social differences, and create a recipe for a better future community.
November 1, 2013
Performance: TEN-YOU GUMI: Ancient Character Performance and Workshop
Performer: TEN-YOU GUMI
Join us for this exciting performance of Kodai-moji by artist TEN-YOU and her group TEN-YOU GUMI, accompanied by Eden Aoba Taiko. Kodai-moji refers to ancient Chinese characters found on turtle shells, bones or bronze inscriptions from the time of Yin or Shang dynasty (17th century BC – 11th century BC). This exhibition allows us to appreciate that writing is not only a technique or practice with utilitarian purposes, but a path of evolution and personal development. Much more than trying to be a good calligrapher, TEN-YOU gives importance to the intention and the process, separating it from the result. This allows for the birth of a free and creative work.
Co-sponsor: Global Education-International Ambassadress for Community Education and Development.
November 6, 2013
Colloquium: Sôgi Contra Shinkei: The Aesthetics of Deference
Speaker: Steven Carter, Stanford University
Moderator: H. Mack Horton, EALC, UC Berkeley
Accounts of behavior in renga gatherings usual focus on ritual order as embodied in rules and conventions. In this paper I argue that in the pedagogical writings of the renga master Sôgi (1421-1502) we detect something that goes beyond that, demonstrating a commitment to the needs and ideals of the group and the poetic ideal of ushin, or “deep feeling” that I call the aesthetics of deference. I argue that this “attitude” or “posture” is apparent among the writings of Sôgi in particular, especially when we contrast him with his teacher Shinkei and the latter’s aesthetic of the “chill and spare.” Of course, we all know that it was Sôgi’s aesthetic that prevailed, at least in the short term, and at the end of my talk I will attempt to explain why.
November 8, 2013
Colloquium: Beyond the Samurai: Bushido as Politics, Philosophy, and Ideology
Speaker: Chris Goto-Jones, Leiden University
Moderator: Andrew Barshay, History, UC Berkeley
Few images of Japan are more intoxicating than that of the honorable samurai. Indeed, many students and scholars are drawn to the field of Japan Studies by the romantic idea of the samurai and their apparent code of conduct, bushidô. Until the recent pre-eminence of manga and anime as cultural emblems of Japan, bushidô was unquestionably the most alluring, and remains the most resilient, icon of Japan on the international stage.
And this is no accident: bushidô was explicitly and deliberately created in the twentieth century precisely to serve this function.
This presentation interrogates the meaning and dimensions of bushidô in modern Japan, elaborating it as a sophisticated and multivalent landscape interacting with the borders of ethics, politics, philosophy, and ideology. Bushidô emerges through the historical development and invention of multiple canons, each suited to different arenas of social and political life in the twentieth century. In the end, bushidô should be seen as a unique but globalized intellectual asset, arising from Japan but not delimited by it.
November 21, 2013
Colloquium: Terunobu Fujimori's Tearoom Studies
Speaker: Terunobu Fujimori, Architect
Moderator: Dana Buntrock, Architecture, UC Berkeley
About 400 years ago in Japan, chashitsu (茶室, literally "tea rooms"), a rare type of building in the world, was born. Its features include:
1) Unbelievably narrow space -- the smallest example of which measures only 1.8 square meters;
2) A small opening to enter;
3) Windows that allow light into the room, but cannot be used to look outside;
4) A hearth, so you can enjoy tea with boiling water;
5) An abundance of variation in the architectural space despite its size.
You enter this small space for four hours to discuss the arts of paintings, calligraphy, flowers, teacups, kettles, and the taste of the tea, all of which are presented in the room.
There are many mysteries surrounding how these tearooms and their minimalist spaces came about. In this lecture, I will present my own theory, and how it relates to the Renaissance architecture of Europe at the time, as well as introduce examples of my own work on chashitsu.
January 28, 2014
Colloquium: Risks and Tensions in East Asian Security: A Japanese Perspective
Speaker: Yuichi Hosoya, Keio University
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Today, East Asia seems to be one of the most dangerous places in terms of peace and security. The tension between China and Japan in the East China Sea can be easily escalated to a military crash, and historical issues repeatedly freeze friendly bilateral relationships. What went wrong? In this public lecture, risks and tensions in East Asian security will be discussed by a leading expert on Japan’s foreign policy who is a member of two Prime Minister Abe’s advisory panels.
Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
January 30, 2014
Colloquium: Biological Effects of Radiation: Atomic Bombs to Fukushima
Speaker: Tomoko Y. Steen, Georgetown University
Moderator: Junko Habu, Anthropology, UC Berkeley
The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was a sad reminder for the Japanese of their experiences of the biological effects of radiation. At the end of World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered effects from two different types of atomic bombs. Then after the war, a group of Japanese fishermen on a boat were accidentally exposed to the ashes of the hydrogen bomb in Bikini Atoll. Japan’s anti-nuclear views became very strong after this Bikini incident as the details of radiation threats became apparent to the entire Japanese nation.
It took some time for the Japanese government to convince the public that there could be a “peaceful” use of nuclear power. In the 1970s, accompanied by the energy shortage during Japan’s high economic growth period, the public finally agreed to have a nuclear power plants in various parts of the country. Over the years, however, survivors of atomic bombs and others continued to warn the potential danger of nuclear power plants, while others argued that Japan’s strong economy could not be maintained without nuclear power. The talk focuses on biological effects of radiation in detail using existing data while outlining the historical events up to Fukushima.
February 6, 2013
Colloquium: Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts
Speaker: Haruo Shirane, Columbia University
Moderator: H. Mack Horton, EALC, UC Berkeley
Elegant representations of nature and the four seasons populate a wide range of Japanese genres and media -- from poetry and screen painting to tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, and annual observances. In Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shirane shows how, when, and why this practice developed and explicates the richly encoded social, religious, and political meanings of this imagery.
March 8, 2014
Conference: After 3.11: New Architecture + Engineering
Organizer: Dana Buntrock, Architecture, UC Berkeley
The events of 11 March 2011 are among a series of recent disasters affecting urban environments around the world that created new opportunities and new challenges for the professions of architecture and engineering. New ways of thinking about architecture and engineering are fruitful territory for conversation between colleagues in Japan and California.
Our cities are increasingly dense and built upward; those swaying towers sheltered many safely in 2011, but inhabitants felt insecure and building services were inconveniently interrupted. Having solved the initial challenge of making tall structures safer, we are aware that today's technical solutions must be complemented by a greater attention to the ways our work is accepted and integrated into practice and daily life.
We and other researchers on our campuses and in our communities are concentrating on how to develop greater safety in new kinds of structures, on the promotion of "cool roofs" and "cool communities," the use of portable measuring tools to fine-tune responses to local microclimates and site, and the use of simulation in design to develop more energy-efficient buildings. The discomfort many refugees faced in the days after the 2011 earthquake raised questions regarding how people can be sheltered in place for long periods when no utilities are available—no water, gas, or electricity, designing buildings that collect water on a rainy day, that capture wind in summer or that are warmed by the sun in winter. Resilience will allow economic advantages that have value every day, not only in disaster.
Our expertise as architects and engineers is only as effective as our ability to integrate technological tools with an everyday understanding of our built environments. We have much to share across cultures; our approaches and even our use of space in our two countries differs in ways that lead to very distinct approaches to making and using buildings. We propose to discuss how our professions are changing in light of the new awareness that has emerged out of many recent disasters around the world.
Co-sponsors: Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS); Department of Architecture, Institute of East Asian Studies
March 11, 2014
Film: Screening of "Campaign 2" and Q&A with filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda
Speaker: Kazuhiro Soda, Filmmaker
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
In response to the Fukushima disaster, Yama-san is running an election campaign with an anti-nuclear message. But unlike last time, he has no money, no machine, no nothing.
In his previous 2005 by-election depicted in "Campaign", Kazuhiko "Yama-san" Yamauchi was the official candidate of the LDP, headed by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. He won the vacant seat, fully backed by the LDP's political machine. However, for the election in 2007, the LDP did not endorse Yama-san, and backed a different candidate. For the past 4 years, Yama-san has stayed away from politics, living as a "house husband" to raise his newborn son Yuki.
So, this election in 2011 is a come-back attempt by Yama-san after 4 quiet years. But the situation is not so forgiving. The total budget for his campaign is now only 84,720 Japanese Yen (about $850) – all for printing posters and postcards.
Does he even stand a chance?
March 14, 2014
Symposium: Disability Rights and Information Accessibility: Dialogue Between Japan and U.S.
Speakers: Jun Ishikawa, University of Shizuoka; Peter Blanck, Syracuse University; Jim Fruchterman, Benetech
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted by U.N. in 2006, has brought disability rights into the global agenda. U.S.A. and Japan have been taking different paths to the implementation and ratification of the CRPD. While Japan ratified the CRPD in January 2014 after the passage of the Act on Elimination of Disability Discrimination in June 2013, the CRPD ratification remains a political issue in U.S.A, which has a number of civil rights achievements, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Professor Ishikawa Jun of University of Shizuoka will discuss the overall harmonization efforts of Japan towards the implementation of the CRPD, giving particular attention to information accessibility. In addition to being the chair of Disability Policy Committee of the government of Japan, Dr. Ishikawa is a developer of Assistive technologies for blind users and used to chair a non-profit organization working for information accessibility for the blind.
Professor Peter Blanck, University Professor & Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, will talk about U.S. and transnational disability policy and law in regard to Web accessibility for persons across the spectrum of disability. Dr. Blanck’s forthcoming book, entitled “eQuality: The Struggle for Access to the Web” (Cambridge Press, 2014), examines the future of Web Equality under the ADA, the CRPD and other states’ domestic laws.
Jim Fruchterman, social entrepreneur, is founder and CEO of Benetech, a non-profit organization, serving over 250,000 people with print disabilities, will share his insights on information technology and policy development. He has participated in three U.S. federal advisory committees on disability issues, as well as having actively participated in the drafting and negotiations for the Treaty of Marrakesh benefiting people who are blind or print disabled, which was signed by 51 countries in June 2013.
Co-sponsors: Center for Global Studies (University of Shizuoka), Research Center for Ars Vivendi (Ritsumeikan University), IRIS
March 19, 2014
Panel Discussion: Who Controls the Japanese Corporation?: Current Challenges and Future Prospects for Corporate Governance
Speakers: Zen Shishido, Hitotsubashi University; Tetsuyuki Kagaya, Hitotsubashi University; David Makman, Makman & Matz LLP; Steven Vogel, UC Berkeley
Moderator: Anthony Zaloom, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
This workshop will review recent trends in Japanese corporate governance, including policy reforms and market developments. A panel of experts will review the latest developments in corporate law, financial regulation, and accounting rules; analyze the distinctive features of Japanese corporate governance; and discuss emerging trends in corporate performance, board reform, shareholder relations, and mergers and acquisitions. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese corporate governance? Who really controls Japanese companies? Are Japanese managers becoming more responsive to shareholders? Will outside directors improve governance? And will Japan develop a market for corporate control?
April 4-5, 2014
Conference: Reframing 3.11: Cinema, Literature, and Media after Fukushima
Organizer: Dan O’Neill, EALC, UC Berkeley
Since March 11, 2011, images of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident served as markers that generated massive media attention and transformed our understanding of "disaster." The symposium will explore how the cinema, literature and media of post-3/11 Japan reframe the images of disaster in order to create a new type of literacy about survival and precarity. What new vulnerabilities are made legible by the transpositions of historical trauma into the post-3/11 environment? What becomes of communities and individuals in times of catastrophe? What are the framing effects of media on the impact of the 3.11 disasters within and beyond Japan?
As part of the symposium, the Pacific Film Archive (PFA) will be screening the documentary NUCLEAR NATION (2012) on Friday April 4th at 7pm followed by a post-screening discussion with the director Funahashi Atsushi.
On Saturday April 5th (from 9am-6pm) the symposium will commence with panel presentations examining the roles of cinema, literature, and media in organizing information and collective agency, and of the arts, in general, in raising awareness of 3.11 issues related to nuclear energy, survival and sustainability.
Co-sponsors: The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Institute of East Asian Studies, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Pacific Film Archive, and Department of Film and Media, UC Berkeley
April 10, 2014
Colloquium: Japanese “Village Studies”: Occupation-Era Anthropology and the Problem of Modernity
Speaker: Amy Borovoy, Princeton University
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
World War II flooded American universities with government and foundation funds for area studies. The war had served as a wake-up call to American parochialism; there was a pervasive sense that universities, mired in euro-centrism, had failed the U.S. government with a dearth of knowledge about world cultures and languages. The Cold War created a strong imperative to support economic growth throughout the newly decolonized, developing world. American foundations and research councils committed themselves to in-depth study of specific areas and languages in American higher education.
In part because of the American occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952, Japan was imagined as a real-world laboratory for studying the process of modernization. In this paper I explore American occupation-era “village studies” as a moment in which social scientists, in the immediate aftermath of the war, were confronting difficult on-the-ground questions about what modern institutions might look like. These local villages were meant to serve as laboratories for studying the process of democratization and “modernization.” In practice, however, the studies offered a somewhat more complex take on the processes of modernization.
April 16, 2014
Colloquium: Modern Japanese Zen Flirts with the Nenbutsu: The Controversial Teaching of Invoking the Name of the Buddha in Early Meiji Sōtō
Speaker: Dominick Scarangello, Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley
Moderator: Mark Blum, Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley
Today, the Sōtō sect of Zen Buddhism is synonymous with the practice of sitting meditation, or zazen 坐禪, and moreover a particular variety of zazen known as “just sitting” or shikantaza 只管打坐. However, this association was not ineluctable. In fact, during tumultuous years of organizational unification, doctrinal systemization and ritual standardization following the Meiji restoration, the Sōtō sect institutionalized a very different practice for its lay followers: invoking the name of the Buddha.
In this talk I will begin by providing an overview of the establishment and eventual demise of this unlikely and seemingly unbefitting practice. Next, I will sharpen the focus by examining the place of this practice in the teachings of two prominent monks: the iconoclast Sugawa Kōgan 栖川興巌 (1822-89), its greatest defender, and Nishiari Bokuzan 西有穆山 (1821-1910), one of the most eminent clerics in modern Sōtō. In conclusion, I will place developments in Sōtō Zen Buddhism within the broader debates over spiritual assurance (anjin ritsume 安心立命) and peace of mind (anshin 安心) in early modernizing Japan.
April 23, 2014
Colloquium: Inquiry into the growth and decline of the very poor in Japan
Speaker: David-Antoine Malinas, Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Japan is still often described as a relatively egalitarian society with a strong and well-developed middle-class. However, in recent decades, poverty and inequality have become major issues. From a comparative perspective, Japan is far from the only country concerned with a rise in the number of poor and very poor, as many other countries have witnessed a worsening of their social situation especially since the great recession started at the end of 2008.
However, the situation in Japan stands out for one major reason. Though the number of poor people is on the rise (for instance, the unemployed or social welfare receivers), there has actually been a decrease in the number of homeless people. Looking back to the beginning of the Japanese phenomenon of homelessness in the early 90s, this is not the first time that these two figures are not moving simultaneously.
As this paradox contradicts well-established knowledge of social stratification and structure, this presentation will inquire why these two figures have such a distinct relationship. I will examine the origin, evolution and methodology used to count the homeless population in Japan in order to explain this apparent contradiction: more poor, fewer homeless people.
May 2-3, 2014
Conference: Berkeley Japan Studies 2014 Graduate Conference on Ecology and Space
Organizers: Benjamin Bartlett, Political Science; Elizabeth Reade, East Asian Languages and Cultures; Kerry Shannon, History
This conference brings together prominent scholars and graduate students from all disciplines in the field of Japanese Studies to discuss the concepts of ecology and space from pre-modern times to the present. Space here not only connotes the physical, but also how one views one’s position relative to others and to objects in the world. Resisting the objectification of nature as mere symbol or metaphor, the concept of ecology insists on new modes of reading, writing, and thinking about the material environment that connects the human to the organic world. The international dimensions of ecological questions are particularly suited to considering Japan within the broader fabric of the global environment.
Keynote: Literature Without Us: Theorizing the Human in Contemporary Japanese Fiction
Professor Christine Marran, Department of Asian Languages and Literatures, University of Minnesota
Co-sponsor: The Japan Foundation
May 22, 2014
Film: Screening of “Ikyo no naka no Kokyo” and Q&A with filmmaker Keiko Okawa
Speaker: Keiko Okawa, Filmmaker
Organizer: Daniel O’Neill, East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley
Homeland in the Borderland is a powerful and moving portrait of modern-day Taiwan as seen through the eyes of an unlikely "native son": Hideo Levy, an American writer who spent part of his childhood in Taiwan and who now lives in Japan and writes literature in Japanese. The film follows Levy as he returns to Taiwan for the first time in 52 years and goes on an emotional search for his childhood home, which now exists only in his memories. Levy is accompanied by his protégée, Yūjū On (Youren Wen), a Taiwanese writer who also lives in Japan and writes literature in Japanese. The film thus traces Levy's and On's double journey "home" to Taiwan, a place that is both hauntingly familiar and yet strangely foreign to them. It is an "imaginary homeland," as Salman Rushdie has put it. Following in the footsteps of other recent Japanese documentaries such as Shinji Aoyama's Roji e: Nakagami Kenji no nokoshita firumu (To the Alley: The Film Nakagami Kenji Left Behind, 2000) and Makoto Satō's Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said (2005), Ōkawa's film is an attempt to retrace the roots of Levy's writing and recover a lost identity or a forgotten history. Interweaving interviews, photographs, and passages from Levy's works, it creates a vivid memoryscape of Taiwan in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Of course, that Taiwan is now largely a thing of the past, but it is precisely this gap between Levy's memories of Taiwan and what he actually finds (or does not find) there that makes Ōkawa's film so interesting and evocative. Like the paradoxical "model village" (mofanxiang) where Levy used to live in Taichung, this film is more about longing for a lost home or an ideal home than about finding a real home. In this sense, it brilliantly captures the dilemma of being a diasporic subject, of always being "home away from home."
Supported/Co-sponsored
October 1, 2013
ARCH Lecture Series: Kengo Kuma
Speakers: Kengo Kuma, Architect
Organizer: College of Environmental Design
Co-sponsor: MUJI
October 28, 2013
Symposium: Overcoming the Asia Paradox: Key Issues Hindering Further Integration in East Asia and Korea's Role
Speakers: Daniel Sneider, Stanford University; Tai Ming Cheung, UC San Diego; Kathleen Stephens, Stanford University
Moderator: T.J. Pempel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Center for Korean Studies
Co-sponsors: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
December 2, 2013
Colloquium: The Emerging Needs for Management Science in Nuclear Engineering – A View on Lessons Learned from the F-1 Accident
Speaker: Atsuyuki Suzuki, University of Tokyo
Organizer: Joonhong Ahn, Department of Nuclear Engineering
January 10, 2014
Colloquium: Film Exhibition Culture in Osaka, 1896-1926: The Cultural Geography of Movie Theaters
Speaker: Keiko Sasagawa, Kansai University
Organizer: C. V. Starr East Asian Library
February 4, 2014
Lecture: AKB48 and Girls' Generation: The Differential Trajectories of the Culture Industry Japan and South Korea
Speaker: John Lie, Sociology, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Center for Korean Studies
Co-sponsor: Institute of East Asian Studies
February 13, 2014
Lecture: Embodying the Ceramic Vessel in Sixteenth-Century Japanese Tea Culture
Speaker: Andrew Watsky, Princeton University
Organizer: Gregory Levine, History of Art Department, UC Berkeley
February 14, 2014
Colloquium: Colonial Modernity, Sonic Mediation, and Musical (Dis)Connections in the Japanese Empire: On the Phonographic Turn in East Asian History
Speaker: Yamauchi Fumitaka, National Taiwan University
Organizer: Center for Korean Studies
Co-sponsors: Center for Chinese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
February 26, 2014
Panel Discussion: Pacific Rim or Pacific Garbage Patch?: The Ocean and Ecological Crisis in the Post-3/11 World
Speakers: Wu Ming-yi, National Dong Hwa University; Eric Hartge, Center for Ocean Solutions; Harry N. Scheiber, School of Law, UC Berkeley
Moderator: David Roland-Holst, Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Center for Chinese Studies
March 17, 2014
Lecture: Expanding Networks of Cooperation in East Asia
Speaker: T.J. Pempel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Moderator Taeku Lee, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Institute of East Asian Studies
Co-sponsors: Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Korean Studies
April 8, 2014
Lecture: Monitoring Occupant Comfort and Energy Consumption of Refugee Housing in Tsunami-Stricken Japan
Speaker: Susan Ubbelohde, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Moderator Lan-chih Po, EALC, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Institute of East Asian Studies
April 15, 2014
Lecture: Travel Writing and Japanese Modernism
Speaker: Dan O’Neill, EALC, UC Berkeley
Moderator Susan Ubbelohde, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Organizer: Institute of East Asian Studies
May 21, 2014
Film: Hafu: a film about the experiences of mixed-Japanese living in Japan
Speakers: Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi, Directors and Producers
Organizer: Japan Society of Northern California