Why do Marxian Social Sciences Survive in Japan?
Conference/Symposium
Speakers:
• Hiroshi Onishi, Keio University
• Kazuyasu Miyata, Hokkaido University of Education
• Akio Kamitani, Visiting Scholar of CJS, Sapporo Gakuin University
Moderator: Andrew Barshay, UC Berkeley
Date: September 4, 2013 | 4:30 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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While the study of Marxian social sciences has been retracted in economics departments in universities worldwide, it still remains an important discipline.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.
Moderated by Andrew Barshay, Professor, Department of History, UC Berkeley
Speaker 1: Hiroshi Onishi (大西広), Keio University, 'Still Powerful Japanese Marxian Economics — its base and development'
Speaker 2: Kazuyasu Miyata (宮田和保), Hokkaido University of Education, 'The difference in methodology between Marxian and neo classical economics'
Speaker 3 and coordinator: Akio Kamitani (神谷章生), Visiting Scholar of CJS, Sapporo Gakuin University,'The formation of the public organizational base of the independence type Communist Party'
Monkey Business: New Voices from Japan
Panel Discussion
Speakers:
• Masatsugu Ono
• Yoko Hayasuke
• Roland Kelts
• Ted Goossen
• Motoyuki Shibata
Date: September 6, 2013 | 1:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsors: Center for Japanese Studies, The Japan Foundation, The Nippon Foundation
Two 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.
Masatsugu Ono (b. 1970) launched his career by writing about a mythical fishing village in southern Japan. Since then his scope has widened considerably, as he writes about Japan, France, and countries created by his imagination. He has published seven books of fiction and two books of essays. He is a recipient of the Asahi New Writer's Award and the Mishima Yukio Award, and has been short-listed three times for the Akutagawa Prize. He teaches French at Meiji Gakuin University.
Yoko Hayasuke (b. 1982) made her debut with the story "John," in the 12th issue of the Japanese Monkey Business. The English translation appeared in the 2nd issue of the English Monkey. "Eri‑chan's Physics" appeared in the 14th issue of the Japanese MB, and her stories have appeared in various literary journals including Waseda Bungaku, Subaru and Bungei.
Peter Orner (b. 1968) is the author of two novels — The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo and Love and Shame and Love — two collections of short stories and two works of nonfiction. His latest story collection is Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge. His first book, Esther Stories, has just been reissued with an introduction by Marilynne Robinson. Orner is the recipient of many prizes and fellowships. He teaches at San Francisco State University.
Roland Kelts is author of the best-selling Japanamerica, and his articles, essays and stories have been published in The New Yorker, Time, Zoetrope: All Story, The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal, A Public Space, Newsday, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Yomiuri and The Japan Times among others. He has taught at a number of universities including New York University, Rutgers University and the University of Tokyo.
Ted Goossen (b. 1948) teaches Japanese literature and film at York University in Toronto and co-edits the English version of Monkey Business with Shibata. He is the general editor of The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories and has published translations of stories and essays by Hiromi Kawakami, Haruki Murakami, Yôko Ogawa, Sachiko Kishimoto, and Naoya Shiga, among others.
Motoyuki Shibata (b. 1954) teaches American literature and literary translation at the University of Tokyo. He received the 1992 Kodansha Essay Award for his book The Half-Hearted Scholar, and was the winner of the 27th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for American Narcissus. Among others, he has translated Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon, Rebecca Brown, Stuart Dybek, Kelly Link, Steven Millhauser, Richard Powers, Charles Simic, and Barry Yourgrau.
3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan
Colloquium
Speaker: Richard J. Samuels, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: September 12, 2013 | 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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.
Obento: Japanese Culture in a Box
Workshop
Speaker: Debra Samuels, Cookbook Author
Date: September 14, 2013 | 11:00 a.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
"Food is an international language, a bridge across cultures. My objective is to educate, entertain and encourage people of all ages to be creative and to care about its preparation and presentation."
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.
Samuels has been working with children and families for over twenty-five years. She is co-author with Taekyung Chung of The Korean Table (Tuttle Publishing, 2008), and author My Japanese Table: A Lifetime of Cooking with Friends and Family (Tuttle Publishing, 2011). She has lived abroad for more than a decade in Japan and Italy, where she studied Italian, Indian, Korean, and Japanese cuisine.
How to Live as a Full-time Writer in Japan
Colloquium
Speaker/Performer: Toh Enjoe
Date: September 17, 2013 | 4:30 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
In this colloquium, award-winning author Toh Enjoe will explain 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."
Author Toh Enjoe was born in 1972 in Sapporo, Japan. He studied physics at Tohoku University, and went to receive Ph.D. for a mathematical physical study on the natural languages from the University of Tokyo. After working both in academia and the private sector, he's now a full-time writer whose works include Self-Reference ENGINE, Of the Baseball, and Moonshine. In 2010 he won the Noma Prize for New Writers for Uyushitan [烏有此譚], the Akutagawa Prize for Harlequin's Butterfly [道化師の蝶], and the Nihon SF Taisho award in 2012 and the Seiun Award in 2013 for his collaboration on The Empire of Corpses [屍者の帝国], the unfinished novel of his colleague Project Itoh [伊藤 計劃], who passed away in 2009.
Talk will be given in Japanese, with English translation by Beth Cary.
Contemporary Japanese Politics: Institutional Changes and Power Shifts
Colloquium
Speaker: Tomohito Shinoda, Professor, International University of Japan
Date: September 24, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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.
Tomohito Shinoda is professor of international relations at the International University of Japan and received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. His publications include Koizumi Diplomacy: Japan's Kantei Approach in Foreign and Defense Affairs and Leading Japan: The Role of the Prime Minister.
ARCH Lecture Series: Kengo Kuma
Lecture
Speaker: Kengo Kuma, Principal, Kengo Kuma & Associates
Date: October 1, 2013 | 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Location: Wheeler Auditorium
Sponsors: College of Environmental Design, Center for Japanese Studies
Kengo Kuma's architecture draws on ancient Japanese traditions as well as today's international and innovative technologies. His use of materials might include paper and straw in small countryside villages, or experimental silicon skins in the city. Either way, it is important to him that his architecture be sensual, delighting the eye and inviting our touch. All of this may be out of step with what most architects are doing today, but perhaps that is exactly what makes Kuma such an exciting architect.
This event is co-sponsored by Muji, and is part of the Fall 2013 Lecture Series at the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley. For other lectures in the series, see: http:// ced.berkeley.edu/ events-media/ lecture-series/.
Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan — and Japan to the West
Colloquium
Speaker: Frederik L. Schodt
Date: October 2, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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 fasci¬nating lost-but-recently-uncovered history. In a presentation heavily illustrated with photographs and drawings, 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.
Frederik L. Schodt is a writer, translator, and conference interpreter based in the San Francisco area. He specializes in currents of thought flowing between Japan and North America, and has written extensively on popular culture, technology, and history. He has won numerous awards, including, in 2009, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, for his work. In 2013, his book, Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe, won the Circus Historical Society's Stuart Thayer Prize.
Links to:
Gutai's Phase Zero: When Pollock came to Osaka
Colloquium
Speaker: Reiko Tomii, Art Historian and Curator
Date: October 8, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.
Location: 370 Dwinelle Hall
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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 Jiro'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.
Reiko Tomii is an independent art historian and curator, who investigates post-1945 Japanese art in global and local contexts. Long based in New York, she received her master's degree from Osaka University and her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.
Imagined Borders, Deadly Threats: Where the South and East China Sea Crisis is Heading
Panel Discussion
Date: October 18, 2013 | 3:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsors: Institute of East Asian Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Korean Studies, Center for Japanese Studies, Asia Society of Northern California
The South and East China seas continue to be a site of at best negotiation and at worst belligerence. Since 2010 territorial disputes over such areas as the the Senkaku/Diaoyu island group have intensified, raising anxieties over destabilized international relations across the region in both Asia and the US. A panel of experts revisit the crisis in the region, followed by discussions with UC Berkeley faculty analyzing the evolving situation and the role of the US in the wake of its "pivot to Asia."
Speakers:
-
- Ralf Emmers, Associate Professor, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- Kuan‑Hsiung (Dustin) Wang, Professor, Political Science, National Taiwan Normal University
- Tara Davenport, Fulbright Scholar, Yale University and National University of Singapore
- Greg Poling, Research Associate, Southeast Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Discussants:
-
- T.J. Pempel, Political Science, UC Berkeley (Moderator)
- Lowell Dittmer, Political Science, UC Berkeley
- Daniel Sargent, History, UC Berkeley
Abstracts:
Ralf Emmers
"The US Rebalance to Asia and the South China Sea Dispute"
The United States calls itself a "resident Pacific power." US President Barack Obama has in recent years reinvigorated American strategic influence in the region through a pivot or rebalance to Asia. This talk assesses how and the extent to which the US rebalancing has impacted the South China Sea disputes. The South China Sea is at the center of competing territorial, economic, and strategic interests. The issue is complicated by the number of disputants. While the claimants to the Paracel Islands are the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and Vietnam, six states assert ownership over the Spratly Islands and/or their surrounding waters, namely, Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The presentation first examines the origins and main characteristics of the US rebalancing to Asia before describing the traditional American position on the sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea. It argues that the United States has not taken sides in the disputes and has restricted its interest to the preservation of the freedom of navigation. It then discusses whether and to what extent Washington has changed its position in recent years in response to renewed Chinese assertiveness in the disputed waters. It also reviews regional responses to the US involvement and concludes by assessing its impact on the peaceful management of the South China Sea disputes.
Dustin Kuan‑Hsiung Wang
"China's Marine Policy on Asserting Sovereignty over Islands in East and South China Seas: Legal and Political Perspectives"
Observing from the heated developments over the Diaoyutai Islands in the East China Sea with Japan and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea with the Philippines and Vietnam, it is a common criticism what China has done in enhancing its maritime claims is through coercion and intimidation towards its neighbours. Is it really so? Also, what kind of policy tools that China operates to express its determination in maintaining sovereignty over those islands?
Tara Davenport
"The Philippines' Arbitral Proceedings Against China on the South China Sea Disputes: Latest Developments and Legal Implications"
Sabre-rattling and confrontations at sea. Claim and counter-claim. Protest and counter-protest. Undoubtedly, the South China Sea has been the stage of one of the most complex international disputes in recent years. The sovereignty dispute between multiple state actors over small offshore features in the South China Sea and the accompanying claims to maritime resources surrounding such features have long been a flashpoint for tension in the region. The technical and legal questions are complicated enough but coupled with the competing threads of nationalism, history and big power geopolitics that are inherent in the South China Sea disputes, a long-term solution does not appear to be in sight.
In 2012, in an unprecedented move that took the international community by surprise, the Philippines initiated arbitral proceedings against China under Annex VII of UNCLOS over the latter's claims in the South China Sea, including the validity of China's u-shaped line. Opinion is divided on whether the Philippines' course of action will move the disputes towards a peaceful resolution or whether it will exacerbate an already precarious situation. In this regard, the Seminar will give an overview of the Philippines-China arbitral proceedings and will outline the latest developments. It will then explore possible outcomes of the arbitral proceedings and discuss the legal and political implications of each of these outcomes.
Greg Poling
"The South China Sea in Focus: Clarifying the Limits of Maritime Dispute"
Satellite imagery and geospatial analysis tools offer an unprecedented opportunity to harness new technologies in order to help resolve boundary disputes. In The South China Sea in Focus: Clarifying the Limits of Maritime Dispute, Gregory Poling uses these tools to provide a first and necessary step toward tackling the overlapping maritime disputes in the South China Sea: determining which waters are and are not in dispute under international law. Mr. Poling uses geographic information system (GIS)–based maps to provide an easily understandable benchmark against which policymakers and academics can judge the claims and actions of the South China Sea claimants. Only if the parties to the dispute are willing to clarify their sovereignty claims and agree on what is legally in dispute will they be able to effectively manage tensions and agree to joint development in the region.
Sôgi Contra Shinkei: The Aesthetics of Deference
Colloquium
Speaker: Steven Carter, Professor, Stanford University
Date: November 6, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.
Location: 3335 Dwinelle Hall
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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.
Steve Carter is Yamato Ichihashi Professor in Japanese History and Civilization at Stanford University. He received his PhD in the Department of Oriental Languages at UC Berkeley in 1980. Before coming to Stanford, he taught at UCLA, Brigham Young University, and the University of California, Irvine. He is author of "The Columbia Anthology of the Japanese Essay" (forthcoming), Haiku Before Haiku: From the Renga Masters to Bashô, Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History, Unforgotten Dreams: Poems by the Zen Monk Shôtetsu,and several other books.
Beyond the Samurai: Bushido as Politics, Philosophy, and Ideology
Colloquium
Speaker: Chris Goto‑Jones, Professor, Comparative Philosophy and Political Thought, Leiden University
Date: November 8, 2013 | 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Location: 3335 Dwinelle Hall
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
Few images of Japan are more intoxicating than that of the honourable 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.
Chris Goto‑Jones (BA, MA, Cambridge; MPhil, DPhil, Oxford) is Professor of Comparative Philosophy & Political Thought at Leiden University, where he is also the dean of Leiden University College in The Hague. Recent work includes, Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School and Co-Prosperity (New York: Routledge, 2005), (ed.) Re-Politicizing the Kyoto School as Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2008), and A Very Short Introduction to Modern Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). He is presently completing a book for Cambridge University Press, "Beyond the Samurai: Bushidô as Politics, Philosophy, and Ideology" (2013).
Terunobu Fujimori's Tearoom Studies
Colloquium
Speaker: Terunobu Fujimori, Architect; Architectural Historian
Date: November 21, 2013 | 4:00 p.m.
Location: Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton, 6th Floor)
Sponsor: Center for Japanese Studies
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:
- Unbelievably narrow space — the smallest example of which measures only 1.8 square meters;
- A small opening to enter;
- Windows that allow light into the room, but cannot be used to look outside;
- A hearth, so you can enjoy tea with boiling water;
- 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.
The sophisticated buildings of Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori (born 1946) combine the archaic, eccentric, poetic and the ecological — almost all of them are made of simple, traditional materials such as earth, stone, wood, coal, bark and mortar. Often referred to as a "surrealist" architect, Fujimori designs buildings that stand on stilts, rest in trees, support plant ecosystems and rise from the ground at vertiginous angles.
Talk will be given in Japanese, with English translation by Beth Cary.