Confessions of a Diplomatic Interpreter
Cornelius Iida, Simultaneous Interpreter
January 20, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, East Asian Languages and Cultures
An Analytical Approach to the Moral Economy of the Late Tokugawa Rural Society
Mario Oshima, Economics, Osaka City University
January 27, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies
As is in English social history or Southeast Asian studies, the concept of moral economy is employed also in Japanese late Tokugawa and early Meiji history and has built a fruitful research trend. In this talk, Oshima analyzes the social mechanism of the moral economy, a point largely unexplored so far, through a case study of one village based on komonjo document.
Japanese Polysemous Verb Yaru: Change of Location, Change of Possession and Their Extensions
Masanobu Ueda, CJS Visiting Scholar, Linguistics, Fukuoka Jogakuin University Jr. College
January 30, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies
The Japanese verb yaru has a wide range of senses, from caused change of location, i.e., "to cause something/someone to go away", as in Taroo-wa mukoo-ni isu-o yatta "Taroo moved the chair away"; to change of possession, i.e., "to give something to someone equal or inferior in status", as in Taroo-wa musume-ni kozukai-o yatta "Taroo gave his daughter an allowance"; to intended action, i.e., "to do something", as in Taroo-wa syukudai-o yatta "Taroo did his homework". Though some Japanese linguists have shown a relationship between these senses, using a term such as tenzi-te "as a result of a semantic shift", within the framework of the traditional descriptive linguistics, some important questions remained unanswered in their analyses. What motivation is there behind semantic shifts? If two or more senses are somehow related, in what way are they related? And in what way are they different? The objective of this talk is to carefully examine each use of yaru (and other semantically related verbs for comparison), and provide an overall picture of the verb's semantic structures. If time permits, the speaker will discuss the nature of change of possession, and address some issues concerning the -te yaru construction.
Myths and Realities of Wage Reform: Evaluating "Pay for Performance" in the Japanese Firm
Tsuyoshi Tsuru, Economics, Hitotsubashi University
February 6, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, IIS
Since the mid-1990s, many Japanese firms have implemented various personnel reforms to cope with long-standing economic stagnation and to induce greater work effort. It has been recognized that one of the major problems with Japan's HR system is that it puts too much emphasis on potential job ability and seniority. The solution proposed has been pay for performance. However, what does pay for performance mean in the context of the Japanese HR system? What effect does pay for performance have on intra-firm wage structure and on individuals' work effort? This presentation examines the processes and outcomes of the wage reforms in Japanese firms, using unique sets of personnel data and questionnaire survey results.
Yoshinokuzu's Fort-Da Games
Marghereta Long, Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages, UC Riverside
February 10, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies
Tanizaki Ju'ichirô's 1930 novel Yoshinokuzu traces the genealogy both of the main character's mother, and of the Japanese imperial family. Leftist critics Watanabe Naomi and Komori Yôichi have recently followed outcast writer Nakagami Kenji to argue that the mother in Yoshinokuzu is a member of the Buraku class, and the novel a political masterpiece that shows how the Emperor System is founded in her abjection. This paper proposes that Yoshinokuzu is invested not in exposing abjection, but in overcoming it through an alternate version of mother-as-origin. Evidence comes from the novel's children's games, which I contrast to Freud's Fort-Da game from Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
Japan and China: Toward a Better Understanding
Akira Chiba, Assistant Press Secretary/Director of International Press Division, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs
February 16, 2006
Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
Discussant: T.J. Pempel, Professor, Political Science, UC Berkeley
Japanese Architecture Series — Hitoshi Abe: The Elephant and The Architecture
Hitoshi Abe, Architect, Professor at Tohoku University
February 22, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Architecture
Hitoshi Abe maintains is known for work that is spatially complex and structurally innovative, including the 1996 Yomiuri Media Miyagi Guest House, 2000 Miyagi Stadium, and the 2005 Comptoir Aobatei. Winner of the Architects Institute of Japan Award and Business Week/ Architectural Record Award in 2003, Abe is one of the most promising young architects in Japan today.
The 13th Annual Bakai
February 24, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies
1:50–2:00: Opening Remarks: Alan Tansman
2:00–2:20: "The Inward and the Outward Man" Elisheva Perelman
2:20–2:40: "The Role of Zaibatsu on Industrialization in Meiji Japan, 1868-1912" John Tang
2:40–3:00: "Casualities of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina, and the Asian Tsunami" Peter Feng
3:00–3:20: "Changing Family Structures of Nepalese Transmigrants in Japan: Split-Households and Dual-Wage Earners" Keiko Yamanaka
3:20–3:40: "Japanese Girls' Negotiations with the Norms of Gender and Language at the Crossroads of Japanese Gakkyuu" Ayumi Miyazaki
3:40–4:00: "Introducing Japanese Historical Text Initiative" Yuko Okubo
4:00–4:15: Coffee Break
4:15–5:30: Panel on: Construction of the Japanese Periphery in Time and Space
4:15: "Sugar, Economy, and Identity in Prewar Okinawa" Luke Franks
4:30: "Between Science and Mythology: Competing Narratives of Place" John Ertl
4:45: "Invention of the Region: 'Culture Industry' in Modern Time — Vanishing/Illuminating 'Exotic' Local Identity" Kensuke Sumii
5:00: "Okinawan Diasporic Identities: Between Being a Buffer and a Bridge" Wesley Iwao Ueunten
5:15: Nelson Graburn, Discussant
5:30–6:00: Q&A and Comments
Reconsidering Nonprofit Human Service Organizations in Japanese Civil Society: Their Structure and Characteristics
Gen Miyagaki, CJS Visiting Scholar, Sociology, Konan University
March 3, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies
Architecture is More
Mark Dytham, Architect, Klein Dytham, Tokyo, Japan
March 8, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Architecture
Electrifying European architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham have been based in Tokyo, Japan, for nearly twenty years. Their earlier work with interactive construction fences and sinuous furnishings has yielded to an unusual and eclectic architectural practice, best known for their 2002 Bloomberg Ice and their extremely popular 2004 Leaf Chapel.
Women and Poetry in 20th Century Japan: Ishigaki Rin (1920-2004)
Janine Beichman, Japanese Literature, Daito Bunka University
March 20, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, EALC
In Japan, the 20th century renaissance of poetry by women is associated most closely with Yosano Akiko, who first came to prominence at the turn of the century. But there was another renaissance, part of the general flowering of culture that characterized the immediate post-World War II period, and Ishigaki Rin was one of the poets who found her strength then. By the time she died two years ago, Ishigaki, in spite of a relatively small output, was recognized as one of the giants of contemporary Japanese poetry. I will focus on Ishigaki Rin's poetry, reading it aloud in translation and in Japanese, with excursions as appropriate into historical context, Ishigaki's poetics, and various problems of translation. The objective is to convey Ishigaki's compelling voice in English.
Japanese Proletarian Cultural Production: Japanese Inflection of Global Proletarian Cultural Production in the First Decades of the 20th Century
April 5, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, EALC
Presentations:
The Japanese Empire, Internationalism, and Proletarian Arts (Heather Bowen-Struyk)
From Proletarian Realism to the Realism of Empire: Liberated Abjects and Laboring Subjects (Mark Driscoll)
In the Tracks of Kobayashi Takiji, Forgotten/Cherished Martyr (Norma Field)
Proletarian Home Movies (Abe Markus Nornes)
Respondents: Edward Fowler (UC Irvine), Jonathan Hunt (Stanford University)
Contemporary Issues in Japanese Education and Society
April 8, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, International & Area Studies, Center for East Asian Studies, Stanford University
Haruhiko Kanagae, Senshu University
Taeyoung Kim, Fukuoka University of Education
Yoshiro Nabeshima, Research Center for Human Rights, Osaka City University
Mamoru Tsukada, Sugiyama University
Hidenori Fujita, International Christian University
Manabu Sato, Tokyo University
Akira Sakai, Ochanomizu University
Takehiko Kariya, Tokyo University
Naomi Noiri, University of Ryukyus
Saori Kunoshi, University of Ryukyus
'Fictionalizing' Indigenous Mourning: Taiwanese Funerals under Japanese Imperialization
Huei-chu Chu, CJS Visiting Scholar, Social Science, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts, Naha
April 10, 2006
Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies
The author discusses representations of indigenous practices of mourning in three Japanese-language fictions in the historical context of assimilative Japanese imperialization in colonial Taiwan during the period 1937-1945. Paying particular attention to how divergent observing positions function in the "othering" process, the author deal with these "ethnographic fictions as a site where colonial contact, imperial policy, and "in-between" subject position interpenetrate.
Prostitutes and Painters: Japanese Migrants and Settlers in Shanghai from the 1860s
Joshua Fogel, Professor, History, York University
April 14, 2006
Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies
When the Japanese began traveling abroad in the early 1860s, after over two centuries of minimal contact with the outside world, they gravitated to China both because they didn't know how to sail ships long distances and because China was not completely terra incognita. Also, all their potential trading partners had been working out of Shanghai for some years by this point, and one could find all those Western countries represented in microcosm in Shanghai. Among the first Japanese to actually settle in Shanghai, the first groups were, perhaps oddly but certainly interestingly, prostitutes and painters. This talk will examine the forces motivating the migration of these two groups.
Discussant: Wen-hsin Yeh, Professor, History, UC Berkeley
Symposium: Archaeology and Japanese Identity
April 14, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology
Clare Fawcett (Anthropology, St. Francis Xavier University) — Archaeology and Japanese Identity: An Overview
Fumiko Ikawa-Smith (McGill University) — The Origins of the Japanese People: Single, Dual or Multiple?
Harumi Befu (Cultural Anthropology, Kyoto Bunkyo University/Anthropology, Stanford University) — Japanese archaeology in the Context of Nihonjin-ron
Junko Habu (UC Berkeley) — Jomon Archaeology, Residents: A Case Study from Sannai Maruyama
This panel attempts to examine the implications of archaeological studies on our understanding of Japanese identity. Four anthropologists will discuss multiple aspects of recent debates on Japanese identity and archaeology in relation to changing sociopolitical environment in Japan. Topics to be covered include archaeology and nationalism, discussion of /nihonjin-ron/(popular discourses on the uniqueness of the Japanese people), physical anthropological studies of prehistoric skeletal remains, Jomon period archaeology, and the dynamic interaction between archaeologists, local residents and the mass media.
Japanese Architecture Series — Takaharu Tezuka & Yui Tezuka: Roof-Less Architecture
Takaharu Tezuka, Architect
Yui Tezuka, Architect
April 18, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Architecture
Takaharu and Yui Tezuka won the 2005 Architects Institute of Japan Award for their Corten-clad Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum of Natural Science and the 2003 Architects Institute of Japan Award for Roof House, featuring a low-slope residential roof accommodating dining, outdoor showers, and all aspects of daily living. The office is best known for rethinking architectural convention with innovative results.
Mount Fuji: Hidden in Plain Sight
Christine Guth, Independent Scholar
April 19, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies
Mount Fuji is a familiar sight in Japan whose myriad representations have made it more familiar still. This talk addresses the problems and possibilities of this icon's excessive familiarity.
Christine Guth is an independent scholar whose research focuses on the reception of Japanese art, past and present, within Japan and abroad. She is currently writing a book about how Hokusai's "Great Wave" became a global icon.
This program is organized in conjunction with Hideo Hagiwara — Mount Fuji Woodblock Prints.
After Orientalism: Working Across Disciplines
April 22, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Department of English
Presentations:
10:00–11:30 — Right to Kill, Right to Make Live: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans in WWII (Tak Fujitani)
11:30–1:00 — To Heal a Chinese Mandarin: The Moral Implications of Distance (Eric Hayot)
1:00–2:00 — Lunch Break
2:00–3:30 — Tangible Objects: Materiality in South Vietnamese and Diasporic Writings (Thu-huong Nguyen-Vo)
3:30–5:00 — To Be (or Not to Be) the Poet: Maxine Hong Kingston and the Cultural Politics of Verse in Asian American Literature (Steven Yao)
Can China Prevent the "Japan Disease": Reform of the RMB and Macreconomic Policy
Kajitani Kai, Associate Professor, Economics, Kobegakuin University
April 26, 2006
Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies
Choking to Death in the 'Clean, Bright Metropolis': New Wave Dissension in 1960s Japan
Michael Raine, East Asian Languages & Civilizations, University of Chicago
May 8, 2006
Center for Japanese Studies, Film Studies Program