Ruth Benedict's Legacy of Shame: Orientalism and Occidentalism in the Study of Japan

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lie
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
English Language ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Critical Literature

AbstractRuth F. Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) remains perhaps the most influential English-language book on contemporary Japanese society and culture. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword has generated a large critical literature and has sold over 1.4 million copies in Japan. It would not be an exaggeration to state that Benedict's book framed both American and Japanese - and, by extension, global - perceptions of Japan since the end of World War II. In this paper, I explore why her work found such resonance among the Japanese themselves to the extent that The Chrysanthemum and the Sword became something of an ur-text of the post-World War II Japanese discourse on the Japanese and on Japanese culture (Nihonjinron or Nihonbunkaron).

Machina ex homine, homo ex machina

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio I. M. Poppi
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
Conceptual Representation ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Deviance ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Social

Abstract In this article, I identify and describe multimodal hybrid metaphors—the conceptual representation of two elements represented as merged into a new single ‘gestalt’—represented by the machine and human body domains in “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” (鉄男: Tetsuo), a Japanese avant-garde film. Since “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” portrays the genesis of a man whose body becomes a human-machine hybrid, I explore to what extent this film can act as an example of how hybrid metaphors are conveyed. In line with the ideological function of metaphors, where the use of alternative metaphors may produce different meanings and potentially have different effects on the recipient, I also try to interpret how these hybrid metaphors reveal information about the contemporary Japanese society. Specifically, the ideological analysis considers how the notion of ‘artificial’ and the social phenomena of misogyny, homophobia and social deviance are held to characterise the post-World War II Japanese culture.

scholarly journals Agriculture and Law in Japanese Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-24
Author(s):  
Shinji Shimogaki
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii

This study analyzes the changes in farmland system in Japan. The main policy of post-World War II Japan was regulation of the transfer lease or ownership of farmland, and the conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural land considering the importance of farmlands. Paradoxically, this policy created some problems, such subdivision of farmland and ownerless lands. To address these problems, the Farmland Intermediary Management Institution was established in 2014 to accelerate farmland concentration and intensify the power of core farmers. In 2016, The Agricultural Land Act was reformed to make it easier for stock companies to own farmland. And, ICT has enabled us to visualize and verbalize tacit knowledge. This study explores the outcomes of these reforms and other unanswered issues.

scholarly journals POSTWAR JAPANESE ADOPTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE IN LYNNE KUTSUKAKE’S THE TRANSLATION OF LOVE: A POSTCOLONIAL APPROACH

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Bhakti Satrio Nugroho ◽  
Muh. Arif Rokhman
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Japanese Society ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
Japanese People ◽  
Postwar Japan ◽  
Transnational American Studies ◽  
Moral Crisis

This paper discusses postwar Japanese adoption of American culture in a debut novel by Lynne Kutsukake entitled The Translation of Love. This novel is set during the U.S. occupation of Japan after the end of World War II. Postwar Japanese are forced to live under American power, while undergoing an economic, social, and moral crisis (kyodatsu). By using postcolonial perspective under Transnational American Studies, this paper finds the adoption of American culture by postwar Japanese characters in the novel, which come from various social backgrounds, including schoolteachers, schoolchildren, bar girls, and prostitutes. The adoption of American culture includes language (English), Western dating (lifestyle), custom, and fashion. This cultural adoption can be defined as the construction of new Japanese society built under American influence to be more “American-oriented”. Moreover, it further implies the devaluation of Japanese culture, the humiliation of postwar Japanese people, and the birth of Japanese cultural dependency toward American culture.Keywords: American culture; postcolonial; postwar Japan; transnational; U.S. occupation

scholarly journals BEHIND THE IDEOLOGY SHIFT: COMPARISON BETWEEN OLD AND NEW INDONESIAN TRANSLATIONS OF DORAEMON MANGA SERIES

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andika Wijaya ◽  
Dias R. Salim
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Japanese Culture ◽  
World War ◽  
Source Text ◽  
Post World War Ii

Different versions of translations of the same source text can be published and republished by the same publisher over the span of years. The differences between the two translated versions can reflect the changing attitude and translation ideology of the commission. This paper examines and discusses the differences between two Indonesian translations of Doraemon manga series commissioned and published by Elex Media Komputindo in the early 1990s and the early 2010s. The study investigates whether there is any translation ideology shift over a two decades-period and whether the ideology adopted in the two translations implies any sociocultural or sociohistorical information. To that purpose, the study focuses on comparing the translations of cultural-specific items (CSIs) in both versions. The findings show that in some cases, the two translations employ different strategies to translate CSIs, with the older translations (OT) tend to adopt domestication ideology to some extent, and the newer translations (NT) almost consistently adopt foreignization ideology. While the shift to foreignization in the NT may reflect the shift of attitude and perspective of Indonesians towards Japanese culture post-World War II era, the domestication adopted by the OT can give a small glimpse of Indonesian sociocultural conditions in the early 1990s.

THE ROLE AND ROLE OF OIL POLICY IN SAUDI ARABIA IN POST WORLD WAR II ECONOMIC LIFE

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Maftuna Sanoqulova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oil Policy

This article consists of the politics which connected with oil in Saudi Arabia after the World war II , the relations of economical cooperations on this matter and the place of oil in the history of world economics

Dynamics of Immigration: From Humanitarianism to Securitization

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reumah Suhail
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Immigration Policies ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
Immigration Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Selection Of

The paper addresses the different aspects of the politics of immigration, the underlying factors that motivate, force or pressurize people to move from their country of origin to new abodes in foreign nations. In the introduction the paper discusses different theories playing their due role in the immigration process, namely Realism and Constructivism. The paper examines the history of immigration and post-World War II resettlement followed by an analysis of how immigration policies are now centered towards securitization as opposed to humanitarianism after 9/11, within the scenario of globalization. Muslim migrant issues and more stringent immigration policies are also weighed in on, followed by a look at immigration in regions which are not hotspot settlement destinations. Lastly an analysis is presented about the selection of a host country a person opts for when contemplating relocation; a new concept is also discussed and determined whereby an individual can opt for “citizenship by investment” and if such a plan is an accepted means of taking on a new nationality.

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