Foreign Otherness in Japanese Media. Exploring the Japanese self through the images of Latin America

Foreign Otherness in Japanese Media analyzes contemporary Japanese society by examining the ways in which Japanese media portrays Latin America and therefore how Japanese readers construct their idea of it. Offering a detailed methodology and results from field research, and based on concepts such as otherness, cultivation analysis and the theory of the autopoietic social system as a framework, this book considers the impact of mass media on the construction of non-dominant foreign cultural subjectivities in Japan, and explores the dynamics of otherness in the country. As such, it is apt for scholars in Japanese studies, media studies, and anyone interested in the interaction between foreigners or Latin Americans and Japan, or in relations between mainstream society and minority groups.

Establishing local diagnostic reference levels for adult computed tomography in Morocco

In Morocco, the radiation doses received by adult patients are increasing due to the number of CT examinations performed and the larger number of computed tomography (CT) scanners installed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the radiation doses received by patients for the most common adult CT examinations in order to establish local diagnostic reference levels (DRLs). Data from 1016 adult patients were collected during 3 months from four Moroccan hospitals. Dose length product (DLP) and volumetric computed tomography dose index (CTDIvol) were evaluated by determining the 75th percentile as diagnostic reference levels for the most common examinations including head, chest and abdomen. The DRL for each examination was compared with other studies. The established DRLs in Morocco in terms of CTDIvol were 57.4, 12.3 and 10.9 for CT examinations of the head, chest, abdomen, respectively. For DLP, they were 1020, 632 and 714, respectively. These established DRLs for CTDIvol were almost similar to the UK DRLs at all examinations, higher than the Egyptian DRLs and lower than the Japanese DRLs at the head CT examination, lower than the DRLs from Egypt and Japan at the CT abdomen examination. In terms of DLP, the DRLs were higher than those of the British studies, lower than those of the Egyptian and Japanese studies at the head CT examination were higher at chest CT and lower at abdominal CT than those of all selected studies. The higher level of established DRLs in our study demonstrates the requirement of an optimization process while keeping a good image quality for a reliable diagnosis.

An Affair with a Village – Joy Hendry

Joy Hendry is today a leading Japanese studies scholar and anthropologist, recompensed with the Order of the Rising Sun, who founded and presided over several major research associations over the past decades. However, at the time this story starts (as it is a story Hendry is writing in this book), she is a young woman starting her fieldwork for a doctorate. She had mastered the Japanese language already, but many aspects of Japanese daily life, especially in a retired rural area such as the small village of Kurotsuchi (Kyushu), elude her – as it did for most foreign academics in the 1970s. Written during lockdown due to the pandemic, Hendry narrates [...]

The Role of Myths in Japanese Calligraphy’s Interpretative Process

The Role of Myths in Japanese Calligraphy’s Interpretative Process. This article illustrates the role of myths in the interpretative process of calligraphic works. Being considerably different from Western calligraphy, Japanese calligraphy (shodō) may seem at times visually similar to abstract art. However, calligraphic works – and shodō as art – are rich in meaning and abundant of myths. Focusing on both linguistic and visual elements of calligraphy, the article depicts how myths can be identified in a calligraphic work and how they provide a better understanding of the particularities of shodō. In order to illustrate how myths uncover new layers of meaning, the article incorporates an analysis of a calligraphic work created by Rodica Frențiu, underlining the process of accessing the transcendent meaning. Keywords: shodō, Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy, cultural semiotics, Japanese studies, kanji, myth, Zen, Buddhism.

Prospects and Challenges In Developing 'Japanese Studies' Program in Bangladesh: Lessons From the University of Dhaka

Japanese Studies has entered a booming period in Bangladesh where the growing demand for knowledge on Japan, particularly Japanese development experience, society, and culture, has intensified. Besides, the increasing number of Japanese companies and opportunities to work in Japan so far is conducive to the increasing number of students in the Japanese language. Considering the given facts, academic institutions of Bangladesh need to initiate 'Japanese Studies' programs to produce 'Japanologists’-contextual and transitional expertise. The larger goal of this study is to identify the major prospects and challenges and consider the future directions for the Japanese Studies program. The paper intends to think alternatively beyond the 'ivory tower' mindset of a large number of Bangladeshi students as well as academicians and show the prospects of Japanese Studies with sustainable employment opportunities through industry-academia collaboration. The methods and equipping tools employed in this paper include lexical scrutiny and contextual analysis under the qualitative research method to analyse the current state of knowledge and pedagogical development. Presenting the number of stumbling blocks of the Japanese Studies program in Bangladesh, the paper finally demonstrates the program's future as an academic discipline. It ends with possible suggestions towards success in producing Japanologists to strengthen Bangladesh-Japan bilateral relations.

Amorphization amid Fragmentation: Japanese Society 1990–2020

This paper sketches the major sociological transformations of Japanese society of the last three decades, 1990–2020, which can be regarded as a crucial turning point in Japan’s history. It first examines the marked paradigm changes that have occurred in Japanese studies. The paper then endeavours to unravel how such alterations reflect the structural changes caused by the penetration of neoliberalism, the decline of the manufacturing industry, and the expansion of cultural capitalism. After illustrating how these forces have fragmented social relations, the paper ends with a description of how Japanese society is becoming increasingly amorphous in its social structures and value orientations. The paper attempts to cast the shifts of these three decades into relief against the background of the previous three decades, 1960–1989, when Japan enjoyed spectacular economic growth.

Japanology as ‘Encompassing philology’ and its prospects for the 21st Century

The recent development of the academic field of Japanese studies towards interdisciplinary cultural studies paradigm has been causing certain downfalls of traditional philological orientations within this area of scholarship. The aim of the present paper is to reflect on the tradition of Prague school’s functional-structuralist approach to language and text and present its application on contemporary Japanese studies programs. The functional-structuralist approach presented in the paper is based on the unified dichotomy of system (of signs) and texts (as sign formations), the latter being defined by the features of genre classification, situational binding and discourse tradition. The framework of ‘Encompassing philology’ applied to the field of Japanese studies aspires to fulfill the basic needs of a modern interdisciplinary orientation and at the same time strengthen the role of the Japanese language beyond the “tool for communication”.

Japanese Merchants Diaspora in the 17th Century into Southeast Asia

This study aimed to investigate the Japanese Diaspora in the 17th century into Southeast Asia. This article discussed critically the motives, process, and the effect of Japanese diaspora in the Southeast Asia. Reseacher utilized historical method with descriptive approach. The process being performed namely heuristics, critism, interpretation, and historiography. Japanese history regarding abroad migration is an interesting issue between scholars who studied migration, anthropology, and minority studies over the decades. Edo period in Japan is one of the most studied field for many scholars for Japanese studies, since it shaped the characteristic of Japanese culture until today. Trade of Japan is significant part of its economical development since the pre-modern era. In the 17th century, Japan established a solid trade network with Southeast Asia regions, namely Siam, Malacca, Cambodia, Vietnam and Manila. The emerge of maritime trade with Southeast Asia encouraged Japanese merchants to travel and create settlements in some regions. The Japanese diaspora was encouraged with vermillion seal trade which allowed them to do journey overseas and settled in some places, which eventually increased the number of Japanese merchants in the Southeast Asia. However, after the Sakoku policy there was restriction of trade relation ehich prohibited overseas maritime trade, except for China and Dutch. Sakoku policy caused Japanese merchants who stayed overseas could not return for many years, then they settled themselves as Japanese communities known as Nihon Machi in some places within Southeast Asia. History of early modern Japan between the 16th and 19th century provides a broader narratives of global history as it was surrounded by intense global interaction.

Massimo Raveri, the Oxford School of Social Anthropology and Researching and Teaching on Japanese Society

This paper explores the context in which Massimo Raveri has produced his corpus of work on Japan and explains how and why he has so successfully been able to cover such a wide range of topics – stretching from the pre-modern to the contemporary. It situates his work in the context of debates between those in the worlds of Japanology and Japanese Studies and considers how he and his work have acted as a bridge between the two. It also examines the influence on his work of the debates taking place in the Oxford School of Anthropology at the time that he studied in Oxford in the late 1970s and how his distinctive approach has influenced the social anthropology of Japan.