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Japan in the 21st century - complete summary
- Instelling
- Universiteit Leiden (UL)
Summary of the first year course Japan in the 21st century given by prof Ezawa at Leiden Univeristy. Based on lectures and online readings.
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Japan in the 21st century - Complete summary lectures and readingsReadings Als er fouten in staan lmk!
Week Readings
1 - Edward Said – Orientalism
- Kaori Okano – Rethinking Japanese Studies: Eurocentrism and the Asia-Pacific Region
- John Lie – Ruth Benedict’s Legacy of Shame: Orientalism and Occidentalism in the Study of Japan
2 - C. Wright Mills – The Sociological Imagination
- David Slater & Sara Ikebe – Social Distancing from the Problem of Japanese Homelessness under
Covid-19
- Tom Gill – Failed Manhood in the Streets of Urban Japan: The Meanings of Self-Reliance for
Homeless Men.
3 - Ernest Renan – What is a nation?
- Xavier Robillard-Martel & Christopher Laurent – From Colonization to Zaitokukai: The Legacy of
Racial Oppression in the Lives of Koreans in Japan
- Nobuko Kyo – A perfectly ordinary ethnic Korean in Japan: reprise
4 - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels – Bourgeois and Proletarians - The Communist Manifesto
- Koji Taira – The dialectics of growth, national power, and distributive struggles
- Satsuki Uno & Robin O’Day – Japanese Freelance Workers Struggle during the Covid-19
Pandemic: Social Media, Critique, and Political Resistance
5 - Robin J. Ely & Michael Kimmel – Thoughts on the Workplace as a Masculinity Contest
- Emma Dalton – Womenomics, ‘Equality’ and Abe’s Neo-liberal Strategy to Make Japanese Women
Shine
- Kumiko Nemoto – Long Working Hours and the Corporate Gender Divide in Japan
Difficult concepts
Concept Reading/Week Meaning
Eurocentrism Okano Europe center of the world - dominant view of the world.
West is a point of reference.
Dominance of academic publishing in English
Justification for colonization - needed help with civilization,
West was thought to be superior
Orientalism Said Stereotypical way of judging East-Asian countries and
civilizations. East-Asia exotic and romanticizing it.
Scholarly discourse which creates a coherent image of the
Orient as if it was an objective fact.
Almost seeing it in an alien way.
Influenced how one would talk, write or think about the
Orient.
Ex. - Travel posters
Auto-Orientalism 1 People from Asia also think in a Orientalist view.
Discourse 1 Coherent body of speech or writing. Certain ways of
representing. Defines the terms in which a topic can be
thought or talked about.
,Concept Reading/Week Meaning
Paradigm Distinct set of concepts/thought patterns (incl. theories etc.)
Occidentalism Lie The stereotyping of Western culture by non-Westerners.
How people from the East perceive the culture and
characteristics of the people in the West.
Sociological Imagination Mills An ability to connect personal challenges to larger social
issues, particular way of looking at social phenomena
By examining social structure, social change and social
groups, moves a vision from ‘personal problems’ to
understanding of the broader ‘public issues’ - the ‘big
picture’ behind personal troubles
Communism Marx A theory or system of social organization in which all
property is owned by the community and each person
contributes and receives according to their ability and
needs.
Capitalism Marx An economic and political system in which a country’s trade
and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
Major driver of innovation, wealth and prosperity
An economic system in which the means of production are
privately owned; decisions over what is produced and what
is bought and what prices should be are determined mainly
by private individuals the free market, rather than through a
planned economy; and profit is distributed to owners who
invest in businesses.
Bourgeois & Proletarians Marx Bourgeois
(In Marxist contexts) - the capitalist class who own most of society’s wealth and
means of production
Proletarians
- working-class people regarded collectively. The social
class of wage-earners, only possession of significant
economic value is their labor power
Dialectic Taira A theoretical way of understanding society and changes in it
Dialectic movement represents the struggle of opposites, a
conflict of contradictions
Dialectics tell us that there are always multiple ways to look
at a situation and there are always multiple ways to solve a
problem
When there are conflict people will rise up and the system
will compromise
Gender Sex vs. Gender
Gender is socially constructed, meanings ascribed to the
differences between men and women
Womenomics Women’s economics will improve the economy as a whole
Promotion of increase in women’s participation in the
workforce.
Facilitation of women’s ability to stay in the workforce
Boost of number of women in leadership positions.
, Readings
Edward Said - Orientalism
Argues that western scholars gave inaccurate and stereotypical representations of the East → this biased
perception hinders true understanding of cultures.
‘The Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined’
Scholars had their own set of norms and values and find it difficult to understand and appreciate the behavior of
other cultures. Can’t identify themselves with them or understand what made them who they are.
Portrayed the East as exotic and curious, judging and romanticizing it, without ever properly understanding it.
Scholars feel that their values are justified - they are academics, their perspective is correct.
West thought their society was superior to Eastern societies
Goes even further - western scholarship held strong ties to the dominating and imperialist societies
that produced it, much Western scholarship political and intellectual dubious
Stereotyping became a justification of colonizing Eastern countries, Eastern world needed help building civilization,
inhabitants to lazy and pleasure focused to be fit to govern themselves.
Either Western scholars are blinded by its own failing and do not see it as stereotyping or it believes its own culture
is superior.
Became foundational texts for Postcolonial Studies and transforms Middle-Eastern Studies
Kaori Okano – Rethinking Eurocentrism and area studies: Japanese Studies in the Asia-Pacific
Eurocentrism - Aglo-West/Euro-America has an unhealthy dominance in scholarship. Rest of the world merely
providers of primary sources etc. West is the center, the rest at the periphery.
- Both West and non-West used to recognize the West as dominant of the world, decision making and resources.
- Residual Eurocentrism – continuing to hold the view of the Anglo-West to be superior without realizing
- Knowledge from scholars from other parts of the world needs to be approved by Western scholars – periphery
provides raw data to be analyzed as case studies at the center.
- Euro-American dominance in knowledge production sustained by concrete institutional mechanisms
– English language is the global academic language – makes a ‘higher impact’ journal → the higher, the higher the
chance of promotion etc. (these criteria are also established by the West)
Some refuse to be involved in the global academic community, less affected by Western scholarship.
Area Studies - interdisciplinary
2 types:
- done in the West - post-war, enhance knowledge for strategic purposes (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword)
- done locally
Sometimes interact – first work in the native language later translated to English, becomes more globally influential
Can counter Eurocentric knowledge production - scholars are required to master the language of their Area,
reading primary and secondary resources only available in that language
Nowadays more ‘local’ scholars, but they are still trained in the Anglo-West and have a pressure to conform to the
globally established norms → not any less Eurocentric.
Japanstudies likely to have become more Eurocentric - Ex. presenting at conferences in English, idea to present in
English to get global recognition.
Study of Japan in the Asia Pacific:
- ‘learn from Japan’ movements – Japan only non-Western country to enter the ‘first world’
- duality and ambivalence to study Japan – Japan’s colonization pre-war and success of modernization post-war
, To understand Japanese society and culture by combining Euro-American concepts and theories with those that
originate from Japan. Past centuries, Japanese Studies had to deal with Japanocentrism and Eurocentrism
- evaluates how studies on Japan in the region contribute to global Japanese Studies and explores their potential
for formulating concrete strategies to unsettle Eurocentric dominance of the discipline.
John Lie – Ruth Benedict’s Legacy of Shame: Orientalism and Occidentalism in the Study of Japan
Benedicts ‘imagined’ Japan, and The Chrysanthemum and the Sword an Orientalist text - still resonates with
Japanese people.
People are formed by their culture. Warns that it is difficult to describe modern societies.
See's Japan as ‘primitive’, opposed to the ‘complex’ societies (West). However, Japan was very well a complex
society in 1945. → did not conduct ethnographic research, interviewed Japanese Aermicans and Japanese
prisoners of war, who had not lived in Japan for years, read documents and watched movies. - ignoring her one
theory and musts to study modern, complex societies.
National-character study of Japan: importance of order and hierarchy, norm and ethic of social relationship (ethic of
indebtedness), shame culture (rather than a culture of guilt). In Japan the constant goal is honor, to negotiate webs
of obligations and to avoid shame.
Evolves in a work of cultural criticism.
Received warmly in both the US and Japan.
Two problems – Benedict sees hierarchy and shame culture etc as unique to Japan, but this is not true. These
characteristics are also seen in ‘complex’ society. She also ignores multiple aspects in her study, such as temporal
changes in Japanese culture and diversity in people.
Creates a polar contrast between Japan and the West (only focussing on Europe and the US, ignoring non-Europe
and other Asian societies)
Work is ahistorical (lacking historical perspective), generalizes Japan as a static essence, non changing and non
diverse. → while there are different layers of society
Reconstruction of Japan after WWII → 'modeled’ after the West and the US, ignoring national and cultural
differences. Social science is not fit to analyze non-Western societies.
Occidentalist Japanese studies - Japan different and unique, same conclusion as Orientalism
Benedicts studies popular to study Japan, because it provides a difference between the US and Japan - us/them
perspective.
C. Wright Mills – The Sociological Imagination
People feel trapped in their troubles of personal life - narrow perspective on life, rather than a society-wide view. A
tendency to think our own problems are always our own fault.
People feel a need to understand what it going on globally, outside their own lives - can be achieved with
sociological imagination
Sociological imagination - helps understanding individual lives in context of history. Personal lives shaped by
society and society’s history. It makes links between personal lives and social structures and history.
Three main questions asked in social sciences:
- what is the structure of a society as a whole? → how different groups in a society are related
- where does society stand in human history? → how societies change across time and how it relates to former
societies
- what kinds of people does society produce? → seeks to describe how people’s personalities and beliefs and
values are shaped by society
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