Download or read book Identity Change and Foreign Policy written by Linus Hagstrom and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identity has become an explicit focus of International Relations theory in the past two to three decades, with one case attracting and puzzling many early identity scholars: Japan. These constructivist scholars typically ascribed Japan a ‘pacifist’ or ‘antimilitarist’ identity – an identity which they believed was constructed through the adherence to ‘peaceful norms’ and ‘antimilitarist culture’. Due to the alleged resilience of such adherences, little change in Japan’s identity and its international relations was predicted. However, in recent years, Japan’s foreign and security policies have begun to change, in spite of these seemingly stable norms and culture. This book seeks to address these changes through a pioneering engagement with recent developments in identity theory. In particular, most chapters theorize identity as a product of processes of differentiation. Through detailed case analysis, they argue that Japan’s identity is produced and reproduced, but also transformed, through the drawing of boundaries between ‘self’ and ‘other’. In particular, they stress the role of emotions and identity entrepreneurs as catalysts for identity change. With the current balance between resilience and change, contributors emphasize that more drastic foreign and security policy transformations might loom just beyond the horizon. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Pacific Review.

Download or read book Japan and Its Others written by J. R. Clammer and published by ISBS. This book was released on 2001 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Japan's relationship with Asia and the world, examines contemporary Japanese thinking about Japan's "others" and how this impacts on local discourses about uniqueness, modernity, internal minorities and "postmodern" conceptions of Japanese culture, religion and psychic make-up. Taking local knowledge seriously, the author pursues the "centrality of the emotions" as a viable avenue for understanding Japanese society and enriches the scope of cultural studies and sociology of Japanese capitalism by presenting a comparative and non-Western perspective.

Download or read book Engaging the Other Japan and Its Alter Egos 1550 1850 written by Ronald P. Toby and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-01-21 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Engaging the Other: “Japan and Its Alter-Egos”, 1550-1850 Ronald P. Toby examines new discourses of identity and difference in early modern Japan, a discourse catalyzed by the “Iberian irruption,” the appearance of Portuguese and other new, radical others in the sixteenth century. The encounter with peoples and countries unimagined in earlier discourse provoked an identity crisis, a paradigm shift from a view of the world as comprising only “three countries” (sangoku), i.e., Japan, China and India, to a world of “myriad countries” (bankoku) and peoples. In order to understand the new radical alterities, the Japanese were forced to establish new parameters of difference from familiar, proximate others, i.e., China, Korea and Ryukyu. Toby examines their articulation in literature, visual and performing arts, law, and customs.

Download or read book Another Japan Is Possible written by Jennifer Chan and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at the emergence of internationally linked Japanese nongovernmental advocacy networks that have grown rapidly since the 1990s in the context of three conjunctural forces: neoliberalism, militarism, and nationalism. It connects three disparate literatures—on the global justice movement, on Japanese civil society, and on global citizenship education. Through the narratives of fifty activists in eight overlapping issue areas—global governance, labor, food sovereignty, peace, HIV/AIDS, gender, minority and human rights, and youth—Another Japan is Possible examines the genesis of these new social movements; their critiques of neoliberalism, militarism, and nationalism; their local, regional, and global connections; their relationships with the Japanese government; and their role in constructing a new identity of the Japanese as global citizens. Its purpose is to highlight the interactions between the global and the local—that is, how international human rights and global governance issues resonate within Japan and how, in turn, local alternatives are articulated by Japanese advocacy groups—and to analyze citizenship from a postnational and postmodern perspective.

Download or read book New Worlds New Lives written by Lane Ryo Hirabayashi and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book confronts the question of who and what is a Nikkei, that is, a person of Japanese descent, by presenting 18 case studies from throughout the Americas—including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States.

Download or read book Japanese Society written by Chie Nakane and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1972-02 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A brilliant wedding of 'national character' studies and analyses of small societies through the structural approach of British anthropology. One is of course reminded of Ruth Benedict's Chrysanthemum and the Sword which deals also with Japanese national culture. Studies by Margaret Mead and Geoffrey Gorer deal with other national cultures; however, all of these studies take off from national psychology. Professor Nakane comes to explanation of the behavior of Japanese through analysis rather of historical social structure of Japanese society, beginning with the way any two Japanese perceive each other, and following through to the nature of the Japanese corporation and the whole society. Nakane's remarkable achievement, which has already given new insight about themselves to the Japanese, promises to open up a new field of large-society comparative social anthropology which is long overdue." —Sol Tax "This is an important book!"--Robert E. Cole, Journal of Asian Studies "If you have time for just one book on Japan, try this one."--David Plath, Asian Student "Should be taken to heart by everyone who has dealings with Japan. . . .Even those--or, perhaps, most of all those--who know Japan intimately will be grateful to Professor Nakane for her brilliant study."--Times Literary Supplement

Download or read book Unmasking Japan written by David Ricky Matsumoto and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last twenty years has seen a growth of interest and fascination with the Japanese, and the emergence of Japan as a world economic power has stimulated many works that have attempted to understand Japanese culture. The focus of this book is not on Japanese culture or society per se: rather, it is on how Japanese culture and society structure, shape, and mold the emotions of the Japanese people. All cultures shape and mold emotions, but the degree to which the Japanese culture shapes emotion has led to several misunderstandings about the emotional life of the Japanese, which this book attempts to correct. Describing the findings of over two decades of research, this book presents the Japanese as human beings with real feelings and emotions rather than as mindless pawns caught in the web of their own culture. In the process, it unmasks many myths that have grown around the subject and reveals important similarities as well as differences between the emotional life of the Japanese and that of people of other cultures.

Download or read book Multiculturalism in the New Japan written by Nelson H. H. Graburn and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...a valuable addition to the increasing literature on Japanese multiculturalism which has challenged the long-held homogeneous Japan thesis...A particular contribution of this ... book is to illuminate the ground-level process where hybridities emerge and group boundaries are redrawn in a particular local context...I greatly enjoyed reading [this book] from beginning to end. My undergraduate students who encountered it in their subject reading list also enjoyed it. I would recommend it highly for both undergraduate and graduate students studying Japanese society." - Japan Studies "This book importantly seeks out the meanings behind the nooks and crannies in which peoples from different cultures are juxtaposed within Japan. However the real work of living side by side, of respecting individual and cultural differences, of embracing diversity...remains a vital challenge to both Japan, as well as to scholars who stand poised to connect the dots of this critical and evolving picture. I recommend this volume as one further step toward that undertaking." - Asia Pacific World "...a very readable volume offering through its focus on the local a vivid picture of multiculturalism in Japan. All articles are ethnographically grounded and it is here, and not in systematic and theoretically exhaustive treatment of the subject of multiculturalism." - Zeitschrift für Ethnologie Like other industrial nations, Japan is experiencing its own forms of, and problems with, internationalization and multiculturalism. This volume focuses on several aspects of this process and examines the immigrant minorities as well as their Japanese recipient communities. Multiculturalism is considered broadly, and includes topics often neglected in other works, such as: religious pluralism, domestic and international tourism, political regionalism and decentralization, sports, business styles in the post-Bubble era, and the education of immigrant minorities.

Download or read book Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-05 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Elegant representations of nature and the four seasons populate a wide range of Japanese genres and media. In Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, Haruo Shirane shows how, when, and why this practice developed and explicates the richly encoded social, religious, and political meanings of this imagery. Shirane discusses textual, cultivated, material, performative, and gastronomic representations of nature. He reveals how this kind of 'secondary nature, ' which flourished in Japan's urban environment, fostered and idealized a sense of harmony with the natural world just at the moment when it began to recede from view. Illuminating the deeper meaning behind Japanese aesthetics and artifacts, Shirane also clarifies the use of natural and seasonal topics as well as the changes in their cultural associations and functions across history, genre, and community over more than a millennium. In this book, the four seasons are revealed to be as much a cultural construction as a reflection of the physical world."--Back cover.

Download or read book Japan Rising written by Kenneth Pyle and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is on the verge of a sea change. After more than fifty years of national pacifism and isolation including the "lost decade" of the 1990s, Japan is quietly, stealthily awakening. As Japan prepares to become a major player in the strategic struggles of the 21st century, critical questions arise about its motivations. What are the driving forces that influence how Japan will act in the international system? Are there recurrent patterns that will help explain how Japan will respond to the emerging environment of world politics? American understanding of Japanese character and purpose has been tenuous at best. We have repeatedly underestimated Japan in the realm of foreign policy. Now as Japan shows signs of vitality and international engagement, it is more important than ever that we understand the forces that drive Japan. In Japan Rising, renowned expert Kenneth Pyle identities the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, providing essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how Japan arrived at this moment -- and what to expect in the future.

Download or read book The Making of Modern Japan written by Marius B. Jansen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 933 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magisterial in vision, sweeping in scope, this monumental work presents a seamless account of Japanese society during the modern era, from 1600 to the present. A distillation of more than fifty years’ engagement with Japan and its history, it is the crowning work of our leading interpreter of the modern Japanese experience. Since 1600 Japan has undergone three periods of wrenching social and institutional change, following the imposition of hegemonic order on feudal society by the Tokugawa shogun; the opening of Japan’s ports by Commodore Perry; and defeat in World War II. The Making of Modern Japan charts these changes: the social engineering begun with the founding of the shogunate in 1600, the emergence of village and castle towns with consumer populations, and the diffusion of samurai values in the culture. Marius Jansen covers the making of the modern state, the adaptation of Western models, growing international trade, the broadening opportunity in Japanese society with industrialization, and the postwar occupation reforms imposed by General MacArthur. Throughout, the book gives voice to the individuals and views that have shaped the actions and beliefs of the Japanese, with writers, artists, and thinkers, as well as political leaders given their due. The story this book tells, though marked by profound changes, is also one of remarkable consistency, in which continuities outweigh upheavals in the development of society, and successive waves of outside influence have only served to strengthen a sense of what is unique and native to Japanese experience. The Making of Modern Japan takes us to the core of this experience as it illuminates one of the contemporary world’s most compelling transformations.

Download or read book The Boundaries of the Japanese written by Eiji Oguma and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2017 with total page 594 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in this paperback In this the parallel volume to The Boundaries of 'the Japanese': Volume 1: Okinawa 1818-1972 (2014), renowned historical sociologist Eiji Oguma further explores the fluctuating political, geographical, ethnic, and sociocultural borders of Japan and the Japanese from the latter years of the Tokugawa shogunate to the mid-20th century. Focus is placed first upon the northern island of Hokkaido with its indigenous Ainu inhabitants, and then upon the mainstays of Japan's colonial empire-Taiwan and Korea. In continuing to elaborate on the theme of inclusion and exclusion, the author comprehensively recounts and analyzes the events, actions, campaigns, and attitudes of both the rulers and the ruled as Japan endeavoured both to be seen as a strong, civilized nation by the wider world, and to 'civilize' its disparate subjects on its own terms. (Series: Japanese Society Series) Subject: Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, Cultural Studies, History]

Download or read book Transactions Transgressions Transformations written by Heide Fehrenbach and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an April 1996 colloquium, The American Cultural Impact on Germany, France, Italy, and Japan, 1945-1995: An International Comparison, 11 essays examine the reception and impact of American products and images. Most of the contributors are historians, but others from fields such as architecture and literature. They move beyond the standard model of cultural colonialism and democratic modernization, while never loosing sight of the asymmetry in power relations between the countries and the US. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The People of Japan written by Pearl S. Buck and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book REIMAGINING JAPAN written by Brian Salsberg and published by VIZ Media LLC. This book was released on 2011-07-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: REMINGINING JAPAN: Contributors to this volume include some of the world’s most brilliant thinkers from fields as diverse as business, politics, academia, science and technology, journalism and art and design. In the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis of March 2011, Japan has become a bigger part of the world’s consciousness than it has been for years. But Japan also is grappling with other problems that, over the long run, pose a much greater challenge to its national well-being than the devastation in Tohoku.... How can the country compete with a rising China? Cope with a fast-aging society? Deal with its enormous debt? Rediscover its entrepreneurial verve? Regain its position as a leader in technology and innovation? In Reimagining Japan, McKinsey & Company, the world’s top management consulting firm, asked more than 80 global leaders and experts to consider these questions. In essays brimming with insight, affection and occasional humor, the authors offer their assessments of Japan’s past, present and --most important -- future. What sets Reimagining Japan apart is the breadth and diversity of its contributors. They range from Fortune 500 CEOs to acclaimed writers (including three Pulitzer Prize winners) to a star videogame creator, a soccer coach, a school principal and a manga artist. There has not been such a comprehensive book about Japan in the past generation - and perhaps ever. NOTABLE CONTRIBUTORS Bernard Arnault, Ian Buruma, Gerald Curtis, John Chambers, Steven Covey, John Dower, Bill Emmott, Victor Fung, Carlos Ghosn, Pico Iyer, Bob McDonald, Stephen Roach, Masahiro Sakane, Masayoshi Son, Howard Schultz, Klaus Schwab, Bobby Valentine, Steve Van Andel, Ezra Vogel, Robert Whiting, Tadashi Yanai and more than 50 others.

Download or read book Little Book of Japan written by Charlotte Anderson and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-09-10 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This compact travel pictorial and Japan travel guide is packed with cultural and historical information along with charming photographs. Japan is a country shrouded in mystery, even now in the 21st century. The myriad facets that, when put together, compose the whole of this nation are impossible to fully capture. But in The Little Book of Japan, the dynamic photographer-writer team of Gorazd Vilhar and Charlotte Anderson do an admirable job of creating a celebration in words and images that encapsulates what makes this country so extraordinary. Small and easily portable, The Little Book of Japan is organized in a series of 44 essays with photographs contained within four chapters: Cultural Icons, Traditions, Places and Spiritual Life. Under these four overarching ideals, Vilhar and Anderson explore a wide range of topics from Japanese cultural icons and traditions to Japan's spiritual life to its unique cities and villages. Broad enough to satisfy anyone with an interest in the culture, art, and beliefs of this unique island nation, yet comprehensive enough for the true Japanophile, The Little Book of Japan is a stunning collection of photographs and thoughtful essays. With everything from Cherry Blossoms to Sushi, Calligraphy to Kimonos, Old Tokyo to Hiroshima, to intimate details of Buddhism and Pilgrimages, this book is a beautiful and enjoyable way to learn more about the fascinating island nation of Japan.

Download or read book A Year in Japan written by Kate T. Williamson and published by Princeton Architectural Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York City-based writer and illustrator Williamson shares discoveries about Japan and its culture based on a recent year spent in Kyoto as a postgraduate student. The text combines the author's colorful illustrations with brief descriptions presented in a script-style text. The end result is a charming, journal-like publication in which Williams