Download or read book The Relationship People written by Erika R Alpert and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-04-08 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan has often been portrayed as a mysterious, sexless, troubled land. Birth rates and marriage rates have been decreasing for decades, and national surveys show that Japanese people are simply having less sex overall. But Japan is not so different from anywhere else—it’s simply on the leading edge of worldwide demographic shifts. Because of rigid norms around gender, marriage, childbearing, and work, and relatively strict immigration policies, Japan is also experiencing these shifts more acutely. In The Relationship People, Erika R. Alpert starts by exploring some of the factors that have contributed to later and less marriage and childbearing in Japan and elsewhere. Alpert then goes on to explore the disjuncture between what Japanese singles report as preventing them from getting married and popularly proposed solutions to this problem. Japanese singles point to economic factors, such as low income, as one of their most significant barriers to marriage. However, much of the popular discourse aimed at Japanese singles elides these economic concerns; instead, it encourages them to exert more personal effort to meet people in order to get married. These “marriage activities” (konkatsu) may take the form of signing up with a professional matchmaker, using an online dating site, or going to singles’ parties. By examining konkatsu from the perspective of matchmakers, clients, and online daters, Alpert looks at the linguistic processes of connection that underpin konkatsu and its successes—or more often, failures. Institutions of matchmaking and technological structures such as databases and online profiles give shape to the ways singles connect. As this research shows, understanding this linguistic connective tissue enables us to answer questions about what constitutes “attractive” and “marriageable” in Japan, what kind of consciousness konkatsu is supposed to instill in singles, and what role Japan’s various partner matching industries might be able to play in alleviating the country’s demographic crisis.

Download or read book Kon Ichikawa written by Cinematheque Ontario and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2001-05-24 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kon Ichikawa has long been internationally ac-knowledged as one of the most accomplished and prolific masters of Japanese cinema, in the exalted company of Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Yasujiro Ozu. Celebrated for his many adaptations of famous Japanese novels such as Fires on the Plain, Harp of Burma, Kagi, Conflagration, and The Makioka Sisters, Ichikawa is an artist with an astounding command of many genres, forms and tones, from ferociously humanist war films to sophisticated social satires, formalist documentaries (the acclaimed Tokyo Olympiad) to extravagant period pieces (An Actor’s Revenge.) This volume, designed to accompany a retrospective of Ichikawa’s films, spans his entire career and includes essays and commentaries by such leading scholars of Japanese cinema as Donald Richie, Tadao Sato, Max Tessier, David Desser, Linda Erlich, and Keiko McDonald. Many articles and translations were commissioned for the book, including those by Tony Rayns, Aaron Gerow, Dennis Washburn and Catherine Russell. A new career interview with critic Mark Schilling is one of several illuminating discussions with the director included in this volume. Appraisals of Ichikawa by novelist Yukio Mishima, director Yasuzo Masumura, and critic Pauline Kael round out the portrait of a director prized for his elegant compositional style, venomous wit, and unerring humanism. Published by Cinematheque Ontario. Distributed in Canada by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Distributed outside Canada by Indiana University Press.

Download or read book Celebrating Life Customs around the World 3 volumes written by Victoria R. Williams and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 1427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book documents hundreds of customs and traditions practiced in countries outside of the United States, showcasing the diversity of birth, coming-of-age, and death celebrations worldwide. From the beginning of our lives to the end, all of humanity celebrates life's milestones through traditions and unique customs. In the United States, we have specific events like baby showers, rites of passage such as Bat and Bar Mitzvahs and "sweet 16" birthday parties, and sober end-of-life traditions like obituaries and funeral services that honor those who have died. But what kinds of customs and traditions are practiced in other countries? How do people in other cultures welcome babies, prepare to enter into adulthood, and commemorate the end of the lives of loved ones? This three-volume encyclopedia covers more than 300 birth, life, and death customs, with the books' content organized chronologically by life stage. Volume 1 focuses on birth and childhood customs, Volume 2 documents adolescent and early-adulthood customs, and Volume 3 looks at aging and death customs. The entries in the first volume examine pre-birth traditions, such as baby showers and other gift-giving events, and post-birth customs, such as naming ceremonies, child-rearing practices, and traditions performed to ward off evil or promote good health. The second volume contains information about rites of passage as children become adults, including indigenous initiations, marriage customs, and religious ceremonies. The final volume concludes with coverage on customs associated with aging and death, such as retirement celebrations, elaborate funeral processions, and the creation of fantasy coffins. The set features beautiful color inserts that illustrate examples of celebrations and ceremonies and includes an appendix of excerpts from primary documents that include legislation on government-accepted names, wedding vows, and maternity/paternity leave regulations.

Download or read book Beyond Common Sense Sexuality And Gender In Contemporary Japan written by Wim Lunsing and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2001. This volume is based on the author's visit to Japan in Summer 1986 on his findings about some of the questions he was asked whilst there. He was 25 and these questions centred around asking if he was married or had a girlfriend, when in his homeland of the Netherlands he openly identified as gay. This research is an investigation of how gay and lesbian people, women's and men's liberationaists, singles and other people, such as transsexuals, transvestites and hermaphrodites, whose ideas, feelings or lifestyles are at variance with Japanese constructions of marriage and inherently the construction of life, live in Japan.

Download or read book Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan written by Mark J. McLelland and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-07-08 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to look at the wide range of contrasting images of the gay male body in Japanese popular culture, both mainstream and gay, and relate these images to the experience of an interview sample of Japanese gay men. In so doing, it touches on a number of important issues, including whether there can be a universal 'gay identity' and whether or not strategies developed for increasing gay and lesbian visibility in western countries are appropriate to the social situation in Japan

Download or read book Japanese Mind written by Roger J. Davies and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06-14 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Japanese Mind, Roger Davies offers Westerners an invaluable key to the unique aspects of Japanese culture. Readers of this book will gain a clear understanding of what makes the Japanese, and their society, tick. Among the topics explored: aimai (ambiguity), amae (dependence upon others' benevolence), amakudari (the nation's descent from heaven), chinmoku (silence in communication), gambari (perseverance), giri (social obligation), haragei (literally, "belly art"; implicit, unspoken communication), kenkyo (the appearance of modesty), sempai-kohai (seniority), wabi-sabi (simplicity and elegance), and zoto (gift giving), as well as discussions of child-rearing, personal space, and the roles of women in Japanese society. It includes discussion topics and questions after each chapter. All in all, this book is an easy-to-use introduction to the distinguishing characteristics of Japanese society; an invaluable resource for anyone--business people, travelers, or students--perfect for course adoption, but also for anyone interested in Japanese culture. Next in this series: Now available separately, Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations is a fascinating journey through Japan's rich cultural history.

Download or read book Ozu written by Kathe Geist and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on a close reading of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s extant films, this book provides insights into the ways the director created narrative structures and used symbolism to construct meaning in his films. Against critics’ insistence that Ozu was indifferent to plot and unlikely to use symbols, Geist demonstrates otherwise, revealing the director’s subtle iconographic paradigms. Her incisive understanding of the historical and cultural context in which the films were conceived amplifies her analysis of the films’ structure and meaning. Ozu: A Closer Look guides the reader through Ozu’s early, silent films and his sound films made during Japan’s wars in Asia and the subsequent American Occupation, then takes up specific themes relevant to his later, better-known films. These themes include religion, gender, and the influence of traditional Japanese painting. Geist also examines the impact that Ozu’s films had on specific directors in Europe, America, and Japan. Intended for film scholars, students, and fans of the director, this book provides fresh insights into the director’s films and new challenges for those who study him. “Kathe Geist has woven an elegantly textured tapestry in this illuminating survey of Ozu’s films and their endless sense of pattern, rhythm, and cultural renewal. Melding form, narrative, iconography, and context, the book traces old and new patterns of meaning and critical debate.”—Alastair Phillips, University of Warwick; author of the BFI Film Classic on Tokyo Story (2022) “Ozu: A Closer Look provides one of the most comprehensive and meticulous analyses so far on Ozu Yasujiro. With her great attention to small textual details, along with intertextual and contextual comparisons, Geist achieves a significant reinterpretation of the director’s work, opening up new possibilities in future Ozu studies.”—Woojeong Joo, Nagoya University; author of The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro: Histories of the Everyday

Download or read book After Work written by Shiori Shakuto and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2025-01-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ethnography of “silver backpackers” that offers a feminist perspective on what makes a good retirement in contemporary societies The moniker “silver backpackers” refers to Japanese couples who, in their mid-fifties to seventies, move to Malaysia to enjoy their retirement. Much has been written in the scholarship on Japan about the gendered division of labor and how it has affected the lives of young or middle-aged workers and their families in a period of high economic growth. After Work, however, focuses on what comes next, after work, and how the values, practices, and relations forged under a particular postwar capitalist labor regime live on when middle-class professional people retire. Based on fifteen months of fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur and employing a transnational feminist framework, After Work investigates moments of difference in the experiences of older women and men to examine patriarchal conversations that dominate ideas about contemporary retirement. Shiori Shakuto argues that anxiety around self and belonging in retirement are instigated by the capitalist labor regime and the discourse of successful aging, both of which devalue nonremunerated activities conducted at home. What is needed instead, she contends, is a re-valuation of key domestic activities—from caring for children to pursuing individual hobbies—so that “life” can be appreciated in its entirety. Shakuto also takes into account the fact that this transnational retirement is set in Malaysia—a nation that Japan occupied during World War II and thereafter subject to decades of economic investment and resource exploitation by Japanese corporations. Highlighting how historical, cultural, and racialized complexities entangle with intimate relations in increasingly connected Asian countries while simultaneously acknowledging how the boundaries between work and life blur ever more in contemporary society, After Work complicates our perceptions of aging and a “good” retirement as well as our understandings of gender, migration, and the future of work as we know it.

Download or read book Young Women in Japan written by Kaori H. Okano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-02-19 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young women in Japan: Transitions to adulthood received a CHOICE "Outstanding Academic Title of the Year 2010" award from the American Library Association. This book examines young women in Japan, focusing in particular on their transitions to adulthood, their conceptions of adulthood and relations with Japanese society more generally. Drawing on detailed primary research including a year-long observation of high schools and subsequent interviews over a 12 year period, it traces the experiences of a group of working class women from their last year of high-schooling in 1989 through to 2001 as they approached their thirties. It considers important aspects of the transition to adulthood including employment, marriage, divorce, childbirth and custody. It shows how the role and identities of young women changed over the course of the 1990s, exploring the impact of changes within Japanese society and global forces, and explains fully the implications for ordinary young people and their everyday lives. It considers to what extent young women’s perceptions of themselves and society are shifting, and how far this can be explained by external constraints and their own experiences and decisions.

Download or read book Mosaic 2 written by Brenda Wegmann and published by McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT. This book was released on 2002 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interactions Mosaic 4th Edition is the newly expanded five-level, four-skill comprehensive ESL/ELT series for academic students. The new edition, for beginners to advanced learners, incorporates interactive and communicative activities while still focusing on skill building to prepare students for academic content. Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, as well as Grammar are thoroughly presented in each strand. High-interest themes are integrated across all skill strands and levels. Language proficiencies as well are articulated from level to level.New Features:1. Global activities are suitable for ESL/ELT monolingual or multilingual classrooms2. New design, content, audio programs, photos, and illustrations reinforce skill-building exercises.3. Placement tests and chapter quizzes are included in each Instructor’s Manual.4. User-friendly instructions, complete scope and sequence, and consistent chapter structure offer greater flexibility in lesson planning.5. 5 new videos, one per level, immerse students in authentic language.Program Components:Student TextsInstructor’s ManualsAudio Programs for L/S and Reading (Audiocassettes/CDs)L/S Assessment Audiocassettes and CDsReading Student Audio CDsProgram CD/ROMVideoDemo AudiocassetteStudent BookThe Student Books of the new 4th edition of Interactions Mosaic have completely updated photos and illustrations and sport a new design. Global activities are suitable for ESL and ELT monolingual or multilingual classrooms.User-friendly instructions appeal to both instructor and student. A complete scope and sequence is presented at the beginning of each book. Consistent chapter structure creates greater flexibility in lesson planning. Mosaic 2 (High Intermediate – Low Advanced) Reading Scope and Sequence: Reading Type, Vocabulary Development, Reading Skills, Focus on Testing/Timed Reading, Video TopicsChapter Structure: 1. In This Chapter gives students a preview of the upcoming material.2. Introduction to Readings builds background knowledge by giving students information on the writer and the source.3. Varied Genres include formal and informal essays, biographies, speeches, interviews, stories, and poetry.4. Photos and Illustrations ensure comprehension by supporting the text.5. Preliminary Activities provide scaffolding to help students understand authentic language.6. Skill Development prepares students for standardized tests through paraphrasing, summarizing, identifying the theme, formulating an argument, and so on.7. Groupwork maximizes opportunities for discussion and negotiation.8. Talk It Over and Making Connections encourage students to evaluate arguments and to do independent research related to the topic of the chapter.9. Time Readings give students specific strategies for improving their reading speed without sacrificing comprehension.10. Vocabulary and Language-Learning Strategies for synonyms, antonyms, context clues, and word families give students comprehension and self-assessment tools.11. Study Skills, such as underlining, marginal glosses, and study maps, help students cope with heavy reading assignments.12. Video News Broadcasts immerse students in authentic language, complete with scaffolding and follow-up activities to reinforce reading skills. (Refer to ISBN 0-07-232995-5 for Video)Chapter Themes (12):Language and LearningDanger and DaringSex and GenderMysteries Past and PresentTransitionsThe MindWorkingBreakthroughsArt and EntertainmentConflict and ReconciliationMedicine and ScienceThe Future

Download or read book Geek in Japan written by Hector Garcia and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Created specifically for fans of Japanese "cool culture," A Geek in Japan is one of the most iconic, hip, and concise cultural guides available. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded with new chapters on Japanese video games, architecture, and a special section on visiting Kyoto. Reinvented for the internet age, it's packed with personal essays and hundreds of photographs, presenting all the touchstones of both traditional and contemporary culture in an entirely new way. The expansive range of topics include: Bushido, Geisha, Samurai, Shintoism, and Buddhism Traditional arts and disciplines like Ukiyo-e, Ikebana, Zen meditation, calligraphy, martial arts, and the tea ceremony Insightful essays on code words and social mores; dating and drinking rituals; working and living conditions and symbols and practices that are peculiarly Japanese Japanese pop culture genres and their subcultures, like otaku, gals, visual kei, and cosplay For visitors, the author includes a mini guide to his favorite neighborhoods in Tokyo as well as tips on special places of interest in other parts of Japan. Garcia has written an irreverent, insightful, and highly informative guide for the growing ranks of Japanophiles around the world.

Download or read book A Half Step Behind written by Jane Condon and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1991 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Numerous books have been written about the country's workaholic, corporate-minded drones, Japanese men, but few writers have grasped that it is really the women who keep Japan on top. In A Half Step Behind, author and journalist Jane Condon explores this often ignored other half of the Japanese success story--Japanese women.

Download or read book The Oral literate Connection written by Diane Dewhurst Belcher and published by University of Michigan Press ELT. This book was released on 2008 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oral-Literate Connection: Perspectives on L2 Speaking, Writing, and Other Media Interactionspresents the most current insights from research and theory on the numerous ways in which L2 speaking and writing support and enhance each other. Contributors to this collection not only report on recent research and theoretical developments but also on state-of-the-art pedagogical practices linking oral skills and literacy. Although research and theory are informed by practice throughout the text's four parts, the thematic organization proceeds from more theoretical and research-oriented issues to more classroom-based perspectives: § Theory and research on the interaction between speaking and writing § How speaking scaffolds writing § How writing scaffolds speaking § How technology bridges speaking and writing This volume offers readers both a compelling rationale for connecting speaking and writing in the L2 classroom and an informed means of making these connections. A wide array of theoretical and classroom-oriented topics is offered, ranging from sociocultural and second-language acquisition theory to classroom concordancing and blogging. The book has a foreword by John M. Swales and an Afterword by Paul Kei Matsuda.

Download or read book Accidental Office Lady written by Laura Kriska and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2011-12-20 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young American businesswoman discovers life inside a Japanese corporation. Armed with a new degree in Japanese studies, plenty of youthful idealism, and a can-do attitude, a young woman accepts a job as the first American trainee at Honda's headquarters in Tokyo. Her image of Japanese corporate life is dramatically challenged on her first day at work when she is issued a blue polyester uniform--a uniform worn only by women! With good humor and accessible prose, Laura Kriska relates her journey through the company, from serving tea to executives and cleaning the boss's desk to a stint in public relations and developing training classes for Japanese associates going to America. The reader is rooting for Kriska as she recounts her struggle to adapt to--and ultimately thrive in--the culture of a traditional Japanese company. Shortly before her departure, she comes full circle by introducing a successful campaign to make women's uniforms optional. Now with a new foreword by the author, The Accidental Office Lady is a vivid and valuable firsthand account not only of corporate Japan and the gender inequality that persists within it, but of an outsider's successful attempt to work within cultural boundaries to affect organizational change.

Download or read book The Japanese Family in Transition written by Suzanne Hall Vogel and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These gripping biographies poignantly illustrate the strengths and the vulnerabilities of professional housewives and of families facing social change and economic uncertainty in contemporary Japan.

Download or read book In The Miso Soup written by Ryu Murakami and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2009-08-03 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rollercoaster ride from the cult master of the psycho-thriller 'A blistering portrait of contemporary Japan, its nihilism and decadence wrapped up within one of the most savage thrillers since The Silence of the Lambs' Kirkus 'Deft and fascinating . . . A grisly tour of the darkness and confusion of the human mind' New York Times It's just before New Year, and Frank, an overweight American tourist, has hired Kenji to take him on a guided tour of Tokyo's red light district. As Frank's behaviour becomes increasingly unsettling, Kenji begins to entertain a horrible suspicion: his client may in fact have murderous intentions. Although Kenji is far from innocent himself, he unwillingly descends into the troubling waters of Frank's mind, from which only his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Jun, can possibly save him.

Download or read book Caper Crush written by Kathy Strobos and published by Strawbundle Publishing. This book was released on 2022-07-14 with total page 707 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A feel-good, opposites-attract, slow-burn romantic comedy Somebody stole my painting! The one I need for the career-defining Vertex Art Exhibit. This upcoming art show is my chance to finally be recognized as an artist—after ten years of waitressing and being asked if I still have that “lovely painting hobby.” I have mere weeks to find my painting or lose my artist dream forever—but it’s going to mean working with William. William Haruki Matsumura. Good-looking, if you like the Secret Service type. You know, law-abiding, protector of women and children. That’s all fine, but I can never tell what he’s thinking. Which drives me crazy. He insists on coming along to do “damage control.” As if “accidentally” wandering into certain areas is “breaking and entering.” I may be an emotional artist, but William shouldn’t dismiss my investigative skills yet. William is definitely my opposite, and if there’s one takeaway from my parents’ divorce, it’s that opposites might attract, but it doesn’t last. But detecting with William is kind of fun—and fluttery. I definitely can’t trust these feelings, or can I? However this caper ends, I think this may be more than a crush. **2023 Independent Press Distinguished Favorite Award for Romantic Comedy Search Terms: romantic comedy, opposites attract, caper, romance mystery, adventure romance, New York City romance, forced proximity, interracial romance, first person romance, artist romance