Honors tokyo 2017
A Guide to Getting Lost in Tokyo
Reflection on :
● Jeff Kingston, Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-First Century (2004), pp. 225-256. ● Watch Spirited Away (2001) ● Andrew Yang, "The Two Japans of 'Spirited Away'," International Journal of Comic Art (2010), pp. 435-452. After reading all the articles assigned thus far, one message has become clear: national identity is fluid and constantly affected in many different aspects. For instance, in Precarious Japan, Anne Allison stresses the impact that familial structures and the current Japanese work ethic has on shaping the identity of people both within the home, and outside with what ‘Japaneseness’ means. In addition to family, Kingston mentions in Japan’s Quiet Transformation that events like the World Cup in 2002 also contributed to changes in Japan’s views on international affairs due to its somewhat controversial collaboration with South Korea. Along with shifting viewpoints, Japan’s unexpected favorable participation in the 2002 World Cup created feelings of “shared exuberance, pride, and community” among the Japanese, which pulled together a more cohesive identity within the nation (Kingston 249). Due to the effect that this type of pop cultural event evidently had on forming identity, I am interested in researching more deeply into how Japan’s usage of media and pop culture influence the creation and changing of ‘national identity’ and what it means to be Japanese as a whole. Specifically, I’m drawn to the effects of Japanese anime and manga due to the ever-expanding anime pop culture. As Andrew Yang states in the beginning of “The Two Japans of ‘Spirited Away’”, anime has even become a global franchise and has the potential to (or maybe has already) altered perceptions of national identity not only regarding what it means to be Japanese, but what ‘Japaneseness’ means to foreigners...
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Reflection on:
In Precarious Japan, Allison stresses the influence of family on the changing of Japan’s national identity in 20th century, even up until the present. Within Japan’s familial structures, Allison mentions the ‘traditional’ gendered roles, with successful families having men being “sarariman” and women managing the household, along with taking care of the children that represented “hope” and “the future” (24). However, the separate spheres ideology that Allison describes is not unique to Japan. The United States also had such family structures in play for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. The largest distinguishing factor thus appears to be Japan’s unique version of “capitalism”, in which after World War II, Japanese working men were usually committed to their company for a lifetime in a family-like setting (Allison 25). Apart from this, family structures do not seem too different from America’s during ‘America’s Industrial Revolution” after the Civil War in the late 19th century. Then, why is Japan’s state so much more “precarious” than America’s now (in terms of declining birth rates, rising suicide and depression rates…)? I argue that in addition to what Allison argues about the lifetime work commitment, immigration also plays a large role in the difference between America and Japan’s progress... Reflection on:
As Anderson argues, one of the most important reasons why print capitalism played such a large role in the ‘imagined community’ is due to simultaneity; that is, the community is formed when groups of people can imagine the other people with which they are involved due to the sharing of current events through the print. Hence, a “horizontal comradeship” is formed, creating the idea of commonality in the group of people mutually acknowledged as a “nation” (Anderson 50). Likewise, I argue that holidays/festivals also contribute to the feeling of community that defines a nation. Most notably in the American setting are holidays like Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, etc., where all Americans can celebrate a significant part of American history at the same time... |
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