"Most non-Japanese who have spent time in Japan will recognize both Japan and themselves in Roger Dahl's fine cartoons. He is an equal-opportunity satirist, skewering foreigners and host country alike. My own favorites include The Darkest Hour"" (about the intricacies of trash disposal, p. 13), ""Polite Country"" (the panel ends with the foreigner sighing, ""I need a vacation in a rude country,"" p. 131), and a Swiss army knife adapted for Japan, complete with abacus, chopsticks, and karaoke mike (p. 142)."" --Dr. Richard Minear, author of Dr. Seuss Goes To War and professor emeritus at University of Massachusetts"
More than just a Japan travel guide, Manabeshima Island Japan paints a colorful and entertaining picture of a particular place and time in Japan. Japan is made up of thousands of sacred islands, artificial islands, industrial islands, resort islands, wild islands and exploding islands…but artist Florent Chavouet had only ever visited two of them. This graphic novel is the story of one summer when he decides to get to know one more--the tiny island of Manabeshima. This speck of dirt in the Inland Sea, off the coast of Osaka, has a total population of 300, and he sets himself the task of recording everything and everyone he meets there in quirky detail on the pages of his sketchbook. Whereas Chavouet's other best-selling book, Tokyo on Foot, focuses on the physical city, it is the local island inhabitants who form the heart of this new book. Chavouet's sensitive drawings and insightful captions create instant portraits of incredible literary depth. The cast of characters who are lovingly depicted includes Ikkyu-san, owner of the island's only bar (and the bar's three regulars--skinny guy, Day-Glo cap guy and greasy-haired guy); the young Nakamura family and their five kids; the layabout Shimura-san, a living relic from the hippie 1970s; Kurata-san the policeman; Reizo-san the island intellectual in his elegant Meiji-era home; Rock the Neanderthal fisherman; and a chorus of assorted grandmothers and cats--all of whom welcome Chavouet into their community as a kindred soul. Against a backdrop of fireworks, summer festivals, fishing expeditions, and the constant hum of the cicadas, Chavouet depicts these characters so vividly and sympathetically, and describes their rustic way of life in such simple and appealing terms that we find it as hard to finish the book as Chavouet found it to leave the island at the end of his enchanted summer holiday.
Transcultural Japan provides a critical examination of being Other in Japan. Portraying the multiple intersections of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, the book suggests ways in which the transcultural borderlands of Japan reflect globalization in this island nation. The authors show the diversity of Japan from the inside, revealing an extraordinarily complex new society in sharp contrast to the persistent stereotypical images held of a regimented, homogeneous Japan. Unsettling as it may be, there are powerful arguments here for looking at the meanings of globalization in Japan through these diverse communities and individuals. These are not harmonious, utopian communities by any means, as they are formed in contexts, both global and local, of unequal power relations. Yet it is also clear that the multiple processes associated with globalization lead to larger hybridizations, a global mélange of socio-cultural, political, and economic forces and the emergence of what could be called trans-local Creolized cultures. Transcultural Japan reports regional, national, and cosmopolitan movements. Characterized by global flows, hybridity, and networks, this book documents Japan’s new lived experiences and rapid metamorphosis. Accessible and engaging, this broad-based volume is an attractive and useful resource for students of Japanese culture and society, as well as being a timely and revealing contribution to research scholars and for those interested in race, ethnicity, cultural identities and transformations.
"Japan's official efforts at internationalization have been painful to witness. . . . The government's JET program is easily the most ambitious and its history and on-the-ground problems offer significant insights into Japan's struggle to open up to the outside. David McConnell's book provides a most interesting analysis of why this process has been so complex and difficult. It tells us much about Japanese society and education at this critical point in time."—Thomas P. Rohlen, author of For Harmony and Strength "In this superb and insightful book, David McConnell explores perhaps the greatest (certainly the biggest) education program in humankind's history, offering patient, balanced analysis of its workings, problems, and accomplishments. McConnell's confucian equanimity and multifaceted perspectives lend the book a depth seldom found in contemporary writing on Japan."—Robert Juppe, First ALT Advisor for the JET Program "This is a very astute, thorough, and personal account of the JET program as a case study of how a program can both change a system and provoke defenses against any change. With his fine ethnographic and analytic material, McConnell reveals the faultlines of "internationalization" in Japan. This is a great contribution to the study of organizations, marginality, and shifts in global and national identity."—Merry White, author of Japanese Families: It Takes a Nation
This collection of twenty-six essays furnishes concise explanations of everyday Japanese life in simplified economic terms. They begin with such questions as, Do Japanese live better than Americans? Why don't Japanese workers claim all their overtime? Why don't Japanese use personal checking accounts? Why do Japanese give and receive so many gifts? The essays are written in non-technical, accessible language intended for the undergraduate or advanced placement high school student taking an economics course or studying Japan in a social science course. The general reader will find the book a fascinating compendium of facts on Japanese culture and daily life.
The 1990s have been termed as 'Japan's lost decade' to describe how the phenomenal growth in the Japanese economy ground to a halt and the country was crippled by enormous and ongoing political, economic and social problems. In responding to these unprecedented difficulties, wide-ranging reforms have been adopted including NPO, information disclosure and judicial reform legislation. Controversially, this book argues that such reforms are creating a more robust civil society and demonstrate that Japan is far more dynamic than is generally recognized.
This is a doctoral dissertation focusing on the theory informing and the practice of Peace Education. It offers insights into conceptions of Peace Education, how it is being taught and gives recommendations for teaching it.
Through Japanese Eyes shows us Japanese history and society through the eyes of a wide variety of Japanese (and a few non-Japanese) observers -- male and female, young and old, novelists, poets, and journalists. With an emphasis on young people and their educations, this volume interweaves the historical and the contemporary, the laudatory and the critical, the domestic and the foreign. It demolishes all stereotypes of Japan and leaves students with a new appreciation of Japanese diversity. And it challenges students to ask the same questions of their own society that these Japanese are asking of Japan. Sections with four to seven readings each treat "Japan before 1850," "The War Years," and "Japan Today." Sections with somewhat tighter focus treat "Textbooks and the Teaching of History," "Nature and Pollution," "Gender." A concluding section introduces the topic of "Japanese Americans." The text is accompanied by many boxes, photos, and charts. It is suitable for seventh grade and up. Varied, non-stereotyped, fascinating.
