COURSE GOALS AND METHODS

The course will provide an overall examination of contemporary Japanese culture and society. We will study the considerable continuities as well as great changes that characterize Japanese family life, gender roles, education, social stratification, religion and other aspects of Japanese life. We will consider Japanese efforts to make sense of Japanese patterns of behavior as well as the stereotypes, images and ethnographic descriptions produced by non-Japanese.

 Videos will be an important element of the course. It would be best to be in Japan but the next best thing is to be immersed in rich images. The course will use small group and large group discussion as well as lecture.

 The UWEC Academic Goals which will be addressed by this course are primarily:

Ability to inquire, think, analyze
Ability to write, read, speak, listen
An historical consciousness
International and intercultural experiences
An understanding of values
An understanding of human behavior and human institutions

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Exams

You will write two take-home midterms.  The first  will cover the reading material through February 13 (exam due Feb. 20 or no later than February 27) and the second covers the reading through April 2 (exam due April 9 or no later than April 16). Second midterm

     Exam guidelines   Writing Standards 

A group of two or three students will prepare questions on a specific article which members of the class will discuss in small groups.  The group should come up with about  4 questions which relate to the main points of the article and which will be interesting for other students to discuss. Write questions that are brief and clear. The questions must be sent to me the day before the class discussion. A sign-up list will be passed around in class. You can find the name of your partner(s) for the discussion on the: Presentation schedule

You will be expected to write a research paper about 5 pages long on a topic related to Japanese culture or society. You will also be expected to present your findings to the class in a 5 minute presentation.  Paper proposal describing the topic of the research and 3 main sources due March 5. Paper due May 7.

Instructions for Research paper

Writing Standards

Determination of course grade

Quizzes                      5 @ 20            100                 

Midterms                    2 @100            200                             

Research paper                                  100                 

                                                         400     

The principle that will be used to determine grades is the following:
94% of all points is an A; 90% A-; 84% B and so on. + and - grades will be given.

Attendance Policy

Attendance Slips

All students will be expected to hand in a slip of paper at the end of each class to demonstrate attendance and to provide feedback. Write your name, the date and at least one sentence referring to the day’s class. The feedback might report on something learned from today's class, something you found interesting in the material covered, anything that was not clear in the lecture and needs more explanation, thoughts you have about the ideas covered, suggestions about the course…

I consider any academic misconduct in this course as a serious offense, and I will pursue the strongest possible academic penalties for such behavior.  The disciplinary procedures and penalties for academic misconduct are described in the UW-Eau Claire Student Services and Standards Handbook(http://www.uwec.edu/sdd/publications.htm) in Chapter UWS 14—Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures. 

Any student who has a disability and is in need of classroom accommodations, please contact the instructor and the Services for Students with Disabilities Office in Old Library 2136 at the beginning of the semester.

Textbooks

All articles are available on electronic reserve.

Instructions for using Ereserve

Color coding

                  PowerPoint slides

Title    Required Webpage reading

Title    Webpage for your information

  Website The material that is underlined will produce a webpage when you click on it. The topic headings with a yellow background indicate PowerPoint slides, which you can view by clicking on the title. It would be a very good idea to print the slides before class so that during class you won't have to copy the slides but can listen and take additional notes.   Instructions for printing PowerPoint slides

Course Syllabus

Introduction  Geography of Japan, Images of Japan

 http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/japan/geography/geo1.htm

 http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/map/index_map.html

 Video: Colonel comes to Japan

  “Japan” and “Japanese”; Overview of History; Regional differences

 Text  Ch. 1

  MIA Asian Arts  http://www.artsmia.org/art%2Dof%2Dasia/

 Morris-Suzuki  “Rethinking ‘Japan’: Frontiers and Minorities in Modern Japan”

 Fukuoka “Introduction: ‘Japanese” and ‘Non-Japanese’” from Lives of Young Koreans in Japan  

Sugimoto An Introduction to Japanese Society Ch. 3 Geographical Variations pp. 61-69         

Video: Japan by Karen Muller    Ethnocentrism  Ethnocentrism

Chocolate bugs

Changing Japan

Tobin “Introduction: Domesticating the West”   

Bestor  “How Sushi became Global”       Tuna sushi

Video:  Tokyo Revealed

Basic social concepts; Generational differences; Japanese Language

Text Ch. 3 pp. 46-52

Tobin “Front and Rear (Omote and Ura) ”

Kennedy and Yaginuma “Up and Down Etiquette”

Sugimoto An Introduction to Japanese Society  Ch. 3 Generational Variations pp. 72-80

Sugimoto  "Homogeneity in Japan"   on Web

               Naot  Naotsuka & Sakamoto: Mutual Understanding of Different Cultures excerpts 

Mizutani: How to be Polite in Japanese excerpts

Video: Japanese Baseball

Exam due Feb. 20 (or Feb. 27)

 Family and Gender

 Text Ch. 2, Ch. 8 pp. 151-155

 Smits "Good Wives and Wise Mothers"  on Web (go to Web address for photos)  http://east-asian-history.net/textbooks/172/ch11_main.htm 

 http://www.japan-photo.de/frucht.htm

 Video:  Japanese Women

Fujita “”’It’s all Mother’s Fault’: Childcare and the Socialization of Working  

     Mothers in Japan” 

Nakano & Wagatsuma “Mothers and their unmarried daughters”

"Japan's women wary to wed" BBC News  on Web

Faiola   "Sick of their husbands in graying Japan"  Washington Post  Web

** Yamaguchi “Men on the Threshold of Change” 

** Karino, Ayako "Husbands reform to keep from getting dumped" Web

Video: Good Wife of Tokyo

Family & Gender

Jenike “Alone in the Family: Great-grandparenthood in Urban Japan”

Socialization; Education

Text  Ch. 3 pp. 52-60; Ch. 5

** Tobin et al “Komatsudani: A Japanese pre-school” 

** Fukuzawa “”The Path to Adulthood according to Japanese Middle Schools”

 Video:  Japanese Picture Forming Contest; Japanese Education

Social Stratification; Work

 Text Ch. 6 pp. 101-107; 121-122; Ch. 9 164-174; 178-182

 Sugimoto An Introduction to Japanese Society Ch. 2 Class and Stratification

 pp. 38-41; 46-49

 Kondo “Aesthetics and Politics of Artisanal Identities” pp. 237-239

 ** Matthews “Seeking a career, finding a job: How young people enter and resist the Japanese world of work”

Video: Faces of Culture: The Puppeteer’s Apprentice     Bunraku

Work

 ** Singer “The Dream World of Takarazuka”

Young Shibuya fashion leader

Video: Dream Girls

Exam due April 9 (or by April 16)

 Quiz  

Religion

 Text Ch. 7 

 ** Reader Religion in Contemporary Japan excerpts  

 Video: Shinto; Japanese Buddhism

Ritual

Text Ch. 8

Kondo “Work: Artisans and Machines”  Disc

Video: Annual Festivals

Arts & Entertainment

Text  Ch. 10   

** Kelly “Training for Leisure: Karaoke and the seriousness of play in Japan” 

** Allison  “Male Bonding”  

Befu  “An Ethnography of Dinner Entertainment in Japan”

Video: Arts and Crafts of Japan

Kick ass maidens; Sushi grass

Globalization

** Goodman et al “The experience of Japan’s new migrants and overseas communities” Disc

Tsuda “No Place to call Home”

Morita “Iranian immigrant workers in Japan and their networks”

Video:  Tokyo: the neon city