Japan Studies

Racialization of crime and the criminalization of race are key mechanisms through which the legal justice system and cultural representations maintain the status quo (Jiwani). This article examines the racialization of war crimes and the particular representation of landscapes in the 21-minute National Film Board documentary The Mask of Nippon (dir. Margaret Palmer, 1942) by comparing it with Profile of Nippon, a 25-minute tourist documentary produced by Tōhō Films in 1936.

The relationship between Japan and Russia, rather than one that's stable and based on harmony, is full of issues and complexities that follow right after. One crucial issue that continues to overshadow the relation between them is the issue regarding the seizure of property rights over the Kuril Islands, an area which plays a big role in both countries' geopolitics and geostrategy. Arising in the 18 th century, this issue eventually culminated at the end of World War II; and in the midst of instability and efforts made toward an agreement, a deadlock situation has been seen often, resulting in both countries having yet to sign any peace pact to this day. This is primarily due to the belief that if any of the two countries give up their rights of ownership over Kuril Islands then there will be negative view from the international society toward them regarding their existence and role in the international system itself. In mid-2016, however, Japan implemented a new foreign policy which is a rapprochement toward Russia, and this policy is implemented through meetings resulting in an agreement on comprehensive economic and energy cooperation as well as a final meeting to resolve said issue. This paper argues that the dynamics of international system contributes to Japan's decision in conducting rapprochement toward Russia in 2016.

This commentary reviews the Heisei Era in the context of the role of the Emperor and Empress in bringing comfort and relief to the victims of Japan's many natural disasters. It was published on May 5, 2019, in Japan Forward.

http://japan-forward.com/thank-you-emperor-akihito-and-empress-michiko-for-your-service-to-japan-and-to-the-world/

If any scientific object has over the course of human history aroused
the fascination of both scientists and artists worldwide, it is beyond
doubt the moon. The moon is also by far the most interesting
celestial body when it comes to reflecting on the dualistic nature of
photography as applied to the study of the universe. Against this
background, Selene’s Two Faces sets out to look at the scientific
purpose, aesthetic expression, and influence of early lunar drawings,
maps and photographs, including spacecraft imaging. In its
approach, Selene’s Two Faces is intermedial, intercultural and
interdisciplinary. It brings together not only various media
(photography, maps, engravings, lithographs, globes, texts), and
cultures (from Europe, America and Asia), but also theoretical
perspectives.

Bu çalışma, Çin-Japonya ilişkilerinin 1950'lerden günümüze nasıl bir seyir izlediğini, işbirlikçi mi yoksa rekabetçi mi olduğunu ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışma, iki ülke arasındaki ilişkilerin Soğuk Savaş döneminde temel olarak karşılıklı çıkarlar üzerine kuruluyken Soğuk Savaş sonrası dönemde öz çıkarın karşılıklı çıkarlara üstün geldiğini iddia etmektedir. Başka bir deyişle Çin ile Japonya arasındaki ilişki, işbirlikçi bir ilişkiden rekabetçi bir ilişkiye dönüşmüştür. Bu bağlamda çalışmanın ilk bölümünde iki ana akım Uluslararası İlişkiler kuramı olan realizm ve liberalizmin dünya siyasetini nasıl anladığı ve tanımladığı üzerinde durulmaktadır. Ardından Çin ile Japonya arasındaki ilişkilerin 1950'lerden 2017'ye kadarki seyri incelenmekte ve sonuç kısmında da ikili ilişkiler üzerine kısa bir tartışma yapılmaktadır.

Keywords: Japan Studies Methodologies, Interview Methodologies in East Asia, Japanese Political Interviews, Japan and Southeast Asia, Japanese Business Interviews Note: At various points the experiences conveyed in this piece have benefitted from support by the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee (United Kingdom) and the Leverhulme Foundation (United Kingdom). 115 This research note summarises years of planning and conducting field research on Japan's political and business relations in Southeast Asia. Japan Studies usually, and obviously, means conducting research either in Japan or in the researcher's home country. However given Japan's wide-ranging involvement in many other countries, this is unnecessarily limiting, and so my research in Japan Studies has focused on examining 'Japan outside of Japan'. This research note is a detailed and practical step-by-step guide to planning primary-level research methods, focusing on interviews with elite (political and business) Japanese actors operating in countries other than Japan or the researcher's own country. It will highlight planning and conducting each stage of the field research, in addition to the many small and easy-to-overlook points for researchers who are engaged in Japan Studies. Not limited to field research outside of Japan and equally applicable to research being conducted within Japan itself, this research note nonetheless will present some of the challenges and solutions for future students to predict and plan for when necessarily engaging with Japan Studies in third-party locales.

Many researchers have considered the involvement of Kawabata Yasunari in cinema and the medium's possible influence on his literature. Such approaches, however, tend to assume a definition of the motion pictures as visuality or montage that then influences Kawabata instead of first considering Kawabata's own conception of cinema, his own film theory. By analyzing his writings on film, including his film criticism, short stories involving cinema, and his involvement in the film A Page of Madness, this paper outlines Kawabata's conception of cinema and argues that he developed a portrait of cinema that posed it as a challenge to identity, perception and knowledge itself. Often associated with the female body, the movies became to Kawabata both an object of fascination and a threat, something ultimately to be controlled through literature and the literary subject. What influenced his literature was then perhaps this perception of cinema as posing an epistemic crisis. It is his ambivalence towards this challenge that can serve as a key for elaborating on Kawabata's complicated location within prewar modernism. The publisher Taylor and Francis allows me to post a copy of my own article on my university repository. You can download a copy of the article there:

With Japan's general election less than two weeks away, the eight political parties jostling for seats have unveiled slogans that they believe encapsulate their philosophies and can help propel them to victory. Some parties have gone for the generic appeal to all, while others preferred to focus on a single issue that was close to their political hearts, apparently in the hope that voters shared that very focused interest. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have gone with a call to arms, claiming they were " Resolutely defending this country " .

Voters are now faced with a dilemma, do they continue to support a leader that has brought political stability, increased security through a tightening of the US-Japan Alliance and a series of strategic
partnerships with intra and extra regional powers such as Australia, India, and Vietnam, and economic growth or do they choose economic stagnation, increased insecurity and relative decline owing to weak leadership and incoherent policy?