Social Science Japan Journal - Advance Access

Fukushi Seiji: Nihon no Seikatsu Hosho to Demokurashi

Kenji, H. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:29:17 PST

Japan Brand Strategy: The Taming of 'Cool Japan' and the Challenges of Cultural Planning in a Postmodern Age

DALIOT-BUL, M. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:13:39 PDT

The production of a new and attractive ‘Japan Brand’—one that resonates with the emerging global image of ‘Cool Japan’ associated with Japan's popular culture—is a national project incorporated in the Japanese Intellectual Property Strategy promoted by the state since 2002. This article critically examines the Japan Brand Strategy as a government-owned production site of Cool Japan imagery and as a cultural policy designed to promote a specific sense of cultural identity. Detailed reconstructions of the selective appropriation of cultural products in order to create a new cultural imagery for Japan, of the meanings attached to this imagery and of the tactics devised to spread it, highlight how problematical it is to appropriate market-made images of Cool Japan for national ends. Furthermore, by examining the various functions attributed to this national strategy, I show that while it is primarily promoted as a means for enhancing Japan's industrial policy and cultural diplomacy, it is also devised as a mechanism to mobilize the nation during unsettled times. Through examining the Japan Brand Strategy, this article highlights the challenges faced today by cultural policy makers, questioning the contemporary relevance of the modernistic approach to the state as a regulatory cultural planning apparatus.

Nihon Jidosha Kigyo no Shigoto/Kanri/Roshikankei: Kyoso wo Ijisuru Soshiki Genri (Organizational Principles for the Competitiveness of Automobile Companies)

Osamu, U. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:00:17 PDT

The Culture of Japanese Fascism

BROWN, R. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:00:16 PDT

An Exploratory Analysis of National Prestige Scores

Shunsuke, T. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:00:16 PDT

The purpose of this study is to develop a national prestige score by emulating occupational prestige scores and to analyze how Japanese people perceive the prestige of various countries. The results of my analysis show that the overall ranking of national prestige is consistent with prior research that measured preferences toward nations, e.g. Western countries are evaluated more highly than African or Middle Eastern countries. Furthermore, while prior studies on ‘preference’ indicated relatively low positions for neighboring countries such as China, South Korea and Russia, this study found that they were ranked in the mid-range, regarding their prestige. I also examined the validity and reliability of the national prestige scores, with the following findings: first, a comparative analysis between national prestige and national preference revealed conceptual differences between prestige and preference and the external validity of a nation's prestige score. Second, in order to assess the reliability of the scores, I analyzed differences based on gender, educational level and age group. However, those attributes did not make any notable differences in terms of the overall ranking of nations.

Nihon no Daigakuseido--Rekishi to Tenbo (The Japanese University System: History and Future Prospects)

ASKEW, D. — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:33:43 PDT

Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity

NAGY, S. R. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:47:24 PDT

The Mercantile Response in the Meiji Period: Capital Accumulation by Merchants and the Government's Rejection of Foreign Capital

Kanji, I. — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 20:58:57 PDT

This paper examines Japan's response to ‘external pressure’, mainly from Europe and the US, focussing on the ‘mercantile response’ by merchants and financiers. Before the beginning of free trade in 1859, many money exchange merchants in Osaka transacted with merchants and wealthy farmers from Hyogo to Kaizuka, along the coastal area of Osaka Bay. Despite the succession of bankruptcies in 1868, the financial market continued to function, and a number of the surviving exchange merchants established banks themselves. The Meiji government promoted the modernisation of the economy rejecting foreign capital, a situation unusual in international comparison. The government feared that, once foreign capital entered Japan, it would be difficult to prohibit interior trade by foreign merchants. Japan was able to achieve modern industrial development without foreign capital due to the industrial investment by merchants and financiers operating from the Edo period. However, financing from banks had a strict screening process, and few among the small- and medium-sized bourgeoisie were able to secure loans. The outcome of Japan's industrial revolution was thus a bi-polar economic structure, with giant capital on the one hand, and small businesses and farmers on the other.

The Intellectual Culture of Postwar Japan and the 1968-1969 University of Tokyo Struggles: Repositioning the Self in Postwar Thought

KERSTEN, R. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:19:06 PDT

Japan's student-led protests of 1968–1969 resonated with similar movements around the world, particularly in their demand for individual autonomy and liberation from the burden of mature capitalism and the yoke of social regimentation. In the case of Japan, this movement also signified a major turning point in postwar intellectual culture. 1968 was when protesting youth led a critical rejection of the progressive intellectuals who had defined the substance of postwar Japanese democratic idealism. In intellectual terms, progressive thinkers were challenged from two directions: radicalism and conservatism. The confrontation between these three intellectual positions was dramatised in the movement that took place at the University of Tokyo. This article examines the experiences and responses of Maruyama Masao, Yoshimoto Takaaki (Ryumei) and Hayashi Kentaro during the course of the 1968–1969 protests at the University of Tokyo. I conclude that while 1968 heralded the end of progressive predominance, it confirmed the importance of ideas about the self in postwar intellectual life.

Fighting for Foreigners: Immigration and Its Impact on Japanese Democracy

Yuka, I. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:33:07 PDT

Setainai Bunpai to Sedaikan Iten no Keizai Bunseki (Economic Analysis of Intra-household Distribution and Intergenerational Transfers)

Yukinobu, K. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:33:07 PDT

Shifting Boundaries of the Firm: Japanese Company-Japanese Labour

LEE, M. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:33:06 PDT

Kazoku Kyotei no Hoshakaigaku-teki Kenkyu (A Treatise of Sociology of Law upon Family Agreements)

Shiro, K. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:33:41 PDT

Nihon Shisoshi Handobukku (A Handbook of Japanese Intellectual History)

Minako, S. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:33:41 PDT

Gakumon no Boryoku: Ainu Bochi wa Naze Abakareta ka (The Violence of Scholarship: Why Were Ainu Graves Desecrated?)

HOWELL, D. L. — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:08:13 PDT

Archeologie et Patrimoine au Japon

NANTA, A. — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:08:12 PDT

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Jun, S. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:21:27 PDT

'Freeter' und 'Generation Praktikum'--Arbeitswerte im Wandel? Ein deutsch-japanischer Vergleich ('Freeter' and 'Generation Internship'--Changing Work Values? A German-Japanese Comparison)

CHIAVACCI, D. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:55:10 PDT

War Memory, Nationalism and Education in Postwar Japan, 1945-2007

HEIN, L. — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:17:00 PDT

Mono to Otoko no Sengoshi (Things, Men, and Japan's Postwar History)

KATSUNO, H. — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:26:37 PDT

Bunka, Kotoba, Kyoiku: Nihongo/Nihon no Kyoiku no 'Hyojun' wo Koete (Culture, Language, Education: Beyond the Standardization of the Japanese Language and Japanese Education)

Masami, S. — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:12:29 PDT

Past and Present Constraints on Labor Movements for Gender Equality in Japan

Kazuyo, Y. — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:33:00 PDT

The purpose of this paper is to compare the obstacles Japan's representative national trade union centers, Sohyo and Rengo, faced in their efforts to achieve gender-equal employment and to illustrate how they coped with these obstacles at the time of the enactment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1985 and at the time of its revision in 2006, through a detailed analysis of primary materials. Thanks to the 1997 revision, labor movements today are free from the dilemma of having to choose either ‘protection’ or ‘equality’ for women. Given this, I argue that the labor movements should now step up their efforts to achieve equality. In order to take a step toward the realization of gender equality and to forge a new solidarity by bridging the chasm that divides the labor movements in different employment categories, reconstructing the present framework of the categories of ‘regular’ and ‘non-regular’ workers is of utmost importance to labor movements.

A Window on Trends and Shifting Interpretations of Youth Sexual Behaviour: The Japan Association of Sex Education's 'Wakamono no Sei' Hakusho Reports from 1975 to 2007

Anne YAMAMOTO, B. — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:02:33 PDT

Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan: Party, Bureaucracy, and Business

Nobuhiro, H. — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:31:34 PDT

Announcing the Winner of the 2007 ISS/OUP Prize

Ishida, H. — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:10:29 PDT