• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.57-68
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• 2014

How do party organizations respond to newly evolving social groups? Research on Indian party organizations reveals that in multiethnic societies with uneven modernization between social groups, internally competitive parties respond better to newly evolving groups. Moreover, it is claimed: the same dynamic works vis-$\grave{a}$-vis homogenous societies with cleavages based on economic differences; and, the pattern holds regardless of differences in electoral institutions. This study examines these claims by testing whether factional competition correlated with recruitment into Japan's Liberal Democratic Party in 1972 and 1983. Japan had a single-nontransferable-vote system with multi-member districts, while the research on India assumes a first-past-the-post system with single-member districts. This study conducts a difference of means test on the population of new and old politicians in the LDP in 1972 and 1983 with a pooled variance adjustment to account for differences in populations' size. The findings show that intra-party competition and recruitment are not correlated in Japan, thus tentatively rejecting both claims.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.152-167
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• 2018

Until recently, Japanese cuisine was known only for sushi and was still considered exotic outside the archipelago. However, today the number of specialized restaurants which serve other traditional foods is constantly increasing all over the world, making Japanese gastronomy one of the most influential. Japanese government has supported the promotion of national cuisine worldwide in different ways, making washoku (Japanese traditional cuisine) one of the main elements of Japan's soft power and cultural diplomacy. In this paper, I will analyse the connection between Japan's gastrodiplomacy, defined as the use of typical food and dishes as an instrument of soft power, and Japan's food security strategy. I will argue that the strategy of promotion of washoku worldwide is not a mere act of popularization of Japanese food but it is strictly related to the issue of the low self-sufficiency rate of the country, as the main objective of the government is the raise of food export, in order to foster agricultural production and improve self-sufficiency.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.179-196
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• 2020

Despite the enormous success in Japan of Korean popular culture, including TV dramas and K-pop, over the past few decades, anti-Korean sentiment in the country has become increasingly visible and intense. In this article, we examine how young Japanese female fans of Korean popular culture engage with the Korean Wave discourse while also engaging with―or, rather, disengaging from―anti-Korean movements and hate speech. Whereas previous scholarship on the Korean Wave has emphasized the power of active fans' agency, this paper investigates how the fans who passionately and self-reflexively consume Korean popular culture understand and react to the growing anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. Through in-depth interviews with 15 of these fans in their 20s and 30s, we show how they have navigated the discursive space between appreciation for Korean culture and anti-Koreanism in Japan.

• 수완나부미
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.95-119
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• 2016

From the migrant care-workers arriving in Japan from the Philippines and Indonesia to support the depleted social support system for the large population of the elderly (Ogawa 2012) to the increasing number of retiring Japanese embarking on long-stay tourism in Malaysia (Ono 2015), the Japanese image of Southeast Asia as an exotic destination offering cheap labor in return for official development assistance seems to be fading away. Yet these changes are not necessarily reflected in the way contemporary Japanese, especially those who belong to the global, "spiritual-but not-religious" (Fuller 2001) population, think of and "consume" Southeast Asia in their daily lives. Using three case-studies, spiritual tours, Thai massage, and an NGO founded by a Japanese spiritual therapist, this paper argues that in Japan's large spiritual market, which targets people seeking alternative ways to express their religiosity, the old-fashioned colonial exoticism of Southeast Asian narratives were integrated in a totalizing discourse, in which Japan remains the exceptional outlier (Tanaka 1993), a country still claimed to be "advanced" both spiritually and economically.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

In this paper uses Kaname Akamatsu's 'Flying Geese' model to analyse Japan's role in East Asian integration. Japan made the first attempt to lead Asian countries before the Second World War. At that time, the Japanese Government embarked on a brutally expansionist policy the result of which was creation of the first gaggle of 'flying geese' under the name of the 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.' During the 'flight' Japan was forcefully imposing its own ideals and values on the rest of the 'gaggle.' At the same time, the Japanese Government assumed hostile attitude toward Western countries. Japan's defeat in the Second World War signified the end of flight for the first 'flying geese' gaggle. After the war, Japan made another attempt at regional integration. This time it was done through establishing a production network in East Asia. Thus the second gaggle of 'flying geese' came into existence. During the flight of the 'second gaggle' of geese, Japan was fostering good ties with Western countries as well, especially the United States. However, some leaders of the 'second gaggle's' member-countries emboldened by their countries' economic success proclaimed that future belongs to Asia and put forward the 'Asian values' argument. The Asian economic crisis of 1997 interrupted the flight of the 'second gaggle' and effectively put an end to the 'Asian values' debate. It is interesting to note that some elements of the 'Asian values' argument resembled ultranationalist discourse that had been dominant in Japan before and during the Second World War. This paper compares historical patterns of East Asian regional integration and highlights future challenges for Japan's Asia policy.

• Architectural research
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.99-109
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• 2019

'Superflat' is a hugely influential contemporary art movement founded by Takashi Murakami. The concept of Superflat art is based on the notion that there exists in contemporary Japanese culture an inherent inclination for two-dimensionality devoid of perspective and hierarchy with all elements existing equally and simultaneously. The theory is defined in broad terms and asserts that this inclination for flat aesthetic has its roots in the traditional Japanese art and the development of post-war Japanese subculture. As such, Superflat as a theory possesses a capacity to engage and explain wide-ranging conditions in contemporary Japan. Taro Igarashi has made such a point and argues that the generations of leading Japanese architects practicing today possess Superflat 'tendency' for flat aesthetics and are inclined to focus on the expressive possibilities of the building's skin. While such sensibility could simply be interpreted as a stylistic trend that has emerged over the years, when examined against the characteristics of the art movement, there exist unmistakable similarities in terms of the design sensibility and techniques applied. Furthermore, the theory has become a force in how Japanese architecture is defined and understood internationally in the past decade.

• 건축역사연구
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.228-239
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• 1992

I'm going to endow with any characters to the mixed history of Korean Contemporary Architecture, and rearrange the relations between motive of transfer and the ideology which is concluded in expression through considering the transitional period which is based on the modernity, tradition and additional area such as ideology, politics, technology, literature, sculpture and painting etc. This abstract explain only characters of revivalism in Korean Contemporary Architecture. Revivalism have some complexed nationalistic leanings. Our transitional succession returned to revivalism that is limitted by its form. Of course, that is dued to complexed operating such as the Ideal Nationalism against the severance of our culture which had been done by Japan, the Superior Nationalism which is developed by antagonism of our own ideology was dued to dividing into sections of our own country, and the Resistant Nationalism against foreign culture.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.61-83
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• 2020

From 1959 to 1984, over 93,000 Koreans moved to North Korea from Japan as part of a repatriation project conducted during this time. Among them were people who had escaped from North Korea and immigrated to Japan and South Korea as well as the descendants of such people. This research examines the immigration trajectories of North Korean defectors related to the repatriation project and its effects on international relations in East Asia in a migration systems context. Specifically, it focuses on 26 North Korean defectors who have connections with Japan and settled in Japan and South Korea. It argues that the migration pathways of North Korean defectors linked with the repatriation project have been constructed with the cooperation of and amidst conflict between East Asian countries. To respond to the situation, North Korean defectors used their connections with Japan in amicable relations between Japan and China. However, after the relations went sour, defectors turned to informal transitional networks. If these strategies were unavailable, the defectors faced difficulties, unless they received social or capital support from the destination countries. After entering the destination country, those who settled in Japan have experienced different situations due to the inconsistency in administrative proceedings, while those in South Korea have been treated equally as other defectors. In this sense, some defectors have faced precarious situations in their immigration.

• 분석과 대안
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.163-202
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• 2020

This paper examines how Japanese society produced and reproduced a distinctively gendered history and memories of the experience of WWII and colonialism in the postwar era. We argue that these gendered narratives, which were embedded in postwar debates about the Peace Constitution and comfort women, have engendered contradictions and made the historical conflicts with neighboring countries challenging to resolve. On the one hand, this deepens conflict, but on the other, it also generates stability in East Asia. After Japan's defeat in WWII, the American Occupation government created the Peace Constitution, which permanently "renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." The removal of the state's monopoly on violence - the symbol of masculinity - resulted in Japan's feminization. This feminization led to collective forgetting of prewar imperialism and militarism in postwar Japan. While collectively forgetting the wartime history of comfort women within these feminized narratives, the conservative movement to revise the Peace Constitution attempted to recover Japan's masculinity for a new, autonomous role in international politics, as uncertainty in East Asia increased. Ironically, however, this effort strengthened Japan's femininity because it involved forgetting Japan's masculine role in the past. This forgetting has undermined efforts to achieve masculine independence, thus reinforcing dependence on the United States. Recurrent debates about the Peace Constitution and comfort women have influenced how Japanese political elites and intellectual society have constructed distinctive social institutions, imagined foreign relations, and framed contemporary problems, as indicated in their gendered restructuring of history.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제11권2호
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• pp.27-45
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• 2012

Among political scientists, Japan's free trade agreements (FTA) with member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been considered to be a political tool that can compete against China for regional leadership in East Asia. However, this paper demonstrates that Japan's so-called FTA diplomacy towards ASEAN nations serves the broad interests of Japanese actors in both the political and economic sectors. Given the attention to Japanese domestic political issues, it is argued that diplomacy primarily facilitates a need for free trade with ASEAN and ASEAN markets for Japanese corporations to compete in the global economy and for the government to nurture Japan's stagnant economy by assisting these corporations. This work also contends that the unclear function of FTA as an economic good is due to the lack of the government capacity to effectively manage FTA diplomacy. This partly results from the conventional view with regard to Sino-Japanese rivalry.