Social Sciences › Cultural Studies

Japanese History and Culture

Works Count: 155085

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This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to Japanese culture, society, and history, including modernization, gender dynamics, colonialism, literature, and politics. It explores the complexities of Japanese identity and its interactions with East Asian cultures.

Keywords

Japan; culture; identity; society; modernization; gender; history; colonialism; literature; politics

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

1978-02-01

Ruth Benedict , Arnold van Gennep

Introducing Human Geographies

2013-01-11

Paul Cloke , Philip Crang , Mark Goodwin

Introduction Part 1 Foundations Culture-Nature Society-Space Local-Global Control-Freedom Self-Other Image-Reality Masculinity-Femininity Science-Art Relevant-Esoteric Part 2 Themes Section 1 Cultural Geographies Imaginative Geographies Landscapes The Geographies of Material Culture Section 2 … Introduction Part 1 Foundations Culture-Nature Society-Space Local-Global Control-Freedom Self-Other Image-Reality Masculinity-Femininity Science-Art Relevant-Esoteric Part 2 Themes Section 1 Cultural Geographies Imaginative Geographies Landscapes The Geographies of Material Culture Section 2 Development Geographies Theories of Development Rethinking Development Survival and Resistance Section 3 Economic Geographies Production Money and Finance Consumption Geographies Section 4 Environmental Geographies Global and Local Environmental Problems Sustainability Environmental Knowledges and Environmentalism Section 5 Historical Geographies Memory and Heritage Colonialism and Postcolonialism Modernity and Modernisation Section 6 Political Geographies Geopolitics Citizenship and Governance Nationalism Section 7 Social Geographies Identity Identity and difference: age, dis/ability and sexuality Exclusion Section 8 Urban and Rural Geographies Urban Forms Sensing the city: urban experiences The country Part 3 Issues Emotional Geographies Place Diasporas Migration and Refugees Travel and Tourism Commodities The media War/Peace Globalization and protest Who cares? Postscript: your human geographies

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History

2017-10-02

Bruce Cumings

Bruce Cumings's rich narrative focuses on Korea's fractured, shattered, twentieth-century history. In 1910 Korea lost its centuries-old independence, and it remained an exploited colony of Japan until 1945. Then came … Bruce Cumings's rich narrative focuses on Korea's fractured, shattered, twentieth-century history. In 1910 Korea lost its centuries-old independence, and it remained an exploited colony of Japan until 1945. Then came national division, political turmoil, a devastating war, and the death and dislocation of millions, all of which left Korea still divided and in desperate poverty. Its recovery and spectacular growth over the next generation is one of this century's most remarkable achievements. Cumings provides a compelling account of Korea's travails and triumphs in the modern period.

China rising: peace, power, and order in East Asia

2008-07-01

David C. Kang

List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPart I: The Puzzle and the Argument1. The Puzzle and China's Amazing Rise2. Power, Interests, and Identity in East Asian International Relations, 1300 to 19003. Describing East Asia: … List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPart I: The Puzzle and the Argument1. The Puzzle and China's Amazing Rise2. Power, Interests, and Identity in East Asian International Relations, 1300 to 19003. Describing East Asia: Alignment Strategies Toward ChinaPart II: East Asia Responds to China4. China: Identity, Sovereignty, and Taiwan5. South Korea: Embracing Interdependence in Search of Security6. Southeast Asia: Accommodating China's Rise7. Japan: A Normal IdentityPart III: East Asia and the United States8. The Role of the United States in East Asia9. Conclusions and ImplicationsNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

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The geography of thought : how Asians and Westerners think differently--and why

2003-01-01

Richard E. Nisbett

When Richard Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish.Japanese subjects, on the other hand, made observations … When Richard Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish.Japanese subjects, on the other hand, made observations about the background environment...and the different seeings are a clue to profound underlying cognitive differences between Westerners and East Asians. As Professor Nisbett shows in The Geography of Thought people actually think - and even see - the world differently, because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China, and that have survived into the modern world. As a result, East Asian thought is holistic - drawn to the perceptual field as a whole, and to relations among objects and events within that field. By comparison to Western modes of reasoning, East Asian thought relies far less on categories, or on formal logic: it is fundamentally dialectic, seeking a middle way between opposing thoughts. By contrast, Westerners focus on salient objects or people, use attributes to assign them to categories, and apply rules of formal logic to understand their behavior.

OJIBWA ONTOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND WORLD VIEW

1964-12-31

A. Irving Hallowell

The tourist image: myths and myth making in tourism.

1996-01-01

Tom Selwyn

Genuine Fakes Looking for Shangri-La The People of Tourist Brochures Passion, Power and Politics in a Palestinian Tourist Market Ritual, Tourism and Cultural Commoditization in Malta - Culture by the … Genuine Fakes Looking for Shangri-La The People of Tourist Brochures Passion, Power and Politics in a Palestinian Tourist Market Ritual, Tourism and Cultural Commoditization in Malta - Culture by the Pound? Tourism and the Politics of Authenticity in a North Cotswold Town Atmospheric Notes from the Fields - Reflections on Myth Collecting Tours The Tourist as Deity - Ancient Continuities in Modern Japan Place, Image and Power Postcards: Greetings from Another World The Museum of the Jewish Diaspora Tells a Story.

Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture

1990-06-01

Ulf Hannerz

British Factory--Japanese Factory.

1974-09-01

Robert E. Cole , Ronald Dore

Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations since 1875

1999-01-01

Fen Osler Hampson , John Boli , George Thomas

Contents BOLI JOHN THOMAS GEORGE M. Part One: 1. BOLI JOHN THOMAS GEORGE M. 2. BOLI JOHN LOYA THOMAS A. LOFTIN TERESA Part Two: 3. FRANK DAVID JOHN HIRONAKA ANN … Contents BOLI JOHN THOMAS GEORGE M. Part One: 1. BOLI JOHN THOMAS GEORGE M. 2. BOLI JOHN LOYA THOMAS A. LOFTIN TERESA Part Two: 3. FRANK DAVID JOHN HIRONAKA ANN MEYER JOHN W. SCHOFER EVAN TUMA NANCY BRANDON 4. BERKOVITCH NITZA 5. KIM YOUNG S. 6. FINNEMORE MARTHA Part Three: 7. LOYA THOMAS A. BOLI JOHN 8. BARRETT DEBORAH FRANK DAVID JOHN 9. CHABBOTT COLETTE 10. SCHOFER EVAN BOLI JOHN

Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics

1984-01-01

Henry D. Smith , Frederik L. Schodt

Since first published in 1983, Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics has been the book to read for all those interested in Japanese comics. It is virtually the bible' … Since first published in 1983, Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics has been the book to read for all those interested in Japanese comics. It is virtually the bible' from which all studies and appreciation of manga begins. More than that, given the influence of Japanese manga on animation and on American-produced comics as well, Manga! Manga! provides the background against which these other arts can be understood. The book includes 96 pages from Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix, Reiji Matsumoto's Ghost Warrior, Riyoko Ikeda's The Rose of Versailles, and Keiji Nakazawa's BarefootGen.'

Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism

2018-04-17

Ronald Dore

Goodwill is more status-neutral, more an expression of Hobhouse's 'principle of mutuality'. 'Opportunism' may be a lesser danger in Japan because of the explicit encouragement, and actual prevalence, in the … Goodwill is more status-neutral, more an expression of Hobhouse's 'principle of mutuality'. 'Opportunism' may be a lesser danger in Japan because of the explicit encouragement, and actual prevalence, in the Japanese economy of what one might call moralized trading relationships of mutual goodwill. In Japanese relational contracting, by contrast, it is a particular sense of diffuse obligation to the individual trading partner, not to society, which is at issue. To put the matter in Parson's terms, relational contracting is to be understood in the universalism/particularism dimension, whereas the Durkheim point relates to the fifth dichotomy that Parsons later lost from sight: collective-orientation versus individual- orientation. If a firm's market is declining, it is less likely to respond simply by cutting costs to keep profits up, more likely to search desperately for new product lines to keep busy the workers it is committed to employing anyway. Factory flexibility agreements take the employment contract further away from the original rate-for-the-specific-job basis.

Mapping the subject: geographies of cultural transformation

1996-05-01

Steve Pile , Nigel Thrift

Rejecting static and reductionist understandings of subjectivity, this book asks how people find their place in the world. Mapping the Subject is an inter-disciplinary exploration of subjectivity, which focuses on … Rejecting static and reductionist understandings of subjectivity, this book asks how people find their place in the world. Mapping the Subject is an inter-disciplinary exploration of subjectivity, which focuses on the importance of space in the constitution of acting, thinking, feeling individuals. The authors develop their arguments through detailed case studies and clear theoretical expositions. Themes discussed are organised into four parts: constructing the subject, sexuality and subjectivity, the limits of identity, and the politics of the subject. There is, here, a commitment to mapping the subject - a subject which is in some ways fluid, in other ways fixed; which is located in constantly unfolding power, knowledge and social relationships. This book is, moreover, about new maps for the subject.

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Nations without Nationalism

1994-01-01

Dina Sherzer , Julia Kristeva

What of tomorrow's nation? open letter to Harlem Desir the nation and the world concerning The Samurai. What of tomorrow's nation? open letter to Harlem Desir the nation and the world concerning The Samurai.

Alliance Capitalism

1992-12-31

Michael L. Gerlach

Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in … Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in the post-war period - a success it is useful to understand in a time marked by controversial trade imbalances and concerns over competitive industrial performance. Gerlach focuses on what he calls the intercorporate alliance, the innovative and increasingly pervasive practice of bringing together a cluster of affiliated companies that extends across a broad range of markets. The best known of these alliances are the keiretsu, or enterprise groups, which include both diversified families of firms located around major banks and trading companies and vertical families of suppliers and distributors linked to prominent manufacturers in the automobile, electronics and other industries. In providing a key link between isolated local firms and extended international markets, the intercorporate alliance has had profound effects on the industrial and social organization of Japanese businesses. Gerlach casts his net widely. He not only provides a rigorous analysis of intercorporate capitalism in Japan, making useful distinctions between Japanese and American practices, but he also develops a broad theoretical context for understanding Japan's business networks. Addressing economists, sociologists and other social scientists, he argues that the intercorporate alliance is as much a result of overlapping political, economic and social forces as traditional Western economic institutions such as the public corporation and the stock market. Most compellingly, Alliance Capitalism raises important questions about the best method of exchange in any economy. It identifies situations where cooperation among companies is an effective way of channelling corporate activities in a world marked by complexity and rapid change, and considers in detail alternatives to hostile takeovers and other characteristic features of American capitalism. The book also points to the broader challenges facing Japan and its trading partners as they seek to coordinate their distinctive forms of economic organization.

THE SOMATIC CHROMOSOMES IN MONGOLISM

1959-04-01

P.A. Jacobs

Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life.

1997-01-01

Ann Waswo , Sheldon Garon

List of IllustrationsAbbreviationsPrefaceSocial Management: An Introduction3Pt. 1State and Society Before 194523Ch. 1The Evolution of Japanese-Style Welfare25Ch. 2Defining Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy60Ch. 3The World's Oldest Debate? Regulating Prostitution and Illicit Sexuality88Ch. 4Integrating … List of IllustrationsAbbreviationsPrefaceSocial Management: An Introduction3Pt. 1State and Society Before 194523Ch. 1The Evolution of Japanese-Style Welfare25Ch. 2Defining Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy60Ch. 3The World's Oldest Debate? Regulating Prostitution and Illicit Sexuality88Ch. 4Integrating Women into Public Life: Women's Groups and the State115Pt. 2Social Management in Postwar Japan147Ch. 5Re-creating the Channels of Moral Suasion149Ch. 6Sexual Politics and the Feminization of Social Management178Ch. 7Managing Spiritual Life and Material Well-being206Epilogue231Notes239Bibliography273Interviews298Index299

Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia

1997-07-01

Sanjay Subrahmanyam

The majority of Japanese even today believe that the politico-cultural universe of the Edo period was fundamentally determined by the closure of the country. They also think that the opening … The majority of Japanese even today believe that the politico-cultural universe of the Edo period was fundamentally determined by the closure of the country. They also think that the opening of Japan can be reduced to the development of exchanges with the West, following the birth of the Meiji regime. It is hard for them to imagine that Japan developed in relation with other Asian countries, since they are hardly used to appreciating Asian cultures.

A World of Regions

2019-01-18

Peter J. Katzenstein

PrefaceChapter 1. American Power in World Politics America and Regions Globalization and Internationalization Porous Regional Orders Cases and PerspectivesChapter 2. Regional Orders Regional Politics, Present at the Creation Ethnic Capitalism … PrefaceChapter 1. American Power in World Politics America and Regions Globalization and Internationalization Porous Regional Orders Cases and PerspectivesChapter 2. Regional Orders Regional Politics, Present at the Creation Ethnic Capitalism in Asian Market Networks Law and Politics in a European PolityChapter 3. Regional Identities Regional Identities in Asia and Europe East and West Germany and JapanChapter 4. Regional Orders in Economy and Security Technology and Production Networks in Asia and Europe External and Internal Security in Europe and Asia Regional Orders in Asia and EuropeChapter 5. Porous Regions and Culture Cultural Diplomacy of Japan and Germany Popular Culture in Asia and Europe A Very Distant World-Closed Regions in the 1930sChapter 6. Linking Regions and Imperium Connecting to the Center-Germany and Japan in the American Imperium Connecting to the Periphery-Subregionalism in Europe and Asia Two-Way AmericanizationChapter 7. The American Imperium in a World of Regions American Imperium Porous Regions in Europe and Asia The Americas Extending the Argument to South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East Predicaments and Possibilities of ImperiumBibliography Index

Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II

2000-01-01

Simon Partner , John W. Dower

Part 1 Victor and vanquished: shattered lives - euphemistic surrender, unconditional surrender, quantifying coming home ... perhaps, displaced persons, despised veterans, stigmatized victims gifts from heaven - from above, demilitarization … Part 1 Victor and vanquished: shattered lives - euphemistic surrender, unconditional surrender, quantifying coming home ... perhaps, displaced persons, despised veterans, stigmatized victims gifts from heaven - from above, demilitarization and democratization, imposing reform. Part 2 Transcending despair: Kyodatsu - exhaustion and despair - hunger and bamboo-shoot existence, enduring unendurable, sociologies of despair, child's play, inflation and economic sabotage cultures of defeat - servicing conquerors, butterflies, onlys and subversive women, black-market entrepreneurship, kasutori culture, decadence and authenticity, married life bridges of language - mocking brightness, apples and English, familiarity of new, rushing into print, bestsellers and posthumous heroes, heroines and victims. Part 3 Revolutions: neocolonial revolution - victors as viceroys, reevaluating monkey-men, experts and obedient herd embracing revolution - embracing commander, intellectuals and community of remorse, grass-roots engagements, institutionalizing reform, democratizing everyday language making revolution - lovable communists and radicalized workers, sea of red flags, unmaking revolution from below. Part 4 Democracies: imperial democracy - driving wedge -psychological warfare and son of heaven, purifying sovereign, letter, photograph and memorandum imperial democracy - descending partway from heaven - becoming bystanders, becoming human, cutting smoke with scissors imperial democracy -evading - confronting abdication, imperial tours and manifest human, one man's shattered god democracy - GHQ writes a new national charter - regendering a hermaphroditic creature, conundrums for men of Meiji, popular initiatives for a new national charter, SCAP takes over, GHQ's constitutional convention thinking about idealism and cultural imperialism democracy - American draft - the last opportunity for conservative group, translation marathon, unveiling draft constitution, water flows, river stays, Japanizing democracy, renouncing war ... perhaps, responding to a fait accompli censored democracy -policing new taboos - phantom bureaucracy, impermissible discourse, purifying victors, policing cinema, curbing political left. Part 5 Guilts: victor's justice, loser's justice -stern justice, showcase justice - Tokyo Tribunal, Tokyo and Nuremberg, victor's justice and its critics, race, power and powerlessness, loser's justice - naming names what do you tell dead when you lose? - a requiem for departed heroes, irrationality, science and responsibility for defeat, Buddhism as repentance and repentance as nationalism, responding to atrocity, remembering criminals, forgetting their crimes. Part 6 Reconstructions: engineering growth - oh, mistake

Worlding Cities. Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global

2013-05-30

Ola Söderström

Old Societies and New States. The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa

1964-01-01

Geoffrey F. Engholm , Clifford Geertz

Japan's Modern Myths

1985-12-31

Carol Gluck

Crafting selves: power, gender, and discourses of identity in a Japanese workplace

1990-10-01

ethnography of Japan is currently being reshaped by a new generation of Japanologists, and the present work certainly deserves a place in this body of literature. . . . The … ethnography of Japan is currently being reshaped by a new generation of Japanologists, and the present work certainly deserves a place in this body of literature. . . . The combination of utility with beauty makes book required reading, for those with an interest not only in Japan but also in reflexive anthropology, women's studies, field methods, the anthropology of work, social psychology, Asian Americans, and even modern literature.--Paul H. Noguchi, American Anthropologist Kondo's work is significant because she goes beyond disharmony, insisting on complexity. Kondo shows that inequalities are not simply oppressive-they are meaningful ways to establish identities.--Nancy Rosenberger, Journal of Asian Studies

Asian and African Studies

1976-01-01

Burton Raffel

Bonds of civility: aesthetic networks and the political origins of Japanese culture

2005-12-01

Bukimi no tani [the uncanny valley]

1970-01-01

Masahiro Mori

The Asian Monsoon

2006-01-01

Bin Wang

Origins of Modern Japanese Literature

1993-01-01

K ̄ojin Karatani

Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland

2003-12-31

Takeyuki Tsuda

Since the late 1980s, Brazilians of Japanese descent have been "return" migrating to Japan as unskilled foreign workers. With an immigrant population currently estimated at roughly 280,000, Japanese Brazilians are … Since the late 1980s, Brazilians of Japanese descent have been "return" migrating to Japan as unskilled foreign workers. With an immigrant population currently estimated at roughly 280,000, Japanese Brazilians are now the second largest group of foreigners in Japan. Although they are of Japanese descent, most were born in Brazil and are culturally Brazilian. As a result, they have become Japan's newest ethnic minority. Drawing upon close to two years of multisite fieldwork in Brazil and Japan, Takeyuki Tsuda has written a comprehensive ethnography that examines the ethnic experiences and reactions of both Japanese Brazilian immigrants and their native Japanese hosts. In response to their socioeconomic marginalization in their ethnic homeland, Japanese Brazilians have strengthened their Brazilian nationalist sentiments despite becoming members of an increasingly well-integrated transnational migrant community. Although such migrant nationalism enables them to resist assimilationist Japanese cultural pressures, its challenge to Japanese ethnic attitudes and ethnonational identity remains inherently contradictory. Strangers in the Ethnic Homeland illuminates how cultural encounters caused by transnational migration can reinforce local ethnic identities and nationalist discourses.

Japan as Number One

1979-12-31

Ezra F. Vogel

Globalization and Culture:

1998-07-21

Geeta Kapur

Global Modernities

1995-01-01

Mike Featherstone , Scott Lash , Roland Robertson

Imperialism and Popular Culture

1987-01-01

David Maughan‐Brown , John M. MacKenzie

Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima

1969-02-01

Ardath W. Burks , Robert Jay Lifton

Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology

1996-01-26

Archaeology has often been put to political use, particularly by nationalists. The case studies in this timely collection range from the propaganda purposes served by archaeology in the Nazi state, … Archaeology has often been put to political use, particularly by nationalists. The case studies in this timely collection range from the propaganda purposes served by archaeology in the Nazi state, through the complex interplay of official dogma and academic prehistory in the former Soviet Union, to lesser-known instances of ideological archaeology in other European countries, in China, Japan, Korea and the Near East. The introductory and concluding chapters draw out some of the common threads in these experiences, and argue that archaeologists need to be more sophisticated about the use and abuse of their studies. The editors have brought together a distinguished international group of scholars. Whilst archaeologists will find that this book raises cogent questions about their own work, these problems also go beyond archaeology to implicate history and anthropology more generally.

The anime machine: a media theory of animation

2010-04-01

Thomas Lamarre

Preface Introduction: The Anime Machine Part I. Multiplanar Image 1. Cinematism and Animetism 2. Animation Stand 3. Compositing 4. Merely Technological Behavior 5. Flying Machines 6. Full Animation 7. Only … Preface Introduction: The Anime Machine Part I. Multiplanar Image 1. Cinematism and Animetism 2. Animation Stand 3. Compositing 4. Merely Technological Behavior 5. Flying Machines 6. Full Animation 7. Only a Girl Can Save Us Now 8. Giving Up the Gun Part II. Exploded View 9. Relative Movement 10. Structures of Depth 11. The Distributive Field 12. Otaku Imaging 13. Multiple Frames of Reference 14. Inner Natures 15. Full Limited Animation Part III. Girl Computerized 16. A Face on the Train 17. The Absence of Sex 18. Platonic Sex 19. Perversion 20. The Spiral Dance of Symptom and Specter 21. Emergent Positions 22. Anime Eyes Manga Conclusion: Patterns of Serialization Notes Bibliography Index

Otaku: Japan's database animals

2009-08-01

浩紀東 , Jonathan E. Abel , 至恩河野

In Japan, obsessive adult fans and collectors of manga and anime are known as otaku. When the underground otaku subculture first emerged in the 1970s, participants were looked down on … In Japan, obsessive adult fans and collectors of manga and anime are known as otaku. When the underground otaku subculture first emerged in the 1970s, participants were looked down on within mainstream Japanese society as strange, antisocial loners. Today otaku have had a huge impact on popular culture not only in Japan but also throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. Hiroki Azuma's Otaku offers a critical, philosophical, and historical inquiry into the characteristics and consequences of this consumer subculture. For Azuma, one of Japan's leading public intellectuals, otaku culture mirrors the transformations of postwar Japanese society and the nature of human behavior in the postmodern era. He traces otaku's ascendancy to the distorted conditions created in Japan by the country's phenomenal postwar modernization, its inability to come to terms with its defeat in the Second World War, and America's subsequent cultural invasion. More broadly, Azuma argues that the consumption behavior of otaku is representative of the postmodern consumption of culture in general, which sacrifices the search for greater significance to almost animalistic instant gratification. In this context, culture becomes simply a of plots and characters and its consumers mere database animals. A vital non-Western intervention in postmodern culture and theory, Otaku is also an appealing and perceptive account of Japanese popular culture.

A genealogy of "Japanese" self-images

2003-03-01

Eiji Oguma , David J. Askew

An Initial Study on the Lost Texts Zhu Jia Shi Jing Quoted in Honzō Wamyō: A Comparative Analysis With Quotations in Wamyō Ruijushō and Ishinpō

2025-06-25

Qian Wu | The Japanese Language Association Of Korea

Scar Literature with Chinese Experience

2025-06-25

Mao Nie , Zhu Yao | Routledge eBooks

ESOTERICISM, MYSTICISM, AND SPIRITUAL IMAGINARIES IN MODERN ASIA:

2025-06-24

Soumen Mukherjee , Toshio Akai | Anthem Press eBooks

Yoda

2025-06-24

S.G. Ellerhoff | Routledge eBooks

Global history, Hospitality, and the Enlightenment

2025-06-24

Anni Greve | Routledge eBooks

Mobile space-times and the rescaling of political community

2025-06-24

Loren B. Landau | Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks

The Bibliography of Post-War Documentary Literature : Processing war and defeat in post-World War II Japan

2025-06-24

Seok‐Oh Jeong | Contemporary Japan

Border-crossing Japanese literature: reading multiplicity

2025-06-23

Charlie Failla | Textual Practice

Japanese Colonial Archaeology in Korea (1905-1940): From the Premises to the Large-Scale Excavation Programs in Pyŏngyang and Kyŏngju

2025-06-23

Arnaud Nanta | Athens Journal of History

Transformed into a Japanese protectorate in 1905 after the victory in the war against Russia (1904-1905), Korea was annexed to Japan in 1910. The period of the protectorate (1905-1910) was … Transformed into a Japanese protectorate in 1905 after the victory in the war against Russia (1904-1905), Korea was annexed to Japan in 1910. The period of the protectorate (1905-1910) was central in setting the framework for the investigations and work that took place in colonial Korea until the end of the 1930s. Among these, archaeology came to the fore, just as everywhere in a colonial context, in the Mediterranean territories or in East Asia. Indeed, archaeology is a fundamental source of knowledge about conquered territories; moreover, the stakes involved in controlling the past were increased in the case of countries such as Korea or Cambodia, which were former ancient States. This paper will provide an overview of the genesis and organs of Japanese archaeology and colonial museums in Korea during the first half of the 20th century, based on primary sources as well as Japanese and South Korean historiography. We will first discuss an initial period - dating back to pre-colonial times - of intellectual construction of the Japanese gaze upon the peninsula, a period that also saw the emergence of a Japanese fascination with the peninsula’s past, as well as the formation of a discourse legitimizing the annexation of Korea in the name of the past. Secondly, we will describe the elaboration of colonial institutions: the Museum of the Japanese Government-General of Korea and the regional museums, the Commission for the Study of the Ancient Remains of Korea, which was the equivalent in colonial Korea of EFEO in French Indochina. Then, we will describe the realization of major five-year excavation programs and their focus on the two sites of Lelang (near Pyŏngyang) in the north, and Kyŏngju in the south. Finally, we’ll look at some of the best-known publications, both in books and scientific journals, and question their legacy after decolonization in 1945 and the foundation of North and South Korea in 1948.

RK Chang Reminiscences

2025-06-22

James Ralston | WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks

Anime’s Ethical Odyssey: Navigating Good and Evil in Anime through the Lens of Old Testament

2025-06-20

S Rajkumar | Deleted Journal

Anime’s Ethical Odyssey reveals how anime, as a medium of storytelling, often explores profound ethical dilemmas that resonate with themes found in ancient texts, particularly the Old Testament. This exploration … Anime’s Ethical Odyssey reveals how anime, as a medium of storytelling, often explores profound ethical dilemmas that resonate with themes found in ancient texts, particularly the Old Testament. This exploration seeks to understand how anime narratives engage with morality, justice, redemption, and the consequences of human actions, drawing upon both modern philosophical discourse and biblical ethics. The Old Testament presents a rich tapestry of moral challenges, from divine justice in the stories of Job and Noah to human fallibility in the lives of David and Saul. Similarly, anime constructs complex moral universes where protagonists grapple with difficult choices, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy. Scholars such as François Flahault, Nishida Kitarō, and Luke Russell provide varied interpretations of good and evil, further illuminating this discourse. Their perspectives contribute to the broader discussion on how morality is shaped by cultural and historical contexts. Through series like Death Note, Code Geass, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we witness ethical struggles that mirror biblical dilemmas questions of power, justice, and the cost of righteousness. Light Yagami’s descent into moral ambiguity, Lelouch’s revolutionary ideals, and the Elric brothers’ pursuit of truth all reflect ethical concerns deeply rooted in religious traditions. By juxtaposing anime’s contemporary storytelling with the Old Testament’s moral foundations, we uncover a space for reflection that transcends entertainment. This dialogue between past and present, East and West, highlights how narratives continue to shape our understanding of justice, sin, and redemption in an ever-evolving world.

MANCIUKUÒ, PARADISO. LA MANCIURIA NELLA PUBBLICISTICA ESPERANTISTA GIAPPONESE (1932-1942)

2025-06-20

Giacomo Comincini | Il Politico

This study examines the portrayal of Manchukuo (1932-1945) in the major publication of the Japanese Esperanto movement. Initially concerned with the promotion of Esperanto, La Revuo Orienta gradually embraced the … This study examines the portrayal of Manchukuo (1932-1945) in the major publication of the Japanese Esperanto movement. Initially concerned with the promotion of Esperanto, La Revuo Orienta gradually embraced the nationalistic tone of the government, depicting the newly-founded nation as a model of interracial harmony and the ideal setting for the Esperantist utopia. Through articles and dedicated sections, the ideology of Shōwa Statism, even though Esperanto was rooted in cosmopolitan and pacifist values. This form of cooption into the colonial project underlines the strategy deployed by the Japanese government to legitimise its expansion in East Asia. This case highlights the limits of cultural autonomy of intellectual minorities under authoritarian regimes.

Pong (1972)

2025-06-19

Stefan Höltgen | transcript Verlag eBooks

Mutating Hyperfemininity in Bishōjo-Inspired Art

2025-06-19

Megan Catherine Rose , Patrick W. Galbraith | M/C Journal

Introduction “With most people, you cannot tell just from looking at them that they are fighting a silent, unseen battle”, says Sugary Symbiote, a Black, disabled, and sapphic artist in … Introduction “With most people, you cannot tell just from looking at them that they are fighting a silent, unseen battle”, says Sugary Symbiote, a Black, disabled, and sapphic artist in the United States. “That is what a lot of my illustrations represent. The girl is surrounded by cute things that make her happy, but she still feels alone and sad” (Sugary Symbiote). Central to her work is the bishōjo, or “cute girl”, drawn from manga, anime, and related media. While scholarship has largely treated bishōjo as objects produced for and by men (Galbraith; Galbraith and Rose), artists such as Sugary Symbiote reveal their queer and transformative potential. Women, queer men, and gender-diverse people have long engaged with bishōjo as sites for self-expression, identity, and resistance. For Sugary Symbiote, the bishōjo “may be assumed to be for the male gaze, but she is more than that. She has internal struggles that no one else can see” (Sugary Symbiote). Her illustrations reconfigure bishōjo through a Black queer lens, forming part of a broader movement by global fans to reclaim and reimagine Japanese popular culture (Gresham; Hassel; Jordan-Zachery and Harris). As Laura Miller notes, bishōjo figures can “serve … important social and cultural functions” by persuading, informing, and resisting through stylised cuteness (“Afterword” 172). In seeing the bishōjo through Sugary Symbiote’s eyes, we aim to draw scholarly attention to these underexplored dimensions of embodiment and affect. Figures such as the bishōjo can be continuously reimagined as mediators of body, self, and gender. This aligns with Jack Halberstam’s idea of “sublime mutation” (143), wherein women and gender-diverse people enact the bishōjo’s pliability through an ongoing interplay of the “fem(me)” and “hyperfemininity”. We use “fem(me)” to describe feminine-identifying and/or -presenting people of all genders, who have reclaimed the term “girl” to signify a queer excess. Scholars such as Rhea Hoskin and Allison Taylor show how hyperfemininity, pushed to its extremes, becomes an “agential femininity” that “veers from patriarchal sanctions” (283), offering genderqueer potential (Schippers). Fem(me) cultures also give room for the “cripping” and “queering” of bodies, opening up possibilities of expression and reflection on pain, trauma, and marginality (Kafer). While much academic work universalises fem(me) experience, artists like Sugary Symbiote speak from the first person—visibly and loudly—through their practice. As Lauren Elkin argues, “the feminist artist who addresses herself to the question of beauty and the female body has to be ready for other people to see her as a monster” (35). We are reminded of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s queer-crip performance in Sins Invalid, where she highlights how significant it is to give voice to disability in this context: “queer women of color never say we are disabled if we have any choice about it … . Our bodies are already seen as tough, monster, angry, seductive … . How can we admit weakness, vulnerability, interdependence and still keep … our perch on the ‘thin edge of barbwire’ we live on?” Here Sugary Symbiote’s work and its open, cute vulnerability offers much to contemplate. Like in many other contemporary fem(me) practices, her monstrous feminine appears and demands to be seen. Yet “repetitive academic attention” (Kinsella 18) to male fans and artists continues to dominate the field, leading to misconceptions and ignoring the rich, creative output of women and gender-diverse practitioners. As Miller notes, this marginalisation “forestalls a consideration of female agency and resistance through aesthetic forms” (“Cute” 24). This article contributes to a larger project titled Girl Estranged, which examines how women and gender-diverse people in Japan and beyond reinterpret bishōjo figures through their own illustrations. Drawing on Elkin’s Art Monsters, we foreground the fem(me) figure as central to exploring “complex feelings” and multiple “forms of embodiment” (22). Even when rendered in the language of cute girl characters, these voices can be, we argue, defiantly monstrous. In the Girl Estranged project, we explore how fem(me) and queer artists engage with bishōjo—manga/anime-style cute girl characters—as symbols, texts, and avatars. Building on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s notion that “we are composed of lines”, we examine how artists invent “lines of flight” through their characters, expressing selves and desires beyond normative structures (202). These lines are not just drawn—they draw us in, enabling expression through and with bishōjo. While we centre sapphic representation—fem(me)-identifying people attracted to fem(me)s—we also include heterosexual fem(me)s and ace-spectrum perspectives, expanding beyond sexual intimacy to explore alternative forms of affect and connection. We collaborate with artists and illustrators who work in local subcultural scenes in Tokyo, Japan, and international digital spaces such as Instagram. Here emerges a convergence of local Japanese cultures and a diverse array of communities who co-participate with them in parallel overseas. In Japan, this includes YUI, an illustrator who creates sapphic works inspired by dating simulation games, and whose joyfully queer and girly images were taken up by English-speaking meme boards worldwide. Other examples include Aoi Uni, who paints abstract interpretations of the bishōjo figure to create her own “ironic and poisonous” queer world. Sugary Symbiote presents one of the many global artists we reflect on, including Australian street artist Bei Badgirl and American-resident artist Junko Mizuno. The visual work of artists across these two scenes tends to operate in intimate gallery networks where zines and low-cost goods circulate. Their curation diverges from mainstream white-wall conventions, shaping a fem(me)-centred aesthetic that resists institutional norms. As should be clear from bishōjo or “cute girls”, the artists we feature reclaim the figure of the “girl”, which does not denote “child”, but rather is a the fem(me) full of self-identifying, agentic presence. Imagining and Creating “Bishōjo” Originating in the ferment of the nascent movement of mature fans of comics for girls in Japan from the 1970s into the early 1980s, bishōjo are manga/anime-style cute girl characters. This manga/anime style is in contrast to the more realistic drawings seen in Japanese comics, which had dominated the previous decade and continued to have a hold on the popular imagination. In contrast to action stories presenting gritty representations of pulp-like intrigue and violence, a “cuter” manga/anime style provided a more playful and flexible alternative (Shiokawa 97). Here the playfulness of manga/anime’s form, with simplified rounded shapes and bold cartoony line work, shone out in the Japanese media landscape. This was, in some ways, a return to classic visual representation such as Tezuka Osamu’s Astro Boy (1952-1968, see fig. 1), which spanned out from work for children to include people of all genders and age demographics. Fig. 1: First appearing in the 1950s, Astro Boy was a hit among children. The cute style of the character, pictured here, spread to works targeting more mature audiences in the 1970s. Image courtesy of Tezuka Osamu’s official Website. Comics targeting girls and young women, written by women and queer men in particular, became a driving force in shaping and expanding on these logics. Given the association of comics for girls with “cute” (Shiokawa 99), it is not too much to say that the bishōjo, representative of the manga/anime style, is above all else “cute”. Even the distinctively large, shimmering eyes of bishōjo, which emerged from the contribution of girls’ comics as a way to encourage “empathy” (Takahashi 124, see fig. 2), are now emblematic of cuteness. Fig. 2: The characteristic look of comics for girls evolved from lyrical pictures in the pre- and interwar periods. Note the massive, sparkly eyes in this poster for an exhibition of illustrator Youko Tadatsu’s work. This capacity to feel with and as the cute girl mutated further, generating hybrid art appealing to men, women, and others. Appearing first in 1978, Invader Lum is perhaps the most famous of the bishōjo pinups and cover girls of the time (Galbraith 107-112, see fig. 3), but she certainly was not the only or the last one. While much has been written on Lum as a character “for men”, little attention has been paid to her significance as an important figure for sapphics, or indeed, the artist Takahashi Rumiko’s own sapphic intimations. (One recalls an interview where Takahashi quipped that, if she were a man, she would “get a wife”; Shōnen Sunday Graphic.) Further to this are assumptions in the literature as to how men engage with these texts. For example, today, the largest university clubs dedicated to queer pairings of bishōjo characters are not only a mixture of genders and sexualities, but also circulate and discuss books on Japanese lesbian politics as part of community-building and allyship (for more, see Welker). On the ground in Japan is a far more dynamic field than scholarship and English-speaking fandom presupposes, and this arguably begins with figures such as Lum in the 1970s. Fig. 3: In the late 1970s, Lum, featured on the cover of this art book, made a huge splash among manga/anime fans in Japan. As the centre of the mega-popular franchise Urusei Yatsura, she appeared in countless media and material forms for over a decade. Beginning in Japanese subculture and underground comic markets, cosplay, and spectacular fashion cultures, the bishōjo became increasingly “cool” through international fan movements from the 1990s into the early 2000s, and subsequent Japanese government initiatives, and finally the inclusion of anime on large streaming platforms such as Netflix. Here, a mutation of meaning and cultural capital can be observed between domestic and international markets. In Japan, Saitō Tamaki, a practicing psychiatrist and public intellectual with an interest in manga/anime fans, once described bishōjo as “extremely strange figures, or strange compositions” (Saitō Tamaki). Citing their high artifice, exaggeration and “thingness”, Saitō argues that pleasure in engaging in this fandom involves “special practice” and attunement to read the lines, gestures, emotions, and character designs of bishōjo. This community of practice is linked to fans he calls “otaku”, whom he positions as opposed to those who may find bishōjo to be weird, freakish, or repulsive (for more on “otaku”, see Galbraith). Indeed, in global fandoms, memes elevating the strangeness of bishōjo describe her monstrous form as having “porthole eyes” that through their sheer size appear as a vortex to absorb the viewer. Otherwise, the strangeness of their facial proportions is described as “pug” or “jellyfish” in nature, their overly long, out-of-shape limbs as “insectoid” (see fig. 4). Filmmaker Colin Armistead explains that bishōjo “feel like these sort of nonhuman things”, gesturing toward the “huge eyes” of these “hyperfeminine”, “strange characters” (Galbraith and Rose 7). Fig. 4: A popular still from Kamichama Karin (2007). Circulated on Tumblr, this “error” in character design gave birth to the bishōjo “bug girl” meme. Exploiting this strangeness, and bishōjo’s queerly twisted form, fem(me)s have for decades been drawing and sharing images that experiment with these figures. Artists lean into the bishōjo as a figure “perpetually relegated to [the] status of Other … [as] abject existence” (Hoskin 289). They do so in ways that reinsert their bodies and lived realities into the narrative. In the case of Sugary Symbiote, the presumed able-bodiedness and racial “neutrality” (mukokuseki) of the bishōjo figure become fields for playful subversion (for more on mukokuseki, see Gresham). The visual expression of fem(me)s in these spaces tends to move beyond art and cross over into illustration, design, and subculture. Many artists straddle these different spaces, working in close networks of small galleries, artist tables at fan conventions, and online accounts. Research has shown that, for disabled people, aesthetic and online spaces such as these become critical points of connection (Galbraith and Bookman). Sugary Symbiote For Sugary Symbiote, a Black, disabled, and sapphic artist in the United States participating in this space online, the monstrous fem(me) bishōjo figure becomes a vehicle to intervene. “Bishōjo to me is a facet of hyperfemininity”, she says. “They are soft bodies enveloped in lace and adorned with bows and embellishments, ethereal and fantastical. But even then, the bishōjo is more than that” (Sugary Symbiote; for more on Black femme softness, see LeMaster). Experiments with “yamikawa”, a movement that uses cute aesthetics to explore issues of mental health, and “gurokawa”, a hybridisation of cuteness and body horror, enable Sugary Symbiote to explore both objectification and bodily trauma from repeated surgeries. This practice is part of her reflection and externalisation of her own pain from periods of illness and invasive surgery, as well as her own trauma and isolation. It is also a form of femme resistance to the “contours constituting the ‘feminine’ beyond the dehumanising colonial gaze that seeks to define and contain” (LeMaster 382), creating “alternate ways … subverting and exposing the underlying workings of normative whiteness” (Hoskin and Taylor 291). Through her illustrative practice emerges a mediation on the dissonances between body, gaze, repulsion, and attraction. Pushing the parameters of femininity and monstrous to their extreme, her figures appear “caught between beauty and excess” (Elkin 18) or “the visible and invisible” (Hoskin and Taylor 290). As Elkin writes on the feminine form in art, “to be a monster is to insist on both” (18). This powerful reclamation of body manifests as part of Sugary Symbiote’s destabilisation of race, gender, sexuality, and ability (Gresham 98). The snarling jaws of her figures mirror the powerful words of Audre Lorde, a Black, disabled, sapphic, feminist thinker and poet who uses the motif of monster regularly in her own writing: “if I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive” (132). Through the retaliatory menace of her illustrations, Sugary Symbiote snarls back. Fig. 5: “Pest”. Digital illustration by Sugary Symbiote, 2020. Sugary Symbiote is also a cute fashion practitioner. Through her dress she manifests a girlish excess through satirical layers of vivid pinks, frills, and bows. In particular, Sugary Symbiote is a participant in the jirai-kei and lolita fashion subcultures, both of which emerged from Japan and whose aesthetics take reference from Japanese comics for girls (Rose). For many sapphics like Sugary Symbiote, the hyperfeminine excess of manga/anime culture, along with linked fashion subcultures, plays a key part of her queer self-expression. Here, the subversive potential of hyperfemininity lies in its distance from normative femininity, which is maintained by (visual/visible) exaggeration or excess of the latter (Iseri 142). As such, through her life and artistic practice, Sugary Symbiote uses different strategies to carve out a space for fem(mes) in her own kind of queer worldbuilding, estranging cuteness in a variety of directions. While expression such as Sugary Symbiote’s can be readily found in fem(me) subcultures online, the literature has yet to capture this mode of hyperfemininity. To date, cute femininity has been typically described as only one of two things: an “adult come-on of sexuality” and “infantilized allure of dependency” (Yano 35). This observation marginalises queer fem(me)s and their own complex culture of aesthetics and desire, and reasserts instead the normative gaze of a cis-heterosexual male audience with little room for movement across categories. When considering the work of Sugary Symbiote, commentary of this nature erases her lived experiences and reflects the dynamics of what can be described as “compulsory (hetero)sexuality”. In response, she notes, “it always perplexed me that such things deemed as ‘cute’ framed around adult women are almost always objectified in a negative way and it truly gives me pause. It’s so unfortunate that cute hyperfemininity is typically viewed as something that has to be inherently sexual, especially when it concerns women and femmes who consume it” (Sugary Symbiote). We also observe the ways in which crip bodies can be “degendered”, whereby some “disabled women are perceived not as fully feminine because of their disability” (Brown 164). Here, then, the uptake of the fem(me) becomes as critical intervention on Sugary Symbiote’s part, exploring the body in the context of queer hyperfemininity. The complexity of Sugary Symbiote’s identity and aesthetics offers a compelling site for reflection through what Kimberly Hassel terms “Hot Girl Otaku Studies”, a framework that draws inspiration from Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hot Girl Otaku” persona and brings together “local and global girl culture” and the “fashioning of the self … within the constellation of media mix or remixed as developed in Japan … and other contexts and gendered socialities” (n.p.). In this framework, Sugary Symbiote’s practice exemplifies what Hassel describes as an “unapologetic embrace of the self”, challenging normative readings of femininity, fandom, and affect (n.p.). As poet Madison Godfrey writes: “femininity wasn’t what made me vulnerable, even though it made me visible. My femininity is not a survival instinct, it is a song” (n.p.). In Sugary Symbiote’s illustrations, Black bishōjo figures with multiple eyes and fanged maws snarl, pant, and ooze blood and tears, and look back at the viewer with despair, anger, or monstrous desire. Mirrored in these figures is Sugary Symbiote herself: “despite adorning myself with these things and decorating my surroundings, I still face my own personal internal struggles” (Sugary Symbiote). In particular, the intervention of the shimmering eyes of bishōjo (discussed above) presents a disruptive and overwhelmingly mutative mode of empathy. Repetition of the eye draws attention to its artifice, whilst also evoking the insectoid or creature. This aggression, however, is reserved for the viewer. Throughout her body of work are sapphic figures in this queer world, entwined in gentle embraces. Here Sugary Symbiote re-imagines the bishōjo as part of her own sapphic fem(me) queer world. This becomes a significant reclamation in a socio-cultural context in which disabled people are sometimes framed as moving outside of desire and desirability (Brown 165). A highly saturated cool pink permeates Sugary Symbiote’s work, referencing a “girly” space which Angela McRobbie describes as a “frilly world of affect and emotion” underscored by “the intensity of focus on body and its surfaces” (qtd. in Banet-Weiser 124). Ribbons and pixel hearts wind around Sugary Symbiote’s figures, and encircle her interest in Black fem(me) rappers and virtual characters alike. In works such as “Zanika exe” (see fig. 6), Sugary Symbiote playfully imagines cute femininity as a computer virus, menacing, laughing, and sneering at the viewer through a series of garbled desktop tables and glitching script. Reimagining the bishōjo character bursting from her software with a vengeance, we are also reminded of the powerful ways Black women in anime spaces have carved out their own dynamic formations within social media. Through platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, they stake a claim in anime fandoms via spectacular displays of hyperfemininity and strength. Hard-hitting reels—such as Naomi Chań’s viral “Hinata isn’t Black” clapback—underscore how Black fans assert their bodily subjectivity “across edges and interfaces, where the racialized body and technology meet” (Gresham 97, 110). In this context, the work of creators like Sugary Symbiote exemplifies how social media becomes not only a tool for expression but also a vital network of hyperfeminine connection and belonging. Fig. 6: “Zanika exe”. Digital illustration by Sugary Symbiote, 2023. In “Choking on Tears” (see fig. 7), the aesthetic markers of the bishōjo are further unsettled and estranged through the repetition of “porthole eyes” and the introduction of an animalesque set of jaws. The hyperfemininity of the vibrant pink satin ribbon, chiffon, soft hair, and twinkly jewels create a delicate veneer for the violence it shrouds. The figure is either clutching at a wound that has been self-inflicted in grief, afflicted by another, or an open post-surgery incision. Veiled by sheer boudoir curtains and in pink negligee, she is eroticised, but as much as these signs attract, the violence of the scene repulses. Voyeurism morphs into grief, as we see her tears drip into the fangs and masseter muscle of her monstrous jaws. In front of us, the anime girl’s heart is breaking, which returns us to the key dynamic of the real woman bleeding into the fictional girl. In this way, manga/anime-style cute girl characters are far more than mere objects, but instead appear as avatars and vessels through which illustrators such as Sugary Symbiote can mediate and channel their own experiences and identities. For her, the bishōjo becomes a vehicle to express a “silent, unseen battle”: “many of us have to deal with this heavy burden everyday” (Sugary Symbiote). Fig. 7: “Choking on Tears”. Digital illustration by Sugary Symbiote, 2023. Conclusion In the work of Sugary Symbiote we shift the focus from bishōjo as “objects” to “subjects” (Miller, “Cute” 19), and from other to self and back again to “other(ed) selves”. Through experimentations of bishōjo, artists are able to paint themselves “into the picture, remake the picture entirely, [find] a new language, cut it all to pieces, instigate processes of entropy, decreate to create” (Elkin 19). There is something monstrous about the bishōjo and those who would draw and share her lines. The bishōjo moves well beyond what Hoskin and Taylor would describe as the “normative standards” of “patriarchal feminine beauty” (289). It is “strange” (Galbraith and Rose 7; also Saitō Tamaki). With the work of Sugary Symbiote we reclaim the narrative back from the misbehaviour of some men, and the misinterpretation of some academics, in the present to the rich history and bright future of bishōjo art by and for women and queer others. We also look to this horizon to see a coming day when intersex, nonbinary, and trans folks and their hidden histories of engagement with manga/anime in Japan and beyond will be recognised as well. In the monstrous fem(me) and mutating lines of the bishōjo drawn by Sugary Symbiote, one becomes attuned to something queer, a source of potential and inspiration. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Sugary Symbiote for their generosity in sharing their experiences and work with us for this article. You can support Sugary Symbiote via their Ko-fi here: https://ko-fi.com/sugarysymbiote, and follow them on a variety of social media platforms listed on their Linktree: http://linktr.ee/sugarysymbiote. This article has been produced with the support of a Vitalities Lab Scholarship, UNSW Sydney. References Allison, Anne. “Cuteness as Japan’s Millennial Product.” Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon. Ed. Joseph Tobin. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2004. 34–49. Elkin, Laura. Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024. Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: U of Minnesota P, 1987. Galbraith, Patrick W. Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2019. Galbraith, Patrick W., and Mark R. Bookman. “Open Becoming: A Disabled VTuber and Her Community in the Era of COVID-19.” The Coronavirus Pandemic in Japanese Literature and Popular Culture. Ed. Mina Qiao. London: Routledge, 2023. 78–96. Galbraith, Patrick W., and Megan C. Rose. 2024. “Animated Femininities, Queer Discontent: An Interview with Colin Armistead and Phoebe Chan.” Journal of Femininities 1 (2024): 1–15. Godfrey, Madison. Dress Rehearsals. Melbourne: Joan Press, 2023. Gresham, Sarah-Anne. “Black Bodies at Play: Race and Gender at the Edges of Subjectivity.” Mechademia 17.1 (2024): 93–117. Halberstam, Jack. Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender and the End of Normal. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012. Hassel, Kimberly. “Mediating Afro-Japanese Encounters from Yasuke to Megan Thee Stallion.” Queer and Feminist Perspectives of Japanese Popular Cultures 2025, online, 20-21 May 2025. Hoskin, Rhea Ashley, and Allison Taylor. “Femme Resistance: The Fem(me)inine Art of Failure.” Psychology and Sexuality 10.1 (2019): 281–300. Iseri, Mariko. “Flexible Femininities? Queering Kawaii in Japanese Girls’ Culture.” Twenty First Century Feminism. Eds. Claire Nally and Angela Smith. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 140–163. Jordan-Zachery, Julia S., and Duchess Harris, eds. Black Girl Magic beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First Century Acts of Self-Definition. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 2019. Kafer, Alison. “Queer Disability Studies.” The Cambridge Companion to Queer Studies. Ed. Siobhan Somerville. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2020. 93–107. Kinsella, Sharon. Schoolgirls, Money and Rebellion in Japan. London: Routledge, 2014. Koga, Reiko. The Empire of “Cute”: Mode, Media and Girls. Tokyo: Seidosha, 2009. LeMaster, Lore/etta. “Introduction: Feeling Femme, Femme Feels.” Women’s Studies in Communication 47.4 (2024): 381–384. Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984. Miller, Laura. “Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology 20 (2011): 18–29. ———. “Afterword: Japanese Loanwords in Performative Linguistic Spaces.” Performative Linguistic Space: Ethnographies of Spatial Politics and Dynamic Linguistic Practices. Eds. Neriko. M. Doerr and Jennifer M. McGuire. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023: 169–178. Murne, Sarah, and Donn Byrne. “Hyperfemininity: Measurement and Initial Validation of the Construct.” The Journal of Sex Research 28.3 (1991): 479–489. Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah Lakshmi. Sins Invalid. Brava Theatre, San Francisco, 2-4 Oct. 2009. <https://sinsinvalid.org/>. Rose, Megan Catherine. “Butterflies on Pins: On Photography in Lolita Communities, Tokyo.” Mechademia 17.1 (2024): 164–186. Saitō, Tamaki. Interview. Conducted by Patrick W. Galbraith, 26 Feb. 2010. Schippers, Mimi. “Recovering the Feminine Other: Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender Hegemony.” Theory and Society 36.1 (2007): 85–102. Shiokawa, Kanako. “Cute But Deadly: Women and Violence in Japanese Comics.” Themes in Asian Cartooning: Cute, Cheap, Mad, and Sexy. Ed. John A. Lent. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State U Popular P, 1999. 93–125. Shōnen Sunday Graphic. “Takahashi Rumiko: 100 Questions.” Furinkan, 30 Nov. 1985. <https://www.furinkan.com/takahashi/100questions.html>. Sugary Symbiote. Email to Megan Catherine Rose, 16 May 2025. Takahashi, Mizuki. “Opening the Closed World of Shōjo Manga.” Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime. Ed. Mark W. MacWilliams. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2008. 114–136. Welker, James. Transfiguring Women in Late Twentieth-Century Japan: Feminists, Lesbians, and Girls’ Comics Artists and Fans. Honolulu, HI: U of Hawai’i P, 2024. Yano, Christine R. Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty's Trek across the Pacific. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2013.

REGULAR MARKETS OF GANGI-DŌRI IN KAMO (KAMO CITY, NIIGATA PREFECTURE) IN THE 1955S

2025-06-19

Kunio SUGAHARA | AIJ Journal of Technology and Design

Population Aging and Underbalancing in Japan

2025-06-19

Mark L. Haas | Oxford University Press eBooks

Abstract This chapter explores how population aging has shaped the capabilities and preferences for war in Japan, which is the oldest of the great powers. Aging has significantly reduced Japan’s … Abstract This chapter explores how population aging has shaped the capabilities and preferences for war in Japan, which is the oldest of the great powers. Aging has significantly reduced Japan’s net capabilities due to the combined effects of slowing economic growth, large new payments for elderly welfare, and a shortage of military-age personnel that has created major challenges for recruitment. The effects of aging have also diminished leaders’ and citizens’ preferences for war. Aging has resulted in a large percentage of people—led by seniors—who oppose the expansion of Japan’s military capabilities and international commitments. Aging has also contributed to growing domestic unrest, which has pushed the government to dedicate more resources toward domestic rather than international issues. The net effect of these developments has been the creation of powerful barriers to militaristic foreign policies even in the face of a dramatically worsening security environment, chiefly resulting from China’s massive military buildup and assertive behavior. Japan’s response to its deteriorating security environment is an example of “underbalancing,” which occurs when states fail to respond to large and growing threats in adequate ways. Japan from 2000 to 2021 never dedicated more than 1 percent of GDP to military spending and these expenditures grew in this period in real terms by a total of only 11 percent. If aging in Japan has inhibited effective balancing against major threats, it has made offensive war virtually unthinkable.

Japanese Anime:A Global Cultural Symbol

2025-06-18

Zhenxuan Liang | Frontiers in Humanities and Social Sciences

As a global cultural phenomenon, Japanese anime has many factors behind its success. This article analyzes the popularity of Japanese anime from the dimensions of narrative techniques, visual presentation, character … As a global cultural phenomenon, Japanese anime has many factors behind its success. This article analyzes the popularity of Japanese anime from the dimensions of narrative techniques, visual presentation, character creation, global communication strategy and social psychological needs , and deeply interprets its cultural significance from the aspects of local cultural heritage, cross-cultural communication, social reality and human nature thinking , aiming to provide a comprehensive analytical perspective for the global popularity of Japanese anime and lay a foundation for research in related fields in other countries .

Forbidden Batuko

2025-06-17

Jorge Castro Ribeiro | IGI Global eBooks

European navigators claimed the Cape Verde archipelago for Portugal in the 15th century, leading to European settlement focused on agriculture, fishing, and trade. From the 17th to 19th centuries, enslaved … European navigators claimed the Cape Verde archipelago for Portugal in the 15th century, leading to European settlement focused on agriculture, fishing, and trade. From the 17th to 19th centuries, enslaved Africans were brought to the islands, shaping a stratified, oppressive society marked by cultural and genetic diversity. Portuguese colonial rule imposed violent social hierarchies among landowners, clergy, traders, slaves, and escaped slaves (badius/vadios). After slavery's abolition and ongoing economic neglect, Cape Verde remained largely rural until independence in 1975. Music and dance reflected these tensions, with African-rooted forms like batuko enduring despite bans. Today, such practices are key to Cape Verdean postcolonial identity, both locally and in the diaspora.

Bong Joon Ho

2025-06-17

John A. Riley | Historical Journal Of Film Radio and Television

Gendered Ideals and Class Realities in Edo Japan: How Greater Learning for Women Shaped the Lives of Peasant and Samurai Women

2025-06-17

Yifei Cui | Arts Culture and Language

This study examines the divergent impacts of *Greater Learning for Women*, a Confucian-inspired text by Kaibara Ekiken, on the lives of samurai and peasant women in Edo Japan. While the … This study examines the divergent impacts of *Greater Learning for Women*, a Confucian-inspired text by Kaibara Ekiken, on the lives of samurai and peasant women in Edo Japan. While the text prescribed rigid moral and behavioral norms—such as obedience, restricted public presence, and stigmatization of divorce—its influence varied significantly across social classes. Samurai women, constrained by financial hardships and class expectations, largely adhered to these ideals, embodying subservience and domesticity. In contrast, peasant women, particularly those from wealthy families, exercised greater autonomy in marriage, divorce, and public life, often rejecting or adapting the text's teachings to their practical needs. Through analysis of historical records, travel diaries, and case studies, this study reveals how economic realities and class dynamics shaped women's responses to Confucian ideals, highlighting a tension between prescribed norms and lived experiences. The findings challenge monolithic portrayals of Edo-period gender roles, demonstrating that peasant women carved out spaces of independence within a patriarchal framework.

The democratization of Seaside Utopia

2025-06-16

Tony Blackshaw | Routledge eBooks

Can Okinawa Escape the “Sacrificial System”? – Examining the Intersection of Collective Memory and Politics

2025-06-16

M.I. Jin Kim , Seok Won Song | Pacific Focus

This article explores Okinawa's ongoing status as a “sacrificial system,” wherein specific regions are exploited for national benefit, and the persistent challenges faced by Okinawans due to the disproportionate concentration … This article explores Okinawa's ongoing status as a “sacrificial system,” wherein specific regions are exploited for national benefit, and the persistent challenges faced by Okinawans due to the disproportionate concentration of US military bases. The Battle of Okinawa is pivotal in understanding how collective memory shapes political identity, yet it remains largely a localized memory rather than part of Japan's national collective memory. This discrepancy is attributed to mainland Japan's selective memory politics, where the sacrifices of Okinawans have been marginalized to avoid challenging the narrative of postwar national identity. While memories such as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are institutionalized as symbols of national suffering, Okinawa's traumatic experience and anti‐base movement have largely been ignored. By analyzing the interplay between politics and collective memory, this study aims to highlight how Okinawa's experience has been shaped by systemic indifference and the political manipulation of memory, which has prevented its integration into Japan's broader national consciousness. This article argues that true peace and autonomy for Okinawa can be achieved only through recognizing its historical sacrifices at the national level and fostering solidarity across Japanese society. Ultimately, this research highlights the importance of integrating marginalized historical narratives into national memory to support democratic processes and collective identity in Japan.

Mirrors for Princes and Imperial Expansion: On the Production of Hümāyūāme Manuscript Copies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

2025-06-15

Philip Bockholt | V&R unipress eBooks

Ra! Ta! Ma! Cue! by Howie Shia (review)

2025-06-13

April Spisak | Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Yaya and the Dan-Tats by Camellia Koo (review)

2025-06-13

Cassidy Russell | Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books./Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

In-Depth Interview-Based Study on the Features of Korean Culture that Attract and Repel Japanese Youth

2025-06-13

HyeonCheol Kim , Jeongbae Oh | Politeja

The aim of the study is to analyze the changing attitude of the Japanese youth towards Korean culture. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 men and women in their … The aim of the study is to analyze the changing attitude of the Japanese youth towards Korean culture. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 18 men and women in their 20s living in the Tohoku region of Japan to examine aspects of Korean culture that attracted and repelled them. The analysis results indicated that the interview respondents were attracted to the Korean cultural facets of ‘emotional intimacy,’ ‘practical convenience,’ and ‘fast pace,’ and were put off by the ‘insincere service,’ ‘unease with traffic-related safety,’ and ‘dirty restrooms.’ These perceptions were strongly influenced by expectation-related differences: unexpected positive experiences resulted in high levels of satisfaction and negative experiences caused acute disappointment. Thus, interactions with Korean culture are both appealing and displeasing to Japanese youth. Rather than perceiving this contrary response as a problem, the interview respondents independently accepted it as a characteristic of Korean culture. Future research initiatives should explore the generalizability of these findings by expanding the span of their surveys.

The Mapping of Shanghais Concession Space in the Spatial Writing of Eileen Changs Novels

2025-06-13

Yong Du | Communications in Humanities Research

Taking the space of Shanghais Concession as the research field, this study explores the symbolic meaning of the concession space in Eileen Changs novels and her critique of colonial modernity. … Taking the space of Shanghais Concession as the research field, this study explores the symbolic meaning of the concession space in Eileen Changs novels and her critique of colonial modernity. Through literary analysis and close reading of texts, the thesis focuses on public space, domestic space and spiritual space in Eileen Changs novels, revealing how her spatial writing maps out the process of Sino-Western cultural conflict, the penetration of colonial power, and the alienation of the individuals spirit. The study finds that through the juxtaposition of spatial symbols and metaphors, Eileen Chang deconstructs the myth of modernity in the Concession. Her spatial narratives not only present the cultural hybridity of the Concession in Shanghai, but also profoundly reveal the structural oppression of colonial modernity on human nature and the social structure, and provide a de-romanticized critique of Chinese urban literature. It provides a critical perspective of de-romanticization for Chinese urban literature.

Japan's self-defense

2025-06-11

Ferguson Evans | Routledge eBooks

Reimagining the Self in Eileen Chang’s Semi-Autobiographical Novels: Xiaotuanyuan 《小團圓》 (Little Reunions), The Fall of the Pagoda, and The Book of Change

2025-06-09

Jessica Tsui-yan Li | BRILL eBooks