Japan

From the mid-1950s through the 1960s Japanese film theory increasingly dealt with the question of cinema’s specificity in relation to other forms of image-making media. A concept that played a crucial role here was the “image” (eizô), a term that dominated the debates around image-making practice and designated a special class of images produced and mediated by technological apparatuses. The rise of television played a key role in prompting this engagement with “image theories” (eizôron). Yet, the need to theorize television was not the sole cause of this discursive shift. Rather, the...

The Jinshin Rebellion of 672 was an epoch-making event that determined the shape of Yamato politics for the next hundred years. Its victor–the ruler we know as Tenmu–took advantage of his military success to reform the basic structure of court politics and establish an imperial-style state. This talk examines how the Jinshin Rebellion was historicized in its aftermath and in the early eighth century. While the official historiography of the Nihon shoki appears at first sight to be a unanimously positive portrayal of Tenmu’s victory, one can in fact identify distinct narrative strands...

The organizational theory of the multinational firm holds that foreignness is a liability, and specifically that lack of embeddedness in host-country social networks is a source of competitive disadvantage; meanwhile the literature on labor market discrimination suggests that exploiting the bigotry of others can be a source of competitive advantage. We seek to turn the former literature somewhat on its head by building on insights from the latter. Specifically, we argue that multinationals wield a particularly significant competitive weapon: as outsiders, they can identify social schisms in...

A workshop primarily directed at undergraduates and conducted with an interpreter. For More Information 20110225japanfilm_koreedainfo.pdf

As the largest and most vocal minority groups in postwar Japan, the Koreans and the Burakumin have received much scholarly attention, especially in recent years. While enhancing our understanding of the way in which discrimination shapes the experiences of both of these groups, however, most studies of either minority overlook other salient aspects of their experience of discrimination, such as the tendency for similarly disadvantaged groups to end up living in the same communities, and the problems of mutual discrimination between them that often result. This presentation addresses such...

The Kubo community, home to about 80 people, was established by Japanese settlers early last century in the Brazilian forest. Since then it has remained an almost self-sufficient Japanese Brazilian commune. People farm in the day and practice modern ballet at night—an activity for which they have attained national fame and notoriety. In this presentation I will examine their dance performances as a manifestation of their cultural politics, ethnic capital, and ideology.Since its foundation, Kubo has been based on the philosophy of Nōhon-shugi, which teaches that an understanding of nature, can...

For More Information http://eas.as.nyu.edu/object/thomaslooser.html

Professor Matsuda is a specialist in the political and diplomatic history of Asia, the politics and foreign relations of China and Taiwan, and Cross-Strait relations. Before joining the Institute of Oriental Culture at the University of Tokyo, he spent sixteen years at the National Institute for Defense Studies, Japan Defense Agency/Ministry of Defense as a Senior Research Fellow. Professor Matsuda has also served as a visiting research fellow at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, the Henry L. Stimson Center in Washington D.C...

Images of rural Japan are dominated by insular villages engaged in irrigated rice cultivation. This presentation will offer a different perspective by focusing on the matagi—traditional hunters of bear and other animals in the beech forest uplands of northeastern Japan. ‘Hunter’ in this instance implies a sense of stewardship and an intimate understanding of the natural world. A key to success is mobility, not just in obtaining material resources, but in marketing them to communities that lie well outside the local area. Matagi attitudes toward the environment are symbolically enacted through...