This course places Japanese society in a global context. Rather than examining Japan as an isolated island nation, we will explore the rise of modern Japan in its broader geopolitical and historical context of territorial expansion and colonialism, defeat and reconstruction under the U.S. Occupation. Further, we will examine how Japan's integration into the global economy has not only had an impact on everyday life in Japan, but also has lead to the export of familiar cultural products such as Pokemon, manga and sushi. In exploring these processes from the perspective of Japan, the course seeks to decenter discussions of global and transnational processes fixed on the influence of the West and explore new conceptualizations of globalization. This course may be counted toward an Asian studies major or special major in Japanese.

Gordon, Andrew. 2003. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hein, Laura and Mark Selden. 2003. Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

Ong, Aihwa. 1987. Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Kelsky, Karen. 2001. Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams. Durham: Duke University Press.

Readings on course website

Discussion paper and presentation

Each week, two students will present on the topic of the day and lead the discussion. Presentations should be based on a five-page discussion paper, which analyses and critically assesses the readings. You should not summarize the readings in your paper. The discussion paper is due on the day of the presentation.

Midterm take-home exam

Topics for the midterm take-home exam will be distributed in class two weeks prior to the due date. In your essay, you will be asked to discuss central problems raised by the assigned readings and lectures so far. The essay should be double spaced and five pages long. The midterm is due on October 6^th in class.

Final paper:

As a final exercise, you should write an 8-10 page research paper, which expands on one of the themes of this class. A one-page proposal which states your topic and major question, as well as a short bibliography is due on November 10th. Paper drafts will be discussed in class on December 1.

Late papers will result in a reduction of your grade.

Attendance, class participation, and webmemos:

You should attend all class meetings, read the assigned materials in time for class and actively participate in class discussion. You should also make weekly postings on the course website, in which you reflect on the readings of that week. Postings are due at 8am on the day of class. The discussion board for the postings is located under `communication' - `discussion boards.'

Evaluation:

Discussion paper and presentation, due day of presentation 20%

Midterm take-home exam, due October 6: 30%

Final paper, due December 10 (proposal due Nov. 10): 30%

Attendance, class participation, and webmemos, due weekly: 20%

Course website:

You can access the course website by clicking on "blackboard" under "finding what you need" on the library homepage (http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/). Your login for Blackboard is your username preceded by sc. (e.g. sc.username). If you don't know your password, use the `forgot your password?' function. The title of the course should appear on the upper right hand side after you login. To access required readings, click on "Course Documents" on the course website.

INTRODUCING JAPAN

September 1

1. Introduction

Recommended for background:

Gordon, Andrew. 2003. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press. Part 1

September 8

2. Nation-building and national identity

Gordon, Andrew. 2003. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press. Part 2

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. 1998. "Becoming Japanese: Imperial Expansion and Identity Crisis in the Early Twentieth Century." Pp. 157-180 in Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy 1900-1930, edited by S. A. Minichiello. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Christy, Alan S. 1997. "The Making of Imperial Subjects in Okinawa." Pp. 141-169 in Formations of Colonial Modernity in East Asia, edited by T. Barlow. Durham: Duke University Press.

Recommended:

Young, Louise. 1997. "Rethinking Race for Manchukuo: Self and Other in the Colonial Context." Pp. 158-176 in The Construction of Racial Identities in China and Japan, edited by F. Dikotter. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Lie, John. 2001. "Modern Japan, Multiethnic Japan," Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapter 4

September 15

3. Legacies of War and Occupation

Film screening: Occupied Japan: An Experiment in Democracy, Oregon Public Television (1996, 60 min)

Gordon, Andrew. 2003. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press. Part 3

Dower, John. 1999. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W.W. Norton, chapters 1 and 2

Recommended

Dower, John. 1993. "Occupied Japan and the Cold War in Asia." Pp. 155-207 in Japan in War and Peace. New York: The New Press.

September 22

4. Okinawa

Hein, Laura and Mark Selden. 2003. Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Chapters by:

Laura Hein and Mark Selden, "Culture, Power, and Identity in Contemporary Okinawa"

Matthew Allen, "Wolves at the Back Door: Remembering the Kumejima Massacres"

Gerald Figal, "Waging Peace on Okinawa"

Linda Isako Angst, "The Rape of a Schoolgirl: Discourses of Power and Women's Lives in Okinawa"

Recommended:

Taira, Koji. 1997. "Troubled national identity: Ryukyuans/Okinawans." Pp. 140-177 in Japan's Minorities, edited by M. Weiner. London: Routledge.

JAPAN AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

September 29

5. The Japanese "Miracle"

Gordon, Andrew. 2003. A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present. New York: Oxford University Press, chapters 14-16

Taira, Koji. 1993. "The dialectics of growth, national power, and distributive struggles." Pp. 167-186 in Postwar Japan as History, edited by A. Gordon. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Brinton, Mary C. 1993. "Women in the Japanese and U.S. Economies," Women and the Economic Miracle. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Chapter 1

Recommended:

Gottfried, Heidi and Nagisa Hayashi-Kato. 1998. "Gendering Work: Deconstructing the Narrative of the Japanese Economic Miracle." Work, Employment, and Society 12:25-46.

October 6 - Midterm essay due

6. Economic development and transnational corporations

Film screening: The Global Assembly line, directed by Corraine Gray (1986, 58 min)

Waters, Malcolm. 1995. "World-class production: economic globalization." Pp. 65-95 in Globalization. New York: Routledge.

Mies, Maria. 1994. "'Gender' and Global Capitalism." Pp. 107-123 in Capitalism and Development, edited by Leslie Sklair. London: Routledge.

Sassen, Saskia. 1998. "Notes on the Incorporation of Third World Women..." Pp. 111-131 in Globalizaion and its Discontents. New York: The New Press.

Recommended

Legewie, Jochen and Hendrik Meyer-Ohle. 2000. "Does nationality matter? Western and Japanese multinational corporations in Southeast Asia." European Review 8:553-567

OCTOBER HOLIDAY

October 20 - Library session in McCabe library computer classroom (4^th floor)

7. Village women and capitalist discipline

Ong, Aihwa. 1987. Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline. Albany: State University of New York Press. Skim chapters 1-4, focus on chapters 5-9

October 27

8. Migration and transnational identities

Massey, Douglas. 1988. "Economic Development and International Migration in Comparative Perspective." Population and Development Review 14:383-413.

Douglass, Mike and Glenda Roberts. 2000. "Japan in a global age of migration." Pp. 3-37 in Japan and Global Migration, edited by M. Douglass and G. Roberts. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Tsuda, Takeyuki. 2001. "When identities become modern: Japanese Immigrants in Brazil and the Global Contextualization of Identity." Ethnic and Racial Studies 24:412-432.

de Carvalho, Daniela. 2003. "Nikkei communities in Japan." Pp. 195-208 in Global Japan, edited by R. Goodman, C. Perch, A. Takenaka, and P. White. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

Recommended:

Shipper, Apichai. 2002. "The political construction of foreign workers in Japan." Critical Asian Studies 34:41-68.

Sellek, Yoko. 1997. "Nikkeijin: the phenomenon of return migration." Pp. 178-210 in Japan's Minorities, edited by M. Weiner. London: Routledge.

November 3

9. Orientalism

Mohanty, Chandra Talpede. 1991. "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses." Pp. 51-80 in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, edited by C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo, and L. Torres. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Kondo, Dorinne. 1990. "M. Butterfly: Orientalism, Gender, and a Critique of Essentialist Identity." Cultural Critique 16:5-29.

Ueno, Chizuko. 1997. "Are the Japanese Feminine? Some Problems of Japanese Feminism in its Cultural Context." in Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism, edited by S. Buckley. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Kelsky, Karen. 2001. Women on the Verge: Japanese Women, Western Dreams. Durham: Duke University Press. Introduction

Recommended:

Buckley, Sandra. 1994. "A Short History of the Feminist Movement in Japan." Pp. 150-186 in Women of Japan and Korea, edited by J. Gelb and M. L. Palley. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

November 10 - Final paper proposal due

10. Transnational desires and identities

Kelsky, Karen. 2001. Women on the Verge: Japanese women, Western dreams. Durham: Duke University Press. Chapters 1-4, conclusion

Recommended:

Hannerz, Ulf. 1990. "Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture." Pp. 237-252 in Global Culture, edited by M. Featherstone. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

POPULAR CULTURE AND CONSUMPTION

November 17

11. Cultural Imperialism? McDonald's in East Asia

Tomlinson, John. 1999. "Global Culture: Dreams, Nightmares, and Skepticism." Pp. 71-105 in Globalization and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ritzer, George. 1998. "McDonaldization: The New American Menace." Pp. 71-80 in The McDonaldization Thesis. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Watson, James L. 1997. "Introduction." Pp. 1-38 in Golden Arches East, edited by J. L. Watson. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. 1997. "McDonald's in Japan: Changing Manners and Etiquette." Pp. 161-182 in Golden Arches East, edited by J. L. Watson. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Brannen, Mary Yoko. 1992. ""Bwana Mickey": Constructing Cultural Consumption at Tokyo Disneyland." Pp. 216-234 in Re-Made in Japan, edited by J. Tobin. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Recommended:

Ritzer, George. 1983. "The McDonaldization of Society." Journal of American Culture:100-107.

November 24

12. Japanese popular culture at home and abroad

Shiraishi, Saya S. 2000. "Doraemon Goes Abroad." Pp. 287-307 in Japan Pop!, edited by T. J. Craig. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Ching, Leo. 1996. "Imaginings in the Empire of the Sun: Japanese Mass Culture in Asia." Pp. 169-194 in Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, edited by J. W. Treat. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Iwabuchi, Koichi. 2004. "How "Japanese" is Pokemon?" Pp. 53-79 in Pikachu's Global Adventure, edited by J. Tobin. Durham: Duke University Press.

Yano, Christine. 2004. "Panic Attacks: Anti-Pokemon Voices in Global Markets." Pp. 108-138 in Pikachu's Global Adventure, edited by J. Tobin. Durham: Duke University Press.

Recommended:

Kinsella, Sharon. 2000. "Adult Manga and the Regeneration of National Culture." Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. Chapter 3

Schodt, Frederik L. 1996. Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press. Chapter 1

THANKSGIVING

December 1

13. Japan and globalization: final thoughts

Sen, Amartya. 2000. "How to Judge Globalism." Pp. 16-21 in The Globalization Reader, edited by F. J. Lechner and J. Boli. Oxford: Blackwell.

Huntington, Samuel P. 2000. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Pp. 36-43 in The Globalization Reader, edited by F. J. Lechner and J. Boli. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hannerz, Ulf. 2000. "The Global Ecumene." Pp. 110-119 in The Globalization Reader, edited by F. J. Lechner and J. Boli. Oxford: Blackwell.