"Japan has established a certain status as a member of the international community. Yet academics in these countries have yet to find a new theme for research into Japan," he said.Shirahata nominated Japanese animation and graphic novels, which have become very popular in western Europe, as one area which might prove to be a rich subject for future study.Japanese studies courses, as with study of any other culture, examine the nation's historical development from ancient times to contemporary circumstances, and consider which themes might offer valuable instruction for other cultures.The changes currently faced by many European countries as they grapple with modernization prompted by EU membership, may provide an opportunity to promote the study of contemporary Japan.
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The Interpreter: Japanese Studies down - 0 views
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Yes, shift the focus on contemporary cool Japan stuff, the visual creation, manga, animation. Get hip. It is definitely the next frontier to go right away for Japan researchers.
Washington Diarist: The Tolstoy Bailout - 0 views
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The complaint against the humanities is that they are impractical. This is true. They will not change the world. They will change only the experience, and the understanding, and the evaluation, of the world.
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The complaint against the humanities is that they are impractical. This is true. They will not change the world. They will change only the experience, and the understanding, and the evaluation, of the world.
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It is worth remembering, then, that the crisis in which we find ourselves was the work of practical men. The securitization of mortgages was not conceived by a head in the clouds. No poet cost anybody their house. No historian cost anybody their job.
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国際日本文化研究センター - 0 views
In Defense of Japanese Studies « Contemporary Japanese Literature - 2 views
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What Japanese Studies does, then, is not only to teach students about an important and highly relevant part of the world but also to encourage their development as "international citizens" or "global citizens" or whatever the buzzword is these days. Japanese Studies classes effectively transform Japan from a fantasy land that only exists within the American cultural sphere to a real place populated by real people who exist independently of the American cultural imagination; and, if Japan really exists, then it only stands to reason that other countries, such as Egypt and Afghanistan, really exist as well. The shift in cultural perspective is enormous. Probably most of the people reading this take such a cultural perspective for granted, but we've all been through college and probably don't remember what it's like to be a junior in high school and surrounded by nothing but Western language, history, and literature. For me personally, Japan might as well have been Disneyland while I was in high school, and I believe there are still a great many Americans well past their teens who don't think too differently.
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