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The purpose of this study is to compare Poland’s and Japan’s foreign language policies in preschool, elementary, lower/upper secondary and higher education and shed light on the aspect of multilingualism in this milieu as well. Based on secondary data (ministerial ordinances, governmental reports, curricula) and literature knowledge, the paper provides a comparative overview of the Polish and Japanese contexts which differ in a strong way. While Poland’s foreign language policy is mainly based on the objectives of the EU’s policy according to which every European citizen should master two other languages in addition to his or her mother tongue, the Japanese government’s policy aims at improving English education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses one of the problems of audiovisual translation – translation of documentary films, taking “A Life in Japan” by a Swedish director Petri Storlopare as an example. The choice of the film was determined by the presence of difficult situations from the point of view of translation, as well as by the lack of Russian translation. The paper considers typical characteristics of an operational interview which is an important constituent of the film under study. Special attention is given to the problem of synphase in voice-over translation. The topic is relevant as there are no fundamental theoretical papers devoted to translation of documentaries, both in domestic and foreign translation studies. The main goal was to consider the existing algorithms and strategies of audiovisual translation and to find the most optimal ways of translating the definite documentary film. We employed the following methods of analyzing the data: comparative analysis, lexicographic analysis, contextual analysis and communicative analysis. The conducted research allows to define the main problems of translating documentaries, they include transmitting the meaning of realia of another country’s culture and solving the “phase shift” problem when syncing the text in voice-over translation. In this paper we tried to account for our own translation solutions. The research has shown that it is possible to achieve adequacy of translation by using compression, a certain set of transformations and techniques for transferring the meaning of culturally marked lexical units.

This paper explores the representation of female monstrosity which are relied upon by two female Japanese writers to illustrate modern Japanese women’s process of reclaiming power. Hitomi Kanehara in Snakes and Earrings and Yōko Ogawa in Hotel Irisdepict women involved in BDSM relationships which shape how their characters are seen, how they view themselves, and how they develop their consciousness of the world. Although the female protagonists of each novel are presented in a submissive role to their male counterparts, they nonetheless embrace their passivity in order to reclaim their own unique sense of empowerment. BDSM is represented as warping the body in both novels. Through this warping, the women are able to negotiate spaces for themselves where they can derive their own pleasure from the supposed passive positions. Snakes and Earrings overlays BDSMwith practices of body modifications in order to portray the changing attitudes toward female subjectivity in modern Japan. In Hotel Iris,traditional values involving familial authority clash with the sexual awakening of it’s female protagonist as she navigates the socio-cultural stigma attached with acting outside what is considered normal. Through the analyses of both novels this paper highlights the changing concep-tion of female sexuality and sexual practices in modern Japan. These changing conceptionsspeak to the evolution of female subjectivity and the gendered wrrestling of power through sexual activity.

Hikikomori is a condition of severe social withdrawal in which people shut themselves off from society and stay alone in their homes/rooms for at least six months. The first part of this paper reports on how Hikikomori has been widely conceptualized as a clinical (i.e., psychiatric or psychological) condition. From this point of view, temperament, emotional or familiar factors have been often proposed to explain Hikikomori. The second part of this paper focuses on the thesis that Hikikomori mainly depends on historical-cultural circumstances that have prevailed in the Japanese context, and suggests that it may be best conceptualized as a form of social protest (instead of as a psychopathological condition).

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of the 道徳教育 (‘Course of Moral Education’), being one of the most significant parts of Japanese pedagogical discourse in the field of schooling. This paper presents the results of lingvocultural and concept analysis, aimed at describing the national interpretation of concept LIFE in the light of Japanese worldview values, transmitted to the young generation. Relevance and novelty also depends on lack of description of japanese educational discourse in academic literature and its precedential texts are always studied in the light of pedagogic and culturology. As a result of the study, the differences of concept LIFE interpretation are reviled.

This study focuses on analysing the positions of Great Britain and selected Dominions (Canada, Australia and New Zealand) towards Japan in the 1920s and early 1930s. It particularly focuses on the circumstances of the establishment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the questions raised in relation to British attempts at extending the alliance in 1921. In the end, international circumstances and the treaties signed at the Washington Conference led to the end of the alliance. The Far Eastern Crisis of 1931–1932 repeatedly forced British and Dominion, especially Australian, representatives to take a position on Japanese foreign policy and Tokyo’s aspirations. When the endeavour to deal with the disputes at the League of Nations failed, Australia decided to send a special mission led by Sir John Greig Latham to the Far East and the Pacific in order to consolidate friendly relations with neighbouring countries and attempt to solve mutual problems and conflicts.

The paper explores why US authors of the cyberpunk genre imagined a future rich in Japanoid imagery in their fiction. By tracing the zeitgeist of the 1980s, which was characterized by the prevalence of affordable Japanese technology in everyday US life – often associated with fears of an economic threat from Japan – it is possible to explain why cyberpunk fictions explicitly depict Japanese technology. Furthermore, mechanisms of techno-orientalism that link high-tech to images of premodern Japan and thus diminish this specific cultural environment as subordinate to modern Western societies are evident within cyberpunk fiction. Analyzing Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) as a founding text of cyberpunk and the recent computer game Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) as well as the subsequent anime series Cyberpunk Edgerunners (2022) as examples of contemporary fiction, I argue that Japanoid images continue to be employed in a condescending manner within the cyberpunk genre, affirming an inherently Western perspective.

This practice report describes an annual Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project between a content course taught in English at a university in Japan (JPU) and a Japanese-language course at a university in the U.S. (AMU). Shared learning objectives include practicing communicative skills in the target language and engaging in critical writing in the target language, reflecting on the discussions. There are two sets of activities: (1) JPU-centered, English-based activities and (2) AMU-centered, Japanese-based activities, which take place concurrently. Some activities are done individually (e.g., discussion posts, journals, and reflection papers), while online discussions are conducted in transpacific groups both in class and outside the class period. After six weeks of collaboration, each student writes a reflective, multi-draft essay in the target language. Running the two sets of activities can confuse students easily and requires careful preparations, clear instructions, and a high level of instructor involvement. Various modifications have been made for improvements since the initial implementation in 2019 to provide a learning environment that allows for a more in-depth and diverse exchange of perspectives (Nishio et al., 2020). Flexibility is key to success for educators to help maximize student learning in COIL.

After Japan was forced to open its ports to the western powers, by the threat of western navies, it was further compelled to sign unequal treaties with the Great Powers. This triggered a sonnō jōi movement led by young samurai, who criticized the ruling Tokugawa regime for its concessions to the foreigners. They therefore sought to expel the Westerners and close the country to their trade. Their second task was to bring the downfall of the shogunate and the restoration of the Imperial rule. In order to achieve this, many radical samurai mounted murderous attacks against the foreigners. One of the most serious of these incidents occurred in September 1862, when British merchant Charles Lennox Richardson was murdered by samurai from the Satsuma domain. Apart from the previous attacks this time the culprits could be identified. British minister to Japan Colonel Neale therefore demanded the punishment of the assailants and an indemnity from the bakufu for its inability to secure lives and safety of British nationals. The Tokugawa government tried to resist and resorted to delaying tactics because of its fear of internal impact, if it yielded. It was only after the British representatives demonstrated, that they are willing to use the naval forces at their disposal, that bakufu submitted.

The Meiji Restauration in Japan prefigured a change of mutual relations with Korea. Through coerced Ganghwa Treaty by Japan was Korea opened to the world in 1876. Subsequent three decades Japan sought to consolidate its position on the Korean Peninsula, which became not only economically but also strategically important territory for Japanese government. These efforts led to disputes with China (1894–95) and Russia (1904–05), of which Japan emerged as victor. The signing of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905 was a significant step forward for the strengthening of Japanese dominance over the Korean Peninsula. Five years later was Korea annexed.

Philosophy is often associated with two antithetic prejudices. One is the opinion that it describes the eternal structures of the world and is therefore not connected with reality. The other is the belief that philosophy is a dangerous tool that manipulates people subversively. In the latter case, it is too connected with reality. There is undoubtedly some truth in these concepts. If we look at Japan’s entry into the Second World War, the question of the role of philosophy within this development becomes immediately apparent. This paper tries to answer this question by focusing on articles published in the journal Risō based on the assumption that this is one of the best methods for obtaining an overview of the tendencies prevalent during the 1930s, as the journal is necessarily strongly bound to the time in which it was published. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first will provide an interpretation of the term “dark valley”, the second – after summarizing the developments within philosophical writings during the 1930s in general and Risō in particular – discusses four authors who published articles in this journal: Honda Kenzō, Ōshima Masanori, Miyamoto Shōson and Takashina Junji. The third part connects the first two and argues that the 1930s can give us an idea of how philosophy in a Japan approaching the Second World War increasingly developed into a way of reasoning within the frame of Japanese thinking. On the one hand, a shift to defend the Japanese culture can be observed. On the other, it will become clear that Japanese philosophy – as revealed in Risō – was much more autonomous than one would expect.

In Japan, recent Foreign Language Activities (2018-2020) policies have explicated the importance of facilitating multiculturalism and global thinking through education and educational tools, including through the use of textbooks. Accordingly, an Anti-Bias Framework (ABF) is one way for educators to develop learners’ global and cultural identities, as well as learners’ appreciation of human differences. ABFs are of particular relevance in multicultural textbooks and classrooms, as they are used for helping students develop local and international identities, and for helping learners eliminate biases. However, the current EFL textbooks (2018-2020) issued by the Japanese Ministry of Education are not inclusive of ABFs. Consequently, there are numerous missed opportunities for teachers and learners to engage in active anti-bias lessons for the facilitation of global citizenship. This paper seeks to address this gap in the textbooks by discussing opportunities for EFL teachers in Japan (and elsewhere) to use anti-bias frameworks in language and culture education. Elaborating upon the Teaching Tolerance Anti-Bias Framework (2017), this article proposes that EFL students in Japan can develop intercultural competencies and anti-bias thinking through an ABF, and offers suggestions for lesson activities, guided classroom discussions, engagement with local interlocutors, for English language development. While positioned against the backdrop of the Japanese EFL elementary classroom, these suggestions can be adapted to other EFL in-person and online classrooms, as well.

The paper discusses one of the least known episodes in Ezra Pound’s literary biography: his plays modelled on the Noh written in 1916 and published in 1987. I focus on the two plays that seem to be most completed, i.e. “A Supper at the House of Mademoiselle Rachelle” and “Tristan”. The former is essentially a text by de Musset slightly edited by Pound. The analysis of Pound’s corrections reveals a pattern – an attempt to realize the Noh concept of the unity of image and the intensification of image, which Pound found in E. Fenollosa’s manuscripts. According to the “Japanese” principle of image superposition, Pound juxtaposes several literary texts and traditions. He offers us his reading of de Musset’s reading of Racine, with the final scene alluding to Rembrandt. This multilayer construct is wrapped in a Noh-like form, which unmistakably reminds of vorticist manifestos. A similar telescopic arrangement is also manifested in “Tristan”. The analysis of vorticist transformations of the Noh highlights a gap between the characters and the narrative shaped by their words. Alluding to Berul, Bernart de Ventadorn and Joseph Bédier, the characters recreate not so much the story of their life but rather stories written about their story. Thus, the play becomes a metaphor of literature as an atemporal structure of texts echoing each other. On the whole, Pound’s drama is a step towards a “long vorticist poem”. The major motifs of the plays, i.e. those of transformation, of talking to the dead and of the repeat in history, will soon appear as the key structural principles of the Cantos.

Research on textbooks of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Japan has pointed out issues in gender and ethnic representation. Sustained efforts to achieve equal representation of both subjects have led to more balanced contents, but the problem has not yet been overcome. The aim of this paper is to address how the ‘role model’ genre found in Japanese EFL high school textbooks perpetuates negative stereotypes and ideologies through consistent misrepresentation. The findings point to an under-representation of female, foreign and diverse characters, often relegated to submissive archetypes (such as nature and environmental concerns) as opposed to the athletes, winners and successful individuals portrayed by active Japanese male characters.

The paper is dedicated to legitimizing strategies in Japanese pedagogical discourse and aimed at studying Japanese pedagogical discourse (based on “The Course of Moral Education”) in the light of legitimizing strategies. Relevance and novelty also depends on lack of description of Japanese educational discourse in academic literature and its precedential texts are always studied in the light of pedagogic and culturology. As a result of the study, the main areas of Japanese education policy and the worldview values, implicitly transmitted to the young generation are reviled.

ABSTRACT: Empire’ in the traditional sense was present throughout most of human history arguably until the emergence of the ‘nation-state’ structure in the past century and ‘Imperialism’ persists even to this day. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were characterized by the breakdown of one kind of imperial authority almost all over the world and the advent of a new kind of one. Such was the case in the Qing empire (1644-1911 AD) of China and the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868 AD) of Japan, both of which experienced the downfall of the existing power structure. The imperial crises that these two states went through were similar in some ways and distinctly different in other ways. This paper attempts to present a brief sketch of the two narratives and then compare them in order to form a better understanding of the circumstances and processes which led to and accompanied these unique experiences of the nineteenth-century Far East.

This paper examines the correlation between political thought and poetic expression by introducing the literary work of Ōishi Seinosuke (1867–1911), a Japanese socialist and physician who was executed during the High Treason Incident of 1910/11. It shows that personal opinions regarding society and government do have a strong influence on the individual style of an author, not only in the matter of content, but also concerning the chosen language and the mode of expression. However, Ōishi himself, who studied in the United States from 1892 to 1895, seems to have been aware of several discrepancies between his own political ideals and the reality of literary creation. In fact, he suddenly abandoned his efforts in Japanese short poetry at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and thenceforth conveyed his political message to the audience via the more conservative way of writing essays. This change of medium indicates that Ōishi no longer thought of poems as an appropriate means to fight the injustice of society and the destructive foreign policy of the Japanese authorities.

Modeled after the Soviet propaganda magazine SSSR na stroike (›USSR in Construction‹, published 1930–1941, 1949), the Japanese overseas propaganda photo magazine FRONT (1942–1945) provided visual propaganda for the so-called ›Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere‹, a concept that was proclaimed in 1940 and served to disguise Japan’s quest for hegemony in Asia. Employing the aesthetics of Russian Constructivism and Socialist Realism of SSSR na stroike, FRONT created a visual aesthetic that could be termed Japanese Co-Prosperity Realism. Its dynamic and modernistic design was a transculturally inspired practice by Japanese photographers, graphic designers, journalists and producers of visual media, some of whom had been left-wing intellectuals or had lived and worked in the Soviet Union. In a comparative perspective, this paper carves out the political, cultural and gendered semantics of the (in)visibility of power, political religion and ethnic diversity that such aesthetics entailed. It explores some of the shifting backgrounds against which photographic techniques were enacted, from their avant-garde beginnings to their application in authoritarian regimes. ∗ ∗ ∗ Die sowjetische Propagandazeitschrift »SSSR na stroike« (»UdSSR im Bau«, 1930–1941, 1949) diente als Vorbild für die japanische Auslands- und Fotoillustrierte »FRONT« (1942–1945). Letztere lieferte die visuelle Propaganda für die »Großostasiatische Wohlstandssphäre«, ein Konzept, das 1940 verkündet wurde und den japanischen Herrschaftsanspruch in Asien verschleiern bzw. beschönigen sollte. Mit Anleihen des Russischen Konstruktivismus und Sozialistischen Realismus aus »SSSR na stroike« schufen die Macher von »FRONT« eine visuelle Ästhetik, die man »Realismus der japanischen Wohlstandssphäre« nennen könnte. Dessen dynamisches und modernistisches Design war das Ergebnis einer transkulturell inspirierten Praxis japanischer Fotografen, Grafikdesigner, Journalisten und Produzenten visueller Medien, von denen einige ehemals linke Intellektuelle waren oder in der Sowjetunion gelebt hatten. In vergleichender Perspektive arbeitet der Aufsatz die politischen, kulturellen und geschlechtlichen Semantiken der (Un-)Sichtbarkeit der Macht, politischer Religion und ethnischer Vielfalt dieser visuellen Ästhetik heraus. Die sich wandelnden fotografischen Techniken werden im jeweiligen Kontext diskutiert, von ihren Avantgarde-Anfängen bis zu ihrer Nutzung in autoritären Regimen.

Kawabata Yasunari is known not only for the traditionalist poetics of his later days but also for his modernist period during the late 1920's and early 1930's, when he wrote as a member of the avant-garde movement Shinkankakuha. This paper provides a detailed reading of one of his last modernist works, the experimental novel Suishō gensō (Crystal Fantasies). While showing certain parallels to the psychological I-novel of its time in its exploration of subjectivity, the text distinguishes itself especially on a narrative level, implementing new forms of storytelling that unleash a lyrical and fragmented imagery upon the reader. My analysis seeks to illuminate the diegetic structure of Kawabata's text, showing how it functionally replaces the omnipresent voice of the self-reflexive narrator by cinematographic techniques of montage and collage, and how it provides an alternative „interior view“ of its characters, mediated via stream of consciousness. Following the split-second flow of associations, sounds and images, the reader is drawn into a world of intertextual cross-references to mythology, (pseudo-)science, psychoanalysis and popular culture ‒ discourses that left their imprints on the language of modernity and, in their contradictory co-presence, reveal a conflicted scenography of the modern mind.