Search

Taiwanese film KANO recounts the passage of a mixed-race baseball team to Japan’s Koshien Tournament during the colonial era of the 1930s. Its release evoked in both Taiwan and Japan critical responses in view of its rosy depiction of colonial modernity. Through analysing the film’s text and reviews in both Taiwan and Japan, we identify KANO as a “post-national” cinematic event. Its inviting nostalgic invocation of Japanese colonialism at the civilian level has launched divergent discourses on colonial legacies in the contemporary re/making of national identities, reflecting on the post-colonial socio-cultural conditions facing both Taiwan and Japan. We found that KANO in Taiwan instigated a re-examination of the state’s role in crafting the foundational myth of baseball as a “national” sport. Furthermore, the film brought on schemes of othering in which two national others were distinguished to manifest Taiwan subjectivity: Japanese colonialism versus Chinese nationalism. On the other hand, KANO in Japan was stripped of its colonial connotation. Its honouring of juvenile devotion to baseball was employed as a psychic introjection of Japanese-ness, which many considered losing in the globalizing social milieu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how the Grand Shrine of Ise has successfully distanced itself from its prewar and wartime associations with Japanese imperialism and nationalism to become an untroubling site of Japanese cultural identity. Building on Jonathan Reynolds' essay which traces Ise's transformation to become a sign of Japanese aesthetics, this essay extends the examination of Ise's rehabilitation to two other trajectories. First, it examines SCAP's attempts to dismantle State Shintō and suggests that while Occupation authorities were successful in separating Shintō from the state, they left Ise Shrine uninterrogated, which allowed it to escape censure and continue into the postwar period relatively intact. The second trajectory is Japan's involvement in the preservation of World Heritage, which I suggest provides a new, international stage that furthers Ise Shrine's rehabilitation in entirely new ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ambiguous nature of Murakami's criticism toward the postwar Japanese condition - as the artist most effectively captured in his phrase 'A Little Boy,' which was also the title of his curated exhibition at the Japan Society of New York in 2005. As Murakami wrote in his introduction to the catalogue, demilitarized Japan after the Second World War underwent a collective sense of helplessness, and the metaphor of a little boy is intended to describe Japan's supposedly unavoidable reliance on its big brother, America. The name 'Little Boy,' in fact, originates from the code name used by the American military for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The proliferation of 'cuteness' in Japanese contemporary art, which draws upon youth culture, especially otaku culture, evinces a common urge among the postwar generation in Japan to escape from their horrible memories and sense of powerlessness. Murakami's rhetorical analysis of Japan's self-image seems, however, contradictory, given his extremely aggressive business tactics, which can find no counterpart in the Western art world - not even in the efforts of Murakami's predecessor, Andy Warhol. Like My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), whose hyper sexuality defies its pubescent and immature appearance, his art, theory, and art marketing indicate the paradoxical nature of his theory of impotence. By focusing on his manifesto and writings published on the occasion of his 2005 exhibition and his style of managing Kaikai Kiki Ltd., this paper delves into the dual nature of Murakami's interpretation of postwar Japanese art and culture, particularly in relation to those of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the development of J-pop under the post-Fordist condition and its ideological formation over the last two decades. J-pop, invented as a fashionable sub-genre by a FM radio station in the late 1980s, expanded its category throughout the 1990s and covers virtually all musical genres for young people in Japan. However, due to the lasting economic recession, the development of digital technology and the transformation of young people's lifestyle, the record industry faced a serious crisis during the 2000s. The paper explores ideological formations between the success of J-pop and the emergence of freeters' (young part-time workers) culture in Japan, by focusing on their nationalist sentiment and the idea of creativity, and tries to find a new way of reclaiming 'creativity' in DiY (Do it Yourself) music culture today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers the construction of cultural identities that World Cup 2002 realized in Japanese society. Role of media representation in national teams in constructing the concept of Japaneseness; Implication of the World Cup experience as an alternative for national narrativization; Benefit of the event for Japan to rediscover resources and opportunity.

Cites the implications of the World Cup 2002 to increase the level of nationalism and patriotism in Japan. Observation of critic, Toshimaru Ogura, that sporting events have been closely related to the administration, control and management of the people and to strategies for strengthening the social organization of the collectivity; Emphasis of psychiatrist, Rika Kayama, on the possibility of some more conservative, reactionary results from the World Cup; Disadvantage of using the national flag and hymn during the event to develop other meta-messages with ideological and political implication at the connotative level.

Presents intellectual discourses on the World Cup and nationalism in Japan. Benefit of the World Cup for Japanese to learn to love the country with enthusiasm through the event; Argument of sociologist, Miyada Shinji that the World Cup should not be overestimated as young people wanted no more than an ordinary festival; Increase in appreciation of young people towards Japanese nationalism.

Highlights on the 2000 Inter-Asia cultural studies conference statement. Goals of the conference; Theme of the conference; Discussion of issues on colonialism, imperialism and nationalism; Elaboration on the subjects which affects the societies.