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Copyright of Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung is the property of Open Library of Humanities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Psychoanalys Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG) is the property of Psychosozial-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How did the Japanese government defend its postwar capital controls against foreign criticism within the wider discourse surrounding the liberalization of cross-border capital f lows? This paper argues that it was relying on the so-called "balance of payments rationale," a rhetoric linking the annual in- and outf lows of foreign money to current and future states of the national economy, to justify its continued application of foreign capital import controls between 1950 and 1967. It traces how legal, diplomatic, and economic conditions enabled the balance of payments rationale to assume this role. As the control of capital imports was an important element of Japan's postwar industrial policy, maintaining it was deemed essential for the country's economic development. Thus, the initial conditions of the capital liberalization discourse coupled with the effective use of the balance of payments rationale enabled the Japanese government to retain this important industrial policy tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Asia Pacifi c War (1937-1945), the Japanese Imperial Army forced women in Japanese East Asian colonies to work as so-called “comfort women” (sex workers). The justice movement for these women is an international intersectional alliance of feminists from Japanese ex-colonies in East Asia, the former colonial power Japan, and other societies, such as Australia, Germany, and the USA. This long-term feminist justice movement has campaigned for an apology and compensation from the Japanese government, as well as for recognition of “comfort women‘s” suff ering and of sexual violence in war in cultural memory. Through researching this justice movement from a processual intersectionality perspective, this paper shows that it gained power and legitimacy from refl ecting and working on its internal intersectional inequalities. This included refl ecting on the class hierarchies between many former “comfort women”, who had power of defi nition, and intellectual feminist activists, as well as on the postcolonial divide between former Japanese colonies and the former colonial power Japan, leading it to develop horizontal cooperation and practices. Following an overview, the paper outlines the movements in South Korea, Japan, and Germany, and highlights the different postcolonial constellation between East Asia and Germany, the main actors, and their aims. While the Japanese government rejected the justice movement‘s demands and the right wing mobilised against it, has been able to infl uence cultural memory to widely recognize sexual violence in war and the dignity of the “comfort women”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change in Japan is having very different effects at the municipal level. This is due on the one hand to the steadily increasing concentration of the population in the Tōkyō metropolitan area, and on the other hand to the nationwide advance of urbanization. Both trends are accelerating population decline and aging in Japan’s rural regions. The following paper illustrates the dynamics using a quantitative analysis for the period from 2000 to 2020. The period thus also captures the changes brought about by the wave of municipal mergers between 2000 and 2009. The basis is the Population Census and local income tax and financial statistics. The data show that most of Japan’s 1741 municipalities today are small and sparsely populated. There are significant differences at the municipal level in population growth, aging, fertility, income levels, and financial strength. Small and sparsely populated municipalities are affected by a significantly greater decline and faster aging of the population, incomes are lower here and the financial strength of municipal budgets is weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, urbanites' outmigration to Japan's rural areas received considerable media attention. However, outmigration from urban areas is small and not evenly distributed across prefectures in Japan, with prefectures in peripheral locations receiving fewer migrants than those closer to urban centers. This paper analyzes the representation of rural spaces in recruitment strategies, promotional activities, and information events conceptualized and organized by two such peripheral prefectures, Saga and Ōita in Kyushu, to understand the role of these representations in the inter-prefectural competition for new residents. Based on the analysis of promotional videos published online by both prefectures, it was found that despite recent changes in rural Japan the promotional videos published by Saga and Ōita prefectures portray the two prefectures as a »rural idyll,« rather than as innovative, open, and diverse. In this way, the promotional materials echo older discourses about rural areas from the fields of tourism, consumerism, and the media, which portray rural Japan as an idealized but homogeneous space. Since the representations of the two prefectures differed only slightly and could hardly be distinguished from each other, it is questionable whether these materials can help potential new residents make an informed decision before moving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preface to the special theme section “Historical narration in pre-modern Japan” addresses the terminological ambiguity of the expression “historical narrative” and its varying implications in the framework of literary studies. The individual papers approach the topic in a philological manner from different angles, i.e., from literary, historical, linguistic, and buddhological points of view. This preface introduces all the essays in this theme section and outlines their commonalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ORDO: Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the anthropological assumption that languages express worldviews, the paper approaches the meaning of cosmopolitanism in Japanese from two directions. First, Western traditions of cosmopolitanism are examined. Anthropological cosmopolitanism is elaborated as a way of thinking that emphasizes cultural diversity. Second, the Japanese word kyôsei (共生) is considered as an equivalent to cosmopolitanism, revealing both similarities and differences in meaning. As ›conviviality‹ or ›symbiosis of dissimilarities‹, kyôsei points to ways of overcoming the implicit anthropocentrism of Western thought. From an educational perspective, Western and Japanese cosmopolitan thought overlap in notions of intercultural education. In the current political discourse in Japan, however, kyôsei has turned into an anticosmopolitan pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hôrin is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Vereinigung für Sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nachrichten aus der Chemie is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nachrichten aus der Chemie is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The entry restrictions imposed by the Japanese government to curb the spread of COVID-19 have ground the steadily increasing influx of international students Japan has experienced in the last decade to a halt. While students seeking to enter Japan have been making their voices heard on social media, a new form of »study abroad« has emerged, with students participating from everywhere around the world. Meanwhile, students inside Japan have experienced serious disruptions in their daily lives, brought about by the rapid shift caused by social distancing. This article analyzes the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the everyday life of international students studying at Japanese universities, inside and outside of Japan, and the implications this might have on integrating into Japanese society and their life trajectories. It focuses on a series of interviews with students at Hokkaidō University conducted by the author between April 2021 and January 2022, featuring experiences effectively spanning the first two years of the pandemic. It argues that the effects of the pandemic have significantly hampered the possibilities of students creating meaningful relationships by severing them from social life as they knew it. At the same time, the possibility of effectively learning the Japanese language and local customs is reduced, and the success of their studies is jeopardized. The pandemic has slowed down their chances to accumulate Bourdieusian social and cultural capital severely, which might impede the chances of this cohort successfully integrating into the Japanese labor market and society due to assimilationist expectations towards immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demographic change can be observed all over Japan. However, the harsh reality of aging and population decline afflicts the rural areas in particular. Sixty years of regional promotion by special legislation, administrative decentralization, or municipal consolidation have failed to overcome the structural disadvantages of the rural periphery in Japan. In 2014, the Japanese government announced a new policy called chihō sōsei, regional revitalization, with the goal to revitalize rural economies and address rural population decline. As many efforts to revitalize rural areas have failed before, the responsibility of drafting and implementing revival plans has now been placed solely on local governments. To create local economies that can guarantee sustainability, local governments and communities reach for regional branding as an important tool to generate a continuous stream of capital flowing into the area. The so-called Zen Initiative was inaugurated in 2013 by the local government of Aso City in Kumamoto Prefecture. The initiative was supposed to strengthen the local community as well as create economic opportunities, especially through boosting local tourism. The data collected during fieldwork in Aso in 2017 showed, however, that after only five years the initiative had already exhausted its limits. The initiative, planned by the local government and an advertising agency from Tokyo, was poorly constructed and lacked the necessary parts that are needed for a successful branding process. Another problem was the rigid top-down approach by the local government, which reflected neither the needs nor opinions of the local population. This study takes a closer look at the context in which Zen was created and how the power struggle of the stakeholders negatively affected the potential of the revitalization initiative that was hailed as a new way of rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Japan's new connectivity initiative, Free and Open Indo-Pacific, and some previous doctrines, Tokyo has started to shift its regional security policy focus towards democratic Pacific states. Qualitative case studies on bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific assess these changes as reflecting a more proactive security policy initiated under the Abe administration (2012-2020). While Tokyo's security policy in Southeast Asia has certainly changed both qualitatively and quantitatively since 2012/2013, explaining this change by referring to Prime Minister Abe's foreign policy agenda falls short. Rather, Japan's new strategy is the result of a change in perceptions among executive officials in the foreign and defense ministries that had already been initiated in the 2000s. This study looks at this development and examines the role of the Prime Minister's Office of Japan (PMOJ), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and the Ministry of Defense (MOD) in initiating the change and assesses Japan's Pacific strategy through an interviewbased qualitative case study. Using the concept of foreign policy analysis and based on official publications and interviews with representatives of the MOD, the MOFA, and PMOJ advisors, this study shows that the origins of this new regionalism are found primarily in the changing perceptions of executive officials. This study considers government publications as well as the author's interviews with Japanese diplomats, thus expanding the qualitative aspect of existing research. It also points to the importance of administrative executives at the interface among PMOJ, the MOFA, and the MOD, which should warrant a significant level of analysis to aid in explaining Japan's regional strategy shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Jahrbuch der Vereinigung für Sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung is the property of Iudicium Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Berliner Debatte Initial is the property of Berliner Debatte Initial e.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Man 'yōshū is known as an anthology of poems but is also consulted as a source of political and particularly cultural history. The present examination, which is intended as an introduction to historical studies on the Man 'yōshū, does not address the content of the poems but focuses on the so-called hyōmoku, "spatial-historical section headings," and the sachū and kachū, i.e., annotations that were later added to the end of the poems, headings, titles, etc. Therefore, this article is less about history than about formal aspects of historiography. The character of the Man 'yōshū anthology of literature as historiography is most evident in the first two books, to which this investigation is limited. On the one hand, the selective nature of this unique kind of historiography is to be shown, and on the other hand, its deviations from the Nihon shoki, which represents the official historiography. It is possible that different sources of material were available at the time the anthology was compiled. A case study will be used to show that the deviations from the official historiography may have been intentional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]