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In contemporary Australian society, where nationhood has been built upon Western values, non-Caucasian people, including those with a Japanese background, have largely been treated as "others". This attitude was particularly evident during the Second World War. When Japan joined the war in December 1941, some 97 per cent of civilians with a Japanese background living in Australia, including those who were born in Australia, were interned, and the vast majority of them were shipped to Japan after the war, even though they had no real connection to Japan. Based on my archival research, I argue that some of these "Japanese" who were thought to be others were, in fact, Australians, with strong loyalty to Australia. Official documents do not necessarily determine people's nationality, but instead a sense of belonging such as how they relate to a given society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniqlo, Japan's largest fashion brand, operates over 2200 stores internationally; however, it is largely pan-Asian as 92% of the stores are in Asia. Taiwan is no exception where the notion of fashion, rather than clothing, originally arrived under Japanese rule in the early twentieth century. After being independent of Japan in the mid-twentieth century, many Taiwanese still preferred Japanese rather than Western designs and trends due to the cultural similarities between Taiwan and Japan. This became further evident when Uniqlo opened its first Taiwanese store in 2010. However, Uniqlo's business model of providing simple design products of high quality can be explained by neither Laver's Law of fashion cycle nor the strategy of European fast fashion brands that offer fast cycle fashion items without guaranteeing quality. To discover motives and reasons behind the Taiwanese mindset, we have conducted 15 interviews, including two with former Uniqlo workers, at various locations in Taiwan. We then conclude that Taiwanese consumers seek quality clothes from Uniqlo, tangible features of clothing rather than symbolic elements of fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, it is assumed that Japanese fashion is widely appreciated, but this proposition of collective understanding was unsupported by scientific evidence until this research was conducted. In this investigation, I examined ways in which Japanese fashion is presented in Australian print media. This type of study is a conventional method in fashion research, as exemplified in the work of the cultural anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the cultural theorist Angela McRobbie in more recent times.1 To assess the presence of Japanese fashion influences in Australia, both broadsheet newspapers and fashion magazines have been considered. Newspapers were selected to examine how the Australian general public is informed about Japanese fashion, whereas fashion magazines were consulted as the main source of information for the fashion-conscious sector. In particular, The Australian and The Age were chosen as samples for my newspaper analysis; these two dailies are viewed as rivals and are based in different Australian cities, owned by different media corporations, and represent different political attitudes. For fashion magazines, Cosmopolitan, frankie, and Fashion Journal are believed to best reflect the Australian fashion media landscape. Cosmopolitan is a mainstream, internationally syndicated ‘glossy’ fashion magazine, and it is the most popular fashion magazine in Australia according to sales figures. frankie is an alternative Australian-produced magazine that caters to an artistic, niche audience. Fashion Journal is a free fashion magazine that is distributed on the ‘street.’ After conducting a comprehensive media analysis over the selected 2012 publications, I have discovered that the vast majority (85.3 per cent) of Japanese items in the selected Australian publications displayed positive images of Japanese fashion, confirming the hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean has been a contentious issue in Australia, typified by a systematic and widely supported anti-whaling campaign. This resistance came to a head on 15 January 2008 with the advent of two events; the boarding of a whaling ship by protestors, and the ruling of the Australian Federal Court that Japan’s whaling breached Australian Law. Our comparative discourse analysis of Australian and Japanese media reportage of these events illustrates how each country has constructed alternative realities reflective of their respective pro or anti-whaling agendas. The constructs in each discourse are distinct; the former full of heroes and villains, the latter filled with scientific researchers. Not only does this underscore the depth of the ideological divide, but it raises the issue of journalistic objectivity and the role that journalism plays in influencing public affairs. We suggest that journalists need to think carefully about the consequences of their (mis)-representations and either acknowledge their partisanship and be held to account, or strive for more balance in reporting events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a belief that the use of the atomic bombs caused the end of the Pacific War and thus saved many lives. However, historical accounts indicate that the war could have ended less destructively. A greater number of Japanese civilians died from the atomic bombs than the expected casualties of American soldiers--casting doubt on justification for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, Taurek's 'Should the Numbers Count?' reveals that numbers may not necessarily play a role in making a moral decision. This paper examines Taurek's ethical arguments in relation to the historical events and concludes that, while Taurek's argument may appear plausible, his philosophical ideas do not adequately justify the use of the atomic bombs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]