Fwd: Japan Focus Newsletter

[Aaron Gerow]

Japan Focus just uploaded an interview with Watanabe Ken.

www.japanfocus.org

Begin forwarded message:

>  An Asia Pacific Newsletter
>  New Articles Posted January 7, 2008
>  in this issue
> Aniya Masaaki, The Okinawa Times, and Asahi Shinbun, Compulsory  
> Mass Suicide, the Battle of Okinawa, and Japan's Textbook Controversy
> Kamata Satoshi, Shattering Jewels: 110,000 Okinawans Protest  
> Japanese State Censorship of Compulsory Group Suicides
> Fujiwara Chisa, Single Mothers and Welfare Restructuring in Japan:  
> Gender and Class Dimensions of Income and Employment
> Georgy Toloraya, The Future of North Korea: System Conservation or  
> Guided Market Economy?
> Mel Gurtov, Reconciling Japan and China
> Mark E. Caprio, The Forging of Alien Status of Koreans in American  
> Occupied Japan
> David McNeill, The Last Samurai
> Edan Corkill, Tokyo Architects SANAA Score in US, Europe, Japan.  
> Museum of Contemporary Art Opens in New York.
>
> Greetings!
> This week we feature a series of articles on the controversy over  
> compulsory mass suicide in the Battle of Okinawa by Aniya Masaaki  
> and Kamata Satoshi that produced the largest demonstrations in  
> Okinawa since reversion in 1972. Go to our home page to access more  
> than 1,000 articles: http://japanfocus.org
>
> Japan Focus is a peer-reviewed e-journal and archive on the Asia  
> Pacific. Its fully indexed site contains more than one thousand  
> articles. In addition to Japan Focus exclusives, it provides  
> translations from Japanese and other languages as well as reprints  
> of important articles. The coordinators of Japan Focus are Andrew  
> DeWit, Laura Hein, Gavan McCormack, David McNeill, Mark Selden,  
> Yuki Tanaka and William Underwood. Contact Japan Focus by email at  
> info at japanfocus.org
>
> Aniya Masaaki, The Okinawa Times, and Asahi Shinbun, Compulsory  
> Mass Suicide, the Battle of Okinawa, and Japan's Textbook Controversy
>
> For more than three decades, historical memory controversies have  
> been fought over Japanese school textbook content in both the  
> domestic and international arenas. In these controversies, Japanese  
> textbook contents, which are subject to Ministry of Education  
> examination and revision of content and language prior to approval  
> for use in the public schools, repeatedly sparked denunciations by  
> Chinese and Korean authorities and citizens with respect to such  
> issues as the Nanjing Massacre, the comfort women, and coerced  
> labor. In 2007, the most intense controversy has pitted the  
> Ministry of Education against the residents and government of the  
> Japanese prefecture of Okinawa. The issue exploded in March 2007  
> with the announcement that all references to military coercion in  
> the compulsory mass suicides (shudan jiketsu) of Okinawan residents  
> during the Battle of Okinawa were to be eliminated. The  
> announcement triggered a wave of anger across Okinawan society  
> leading to the mass demonstration in Ginowan City of 110,000  
> Okinawans addressed by the top leadership of the Prefecture.
>
> I. Compulsory Mass Suicide and the Battle of Okinawa by Aniya  
> Masaaki was published in Gunshuku mondai shiryo (Disarmament  
> Review), December 2007. A Political Decision that Obscures  
> Historical Reality: "Involvement" approved, "Coercion" Kyousei)  
> disapproved in Okinawa Mass Suicide Textbook Treatment, an Okinawa  
> Times editorial of December 27, 2007. Mass Suicides in Okinawa,  
> Asahi Shinbun editorial, was published on Dec 27, 2007. Posted at  
> Japan Focus on January 6, 2008. Japanese translations of all three  
> articles are available.
>
> Read More...
>
>
> Kamata Satoshi, Shattering Jewels: 110,000 Okinawans Protest  
> Japanese State Censorship of Compulsory Group Suicides
>
> Investigative reporter Kamata draws on decades of investigation in  
> Okinawa to report on the mass demonstration protesting Japanese  
> censorship of the role of the military in compulsory group suicides  
> in the Battle of Okinawa, and to present the testimony of Okinawans  
> who lived to tell the tale.
> This is a slightly abbreviated translation of a two part article  
> that appeared in Shukan Kinyobi, No. 674, October 12 and 26, 2007.  
> Posted at Japan Focus on January 3, 2008. Kamata Satoshi, one of  
> Japan's leading investigative journalists, is the author of Japan  
> in the Passing Lane, chronicling his experience as a worker at  
> Toyota in the 1980s. Steve Rabson translated this article for Japan  
> Focus.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
>
> Fujiwara Chisa, Single Mothers and Welfare Restructuring in Japan:  
> Gender and Class Dimensions of Income and Employment
>
> Since the 1990s, Japan has experienced an increase in the number of  
> single parent families due to a significant rise in the divorce  
> rate. In response to this trend, the Japanese government introduced  
> welfare reforms in 2002, which aimed to limit welfare expenditures  
> for single mothers and strengthen mothers' self-sufficiency through  
> work. I examine single motherhood in Japan from the perspective of  
> social class. Poverty and social class are rarely discussed in  
> studies of Japanese society, in part because Japan is widely  
> considered to be a quite affluent and egalitarian society. However,  
> social class, which is chiefly explored through educational  
> background in this paper, is an important factor that affects the  
> living conditions of single mothers in contemporary Japan.
> Fujiwara Chisa is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of  
> Humanities and Social Sciences at Iwate University. This is a  
> revised and expanded version of a paper that appeared in Japonesia  
> Review on September 14, 2007. Posted at Japan Focus on January 2,  
> 2008.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
>
> Georgy Toloraya, The Future of North Korea: System Conservation or  
> Guided Market Economy?
>
> The spectacular advancement in the peace process during 2007 (the  
> six-party talks and the U.S.-DPRK talks as well as increasing North- 
> South cooperation), progress in solving the nuclear issue (at least  
> partly) and in normalization of the DPRK's relations with the West  
> bring to the fore the question of the DPRK's future course.  
> Provided hostility diminishes and its external security is  
> guaranteed, will the country seize the chance to modernize and  
> prosper, integrating into today's world? The North Korean  
> leadership seems to wish to use these opportunities, arguing that  
> since DPRK statehood and defense are now firmly established, now is  
> the time for economic progress. The joint New Year Editorial for  
> 2008 for the first time stated that "building of an economic power"  
> is the priority while "the objective of our advance is a great,  
> prosperous and powerful socialist country" (with a target date of  
> 2012 - Kim Il Sung's 100th anniversary).Might the introduction of  
> "the people's-living-first policy " principle [1] signal changes in  
> the economic management system to make it more market-oriented? In  
> considering North Korea's possible reform and transformation, we  
> cannot but wonder how much the national specifics that have  
> determined North Korean socialist practices will count. If the  
> country sooner or later moves to adapt to the market, will the  
> North Korean way of doing so again be unique?
> Georgy Toloraya is currently a visiting fellow at the Center for  
> Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) at the Brookings  
> Institution. Dr. Toloraya is by training a diplomat specializing in  
> East Asian affairs and has previously been posted in North Korea,  
> Seoul as deputy chief of mission, and Sydney as Consul General. He  
> works part-time for the Institute of World Economy and  
> International Relations (IMEMO) in Moscow. Dr. Toloraya holds a  
> Ph.D. in Economics and is a Doctor of Economy from Russian Academy  
> of Science. He is a Professor of Moscow University of International  
> Relations. This article was written for Japan Focus and posted on  
> January 5, 2007.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
>
> Mel Gurtov, Reconciling Japan and China
>
> The conflict-resolution literature offers new insights to  
> reconciling parties in conflict. This article applies that  
> literature, along with political-science approaches, to the  
> seemingly intractable China-Japan rivalry. Proceeding from the  
> standpoint that China and Japan need one another, and should manage  
> their conflict for mutual benefit, the article suggests several  
> steps they may take-bilaterally, in multilateral settings, and in  
> civil society-to reduce tensions and promote better understanding.
> Mel Gurtov is Professor of Political Science and International  
> Studies in the Hatfield School of Government, Portland State  
> University, and Editor-in-Chief of Asian Perspective. Written for  
> Japan Focus and posted on January 5, 2008.
>
> Read more... ?
>
>
> Mark E. Caprio, The Forging of Alien Status of Koreans in American  
> Occupied Japan
>
> Declarations made before and immediately following the cessation of  
> the Pacific War pledged the United States mission of the occupation  
> of Japan, after disarming the erstwhile enemy of its military  
> capacity and purging those responsible for the war, to be the  
> introduction of democracy. The same Potsdam Declaration that  
> demanded Japan's "unconditional surrender" appended the notion that  
> through occupation the democratic ideals of "[f]reedom of speech,  
> of religion and of thought, as well as respect for the fundamental  
> human rights shall be established." This article considers the  
> application of these principles to Japan's minorities. These  
> peoples not only were denied political consideration as "Japanese"  
> but also faced severe discrimination and at times non-recognition  
> during the postwar period. In particular, given its size, its  
> organization, and historical complications, this article examines  
> the plight of Japan's Korean population.
> This is a revised and abbreviated version of a chapter that  
> appeared in Mark E. Caprio and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds., Democracy in  
> Occupied Japan. The U.S. occupation and Japanese politics and  
> society (London: Routledge, 2007). Mark E. Caprio is professor in  
> the Department of Intercultural Communication and the Graduate  
> School of 21st Century Design Studies at Rikkyo University in  
> Tokyo, Japan. Posted at Japan Focus on January 2, 2008.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
>
> David McNeill, The Last Samurai
>
> Ken Watanabe is back from a year of self-imposed retirement after  
> his acclaimed roles in Last Samurai and Letters from Iwo Jima. He  
> talks about his new movie project, his life out of the limelight  
> and the dangers of Asian stereotypes.
> David McNeill writes regularly for a number of publications  
> including the Irish Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He  
> is a Japan Focus coordinator. Published at Japan Focus on January  
> 1, 2008.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
>
> Edan Corkill, Tokyo Architects SANAA Score in US, Europe, Japan.  
> Museum of Contemporary Art Opens in New York.
>
> Being an architect requires patience and endurance. For argument's  
> sake, let's just say it's 2002 and, as the highlight of your career  
> to date, you win the competition to design a new art museum in one  
> of the most prized locations in the world: Manhattan. Edan Corkill  
> profiles the SANAA architectural office headed by Sejima Kazuyo and  
> Nishizawa Ryue on the occasion of the opening of the opening of  
> their Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan, ranging widely  
> across their philosophy and projects.
> Edan Corkill is a staff writer for the Japan Times. This interview  
> was published in The Japan Times on January 6, 2008 and in Japan  
> Focus on January 6, 2008.
>
> Read more . . . ?
>
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