KINEJAPAN digest 2291

Thu Jan 10 02:57:43 EST 2008

I will be away from Jan. 11 - 26 with sporadic access to email, but  
will handle your message as soon as possible.

On Jan 7, 2008, at 11:10 PM, KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu wrote:

>
> 			    KINEJAPAN Digest 2291
>
> Topics covered in this issue include:
>
>   1) Fwd: Japan Focus Newsletter
> 	by Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
>
> From: Aaron Gerow <aaron.gerow at yale.edu>
> Date: January 7, 2008 8:56:59 AM CST
> To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> Subject: Fwd: Japan Focus Newsletter
>
>
>
> 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 . . . ?
>>
>> Quick Links...
>>
>>
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>>
>>      email: ms44 at cornell.edu
>>      voice: (607) 257-5185
>>      web: http://www.japanfocus.org
>>
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>>
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