Powerful views - the edges of economy in Japan these days

The long-form essays of photo + video from Brian Storm's workshop, MediaStorm.com, will cause you to think.

Subtitles for the 日本語 audio.

Here are 3 episodes that play together as chapters (in total 25 minutes all together).

Japan's Disposable Workers by Shiho Fukada

 - Death by overwork

 - Depression (not to be discussed)

 - Internet cafe refugees

 - Homeless living

https://www.mediastorm.com/clients/japans-disposable-workers 

Early letters from U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 1862>

Cross posted from H-Japan, Oct 28, 2022.

The transcribed and annotated personal letters of Robert H. Pruyn, second U.S. minister to Japan (1862-1865), are now available as an open-source .pdf document on the University at Albany's Scholars Archive at https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/eas_fac_scholar/19/.

Pruyn was a prolific correspondent to his wife, Jane Ann Lansing Pruyn. The letters--600 pages in all--cover the three years that Pruyn spent in Japan while his wife and youngest son remained in Albany. The content covers Pruyn's activites in Japan, the expatriate community in Yokohama and Kanagawa, diplomatic issues, life in Albany, New York state politics, and Pruyn family history. I hope that they will be of interest to a broad community of scholars, both of Japanese and American history.

Questions about the resource may be sent to sfessler@albany.edu.

Susanna Fessler, Professor, State University of New York at Albany

recent articles from Asian Anthropology (regarding Japan)

(click the OPEN ACCESS tab)

https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/raan20 

Asian Anthropology /21(1)

Special Issue: Rural Japan as heterotopia, guest edited by Paul Hansen and Susanne Klien

--Introduction: Introduction: Exploring rural Japan as heterotopia, by Paul Hansen & Susanne Klien

--'The young, the stupid, and the outsiders': urban migrants as heterotopic selves in post-growth Japan, by Susanne Klien

--Agriculture corporations in rural Japan: fractured mirrors of past, present and future, by Nancy Rosenberger & Ayumi Sugimoto

--Success and succession: agritourism, heterotopia and two generations of rural Japanese female entrepreneurs, by Ayumi Sugimoto

--Japanese rural resettlers: communities with newcomers as heterotopic spaces, by Ksenia Kurochkina

--Rural emplacements: linking heterotopia, one health and /ikigai /in central Hokkaido, by Paul Hansen

Asian Anthropology/ 20(4)

--From tragedy to triumph: tsunami mitigation and Bōsai (disaster prevention) tourism in Tarō, Japan, by Christopher Thompson

--Book review of Skateboarding and urban landscapes in Asia: endless spots, Cosmopolitan rurality, depopulation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in 21st-Century

Japan

short videos, "Japan Video Topics" channel

In the newsletter from the Consulate General for Michigan & Ohio this link to the "Japan Video Topics" was given, https://www.youtube.com/c/JVTen/videos

The Youtube channel has a few dozen short videos (less than 5 minutes).

radio segment, Gold leaf makers of Japan are thinning out

Nice radio segment this morning, July 26, on National Public Radio (link to audio and transcript, below) from Kanazawa, home of feudal giant and lord of the Kaga clan.

One of the aging craftsmen says only about 20 of the former 300 small makers continue to produce the thin sheets of gold. The report goes on to say 97% of the nation's economic activity is from small and medium-sized companies. With a country-wide loss of children who take over the family business, the whole economy is heading for trouble.

=-=-=-=-= Excerpt

In Japan, decades of declining birthrates have put tens of thousands of family-owned businesses in crisis. Many have to shut down because there's no one to take over from the aging owners. Now the government there is trying to reverse the trend. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports from Kanazawa, Japan.

LINK, https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113615316/how-japans-low-birth-rate-threatens-centuries-old-traditions-and-skills

Japanese modern language and society - the example of Metal & Hard-core Rock music

This video on Youtube documents modern life in Japan - and interesting discussion about Metal and Hard-core Rock music there & the emotional meaning for performers and audiences, https://youtu.be/q49kG0pV0Bg (about 11 minutes).

recorded lecture 4/2022 , "Robo-Sexism: Gendering AI and Robots in Japan and ..."

"Robo-Sexism:  Gendering AI and Robots in Japan and the United States (and Elsewhere)" HYBRID event from April 22, 2022. recorded at https://vimeo.com/703001303 

DESCRIPTION

In humans, gender constitutes an array of learned behaviors that are cosmetically enabled and enhanced. Gender(ed) behaviors are both socially and historically shaped and are also contingent upon many situational influences, including individual choices. How is gender assigned in actual (as opposed to fictional) robots? Robertson will explore the sex/gender stereotypes and operational functions informing the design and embodiment of artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, especially humanoids and androids.

Robots have been imagined, designed, and deployed in rhetorical and tangible forms alike to reinforce conservative models of sex/gender roles, ethnic nationalism, and "traditional" family structures. Robertson considers the ramifications of "retro-tech" and also nascent efforts to redress robo-sexism.

SEE ALSO

Robo sapiens japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation [2017 U. California Press]

https://www.amazon.com/Robo-sapiens-japanicus-Robots-Japanese/dp/0520283201 

Jennifer Robertson, Professor Emerita, Anthropology and History of Art, University of Michigan

https://professorjenniferrobertson.com/interviews-podcasts-and-blogs-selection/

article, Fictitious Images of the Ainu

Fictitious Images of the Ainu : Ishū Retsuzō and Its Back Story

by SHIRAISHI Eri

in Japan Review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies 36: 89-109 (2/2022)

permalink, http://doi.org/10.15055/00007772

Crossposting from H-Japan listserv that may interest those with humanities or social science interests; a good opportunity to tickle your ears with scholarly discussion in Japanese.

https://networks.h-net.org/node/20904/discussions/9890109/japanese-language-podcast-book-lounge-academia

   excerpt from announcement:

BLA is a podcast channel where authors of scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences talk about their books through interviews in Japanese. BLA is operated by an independent, non-profit group that is not affiliated with any organization or institution.
It is available 2-4 Wednesdays a month via Youtube, spotify, google podcast, apple podcast, and stand fm.

This is the best audio media for those who want to know what's going on in Japanese humanities and social sciences. It may also be used for training in academic spoken Japanese. 

You are very welcome to talk about your own book written in English, but interview must be conducted in Japanese.

Short docu by 2 teens in Tokyo fitting into 2 cultures

"Ark & Maya: All Mixed Up" is almost 15 minutes and describes the growing up experiences of these two young women, dividing their time and their lives between USA and Japan, sometimes speaking more comfortably in English; other times in Japanese. The documentary appeared at the December screening for the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival, https://youtu.be/NWeg34noE0Y

"Salaryman" retrospective on workspace in Japan

Video (2 minutes) to show changes in middle-class work across ten decades.

The clips (from anime) portray some of the features that appeared and then disappeared.

Blurb for https://youtu.be/kNQMX--3E5Q

_________

It's been almost 100 years since the "salaryman" type of office worker first appeared in Japan back in the 1920s. As our society faces a major turning point, SmartHR decided to create a brand film to reflect upon how work styles have changed with time over the past century. We hope that by looking back on history, we inspire people to think about how they want to work going forward.

To learn more about each scene, visit our special brand film website Hataraku no hyakunenshi [A Century of Work] (Japanese language webpage) https://100years-movie.smarthr.jp