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ID:
084530
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2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Using a form of fictional reportage he terms the 'document novel' Murakami Ry has spent the past ten years probing the underlying causes of many of Japan's most critical social problems, from domestic violence and the rising school drop-out rate to phenomena such as 'compensated dating' and the hikikomori problem. At the root of these issues stands one seemingly insurmountable culprit: the recent completion of Japan's 'project of modernization'. The present essay offers a close reading of three recent Murakami novels, two dealing with mass killers (In za miso s pu, 1997, and Ky?seich , 2000), the third with a ten year-long popular uprising of middle school students (Kib? no kuni no ekusodasu, 2000). Its purpose is to show how two radically different works express essentially the same message: that Japan has reached a point where its current social and political structures, grounded in modernization (kindaika), must give way to a new evolutionary stage of social development. Within the slightly futuristic setting that has become a Murakami trademark, the author shows us an apocalyptic vision of Japan that may well be realized before long unless Japanese politicians, the mass media, and the general public start thinking more seriously about the root causes of the many social and economic crises that beset Japan.
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| 2 |
ID:
084534
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Shuten D?ji [Drunken Demon], from the genre otogi z?shi or Companion Tales, is one of Japan's most famous and popular medieval oni legends. While on the surface Shuten D?ji provides a potent literary example of good triumphing over evil, internal tensions in the text blur these distinctions. Thus, the representation of the Japanese imperial court and the noble warriors fighting on its behalf as the force of all that is 'good' becomes a troubled one, because the voice of the doomed 'evil'oni resonates throughout the text as the voice of the marginalized other. To explicate this alternate viewing of the demon and to prize out the tensions within the text, this article examines Shuten D?ji through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of the Carnival.
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| 3 |
ID:
084529
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2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The paper visits some thoughts of educationists in the past to consider a sustainable future for Australian Japanese language education at the coal face of high attrition and scarcity of funds. Drawing upon the concept of 'andragogy' and a sociocultural approach to learning, the paper proposes that we should shed metaphorical walls outside of and in the classrooms in order to open access to more diverse resources and encourage more intense engagement by the learners in the classroom learning community. The new learning environment is termed 'a classroom without walls'.
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| 4 |
ID:
084527
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
E-learning is today an ever more popular mode for second language learning. However, the relative newness of using a computer program for pronunciation training and assessment (CAPTA) in language classrooms presents the need to explore possibilities and limitations of this mode to achieve the most effective outcomes possible. This paper illustrates the process to develop CAPTA from the perspective of educators and discuss the effectiveness and limitations of CAPTA in the current technological environment.
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| 5 |
ID:
084531
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Japan's strong economic performance and its disproportionately low profile in international affairs up to the 1990s led many observers to reasonably conclude that the country's foreign policy, including its aid policy, was organized to advance national economic interests. But Japan responded to new international approaches to aid that ran counter to its own by modifying its approach and seeking to establish itself as a leader in the aid field. The formation of an economic development program for Vietnam presented Japan with a test for its newly adopted strategy. This article examines Japan's new aid approach to the world and its goals through a case study of its involvement in Vietnam's economic development program.
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| 6 |
ID:
084533
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Australia-Japan Working Holiday Agreement of 1980 represented a leap of faith on the part of both governments in their own people. Unprecedented for Japan, and breaking with Anglophone cultural stereotypes for Australia, neither government could have objectively predicted the enormous success of the agreement, or that it would become a model for many more such agreements. Both governments counted on recognition developing of the cultural benefits of the agreement. Neither could have foreseen that the agreement would eventually have significant labour market effects, mainly positive, though different, in Australia and Japan.
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| 7 |
ID:
084525
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Languages education is increasingly emphasising the place of the development of intercultural abilities in the teaching and learning of languages, and such requirements are now common in curriculum documents around the world. This change in emphasis has posed some challenges for the ways in which language teachers work. For some teachers, language and culture have been seen as separate areas of teaching and learning and the focus on the intercultural is seen as a movement away from language. For others, however, language and culture are fundamentally integrated and the focus on the intercultural represents a way of refocusing language teaching and learning to reflect this integration. Such an integrated approach means that the intercultural can be included in the languages curriculum, without a movement away from a language focus. This paper will examine ways in which language curriculum and practice can be understood from an intercultural perspective focusing on the intercultural while maintaining language learning at the heart of the curriculum.
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| 8 |
ID:
084526
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| Publication |
2008.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This paper will illustrate naturally occurring thanking episodes among Japanese students at a university campus in Tokyo, and compare them with the conventional Japanese thanking ritual (o-rei). This comparison illustrates the diverse and changing nature of the thanking repertoire in Japanese. The qualitative analysis of the data illustrates striking differences between o-rei rituals and expressions used by Japanese university students in thanking episodes. The students' speech repertoire contains some innovative speech formulae; yet, none of the data suggest that the students are influenced by the established communication practice of debt-credit balancing.
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