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A New Conceptualization of the Japanese Self

Dr. Takie Sugiyama Lebra
Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, UHM

Date: Thursday, September 30, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium [Click here to view map.]

Dr. Lebra will begin her presentation by contrasting two models of cultural logic: opposition and contingency. "Contingency logic" will be applied to the Japanese self, not exclusively but with relative weight greater than "opposition logic." She then will apply contingency logic to three layers of Japanese self: social self, inner self, and cosmological self. By focusing on one aspect of social self, she will introduce a new way of looking at two familiar pairs of dichotomies (uchi-soto, omote-ura).

The presentation is based upon her new book, The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic, which is available through UH Press.

Click here to see flyer.

Doing Fieldwork in Japan II [Panel Discussion]

Dr. David Johnson
Associate Professor of Sociology, UHM

Dr. Sheila Smith
Research Fellow, East-West Center

Dr. Christine Yano
Associate Professor of Anthropology, UHM

Date: Thursday, October 21, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

Drs. Johnson, Smith, and Yano will provide lively, personal accounts of conducting fieldwork in Japan, chronicling the challenges they faced within a wide-range of settings (the prosecutors office, the politics of policy making, and the entertainment industry).

The presentations are based on their articles which appeared in DOING FIELDWORK IN JAPAN, edited by Theodore C. Bestor, Patricia Steinhoff, and Victoria Lyon Bestor published from UH Press (2003). (In the spring 2004, Patricia Steinhoff, Robert Smith and Takie Lebra participated in the first panel on doing fieldwork in Japan.)

Click here to see flyer.

Japan's Aging Population and Its Impact on Overseas Travel

Dr. James Mak
Professor, Dept. of Economics at UHM

Dr. Lonny Carlile
Associate Professor, Center for Japanese Studies at UHM

Ms. Sally Dai
Research Assistant, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawai'i

Date: Friday, November 5, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

With the advent of Japan’s transformation into an “aging society” and the prospect of its relative economic decline in the future, there has been considerable speculation about how the changes associated with this transformation will impact the flow of Japanese outbound travelers. The presentation will address this topic, first, by presenting a forecast of Japanese international travel to 2025 that, in addition to the usual economic variables, also captures both population aging and cohort effects on Japanese travel abroad. In addition, the responses of the industry and the public sector in Japan to the implications of a rapidly aging population on future international travel will be discussed.

Click here to see flyer

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Biological Effects on People of Exposure to Atomic Bombs [brownbag presentation]

Dr. Charles A. Waldren
Chief Scientist, Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Japan
Professor, Dept. of Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Date: Friday, November 12, 2004
Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

Dr. Waldren, one of the foremost scientists in the field of radiation effects, will discuss the findings of the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF) studies about biological effects on people of exposure to atomic bombs. After a brief presentation by Dr. Waldren, the floor will be open for a Q&A session. The audience is welcome to bring their own lunch to the seminar.

Click here to see flyer

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Crosscurrents: A New Bilingual Japanese and English Multimedia Educational Website

Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Kaniela Room, East-West Center, Imin Conference Center [Located on East-West Road ]

This CJS Seminar will present Crosscurrents, a new bilingual Japanese and English multimedia educational website for college, high school, and junior high school students that is being developed at UH by Dr. Patricia Steinhoff (Sociology), Dr. Linda Menton (Curriculum Research Development Group), Dr. Colin Macdonald (Communications) and a number of our graduate students, in collaboration with a Japanese team from Tokyo and Keio universities.

The presentation will feature a live demonstration of the site’s bilingual educational features, some background on the CULCON-sponsored bi-national collaborative project, and a discussion of how Crosscurrents can be used in college and high school courses. The site contains bilingual comparative material on social science and cultural topics about Japan, the United States, and their “crosscurrents.” It can be used for language learning and in social science and cultural courses, and has been tested in several UH and UH Lab School classes.

Click here to see flyer

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Looking for, Working for Japanese Trophy Companies: One lawyer's experience

Mr. Richard T. Miyao, ESQ.
Attorney at Law

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

Mr. Miyao will discuss how his background, Japanese language studies, networking and experiences as a solo practitioner enabled him to do part-time legal services for Japanese trophy companies such as Sony Corporation of America, Kyocera International, Matsushita Electric Industrial K.K., Nichimen Corporation and Fujitsu Ltd.

In Hawai‘i, he has experience teaching at the Japan-America Institute of Management Sciences (JAIMS). He is currently the legal counsel/advisor for the Japanese Consulate of Hawai‘i and serves on the Advisory Council to the four Colleges of Arts and Sciences at UH.

This talk is co-sponsored with the William S. Richardson School of Law.

Click here to see flyer

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True Intention (honne) and Expressed Principle (tatemae) in the East and West: Whistle Blowing and Self-Esteem

Dr. Susumu Yamaguchi
Professor of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo

Date: Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Time: 3:15 - 4:45 pm
Place: Tokioka Room (Moore 319) [Click here to view map.]

Dr. Yamaguchi is currently the Chair of the Division of Society and Culture at the University of Tokyo. He was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychology at UH in 1995. His research interests include collectivism, amae, and cross-cultural comparison of control orientations.

This talk is co-sponsored with the William S. Richardson School of Law.

Click here to see flyer

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The Politics of Fiscal Decentralization in Japan and Korea

Dr. Andrew Dewit
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, Rikkyo University

Date: Friday, December 10, 2004
Time: 3:00 - 4:15 pm
Place: Saunders 515

For much of the last century, the central government was generally seen as the appropriate focus of taxation and locus of decisions on economic and social policy. We are now moving away from that era, with subsidiarity and decentralization being the new common sense guiding fiscal design. But progress on this front has been extremely slow.

Dr. Dewit will use the two sharply contrasting cases of contemporary Japan and Korea to illustrate the politico-economic challenges and choices in fiscal decentralization. The two cases contrast sharply in that Korea is doing decentralization at breakneck speed while Japan is getting nowhere. The two contrasting situations in the two countries will be described and the reasons for the contrasting trajectories will be explored.

This talk is co-sponsored with the Department of Economics.

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