Japanese Popular Culture:

Its History, Aesthetics, Influences and Politics

-   Gain knowledge on Japanese popular culture and explore ways to implement in Japanese language classroom

Capitol Foreign Language Project Summer Institute, 2008
Date: June 23 – 27, 2008

Introduction of instructors

Shige (CJ) Suzuki is currently an instructor at Elon University in North Carolina and will be a visiting professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research areas are modern and contemporary Japanese Literature and Film, contemporary American science fiction, Japanese popular culture (anime and manga) and cyberculture(s). Professor Suzuki is also a research fellow at Asianscape in Modern East Asian Research Centre at Leiden University. He was born in Aichi, Japan and lived in Tokyo for 8 years. After that, he studied at San Diego State University and University of California, Santa Cruz. His favorite anime is Oshii Mamoru’s Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

Kazue Masuyama is an Associate Professor of Japanese at California State University, Sacramento. She was born and raised in Japan, and in her own words has lived in and moved to too many places and hope to make Sacramento her home. Since 1990, she has taught Japanese at five different universities in Japan and the US, and served two US based school districts as a language specialist. Professor Masuyama loves working with students and sharing her love of Japanese culture with them. She incorporates cutting edge technology into her classes as a way of connecting students to authentic language and culture. On several occasions she has taken them directly to the course via student study/travel programs to Japan. Her interest is in curriculum development and in class and online instructional approaches. Kazue’s hobbies are table tennis, eating, and traveling.

Curriculum Overview

This workshop introduces and explores Japanese popular culture, specifically its aesthetics, history, influences, and politics with several different interdisciplinary and theoretical approaches. The workshop considers contemporary popular culture as a way of understanding changes in contemporary Japanese society and culture. Participants will immerse themselves in visual, musical, theatrical, and other forms of cultural artifacts from Japan while considering their local, national, and global contexts. In so doing, we will deepen our understanding of Japanese popular culture, which is currently a strong motivation for attracting Japanese language learners in the U.S. The workshop will also discuss applying our new knowledge and analytical skills to actual language classroom settings.

Note:

- All sections are based on authentic materials designed for both non-native and native speakers of Japanese in a variety of media. Readings from professional journals are also used as supplemental material in the workshop.

- All lectures are conducted in Japanese. A series of lectures are based on the academic research material, but each lecture is followed up by hands-on activities to enhance the understanding of the content.

Why do we offer this workshop?

The Japanese language learning boom continues since anime, manga, J-pop, and video games motivates many learners in the U.S. On the other hand, Japanese language teachers have very few opportunities to learn about Japanese popular culture from a scholarly standpoint. Recently, many scholars inside and outside Japan have contributed excellent research on Japanese popular culture and its reception in Japanese and international contexts. “Popular culture” here refers not only to mass-produced, commercial products. It includes any cultural expression that reflects people’s daily practices, human interactions, social transformations, and creativity. Therefore, it comprises social values, behaviors, customs, language, and tradition. For this reason, it is beneficial to introduce Japanese popular culture to the classroom to clarify and explain Japanese social and cultural phenomena. Language instructors can gain sophisticated knowledge about Japanese popular culture in order to apply it to language classes.　

Goals/Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will

1. Gain knowledge of the history of Japanese popular culture
2. Develop a greater understanding of Japanese popular culture that has become prominent in the US.
3. Gain skills to analyze and evaluate the material (popular music, pop art, film, anime, manga, fashion, advertisements, theatrical art, video game, digital and fan website)
4. Gain some skills to transfer their cultural and historical knowledge of Japanese popular culture into their daily teaching of the Japanese language and culture.

Expected Outcomes:

Assignment 1: Development of Resource page

Participants will select an aspect of Japanese culture to study independently, create a reference list, and prepare a brief presentation to be delivered to the group on the last day of the course (with a written report to be submitted to the program). The facilitators will compile the information gathered by the participants and create a resource page on the web.

Final Product: Resource Page for Japanese Popular Culture

Assignment 2: Development of a teaching plan or unit plan

Participants will present a teaching plan or unit plan (of Japanese language or culture course) using the knowledge gained through the workshop on the last day.