EPOK Research Project2019 年度 - WinterDesigned by Alberto Forneris

EPOK Research Project2019 年度 - Winter0
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterContents
From the Course Coordinator

Page
2

From the Chief Editor

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EPOK students of Fall – Winter 2019

4-6

EPOK Research Papers
1.The effects of social issues on happiness in Japan
7-13(Steps towards happiness) (Anderson Chin)
2.Working in Japan – A case study of the Japanese IT sector
14-20(Patrick Mahnkopf)
3.Japan’s influence in the universal gaming culture
21-26(Leeanne Laureta)
4. Sakamoto Ryoma, A hero of Japan, but is it really what
27-32
the Japanese think? – The Japanese thought about the character(Alberto Forneris)
5. Zen in everyday life
33-39
(Marianna Ceolato)
6. Senpai-kohai system: A case study of Okayama University 40-44
clubs (Jonathon Holm)
7. Genbaku Bungaku – The atomic bomb literature
45-49(The Japanese knowledge and perception of the catastrophic event)(Marta Bettini)
8. Pitch accent in the Japanese language and Okayama-ben
50-54(Ashley Kobayashi)
9. Motivation in English acquisition among Japanese
55-58(Michael Quitugua)
2 0 1 9 W i n t e r E P O K R e s e a rc h P r e s e n t a t io n s P o s t e r 6 0
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterAbout EPOK Research Project
EPOK リサーチプロジェクトは、岡山大学の交換留学プログラム EPOK で学ぶ留学生がそれぞれの留学期間を通じて取り組む個別研究です。日本の文化や社会を探求するにあたり広い視野から自由に個々の課題を設定し、文献調査を経て、実践的にその課題に係る様相を観察するフィールドワークを行い、その研究成果をエッセイにまとめました。
2019 年度冬期修了の EPOK 生の研究テーマは、日本の歴史、伝統、文学に対する現代
日本人のアセスメント、社会における日本人の思考や仕組み、外国語の学習に係る課題や日本語・岡山弁の特徴など、多岐に広がっており、「日本」を学ぶという地域研究の豊かな学際的学びと、EPOK生たちの取組みを映し出しています。
個別研究論文集は学生自身が作成し、研究発表を行います。この成果発表は、各々のテーマを通じて彼らが学んだ日本の姿を示すだけでなく、そこに至る過程での全ての学びや異文化の経験に取り組んだ一人一人の EPOK の軌跡でもあります。
In the course of EPOK Research Project EPOK students worked on the individual research
theme in relation to their interest in Japanese culture and society throughout their time at
Okayama University. The compilation of the research essay in this book is the final product of
their exploration and discovery. The 2019-winter EPOK research essay collection shows a goodvariety of their interest, including history, thoughts and literature of the Japanese and theirperception of own cultures, Japanese language and Okayama dialect, second-language education,social systems and so forth.
I hope the process of searching, finding own theme, and exploring the theme of interest is
acknowledged as a tangible, exciting and unique experience for each of the EPOK student inlearning about the culture which is different from their own. This book and the presentations
demonstrate sincere contribution and accomplishment of the each student, which I am very
proud of. May this collection of the essays be a token of their discovery and endeavor in
Okayama, Japan.

January, 2020

Obayashi Junko, Ph.D.
大林 純子

EPOK Coordinator
Institute of Global Human Resource Development

Okayama University
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterFrom the Chief Editor
After leaving our country of origin, our friends, our families and, above all, our certainties,
we, the EPOK students, have met in Okayama, a city with just over 700,000 inhabitants in thesouth of the island of Honshu. It is a very quiet place, far from the hectic bustle Tokyo, where I
think it is possible to find the true Japanese spirit that is so much praised all over the world. A
place rich in culture, history, traditions and legends. A place where you can meet wonderful,curious and open-minded people, with whom you can exchange not only your knowledge, butalso compare and learn different visions of the world, dictated by the different cultural and social
backgrounds. All the projects in this booklet were created with great commitment by students
from different parts of the world and with different study backgrounds and cultures who attended
the EPOK Exchange Program offered by the University of Okayama and carried out a research
project.
It was not only necessary to choose a topic of our interest and develop it through the readingof books, critical papers or research on websites, but it was also necessary to carry out field workwithin the Japanese community. This gave us the opportunity not only to learn how to structure,carry out and present our personal research, but also gave us the chance to expand our network ofknowledge, get in touch with local people and learn something totally new and different fromwhat is normally written in the books.
Without further delay, I present with this initial message the EPOK Research Projects ofWinter 2019. I hope readers can learn new concepts and visions, but also grasp the greatcommitment and work behind these projects and this booklet.
January 2020
Alberto Forneris

Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterEPOK Students of winter 2019-2020
Topic: The effects of social issues on happiness in japan (Steps
towards happiness)（日本における幸福に社会問題が及ぼす影響 - 幸せになる
方法とは）
Name: Anderson Chin チン・アンダーソン
Home University: University of Adelaide, Australia
Favorite Japanese word: 黄 昏 I chose this word because it sounds
phonetically pleasing and poetic. It means twilight; dusk and it is thetime where the most beautiful photos of Japan's scenery can be taken.

Topic: Working in Japan – A case study of the Japanese IT sector（日本で働く - 日本の I T 産業事例の紹介）
Name: Patrick Mahnkopf マーンコフ・パトリック
Home University: Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
Favorite Japanese word: 諸行無常 It means something along thelines of "all things must pass, all worldly things are impermanent"
and teaches us that we should treasure every moment we experienceand every person we get to meet on our journey called life. So, live
your life to the fullest, for example by taking part in amazing
experiences like this study abroad program and always try to makethe most out of everything.

Topic: Japan’s influence in the universal gaming culture（日本のゲーム文化）
Name: Leeanne Laureta ロレッタ・リアン
Home University: Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Favorite Japanese word: My favorite Japanese word is おしゃれ.
It reminds me of the first day I met my EPOK buddies since thatwas the first word they used to describe me. Since then, we say it
frequently to each other.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterTopic: Sakamoto Ryōma, A hero of Japan, but is it really what
the Japanese think? – The Japanese thought about thecharacter（坂本龍馬は本当に日本人にとってのヒーローか - 日
本人の坂本龍馬像に関する調査）
Name: Alberto Forneris アルベルト・フォルネリス
Home University: Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Favorite Japanese word: 三 面 六 臂 is a 四 字 熟 語(Yojijukugo) which refers to the Ashura bodhisattva statue ofthe Kofukuji temple. This compound is made up of two parts:
三面, 3 sides, or the three faces of the statue, and 六臂, 6elbows, or the 6 arms of the statue. It can be translated as "being competent and active in many
fields" or "being versatile". I think this is a key concept of the experience I had in Japan, butalso a key concept in the world of studies and work. Be ready for new adventures, ready toexperience even what doesn't attract us and learn things in disparate areas.

Topic: Zen in everyday life
（日常生活における禅）
Name: Marianna Ceolato マリアンナ・チェオラト
Home University: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Favorite Japanese word: 森羅万象 This is a Buddhist word
and it could mean "everything above ground" or "ten thousand/myriads of things". I chose this word because I think it
represents Zen spirit, my research topic. If we look under thesurface, nature, people, our experiences and lives areconnected, nothing is excluded, and everything has a deeper
meaning. I think this is 森羅万象.

Topic: Senpai-Kōhai System: A Case Study of Okayama
University Clubs（上下関係：岡山大学のクラブ一例）
Name: Jonathon Holm ジョナソン・ホム
Home University: University of Guam, Guam
Favorite Japanese word: 一期一会 This Japanese phrase canbe translated as "Once in a lifetime experience," where every
meeting and every experience is unique. I chose this phrase
because it describes my experience studying in Japan. I wasable to meet people from all over the world and experience
many new things. Studying in Japan has been an amazing
experience and something that I will treasure for a lifetime.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterTopic: Genbaku Bungaku – The Atomic bomb literature (TheJapanese knowledge and perception of the catastrophic event)（原爆文学: 大惨事についての日本人の知識と理解）
Name: Marta Bettini マルタ・ベッティーニ
Home University: Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
Favorite Japanese word: にんげんをかえせ It can be translated as"Give back humanity". While doing my research project on the
Atomic Bomb Literature, I was struck by this sentence, written by
Tōge Sankichi in one of his poems to express how the tragic eventof 6th August 1945 stole his beloved ones. This expression caught
my attention because of the universality of its message: from a
broader point of view it can be read as a hymn to peace and to theimportance of human relationships that also nowadays can be used
as a reminder of what is really important in the world.

Topic: Pitch accent in the Japanese language and Okayamaben（日本語高低アクセントと岡山弁）
Name: Ashley Kobayashi 小林・アシュリー
Home University: University of Adelaide, Australia
Favorite Japanese word: 油断大敵 - Carelessness is thegreatest enemy. I feel like when you are off your guard in life,that is when bad luck strikes. I like this saying as it reminds
me to stay careful and modest.

Topic: Motivation in English acquisition among Japanese（日本人の英語習得へのモチベーション）
Name: Michael Quitugua マイケル ・キトゥグァ
Home University: University of Guam, Guam
Favorite Japanese word: 頑張って can be translated as "goodluck" or "do your best". Although a common phrase, the lattermeaning of doing your best resonates with me since facing
what challenges you head on is where you truly grow andbecome stronger.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterThe effects of social issues on happiness in Japan (steps towards happiness)
日本における幸福に社会問題が及ぼす影響 - 幸せになる方法とはAnderson Chin

チン・アンダーソン

The University of Adelaide (Australia)

幸福は脳内の化学的なドーパミンの分泌によって、喜びや至福の感覚がもたらされるものだという人もいる。しかし、これらの場面の多くは一瞬だけであり、長く続く幸福に つながるものではない。この幸福について、ある授業で日本人は総じて生活に満足して いないという話を聞いて興味を持った。本研究ではアンケートとインタビューを通して、日本人の学生が考える幸福と社会問題との関係についてのデータを分析した。
Introduction
Currently, Japan is ranked 58th overall according to the ‘2019 World Happiness Report’,
making it one of the lowest among the first world countries. Regardless of ranking 1st in the worldin Education and 2nd in Safety according to ‘Happy documentary 2011’, the average Japaneseperson rates their overall life-satisfaction as a 5.9/10 due to problems involving work-life balanceand societal pressures (Belic, 2011). In accordance to the World Happiness Report, the happinessof countries is measured through multiple categories such as GDP, Social Support, Healthy Life
Expectancy, Freedom to make life choices, Generosity and Perceptions of corruption. The
categories have numerical values which add up to a total score to determine the order andhappiness of countries in the world. However, there are many more factors which determine thestate of a country’s happiness and prosperity. As a traditional country masked in its’ technologicaladvancements, Japan is plagued with social problems. Issues such as gender fairness, overworking
and urbanization has caused the country down a slope filled with problems in the near future.
Methodology
The methodology for this research paper required thorough investigation of social issues inJapan. After collecting credible sources, the research on a high impact social issue will be presented
to introduce the theme of the topic. The social issue will be explained in-depth, stating laws, figures,data, statistics and a case study. This will be used to illustrate the severity of the problem and allow
readers to understand the link between the low overall life-satisfaction and happiness rating ofJapan. Readers should keep in mind this is only one of many serious social issues. Continuing,
there will be a section studying the psychological factors behind intrinsic and extrinsic goals andits’ effect on short term and long-term happiness. This section is vital as its’ information will be
used to analyze and provide insight as to what the survey results convey. The survey was written
and tailored towards Japanese students. Questions ranged from “what do you believe is required tolive a happy life?”, to “what do you think are the most pressing social issues?”
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterand many more which will be detailly analyzed. The survey consists of 8 question and was madeusing the free-to-use online survey creator, Survey Monkey. Interviews were also conducted withthe consent of students, primarily on campus. L-Café was an easy-to-access space to meet willing
participants for this study.
Gender discrimination
Gender bias, or rather, male dominated societies have existed within the world most
likely since the first civilization. Most of the other first world countries has rapidly improved in
the recent decades, with laws and social support in place to ensure women receive equal chances
as men as compared to Japan. The idea that the male figure of the family should be thebreadwinner and the authority are still prominent. For example, males are almost always inpositions of power whether it be a workplace of family scenario, resulting in cases of power
harassment, sexual harassment, cheating and so on. The influence of this notion has
unintentionally caused many societal problems affecting even the declining birth rate.
Gender bias in a country such as Japan may be shocking to people who are not informedof its’ culture and history, however unfortunately, is one of the most pressing social issues inJapan. According to the 2017 Gender Equality Forums released by the World Economic Forum,
Japan moved down 3 places from the previous year to 114th out of the 144th countries. It is also
the lowest of the 7 major economies of the world (Japan Times, 2017).
An example of this is the controversial scandal involving Tokyo Medical University
which was discovered to have altered entrance exam scores in favor of men. According to Yomiuri
Shinbun, Tokyo Medical University began altering the scores starting in 2011 to ensure less than
30% of successful applicants would be females. It was stated that “officials adopted a ‘silent
understanding’ to reduce the number of female entrants over concerns female graduates were notgoing on to practice medicine in employment” (BBC, 2018). Reasons such as women not being
as reliable as men due to maternity problems; a separate but connected issue in Japan named マ
タハラ (maternity harassment). Furthermore, not limited to educational institutions, companies

have also implemented schemes limiting the economic and career freedom of women.
In 1985, Japan signed The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination
Against Women or CEDAW for short, an international treaty created by the United Nations. The
treaty states that that employers shall endeavor to give equal employment opportunities to men
and women, defining discrimination against women as: “Any distinction, exclusion or restriction
made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men
and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural,
civil or any other field.” (UN, 1979). Regardless of this, segregation by sex in occupations persists(nurses, nursery and preschool teachers, receptionists etc.). To bypass this law, companies
developed a two-track system; Managerial, where the individual can be promoted and work their
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterway up the company, and Clerical, staying at the same level for the entire career. Whilst thestarting salary men and women within the different tracks have become the same due to CEDAW,Women accounted for 22% of the newly recruited managerial track employees, and 82% of
clerical track employees according to a survey in 2014, (MHLW 2015).
Despite signing and ratifying to CEDAW, the Japanese government still enforces an
outdated tax law introduced in the 1980’s. Recently changed to “150 万円の壁” (1.5 million yen
wall, originally 1.03 million yen) named by critics, the law states that if the income of anindividual is below 1.5million yen, they are exempt to income tax, also reducing the income taxof their spouse by 380,000 yen (spouses income restricted to 11.2 million yen) (NTA, 2015). Thislaw was implemented to promote women to stay at home, allowing men to work longer hours,
possibly for conservative reasons such as maintaining the traditional family structure. Because ofthis, many women have an incentive to become dependents of their spouses, halting their careers
to become a full-time housewife or work part-time at places like supermarkets for extra pocket
money. Due to this, economic status and power within the family are dominantly in favour of men,at times resulting in cases of domestic violence and economic harassment.
According to the figure below of poverty rates of women and men, there is adistinguishable disparity between the percentage of widowed and divorced women compared tomen. Years after resignation from their occupations, widowed women and divorcee’s finddifficulty continuing their careers as they are not sought after by employers due to older age andlong hiatus resulting in the loss of skills and proficiency. Finding difficulty gaining reemployment, almost 30% of widowed women (money acquired from the will of the husband
results in a lower poverty percentage than divorced women) and 40% of divorced women are inpoverty are in poverty (Abe, 2010).
Figure 1: Poverty rates of the working-age group (20-64 years old) classified by marital status and sex (1995 and 2007)

Source: Abe (2010)

Gender discrimination is not just a single social issue in Japan but is comprised of whilst
also being the stem of other social issues.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic goals
Without the innate nature of desire within humanity, society and technology would nothave developed to the degree it is today.
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterThe term intrinsic is defined as “belonging naturally; essential”, whereas extrinsic isdefined as “not part of the essential nature of someone or something; coming or operating fromoutside”, polar opposites. In this sense, extrinsic goals are described as goals focused onsomething external to the individual such as rewards, praise or materialism. Three main examples
of extrinsic goals are money (financial success), image and appearance; being viewed in a desired
way by peers and status (power and popularity). Although desire for money is considered an
extrinsic motivation, it does not necessarily mean it cannot bring happiness. Materialistic gain has
the ability to incite the dopamine secretion within the brain, creating a sensation of happiness,
however this is only temporary. Also, depending on the financial situation on an individual,
money can provide much more happiness than intrinsic success. On the other hand, intrinsic goals
are focused on the internal desire for personal growth, relationships and a desire to help (sense ofcommunity).
According to Ph.D Professor of Psychology at Knox College in America, Tim Kasser,
studies conducted over the previous decade retrieved results showing “hat people who were moreoriented towards money, status and image displayed lower satisfaction with their lives. They were“more depressed, more anxious”, “felt less vital” and “less energized in day-to-day life.”
Conversely, “intrinsically oriented people were more happy, felt more vital and reporting lessdepression” (Belic, 2019).
Analyzing these values as key components of happiness, the problem with Japan lies
within their extrinsically oriented derived from the pressures of society and government.
According to MEXT, 80.6 percent of 18 year old Japanese students continued onto higher
education; 56.2 percent attending university (MEXT, 2019). A similar census was conducted inAustralia (NZ included) showing 41 percent of 19 year old students continuing to higher
education; due to wider range of pathways and higher part-time wage (Graham Institute, 2018).
Low opportunities outside of tertiary education has created academic pressures towards the young
generation in Japan. The large portion of graduates who are employed into general companies
which do not require specialized degrees, reflects the mindsets of some students; entered
university not because they were intrinsically motivated to learn, but because it is the norm inJapan to earn money. Low part time wages and a high cost of living are also a factor which restricts
freedom as students feel forced to continue onto higher education. Academic pressures begin as
early as primary school (elementary) as some secondary schools conduct entrance exams. This
results in less time to focus on intrinsic goals (learning new skills, meeting new people, joining
the community), explaining another factor as to why Japan is the least happy of the wealthy
countries.
Discussion and Analysis
The survey yielded interesting results and possible comparisons between the happinesslevel of the individual and their motivation orientation. Firstly, the question ‘What do you believe
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winteris required to live a happy life?” was asked to the participants. The goal of this question was tosee how many students were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. I hypothesized a decent
portion of the students answering with ‘money’, however, only 25 percent of students did, withthe remaining 75 percent providing answers such as ‘love, family, laughter, hobbies, healthy body.”
This interestingly shows that Japanese people understand what is required to be happy but simply
struggles with balancing these when bombarded with the high workloads. Similarly, the questionof “What situations make you unhappy?” was asked and depicted comparable results. This
question retrieved various answers ranging from loneliness, lack of money, “when no one pays
me any attention”, “not being able to do things I want to because of commitments”, “stress”, “poorhealth” and such.
Following, questions regarding the happiness and social issues of Japan was asked.
When asked “do you think Japan is a happy country?”, 65 percent of students agreed, 12 percent
answered with ‘neither’ and 23 percent disagreed. The participants provided reasons such as‘because it is peaceful’, ‘no war’, ‘people are kind’, ‘good education’, ‘freedom’ and ‘easy accessto clean water’. Whilst these are certainly necessities for a prosperous country, some students who
disagreed recognized that social issues are limits happiness of Japan. These students answeredwith “I don’t believe so, due to the problems regarding male and female discrimination withincompanies”, “No, because I am affected by the surrounding environments”, “Lack of politicalmeasures and attention on the declining birth rate”, “Whilst I believe Japan is a good country, I
don’t believe it is a happy country”, and so on. One student who agreed provided an interestinganswer, stating that “I don’t know when compared to other countries, but Japan has various foods
and free thinking. From a foreigner’s perspective they may feel excluded but for as a Japaneseperson, I believe Japan is a happy country.” The wording of “as a Japanese person” in this sentence
is a possible sign that some people do not recognize the severity of certain unethical social issues
present in Japan as it is the country they have resided in since birth. This made me recall of anarticle I read in the past about people’s connection with their home country where many people
who migrated from a less fortunate country were unable to culturally assimilate successfully,
feeling unhappy and depressed at times. Cases similar to this also occur even when studying for
short periods abroad.
Students were also asked to list some social problems in Japan. The top five answers
were declining birth rate, death from overworking ( 過 労 死 ), education problems (bullying,insufficient counselling etc.), government, and difficulty to find employment. On a side note, thenext most common answer was gender discrimination which is quite alarming as it depicts thelack of awareness surrounding this serious issue.
Concluded through these survey and interview answers, the only step currently towards
a solution, is to raise awareness. Actions such as social media, posters, rallies etc., are great
methods of raising awareness, however due to the restrictions from said social issues it can bedifficult to find time to do these. Thus, the simple and most effecting method, simply talking, is
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterthe best way to begin creating awareness about the severity these problems. Australia has thehighest voter turnout percentage with 98% due to the law requiring all citizens to vote. However,Japan sits around 67% (2015). With more awareness, a increased incentive to vote for non-voterscan give minor election parties more attention, prompting major election parties to change andimprove their policies.
Additionally, on a minor scale, people can try to ‘consult friends and family’, ‘exercise’,‘play games’, ‘read a book’, ‘watch movies’, ‘listen to music’, and ‘keep in mind that something
good will happen’, at times of sadness (Answers taken from the survey).
Sources of error and improvements
The most significant potential source of error is the size of survey participants. As thesurvey only received answers from 50 Japanese students, this sample size does not accurately
represent the consensus and thoughts of the average Japanese student. Increasing the sample size
as well as age range is essential to obtain results which can give insight thoughts and experiencesof older generations. Location is also a factor to consider. Including participants from Tokyo may
yield different results as it is far more populated and prominent with social issues. Interviewing
foreigners can also provide comparisons between different countries. Reducing survey questions
can be an improvement to increase completion rate of the survey. Changing some questions of thesurvey is also an improvement as certain questions were not discussed about in this research paper.
Conclusion
In recent history, Japan, a country which was very closed off to the world, hasexperienced rapid changes in the past several decades, especially after World War II. With
traditional and conservative notions lingering, Japanese citizens are under pressure of many social
issues. Gender discrimination, overworking and urbanization are a few out of several dozen.
Awareness is required to trigger change from government and incur a rise in voters simply by
improving education and the utilization of word of mouth. People should also aim to change
extrinsic-oriented motivation to intrinsically oriented for a happy lifestyle. Fortunately, as a firstworld country, Japan has the economic power and potential to improve these conditions within
the near future.

Reference:- Shadyac, T. (Producer), & Belic, R. (Director). (2001). Happy [Video file]. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSNwM8Pg-W8- Japan drops 114th gender equality rankings World Economic Forum. Japan Times., (2017).

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterRetrieved August 5, 2019, from:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/02/national/social-issues/japan-drops-114th-genderequality-rankings-world-economic-forum/.
- Tokyo Medical University 'changed female exam scores'. BBC., (2018, August 2). Retrieved August
5, 2019, from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45043818.
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2015). Kosu Betsu Koyo Kanri Seido no Jisshi Sido Jokyo(Current state of implementation and instruction of multi-track employment system) 2014.
- Tokyo: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women. (1979, December 18). Retrieved January 9, 2020, fromhttps://www.ohchr.org/documents/professionalinterest/cedaw.pdf.
- Abe, Aya K. 2012. “Poverty and Social Exclusion of Women in Japan,” Japanese Journal of Social
Security Policy 9(1), pp. 61-82.
-

家 族 と 税 , National Tax Agency (2018). Retrieved January 11, 2020, fromhttps://www.nta.go.jp/publication/pamph/koho/kurashi/html/02_2.htm.
- "Overview of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology" (PDF). MEXT.
p. 29. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- Norton, A., Cherastidtham, I., and Mackey, W. (2018). Mapping Australian higher education 2018.
Grattan Institute.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterWorking in Japan – A case study of the Japanese IT sector
日本で働く – 日本の I T 産業事例の紹介
Patrick Mahnkopf

マーンコフ・パトリック

Leibniz University Hannover (Germany)

研究テーマは、日本社会の労働条件、特に IT 産業についてである。私自身は情報科学を勉
強し、将来日本への就業を考えており、現在の実情を確かめる必要があった。それを果たすた
め、ネット上の情報をまとめて、現在の問題をいくつか挙げる他、事例研究として日本の会社でインターンを行った。結果、少なくともインターンシップ先の労働環境は良いことが分かった。最後に日本と世界の労働問題の改善するため方法について提案する。

1. Background
The aim of this research project is to analyze the typical working environment of Japan’s
IT industry. As a country that’s infamous for harsh working conditions, I wondered what thesituation would be like in the IT sector.
Let me start with the motivation for this research project. I have had a strong interest inJapan for a long time now and had the chance to finally experience the country for the first time
thanks to the EPOK exchange program. I study computer science in Germany and seriously
consider moving to Japan after graduating. During my preliminary research about the country andit’s living conditions, I often came across scary stories about the working environment with people
being basically constantly overworked from doing unpaid overtime on a daily basis, coupled withstress, long commutes and many other problems. Needless to say, I was not too happy to learn
about that, since working is a large part of living in our modern society. But I also know thatreports like that are often skewed towards the negative side of things, since negative headlines
sell better and people who are happy and content with their job and life are much less likely topost that on the internet. I thus saw that my best chance of finding out what the reality actually islike is by experiencing it myself. Since I am still a student the best option to do that would bethrough an internship in a Japanese company and thanks to the professors of the Okayama
University, I was actually able to accomplish that.
2. Literature review
Before going into my personal experiences of working in Japan, I will introduce thefindings of my preliminary research about the topic. As already mentioned above, a lot of theresults while researching Japan’s working conditions are very negative and one will certainly not
be able to avoid stumbling upon the term 過労死 (Death from Overwork). Most countries have
implemented a 40-hour week, usually resulting in employees working about 8 hours per day for
5 days per week. Many, if not most companies in Japan officially have the same amount, but then
14
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintereither directly or indirectly urge their employees to work more than that, resulting in often unpaid
overtime. The direct way of making people work overtime is to straight up tell them to, the indirect
and especially for foreigners often not easily
understandable way is through social pressure.
In Japan the notion exists to not leave before
your coworkers, especially not the boss. This
then makes everyone stay longer to not seem
lazy, which in turn causes others to stay longer
Figure 1 –Employees Working 49+ hours/week

in order to not be among the first to leave. Thiscan spiral into extremes and cause long overtime work without actually doing anything productive
and instead just waiting for the sake of saving face and keeping one’s image in a good light. While
overtime of course also exists in other countries and there are many possible reasons for it, thekind described above is rather unique to Japan as it is rooted in the culture. Figure 1 (Timinsky,2019) shows how the percentage of employees working more than 49 hours per week is muchhigher than that of most other developed countries, being about double or more of that of many
European countries and at least in this comparison only topped by South Korea.
Another big problem of the Japanese working environment is the topic of paid leave andvacation. In Japan employees are by law entitled to take a minimum of 10 days of paid leave per
year. This is the absolute minimum that is required by law but increasing, like many other things,
based on how long someone has been working for the company, resulting in increases of yearlyvacation days for people staying at one company for a longer time (Japanese Law Translation,2020). Employees staying at a given company for six years or more are entitled to an additional
10 working days, thus totaling in 20 days off every year. That is not a lot when compared to othercountries, especially those in Europe. Germany for example requires employers to give theirworkers at least 20 days of paid leave from the day they start, with many companies insteadoffering between 25 and 30 or even more days per year. The system of certain parts scaling withhow long someone has been working for a given company fits the traditional image of every
worker staying at their company for their entire lifetime and results in many things like theaforementioned vacation, but also their wage or promotions often not being based on other factors
like performance or skills, but solely on how long they have been working for their respective
company.
The maybe even bigger problem with this though, is that most people by far don’t eventake all of those days off. The most up to date statistics for that were published by the Japanese
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2019 and show the trends of how much of a worker’s
paid vacation has actually been taken (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2019). Figure 2

15
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintershows the statistics from 平成 3(1991) to 平成 29(2017), with the lowest being 46.6% in 2004 and2006 and the highest being 56.1% in 1992 and 1993.
These years roughly correlate with the Japanese
asset price bubble and its eventual burst in early
1992, with people taking less and less of their
Figure 2 –Annual paid leave acquisition rate
(Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2019)

annual paid leave, possibly in an effort to combat
the stagnating economy. The Government has,

especially in recent years, made efforts to reduce overtime andencourage workers to actually use their rightful vacation days,
which might be a factor in causing the recent rise of thisstatistic. Nonetheless, even with the recent rise and even if
using the highest value of the last three decades at 56.1%,
Japan is still one of the worst countries in the world in thisregard when compared internationally. Figure 3 shows that
employees in the US for example receive fewer total days off
Figure 3 – Vacation deprivation (Expedia, 2018)at 14 per year, but utilizing 10 of them to actually make use of

the same amount as Japanese do. There are differences between European countries, but most ofthem receive around 30 days per year and actually take most, if not all of those (Expedia, 2018).
This results in citizens of Germany effectively using three times as much vacation every year thantheir Japanese counterparts, all while still having a higher per Capita GDP (The Japan Institutefor Labour Policy and Training, 2017). This goes to show that working more does not necessarily
increase the output of companies and countries and thus likely just results in effectively wasted
time. Recent global trends place more value on making sure their worker’s enjoy good physicaland mental health, with an adequate amount of actually taken vacation playing a big role inaccomplishing that. Recent years have seen the Japanese government trying to cause a move inthat direction as well, but big results are still to actually occur.
While there are many other problems of the Japanese working environment like sexualor power harassment and effectively forcing workers to join certain activities like after work
drinking parties through social pressure, going into detail about every one of those would beoutside of the scope of this research and will thus be omitted, with the next part instead focusing
on my own experience in an actual Japanese workplace.
3. Case study
I, at the time of writing this, have the honor of working at システムズナカシマ(Systems Nakashima), a company with about 100,000,000¥ (~915,000$) in capital stock, sales ofabout 2,70,000,000¥ (~26,000,000$) and 119 employees in 2018 (Systems Nakashima, 2019). I
am working in the Okayama branch, in a group tasked with building, maintaining and improving
16
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterone of their CAD (Computer-aided design) systems. Because of my field of studies and myexperience with Machine Learning and optical character recognition during my Bachelor thesis,
I was assigned to the group working on implementing a combination of those two techniques totheir existing CAD software. I started working once a week from 9:00-15:45 arriving at 8:30, but
had to change my working times when the new quarter at the university began to 13:00-17:30 toavoid collisions with classes I was taking, thus working about half a day each week. This change
in working times allowed me to experience the start of the day, as well as the end of it, trying tocarefully observe how often my coworkers had to work overtime and what the overall atmosphere
was like. The mornings start in an unusual way when compared to most companies in this industry,
namely with a broadcast beginning at 8:45 for radio calisthenics. The entire office would standup and do the exercises, some more and some less enthusiastic about it, but everyone participated,
independent of their ranks or status. After that, work would start with the ring of the bell at 9:00,
with everyone gathering in their small group of about 4 or 5 people to share what they did theprevious day and what their task for the current day is. This helps by informing everyone about
the other’s schedules and progress, makes it easier for the group leader to plan tasks and also helps
everyone in keeping track of the bigger picture of the project and where their contribution fits into
that. After that, we would usually start working and sometimes have a meeting after the lunch
break that lasts from 12:00-13:00. I was given the task of researching ways to solve their problem
of digitalizing scans of blueprints using Machine Learning and Optical Character Recognition
techniques and then present my findings in another group meeting. After that, I was to further
explore the feasibility of my proposed models in the concrete case the company wanted to solve.
My group members all sit close to me in the office, with my direct advisor sitting rightnext to me. This allows me to always ask questions, while also letting them know my current
progress whenever they want. Everyone is very helpful and even colleagues outside of my groupdo their best to explain things to me if problems arise. We only have a small number of female
employees in the office I am working in, which sadly is the global norm in this industry, but theones that I have gotten to know here are well respected and seem to play big roles in the daily
work. I have also seen some colleagues leaving from work earlier than the official time on multiple
occasions, without anyone batting an eye. I could not observe at what time most people usually
go home though, since I always had to leave at 17:30 or earlier, at which time everyone still
seemed to be working, but was privately told multiple times by various colleagues that there isnearly no overtime in this company. My colleagues also made sure to remind me often enough totake rests whenever I want to and to not overdo it, as well as providing face masks at a time when
there was a chance of Influenza circulating the office.
To summarize this part, I was welcomed very well into the company, always had people
helping and guiding me, but also felt like I had an impact and was taken seriously as someone
who can bring actual value to the project and quickly felt accepted as a normal colleague and partof the team. I was only able to get insights about this single company, which might just be a very
17
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterpositive outlier in the bigger picture of the Japanese working environment, but can now
confidently say that at least not every company suffers from the issues the country seems to be
struggling with at the moment.
4. Conclusion
This report will now finish by exploring the current landscape of the Japanese IT
industry and looking at some challenges the future might bring. As one of the biggest and arguably
most important industries of the modern world, the IT industry plays an increasingly large part inshaping our daily lives and our future. Living in these times without access to modern
conveniences like computers, smartphones and last but not least the Internet, have long become
basically unthinkable for all but maybe our world’s oldest citizens. Products and services like theInternet not only serve us our daily entertainment, but also shape the way we think through things
like easily accessible informative media or calculated manipulation from actors like our own oranother country’s government. There have already been cases of individuals or organized groups
hacking big companies and even high security systems of entire governments, not only disturbing
public morale but also being able to cause serious damage in the process. Citizens can be
manipulated before elections to skew them in favor of certain candidates and an incredible amountof data can be gathered from every single person using easily accessible internet technologies.
This leaves us in very interesting but also possibly volatile and dangerous times. The entire world
depends enormously on all the technologies that make our lives easier, but are at the same time
putting all of us largely at risk if someone were to find ways to manipulate and take advantage ofthis. More and more power is leaving the hands of actual governments and instead going to tech
giants. The governments give those companies an order to regulate something for them or
incentivize their actions through other means like subventions or other financial support, causinga shift of power away from those ruling, into the hands of organizations originally created to makea profit, thus making the actual government less powerful and more dependent on those big firms,
causing even more problems like a higher barrier of entry for their competitors to catch up to themand actually compete in their markets.
Another thing supposed to become a big part of our world in the near future areautomated machines doing all kinds of things to improve our lives. Among those are self-driving
cars, that are already actually being used in tests and in certain parts of the world even given to
selected customers for real world use. It should be needless to say, but we need those cars to be
as safe as possible because human lives are at stake and because of how frequent their use is likely
to become once they are truly ready for the market. Another example for those automatedmachines are drones. At the current time drones are usually controlled by humans to deliver
various things to either otherwise hard to reach places, or out of sheer convenience, but there arealso many visions about fully automating them. Especially drones are also used in modern warfare
to carry out attacks on far away targets from the air without needing a human to actually pilot the18
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintervehicle. It is not unthinkable to have swarms of self-coordinating drones being able to attack andeliminate their targets without much human intervention. If that kind of technology gets into thewrong hands, it could have catastrophic consequences in our already terror-ridden world, withswarms of fully-automated killing machines being let loose on civilians.
These are just a very small number of examples of technologies we are likely to achievein the near future that have the potential to enormously change and shape our ways of living invery positive ways, but could also bring huge problems if they are used for malicious intents. This
goes to show how incredibly important the entire IT industry is for our current and especially for
our future lives and hopefully makes it clear that governments should do their best to ensure thatthose technologies are used controlled and safely and develop countermeasures to subdue evil
doers and protect the safety of the world’s population.
This means that governments have to secure a large number of specialists in those fields
as fast as possible and actively invest in research of those areas to even have a chance ofcontrolling the direction of technological progress and being able to protect their citizens. Despite
all of this, there is a large lack of skilled Engineers in basically every field, causing governments
to actively try to encourage new talent to join their own. That being said, some countries are much
more successful at this than others. According to reference 7, the US had the largest populationof software developers in 2018, with India’s estimated to overtake them by 2023 (Daxx, 2019).
The top nation for growth though, is China with a growth rate between 6% and 8% leading up to
2023. Japan on the other hand is lacking available workers in the IT industry, being short 171.000
people in 2016, with reports forecasting a lack of 370.000 people in 2020 and 790.000 people in
2030 (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 2016). The Japanese Government and thecompanies in this country thus have a very large incentive to gather as much talent as possible,
likely resulting in high salaries and preferential treatment at the work place and therefore getting
closer to worldwide standards.

Reference:- Daxx (2019), How Many Software Developers Are There in the World?, [Internet]. at:https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/number-software-developers-world[AccessedonJanuary 8, 2020]- Expedia (2018), How to use vacation time, [Internet]. at: https://viewfinder.expedia.com/how-touse-your-vacation-time/ [Accessed on January 7, 2020]- Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2016), News Release：IT 人材の最新動向と将来推計に 関 す る 調 査 結 果 を 取 り ま と め ま し た, [Internet]. at:https://www.meti.go.jp/press/2016/06/20160610002/20160610002.pdf [Accessed on January 8,
2020]- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (2019), 10 月は「年次有給休暇取得促進期間」です,
19
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winter[Internet]. at: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_06788.html [Accessed on January 7, 2020]- Systems Nakashima (2019), シ ス テ ム ズ ナ カ シ マ

企業情報, [Internet]. at:https://www.systems.nakashima.co.jp/contents/index.html [Accessed on January 8, 2020]- The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training (2017), Japanese Working Life Profile
2016/2017-Labor

Statistics,[Internet].

at:https://www.jil.go.jp/english/jwl/2016-2017/all.pdf[Accessed on January 7, 2020]- Timinsky, S. J. (2019), The Nation That Never Rests: Japan’s Debate Over Work-Life Balance andWork that Kills, [Internet]. at: https://apjjf.org/2019/10/Timinsky.html [Accessed on January 6, 2020]- Japanese Law Translation (2020), Labor Standard Act ( 労 働 基 準 法 ) (1947), [Internet]. at:
http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail_main?re=01&vm=&id=5#en_ch4at16 [Accessedon January 6, 2020]

20
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterJapan's Influence in the Universal Gaming Culture
日本のゲーム文化
Leeanne Laureta ロレッタ・リアン
Carleton University (Canada)

日本が世界中のゲーム文化をどのように積極的に変えたかについて研究しました。 このため、日本は依然としてゲーム業界をリードするトップ国です。 さらに、日本、特に東京の秋葉原は、オタク市としても知られ、観光客やゲーム愛好家を惹きつけることで世界的に認められています。 研究で日本のビデオゲーム文化が外国人の意見や興味にどのように影響したかを発表します。
Introduction
Tokyo, Japan is globally recognized by tourists and gamers as the universe oftechnology and electronics. Japan currently is the dominant country leading the gaming industry
for decades however, although that is the case, the first video game was surprisingly not invented
in Japan. I will be focusing on how Japanese gaming companies have the greatest influence within
the video game industry around the world. My research also discusses the importance of being
able to recognize and appreciate Japanese culture through video gaming. In addition, I will portray
my discoveries on how Japan’s video gaming culture has impacted the views and interests of nonJapanese individuals.
As a young child, I grew up playing video games with my older brother on the Nintendo
64 console. My childhood of investing hours trying to complete “The Legend of Zelda” gaming
series sparked a huge impact in my life where I shaped the idea of wanting to work for a gaming
company when I grow up. Not only that, but I grew curious about Japan’s culture and had a driven
desire to travel to Japan one day solely based on my video game experiences. Therefore, I wanted
to research more if others also considered the idea of wanting to travel to Japan and thought about
the culture through their video gaming experiences.
Everyone has played video games at least once in their lives. Whether an individual is agamer or not, we are able to recognize big gaming companies through their works of art, symbols,
logos, slogans, even music tones. Great examples of that are images that represent Nintendo suchas, Mario or Pokémon, or Sonic representing Sega. Video gaming is universal and because of that,
I acknowledged how Japan’s culture can be easily appreciated through something that everyone isable to enjoy.
An Overview of Japan’s Gaming Industry and Evolution
As I have mentioned before, the first video game was not invented in Japan. In 1958,
America was, in fact, the first country to release the first video game ever invented. Japan did notcommence to start their video game history until after 1978 when the first Star Wars movie came
21
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterout in theatres. Video game developer, Tomohiro Nishikado, ignited Japan’s very first video game
Space Invaders by Taito Corporation. Nishikado’s creativity to combine the theme of the hit
movie Star Wars to his video game Space Invaders created an enormous success due to the
popularity of the Star Wars premiere. Since then, history has been made. After Space Invaders,Japan has been known to continuously enhance the gaming culture with its new and uniqueinventions. In 1976, Sega was the creator of the first-ever fighting video game, which started theevolution of one-on-one martial arts games. Without the contribution of Sega’s first invention,
global games such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat would not have existed and it would nothave introduced the idea of fighting in games which is one of the top most popular categories in
the gaming industry.
In current times, Sony is the world’s most number one video gaming company.
PlayStation 2 is actually the top-selling video game console of all time with 155 million units soldsince its release in 2000. In addition, the top 10 best-selling video game consoles in the world,
besides the Xbox, are manufactured by Nintendo and Sony. Moreover, Nintendo has been
currently dominating video games since its release of the Nintendo Switch being the fastestselling console of the current generation. Although Japan seems to be quite successful with thegaming industry for the past decades, Japan is no longer the top country in the gaming industry interms of game revenue. Japan is the third country, after China and the US. Despite the fact, Japan’scontributions and inventions remain dependent and important leading figures within the gaming
industry. A supporting example would be Sony’s Virtual Reality being made available for
consumers at an affordable price, which shows how Japan’s strive to be one step ahead in thegaming world.
To foreigners all over the world, Tokyo’s Akihabara is famous for its electronics,
technology, and otaku culture. Akihabara is known as other names: Electric town and Otaku-city.
Akihabara’s electronic history starts in 1945 after losing the war to the United States. The
population of Tokyo started to gather unofficial markets on the road to continue personal
businesses to maintain a daily life after the war. [At that time, one
student sold a handmade radio at the market. It became very popular,
and other shops started dealing with electric appliances as well. That
was the beginning of Akihabara's Electric Town], Matsui Yohei (2015).
Since then, electronic shops and street vendors continued to flood thearea, filling and constructing the life of Akihabara into Electric Town.
In 2017, Tomoko Otake wrote an article about how the number offoreign visitors to Japan tops the 20 million marks for the first time.[Thenumber of foreign visitors to Japan hit a whopping 24.03 million lastyear, topping the 20 million mark for the first time and renewing theannual record high for the fifth straight year, tourism minister Keiichi Ishii「Akihabara, Tokyo」

said Tuesday], Otake (2017). In relation to that, Akihabara is one of the recommended places to
22
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintersee and do in Tokyo for tourists which draws attention to the gaming culture Japan has been
embracing for decades.
Methodology
In order to further seek information regarding other foreigners’ opinions within their
gaming experiences, I created a ten-question, survey. The following key questions to my research
are:1.

What age did you start to play video games?

2.

What age would you say you were culturally aware that most of the video

games and gaming consoles you were playing on were produced in Japan?
3.

At any given time from your realization that most video games and consoles

were being produced in Japan, did playing video games make you want to come to Japanor made you curious about Japanese culture?
4.

Which console system do you prefer using for gaming?

5.

What kind of video games did you play that enhance your awareness ofJapanese Culture?

Through this methodology, my survey focused strictly on participants from foreigncountries for validity. Japanese residencies would not be able to benefit to the answers I am trying
to research as the study is about gathering information about how others view their culture. The
survey created was made online through an anonymous forum and was shared through Okadai
foreign exchange students, as well as students from my hometown attending Carleton University
which resulted in answers from 24 participants. I carefully chose questions in a way that every
video gamer is able to relate to in order to broaden their minds on thoughts that these gamers havenever truly reflected on.
Analysis and Evaluation
My survey had a small number of participants in which is not enough to represent every
gamer's desires and views. However, I have genuinely learned a lot from their answers given
through the survey. My hypothesis for the results of the survey was that the participants would
show only some interest and little knowledge towards Japan’s culture through their gaming
23
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterexperiences due to how video gaming can have a either small or big impact to a certain extent
since everyone’s gaming experiences can be either completely different as to similar. Prior to
doing my research, I did not expect many individuals to have played the same games I have thathave culturally impacted me while playing video games but through the results, many participants
have mentioned which games they grew up playing with which enabled them to relate to me andmy survey questions.
The survey feedback resulted better than expected. For the question, “at any given timefrom your realization that most video games and consoles were being produced in Japan, didplaying video games make you want to come to Japan or made you curious about Japaneseculture?”, 13 out of 11 individuals voted yes. Eachindividual was able to give contribution to why
they answered with yes or no however 10
individuals skipped that question of the survey
while

the

rest

have

participated

in

the

questionnaire. To breakdown the answers I havereceived, these are the factors that were mostly「Screenshot of video game, Yakuza o, set in Kabukicho, Tokyo」

mentioned and portrayed in their gaming

experiences: the setting and scenery location of Japan. Japanese History and culture incorporated
into the storyline, and lastly giveaways and events being exclusively available in Japan. The typesof games these participants mentioned were mainly storyline games such as Yakuza O, Shenmue,
Persona, and Goemon which were all games I also grew up playing and watching around me as achild. These answers also reflected the answer to the question, “What kind of video games did
you play that enhance your awareness on Japanese culture?”. Furthermore, 14 individuals
answered either Nintendo or PlayStation for their preferred gaming console system which actually
took me by surprise since gaming nowadays is easily accessible through the PC and there was adecreasing population of home consoles due to that matter.
There was quite a bit of obstacles I have experienced while trying to create mymethodology and during my methodology. Something I tried to avoid was creating a biased survey.
However, after evaluating the survey questions and answers, I believe my survey to be a bit flawed.
I have also based many questions in relation to what I have experienced which made me closeminded and to forget to include gaming experiences that I have not experienced myself personally.
Because of that, I have missed to include mobile gaming since it was a hobby I have never reallyinvested into. The growth and popularity of mobile gaming have increased in a significant way
that almost surpasses PC and home consoles. There were also important questions that I did notinclude in my survey as I have failed to deeply research more in-depth questions in regard to
Japanese culture. Even after my survey results, I have researched more about my subject and I havecome across an online article about what Japanese games can teach us about Japanese culture
which included Shintoism, Japanese folklore and historic culture of Feudal Japan. I believe

24
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterif I had included questions in relation to these factors, I would have had a more broaden
knowledge on other gamers cultural experiences. I have also come to realize that although gaming
is universal, the height of the factor depends on what types of games an individual plays and isinterested in in order to be culturally impacted. Ultimately, the results came out in a positive matterthat helped me realize and prove that there are people in the world who are culturally influenced
through video gaming.
Conclusion
My goal for my research was to understand and analyze if gamers around the world havebeen impacted by Japanese video games in a way they were culturally influenced. I have learned
that the greatest factors of how games can culturally influence someone are by the game setting
and the culture of the game. This is only shown through mostly story games and not games thatare widely popular like Super Smash Bros. It may be obvious to some people to acknowledge
most video games they are playing are produced in Japan but if not, it is easy to completely ignorethat fact and never think past it. Throughout my results, whether flawed or unexpected, overall, I
am satisfied with my new discoveries and became even more motivated to work towards my goal
to work for a Japanese video gaming company in the near future.
Tokyo, Japan will remain to be the home of the famous electronic and anime district,
Akihabara for tourists and game lovers. With the current reputation, resources and technology
Japan obtains, Japan’s video gaming industries will continue to change and positively impact
video gaming history as well as video gamers all over the world. In conclusion, my research shows
how the world views Japan as a strong competitor as Japan continues to grow more advanced not
only through their video games but with other creations and goals towards the future in order tomaintain recognition for the country’s hard work and success.

Reference:- GameCentral (7 April 2013) Understanding the Culture of Japanese Gameshttps://metro.co.uk/2013/04/07/understanding-the-culture-of-japanese-games-readers-feature3585926/ [Last accessed: January 10, 2020]- Hasegawa, T., Ito, T., Kawano, R., Kibata, K., Nonomura, K. (2009) The Japanese Gaming Cluster,
ISC Harvard Business School.
https://www.isc.hbs.edu/resources/courses/moc-course-at-harvard/Documents/pdf/studentprojects/Final%20paper%20-%20Japan%20gaming%20cluster%20vfinal.pdf[Last accessed:

January 10, 2020]- Johnson, J. (12 April 2017) Persona 5 and 9 Other Games That Are the Perfect Virtual Trip To Japan.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/04/persona-5-and-9-other-games-that-are-the-perfectv.html [Last accessed: January 14, 2020]25
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winter- Matsui, Y. (13 September 2015) How Akihabara Became An Electric Town https://matchajp.com/en/1083 [Last accessed: January 12, 2020]- Otake, T. (10 January 2017) Number of Foreign Visistors to Japan Tops 20 Million Mark for theFirst Time: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/01/10/national/number-foreign-visitors-japantops-20-million-mark-first-time/#.Xhx7VS1L1QI [Last accessed: January 14, 2020]- Prisco, J. (13 November 2017) How Japan Changed Video Games Forever, CNN World.
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/12/asia/future-japan-videogame-landmarks/index.html[Last accessed: January 13, 2020]- Wen, A. (30 November 2017) What Japanese Games Can Teach Us About Japanese Culture
https://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/11/30/what-japanese-games-can-teach-us-about-japanese-culture[Last accessed: January 14, 2020]26
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterSAKAMOTO RYOMA, A HERO OF JAPAN. BUT IS IT REALLY WHAT THE
JAPANESE THINK? – The Japanese thought about the character
坂本龍馬は、日本のヒーローだと言われているが、しかし、本当に日本人はそう思っているか。日本人の坂本龍馬像に関する調査
Alberto Forneris（アルベルト・フォルネリス）
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)

本研究のテーマは、江戸時代、特に幕末における坂本龍馬についてである。 坂本龍馬は、ほとんどの日本人が、幕末と帝国の権力の回復につながる決定的な行動を行ったヒーローであると考えている。 本研究の目的は、オンラインアンケートと高知でのインタビューを通して、日本人が本当に坂本龍馬を大切にしているか、また坂本龍馬についての詳細な知識を持っているかどうかを分析することである。 本研究のさまざまな年齢や国の地域の人々の考え方を通して、坂本龍馬に対する考え方が長年にわたってどのように変化してきたか、また、そう考えるようになった理由を理解するきっかけとなるであろう。

Edo Period
The Edo period is a long and crucial period in Japanese history that lasts for more than
250 years from around 1600 to 1868, the year of the beginning of the Meiji period.
In 1598, after the death of the shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was necessary to choose
a successor to head the shogunate. Hideyoshi chose his son, Toyotomi Hideyori, as his successor
and entrusted the task of bringing him to the throne to his trusted ally Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu,
however, had plans to gain power and become shogun so, after winning the Battle of Sekigaharain 1600 against the Toyotomi family, he was proclaimed shogun in 1603 and established thecapital in Edo, now Tōkyō. Ieyasu put in place various stratagems to maintain stable power andmanaged to maintain a solid and stable government until the transfer of power to his successor
Iemitsu in 1633. Iemitsu put in place various laws to isolate Japan from contact with foreigners,
but nevertheless the domestic production and agriculture continued to develop.
The Edo period is not only a period of wars and political stratagems, but also aflourishing period for Japanese culture and philosophy. In 1720 the previously establishedcensorship of foreign books was eliminated, and so came great foreign culture that mingled with
the Japanese one, but also came at the decline of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Natural disasters, financial problems that led to people's rebellions, class problems andlack of contact with foreign states were just some of the problems that led to the end of the Edo
period. All factors combined, the anti-government feelings were growing and caused othermovements, such as the demand for the restoration of imperial power and anti-western feelings,
especially among ultra-conservative samurai in increasingly independently acting domains suchas Chōshū and Satsuma. Many people, however, soon recognized the big advantages of theWestern nations in science and military and favored a complete opening to the world. Finally,

27
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - Wintereven the conservatives recognized this fact after being confronted with Western warships inseveral incidents.
In 1868, the Tokugawa government fell because of heavy political pressure, andthe power of Emperor Meiji was restored.
Sakamoto Ryoma and bakumatsu
Sakamoto Ryōma was born on January 3, 1836 in Tosa,
the current province of Kōchi, and was the second child of a lowranking samurai family. Although the family was of lower rank, it
was fortunate to be part of a stable branch of a rich family of fabricand beer merchants.
At 14 years old, under the guidance of a local swordsman
Hineno Benji, he began to study swordsmanship, and in 1853 hemoved to Edo to refine his technique with the master Chiba
Sadakichi in the Hokushin-ittō school. In the same year, however,the so-called “black ships” of the American Commodore Perryarrived in Edo to force the opening of Japan to the world and thisevent had a great influence on Ryōma. Ryōma thus returned to Tosa

Sakamoto Ryōma

in 1854, but driven by the desire to learn more, he returned to Edo in 1856.
While growing anti-shogunate sentiment was spreading in Japan, an organization ofimperial leashes based on the principle of sonnō-jōi, “revere the emperor, expel the barbarians”
was established by Takechi Zuizan in 1861. Ryōma, who was in Tosa, initially joined theorganization but returned to Edo before the group assassinated the local leader. Once in Edo, heagain made contact with imperial loyalists, but this time from Chōshū, the current province of
Yamaguchi, the site of a second anti-shogunate outbreak.
Shortly afterwards, Ryōma planned the assassination of a high-ranking officer called
Katsu Kaishū, but after meeting him he changed his mind and ended up working for him. Ryōmalearned from Katsu the importance for Japan of opening up to the world in order to learn foreignknowledge and Katsu persuaded Ryōma to help him build the nascent Japanese navy. In 1863 thenaval training center was established in Kobe and Katsu made Ryōma the head of the academy
for teaching young people. The shogunate, however, became suspicious of the training center andhad it closed in 1864. Meanwhile Chōshū bombed some foreign ships near the Japanese coasts
which were, however, repaired in Edo and sent back to Chōshū to punish it. Ryōma felt that theend of the shogunate was near and wrote to his sister Otome "I want to wash Japan clean".
In 1866 Ryōma managed to obtain the alliance between two anti-shogunal forces,
Satsuma, the current province of Kagoshima, headed by Ōkubo Toshimichi and Saigō Takamori,and Chōshū. Both were anti-shogunal forces, but with different objectives: Chōshū was much

28
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - Wintermore radical, while Satsuma wanted a more peaceful restoration of imperial power thanks to analliance of domains. After Satsuma's refusal to take sides with the other domains in a rebellion
ordered by the shogunate in 1865 against Chōshū, Ryōma acted as an intermediary between thetwo domains and a formal agreement was reached. Chōshū leader Kido Takayoshi sent the textof the agreement between the two domains to Ryōma for final approval and Ryōma signed it.
While negotiating the deal, in 1865 Ryōma created his own trading company called
Keneyama Shachū in Nagasaki which also procured weapons to Chōshū.
In 1866 the shogunate sent the punitive expedition against Chōshū and Ryōma participated in
the battle against the shogunate.
Another success of Sakamoto Ryōma was the drafting of his plan to modernize Japan ineight points, among which there was a request to the shogunate to give power to the emperor andcreate a national assembly, which he presented in 1867 to the leader of Tosa, Gotō Shōjirō. Gotōwas impressed and formulated a petition from Tosa to the Tokugawa shogun Yoshinobu urging
him to restore imperial power. The shogun, undermined by real external pressure, decided toresign in 1867 and Ryōma's plan continued to influence the principles of Meiji (1868-1912)
modernization.
Ryōma was assassinated in Kyoto on 31 December 1867, shortly after the restoration ofimperial power, while he was in a soy sauce shop. It is not known who the killer is, but it is thoughtthat they were probably an agent of the Mimawarigumi, a federal police force loyal to the shogunate.
After Ryōma's death, the imperial army, composed of Satsuma, Chōshū and Tosa troops, clashedwith the last supporters of the shogunate in the battle of Toba-Fushimi in 1868 and in the battleof Boshin in 1869.
After eradicating the last shogunal forces, the Meiji government began building amodern Japan with many references to Sakamoto Ryōma's eight points.

Questionnaire And Field Research Results
After his death, Sakamoto Ryōma's popularity grew steadily in part thanks to the close
correspondence he had with family and acquaintances, not only on political issues. Most of theseletters are visible at the Sakamoto Memorial Museum located in Kōchi. Ryōma's political andeconomic achievements along with the more personal touches found in his letters have formed
the basis for many books, films, and television dramas.
After reading various books, articles and academic papers about the Edo period, inparticular bakumatsu, and about Sakamoto Ryōma and watching some dramas and documentaries,
I decided to conduct research based on an online questionnaire I created about what the Japanesereally think of Sakamoto Ryōma and some field research conducted in Kōchi. Ryōma has a great
reputation in the country, but what I asked myself is whether people are really so fascinated bythis character or not and whether this character is well known or not.

29
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterThe questionnaire I conducted addressed to people of all genders, social position andage has more than 110 answers.
To the question "Who do you think is the most respected historical figure in Japan?" theanswers confirm exactly what a 2008 NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute questionnaire
had discovered, namely that Sakamoto Ryōma is in third place under Oda Nobunaga andTokugawa Ieyasu in popularity (Graph 1).

However, asking more specifically of the Edo period, 79 answers reveal that Sakamoto Ryōma is
the most esteemed character of the Edo period. Lastly, I asked who the most influential historicalcharacter of the bakumatsu was and Ryōma is in first place on an equal footing with Saigō
Takamori (Graph 2). Following the questionnaire, I understood that what comes to Japanesepeoples’ mind when thinking about Ryōma is: intelligent, courageous, heroic, famous andlegendary.
Instead, asking if you esteem Sakamoto Ryōma or not, the answer was 68% "yes" and32% "no". Wanting to analyze more deeply the degree of esteem of the character, I asked toindicate the degree of esteem from 1 to 10 points and the final average is 6.83 out of 10.
I then wanted to analyze where respondents learned about Sakamoto Ryōma for the firsttime and how they learned it. 87 people replied that they had learned about the character for the
first time in elementary schools and 12 people even already in kindergarten. The method by whichmost of the information was learned is the vision of drama about the character, followed byreading books and reading manga.
Finally, I asked what was the most famous and esteemed action carried out by Ryōmaand the largest number of people indicated the intermediation for obtaining the alliance between
Satsuma and Chōshū and the rest of the options got very few answers.

30
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterAs for field research, I decided to do some interviews with local people from Kochi,
visitors to the Sakamoto Ryōma museum and a researcher as well as curator of the museum.
I first did some interviews with people residing in Kōchi, I targeted 3 people of different ages: anelderly person, a person of about 50 years old and a person of about 30 years old. I believe that thedifferences found on the basis of the answers to the same questions are relevant for the research. The
oldest person, unlike the two younger people, has a higher estimate for the character due to, in his
opinion, their birth in an era much closer to that of the character. Regarding the questions ofknowledge about the character, the person who has the greatest knowledge is the 30-year-old
person, a finding also strengthened by the method of learning through not only drama and film,
but also textbooks and articles. In general, however, all three respondents have a low level ofknowledge of the historical events of the Edo period and concerning Sakamoto Ryōma. To thequestion "Do you know other places dedicated to Sakamoto Ryōma in the province of Kōchi?"only the oldest person managed to provide an answer.
After interviewing some local people, I decided to apply the same target selection
method and to interview some visitors of the museum dedicated to Sakamoto Ryōma. The reasonsfor visiting the museum were different: school study (16-year-old student), visit to the monumentsof the city (retired person, around 70 years old) and personal study due to an interest in thecharacter (worker, around 40 years old). As from the data obtained from the online questionnaire,
all three respondents replied that the learning methods they used most to get to know the character
were drama and film. All three respondents said they had learned, by visiting the museum, of facts
about Sakamoto Ryōma completely unknown previously and not mentioned in what they had
previously seen. All three also stated that they considered a visit to the museum essential in orderto get to know Ryōma in more depth as drama and films are often fictional and do not mention
revealing historical facts to obtain a personal consideration in this regard.
Lastly, I interviewed a scholar and curator of the Sakamoto Ryōma Memorial Museum,to whom I asked questions mainly about his interest in Ryōma and the museum. The Kōchi-bornscholar says he has a great passion for the "hero" from an early age when he learned about it
through his family. Growing up, he became passionate about reading manga and books about it
and finally specialized at university. To the question "Is the museum also visited by foreign
tourists? If so, where do they come from most?" the scholar replied that the museum, which isvisited by a surprising number of people every day, is also visited by foreigners, but in muchsmaller numbers. Their origin is mainly from China and Southeast Asia. Also this person, likethose who answered the questionnaire, says that when thinking about Ryōma, the adjectives brave,
famous and legendary come to mind. He also claims, however, that there are many people,
including people living in Kōchi, who do not esteem Ryōma and consider him overrated.

31
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterConclusion
After learning about the history of Sakamoto Ryoma for a long time and after conducting
an online questionnaire with sufficient answers and interviews with predetermined targets, I cameto a personal conclusion.
Analyzing the data obtained with the online questionnaire we can understand that
Sakamoto Ryoma has a great reputation among the Japanese but the level of appreciation is lessthan 7 out of 10 points, so not as high as I would have expected; in addition, more than 30% of
respondents said they did not feel respectful about the character. This thesis is also supported by
the words of the scholar who says that negative opinions about the character are not rare. He is
considered overvalued and a commercial product as a result of the large number of works createdin his regard which in the opinion of many, including mine, raises a character who played a very
marginal role during the bakumatsu.
A second thesis I have come to is the fact that the Japanese consider this character a herofor his great endeavors, but that they don't know him well. During my research, I noticed thatpeople from Kochi or Shikoku are much more knowledgeable on the subject, as they are living in
the region where Ryoma was born. Another very knowledgeable age group is between 50 and 80
years of age, perhaps due to different educational methods, while the younger age group lacks
knowledge of many events in Ryoma's life. The cause of this gap could be the great diffusion ofmanga, drama and film about Ryoma in the last 30 years which, being fictionalized versions of
the character's life, lack historical depth.
Reference
BIBLIOGRAPHY:BOOKS- Marius B. Jansen (1961) Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration, Columbia University Press- Albert M. Craig (2000) Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration, Lexington Books
CRITICAL ARTICLES (of “Sakamoto Ryōma and the Meiji Restoration by Marius B. Jansen” and“Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration by Albert M. Craig)- Dore, R. (1962), Pacific Affairs, 35(1), 66-67- Brown, D. (1962), The Journal of Modern History, 34(2), 213-214- Hall, J. (1963), The American Historical Review, 68(2), 467-469
SITOGRAPHY: - 土佐の人物伝 at http://www.tosa-jin.com/sakamoto/sakamoto.htm [Last access:January 5, 2020] - 高知県立坂本龍馬記念館 at https://ryoma-kinenkan.jp/feat/ [Last access:January 5, 2020]32
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterZen in everyday life
日常生活における禅Marianna Ceolato マリアンナ・チェオラト
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

研究テーマは「日常生活における禅」である。禅は日本の仏教と深い関係がある。日本人
にとって禅とはどのような存在か知るために、アンケートとインタビューをした。分析の結果、多くの人は禅にあまり関心を持っていないこと、禅にいいイメージを持っていても、それは寺だけのもの」だと思っていることがわかった。一方、禅について関心を持っている人にとっては、禅は「日常生活に含まれるもの」だと思っていた。今後、禅が更に人気になればその考え方が広がっていくと思われる。
Introduction
The reason why I chose Zen as my research’s topic in the first place comes from myuniversity studies.
I developed an interest in Zen during last year, when I was attending a Japanese art classin Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. I was fascinated by Zen art so I decided I wanted to look into
the meaning behind it, the peaceful and tranquil essence that I couldn’t find anywhere else andthat I wanted to make part of my daily life.
Zen Buddhism is the Japanese variant of Chan Buddhism, a Chinese school of
Mahayana Buddhism based on meditation. Central to its teaching is the belief that awakening canbe achieved by anyone but requires instruction by a master. Zen doesn’t rely on words but points
directly to the human mind and is faced in a personal way.
Zen was not introduced as a separate school in Japan until 12th century, during
Kamakura period (1185-1333). In popular usage nowadays the term Zen has acquired so many
non-Buddhist connotations but it is mainly used to refer to the secular arts of medieval japan. It’s
not only a form of Buddhism but also Japanese cultural value.
The 20% of Japanese Buddhist temples are Zen and the three main Zen school in Japan
are Soto, Obaku and Rinzai. In the tradition this last one, Rinzai sect, was established by the
Tendai monk Eisai Myoan, who was actually born in Okayama and was also a tea master. The
temple where I mainly collected information for this research, Sogenji temple in Okayama, also
belongs to Rinzai sect.
This sect for instance, emphasizes koan (enigmatic sentences) study and strict
meditation in every moment of one’s life. This means that Zen practice is involved inpractitioner’s daily activities, whether it’s Zazen (seated meditation), walking meditation,
physical work and even public activities. However Zazen is the core practice.
Zen is a very complex topic so for this research I’ll write just the pivotal results I got
33
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterfrom my fieldwork, which consisted in an interview to mister Gensei, a monk in Okayama’s
Sogenji temple, an interview to a Zazen practitioner and a questionnaire to 21 Japanese individuals
without any particular distinction. However, since Zen essence is said to be wordless I also tried
meditation myself.
Through this research I tried to grasp the different point of view on Zen and look for
its presence in Japanese people’s life.
Zen life
When I interviewed mister Gensei, who lives as a monk in Sogenji temple since 10
years ago, I could learn so much about what Zen really means. In the beginning of my interview
I asked him something that many people would ask themselves when meeting somebody who
has such an unique lifestyle: “Why did you choose the monk life?”. He explained that in the
beginning of his experience he lived in Sogenji for a short period because of his University
studies about Buddhism and that as a student he used to imagine Zen as some good ideal or
belief, but then he found out that “Zen is everything. A very basic human thing, like breathing”.
So I thought to myself, if Zen is something so basic, then it can’t be exclusive for the monk life.
In such case, how is Zen present in everyone’s life and how can common people live a Zen life?
To make sure of my premises I asked mister Gensei if Zen is the same thing foreveryone. He replied that it is, but it always requires effort to be really experienced. Zazen is avery big part of it while knowing Buddhism history or such specific knowledge isn’t soimportant, unless one really wants to dedicate his life to Zen. However in that case one needs avery good reason to do it because it’s very difficult.
I further asked if, on a more superficial level, even someone with a busy lifestyle canpractice Zen. He said it is possible but difficult because it requires a lot of mental effort. He
clarified: “While cleaning is very easy working on your breathing, this is something thateverybody can do”. He added that it’s possible meditating while doing physical work but that it
can’t be done while doing mental work, such as working at the computer or thinking at somethingelse.
The effort needed in order to experience Zen is something that I found not only in mister
Gensei’s words, but also in my readings about living Zen. I read three volumes called “Living the
Zen life: practicing conscious, compassionate awareness”, written by Alex Mill, who trained as aZen monk for 14 years. The author stresses the fact that Zen is a work on our inner voices, thenegativity that keeps us from living fully our lives.
However if, as mister Gensei said, “mindful housework” can be a Zen practice thateverybody can do, are there any other activities in our daily life that we can consider, as long as
we put effort into it, as Zen practice?
Mister Gensei simply replied that everything is Zen practice. Chanting, eating,
34
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintercleaning… as long as one is present there and in that moment, living life at its fullest. Not beingcaught in thoughts. When I asked him if it’s possible to be in that mindful Zen state all the time
he simply replied “That’s our goal. Our teacher says yes.”
The Zazen practitioner I interviewed, as Gensei, had an image of Zen as somethingthat involves everything, 森羅万象 “Shinrabansho”, a Buddhist concept indicating all things innature.
The benefits of living the moment
What I’ve learned from my readings and experiences is that Zen practice is very muchabout mindfulness. This means being concentrated in the present moment in order to live fully,that is, to live one’s life at best without getting trapped by negative thoughts such as anxiety or
grudges.
These two feelings for instance have as object something that hasn’t happened yet orsomething that happened in the past. If we look at how much precious time and many beautiful
opportunities we lose while caught in that negativity it’s evident that Zen mindfulness issomething we should consider in order to live better. Again, it is clear how Zen in this sense isalso about lifestyle and not just a religion as many could imagine it.
As mister Gensei said, Zen practice always aims at accepting emotions and at the sametime letting them go. Never hold on to an emotion, whether it is good or bad. Also, if you sit
Zazen you just work on your mind. You put everything aside and focus. It’s difficult to achieve
this state of mind but it gets better with practice.
Mister Gensei finally added “When you sit Zazen you don’t just feel calm, also very
energetic. You feel like moving your body, cleaning, organizing things, vitality in general”.
Alex Mill, in the first of his three volumes about living Zen, says: “There is no moment
outside of spiritual practice”. Zen practice is mainly Zazen but in every aspect of life it is also
compassion, acceptance, challenge and growth. Meditation is something that everybody can do.
The goal is becoming familiar with oneself, breaking free of need and realizing that keep doing
something for yourself won’t make you happy since the self doesn’t exist. Everything is aconnection and balance is needed to achieve order. In Mill’s point of view if we understand thiswe’ll live fully.
Zen acceptance and detachment from emotions is beneficial because it keeps us fromhaving expectation that could be disappointed. From this point of view, expectations are wasted
mind energy that lead to suffering. When I interviewed a woman who usually practices Zazen at
Sogenji temple I asked her what she considered Zen practice other than Zazen and she told me
she always makes an effort to focus on whatever she’s doing, whether it’s breathing, walking,writing an so on. To her all of those mindful moments are Zen practice and she wants to makeZen the center of her life because she thinks it’s the best way to avoid getting stuck in suffering.
35
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterZen society
In the previous section I talked about what Zen can contribute to every individual’s mind,
but what about society? How would a Zen society be?
Mister Gensei said if you practice Zazen, the way you think is not coming from yoursmall self. All the decisions you make come from the bigger picture. That being said, in a Zensociety maybe people would be more sympathetic and wouldn’t be lazy. In fact Zen monks arevery disciplined workers and never waste time.
The Zazen practitioner interviewed subject affirmed that Zen nowadays is popular but
maybe people aren’t really interested in it and just look at the surface and think meditation is“cool”. People usually aren’t interested in the core of Zen practice so maybe Zen isn’t reallygaining popularity.
Survey on Zen in everyday life
In order to understand what Zen is for the majority of Japanese people I conducted aquestionnaire on 21 individuals. The subject of research include Japanese people without any
particular distinction.
The most relevant quantitative results I got from the questionnaire are the following.
For the qualitative part I’ll just point out the most unexpected and eye opening responses.
1. Select your age
The majority of the respondents, 57.1%, is aged from 20 to 29 years old (12 people). A smallergroup representing the respondents’ 28.6% belongs to the category 10 to 19 years old (6 people).
Two of the remaining three respondents are aged between 50 and 59 years old and a final one isaged between 60 and 69 years old.
2. How much are you interested in Zen? On a scale from 1 (not interested) to 5 (my deepest
interest)
The most consistent answer is represented by grade 2 (33.3%), following by grade 1 (28.6%),
then grade 3 (23.8%) and finally grade 4 (14.3%). Nobody selected grade 5.
3. What kind of thing do you think Zen is nowadays?
1. Religion (such as Christianity)
2. Tradition (Japanese way of thinking and practices fromlong time ago)
3. The essence of things (森羅万象)
4. A way of living (i.e. everyday activities)
Others:
5. A way of seeing things (i.e. Stop thinking in a

36
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterpessimistic way)
6. Similar to spirituality
7. Something beyond human knowledge
4. Nowadays what can be considered Zen practice? (choose as many answers as you want)
Almost all the respondents (90.5%) answered “Zazen, sitting meditation”, the second answer for
number of responses was “Paying attention, focusing on one thing at a time” (33.3%), followedby “Chanting sutras” (23,8%). Just few answered “Having a disciplined lifestyle (i.e. getting
housework done regularly)”, “calligraphy”, “flower arrangement”, “tea ceremony” and“reflecting on koan (enigmatic sentences to reach enlightenment)”. Nobody selected all theoptions.
5. Nowadays, how much is Zen a personal thing? On a scale from 1 (not personal, same thingfor everyone) to 5 (very personal). Why?
The 47.6% of the respondents chose “grade 3”, the 19% “grade 4” and the 14.3% “grade 5”.
Just the 9.5% chose “grade 1” and the same percentage chose “grade 2”.
In general it seems that who learned about Zen in school tend to have a more fixed view about itand say that it isn’t very personal, but on the other hand, who learned about it in family context
see it on a much more personal level. However the majority chose the middle answer.
On the qualitative side, an interesting explanation to a response graded 3 was that Zen is rooted
in Japanese history but often people don’t have the chance to experience it on a personal level.
A response graded 1 was justified by saying that Zen’s state of mind visits 10.000 people, while,on the contrary, one graded 4 said that Zen is nothing but practice.
6. Do you think nowadays Zen is something that can be practiced just in temples?
The 47.6% of the respondents somewhat agrees with the statement and the 33.3% agrees. On
the other hand the 14.3% somewhat disagrees and just a respondent (4.8%) disagrees.
7. Nowadays is Zen something that can be felt in daily life? Why?
The majority of the subjects answered
they can’t find Zen in their daily life, the main
reason being they don’t pay attention to it.

8. How do you imagine Zen?

37
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterFor this question the two major answers, represented by a total of 85.7% of the
respondents, have in common a vision of Zen as something far from everyday life and difficult toreach. However for the majority, 71.4% of the respondents, it’s a serene image.
Conclusion
Looking back at all of my data I think basically there’s one noticeable difference in
responses between mister Gensei and the Zazen practitioner’s interviews compared to thequestionnaire directed to everyone.
Mister Gensei affirmed that Zen is everything, while the majority of the questionnaire
respondents affirmed they don’t feel Zen in their daily life. Rather, they think it belongs to thetemples and see it as something very difficult to reach.
However, the fact that the majority of questionnaire responses said, on a scale from 1 to
5, Zen is on a grade 3 a personal thing, shows that it is considered more flexible and personal thana religion, especially if we consider the fact that just the 19% of the subjects sees Zen as a religion
such as Christianity, while the 61,9% classifies it as tradition. I was surprised that very few see
Zen as “essence of all the things” or “way of living”, as would have answered mister Gensei and
the Zazen practitioner.
What I concluded from this research is that who is clearly interested in Zen such as
mister Gensei and the Zazen practitioner see it as something very natural and always present inlife, not much involved with religious specific knowledge but rather a personal way to live better.
In fact, mister Gensei said he decided to become a monk because he wasn’t sure he was living hislife at best.
On the other hand, the majority of the questionnaire respondents weren’t muchinterested in the topic and had a vision of Zen as something complicated and far from daily life
but still, something calm, serene and good to achieve.
My final consideration, also based on my Zazen experience, is that if Zen was more
popular and more people tried Zazen, maybe it would be seen as something closer to daily life
and would be more appreciated. I think Zen has the potential to reach that popularity.

Reference:- Mill, Alex (2019) “Living the Zen life. Practicing conscious, compassionate awareness”, Zen life
books, volume 1- Mill, Alex (2019) “Living the Zen life. Practicing conscious, compassionate awareness”, Zen life
books, volume 2- Mill, Alex (2019) “Living the Zen life. Practicing conscious, compassionate awareness”, Zen life
books, volume 3- Article online (日常生活の諸事がなぜ大切なのでしょうか。男性、20 代）[internet] at:
38
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterhttps://hasunoha.jp/questions/16963 [Last accessed: 12 January, 2020]- Article online ( 禅 の 修 行 っ て 何 ? 氷 平 寺 で の 修 行 で 何 を 得 た か )https://www.zen-essay.com/entry/syugyo [Last accessed: 12 January, 2020]-

Articleonline(Questions

andanswers,

One

drop

Zen

Buddhist

community)

http://onedropzen.org/teachings/questions_and_answers [Last accessed: 12 January, 2020]- Article online (Zen Buddhism in Japan, live Japan perfect guide)
https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0000691/ [Last accessed: 12 January, 2020]- Article online (Zen Buddhism, William M. Bodiford) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zen [Lastaccessed: 12 january, 2020]- Article online (What is Zen Buddhism?) https://www.zenlightenment.net/ [Last accessed: 12
January, 2020]- Article online (What should you do?, Alex Mill):
https://www.alexandermilljr.com/what-should-you-do/ [Last accessed: 12 January, 2020]

39
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterSenpai-Kohai System: A case study of Okayama University Clubs
上下関係：岡山大学のクラブ一例
Jonathon Holm ジョナソン・ホム
University of Guam (Guam)

日本での上下関係は日本の社会に影響を及ぼしています。日本は集団主義社会なので、集団の方が個人より大切です。特に集団の和を保つために、年下は目上の先輩や教師または上司と話す際に敬語を使用します。しかし、敬語の使い方は状況によって異なります。学生時代に敬語の使い方を学んだ日本人にとって、その使い分けは簡単でしょう。一方、外国人にとってその使い分けは難しいです。
この調査では岡山大学の３つのクラブでの敬語使用について調べました。全ての後輩部員
は全員「いつも敬語を使っている」と答え、先輩部員の中で「後輩は先輩に対して敬語を使わなければならない」と多く答えたのは大会などに参加する２つのクラブでした。しかし大抵の先輩部員は「後輩が敬語を使わなくても怒ることはない」と答えました。

Introduction
The senpai-kohai system is a hierarchal system that has a strong effect on Japanesesociety. Japan is a collectivist society which relies on group harmony in order to function. Japanesesociety places a higher importance on the group rather than the individual. Understanding one’s
position in this hierarchal system is relatively easy. The classification of whether one is a senpai(senior) or kohai (junior) is dependent on age or experience. For example, somebody who has beenworking for an organization longer would be considered the senpai¸ while the person that is newer
to the organization would be the kohai. The roles a person performs, whether it is in a school club ororganization, will be dependent on your position within the system. Kohai use keigo (honorific) asa sign of showing respect to their senpai, while the senpai take care of their kohai. This systemallows for people within the organization to maintain the harmony of the group (Yoshinaga 2017).
For Japanese-language learners, one of the most difficult aspects of learning thelanguage is keigo. There are three different forms of keigo. These include sonkeigo (honorific),
kenjougo (humble), and teineigo (polite) (Davis & Ikeno 2002). Depending on the hierarchicalposition of a person, special words, prefixes, and suffixes are used to help the speaker adjust his
speech. There are many rules for keigo that make it difficult to learn for many Japanese-language
learners. Although kohai are expected to use keigo, there are also cases where keigo is not used
(Yoshinaga 2017). For Japanese-language learners, it can be difficult for them to understand when
they should be using keigo, and when they do not have to use it. The use of kiego is dependent on
the context of the situation (Enyo 2013). This can be difficult for Japanese-language learners as

40
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterthey do not grow up in an environment where they can learn these differences over time.
The senpai-kohai system not only plays a part in Japanese schools, but also an importantfactor in the working world in Japan as well (Miller 2013). Therefore, I wish to explore the use
and perspectives on keigo within Okayama University clubs. Through this, I wish to gain a clearer
understanding on the current use of keigo within current university clubs, as well as current
perspectives on the use of keigo amongst young Japanese people who will be joining theworkforce in the next few years. This will be beneficial for people who wish to live in Japan in
the future, as it can help provide them with a better understanding of the senpai-kohai systemthrough the use of keigo.
Objectives & Expectations
The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding on the senpai-kohai system
within clubs at Okayama University through the use of keigo. By examining this system withindifferent clubs, it is possible to see whether there are differences in its strength between the clubs.
Likewise, it is possible to see the different aspects that may have an effect on the strength of thesystem. The following questions will be explored:
1) Do the type of activities the clubs participate in affect the strength of the system?
2) Is the use of keigo dependent on where and when the kohai (junior) is speaking to
the senpai (senior)?
I’m expecting that the type of club and the type of activities the clubs participate in will
have the largest effect on the strength of the system. Clubs that participate in higher levels ofcompetition tend to have a more established senpai-kohai system (Ono & Shoji 2015). Therefore,
I expect that sports clubs that participate in competitions will have a stronger senpai-kohai system.
The use of keigo is dependent on the context of the situation (Enyo 2013). Therefore, I expect that
there will be variation amongst the use of keigo in different situations and locations.
Methodology
For this paper, there different clubs were surveyed. These clubs include tankenbu(Exploration Club), E.S.S (English Research Club), and uweito-rifutingu-bu (Weight TrainingClub). These clubs were chosen to try to gain as much variety as possible between different
aspects of the clubs. For example, the weight training club and exploration club are both sports
clubs, while the English Research Club is a cultural club. The number of members present withineach club was taken into consideration to help provide a variety of club size within this study.
Lastly, knowing an individual within the club also played a factor in these decisions. These
individuals acted as a medium between the clubs and I in which the surveys and questioners weresent. In order to gain information about the club, a questionnaire containing the following items
was used:
41
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winter1) Member size2) Activities per week3) Participation in competitions/performances
4) Differences in roles based on grade level5) If juniors who poses a high level of skill are assigned different rules6) If international students can enter the club, and if so, how many are currently in the
club
There were also two different surveys that were conducted to gain an understanding on
the club members perspectives on the use of keigo within in the club. One survey was focused on
first year students and their use of keigo, asking if they use keigo with their seniors when 1) they
are participating in a club activity, 2) they are outside of club activities, and 3) when they arecommunicating on LINE. The second survey focused on second year and higher students which
aimed at gaining an understanding on their perspective on the use of keigo. This survey asked 1)
Whether or not juniors must use keigo when speaking to seniors, and 2) whether or not they
become upset when a junior does not use keigo when speaking to them. The surveys were sent
through the clubs’ group chat on LINE and the participants were those who freely choose toanswer the survey.
Results & Analysis
The questionnaire for the clubs provided the following information. The number ofmembers for each club was 22 members for Exploration Club, 50 members for Weight Training
Club, and 56 members for English Research Club. Exploration Club stated that they have a weekly
meeting and have about two activities twice a month, and that they often play some type of sport
after the club meeting. Weight Training Club stated that they have two activities a week. English
Research Club stated that they have three activities per week. All three clubs stated that they
participate in some type of competition. However, it is important to note that Exploration Club
stated that anybody, regardless of their skill level, can participate in the competitions. This
indicates that although they participate in competitions, the level of competition for this club islower compared to the other clubs.
Exploration club stated that they do not have specific roles assigned depending on thegrade level of the members, rather that the roles that are assigned depend on who is free at thatmoment. Weight training club stated that they do not have specific roles based on the grade level.
English Research Club stated that they have different roles based on grade level. They have two
sections, speech and discussion, who’s section heads are usually third years. However, second
years may also be assigned to be in charge of competitions. All three clubs stated that juniors withhigh level of skill are not assigned special roles. All three clubs allow international students tojoin, as well as these students are not required to be able to speak Japanese. Both Exploration
42
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterClub and the English Research Club currently have international students as members, while
Weight Training Club currently has no international students.
For the survey that was sent out to gather the perspectives of the members within theclub, a total of 51 responses that were recorded. There was a total of 19 responses received fromfirst-year students. The breakdown for the first-year students was 2 students from Explorationclub, 11 students from Weight Training Club, and 6 students from English Research Club. There
was a total of 32 responses received from the second year and higher survey. The breakdown forthe second-year and higher survey was 8 students from Exploration Club, 11 students from Weight
Training Club, and 13 students from English Research Club.
The results were the same for all responses that were received from the first-year students.
All first-year students stated that they use keigo in all three situations that were described. Thisshows that no matter the situation or location in which they are speaking to their senior, they choose
to use keigo. This result was opposite to the expected result. It was expected that, because the useof keigo is dependent on context, that there would be variation in the use of keigo depending on
the situation and location.
The results that were received from the second-year and higher survey is where we begin
to see the differences amongst the seniors perception on the use of keigo, as well as differences
between the clubs.
12,5%

Figure 1
23,1%

18,2%

69,2%

81,8%

Figure 2

12,5%

46,2%

37,5%

50,0%

7,7%

87,5%

46,2%

7,7%

Exploration Club
Don't Have to

ESS
Have toWeight Training
Other

45,5%

Exploration Club
Not Upset

ESS
Upset

54,5%
Weight Training
Other

Figure 1 displays the results for the responses in regard to whether the seniors believethat juniors should use keigo when speaking to their seniors. This shows that majority of thepeople who responded to the survey from English Research Club and Weight Training Club
believe that juniors should use keigo when speaking to their seniors. Exploration Club was the
only club where majority of the responders stated that juniors do not have to use keigo when
speaking to their seniors. This difference between the clubs was expected. Although Exploration
Club participates in competitions, they have a low level of competition compared to the other two
clubs.
Figure 2 displays the responses in regard to whether they become upset if a junior speaks
to them without using keigo. Surprisingly, majority of the respondents stated that they do not
become upset if a junior does not speak to them. Although many people responded that juniors
43
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintershould use keigo when speaking to a senior, many of them stated that they would not become
upset. Because majority of the respondents stated that juniors should use keigo, it was surprising
to see that majority of them would not become upset if keigo is not used. There were many
responses that fell into the “Other” category for this question. Many of these questions stated thatthey would be unsure whether they would become upset, or if they would find the situation to beinteresting.
Conclusion
Understanding the senpai-kohai relationship is beneficial for Japanese language learners.
It allows them to understand in which situations they should use keigo, as well as help them having
a better understanding of their relationship with other Japanese people. According to the survey
questions, we can see that Japanese juniors tend to use keigo, without any regard to the situationin which they are communicating and without regard to medium that is being used to communicate.
Likewise, majority of seniors expect their juniors to use keigo. However, in more casualenvironments, such as clubs that do not participate in high levels of competition, these
expectations become smaller. Despite these expectations, seniors tend to not become upset insituations where keigo is not used. It is unclear why there is a difference between expected use
and the reaction if the unexpected occurs. This could potentially be linked to the concept of honnetatemae, where the senior’s expectations are because of the social expectations, while their true
feelings different from those expectations. However, more research needs to be conducted to see
if honne-tatemae has an effect on the participants’ answers. Continuous study of the senpai-kohaisystem will be beneficial in understanding the different situations and contexts in which the useof keigo is either needed or not needed.
Reference:- Davis, R., & Ikeno, O. (2002). Sempai-Kohai: Seniority Rules in Japanese Relations. The Japanesemind: Understanding contemporary culture (pp. 187-193). North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
- Enyo, Y. (2013). Exploring Senpai-Kohai Relationships in Club Meetings in a Japanese University(Doctoral Dissertation). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- Miller, A. (2013). For Basketball Court and Company Cubicle: New Expectations for University
Athletes and Corporate Employees in Japan. Japanese Studies, 33, 63-81.
- Ono Y. & Shoji I. (2015). Senior-Junior (Senpai-Kohai) Relationships in Secondary School
Activities. Japanese Journal of Education Psychology, 63, 438-452.
- Sano, K. (2014). The study of the senpai-kohai culture in junior high schools in Japan. Sociological
Insight, 6, 59-68.
- Yoshinaga, M. (2017). Contemporary Attitudes Towards the Senpai-Kōhai Relationship Portland
State University, University Honor’s Thesis.
44
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterGENBAKU BUNGAKU – THE ATOMIC BOMB LITERATUREThe Japanese knowledge and perception of the catastrophic event
原爆文学:大惨事についての日本人の知識と理解
Marta Bettini マルタ・ベッティーニ
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)

私は原爆文学を大学で学び、興味を持ったため、この文学に焦点を当てて研究プロジェク
トを行うことにしました。私の研究では、原爆文学を深く学ぶだけでなく、日本人が原爆文学について何を知っていて、どのように考えているかを知ることを目的としました。このプロジェクトを通して、私が今まであまり深く考えたことがないような、重要な物の見方があることに気づきました。

I. World War II
From 1939 until 1945, nearly every country of the world was engaged in what is known
as the Second World War. In 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Act with Germany and Italy andthe nation’s purpose was to colonise as many Asian territories as possible (Asia-Pacific War). In
1941 on December 7th, Japan took an aggressive military action against the United States ofAmerica through the attack on Pearl Harbor. The day after, the American Congress voted toengage a war against Japan. In 1945, after the American offered an ultimatum to Japan, that
refused it, the biggest Western nation carried out two of the most atrocious actions of the Second
World War: the atomic bombardments of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9ththAugust 1945).
During a conference in the United States of America, the people in charge decided not to use thebomb only against a military base, in order not to “waste” it. Moreover, the Americans paid a lotof attention to the psychological effects that the event would have provoked. On 6th August, basedon meteorological conditions, the American Army decided to drop the atomic bomb over
Hiroshima. At 8:15 am, the bomber, Enola Gay, dropped the bomb
called “Little Boy” on the centre of Hiroshima. Between 70,000 and
80,000 people have died instantly.
However, Japan did not withdraw from the war. Therefore,
the U.S Army decided to drop another atomic bomb. A few minutes
after 11:00 am of the 9th of August, the pilot of a bomber carrying thesecond atomic weapon flew over the city of Nagasaki that was hiddenby the clouds. “Fat Man” was dropped on the industrial area of thecity; a mistake that made it possible to save much of the city,
since it was protected by the surrounding hills. Nevertheless, the Genbaku Dome, Hiroshima
45
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winternumber of victims was extremely high. At least 200,000 citizens died on the spot or during thefollowing months because of their exposure to radiation. The people affected by the effects of theweapons are known as hibakusha (被爆者), literally meaning “person exposed to the bomb”, astatus recognized by the Japanese Government.
II. The Genbaku Bungaku
The Genbaku Bungaku is a branch of literature that was born following thesecatastrophic events. Its definition is clear and punctual, indicating that this production belongs to
two specific events: the bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The only indispensable
element is the atomic bombardment, that becomes the origin and the foundation of the works.
However, Genbaku Bungaku is also an ambiguous definition since it belongs to the wartime
literature, but at the same time it narrates only of a specific event that surpasses the war itself. In
this type of production, there are many literary genres that share the same common denominator.
In spite of that, these expressions were somehow marginalised, as if the events they narrate were
not part of the Second World War.
Some criticisms have even been made against the Genbaku Bungaku, concerning its
artistic dimension. Some people questioned themselves if a tremendous event can be the bedrockof a certain type of literature, something usually considered beautiful and elegant. For example,
the Japanese critic Yasuoka Shotarō, talking about the work Matsuri no ba (Ritual of death, 1975)
by Hayashi Kyōko concerning the bombardment of Nagasaki, stated that he was astounded by thereality of the experience of the writer. But, that is not the same as being impressed by her artistic
ability.
The themes of this literature can be explored through some keywords. There are threepairs of words that can help to analyze this production: singularity and universality; words andsilence; past and present. For what concerns singularity and universality, the Genbaku Bungaku is
unique because it refers to an historical event that has a date and a time. However, it is also
universal since it belongs to the broader theme of the evil. An example of its universality is givenby the poem コレガ人間ナノデス (This is a human being, 1948) by Hara Tamiki, because even
if it was inspired by the event of the atomic bomb, it could refer to any type of catastrophe.
Words and silence are probably the most difficult issue that the writers had to face.
Especially in the beginning, the authors did not know how to explain with words what they had
witnessed. For example, they tried to use new languages. They were always looking for something
new but, in the end, everything was always insufficient. Some other authors preferred staying
silent because of two main reasons: some used the silence to try to remove the trauma caused by
the bomb, and some others chose it as the best and most complete response to the experience. The
writer Tanaka Kishiro stated that no matter how one tries to speak, no matter how one tries to write
about human atrocity, all languages and all pens are useless. Ōe Kenzaburō in
46
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterHiroshima nōto (1965) collected materials and interviews made on various trips to Hiroshima; inparticular in one, he underlined how the people of Hiroshima wanted to stay silent, they did notwant their tragedy to be put on display or be turned into data to be used by the anti-nuclear
movement or some other political battle.
Regarding the juxtaposition between the past and present, the past is 6th or 9th August
1945, while the present is the moment when the past is narrated or remembered, which can either
be very close to when the events happened, or very far away in time. Some authors wrote in theimmediacy of the experience, others waited tens of years. Perhaps because of the trauma or
because they were too young at the time. In general, in all of the studies concerning the Genbaku
Bungaku, there is a tripartition into three periods: recalling the ruins, remote perspective andexpansion in space and time. The first period refers to the direct testimony of documentary or
realistic works, written between 1950 and 1952. On the other hand, writers who had notnecessarily been witnesses but made researches on the event are part of what is called “remoteperspective”. In the third period, the theme goes beyond the borders of Japan. The atomic bomb isnarrated in a broader perspective and there is no longer a direct link with the historical event but,it becomes a broader and international perspective.
Ōta Yōko (1906 – 1963) was a witness to the atomic bomb of Hiroshima and from thistragic event she wrote Shikabane no machi (City of Corpses, 1948). The title of her work is
extremely realistic because she started writing it right after the bombardment. She felt the need to
put into words what she was experiencing. From the beginning, people did not know what was
really happening and what the effects of the attack would have been. The author felt as if she hadno time to write and therefore her work was not
perfectly organised. Some years after the firstpublication of the book, she wrote a preface to hernovel where she states that at that time she felt as
if death was blowing on her neck.
III. The Japanese knowledge and perception of this literary production
In order to deepen my knowledge on the Atomic Bomb Literature, I decided to do afieldwork research divided in two activities: visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum andcarrying out a survey related to the topic.
Visiting one of the two cities that had been the victims of the atomic bombardments
made me realise even more what the effects and consequences of these actions have been. The
first monument I saw in Hiroshima was the Genbaku Dome. I think this monument would have astrong impact on anyone because of its ruins and bricks scattered everywhere. Moreover, in themuseum I got the chance to observe more evidence and photos of the disaster caused by the attackof 6th August 1945.
47
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterHowever, since I did not want to focus only on data, I decided to conduct a survey among
twenty-three Japanese people in order to understand what their knowledge on the Genbaku
Bungaku is and how they feel about this event. They majority of the people I interviewed were
between 10 and 30 years old, while 9% were between the ages of 50 and 70. More or less, theparticipants were 50% women and 50% men with half of them last attending high school and theother half attended university. However, when I asked if they have ever heard of the Atomic Bomb
Literature, 30,4% of them answered “no”. This was one of the responses I did not expect, since I
have always thought that everyone in Japan had a knowledge on this theme whether superficial or
deep. I also tried to get more details about their competence on this particular subject by asking
how much do they know about the Genbaku Bungaku, which brought the results of: 39,1%
answering “just a little bit”, 52,2% “not so much” or “nothing”, and only 8,7% answered “a lot”.
The majority of the people I conducted my research on stated that they learned something about
this literature for the first time while they were in school or by reading the news and watching
television.
Since many of the people I interviewed knew something on this subject thanks to theireducation, I asked if the Atomic Bomb Literature is normally taught in schools in Japan. 59,1% ofthem said that they studied something about it while they were inelementary or middle school. However, since the remaining 40,9%
stated that they never learned anything in school, I believe thisdifference in their answers is caused by their age gap or by thedecisions made by the institutions they attended.
For what concerns the books the interviewees read, themanga Hadashi no Gen (1999-2001) by Keiji Nakazawa was the onethat the majority of them has read (82,6%). Other literature works
known by these people were Hiroshima Nōto (1965, Ōe Kenzaburō),Kuroi Ame (1987, Ibuse Masuji) and Hiroshima no
Pika (1982, Toshi Maruki).

Hadashi no gen (1999-2001,
Keiji Nakazawa)IV. Conclusions
During my research, I wanted to understand the knowledge of Japanese people on thisparticular branch of literature because I wanted to realise if the Genbaku Bungaku were a wellknown current. At the beginning, I thought that everyone in Japan had studied or at least heardof this literature. But, through the research and especially the survey, my opinion has changed.
For this reason, I was surprised when more than one fourth of the interviewees stated that they
did not know anything about it.
While carrying on my study, I realised that only people who learned something
concerning this topic during school have quite a good knowledge on the Genbaku Bungaku. On
48
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterthe other hand, for those who did not study it, it is more difficult to be fully aware of what thisliterature is about. Moreover, from one of the answers I was given, I understood that a decade ago
there was more discussion about this topic on television and in magazines.
Before carrying out my research, I had a certain knowledge of some of the main literaryworks of the Genbaku Bungaku but, the majority of them are difficult and scholastic. Thanks tothe survey, I got to know some of the books related to this topic that Japanese people usually read.
In particular, I was surprised with Hadashi no gen (1999-2001, Keiji Nakazawa), a shōnen manga
usually read by elementary school children who are approaching literature. I decided to try reading
it and I was shocked by the harsh words and images the book displays. For children, it must bequite hard but, I think it makes them understand what has actually happened in Hiroshima, andalso in Nagasaki.
I figured out that Japanese people are fully aware of the fact that historical memory is really
important, especially for events like the atomic bombardments. Many of them believe that theknowledge of this topic could be improved by teaching more during elementary and middle schoolof what the Genbaku Bungaku is, in order to sensitise children so that they can grow with a criticalconscience about these historical issues. Some of the interviewees pointed out that now thenumber of hibakusha who are still alive is decreasing since the years are passing by. I believe that
this is a crucial moment in which transmitting the knowledge is more important than ever; in order
not to forget what has happened in the past, nor the harm caused to innocent people. As Matsui
Kazumi (Mayor of the City of Hiroshima) stated on 6thAugust 2019 during his Peace

Declaration: “[…] Coming generations must never dismiss the atomic bombings and the war as
mere events of the past. It is vital that they internalise the progress the hibakusha and others havemade toward a peaceful world, then drive steadfastly forward”.

Reference:- Bienati, L., & Scrolavezza, P. (2009). La letteratura giapponese moderna e contemporanea. Venezia:
Marsilio- Ōta, Y. (1948). Shikabane no machi. Tōkyo: Kōdansha bungei bunko- Ōe, K. (1965). Hiroshima nōto. Tōkyo: Iwanami Shoten- Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; The Manhattan Project; Little Boy and Fat Man (2019):
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

49
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterPitch Accent in the Japanese Language and Okayama-ben
日本語高低アクセントと岡山弁
Ashley Kobayashi

小林アシュリー

University of Adelaide (Australia)

日本語では語内の音の高低の位置的な違いによって意味が区別されることがある。この現象は高低アクセントといい、英語のような強弱アクセントと違う。しかし、日本語学
習者や日本語の教師は、日本語は平らな言語だと主張することが多い。実は、日本語には特定な高低アクセントの構造があり、地域や県の方言よってアクセントが異なることがある。このプロジェクトでは、標準語の高低アクセントの構造を説明し、また岡山弁に比較する。
Introduction
Japanese pitch accent is a phenomenon that exists within Japanese speech and plays amajor role in the accents, dialects and word meanings within the language. A native Japanese
speaker can determine whether someone is from the Kansai region or from Tokyo solely based on
their pitch accent and intonation. However, it is not widely known or recognized by many
Japanese learners and also native Japanese speakers are sometimes unaware of how pitch accentis structured. Typically, Japanese classes do not have their students study Japanese phonetics
intensively and usually only cover fundamental pronunciation without diving into pitch accentand intonation. Not only do Japanese learners have difficulty understanding pitch accent but
native Japanese speakers are also unaware of how to correct a learner’s accent. In turn, this hascaused the spread of a common myth that Japanese is a ‘flat language’, a language that contains
no accent. This is why many Japanese learners, even after reaching a considerably high level inthe language will often still struggle to achieve a correct Japanese accent. Unlike stress accents(強弱アクセント) which exists in English, Japanese uses a pitch accent ( 高低アクセント) to
determine the accent for words (Kubozono 2012). In order to show the structure of the Japanesepitch accent and also its importance, I will be examining the foundations of the ‘standard Japanese’
accent which is the Japanese spoken in Tokyo and then comparing it to ‘Okayama-ben’,Okayama’s dialect. The biggest difference between standard Japanese and the Okayama-ben canbe found in the Japanese imperfective marker -teiru. Examining this will show how the dialectchanges the pitch accent and will highlight the importance of proper pitch accent understanding.

50
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterLiterature Review
The structure of the Japanese pitch accent
In order to understand Japanese pitch accent itself, it is important to first get a grasp of
how it is structured. Within Japanese there are four types of pitch accent patterns that determines
the accent for every word. These patterns are Heiban ( 平板), Atamadaka (頭高), Nakadaka (中高) and Odaka (尾高). In Japanese there are only two tones, the low tone and high tone. Dependingon the accent pattern, a down-step can occur within the word, after it or not at all. The down step
gives the word an accent as it drops the high tone down to the low tone.
As can be seen on the chart, a rule in Japanese pitch accent is, excluding Atamada, allwords start on the low tone and then rise after the first syllable. Each syllable in Japanese can bemeasured with the ‘moraic unit’ as one ‘mora’ (Akamatsu 1997). In the graph, each mora isrepresented by a dot which is either high or low. Once the down step occurs, the word will not
return to the high tone and the particle will attach low. For example, the down-step in the word
shitsurei occurs on the tsu, the second mora of the word. In the case of Atamadaka the down-stepoccurs on the first mora and therefore the word and attaching particle will remain as a low tone.
Odaka is the same as Heiban, however the particle attaches low whereas the particle will attachhigh on Heiban. All Japanese words follow this rule and it can be found in all nouns, adjectives,
verbs, etcetera to define meaning. Variations in the pitch accent can determine what dialect one
is speaking and using incorrect pitch accent is often associated to foreign Japanese speakers.
Looking at the Japanese imperfect marker, -teiru
Verbs in Japanese only come in the three patterns, Heiban, Atamadaka and Odaka.
When conjugating verbs, all verbs except for Heiban verbs will have a shift in the location of thedown-step. For example, the verb; taberu (to eat), is Nakadaka and has the down step occurringon the second mora. When changing to past tense; tabeta (ate), the down-step shifts one mora
backward making the word Atamadaka. This is because the down-step always occurs on the third
to last mora within nakadaka verbs when put into past tense and te-form. However, Atamada
51
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Winterverbs will remain Atamada when conjugated into past tense and te-form. As the Japaneseimperfect marker -teiru is te-from with the attachment of iru, the same pattern can be observed.
Therefore, imperfect Heiban verbs will have no down-step while Nakadaka verbs will have adown-step shift in all standard Japanese verbs. However, in Okayama-ben, all verbs in dictionary
form are the same as in standard Japanese, but they have two imperfect markers; -yooru and -toru.
These imperfect markers can be found in all the three versions of Okayama-ben spoken in the
Bizen, Bichu and Mimasaka areas. Both imperfect markers follow their own unique conjugation
patterns. The -yooru form can be made by replacing the the -masu when in -masu form with yooru. For example, neru (to sleep) which becomes nemasu is said as neyooru. The -toru form on
the other hand, simply replaces the -teiru in the imperfect form with toru. For example, taberu (toeat) which becomes tabeteiru is said as tabetoru. These patterns relate back to pitch accent as theyshare the same dictionary form stem as standard Japanese, however looking at whether they sharethe same pitch accent patterns or create new patterns will help in understanding what kind of role
pitch accent has in spoken Japanese.
Methodology
As far as the changes between Okayama’s Japanese and standard Japanese, I found thatthe -teiru form of verbs have the largest change in pattern as it contains two imperfect markers
which can’t be found in standard Japanese. I created a series of sentences using both the -yooru
and -toru form and included a variety of common Heiban, Atamadaka and Nakadaka verbs. Usinga number of interviews with local Japanese people from Okayama, I was able to attain voicerecordings of sentences to study the pitch accent patterns. I also wrote the same sentences instandard Japanese and had it read by a native speaker of standard Japanese for comparison. I also
used the research I did on the structure of pitch accent in standard Japanese to look at how the
pitch accent patterns change. After recording the interviews, I inputted the recorded material into
the computer. Using the program called ‘Pratt’ I was able to create a graph that shows the risingand lowering of pitch in speech, which then was able to be used as evidence of change whencompared to standard Tokyo Japanese.
Discussion
After collecting data from the interviews and recordings I conducted, I realized that
there was a noticeable pattern in the pitch accent difference between the imperfect markers inOkayama-ben and standard Japanese.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterFor example, the sentence “I’m playing with friends” in standard Japanese is said as tomodachi
to asondeiru. In Okayama-ben’s -yooru form, this sentence becomes tomodachi to asobyooru. In
standard Japanese asondeiru is said in the Heiban pitch accent pattern, meaning there is no present
down-step. However, in the Okayama-ben, a down-step occurs on the third to last mora of theverb. This pattern can be seen in the following graph created from one of the interviews. The blueline resembles the pitch and a clear drop can be seen when the speaker says “byooru”.

Again, in the -toru form a down step occurs on Heiban verbs on the second to last mora.
Essentially creating an accented tone with the down-step on every verb that normally would haveno change in pitch. With Nakadaka and Atamadaka verbs however, the pitch accent pattern stays
the same as standard Japanese. A visual representation of these patterns can be seen below.

By examining the pitch accent patterns in Okayama-ben, I was able to see that patterns that don’t
exist at all in standard Japanese are used. For example, the -toru form of Heiban verbs sees adown-step on the second to last mora which is a pattern that doesn’t exist in any verbs in standard
Japanese. I feel like the use of this accent in spoken Japanese would stand out tremendously to
speakers of other dialects and also those of standard Japanese. To further examine the nature of
the pitch accent in Okayama-ben, I had a native speaker of standard Japanese read the same
53
EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - Wintersentences written in Okayama-ben to see whether they could produce the same accent. The results
were rather interesting as the speaker was able to produce the -toru form of all the verbs correctly
but when it came to the -yooru form, there were some inaccuracies. Despite being Heiban,
Atamadaka or Atamadaka, all verbs in the imperfect form were read with a down-step on the third
to last mora. In the case of verbs that were originally Heiban, this is the correct pitch accent,however with Nakadaka and Atamadaka verbs, using the same pitch accent pattern makes theaccent incorrect. I think it may be possible that the speaker may have been influenced by thepotential form of verbs in Japanese. For example, tabeyou (let’s eat) as it shares similar
pronunciation to the -yooru form. This means that native speakers of Okayama-ben have a natural
understanding the unique set of pitch accent patterns that exist in the dialect, which a speaker ofstandard Japanese is unable to recreate.
Conclusion
Pitch accent plays a large role in spoken Japanese and the patterns vary depending on
dialect, really adding flavour to the flow of Japanese speech. Dialects like Okayama-ben havegreat changes in pitch accent when conjugating verbs into the imperfect form. Looking at theimperfect form’s pitch accent changes really shows how interesting and important pitch accent is
in Japanese. The common saying that ‘Japanese is a flat language’ can also be seen as incorrectwhen examining the structure of pitch accent, and I believe that proper pitch accent knowledge
should become part of Japanese language education.

Reference:- Akamatsu, T 1997, 'Japanese Phonetics, Theory and Practice', Journal of the Phonetic Society, vol.
2, no. 1, pp. 89-92.
- Kubozono, H 2012, 'Varieties of pitch accent systems in Japanese', Elsevier, vol. 122, no. 13, pp.
1395-1414.
- NHK 1995, 'NHK nihongo hatsuon akusento jiten kaiteishinpan [Japanese pronunciation and accent
dictionary revised publicaition]', in NH Kyōkai (ed.) Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai Tokyo.

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年 度 - WinterMotivation in English Acquisition Among Japanese
日本人の英語習得へのモチベーション

Michael Quitugua マイケル・キトゥグァ
University of Guam (Guam)

日本人が英語を学ぶ動機は何ですか？ 私のエッセイの焦点は、内部と外部の 2 つの主要な動機です。 人々は英語を勉強するさまざまな理由を持っていますが、ほとんどは個
人的な利益のために、または将来の仕事を得るために、内部の動機がわずかに普及しています。 日本人は英語の価値を知っていますが、スキルが全国的に不足しているということは、やる気が中から低であることを示唆しています。
What types of motivations do Japanese have when learning a foreign language? The aimof my paper is to determine between Intrinsic (internal) and Extrinsic (external) based motivations
have a greater manifestation on the English language learning process in relation to native
Japanese speakers. Within those types of motivations I aim to discover which specific reasons are
driving Japanese speakers to learn English and what can be done to help facilitate the progress
towards that goal.
First, what exactly is motivation? “Motivation is mostly understood as the inner driveof a person to carry out certain activities” (Solodkova et al., 2017). Motivation can be divided into
two main areas, external (extrinsic) and internal (intrinsic). First, external motivation is the resultof an external stimulus, which is embodied in the requirements of the society, the state, theeducational institution, the employer, the family, which are the so-called social motives. Externalmotivation can be further divided into two varieties: first is broad social motivation which is a
civil duty to one’s country, teacher, group, or knowledge of a foreign language to appease a future
employer, and second is narrowly personal, such as the opportunity to work for a foreign company,
or participation in international forums and trainings. Internal motivation comes from the desire
to study a particular field of knowledge based on one’s personal interest, motivation for selfactualization and self-realization, and satisfaction of cognitive needs. Internal motivation also has
three varieties. First is communicative where one converses with people from different cultures,
improvement of knowledge in certain subjects, and traveling. Second linguistic, such as when one
tries to master new speech patterns, expressions, and vocabulary. Finally instrumental, where one
tries to increase their knowledge of a foreign language through additional classes or language
courses and clubs (Grigoryan, 1979).
In an article from Japan Today, as of 2014 Japan ranked 26th of 60 countries tested
according to the English Proficiency Index or EPI. Although Japan is among the wealthiest
countries in the world, other less developed nations are making greater strides in this area. If
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - Winterwealth of a country is not the issue, what reason is there for this lack of progress and interest in
learning English and what are the governments efforts to take on this issue?
The importance of English is reflected in the Japanese government’s efforts to improveforeign language learning. Since 2011, learning English starting from 5th grade has been
mandatory. By the time the student graduates from high school they will have accumulated about
seven years of English Education. Prior to this standardization of instruction, English education
was supplemented by cram schools, which took up the students extra time and energy, sometimes
giving students a negative attitude toward this skill. This mostly involuntary learning could be afactor influencing a lack of enthusiasm. This is not surprising since almost all types of lessons are
grade based and have academic consequences if failed. The added pressure gives a bad taste to
the experience and thought of English learning.
According to Reesor (2003) there has been a prevailing attitude among Japanese
speakers that they are for one reason or another, poor English speakers and more importantly
believe that this situation cannot or is hard to change. This attitude is mirrored in the interviews
and previous surveys given to students by Lcafe. A majority of the students believe they will
become good at English in three or more years, and some have no idea or expectation of when
they may achieve their desired level of proficiency. Although Japanese culture emphasizes or
encourages modestly of skill, even in anonymous surveys Japanese students still underestimate
their English abilities. A common trend is to immediately admit they are not yet good, but thismay in some way be detrimental to their progress. By not acknowledging how far they have comeEnglish learners may not associate achievement with the process of learning. According toGardner & Lambert (1972) the learners attitude towards their target foreign language and theculture of that target language community play a critical role in language learning motivation. So
it is not surprising that the difficulty perceived by some language learners somewhat affects theirmotivation and in turn their output.
Because of globalization and the interconnectedness of Japan with the west, acquiring
sufficient English reading and conversation skills are highly advantageous in a competitive world.
Many jobs deal with foreigners, especially in larger cities, and with Japan’s rise in the marketingof the country, many are traveling to parts previously not known for tourism. For businesses,
having the capability to cater to new customers adds both the possibility of growth and security
in new markets. With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics approaching, a record amount of English
speakers are expected to flood to Japan. Now more than ever are people with English abilities indemand. This rising need is being recognized among language learners and employers and willcontinue even after the Olympic events have commenced. With the acquisition of foreign
language skills, one’s opportunities for employment, and later pay raises, are vastly increased.
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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterThis is not limited to Japan, but anywhere a Japanese company may have a branch in a foreigncompany and of course any company in English speaking countries.
Foreign Language is also a tool for professional and personal activities. The mostcommon reason expressed in my interviews among students was a desire to communicate with aforeigner or stranger. Given that this is only a personal benefit, language courses and government
programs should continue their efforts that align with goals that best drive the learners motivations.
Many students that were interviewed, especially ones in graduate school or planning to attend
have explicitly expressed that English is necessary to their success. They in some ways have no
choice but to become proficient, since a majority of the research papers they read are entirely inEnglish as well as the conferences they attend are either in the United States or in other westerncountries. One participant remarked that one conference they attended was in Paris, France but
was conducted entirely in English. The use of English in the academic realm is one of its main
tools of communication, and its universal use in this respect demands that those who wish to
pursue this route attain a level of comprehension proficiency slightly above average so as toexplain in intricate detail theirs findings or explanations as well as esoteric concepts andvocabulary.

Internal vs. External
Motivations

The main methods used in my research was a questionnaire
survey as well as personal interviews. There were two typesof questions in my survey which included an open questions

44

which allowed them to state their purpose for learning English

56

and closed questions requiring them to choose a ‘yes’ or ‘no’answer. The survey was conducted both in person on paper aswell as an online version.

Internal

External

Again the aim was to determine which type of motivation prevailed, either internal orexternal. The questionnaire contained 10 questions. Eight of those were yes or no and weredivided into internal type and external type motivation questions but were not labeled on thesurvey. Examples of internal motivation type questions were: ‘Do you like to learn new English
grammar or words?’; and ‘Do you learn English to learn about foreign cultures?’. Examples ofexternal type motivation questions were: ‘Did you mainly learn English to pass a test?’; and ‘Did
you learn English to make your parents happy?’.
Of the 13 respondents who completed the questionnaire, 33 of their responses in the yesor no questions agreed with the internal motivation type, while in comparison 26 of their responses
agreed with external type motivations. Percentage wise 56 percent of the total
57
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - Winterresponses were internal versus 44 percent which were external. This slight lean towards internalmotivations signals a personal impulse as well as a realization of the significance of English
learning for their personal needs and future professional activities. The tendency toward internalmotivations was not however an overwhelming majority. This may hint at the communal aspectof Japanese society such as the need to please one’s parents and seniors, or just to fit in with one’ssocial group, as many respondents indicated that their peers influenced them to study English.
In conclusion, although many Japanese know the value of English language acquisition
and the benefits to their future endeavors, they face hurdles that are sometimes expressed by theattitudes of other people in their society, such as the tendency to assume English is harder than it
seems or that it will take countless years to learn. Given the prevalence of internal motivations,
governments and language courses should include efforts that align with inherent goals such as
making opportunities for the creation of friendship between people of western speaking countries.
Hopefully in the future, the influx of foreigners and the opportunities for language interaction will
create a catalyst that re-energizes and motivates Japanese to learn English.

Reference:- Tarver, E. (2019, August 24). 11 Types of Motivation: What They Are & How to Use Them 2019.
Retrieved from https://www.evantarver.com/types-of-motivation/.
- Solodkova, I., Grigorieva, E., Ismagilova, L. and Polyakova, O. (2017). What Drives Students ofVocational Training Program? An Investigation on the Significance of Foreign Language Acquisition.
Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 6(6), p.96.
- Chilingaryan, Kamo. (2015). MOTIVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING.
10.5593/SGEMSOCIAL2015/B12/S3.085.
- Reesor, M. (2003). Japanese Attitudes to English: Towards an Explanation of Poor Performance.
Retrieved from https://www.nucba.ac.jp/themes/s_cic@cic@nucba/pdf/njlcc052/06REESOR.PDF.
- Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second-language learning.
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04298a&AN=ocean.24955&site=eds-li
ve- Grigoryan, S. T. (1979). On the question of the correlation of needs and motivation of students inthe study of a foreign language. Age features of the cognitive activity of schoolchildren and students.
Moscow.
- Japan Today. (n.d.). Japan ranks 26th of 60 countries in global English proficiency. Retrieved fromhttps://japantoday.com/category/national/japan-ranks-26th-of-60-countries-in-global-english-profici
ency-index

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EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - Winter

59
EPOK Research Project 2019 年度 - WinterEPOK Research Project2019 年 度 - Winter

岡山大学グローバル人材育成院
Institute of Global Human Resource Development
Okayama University〒700-8530 岡山市北区津島中 2-1-1

Tsushimanaka 2-1-1, Okayama, Japan

epok-inbound1@adm.okayama-u.ac.jp
http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp

Designed by Alberto Forneris