教員の海外派遣に関する派遣期間中の教育研究活動実績報告書
Report of Educational/Research Activities of Visiting Faculty (Outbound)
I．派遣教員に関する情報 / Details of Visiting Faculty Member
派遣教員氏名/ Name of Visiting
トマス・P・ギル
Faculty Member
本学での所属機関
国際学部国際キャリア学科/Affiliation at MGU
派遣先機関
ホープ・カレッジ/ Hosting Institution

所属機関での職位/ Position at MGU
派遣期間/ Visiting Period

教授
２０２１年８月９日～１１月２９日

Ⅱ．派遣期間中の教育研究活動実績 / Educational or Research Activities of the Visiting Period※書ききれない場合は別紙に記入の上添付ください。Should you need more space, please attach the additional sheet of paper.

教育研究活動の概略/ Brief Statement ofEducational andResearch Activities

秋学期前半週二回の８０分クラスを担当した。
ホープの社会学部の教員の講座でゲスト発表した。
シカゴ、ロサンジェルスでフィールドワークを行った。

科目名/Title of the Course

1

SOC205 Contemporary Japanese Society
開講場所・曜時限 Class Information (VanderWerf 238, 水・金、12:00～1:20)
科目名/Title of the Course

担当科目/ Teaching Courses

2
開講場所・曜時限 Class Information (※シラバスを添付ください。

)

科目名/Title of the Course

Please attach the course 3syllabus.

開講場所・曜時限 Class Information ()科目名/Title of the Course

4
開講場所・曜時限 Class Information ()ホープの社会学部の教員の講座にゲスト発表者を４回した。
“Purity and Danger in Japanese Religion and Everyday Life”という公開講
その他の教育研究活動
義を行った（１０月２８日）。
/ Other Educational
and Research Activities UC サンタバーバラで“Sudden Exile, Sudden Wealth: Fukushima’s Nuclear
Aristocracy in Exile”という公開講義を行った（１１月１７日）。
シカゴとロサンゼルスでホームレス調査を行った。

“A Report on my experience as a guest lecturer at Hope College, fall semester 2021”
Tom Gill
1. Period of stayMy wife and I arrived in Holland, Michigan on August 9, 2021. The fall semester started on August 29,
and I taught my first class on September 1. I had been informed in advance that the course I was contracted
to teach, SOC205 Contemporary Japanese Society, was a half-semester course, meeting twice a week for
80 minutes with the final class on October 15. (The Hope timetable has two patterns: 2x80” classes a week,and 3x50” classes a week.) I will admit that I was surprised when I first heard that I only had to teach forhalf a semester; I had been prepared to teach a full semester when I applied for the position. I timed myreturn for November 29, which left me with plenty of time for grading and some research.
2. Teaching duties
The class I taught had only six students enrolled in it. It would appear the main reason for the small number
was that one of the two weekly classes clashed with an advanced Japanese language course, which
unfortunately meant that most of the students with a keen interest in Japan were unable to attend. Coupledwith the fact that it was only a half-semester course, this meant that the teaching load was very light. I did
my best to give value for money, giving one-on-one personal tutorials to all the students and writing
extensive comments in their essays. I also organized informal tutorials with the students on the advanced
Japanese course who were unable to take my course.
In future, the International Center and Hope’s administration should probably discuss the matter ofhalf-semester vs. full-semester courses, and we should perhaps remind the Hope side to avoid timetable
clashes like the one I experienced.
This was the only slightly regrettable aspect of my reception at Hope. In every other respect, my visit
was excellently planned and supported. I especially want to put on record my gratitude to Debra
Swanson, chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Work; to Amy (Otis) Quincey, senior directorof the Fried Center for Global Engagement; and to Jasmin Lowell, who went out of her way to look after
my wife and myself.
3. Other educational activities
In addition to my own course, I also did guest lectures on four other courses, adding a Japanese angle togeneral social science courses which were mainly focused on the USA. I did a public lecture on Thursday
October 28, entitled “Purity and Danger in Japanese Religion and Everyday Life.” About thirty faculty
and students attended. I also attended departmental meetings, which typically took about one hour but
were held twice a month, listened to other professors’ presentations, and made comments at a student
poster session. I participated in a fieldtrip to study ethnic minority groups in Chicago. I observed “ThePull,” a 120-year-old Hope College tradition, an unorthodox and grueling three-hour tug of war, and wrote
a paper about it which I plan to publish. After my teaching duties ended, I also made a trip to California
and made a guest lecture at UC Santa Barbara on November 17, entitled “Sudden Exile, Sudden Wealth:
Fukushima’s Nuclear Aristocracy in Exile.” About 20 people attended in person and a dozen more online.
4. Accommodation
We stayed at a small but comfortable furnished apartment owned by Hope and located just a five-minute
walk from the campus. We did not have to pay utility bills, and were provided with a car and two bicycles.
We had to pass two driving tests before driving the car, and were only permitted to use it within West
Michigan, but that was fine with us.
5. Coronavirus Precautions
Most classes, including mine, were being taught in the classroom, but mask use and social distancing werestrictly enforced, even in the gym. A senior member of the administration informed me that 87% of thestudent body was vaccinated. I felt it was a fairly safe environment.

Hope College
Course No. SOC 295 (CRN: 82603) Contemporary Japanese Society
Instructor: Tom Gill

SYLLABUS FOR FALL 2021
Course Description: This course will analyze a number of social and cultural phenomena in an attempt toconstruct an accurate picture of Japanese society today. It will start with four over-arching themes – ethnicity,class/status, social control, and social exchange practices. We will then explore three powerful institutions –religion, education and media. Four more classes look at social behavior through the lenses of gender,sexuality, work and play. A pair of classes on minority issues and a final one on the aging of Japanese societyround out the syllabus. This is an introductory course and does not require prior knowledge of Japan or theJapanese language. Students will be expected to take an active part in class discussions and to choose a topic
related to Japanese society and prepare a presentation and term paper on that topic.
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8/31029/2039/704
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9/1406
9/16079/21089/2309
9/28

Mono-Japan,
Multi-Japan

Many writers conceptualize Japan as the archetypal‘homogeneous/monocultural society,’ in contrast to the USA as anarchetypal ‘heterogeneous/multicultural society.’ In this class I willquestion this dichotomy through a discussion of ethnic and cultural
diversity in Japan.
Class andA sister concept to the sociocultural image of the monocultural society is
statusthe socioeconomic image of Japan as a middle-class society: a capitalist
state, but one with a well-developed social welfare system in which wealthis distributed relatively fairly. Many scholars argue that this system is now
crumbling away; others question whether it was true in the first place.
Social control Japan is known for its low rates of crime and well-ordered society. Where
does that order come from? Is Japan a “control society”? If so, what is therole of hard control (police, laws, surveillance) and soft control(indoctrination, consumerism etc.)?
Exchange
In a change of focus from previous big-picture lectures, this one will focus
on personal interactions: giving/receiving, buying/selling,borrowing/lending … the fundamental social transactions that groundsocial interaction. Perhaps this micro-level analysis will add depth to thebig picture of Japanese society.
Religion
Japan has thousands of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, yet surveys
find a strong majority of Japanese call themselves “non-religious.” This
class will explore this apparent paradox, analyzing Japan’s two entwined
religious traditions and the minority religions that surround them.
Education
From kindergarten, through school to university, this class will explore thesocial effects of an education system that interestingly mixes egalitarianand hierarchical elements. The system is supposed to offer equality ofopportunity to all, but there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Media
Japan is a highly literate society and has the biggest per-capita sales ofbooks, newspapers and magazines in the world. Being a former journalist,
I take a keen interest in the print media and ways it is controlled andmanipulated. The class will also take a look at TV and the rising tide ofsocial media..
GenderThis class will tackle gender relations at home, at school, and in theworkplace. By many indicators, Japan is the most sexist society in thedeveloped world. Women are seriously under-represented in politics,
business and academia. But perhaps there are other ways to look at genderin Japan.
Sexuality
In many ways Japan displays a very conservative sexual morality: thedivorce rate is low, though rising steadily, and only 2 or 3% of children areborn out of wedlock, compared to about 40% in the US. On the other
hand, prostitution and pornography are widely accepted. As for LGBTQ
people, brutal discrimination is rare but legal recognition very low..

10
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Work

11
10/5

Play

12
10/7

Indigenousminorities

13
10/12

Burakumin

14
10/14

The agingsociety15
10/19

Studentpresentations
and finaldiscussion

Japanese workplace practices were once viewed as a model for the world
to emulate, with unusually harmonious relations between workforce andmanagement. Even today there may be some truth to that – for permanent,
full-time workers at large corporations. But there is also a strong majorityof part-time, temporary, casual, non-unionized workers outside this cozysystem. Many of them are women.
Japanese people take play almost as seriously as work. This class will lookat pro sports (baseball, sumo, soccer etc), gambling, nightlife, drinking,hobbies, etc. Drinking and gambling, in particular, are ingrained inJapanese culture and rarely viewed as pathologies, even in cases where
they probably should be. Alcoholism and compulsive gambling are major
problems but largely ignored,
A discussion of Japan’s two major indigenous minorities: the Ainu peopleof the north and Ryukyuans in the south. The northern island of Hokkaido
was once an independent Ainu nation; the southern island of Okinawa wasonce part of an independent Ryukyu nation. We will look at the colonialist
history by which these two people were absorbed into the Japanese state,
and the position of Ainu and Ryukyuan people and their culture in
Japanese society today.
Some 2-3 million descendants of an Edo-era outcast group, still subject todiscrimination, form a cultural minority whose definition is still hotly
debated today. The group is associated with death-pollution, throughstigmatized occupations such as animal slaughtering and, by extension,
leather-working. The topic is so taboo that it rarely gets into the media andis not well understood by mainstream Japanese people.
Japan has very long life expectancy and a very low birth rate. Old people
are a growing part of society. This class will analyze the social
implications of this megatrend, as well as exploring Japanese attitudes toold age and death.
Each student will be expected to choose a topic to research and in the finalclass we will listen to the presentations and discuss them

Text book: Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society. Fifth Edition (Cambridge University Press,2020)
Evaluation: Attendance/participation, 20%. Presentation: 30%. Term paper, 50%. Due Monday November 1
at 23:59.
Term paper: 2,500 words + 10 references + Presentation: Min. 10 minutes.