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GLOBALIZING JAPAN:
ISSUES IN LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS AND JAPANESE SOCIETY

A Collection of Papers from the Japan Studies Association of Canada(JSAC) 2016 Annual Meeting held at the University of British Columbia.

Edited byDavid W. Edgington (University of British Columbia)© 2017 Japan Studies Association of Canada

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURESLIST OF CONTRIBUTORSEDITOR’S PREFACE
1. STANDARDIZATION VS. INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

6

2. THE ROLE OF VIEWPOINT IN WRITTEN NARRATIVES IN JAPANESE: EXPLORING A
COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC APPROACH

16

3. TITLE: THE POSTHUMAN IN GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ JAPANESE MANGA AND ANIME—WHAT
DO SEX, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY MEAN TO POSTHUMANS?

29

4. AFTER “RECONSTRUCTION” IN DISASTER AREAS: COMPARING KOTAKI IN SAKAE
VILLAGE, NAGANO PREFECTURE, AND GENKAI ISLAND IN FUKUOKA PREFECTURE
41
5. EXPERIENCING JAPANESE BUSINESS: CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES FOR AN
UNDERGRADUATE TRAVEL STUDY PROGRAM

52

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.0 Contrasts Between Positivism and Post-positivism

10

Table 2.0 Expressions of viewpoint

19

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.0 Objective Construal and Subjective Construal

JSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

24

1

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORSTeri Jane Bryant, Associate Professor Emerita, Haskayne School of Business, University ofCalgary
Kiwa Nakano, Professor, Department of Business Management, Daito Bunka University
Yuki Ohsawa, Sessional Instructor, Department of Asian Studies, University of British
Columbia
Norio Ota Professor and Coordinator, Japanese Studies and Korean Studies, Department of
Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University
Leighton Wilks, Instructor, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
Noriko Yabuki-Soh, Associate Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and
Linguistics, York University

JSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

2

EDITOR’S PREFACEThe five papers contained in this publication were presented at the October 2016
Annual Meeting of the Japan Studies Association of Canada (JSAC) held at the University of
British Columbia (UBC). The theme of the conference was “past, present and future
representations of a ‘global Japan’ and what might be learned by situating pre-modern,modern and contemporary post-modern case studies of Japan in a global context”.
This topic infers that there is merit in looking at Japanese experience in a range ofsubjects and making systematic comparison with trends going on elsewhere. Certainly there
has been a growing interest in Japan beyond specialized researchers and students. Japaneseculture is now a frequent element of courses in areas as diverse as communication and media,
business management, comparative popular culture, cinema, global cultural economy andgender studies. Contemporary Japan has become a popular backdrop to many futuristic
western narratives in film, science fiction, anime, television, and music videos. The papers
herein address this idea of a “global Japan” through their focus on aspects of Japan’scontributions to language education and linguistics, gender and sexuality in contemporary
media, response to disasters, as well as international business studies.
The opening paper by Norio Ota questions the value of adopting a “standard language
acquisition” in language education. As a veteran Japanese language instructor he is critical of
the approach of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) andthe Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to second language
learning, both of which emphasize increased standardization in textbooks and examinations.
However, as he argues, the movement towards standardization - involving a centralized
curriculum and instruction strategy - reduces teachers’ autonomy and decontextualizes
education from concrete conditions in the classroom that impact on language learning. Ota
uses a “positivism/post-positivism” framework to analyze Japanese language teaching,especially the traditional dependence on generic “one-size-fits-all” textbooks. He favors more
student-oriented and content-driven approaches to studying language using new information
technology; in particular, attractively designed self-study with on-line modules and materials.
He argues that “encouraging students to become autonomous learners is a key to successful
language learning”. Ota also notes that organizations such as the Japan Foundation have also
unfortunately focused on standard approaches when promoting Japanese language education
outside of Japan, and he advocates that they should support more innovative approaches by
local teaching professionals in overseas countries.
Noriko Yabuki-Soh’s paper is also concerned with language learning in a global era.
It focuses on comparisons between Japanese and English language narratives from theviewpoint of the narrator and how certain given events are told. She contends that in the
global era it is important to consider language education as “a cross-cultural experience inwhich learners are encouraged to notice the similarities and differences between their first
language and the target language through experiencing the cognitive stance taken by speakersof those languages”. Through examination of specific sentences in various novels and theirtranslations she demonstrates important nuances between Japanese and English, especially in
how the viewpoint of the novels’ characters is described. A well-known example ofadditional nuances required in Japanese is the need to distinguish between intricacies of“giving” and “receiving” and the distinction between the verbs “ageru” (I give you this) andJSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

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3

“kureru” (he gave me this).
The next paper by Yuki Ohsawa deals with science-fiction Japanese manga and anime
and their contribution to questioning normative categories of gender and sexuality.
Specifically, she argues that popular Japanese science fiction have conceived the possibilityof futuristic “posthuman” characters, such as hybrid robots and cyborgs, which depict“technologically-enhanced bodies” and gender ambiguity. To illustrate this, Ohsawa draws
on Judith Butler’s “queer theory” and examines post-human characters in Shimizu Reiko’s
manga – “Milky Way” and “Angels’ Evolution Theory”- as well as Oshii Mamoru’s anime
film “Ghost in the Shell”. For instance, in Shimizu’s manga stories, the character “Elena” hasan immortal robot body and is neither male nor female, but a character who loves a malehuman. This manga story revolves around the dilemma of how a robot can express emotional
and physical love. In Oshii’s anime film “Ghost in the Shell” the story depicts a femalecybernetic government agent, Major Kusanaki Motoko. Ohsawa’s analysis of this character
reveals that Major Motoko has a female body, created by male scientists, but no distinct
female gender behavior traits. Indeed, her language is more masculine. Nonetheless, her
relationship with a male-shaped cyborg called Bato may be seen as heterosexual. Ohsawa
concludes that these characters show how imaginative Japanese science-fiction stories haveintroduced futuristic and alternative conceptions of sexuality and gender that exceed the
traditional dualistic female/male categories.
Kiwa Nakano’s research turns to the growing policy issue of how best to reconstructcommunities affected by natural disasters. This is a now a global problem. Many population
settlements in areas vulnerable to events such as earthquakes, floods and hurricanes often
reap heavy losses in human life and property. Using case studies from Genkai Island inFukuoka Prefecture, and the Kotaki district of Sakae Village in Nagano Prefecture, she makes
the important observation that following disaster, culture and values can be significant indetermining reconstruction strategies at the local community level. In the case of Genkai
Island, the need to arrange new property boundaries and new roads became a major issue inthe reconstruction process. After its severe damage from a 2005 earthquake, the 700 or so
residents evacuated to the mainland but were able to return and restart their lives sooner than
expected. Based on her field-work, Nakano argues they reached consensus on rebuilding,especially the layout of new roads on the islands, due to the very close ties that existed
between residents and households. In the case of Kotaki, she shows how the residents in thismountain village community made positive plans for reconstruction and revitalizing after amajor earthquake in 2011. This was done by restarting rice farming and establishing a uniquebrand for their produce in the Tokyo market, as well as inviting outsiders to come to Kotakiin order to learn about their traditional agricultural lifestyle. Nakano concludes that bothcommunities were in part able to take advantages of natural disasters to rebuild more
comfortable daily lives by taking into account local culture and history.
The final paper in this collection is by Leighton Wilks and Teri Jane Bryant andconcerns the role that overseas field trips can play in the internationalization of undergraduate
education. In this study they reflect on how they have developed a short-term study abroad
program at the University of Calgary focused on Japanese business in Tokyo, Kyoto andOsaka. Their report covers the various logistical issues they have had to address, as well as anumber of course content and course delivery issues pertinent to designing the field course.
For instance, the public transport system in Japan was chosen for moving students aroundbetween factory and office visits, rather than a private charter bus. Prior to their visit to Japan

JSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

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students will take two business and management courses that focus on Japanese topics. Whenin Japan the students have to keep a blog-type journal aimed at reflecting on what theyexperience and what they have learned. Apart from visits to a number of business operations,the students will also have time to see sites of cultural of historical importance to deepen theirunderstanding of Japanese culture. In all, the authors hope that this short-term study abroad
program will contribute to the internationalization of their business school and university,
foster an interest in Japan, and promote Japanese/Canadian joint ventures.
The variety of topics and research methods in these five papers reflect the diversity of
JSAC members and our commitment to a strong multi-disciplinary approach to fostering thestudy of Japan in Canada. I would like to thank Natasha Fox for her help in editing andformatting of the papers, and also Professor Shigenori Matsui and his organizing committee
for their hard work in arranging the 2016 Conference at UBC. I also wish to acknowledge
and give thanks to the Japan Foundation for their generous financial support of this project.
David W. Edgington
University of British Columbia
Past-President, JSAC

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1. STANDARDIZATION VS.
INNOVATION IN LANGUAGEEDUCATION
Norio Ota
Professor and Coordinator, Japanese Studies and Korean Studies, Department of
Languages,
Literatures and Linguistics, York University
E-mail: nota@yorku.ca

ABSTRACTIn language education, efforts have been made to set up a standard based on the thenlanguage learning and teaching paradigm. The Communicative paradigm has been dominant
in the past forty years in Second Language Acquisition. The American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages Inc. and the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment are two such attempts to standardize what
constitutes communicative competence. The Japan Foundation (2010) has been developing
the JF Standard for Japanese Language Education 2010 by adopting the latter as its basis. Ota(2014) questions the validity of such standardization theoretically, pedagogically,
strategically and based on its impact on education.
This paper focuses on the process of developing advanced and higher level courses
and instructional materials, and claims that such a standardization process and approach
might turn out to be not only futile, but also harmful.
Keywords: Second Language Acquisition (SLA), American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages Inc. (ACTFL), Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR), JF Standard for Japanese Language
Education, globalization and standardization, critical pedagogy, paradigm shifts in language
education, positivism vs. post-positivism, abolishing textbooks, washback, modular-synergy
approach, autonomous learner, educationalizing language education, globalizing education,use of technology.

1. INTRODUCTION

In language education, efforts have been made to set up a standard based on the thenlanguage learning and teaching paradigm. The Communicative paradigm has been dominant
in the past forty years in Second Language Acquisition. The American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages Inc. (ACTFL) and the Common European Framework of
JSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

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6Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) are two such attempts tostandardize what constitutes communicative competence. The Japan Foundation (2010) has
developed the Japan Foundation Standard for Japanese Language Education 2010 byadopting the latter as its basis. Ota (2014) questions the validity of such standardization
theoretically, pedagogically, strategically and based on its impact on education.
This paper focuses on the process of developing advanced and higher level courses
and instructional materials, and claims that such a standardization process and approach
might turn out to be not only futile, but also harmful.

2. GLOBALIZATION AS A FORCE OF STANDARDIZATION?

A tug-of-war still appears to be going strong between innovation and standardizationin language education, although it seems that the latter strengthens its influence alongsideglobalization and conservatism. One such global force is the Common European Framework(CEFR: Council of Europe 2001). The largest agent that has been promoting CEFR for
Japanese language education is the Japan Foundation (2010), which has established the JF
Standard for Japanese-Language Education 2010. This can be viewed in the context of the
JSAC 2016 conference’s theme, “Globalizing Japan”. Even in a cursory observation,
adopting the framework born in a different linguistic environment poses a serious concern,
however.
By way of example, Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2013) quote Paradowski (2007):….. the development and promotion of the Common European Framework (CEFR:
Council of Europe 2001) has influenced thinking about language education. Amongother things, the Council of Europe has encouraged Plurilingualism (an individual’s
language proficiency in several languages). Use of CEFR promotes the view that mostlearners are not complete tabulae rasae. They already have some degree ofcompetence in another language or languages, and teachers should take advantage ofthis (Paradowski 2007).
Many learners of Japanese in Asian and North American countries do not havecompetence in another language or languages. Thus, transplanting this framework may not besuitable for such monolingual learners.

3. CRITICISM AGAINST STANDARDIZATION

Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2013) also quote Larsen-Freeman and Freeman (2008,
168) to criticize the move to standardization in the field of language learning and teaching inreference to critical pedagogy as follows.
It is clear that universal solutions that are transposed articulately, and often
accompanied by calls for increased standardization, and which ignore indigenous
conditions, the delivery of learners, and the agency of teachers are immanent in amodernism that no longer applies, if it ever did (Larsen-Freeman and Freeman 2008:
168).
Quoting Akbari (2007):

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7…., we should also acknowledge that standardized examinations and textbooks,
which require adherence to even the smallest details through their teacher guides,
mean that, in reality, teachers are not always able to exercise the methodologicalchoices they would wish to make (Akbari 2007).
Wills and Sandholtz (2009) pinpoints the topic of this presentation succinctly as follows:
In response to state-level test-based accountability and the federal No Child Left
Behind Act, school administrators increasingly view centralized curriculum andprescribed instructional strategies as the most direct means of increasing student
performance. This movement toward standardization reduces teachers' autonomy andcontrol over their classroom practices. The consequences of test-based accountability
on teacher practice are often conceptualized as a tension between teacher
professionalism and standardization.
While this paper deals with elementary level education, the essence of the argument
seems relevant to every level of education and every subject.
For instance, Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (op. cit.) quoting Richards (2008):
As Richards (2008: 164) notes: “While traditional views of teacher-learning often
viewed the teachers’ task as the application of theory to practice, more recent views
see teacher-learning as the theorization of practice.” Rather than consumers of theory,
then, teachers are seen to be both practitioners and theory builders (Prabhu 1992;
Savignon 2007). Given this view of teachers as theory builders, teacher educationmust serve two functions: “It must teach the skills of reflectivity and it must provide
the discourse and vocabulary that can serve participants in renaming their experience”(Freeman, 2002: 11).
Regarding criticisms of the concept of language teaching methods itself:(1) These criticisms deserve consideration. It is possible that a particular method may
be imposed on teachers by others. However, these others are likely to be disappointed
if they hope that mandating a particular method will lead to standardization. For weknow that teaching is more than following a recipe. Any method is going to be
shaped by a teacher’s own understanding, beliefs, style, and level of experience.
Teachers are not mere conveyer belts delivering a language through inflexible
prescribed and proscribed behaviors (Larsen-Freeman, 1991); they are professionals
who can, in the best of all worlds, make their own decisions – informed by their own
experience, the findings from research, and the wisdom of practice accumulated by
the profession (see, for example, Kumaravadivelu, 1994).
(2) Furthermore, a method may be decontextualized. How a method is implemented
in the classroom is going to be affected not only by who the teacher is, but also by
who the students are, what they and the teacher expect as appropriate social roles, theinstitutional constraints and demands, and factors connected to the wider sociocultural context in which the instruction takes place. Even the “right” method will notcompensate for inadequate conditions of learning, or overcome sociopoliticalinequities. Further, decisions that teachers make are often affected by exigencies in
the classroom rather than by methodological considerations. Thus, saying that a

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8particular method is practiced certainly does not give us the whole picture of what ishappening in the classroom. Since a method is more abstract than a teaching activity,
it is not surprising that teachers think in terms of activities rather than methodologicalchoices when they plan their lessons.
(3) What critics of language teaching methods have to offer is important. Admittedly,at this point in the evolution of our field, there is little empirical support for aparticular method, although there may be some empirical support in second language
acquisition research for methodological principles (Long, 2009). Further, what someof the methods critics have done is to raise our awareness about the importance of
critical pedagogy.

4. PARADIGM SHIFTS AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Language education has gone through several major paradigm shifts in terms ofteaching methodology. Each corresponds to a specific linguistic theory. In each paradigm theinitial impetus of a new approach is applied fully to actual situations and gets modified basedon the trial and error basis. When this paradigm becomes stable and popular, there appears astrong tendency and demand for standardizing it based on which courses, instructional
materials, and teaching methods are developed, designed and modified.








Grammar-Translation Method
Direct Method
Audiolingual Approach
Cognitive-Code Approach
Functional-Notional Approach
Natural Approach
Communicative Approach

There have been other approaches proposed and practiced.
The Silent way
Suggestopedia
Community Language Learning
Total Physical Response(Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2013, 13-130)
5. POWERFUL INFLUENCE OF STANDARDIZATIONThe Audiolingual Approach, for example, dominated the first half of the previous
century and standardized foreign language learning and teaching all over the world. The
Mim-Mem method based on pattern drills dominated the world of foreign language education.
It was standardized and became stagnant until Noam Chomsky challenged and criticized its
theoretical background and effectiveness. The Japanese language had been taught based on
the same structuralist approach for a long time and probably is taught even now in many partsof the world. During that period the Japan Foundation “standardized” Japanese language
education, based on the then-dominant language theory and practice, published instructional
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9material, sent language teaching professionals all over the world to spread its teaching
method, and invited trainees to Japan to educate them. In the meantime the paradigms had
shifted and various new approaches emerged as listed above. In my course called “Teachingof Japanese as a Foreign Language”, which was based on the communicative approach, I
used the video-tape created by the Japan Foundation on the communicative approach as acase of non-communicative approach. It was painful to see these materials were circulated allover the world as the “standard” of the Japanese language education at the time.
Jacobs and Farrell (2001) observe the following paradigm shift cutting acrosslanguage education.
Table 1.0 Contrasts between Positivism and Post-positivism

POSITIVISM

POST-POSITIVISM

Emphasis on parts anddecontextualization

Emphasis on whole andcontextualization

Emphasis on separation

Emphasis on integration

Emphasis on the general

Emphasis on the specific

Consideration only of objective
and the quantifiable

Consideration also of subjective and thenon-quantifiable

Reliance on experts and outsider
knowledge—researcher asexternal

Consideration also of the “average”
participant and insider knowledge—
researcher as internal

Focus on control

Focus on understanding

Top-down

Bottom-up

Attempt to standardize

Appreciation of diversity

Focus on the product

Focus on the process as wellI find this observation on paradigm shift from positivism to post-positivism
particularly insightful. In the former, decontexualization and generalization are reflected in
textbooks and standard testing. Research on second language learning and acquisition
focused only on observable and quantifiable data for a long time, ignoring unquantifiable data
as subjective. There has been a huge gap between experts, researchers, and practicing
language professionals. The top-down approach was evident in managing and controlling theclass and materials. Results became the most important objective, which was believed to beacquired by standardization. On the contrary, in the post-positivism paradigm uniqueness ofcontext, learners, groups are emphasized more and diversity is appreciated and thus,
understanding, rather than control, is focused on. Language professionals are encouraged to
become researchers in their own right.
Unfortunately, in my view, many language programs still adhere to the positivism
camp, mainly because they are based on the standards established within the positivism
framework. In current language education it is safe to say that the trend is eclecticism andcritical pedagogy with IT enhancement. However, the communicative approach has beenaround for at least three decades; IT emerged in the 1970s and has been growing very rapidly.
The communicative approach has been explored and experimented extensively in language
education, but professionals have never agreed on what the communicative approach entails,

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10nor whether or not it is actually effective in language learning. In my observation thecommunicative approach has not impacted language education very strongly, mainly because
the environment for language teaching and learning has not improved. The culprit of this is
the textbook-centered approach, as extensively discussed by Ota (2010).
The Communicative Approach can be regarded as an open-ended comprehensive
compilation of language teaching strategies, or some sort of guiding principle.

6. STANDARDIZATION AS A LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR APPROACH?

Standards for Foreign Language Learning (American Council on the Teaching of
Foreign Languages Inc., 1996) is an attempt to standardize foreign language learning in the
US. CEFR is a European standard for foreign language teaching and learning. The JF
Standard is for Japanese Language Education for non-native speakers of Japanese, not forforeign language education for Japanese. ACTFL published the ACTFL Proficiency
Guidelines (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Inc., 2012). All theseframeworks and standards seem to have been proposed to ensure the fundamental
requirements for foreign language education.

7. INNOVATION

7.1 ABOLISHING THE TEXTBOOK-CENTRED APPROACH
Textbooks are decontextualized entities based on standardized views about language
education. The purpose of writing a textbook is to create one that fits every situation. Most of
the local elements are removed to be more abstract, universal and flexible, so in its own rightteachers are supposed to exercise their creativity and ingenuity in teaching, but in reality mostteachers and courses are controlled by the textbooks, and critical pedagogy goes out of thewindow. Stagnation in language education sets in when everything becomes standardized,
teaching and even learning become the matter of applying standardized norms, theories andmethods, strategies and approaches to classroom instruction and activities.
7.2 CREATING LOCALIZED MATERIALS






Content oriented
Self-study
Personalized
Attractive
Creative

Language teaching professionals always know that generic textbooks are not suitable
for local language teaching. Learners suffer greatly from uninteresting and non-characteristic
instructional materials.
7.3 COMPREHENSIVE WASHBACK APPROACH

Testing
Assessment

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11





Curriculum
Materials
Activities

In Ota (2016) a strong version of “washback effects” was suggested to enhance andhelp learners to improve their study method and strategies, not only through testing andassessment, but also curriculum, instructional materials, and activities.
7.4 MODULAR-SYNERGY APPROACH

Speaking
Listening
Reading
Writing

The Modular approach has been implemented to enhance synergistic effects inlanguage learning. This approach is ideal for TEL in foreign language learning and teaching.
7.5 CREATING TRULY AUTONOMOUS LEARNERS


Self-study materialInternet
Game, anime, manga

With IT, learners can grasp various aspects of the target language through the Internet,
various media and popular culture. Encouraging students to become autonomous learners is a
key to successful language learning. Online courses have made it possible to develop selfstudy materials. Learners may not function well in a standardized approach.
7.6 EDUCATIONALIZING LANGUAGE EDUCATION






Personal contact
Consultation
Advising
Group study
Involvement

It is also important to encourage both teachers and learners to explore various
possibilities in language learning and teaching field.
7.7 GLOBALIZING EDUCATION
Language teaching professionals should look into possible initiatives in enhancing
their field by going global. In Ota (2010) his Cuban project is discussed as a case of technicalcooperation across borders.
7.8 USE OF TECHNOLOGYOn technology, Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (op cit.) state:

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The ongoing development of technology is another of those external influences thathas had a major impact in the field, and this is likely to increase in the future.

One of the external forces, IT, relieves teachers and learners from the constraints bystandardization. Technology has revolutionized language education in various ways.








Easier to create instructional materials by teachers
Can continue to modify them on demand
Can adopt the modular-synergy approach to enhance language acquisition
Can disseminate various materials much more easily via the Internet
Increases accessibility to the materials
Can encourage teachers to adopt critical pedagogy more easily
Can introduce local exigencies

8. CONCLUSION

From the discussion above, it is clear that the trend of standardization tends to stifle
and stagnate language education.
In order for language education to survive as an integral discipline in university
education, language professionals must adopt critical pedagogy and the post-positivism
paradigm with rigour for further innovations suggested in this paper. I have mentioned thiscriticism elsewhere, but I wish organizations like the Japan Foundation (JF), which has global
influence on Japanese language education, would focus more on innovation rather thanstandardization, and give support to localized projects and initiatives. Applying the JF
standard to teaching is NOT what true language professionals are expected to do.
It is important to note that the cycle of innovation and standardization, which can beobserved in every field, should be reexamined. Do we have to go through the stage ofstandardization to the next level of innovation? Isn’t standardization a way of maintaining thelowest common denominator?
We must scrutinize the phenomenon of globalizing Japan by the world standard. It
may kill local ingenuity, originality, and creativity.
Through 47 years of teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language experience, I now
know clearly what I have been up against – STANDARDIZATION. I have been encouraging
younger colleagues to be innovative, to be risk-takers not influenced by the traditional
approach to language teaching and learning, but there appears to be, still, a strong trend to
conform to “standard”. This is easier for both learners and teachers, but the emergence of
excellent self-taught learners indicates that standardization is not the route for excellence inlanguage proficiency.

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32, 147-86.
M. H. Long (2009) Methodological Principles for Language Teaching, in M. Long and C.
Doughty (eds.) The Handbook of Language Teaching, Malden, MA, WileyBlackwell, 373-94.
N. Ota (2010) Textbook Dominance in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, 2ndInternational Conference on “Power & Knowledge”, Tampere, Finland, September
6-8, 2010.
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______ (2014) Washback and Paradigm Shift – The Post-communicative Paradigm withTechnology, the 12th Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities,
Honolulu, Hawaii, January 10-13, 2014.
______ (2016) Washback and Paradigm Shift – The Post-communicative Paradigm withTechnology – A New Initiative in Japanese Language Education in Canada, invited
talk in Japanese at Korea University, Seoul, Korea, July 15, 2016.
J. C. Richards (2008) Second Language Teacher Education Today, RELC Journal 39(2),158-77.
S. J. Savignon (2007) Beyond Communicative Language Teaching: What’s Ahead?,
Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 207-20.
J. S. Wills and J. H. Sandholtz (2009) Constrained Professionalism: Dilemmas of Teachingin the Face of Test-Based Accountability, ERIC, Teachers College Record, 111(4),1065-1114.

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2. THE ROLE OF VIEWPOINT INWRITTEN NARRATIVES IN
JAPANESE: EXPLORING A
COGNITIVE LINGUISTICAPPROACH
Noriko Yabuki-Soh
Associate Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
York University
E-mail: nyabuki@yorku.ca

ABSTRACTThis study examines the role of “viewpoint” that appears in Japanese written narrative,
and compares this to English narratives. When telling a story, the narrator decides from whatviewpoint the given events are told, and there are preferred argument structures that may
differ between two languages in describing certain events. In contrast to English, Japanese isconsidered to be a language that tends to take a subjective stance, maintaining the viewpointcloser to the receiver of the consequence of an action. This study compared the use of
subjects and verbs related to viewpoint found in some Japanese and English literary works
and their translations. The results suggest that in Japanese texts the authors place theviewpoint on the main character of the story using giving/receiving verbs, motion verbs, andpassive sentences, while in English texts the authors tend to have the agent of an action as the
subject of a sentence and choose its verb accordingly. Based on the findings of a recent study
on the learning of the expressions of viewpoint in Japanese, pedagogical suggestions are
made as to how learners of Japanese could utilize the notion of subjective narrative viewpoint
when describing a story in their target language.
Keywords: viewpoint, cognitive stances, written narratives, Japanese and English.

1. INTRODUCTION

In this era of globalization, it is becoming increasingly important to consider language
learning as a cross-cultural experience in which learners are encouraged to notice thesimilarities and differences between their first language and the target language throughexperiencing the cognitive stances taken by the speakers of those languages. In describing a

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16story, for instance, the narrator decides from what point of view the given events are told. To
explain the concept of viewpoint, Kuno (1978; 1987) uses the metaphor of a camera angle,
with which directors would eventually decide which participant to focus on when filming ascene. A narrative point of view is an indication of “how the narrator reveals himself or
herself in the narrative world when talking to the reader” (Maynard, 1998, 151). This
includes whether to take a subjective or objective stance and, if the story involves two or
more characters, which character’s viewpoint to take. While it is the narrator’s choice as towhich viewpoint to take, there are also preferred argument structures that may differ between
English and Japanese in describing certain events. For instance, if you are lost on the street, it
would be natural to say “Where am I?” in English, as if you are objectively looking at
yourself on a map. But the most natural Japanese expression in the same situation would be
Koko wa doko desu ka “Where is this place?” Similarly, for an English sentence such as“Someone stole my wallet,” the most acceptable Japanese equivalent would be Saifu onusumaremashita “(I) had (my) wallet stolen,” which employs the passive form of a verb
(examples are from Ikegami, 2008, 2). In each sentence, the choice of structure that reflects
the narrator’s viewpoint is made based on a language-specific preference. For secondlanguage (L2) learners, making the correct choice of such structures can be a challenge.
Sentences produced by L2 learners of Japanese may include expressions that are grammaticalbut unnatural (e.g., Kare ga sore o watashi ni oshieta “He told me about it” and Dareka ga
watashi no ashi o funda “Someone stepped on my foot”). Such unnaturalness is sometimes
caused by a learner’s choice of a structure that is related to viewpoint. The present study
examines the expressions of viewpoint found in some literary texts in Japanese and English inorder to determine the similarities and differences in the use of specific linguistic forms
between the two languages. The study also discusses the pedagogical implications based on
the findings of a recent study on the expressions of viewpoint in the L2 Japanese context.

2. VIEWPOINT

2.1 CONSTRUAL AND VIEWPOINT IN JAPANESE
Based on a perspective of cognitive linguistics, Langacker (1990, 315) observes that“an expression’s meaning cannot be reduced to an objective characterization of the situation
described,” but that it is equally important to consider “how the conceptualizer chooses toconstrue the situation and portray it for expressive purposes”. In order to explain the conceptof subjective construal versus objective construal, Langacker (1990, 328) uses a pair ofstatements, shown in (1).
(1)

a. Vanessa is sitting across the table from me.
b. Vanessa is sitting across the table.

According to Langacker, while these statements both describe the same spatialconfiguration, there is a semantic contrast between them. Sentence (1a) would sound morenatural if the speaker were looking at a photograph in which he found himself and Vanessa,
while (2b) would likely be uttered when the speaker is actually sitting across the table from
Vanessa. Langacker (1990, 328) explains that (1a) “suggests a detached outlook in which the
speaker treats his own participation as being on a par with anybody else’s,” and that (1b)“comes closer to describing the scene as the speaker actually sees it”. In other words, (1a)indicates a situation with a high degree of objectivity, in which the speaker views himself
from outside the scene, while (1b) represents a situation of subjective construal, in which the
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17speaker finds himself inside the scene and therefore does not mention himself in thestatement.
Japanese is often considered to be a subjectivity-prominent language. Ikegami (2005,
138) states that “Japanese belongs to the type of language in which the ‘ego’ / ‘alter’ contrast
plays a relatively prominent role”, and he further suggests that the prototypical construal in
Japanese is to take a stance that Langacker regards as subjective construal, which is toimmerge oneself into the scene when describing the given event. Iwasaki (1993) investigated
the grammatical phenomena related to the speaker’s perspective, and stated that in Japanese
spoken discourse, the existence of the speaker is distinctly reflected in various lexical andmorphosyntactic outlets in Japanese. A number of studies also indicate that in Japanese
discourse, the narrator tends to choose one viewpoint, and that once the viewpoint isestablished, it will not be changed unless there is a major paragraph break (e.g., Ikegami,
1983; Okutsu, 1983).
2.2 FOCUS OF ATTENTION AND VIEWING POSITION
When discussing the concept of viewpoint, it is also important to separate what thecamera is focusing on from where the camera is set when filming the event. Matsuki (1992),
for instance, proposed to divide the notion of viewpoint into chūshiten “focus of attention”
and shiza “viewing position.” A focus of attention is “what” the narrator is looking at, and a
viewing position is “from where” the narrator is looking at a certain event.
The focus of attention can be identified as the subject of a sentence. For instance, it is
the agent of an action in an active sentence (e.g., the policeman in “The policeman arrested
the thief”), or the theme of an action in a passive sentence (e.g., the thief in “The thief wasarrested by the policeman”). The viewing position, on the other hand, can be determined by alinguistic device such as a donatory (giving/receiving) verb, which indicates from where thenarrator is describing the event. For instance, the Japanese donatory verb kureru “to give (tome/someone close to me)” is a unique device that implies that the giver is someone other than
the speaker and also the focus of attention, and that the receiver is the speaker (or someone
close to him or her) who is in the viewing position. In a sentence such as Ken wa imōto ni
eigo o oshiete-kureta “Ken taught my sister English,” the focus of attention is placed on Ken,
who did the favor of teaching English and is therefore the giver of the favor, and yet theviewing position is close to imōto “(my) sister,” the receiver of the favor.
Table 2.0 summarizes some expressions in Japanese that indicate the narrator’s
viewpoint, which is divided into the focus of attention and the viewing position.

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Table 2.0 Expressions of viewpoint

Donatory
verbs

EXAMPLE

FOCUS OFATTENTION

VIEWINGPOSITION

Ken ga Mari ni hon o ageta.

Kenneutral/Ken

Ken ga Mari ni hon o kureta.

Ken

Mari

Mari

Mari

Ken

speakerKenneutral/speaker

Mari

Mari

“Ken gave Mari a book.”
Mari ga Ken ni hon o moratta.
“Mari received a book from Ken.”
Motion verbs

Ken ga kita.
“Ken came.”
Ken ga itta.
“Ken went.”

Verb inpassive form

Mari ga Ken ni tasukerareta.
“Mari was rescued by Ken.”

Regarding Japanese donatory (giving/receiving) verbs, there are three alternative
ways to describe the event where the ownership of a book moved from Ken to Mari: Ken ga
Mari ni hon o ageta, Ken ga Mari ni hon o kureta “Ken gave Mari a book,” and Mari ga Kenni hon o moratta “Mari received a book from Ken.” The first two sentences share the same
focus of attention: Ken. In the first sentence, however, the event is described either from aneutral or Ken’s (the giver’s) viewing position, while in the second sentence, the same event
is described from Mari’s (the receiver’s) viewing position. In the third sentence, the focus ofattention is on Mari, and the event is also described from Mari’s viewing position. The
auxiliary verbs V-te ageru/kureru/morau are used to describe the giving and receiving offavorable actions, and these devices can also be indicators of the narrator’s viewpoint. Somemotion verbs such as iku “go” and kuru “come” can also indicate viewpoint. For instance, inthe sentences Ken ga kita “Ken came” and Ken ga itta “Ken went,” the focus of attention isplaced on Ken, but the statement is made from the speaker’s (or in the case of itta, either
from a neutral or the speaker’s) viewing position. In addition to donatory verbs and motion
verbs, some grammatical structures such as the passive form of verbs can also indicate
viewpoints. In the passive sentence Mari ga Ken ni tasukerareta “Mari was rescued by Ken,”the focus of attention is on Mari, and the event is also stated from Mari’s viewing position.

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These expressions are all considered to be marked structures in regard to viewpoint in thisstudy.

2.3 EXPRESSIONS OF VIEWPOINT FOUND IN LITERARY WORKS
Translation can be an informative vehicle for observing the similarities anddifferences in viewpoint between two languages. To show an example of subjective construaland objective construal found in literary works, Ikegami (2016, 307) uses the famous opening
sentence of the Japanese novel Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata and its English
translation by Edward Seidensticker, as shown in (2).
(2)

a. 国境の長いトンネルを抜けると雪国であった。
b. The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.

These sentences both describe the scene in which the protagonist is travelling on a
train that is coming out of a tunnel. In the Japanese sentence, however, neither the narrator(protagonist) nor the train are mentioned, whereas in the English sentence, the train is
mentioned as its subject. Ikegami analyzes that the scene in the original Japanese work is
described “as observed by the protagonist travelling on the train, who sees the successive
scenes that fly past outside the window of his train but sees neither himself nor his train,” andthat the narrator of the English translation locates himself “outside the train at a pointconsiderably removed from the travelling train and describe[s] the scenes as they would
appear to [him]” (2016, 308). Ikegami considers the stance of (2a) as subjective construal andthat of (2b) as objective construal.
Otsuka (1989; 1995) further examined the use of expressions related to viewpoint in
the original Snow Country and its English translation, as well as another novel in English and
its Japanese translation. She compared the types of sentences found in those texts, andreported the differences between English and Japanese in the use of active and passive
sentences. According to Otsuka, in Japanese texts, a passive sentence is employed in orderfor the narrator to empathize with the referent of the subject, whereas in English texts, apassive sentence tends to be used when the agent of the action cannot be mentioned. Otsuka
concluded that, in comparison to English, which is a sentence-oriented language, Japanese isa discourse-oriented language that tends to clearly indicate the narrator’s viewpoint in the
narrative. Otsuka’s studies shed light on the functional differences in the use of the active andpassive sentences between English and Japanese. Other types of linguistic devices also need
to be analyzed in order to further explore the use of expressions of viewpoint in literaryworks.

3. THE STUDY

3.1 LITERARY TEXTSFor data collection, two pairs of contemporary literary texts were used: the Japanesenovel 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (2009) and its English translation (Murakami, 2011) by Jay
Rubin, and the English novel The Testament by John Grisham (1999) and its Japanesetranslation Grisham, 2001) by Ro Shiraishi. Both novels have multiple main characters. In
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1Q84, there are two protagonists: Tengo (a male protagonist) and Aomame (a female
protagonist), who take turns appearing in alternate chapters. In The Testament, two lawyers,
Nate O’Riley and Josh Stafford, appear as the protagonist and one of the main characters inthe story.
Sentences that describe the actions of the characters in each novel were collected asdata, but direct quotations of what the characters said in the stories were excluded. The
present study focuses on the use of donatory expressions, expressions with the passive formof verbs, and expressions with motion verbs, which were qualitatively analyzed as
expressions of viewpoint.
3.2 RESULTS
3.2.1 Donatory Expressions
Regarding the actions of giving and receiving objects that were described in the texts,
there were a few sentences that employed morau “to receive.” An exemplar Japanese
sentence from 1Q84 and its English translation are shown in (3).
(3)

天吾は財布から千円札を二枚出し、釣り銭と領収書をもらった。
Tengo produced two thousand-yen bills from his wallet and received his change andreceipt in return.

This is the description of a scene in which the male protagonist of 1Q84, Tengo, pays a taxi
driver and gets a receipt. The verb morau in Japanese and “receive” in its English translation
were used, and these sentences share a similar viewpoint in which both the focus of attention
and viewing position are placed on Tengo.
The differences in viewpoint between English and Japanese narratives can be seen in
an exemplar English sentence from The Testament and its Japanese translation, as shown in
(4).
(4)

He pointed and said, “Espresso,” and the cashier rang him up. She frowned at his
American money, but changed it anyway.
ネイトはメニューを指さして、「エスプレッソ」といい、レジ係の女性に勘定を支払った。係はネイトが出したアメリカ通貨に眉をひそめた
ものの、きちんと釣りをくれた。

This is from a scene in The Testament in which its protagonist, Nate, tries to pay foran espresso with foreign currency. In the sentence in the original English text, the focus ofattention is placed on the cashier, and the regular verb “change” is used, indicating that thescene is described from a neutral point of view. In the Japanese translation, while the focus ofattention is placed on the cashier, the verb kureru is employed in the sentence. This indicatesthat the viewing position is placed on Nate, and that the statement is made from theprotagonist’s viewpoint.
Clear differences are also observed in the use of donatory auxiliary verbs. Two
examples from 1Q84 are shown in (5) and (6).
(5)

赤ん坊にとって嗅覚はもっとも先鋭的な器官だ。嗅覚が多くを教えてくれる。あるときにはすべてを教えてくれる。

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Smell is an infant’s most acute sense. The sense of smell reveals a great deal –sometimes it reveals everything.
(6)

天吾はもちろんその女の子に会ったことはない。一度写真を見せてもらったことがある。母親にはあまり似ていない。
Tengo had never met the girl, but he had once seen a photograph. She didn’t look
much like her.

In these examples, each of the original Japanese sentences includes a regular verb
such as oshieru “to let (someone) know” or miseru “to show” which is accompanied by theauxiliary kureru or morau. This indicates that these statements are made from theprotagonist’s viewing position, while the focus of attention is set on kyūkaku “smell” in (5)and the protagonist in (6). Such linguistic devices are not available in English. Naturally,
therefore, in the English translation, the same given event is described with the action verb
alone. As a result, it makes each statement sound neutral and objective in English.
The same phenomenon can be observed in an English text and its Japanese translation, as
seen in (7) and (8), which are two examples from The Testament.
(7)

He excused himself after an hour, and returned to his office, where a secretary
informed that the crematorium had called.
一時間後にスタフォードは部屋を辞去し、自分のオフィスに引きかえした。
秘書が火葬業者から電話があったことを教えてくれた。

(8)

The language barrier caused a short bout of anxiety, but it ended when a pretty
Brazilian flight attendant asked him to buckle his seat belt.
言葉の壁を思うと、わずかな不安の発作が起こったが、シートベルトを締めるようにという愛らしいブラジル人の女性客室乗務員の言葉が不安を解消してくれた。

In the original English sentences in The Testament, the secretary’s action in (7) andthe protagonist’s anxiety in (8) are described in an objective way. In the Japanese translationfor each sentence, however, the auxiliary kureru is added to the regular verb oshieru “toinform” and kaishō-suru “to erase” in (7) and (8), respectively, suggesting that the viewing
position is placed on the main character of the story in each sentence.
3.2.2 Expressions with the Passive Form of Verbs
Examples of how active and passive sentences are employed in Japanese texts andtheir English translations are shown in (9) and (10).
(9)

三十年間の人生でいったい何度、同じ台詞を聞かされただろう。どれだけ
この名前のことで、みんなにつまらない冗談を言われただろう。
How many times in her thirty years had she heard the same remarks, the same
feeble jokes about her name?

(10) …この階段を地上まで降りたとき、もしそこに誰かいて、声をかけられ事 情をきかれたり、素性を尋ねられたりしたら、いったいなんと答えればい いのだろう。

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… Aomame began to worry about what might await her at the bottom of thestairway. What if someone were there, demanding that she identify herself andexplain her presence.
The statement in (9) depicts a scene from 1Q84 in which the female protagonist isreflecting on her last name, Aomame, which is considered to be a very unusual Japanesename. The original Japanese sentences employ the passive form of the verbs (kikasareru “tobe forced to listen” and iwareru “to be told”), placing the viewing position on Aomame,which creates a subjective sense of annoyance. In the English translation, on the other hand,the sentence uses the verb “hear” in the active form, taking a more detached and objective
stance. In the scene described in (10), Aomame tries to descend a long stairway that leads off
a highway. In the Japanese sentence, the passive form is repeatedly used (i.e., koe okakerareru “to be spoken to,” kikareru “to be asked,” and tazunerareru “to be inquired”),
placing both the focus of attention and the viewing position on Aomame, whereas in the
English translation, the focus of attention has shifted to “someone” in the second sentence,
which uses the active form of the verb “demand,” resulting in a more objective statement.
The phenomenon of active-passive dichotomy can also be seen in the English text and its
Japanese translation of The Testament as shown in (11) and (12).
(11)

Watching Jevy’s end of the conversation was torture for Nate.
ジェヴィーのようすだけを見せつけられているのは、ネイトにとっては拷問同然だった。

(12)

Josh had put him there, and if Josh asked him to play hide-and-seek in the jungle, so
be it.
あくまでもジョシュア・スタフォードから命令されたからであって、そのスタフォードからジャングルでの隠れんぼ遊びを命じられれば、こんどはそれにしたがうしかない。

As seen in (11), the active form of a verb is used in the original English sentence that
depicts the protagonist, Nate, watching another character, whereas the Japanese sentence
employs the passive form of misetsukeru “to be forced to see” which subjectively emphasizes
the protagonist’s negative feeling about the situation. In (12), the English sentence uses theactive form of verbs, and has Josh as the focus of attention, but in the Japanese sentence, thepassive form of verbs (i.e., meirei-sareru and meijirareru “to be ordered”) is repeated,
placing the viewing position on the protagonist, Nate.
3.2.3 Expressions with Motion Verbs
Differences in viewpoint between the Japanese and English texts are also observed in
the use of motion verbs, as seen in (13) and (14), which are examples from 1Q84 and The
Testament, respectively.
(13)

ふかえりは六時二十二分に姿を見せた。彼女はウェイターに案内されてテーブルにやってきて、向かいの席に座った。
Fuka-Eri arrived at 6:22. The waiter showed her to the table and she sat down acrossfrom Tengo.

(14)

They gathered what they could carry, then found Snead and made him lock the door.

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ふたりが運べるだけの書類を運びだすと、スニードがやってきた。ふたりはスニードに・・・鍵をかけさせた。
In the scene described in (13), the male protagonist Tengo is waiting for Fuka-Eri in a
restaurant where she shows up shortly. The Japanese sentence employs the passive form of
the verb annai-sareru “to be escorted” and the motion verb yattekuru “come up to,”indicating that Fuka-Eri has been shown her way by the waiter and comes up to theprotagonist’s table. In the English sentence, the active form of the verb “show” and theregular verb “sit down” are used, which indicates that the waiter shows her to the table, atwhich she sits down. Interestingly, the statements in English and Japanese that follow thedescription of Fuka-Eri’s arrival resemble the two statements introduced by Langacker (seesection 2.1): “Vanessa is sitting across the table from me” and “Vanessa is sitting across thetable” – they represent a situation of objective construal and subjective construal, respectively(see Figure 1.0).
In the English sentence, the narrator of the story is describing Fuka-Eri and Tengo fromoutside of the scene, thus maintaining an objective stance. The Japanese sentence, on theother hand, takes the subjective stance in which the narrator immerges himself into the scene,
and therefore Tengo is not mentioned in the same sentence. Similarly, in (14), the original
English sentence states that the two main characters “find” Snead, whereas in the Japanesetranslation, Snead “comes up to” the main characters instead. Again, the statement inJapanese represents a situation of subjective construal.
Figure 1.0 Objective Construal and Subjective Construal

The results also suggest that in the Japanese texts, there are a number of expressions
that indicate viewpoint in which motion verbs are used in a figurative way. Examples shownin (15) and (16) are from 1Q84, and the one shown in (17) is from The Testament.
(15)「よう、天吾くん」と誰かがさっきから呼びかけていた。その声は横穴のずっと奥の方から、ぼんやりと聞こえてきた。
“Tengo, Tengo!” someone was calling. The muffled voice seemed to reach himfrom the depths of a cave.

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(16)

天吾は肯いた。ふかえりと『空気さなぎ』の話だ。それについて小松に説明しかけたところで「発作」がやってきて、話が中断した。
Tengo nodded. That was it. He was just beginning to give his opinion on Fuka-Eri
and her novella, Air Chrysalis, when the “attack” hit him.

(17)

Nate was suddenly dizzy.
いきなり、眩暈が襲ってきた。

In (15), sono koe or “the muffled voice” is the focus of attention in both the Japaneseand English sentences, but by adding the auxiliary kuru to the verb kikoeru “to sound” in theJapanese sentence, the viewing position is placed on Tengo. In (16), hossa, or the attack,“comes up to” Tengo in the Japanese sentence, but in the English sentence it “hits” him
instead of “coming up to him.” Similarly, in (17), the protagonist “is dizzy” in the English
sentence, whereas the “dizziness comes and attacks” him in the Japanese counterpart. Noticethat the protagonist, Nate, is not mentioned in the Japanese sentence, indicating a stance thatis similar to the subjective construal described in Figure 1.0.
3.3 L2 JAPANESE STUDY AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONSYabuki-Soh (2016), a recent study on expressions of viewpoint found in compositions
written by L2 learners of Japanese, emphasizes the importance of learners’ awareness of thenotion of viewpoint in Japanese narratives. In this study, L2 learners and native speakers
wrote, in Japanese, descriptions of a cartoon strip that featured multiple characters, including
a boy as a main character, who are involved in various actions such as giving and receiving
things and favors among them. After an interval, the learners wrote about the same cartoon in
English (their first language). The choice of subjects and verbs that indicated viewpoints wascompared between learners and native speakers.
The results showed that the learners used the more generic ageru in place of kureru for giving
and receiving objects, as shown in (18), and did not employ the auxiliary verbs V-te kureru
and V-te morau as much as the Japanese native speakers did, as seen in (19). (Note: L2L =L2 learner, NS = native speaker)… 男の子は妹にキャンディーをあげた。 … お母さんは妹にバルーンをあげた。 … 妹は男の子にバルーンを渡した。(L2L)“… The boy gave the candy to his sister … the mother gave a balloon to the sister… the sister handed over the balloon to the boy.”… 男の子は妹にキャンディーをあげた。 … 妹はお母さんにもらった風船 を男の子にくれた。(NS)“… The boy gave the candy to his sister … the sister gave him the balloon that she
got from their mother.”
(18)

(19)

おばあさんは男の子が道を渡ることを手伝った。(L2L)
おばあさんは男の子が道路を渡るのを手伝ってくれた。(NS)“The elderly lady helped the boy in crossing the street.”Regarding the active/passive forms of verbs, learners dominantly used the active
voice to describe such a scene as a mother scolding her children, while a majority of native

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speakers employed the passive form in describing the same event, placing the viewing
position on the children. Examples are shown in (20).
(20)

男の子と妹はごみを床に捨てて、お母さんが怒った。(L2L)“The boy and his sister littered the floor, and their mother got angry.”
二人はゴミで部屋を散らかして、お母さんに怒られました。(NS)“The two of them messed up the room with litter and were scolded by their mother.”Also, when introducing a new character to the story, learners tended to describe that the boy
sees or meets the character, while many native speakers chose the verb yatte-kuru “come up
to” to introduce the character, as seen in (21).
(21)

男の子は杖を持ったおばあさんを見ました。(L2L)“The boy saw an old lady with a cane.”
すると、杖をついたおばあさんがやってきました。(NS)“Then, an old lady with a cane came around.”Overall, Japanese native speakers used a lot more devices related to viewing positions
in comparison to the leaners. Also, native speakers tended to keep the viewing position withthe main character and/or the boy’s sister. Learners, on the other hand, did not maintain theviewing position with a specific character, but instead shifted the position to characters who
initiated the action. The results of the learners’ English texts show that the focus of attention
shifted among different characters. Furthermore, the learners’ viewpoint in their English
writing was found to be similar to that in their Japanese writing in terms of focus of attention.
This suggests that in their compositions both in English and Japanese, L2 learners mainly
employed verbs in the active form having the agent of the action as the subject of eachsentence, maintaining the objective construal.
The results of Yabuki-Soh (2016) suggest that L2 learners used expressions ofviewpoint in limited and different ways in comparison with the native speakers, and that theway the learners used expressions of viewpoint in their Japanese writing was likely
influenced by the way they treat viewpoint in their L1 writing. For instance, the verb kureru
is used when the narrator takes a subjective stance in describing a giving/receiving eventfrom the receiver’s viewing position. The English verb “give,” on the other hand, does nothave the same function as the Japanese verb kureru in terms of viewing position. And inJapanese, the giving/receiving of a favorable action tends to be described with an action verb
accompanied by a donatory auxiliary verb to indicate the viewing position, but in English, thesame action is commonly described in a neutral statement with the action verb alone. Also, inJapanese, passive sentences are employed in order to maintain the viewpoint closer to thereceiver of the consequence of an action, whereas in English, viewpoint does not much
require the use of passive sentences, and, instead, active sentences tend to be used whentransitive structures are involved. As for motion verbs, in Japanese discourse, the verb kuru isused when the motion is directed toward the place where the narrator is located, but the use of
the English verb “come’ is not restricted to such a condition. L2 learners may benefit fromnoticing these differences between their first language and the target language, and Japanese
language instructors are encouraged to explore ways to help learners acquire the nuanced useof expressions of viewpoint.

4. CONCLUSION

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The results of this study suggest that there are functional differences in the use of
expressions of viewpoint between Japanese and English narratives, and that L2 learners ofJapanese would need to pay attention to such differences when describing certain events inthe target language. Japanese language instructors would also need to keep in mind that“rather than trying to let the students learn ‘grammatical rules’ by heart, emphasis should beshifted to trying to let them learn by experiencing the cognitive stances preferably taken by
the Japanese speaker in construing and encoding a situation linguistically” (Ikegami, 2016,
301). In conclusion, it would benefit L2 learners to acquire the preferred cognitive stances
and associated expressions in context in order for them to effectively describe various eventsin Japanese.

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REFERENCES

J. Grisham (1999) The Testament, New York, Bantam Dell.
J. Grisham (2001) Tesutamento, Translated by R. Shiraishi, Tokyo, Shinchōsha.
Y. Ikegami (1983) Tekusuto to tekusuto no kōzō, Danwa no kenkyū to kyōiku I, National
Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, 7-42.
Y. Ikegami (2005) Indices of a “Subjectivity-Prominent” Language: Between Cognitive
Linguistics and Linguistic Typology, Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 3,132-164.
Y. Ikegami (2008) Shukanteki haaku: Ninchi gengogaku kara mita Nihongo washa no ichisokumen. Shōwa joshi daigaku daigakuin gengokyōiku komyunikēshon kenkyū, 3, 1-6.
Y. Ikegami (2016) Subject-object contrast (shukaku-tairitsu) and subject-object merger(shukaku-gouitsu) in “thinking for speaking”: A typology of the speaker’s preferredstances of construal across languages and its implications for language teaching, in
K. Kabata and K. Toratani (eds.) Cognitive-Functional Approaches to the Study ofJapanese as a Second Language, Boston, Mouton de Gruyter.
S. Iwasaki (1993) Subjectivity in Grammar and Discourse, Amsterdam, John Benjamins.
S. Kuno (1978) Danwa no Bunpoo, Tokyo, Taishūkan.
S. Kuno (1987) Functional Syntax: Anaphora, Discourse, and Empathy, Chicago,
University of Chicago Press.
R. W. Langacker (1990) Concept, Image, and Symbol: The Cognitive Basis of Grammar,
Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter.
M. Matsuki (1992) “Miru koto” to bunpō kenkyū, Nihongogaku, 11, 57-71.
S. K. Maynard (1998) Principles of Japanese Discourse: A Handbook, Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.
H. Murakami (2009). 1Q84, Tokyo, Shinchōsha.
H. Murakami (2011). 1Q84, Translated by J. Rubin, London, Harvill Secker.
K. Okutsu (1983) Naze ukemi ka? “Shiten” kara no kēsu sutadī, Kokugogaku, 132, 65-80.
Y. Otsuka (1989) Shiten ni yoru nichiei hikaku, Nihongo kyōiku, 67, 173-180.
Y. Otsuka (1995) Shiten to nihongo judōbun no shiyō: Eigo to taishō sasete, Seitoku
gakuen Gifu kyōiku daigaku kiyō, 29, 57-73.
N. Yabuki-Soh (2016) Expressions of viewpoint made by English-speaking learners ofJapanese, Presented at the annual conference of the Second Language Research
Forum, Columbia University, New York.
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3. TITLE: THE POSTHUMAN IN
GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ JAPANESEMANGA AND ANIME—WHAT DO
SEX, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
MEAN TO POSTHUMANS?
Yuki Ohsawa
Sessional Instructor, Department of Asian Studies
University of British Columbia
Email: yuki.ohsawa@ubc.ca
ABSTRACTJapanese manga and anime featuring technologically-enhanced bodies, such as
humanoids and cyborgs, in various ways have caught the eyes and minds of audiences aroundthe world. The reasons for this are diverse, but we can point to specific textual features suchas futuristic cyber narratives, unique hybrid robots and sophisticated humanoid characters,
which help these science fiction manga and anime demonstrate a conception of theposthuman. These posthumans permit us to question existing, dogmatic notions of sex,
gender, and sexuality as their bodies are inorganic. This paper argues that some science
fiction girls’ manga, specifically Shimizu Reiko’s works, have challenged normative
categories of gender and sexuality by depicting gender ambiguity within their humanoid
characters. The paper also compares images of humanoids in Shimizu Reiko’s girls’ mangawith anime that target young men, such as Ghost in the Shell, in order to reveal theirdifferences, specifically those that center around gender and sexuality. This study emphasizes
that humanoids and cyborgs in Shimizu’s works conceptualize the possibility of exceeding
normative categories of gender and sexuality that our society has constructed in a variety ofways and through various artistic mechanisms, including young men’s anime.
Keywords: Posthuman, Japanese science fiction, manga, anime, gender.

1. INTRODUCTION

Japanese manga and anime featuring technologically-enhanced bodies, such as
humanoids and cyborgs, in various ways have caught the eyes and minds of audiences aroundthe world. The reasons for this are diverse, but we can point to specific textual features suchas futuristic cyber narratives, unique hybrid robots and sophisticated humanoid characters,
which help these science fiction manga demonstrate what I call the technologically-enhanced

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29body. There are two types of such bodies. One is the exo-enhanced body, such as powerful
giant robots and mecha suits. Another is the endo-enhanced body, such as humanoids andcyborgs. These humanoid characters present opportunities for us imaginatively to question
their sex, gender, and sexuality, as their bodies are inorganic. This paper argues that throughthe use of such humanoid characters, some science fiction girls’ manga, specifically Shimizu
Reiko’s works, have challenged normative gender and sexuality by depicting genderambiguity in these humanoid characters. The paper also compares the images of humanoids
in Shimizu Reiko’s girls’ manga with Oshii Mamoru’s animated film, Ghost in the Shell(1996). Oshii also uses humanoid characters to demonstrate very interesting theoreticalpossibilities for human development, specifically around the issue of reproduction. Both
Shimizu and Oshii illustrate humanoids which embody queerness or have queer aspects.
Shimizu challenges normative sexuality. On the other hand, Oshii innovates an alternative
mechanism of reproduction. I argue that those humanoids are imaginations of theposthuman—characters or individuals who have a great potential to exceed normative sex,
gender and sexuality.
My research focuses on Japanese science fiction manga and anime. I do so tohighlight that, unlike in boys’ robot/cyborg magna and anime, it is hard to find girls’
robot/humanoid anime. In fact, since the 1950s, many robot manga and anime have been
produced in Japan; however, most of these are aimed at boys, and were written by malemanga/anime artists. Thus, in order to provide as complete a picture of manga as possible, itis essential to look at girls’ humanoid manga, written by female manga artists. This research
examines what kinds of different perspectives female and male manga/anime artists have.
Secondly, young men’s and women’s Japanese manga/anime have a remarkable ability to
produce “queer” characters, many of which have a particular relationship with advanced
technology since the postwar period.
I use the term “queer”, which comes from Judith Butler’s “Queer Theory” (1993).
Simply, Butler says that it is extremely difficult to change existing social norms—but by
queering the performance of, for example, gender little by little every day, norms can be
gradually changed. I employ this idea to discuss the representation of queer characters inJapanese manga. The characters in manga, through their technological enhancements,
interactions, and other post-human or post-gendered aspects, queer the performance of
embodiment and thus have much potential to change the modern notion of the body.
These posthuman features are essential in helping us conceive of ways to transcendsocial normativity, and so here is the definition that I am employing for this research. The
idea of the posthuman comes principally from Donna Haraway, Elaine Graham andKatherine Hayles. I mainly employ Haraway’s definition of posthuman because she is thepioneer of posthumanism and her theory fits my analysis. Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”(2006) discusses the necessity of re-defining the concept of human by describing cyborgs,
because of the birth of hybridization between organic and inorganic matters. As well, herwork points out the limitations of the conception of the human, which has been defined byhumanists. Haraway uses the term “cyborg” as a metaphor for marginalized people, such as
females, people of color, and so on.
In addition to the creatures existing as hybrids between humans and machines, in“Immune system discourse” (Haraway, 1991, 203-230) and Companion Species Manifesto(Haraway, 2003) Haraway also claims that even our bodies exchange bacteria and viruses, inan ongoing process of interaction. Thus, the posthuman view of the body emphasizes that it isalways open to other entities such as bacteria or viruses. So, posthuman bodies are very open
and in a continuous state of change.
Another interesting point of the posthuman concerns its conception of reproduction.
Because more than two bodies are often combined into one, it is impossible to limit the

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dualistic sex categories, the posthuman can postulate another way of reproduction. In fact,
Graham mentions that humans have created “forms of artificial human life by other thanheterosexual reproduction” (Graham, 2002b, 12) in imaginary worlds, such as myth andliterature, since the third or fourth century BCE. Therefore, it is worthwhile to take a look at
posthuman reproduction in order to conceive of the potential for exceeding heterosexual
reproduction. Employing posthuman discourse is important for us to reveal how these
representations of the posthuman have influenced us, and/or why our society has createdthese posthuman imaginations. We will understand our social issues through this analysis.
In this paper, I examine mainly two posthuman characters in Japanese manga―Elenain Milky Way [ミルキーウェイ] (1986) and Angels’ Evolution Theory [天使たちの進化論](1990), which were both written by Shimizu Reiko, and Kusanagi Motoko in Ghost in the
Shell (1996 and 2004), directed by Oshii Mamoru―to reveal how Japanese anime express
sex, gender, and sexuality through cyborg (feminist) theory. The analysis will encourage us toimagine new sex/gender possibilities and reproduction through technology in order to free
our conceptions from existing, potentially oppressive categories. I will begin chronologicallywith Elena in Shimizu’s work.
2. THE POSTHUMAN IN GIRLS’ MANGA

Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” (2006) (first published in 1985), and the first story in
Shimizu’s Jack and Elena series, Milky Way (1986), interestingly appeared around the sametime. There were already boys’ humanoid manga such as Cyborg 009 (Ishinomori, original
1964, 2006) however, Shimizu’s work demonstrates ambiguous gender identities andhomosexuality through this series. The setting of Milky Way and Angels’ Evolution Theory(1990) are in the far future when humans and humanoids live together, overlooking theirdifferences. The story starts when Jack saves Elena. Both of them are humanoids who haveimmortal bodies and have lived with a lack of love. Jack lets Elena live in his apartment, andthey live and work together. Most of their job is supporting wealthy people’s worthlessrequests, such as looking for expensive, run-away birds, or finding rare/mythical flowers
from dangerous planets. Working together makes their relationship closer and deeper. This isa romantic girls’ manga.
I first discuss Milky Way (1986) in order to examine Elena’s sex, gender and sexuality.
This earliest story of the series discusses the body of the humanoids: how the humanoids are
made, how are they regenerated, what their sexes are. After discussing their sex, gender andsexuality, I analyze another of Shimizu’s works, Angels’ Evolution Theory (1990), because
this story illustrates natural human and animal reproduction by comparing these with the
production of humanoid robots. The key point here is how the story illustrates thehumanoid’s feeling toward human reproduction and its own production.

3. MILKY WAY

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Return to Table of Contents313.1 ELENA’S SEX
The first question concerns Elena’s and Jack’s sex. How did Shimizu illustrate theirsex? Both Jack and Elena are humanoid robots. Jack clearly says that Elena is neither malenor female. Elena is sexless (Shimizu, 1986, 15). In other words, Elena does not have sexualorgans. After Elena commits suicide, the story illustrates how operatives are able toregenerate her. In the lab, Elena’s body is inside of a big tube full of liquid and air; an older
female scientist regenerates her. The body of Elena does not have female breasts, but has
wide shoulders and a slim pelvis; however neither does it have male genitalia. Thus, the story
clearly tells and shows that Elena does not have a sex. The story describes that Jack also does
not have a sex because Jack is also a humanoid. Although both of these characters are sexless,their bodies look very masculine in comparison with female human characters.
Elena’s body is regenerated with the most advanced technology as she has committed
suicide 40 times. So, whenever Elena’s body is regenerated, the body is involved with thelatest advanced technology. Thus, Elena’s body has diverse strengths: it is resistant todamage; has the ability to talk with animals; is powerful, and so on. Regeneration is one of
the important points for discussing the posthuman body because it shows that the body is notcompleted but changes over time, although Elena’s external appearance does not change.
Whenever Elena commits suicide, Elena’s body also changes. In fact, Milky Way illustrates
that when Elena purposely falls into the crater of a volcano, her body melts, but Elena’s core
nucleus, which is called “IC nucleus,” escapes; a scientist is able to use the nucleus toregenerate Elena again. Therefore, Elena’s body has aspects of the posthuman; that is, herbody is changing although it has the same appearance for more than 100 years. In addition tothese physical changes, the work illustrates Elena’s sex as queer, which has the potential toexceed the normative dualistic sex categories of female and male. Furthermore, when theserobots are produced or/and regenerated, none of the scientists say “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl”
to a newly born robot. These robots are not be “made” to be either girls or boys. That’s why
Elena has the freedom to perform often as masculine and also sometimes as feminine, in
accordance with her own feeling. For example, in front of Jack, Elena sometime shows her
femininity though Elena usually performs in a masculine way. I analyze Elena’s gender later,
but next analyze Elena’s sexuality because the reason for her continually committing suicide
relates to her queer sexuality.
3.2 ELENA’S SEXUALITY
Elena wants to die because she suffers from a broken heart. The male human withwhom Elena has fallen in love is her first master. His name is Tenryu. Elena loves him, but
Tenryu’s wife tells Elena that her love toward Tenryu is not love but loyalty. She continues totell Elena that humans cannot live by their own self because there is a limit on the human
lifespan. That’s why humans need to give birth and leave offspring. In order to do that, males
and females need each other and love each other. On the other hand, robots do not have sex,
and even if robots “die,” they can regenerate their own bodies. So, a robot body is“completed by itself.” That’s why robots do not need a partner. It is very strange that Elena, arobot, loves Tenryu, a male human (Shimizu, 1986, 35-38).
Her words show a heterocentric idea, but also make a good point: how can a robot,
who has no genitalia, love a human? The story describes the robot body as wanting to love,
both emotionally and physically, the male human body. We could understand this sexuality
as queer or alternative sexuality—neither heterosexuality nor homosexuality. In fact, the firsttime Elena commits suicide is when Tenryu gets married; the second time is when Tenryu
dies. After that, Elena tries to commit suicide 40 times to eliminate herself from the world.

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These reactions toward Tenryu show the pain of her breaking heart. Elena, a robot, truly
loves Tenryu, a male human.
In fact, not only does Elena, a robot, love a male human, but Jack, also a robot, also
loves a female human. However, 170 years prior to the narrative, Jack’s girlfriend died. They
had loved each other, but because of their differing physical conditions, we can argue that
their relationship obviously represents a kind of queer sexuality. Even after her death, Jackhas continued to think about this female human. 170 years later, Jack meets another feminine,
beautiful female human who resembles his great love. Her name is Louise; she likes Jack
more than Jack likes her. This relationship, too, is another representation of queer sexuality,
because this female human loves a “masculine” robot. Once Jack meets Elena, Jack becomes
attracted to her, because Jack can understand Elena’s feeling—a robot has to live without its
lover, even after the lover passes away, because a robot is immortal.
Also, Jack isfascinated by Elena’s beauty, although it is not a feminine beauty but rather a genderless
beauty. Elena also likes Jack because Jack resembles Tenryu, whom Elena has loved in thepast. Jack was actually made of Tenryu’s genetic material, so his appearance is the same as
Tenryu’s. Jack and Elena come to love each other. Shimizu illustrates queer sexualities—
robot and human love, and robot and robot love—but their loves are illustrated very
romantically and beautifully.
3.3 ELENA’S GENDER
I have discussed Elena and Jack’s sex and sexuality to point out that Shimizu
demonstrates queer sex to show other sexual possibilities. These imaginations of queer sex
bring us to imaginations of queer sexuality. Finally, this paper reveals a most interesting point:
Elena’s gender.
The name, Elena, implies that this robot has femininity although her appearance isthat of a beautiful boy. Elena’s gender performance shows more masculine traits rather thanfeminine, in comparison with a female human character’s gender performance. In otherwords, Elena’s performativity is close to Jack’s, which is masculine. For example, Elena’s
hairstyle is very short. Elena wears long pants/jeans and a long coat, in a very simple stylesimilar to what Jack wears. Elena never wears either a skirt or any accessories. What Jack
wears is very similar to Elena. The only difference between them is that Jack wears a tie toshow his seriousness and professionalism. In addition, Elena’s language and attitude are alsomasculine because Elena uses the word, “ore,” a first-person pronoun which carries a
masculine connotation in Japanese. Thus, the readers of this manga feel or understand that it
represents boys’ love because Elena and Jack look masculine and they are attracted to eachother. Eventually, Jack kisses Elena. The relationship looks like “male-male homosexuality”
although they do not have male genitalia. Shimizu uses these robot characters, whom sheendows with masculine performativity, in order beautifully to demonstrate and celebratehomosexuality. That is why these posthuman characters, Jack and Elena, have the potential tochallenge normative heterosexuality.
4. ANGELS’ EVOLUTION THEORY AND REPRODUCTION

Robots generally do not need to worry about reproduction, for the obvious reason thatthey are produced and will be regenerated if their bodies develop problems or become
damaged. However, Shimizu does not avoid writing about this key issue, reproduction, forrobots. Humanoid robots could be seen as a symbol of free-reproduction because they can
produce without the female human body. In other words, female humans could face release
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from reproduction as labour. In fact, reproduction can be a risky and potentially fatal action
for women; however, reproduction is not always regarded this way in the society. Even in thecontemporary period, some people see that female body is just a child making machine. In
2007, Japan’s health minister at the time, Yanagisawa Hakuo, described women as birthgiving machines when he talked about the promotion of increasing the rate of childbirth at a
Liberal Democratic party meeting (MCurry, 2007). In his logic, all women who are between
15 and 50 years of age should give birth to keep the country’s population up and to makeJapan economically stable. His talk actually revealed that female bodies are somehow seen as
machines in a Japanese patriarchal society. That is why producing humanoids can be better
for women and also for the society, which needs labourers. In fact, humanoids do not neednursing but can work for human beings right after they are produced. In this case, Shimizu
Reiko can positively describe humanoids, which are free from reproduction. However,Shimizu illustrates that a humanoid, Elena, also wants to reproduce her own species with her
own body. In the story, Angels’ Evolution Theory, Elena has a disappointment when many
animals become pregnant including her pet, a female orangutan, and also Jack’s ex-girlfriend,Louise. Elena’s attitude towards Louise, who is a female woman who has loved Jack,
becomes rude; she says horrible things to her because Elena becomes jealous. Elena has
believed that she looks like a human, but the lack of reproductive ability reminds her that she
is not human. However, I should highlight that Shimizu describes animal reproduction
without heterosexuality, and Shimizu also emphasizes only the mother-child relationship. The
story also illustrates respect toward female pregnancy and delivery, rather than towardheterosexuality itself.
I have discussed Elena’s sex, sexuality and gender as well as reproduction in
Shimizu’s girls’ manga to reveal that Shimizu actually uses masculine humanoids, Elena andJack, to celebrate homosexuality. Shimizu beautifully and romantically describes“homosexuality.” However, as they are actually robots, their former loves (Elena loved amale human, and Jack loved a female human) are also aspects of queer sexuality. In short,
Shimizu demonstrates another/alternative sexuality, which challenges normative sexuality. At
the same time, readers of the manga can also see Elena as female and Jack as male characters
because of their names, which could lead the readers to interpret their relation as one ofnormative heterosexuality. However, this paradox makes us consider more carefully about
what sex, gender, and sexuality actually connote. In other words, we are practicing ways of
exceeding the dualistic and normative categories of sex, gender, and sexuality by reading thismanga.
Shimizu Reiko, a female manga artist, brings these sex and sexual issues to the table
and lets readers challenge the normative categories. Next, I analyze Oshii Masaru’s film,
Ghost in the Shell, which originates from Shirō Masamune’s young men’s manga, Ghost in
the Shell series (1991). By comparing Shimizu’s work, this research focuses on how
posthumans’ sex, gender and sexuality, as well as reproduction are demonstrated by maleanimators/creators.
5. THE POSTHUMAN IN YOUNG MEN’S MANGA/ANIME: GHOST IN THE SHELL

Ghost in the Shell (1996) was directed by Oshii Mamoru, an anime and film director
as well as a scriptwriter and manga artist. The plot of Ghost in the Shell brings us to the year
2028, and centers on a female-shaped cybernetic government agent, Major Kusanagi Motoko
who, with her fellow agents of Public Security Section 9, trails a Ghost hacker, the Puppet
Master, who controls other cybernetic people by hacking into their cyberbrains —erasing
their memories or implanting others. The purpose of this hacking for the Puppet Master is to
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meet and fuse with Motoko to become an organism, which can die. On the other hand, for
Motoko, this integration with the Puppet Master will cause her to lose her body, but her ghost
will be able freely to flow in the “Net.” This is a new way of posthuman reproduction, theimagination of which Oshii has created. At the end of the film, Motoko accepts the Puppet
Master’s offer and “disappears.”
As the center of this paper is the close analysis of the main characters’ (biological)
sex and gender perception, in terms of self-conception and desire for physical relations withothers, I will analyze these three essentials to reveal what aspects contribute to posthuman
discourse.
5.1 MOTOKO’S SEX
The first question we have is Motoko’s sex. What do we know about her sex, and how
do we know it? Motoko is a cyborg, whose body is completely artificial but still has someorganic brain material and a ghost, as we discover in the opening credits, which illustrates theprocess of her body’s construction. At the beginning, we can see her skeletal structure, whichis almost completely made of inorganic but futuristic substances to make her a real human.
We can see inside of her head, which connects to many plugs, and then is closed after the“brain” is programmed. Each part is combined to recreate the shape of the human body. The
camera focuses on showing her brain, which seems to be undergoing programming. Once theshape is done, the body is chemically-coated. When the coating comes off, her skin has a lifelike human texture, and her face looks like a living human (she no longer has a robotic
appearance). Her whole body is scanned, and is checked on the computer screen. Her body isthen washed and dried to complete the process.
At the beginning of the opening credits, we can see inside of her body, which is a mixof artificial, futuristic materials, and a bit of organic brain and spinal cord. At the end of thecredits, we see a young feminine body, which has female breasts and hips; however, we donot see either female or male genitalia. In short, Motoko does not truly have a “sex” although
her body is shaped as female. Interestingly, we can see two male scientists during theconstruction of her body. As Gonzalez points out, “the traditional, gendered roles of EuroAmerican culture are rarely challenged in the visual representations of cyborgs” (Gonzalez,
2000, 61). Japanese anime also maintains the problematic patriarchal idea that males “create”
females, and females are the ones to be produced by men. Braidotti (1996) explains thereason why this discourse was created and maintained until now in “Mothers, Monsters, andMachines in Nomadic Subjects”. According to Braidotti, in the 16th to 17th centuries,
some men tried to produce human beings without female intervention, because men wereafraid of women’s bodies—specifically, of the changing body shape during pregnancy andgiving birth. Thus, women were regarded as monsters. As men also wanted “the power” of
women’s reproduction, they started studying alchemy (Braidotti, 1996, 65-66). Even today
we still use some of the basic laboratory techniques, theories, and methodologies which
alchemists have developed. The critical point is that today’s science, chemistry andreproductive technologies are related to alchemy, which is based on these patriarchal ideas.
The idea of creating humans without the biological process of women’s reproduction has
been maintained from the 16th and 17th centuries until now. Therefore, we can still find thisrepresentation in the Japanese animation, Ghost in the Shell, of male scientists creating afemale cyborg, although her body is created with futuristic high technology and futuristic
materials. Futuristic narrative has not gotten rid of patriarchal fantasy.
5.2 MOTOKO’S GENDER

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From the analysis of the opening credits, we understand that Motoko does not have asex, although her body was shaped as “female.” The next question, then, is what Motoko
understands her gender to be. I will focus on her attitudes, her way of speaking, and her
clothes in order to reveal her gender. First, I analyze her behavior and attitude in the Japanesecontext, as each culture has normative feminine and masculine behaviors and attitudes.
Through the film, Motoko’s behavior is very masculine. For example, her way of sitting is
not representative of the normative Japanese feminine sitting style: she sits with her legs open
on a chair/sofa, like men usually do, or cross-legged on the ground. She can fight powerfully
and move quickly and effectively, like a super hero. In addition, she is very brave—shestorms an enemy position to fight with a powerful tank by herself. Her attitude and behavior
are completely opposite to normative Japanese feminine behavior.
Furthermore, her way of speaking is a mix of feminine and masculine. For example,
she never speaks in a polite way, but speaks in an imperative tone, “~suruzo”, and “~shiro!”.
Another example is that she calls her colleagues “omae”, which is typically men’s language,
although we can also hear her using women’s language, such as “atashi,” “〜dawa” and“~yo”. Overall, her language is much more masculine than feminine even though she does
occasionally use women’s language. In terms of her clothing, she never wears skirts, or pink,
red or otherwise colorful clothes. Rather, she always wears dark colored pants, simple Tshirts and broad-shouldered jackets, like men’s clothes. In addition, her hair is short tomedium-length, and very rough—that is, she does not seem to care much about her
appearance. The most essential point to interpret her gender is that she never cares about
showing her naked body. For example, after Motoko, wearing optical camouflage, fights ahacker, she turns off the optical camouflage to show herself. At that moment, she is nude, andshe does not care about showing her naked body. Because generally speaking females inJapan are not naked in public or especially in front of men, her attitude is not a normative
feminine attitude.
As a result, we can conclude that she does not see herself as feminine/a woman.
However, the problem is that the body shape of Motoko is feminine because the creators leadthe viewers to see Motoko as a feminine (“female”) character. The manga artist and the film
director cannot erase dualistic gender categories. Furthermore, they illustrate the feminine
body shape to attract male viewers although they emphasize that Motoko, a cyborg, does nothave female genitalia.
5.3 MOTOKO’S SEXUALITY
She does 1) not have female nor male genitalia, but she 2) has a female-shaped bodybut 3) her gender is more masculine; however, her sexuality could be interpreted asheterosexual if we agree to regard Bato as male. Bato is a male-shaped cyborg, because of his
low voice and his masculine body. In fact, Motoko and Bato do not have a physicalrelationship; however, they think about each other in a somewhat romantic way. They neversay to each other “I love you,” but Motoko says to only Bato “whenever you access the net, I
will always be with you” after she integrates with the Puppet Master. As Springer insists thatthe “cyborg imaginary in popular culture invites us to experience sexuality by losing ourbodies and becoming pure consciousness” (Springer, 1999, 39), we can understand that
Motoko and Bato’s love is expressed in a different way than through a physical relationship.
As a result, Motoko does not have a sexual organ, but her sexuality is presented asheterosexual. Looking at Bato’s sexuality may also help us to understand their sexuality. For
example, Bato always looks at Motoko as a woman because when she is naked, he kindly
covers her body with his jacket; or when she takes off her wetsuit, Bato bashfully avoids
watching her. In short, Bato defines Motoko as a woman, as well as defines himself as a man.

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They definitely have a close, but not physical, relationship. As Bato shows his masculinity,
the viewers understand their relationship is not just one between co-workers, but has
somewhat romantic aspects, as well. Specifically, when Motoko is completely destroyed,
Bato shouts out her given name, “Motoko!!!” although he always calls her “General.” In fact,
it is unbelievable that a lower status person, as Bato is in this particular relationship, would
call a higher status person by his or her given name in Japanese society. Thus, we know they
have a close relationship. Although we do not know Bato’s sex or sexuality, his masculinity
and his male-shaped body imply that the relationship between Motoko and Bato presents
heterosexuality.
Through the analysis of Motoko’s sex, gender and sexuality, we notice that Motoko is
not easy to categorize as female or male, a woman or a man. As Haraway claims in “A
Cyborg Manifesto,” the “Cyborg imaginary can suggest a way out of the maze of dualisms inwhich we have explained our bodies and our tools to ourselves” (Haraway, 2006, 147). Ghost
in the Shell fits her theory very well. As we see, Motoko’s sex and gender challenges dualism
in order to erase its categories, or at least to make the categories of sex and gender vague.
Moreover, Ghost in the Shell suggests new possibilities of sexuality and posthuman
discourse, specifically after Motoko “marries” the Puppet Master. As Motoko loses her body,she is able to flow in the huge Net world. What does this mean to modern human beings?
Graham (2002) points out how cyberspace lets us move beyond modernity. “Cyberspaceaffords a much greater freedom to create new selves. While the self may be ‘decentred’ andmultiple, participants tend to resolve this as being an enrichment rather than a dissipation ofidentity” (Graham, 2002, 191). Graham challenges the concept of modern subjectivity,
which belongs to only the body; however, visual bodies in cyberspace can exist on many
levels. In other words, there are many embodied subjectivities. In fact, the way of creatingthese embodied subjectivities could be seen as a mode of reproduction for posthumans.

6. CONCLUSION

This research analyzes Elena and Motoko’s sex, gender, and sexuality to compare
how the female manga writer, Shimizu, and male film director, Oshii, try to create new
aspects of sex, gender and sexuality by using the endo-enhanced, strong humanoid body.
Both Elena and Motoko do not have genitalia, that is, they cannot be defined in themselves as
either female or male. Because these humaniods are neither female nor male, both stories’
imaginary introduce alternative conceptions of sex, which could exceed the dualistic
female/male categories. However, as Oshii gives Motoko a feminine female-shaped body to
attract the male audience, Motoko is seen as “female.” Oshii makes Motoko revert back to
the dualistic categories of “male” and “female,” although Motoko has the potential to go
beyond these categories. In addition, by emphasizing Motoko’s feminine body, Bato isillustrated as a very muscular man. Because of their body shapes, the romantic relation
between Motoko and Bato actually emphasizes heterosexuality. On the other hand, Elena’s
body shape is a bit more masculine than feminine. Precisely, her body is ambiguous—neither
perfectly masculine nor feminine, either. Furthermore, because Elena has Jack, who also hasa similar (male) body shape, their relationship implies homosexuality. Shimizu illustrated
their relationship very beautifully without any negative aspects. Thus, Elena and Jack’s
relationship celebrates homosexuality, and even encourages the audience to consider
alternative sexualities, because of Elena’s ambiguous body-shape and performativity toward
Jack.
Both Shimizu and Oshii actually use the interpretation of normative genders—femininity and masculinity—but Oshii persists in the normativity of heterosexuality by
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illustrating clear feminine and masculine bodies. On the other hand, Shimizu effectively
brings and celebrates homosexuality into her work, by using ambiguous gender and bodyshapes. As for Oshii’s work, he also creates a new conception of reproduction by using the
Net world. In fact, developments in computer science have opened another world, a digitalworld, to human beings. Ohsii suggests that our reproduction might change because of thedigital world where we, humans, do not belong to a physical body. Through these analyses,
we can see how Shimizu and Oshii have demonstrated these posthuman considerations tosuggest to us that we could exceed normative and dualistic categories of sex, and welcome
other/alternative sex, gender, sexuality and modes of reproduction. These artists argue thatthe post-human in their imaginary worlds has already shown us the possibilities oftranscending normative categories in human sexuality.

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REFERENCES

R. Braidotti (1996) Translated by Nagahara Yutaka. “母、化け物、機械 (Mother,
Monster, Machine)” In Gendaishisō Tokushū Kikai no karada, 24(8), 65-66.
J. Butler (1993) Critically Queer, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Duke
University Press 1, 17-32.
Ghost in the Shell (1996). DVD. Directed by Oshii Masaru. Lincolnshire, IL., MangaEntertainment.
Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence (2004). DVD. Directed by Oshii Masaru. Universal City, CA:
DreamWorks Home Entertainment.
J. Gonzalez (2000) Envisioning Cyborg Bodies: Notes from Current Research, in G.
Kirkup et. al (eds.), The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader, New York, Routledge, 58- 73.
E. Graham (2002a) The end of the ‘human’, in E. L. Graham (ed.) Representations of thepost/human Monsters, aliens and others in popular culture, Manchester:Manchester University Press, 176-199.
——— (2002b) Representations of the post/human, Manchester, Manchester University
Press, 12.
D. Haraway (2006) A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in
the Late Twentieth Century, in The International Handbook of Virtual Learning
Environments, 142, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, Springer.
——— (1991) The Biopolitics of Posthuman Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune
System Discourse, in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, New York, Routledge,
203-230.
——— (2003) The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness,
Chicago, Prickly Paradigm Press.
S. Ishinomori (2006) Ishinomori Shōtarō Complete Comic Works Saibōgu 009, Vol. 1,
Tōkyō, Kadokawa.
S. Masamune (1991) Kōkaku kidōtai, Tōkyō: Kōdansha.
J. McCurry (2007) Japanese minister wants 'birth-giving machines', aka women, to havemore babies, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/29/japan.justinmccurry, accessed
October, 2016.
R. Shimizu (1986) ミルキーウェイ(Milky Way), Tōkyō, Hakusensha.
——— (1990) 天使たちの進化論 (Angels’ Evolution Theory), Tōkyō, Hakusensha.

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C. Springer (1999) The Pleasure of the Interface, in J. Wolmark (ed.) Cybersexualities: A
Reader on Feminist Theory, Cyborgs and Cyberspace, Edinburgh, Edinburgh
University Press, 34-54.

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4. AFTER “RECONSTRUCTION” IN
DISASTER AREAS: COMPARINGKOTAKI IN SAKAE VILLAGE,
NAGANO PREFECTURE, AND
GENKAI ISLAND IN FUKUOKA
PREFECTURE
Kiwa Nakano
Professor, Department of Business Management
Daito Bunka University
Email: kiwan@ic.daito.ac.jp
ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on Genkai Island in Fukuoka Prefecture, which was damaged by
the Fukuoka Prefecture Western Offshore Earthquake of 2005, and Kotaki (in Sakae Village
in Nagano Prefecture), which was damaged by the Nagano earthquake of 2011. How did theresidents of these areas manage their situation, and how did they try to reconstruct andrebuild their lives? What kinds of issues did the residents prioritize during reconstruction, andwhat kinds of new problems occurred after they started their new lives? I would like toconsider their path to recovery in detail over time. It is natural for residents to want
comfortable lives. On Genkai Island, prioritizing convenience in residents’ daily lives
changed preexisting social relationships, and this is a major issue in their reconstruction
process. However, what is comfortable and convenient is not the same everywhere in Japan.
In Kotaki, reconstruction was not just about rebuilding facilities, but was also a chance tosolve the problems of an aging population and the stagnation of primary industry. These twocase studies show that it is important to base plans for reconstruction on an understanding of
the cultural and social background of disaster areas.
Keywords: disaster, reconstruction, cultural background, social background.

1. INTRODUCTION

Many major earthquakes have occurred in Japan over its long history. Six major
earthquakes have taken place one after another in the past twenty years: the Great Hanshin
Awaji earthquake of 1995; the Niigata Chūetsu earthquake of 2004; the Fukuoka Prefecture
Western Offshore Earthquake of 2005; the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, which was
followed the next day by the March 12th Nagano earthquake; and finally, the Kumamoto
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41earthquake in 2016. Many researchers have focused on the process of reconstruction of Kobe
after the Great Hanshin Awaji earthquake and pointed out many problems with evacuationsites and temporary houses (Kōbe daigaku shinsai fukkō shien platform ed. 2015).
Many areas in Japan have suffered natural disasters, but there are few studies thathave recorded and analyzed the social and cultural background of the process ofreconstruction and the problems that arose over time. It is generally believed that the goal ofreconstruction should be to rebuild facilities, but I believe that we should continue to observereconstruction efforts over a long period of time, even after facilities have been rebuilt. Also,
we tend to prioritize the most recent disasters. Research conducted directly after anearthquake is, of course, also important.
For residents, their new lives start after facilities are rebuilt, and they may facevarious problems at that time. I believe that these problems are not limited to one particulararea, but are shared by all areas affected by disasters. Therefore, we must first recognize
those problems, as well as the cultural and social background of the disaster areas, and thenrecord them.
The book Tsunami to Mura, or Tsunami and Village, was published in 1943 andrepublished in June 2011 (Yamaguchi, 2011). The author recorded the damage from thetsunamis that hit many areas of Tōhoku in 1896 and 1933. Even though the book was
published about 80 years ago, it analyzed how residents rebuilt their lives from theperspective of their cultural and social background. It is also clear that subsequent studies
have not paid attention to the cultural and social background of disaster areas.
How do residents of areas affected by disasters manage their situation, and how dothey try to reconstruct and rebuild their lives? What kinds of issues do they prioritize duringreconstruction, and what kinds of new problems occur after they start their new lives? I
would like to consider the path to recovery in detail over time through two village-level casestudies.
I conducted surveys in the 2011 disaster area of Onagawa-chō in Miyagi prefecture in
Tohoku, as well as researching reconstruction in other areas affected by disasters throughout
Japan. Based on my research, I found that residents encounter various problems after they
have started their new lives, and there were many residents who wanted to pass on theirexperiences to others in various disaster areas. Because natural disasters frequently occur
throughout Japan, I believe that many problems are shared by all areas affected by disasters.
In this research I would like to focus on Genkai Island in Fukuoka Prefecture, which
was damaged by the Fukuoka Prefecture Western Offshore Earthquake of 2005, and Kotaki,
which is in Sakae Village in Nagano Prefecture, which was damaged by the Nagano
earthquake of 2011. The Nagano earthquake has been called “the forgotten earthquake”
because it occurred the day after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Because of this, media
reports about the Nagano earthquake were delayed, and so this earthquake is not well known.
Fortunately, no one was killed on the day of the earthquake in either area, althoughsome seniors died during the evacuation. Residents in both areas were able to return to thesame places and start their new lives sooner than they expected. In these cases, maintaining
previous social relationships became very important, and these social relationships became
vital resources for hurrying reconstruction along.
Religious beliefs on Genkai Island were cultural resources that helped support their
new lives. However, residents have experienced many problems due to their aging anddeclining population. On the other hand, residents in Kotaki have tried to revitalize their lives
by communicating with people from outside. In this paper I would like to compare life on
Genkai Island with life in Kotaki and study the problems that each community has faced
during reconstruction over time.
The data I will use is based on interviews and observations I conducted on Genkai

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have previously discussed the reconstruction process for Genkai Island (see Nakano, 2014),
so for the purposes of this paper, I will provide a brief outline in order to compare Genkai
Island to Kotaki. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific
Research, Grant Numbers 24520923 and 15KT0092).
2. OVERVIEW OF GENKAI ISLAND

Genkai Island is a 4.4 KM2 island near the mouth of Fukuoka Bay, and is located20km northwest of the center of Fukuoka. The island had a population of 700 as of February
2005, before the earthquake, but it had a population of just 477 as of August 2016 (Fukuoka
City Homepage, 2016). Fishing has been the main industry on the island, but the number offishers has been declining due to the decreasing number of fish. Narrow and steep stone steps
called gangidan surround the island, and many houses stood on stone foundations. There
were no roads for cars, and residents had to use the gangidan whenever they left their houses,
so they encountered other residents every day. The gangidan forced residents tocommunicate.
An earthquake hit Genkai Island on March 20, 2005. The earthquake had a magnitudeof 7 and a seismic intensity of around 6, and Genkai Island was 8km southeast of its epicenter.
The island had not had an earthquake before, so for many residents, this was the firstearthquake they had experienced. Most of the houses on the island were severely damaged.
On the day of the earthquake, residents decided to evacuate to the gymnasium on themainland. After one month, evacuees moved into temporary houses built by the prefecturethat were located on Genkai Island and on the mainland. There were 50 temporary houses ineach of the two areas. In March 2008, three years after the evacuation, all residents were able
to return to the island.
3. THE PROCESS OF RECONSTRUCTION AND RESIDENTS’ NEW LIVES AFTERRECONSTRUCTION

One particular characteristic of the process of reconstruction on Genkai Island wasthat residents were able to prepare the entire island for new long-term housing construction at
the same time. There were often problems with land ownership, but residents of the island
were able to solve these issues. As a result, all houses that were located on gangidan were
torn down for reconstruction. The land was then divided into 50 blocks for 50 houses,
comprising 198 KM2.
I would like to discuss the following two points about the process of reconstruction.
First, how the residents were able to prepare the entire island for construction so quickly. I
would like to analyze how residents were able to reach an agreement for reconstruction.
Second, I would like to show how residents maintained a link between their lives before andafter the earthquake through a worldview that supported them. I will also discuss certain
current problems.
The consent of all residents was required in order to carry out the reconstruction
project, but the amount of damage differed for each house, so not all of the residents agreed
initially. However, close relationships between relatives and neighbors, as well as
associations for reconstruction that were based on these relationships, worked to persuade all
the residents as to the merits of the reconstruction plan.
4. THE ROAD TO REACHING AN AGREEMENT FOR RECONSTRUCTION IN GENKAIISLAND

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434.1 THE COMMITTEE AND THE CONFERENCE FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF
GENKAI ISLANDThe Committee for the Reconstruction of Genkai Island was composed of 13
members who were leaders of the local Neighborhood Association, the Fishers’ Union, andother associations. For the first residents’ meeting, two representatives were selected fromeach of the Young Men’s Association (Seinendan), the Middle-Aged Men’s Association(Seishōnen-bu), the Women’s Neighborhood Association (Fujin-bu), the Fire Defense
Association (Shōbōdan), the Women’s Fire Defense Association (Fujinbouka Club), theP.T.A. (Parent and Teacher Association), and office workers, for a total of 14 people. They
held workshops, discussions, and an island-wide residents’ meeting. These associations werecomposed of people who were familiar with the island, which is why they were able tounderstand the residents’ needs. They also went to see the city of Kobe, a former disaster area,
and incorporated what they learned from Kobe when they built public apartments on Genkai
Island.
4.2 THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RELATIVES
The reconstruction committee took the time to ask each family for their requests, andreconciled various opinions in order to reach an agreement. The members of the committee
were also relatives of residents on the island, and they tried to persuade residents who did notagree initially with the reconstruction plan. The strong bonds between relatives helped topersuade all the residents of the plan’s merits. This was the most effective means of
persuasion on the island, because residents knew that returning to the same place and starting
new lives there meant maintaining their previous social relationships. Finally, all the island’s
residents agreed to the project. On the one hand, this solution could be considered asshigarami, or “cooperation,” but on the other hand, residents really had no choice but to agree
to the committee’s solution.
4.3 THE ROLE OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NEIGHBORS
Residents used the gangidan every day. For instance, they needed help from relatives
and neighbors when constructing and tearing down houses, filling in wells, and carrying large
household goods. On this island, the amount of support residents received was indicative of
the position of that family on the island. They thought that taking a long time to do something
was shameful, or hazukashii, because it showed that no one wanted to help them. In the same
way as with relatives and neighbors, the decision to return to the island was tied closely to themaintenance of previous relationships. As we have seen, the relationships between relatives
and neighbors were the social resources of Genkai Island. This was not evident whenreconstructing life on the mainland after the quake, but when proposing a concrete plan for
the reconstruction of the island, these social resources were actively applied.
The bonds between relatives were stronger than bonds between neighbors on theisland. In this case, the process of persuasion was important. While the content of thenegotiation over reconstruction was certainly one significant factor, who was doing thepersuading and what relationship they had to other residents, as well as whether or not they
were trying to maintain the relationship once they returned to the island, was also very
important.
Residents who returned to the island and started new lives there after the earthquake
tried to maintain their previous social relationships. That is to say, because the relationships
supported daily life on the island, they became important resources to move thereconstruction forward.

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4.4 LINKS BETWEEN THEIR LIVES BEFORE AND AFTER THE EARTHQUAKEThe reconstruction of houses included important processes that gave residents peaceof mind. For example, the matter of water gods who resided in wells became a major
challenge. It was an unspoken rule that no one would build a house where there was a well.
Residents created stories about water gods to try to explain the cause of various mysterious
phenomena. They believed that nothing mysterious would occur if there were no wells
located nearby, and even if there had been a well there before, if the owner of the wellremoved the water god properly, nothing bad would happen. On Genkai Island, they invited ashaman from the mainland to purify five large community wells and many private wells andalso to conduct prayers. They believed that if these purification steps were not taken whenfilling in a well, the water gods would curse the owner’s family. Removing the water gods
therefore gave the residents peace of mind, and provided a smoother transition between theirformer lives and their new lives on the island after reconstruction.
In sum, the reconstruction of houses included important processes that gave residents
peace of mind. The residents had a particular view of the world and their lives before theearthquake, and they were able to maintain the same worldview through removing the water
gods and talking about the process. This concrete manifestation of their beliefs should beviewed as a cultural resource that supported their new lives. The social relationships on theisland were important social resources that were used in the process of reconstruction.
5. NEW PROBLEMSIn the six years since residents returned to the island they have encountered many
problems in their new lives. The biggest problem is the lack of communication between
residents.
The most noticeable changes for residents were the loss of the gangidan and thebuilding of roads. They preferred to talk about the inconvenience of gangidan, but how theyneeded to cooperate when building houses, and the opportunities it gave them to work
together in their daily lives, to talking about the convenience of the new roads. Moreover,these topics came as a set. The residents mentioned both the inconvenience of the gangidan
and the convenience of the new roads, and emphasized that losing social relationships was anegative consequence of the new roads and their convenience. The following are someexamples of the residents’ thoughts:(A) We had the strongest ties with our neighbors when we lived in the temporary
houses, because every day we talked with neighbors we had never talked to before theearthquake (Nakano 2015, 154).
(B) For us, the temporary houses felt like home. But we knew that this wasn’t
something we could say enthusiastically to the people in Tohoku [after March 2011],
because so many people had passed away there and there were still so many people
living alone in temporary houses. But I want to tell them that they will be able torebuild their lives. I can’t tell people who lost their families to “be strong,” because
there are things that they will never be able to forget. But they have to move forward
in order to live, and they have to think about their lives positively. So, we want toaccept our situation positively. Instead of saying “we’re finally moving out of thetemporary houses,” we show our positive thinking by saying, “we had good memories
in the temporary houses.” (Nakano, 2015, 155).

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The residents of Genkai talked about their new houses the same way. When they
discussed how they lived before, they viewed the narrow roads not as a negative, but rather as
a positive, because they functioned to limit family squabbling. The residents pointed out that
this environment, with the gangidan and limited space, forced them to maintain theirrelationships with family members, relatives, and neighbors.
Recently, residents encountered many problems in their new lives. Their anxiousness
was apparent in their conversations. They often talked about life in the temporary houses withnostalgia. Yet it is clear that life in the temporary houses was not comfortable; the rooms
were small and the walls were thin, so they had to put up with noise from their neighbors.
Indeed, the temporary houses were very cold in the winter and were very hot in the summer,
even though they had air conditioners. However, many residents spoke positively about theirexperiences.
For example, when the residents were living in the small temporary houses, they
could obtain everything they needed without walking very far, and so they could
communicate with their neighbors easily. This shows that their interpretation of issues andspace on the island was critical of their new lives. They mentioned that there was a parallel
between their physical closeness and their psychological closeness, which could be seen in
their current lack of communication with their neighbors now that they live farther apart. We
can also see the residents’ determination in how they have tried to accept their pastexperiences, turn them into positives, and move forward in their new lives.
6. OVERVIEW OF KOTAKI

Sakae village is located in the northern part of Nagano prefecture and is known as oneof the snowiest areas in Japan. The village holds the record for the most snowfall in Japan,
which was 7.85m in February 1945. Sakae village had a population of 2,383 as of April 2010
before the earthquake, but it had decreased to 2,020 as of July 2016. Sakae village iscomposed of 31 areas, and Kotaki is among them. Kotaki had 17 families before theearthquake, but it had only 11 families as of July 2016 (Kita Shinshu Sakae Mura Homepage2016). Most residents have the same family name, so they addressed each other not by theirfamily name but by a trade name, or yagō. Their yagō comes from the location of their houseor their family trade; for example, the yagō Kudari means “going down,” and the yagō
Daikudon means “carpenters.”
On the day of the earthquake, some houses were completely destroyed and others
were partially damaged. The main village industries were rice farming, mushroom cultivation,and raising cattle. However, residents gave up mushroom cultivation and raising cattle after
the earthquake because the facilities were completely destroyed and it would have cost somuch to rebuild them. Also, the owners of the facilities were mostly seniors, and they gave
up on rebuilding the facilities.
7 OVERVIEW OF RECONSTRUCTION

The earthquake hit Sakae village on March 12, 2011, the day after the Great East
Japan Earthquake. It had a magnitude of 6.7 and a seismic intensity of 6. The epicenter wason the border between Sakae village and the Tsunan-chō in Niigata prefecture. On the day ofthe earthquake, there was still two meters of snow even though it was March. The roads to
Kotaki were destroyed in an avalanche and all of the residents were rescued by helicopter.
Residents evacuated to the local primary school. Fortunately, no one was killed by theearthquake, but some senior residents died during the evacuation. A month after theevacuation, the residents all moved into temporary houses to allow rebuilding. In December

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2012, they returned to Kotaki. Residents have rebuilt their houses in the same places, just as
was done on Genkai Island. Even though Kotaki is a small community, it received a prize
from the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications (Sōmushō), the “2016 Hometown
Development Award,” giving them public recognition for helping revitalize their community,and for using their area’s particular character to facilitate exchanges with people from otherparts of Japan.
The residents of Kotaki have not only maintained and rebuilt their community, butthey have also tried to develop it in various ways. Kotaki is different from other areas of
Sakae village in that they have tried actively to connect with outside groups. I would like todiscuss four points about how they connected with others: first, the process that residents of
Kotaki used to plan the reconstruction, which showed their perspective that they should try toutilize their history; second, the residents’ efforts to restart rice farming; third, how they
helped revitalize their community by branding rice; and fourth, how they created a space forothers as well as for the people of their community.
This data was based on my field research in Kotaki and the booklet A Collection of
Personal Accounts of the Earthquake: We’ll Never Forget That Moment (Shinsai taiken
kirokushū: Ano toki o wasurenai, Nagano-ken Sakae-mura Kotaki-shūraku, 2014), createdfrom the residents’ interviews and writings. Residents interviewed other residents andincluded the stories they heard in the booklet. They outlined the amount of damage, showed
their reconstruction efforts chronologically, and recorded the basic guidelines for theirreconstruction plan in this booklet. Residents took many pictures of the damage from theearthquake so that they could pass on those images to others. The content of this booklet is an
important record for Kotaki and a turning point in the reconstruction process (Nagano-ken
Sakae-mura Kotaki-shūraku, 2014).
8. THE PROCESS OF PLANNING RECONSTRUCTION

8.1 WHY THREE HUNDRED YEARS?
When the residents of Kotaki made plans for reconstruction, they considered theircommunity’s history. Their goal was to “pass the community of Kotaki on to people threehundred years from now.” To do so, they developed three points: first, to come up with an
unconventional new idea and make the best of a bad situation; second, to understand their
history and reexamine resources in the community; and third, that communication withoutsiders was vital, and that they should attract new ideas to Kotaki.
The reason why residents in Kotaki chose the time frame of three hundred years wasconnected to their community’s history three hundred years ago. Two old documents exist.
One of them was a letter of thanks to the feudal lord in 1695. At that time, residents were
suffering from a drought and the local authorities solved the problem by developing new
fields for rice farming. The other was a map of areas in Sakae village that were damaged by
the Zenkōji Earthquake in 1845. Many residents of Kotaki had learned about these two
documents in a class held by a group of historians the year before the earthquake. Thus, theyknew that their ancestors had experienced many problems and had overcome those problems.
They became aware of the importance of their community, and they made the decision tomaintain it. This case indicates that learning about history has a direct connection to real life.
This effort was the result of cooperation between researchers and residents, and the result wasa real-life application of history. This example shows that knowledge of history can help
residents rebuild their lives.
8.2 EFFORTS TO RESTART RICE FARMING

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Residents of Kotaki gave up rice farming for a year after the earthquake. Agriculturalexperts from Shinshū University told residents that the rice fields needed to be thoroughly
surveyed for cracks, because even a crack as thin as a hair would allow water to flow out andthe field to collapse. People who had experienced the earthquake in Niigata in 2004 gavethem the same advice. As a result, the farmers of Kotaki decided not to grow rice in the year
following the earthquake. People in other areas of Sakae village decided how to rebuild theirfarmlands individually, but it was possible for people in Kotaki to make a decision as acommunity because they had worked on the farms together since the 1990s.
Furthermore, the personal experiences and advice of the people in Niigata Prefecture
prompted residents in Kotaki to begin reconstruction. On the surface, it appeared that thereconstruction went very well, but in fact they have had many problems. A man who led thereconstruction work was shocked by the earthquake and thought that he would not be able torecover, as he recounted in an interview:
I didn’t have any hope after the earthquake. I could only look down. At that time, I
went to see Chūetsu [which was damaged by an earthquake in 2004] and was
surprised. A man over eighty years old talked cheerfully about his life afterreconstruction, saying “our village came alive again after the earthquake.” At first I
thought I’d leave Kotaki too, but when it came down to the wire, I changed my mind
and thought that land ownership didn’t matter, and I wanted people from outside to beable to use my land freely. It’s because Kotaki has been maintained for three hundredyears by many people moving in and out. Hearing the seniors in Chūetsu talk about
people coming in from outside, and living there, and the village becoming lively andfun, it gave me hope.
The Keyaki Lions Club offering to support Kotaki also gave us hope. It was
important that the support they gave was focused, not general, because it is no use tohave support if there’s no understanding of where to direct it. The people of Chūetsu
told us, “Don’t be in a hurry. It does no good to rush.”
When people were in fiscal and psychological crisis, they were able to overcome their
bad situation through the words and advice of others who had been through the same
experiences and by learning about their reconstruction process.
The narrative given here is just one of the stories told to the author, but from it we cansee what acted as a support for them to stand and start reconstruction, and how their feelings
changed. It may be because five years have passed [2011-2016] since the earthquake that it ispossible for residents to talk with others about the need to restart rice farming.
8.3 REVITALIZING THE COMMUNITY BY BRANDING RICE
After the earthquake, residents invested in a limited liability company (LLC), andstarted branding their rice “Kotakimai” through a partnership with a company in Tokyo.
Japan’s most famous brand of rice, Uonuma rice, or in Japanese, Uonumasan Koshihikari,
was produced in a village near Sakae village. Uonumasan Koshihikari typically sells for ahigh price, but Kotaki rice is sold at a low price in spite of its high quality. The farmers tried
to expand sales of their rice through the support of the company in Tokyo. They also createdjobs packing rice in bottles. This has enabled residents to connect with people from outside
their village and helped to revitalize Kotaki’s main industry. Recently, some young people
have returned to Kotaki in order to take over family rice farms.
At the same time that residents were developing their rice brand, a Non-Profit
Organization (NPO) organized some events in which participants could experience rice

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transplanting and harvesting in order to promote exchanges between residents and people
from outside.
8.4 MAKING A SPACE FOR VISITORS
Because there were many people coming to Kotaki, they needed to make places forthem to gather and stay. There were two places where people could gather in Kotaki: thecommunity center, or Kōminkan, and a guesthouse that was converted from an old Japanesestyle house. The Kōminkan played an important role as a place for residents to gather even
before the earthquake. The guesthouse was renovated in 2015 through crowd funding and iscurrently managed by the residents’ limited liability company. Most of the participants in thefestival events held in Kotaki stay there, and it provides a good opportunity to learn about life
in Kotaki. Providing these facilities has made it easy for people from outside to visit Kotaki.
While the Kōminkan is a place for residents, the guesthouse has become a place whereresidents and outsiders can connect.
In sum, I would like to point out two particular characteristics of the process ofreconstruction in Kotaki. First, the residents have had good relationships with people fromoutside their area, and their relationships have not been short-term, but long-term. It is very
important to note that these relationships have become a part of daily life in Kotaki. Second,is the maintenance of the Kōminkan and the creation of the guesthouse as places to gather.
Because it is the same facility residents used before the earthquake, the Kōminkan provides alink to life before the earthquake, and the guesthouse is essential for receiving visitors.
9. CONCLUSION: HOW SHOULD WE VIEW THE CASES OF GENKAI ISLAND AND
KOTAKI?

I would like to underscore some features that the two cases have in common. First,
residents in both places went to see former disaster areas (e.g Kobe and Chuetsu in Niigata)and tried to utilize their experiences. Second, in both cases the entire community came
together and held meetings during the reconstruction process, allowing them to reevaluate
what was most important to them. Third, they chose to maintain some things that provided alink between life before and after the earthquake. In the case of Genkai Island, people tried tomaintain their worldview that was based on their beliefs, and in the case of Kotaki, theresidents prioritized their gathering place and rebuilt the community center, the Kōminkan,very quickly.
However, there were differences between Genkai Island and Kotaki. For instance, theenvironments were completely different. On one hand, Genkai Island completely changed theentire island layout, while on the other hand, in Kotaki people have not changed the scenery;instead they rebuilt their houses in the same place where they had lived before.
There are various lessons for post-disaster restoration. For instance, prioritizing
convenience for residents’ daily lives such as on Genkai Island changed preexisting social
relationships, and this was a major issue in their reconstruction process. It is natural forresidents to want comfortable lives. However, what is comfortable and convenient is not thesame everywhere in Japan. Therefore, it is important to base plans for reconstruction on anunderstanding of the cultural and social background of the particular disaster areas. When
residents of Genkai Island chose to return to the island rather than move off the island, theyagreed to reconstruct the entire island at once. At that time, they were able to effectively
utilize their existing social relationships. The inconvenience of the stone steps, the gangidan,
helped maintain social relationships on the island, and it became clear that the inconvenience
together with the social relationships complemented each other. Removing water gods was aneffective way to explain mysterious phenomena, and the reason why the Committee for the
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Investigation of Reconstruction was able to understand its importance was because thecommittee had been formed from local associations on the island. The importance ofcorrectly removing a water god from a well could only be understood by grasping theresidents’ perception of wells. I would like to point out that because of the deep belief
symbolized in the ceremonies, the assurance that they had gone through the traditional
process was important for residents to acclimate themselves to their new lives.
Nonetheless, serious issues have occurred. For instance there are few things to remind
people of the disaster in the island, the opportunities to work together have continued todecrease, and residents say that they no longer show their appreciation for or apologize toothers. The behaviors that had maintained social relationships on the island seem to havedisappeared after the disaster. Despite that, I would not recommend restoring gangidan andthe lives where people had needed to carry everything by hand without paved roads. In the
future, when residents have to confront hardship once again and deal with problems inaccordance with the general will of the residents, how will they find a key to the compromise?
There are no wells anywhere anymore, and they live in convenient surroundings. It is certainthat they will not have significant experiences working together in such an environment, or
shared memories on the island. How will they be able to make shared memories in the future?
This could become a serious problem.
In Kotaki, residents have utilized their history and local resources in the process ofreconstruction, and they have tried to pass them on to later generations. One particularcharacteristic of the reconstruction of Kotaki is that the residents’ ideas were motivated bytheir links to people from outside their village. Since the earthquake, they have tried tostrengthen their connections with people from outside. This showed that residents have
utilized the crisis to try to revitalize their community. The case of Kotaki shows thatreconstruction was not just about rebuilding facilities, but was also a chance to solve theproblems of an aging population and the stagnation of their primary industry. As for Kotaki,
it is still too soon to say what kind of effect the residents’ decisions will have on their future.
More than anything else, the residents of both Kotaki and Genkai Island want to share theirexperiences, including problems that arose after reconstruction, with people in other areas
affected by natural disasters.

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REFERENCES

Fukuoka City Homepage. (2016). City.fukuoka.lg.jp. Retrieved August 2016, fromhttp://www.city.fukuoka.lg.jp/index.html
Kita Shinshu Sakae Mura Homepage. (2016). Vill.sakae.nagano.jp. Retrieved August 2016,
from http://www.vill.sakae.nagano.jp/
K. Nakano (2014). Kiki wo norikoeru chie: Fukuokaken seihō oki jishin no hisaichi —Genkai-jima no fukkō katei, Daito Bunka Daigaku Keiei ronshū, 27, 69-78.
K. Nakano (2015). Saigai fukkō to chiikishigen no katsuyō — Fukuokaken seihō oki jishin
no hisaichi Genkai-jima jūmin no katari kara, Daito Bunka Daigaku Keiei ronshū,28/29, 149-164.
Nagano-ken Sakae-mura Kotaki-shūraku (2014). A Collection of Personal Accounts of the
Earthquake: We’ll Never Forget That Moment (Shinsai taiken kirokushū: Ano toki owasurenai), Kotaki fukkō Project Team.
Y. Yamaguchi (2011). Tsunami to mura, Tokyo, Miyai Shoten.

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5. EXPERIENCING JAPANESE
BUSINESS: CURRICULUMDEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES FOR
AN UNDERGRADUATE TRAVELSTUDY PROGRAM
Leighton Wilks
Instructor, Haskayne School of Business
University of Calgary
Email: lrwilks@ucalgary.ca
Teri Jane Bryant
Associate Professor Emerita, Haskayne School of Business
University of Calgary
Email: teri.bryant@haskayne.ucalgary.ca

ABSTRACT

Programs involving travel abroad resulting in university course credit are increasingly
popular (Hackney, Boggs and Borozan (2012), yet pose daunting challenges due to thecompressed time frame and need for innovative course delivery, assignments, and assessment
mechanisms. The study of Japanese business by Canadian students requires suchcontextualization due to the major differences in history, culture and geography that haveshaped it, as well as the widespread dissemination of misleading conceptualizations based on
simplistic cultural and historical stereotypes. Using a case study of the development of anundergraduate short–term study abroad program including a three-week field trip to Japan,
we investigate a blended learning approach to presenting Japanese business in a global
context to students. Key issues include course creation and pedagogy, selection of businesssite visits and exercises to maximize student learning from them, the integration of culturaland historical site visits into a business-oriented curriculum. We must plan for the effective
use of learning technologies, and the development of assessment mechanisms that fully
exploit the experiential learning potential of a study tour to develop both understanding andJSAC 2016 | Globalizing Japan

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Keywords: Japan, pedagogy, curriculum, short-term study abroad

1. INTRODUCTION

The internationalization of undergraduate education is emerging as a key priority
within North American Universities. Business schools, in particular, show an increasing
focus on globalization with 76 per cent of AACSB1 accredited business schools making
specific reference to internationalization or globalization in their mission statements (Manueland Shooshtari, 2012). Short-term study abroad programs allow students to earn course
credits through intense, immersive experiences in a foreign country. Brasfield, McCoy and
Reed (2011) find that short term travel abroad programs enhance international businesscurriculum though developing attitudinal change that enhances participants’ abilities tosuccessfully conduct business in foreign countries. Despite the effectiveness of direct
exposure to foreign cultures, student participation in study abroad programs is still quite
limited. Hackney, Boggs and Borozan (2012) report that in the United States approximately 2
per cent of all undergraduate students participate in a study abroad program, with businessstudents making up approximately 13 per cent of those that participate. However, given thehigh number of students in a business program, only 0.02 per cent of undergraduate businessstudents actually participate in a study abroad program.
Short-term study abroad programs can provide students with first-hand, real-world
experience of a sort that would be difficult to replicate in a classroom setting. Somewhat
paradoxically, they can also be an ideal platform for blended learning, as technology canprovide the scheduling flexibility needed to allow students to focus their attention on
experiential aspects of the program, which are often tied to specific times and places.
Technology can also provide a virtual meeting place for inter-student and student-instructor
interaction that can obviate the need to arrange classroom space in a foreign location.
This paper presents the curriculum development challenges associated with thedevelopment of a short-tem study abroad program focused on Japanese business at a Western
Canadian business school. We begin by summarizing the environment and parameters within
which the program was developed, and identifying the challenges and opportunities presented
by this context, as well as by the subject matter itself. We then proceed to a review of theliterature relevant to these challenges, and draw from this review some key principles toguide program development. The final shape of the program is then summarized. We
conclude by highlighting the remaining areas of uncertainty and the lessons we hope to learn
from the first program cycle. At the time of writing the proposed field trip to Japan has yet totake place.
2. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING PARAMETERS

This curriculum development exercise takes place within a major Western Canadianbusiness school with a full range of programs at the undergraduate, masters and doctorallevels. With some 3,000 students, the undergraduate program offers numerous specializations.
The business school has a lengthy history of teaching a course about Japanese business in a
1

The AACSB is the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business, themost widely recognized body providing accreditation of business schools at universities
world-wide, although it origins are in the USA. See www.aacsb.edu.
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traditional classroom format, largely due to the personal interest of one instructor, but has
relatively little experience with formal short-term study abroad programs and little depth inJapanese studies. One very small travel-study program in risk management and insurance has
run for many years, but there has been little incentive for research-oriented faculty toundertake the heavy logistical burden associated with developing a new teaching programfrom scratch. On the other hand, the importance of student engagement and the quality of thestudent experience has received increased attention in recent years, providing a receptive
environment for such initiatives. Innovative experiential programs have been developed inother contexts, such as developing leadership skills through wilderness expeditions.
Structural support for innovative teaching initiatives is provided through teaching andlearning specialists attached to each functional area, with an Associate Dean specificallydesignated for this purpose. In 2014-2015 there was a previous attempt to develop a Japanfocused program similar to the one discussed here, but it had to be abandoned when personal
circumstances prevented the organizer from continuing.
At the university level there is a centre charged with organizing and promoting travel
study programs across the institution, which offers considerable infrastructure support,
including formal approval processes, program guidelines and manuals for both student
participants and instructor-organizers. There is also a small but active Asian Studies program
which offers a variety of courses in Japanese language, culture, history, and so on. This groupdoes offer Japanese language and culture travel study programs through the aforementioned
university centre, and has been a valuable source of information, advice and support.
Unfortunately, the constraints of a business curriculum, imposed partially to satisfy
accreditation requirements, and the relatively late point in their studies at which students’career plans crystalize, means that few business students have any significant background instudies related to Japan or Asia in general. Institutional constraints have also hindered theparticipation of non-business students in the Japanese business studies course, although asignificant number have overcome these obstacles, and often accounted for 25-30 per cent ofenrolment.
The university’s travel study centre suggested several of the parameters within which
the program was planned, largely based on what had proven successful in previous programs
elsewhere in the university. In essence, these parameters included:(a) Offering the program during the spring session, which means mostly May, which
seems to be the time most students are available to travel. Since May is one of the best
times to travel to Japan in terms of weather (assuming one avoids the congestion
associated with Golden Week), this posed no real problems, and is discussed only
cursorily in what follows.
(b) Structuring the program to provide credit for two half-courses, as this seems to be theminimum needed to make the cost attractive to students. Fortunately two courses
readily lent themselves to this purpose; the “Doing Business with Japan” course that
had been offered before, as well as a new course, “Experiencing Japanese Business”
that had been proposed and approved in relation to the earlier abortive program
mentioned above. (The content of these courses and how it was adapted to thisspecific format will be the subject of much further elaboration below.)(c) Including approximately one week of preparatory studies and three weeks of travel,with some assignments due after returning to Canada, the limited time available forpre-departure preparation was viewed as problematic from a number of perspectives.
This issue is discussed in more detail later in the paper, but also represents an

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opportunity to make use of the technological infrastructure that has been put in placeat the university, such as the learning information system Desire2Learn (D2L).
(d) Maintaining a ratio of one instructor/mentor per ten to twelve students, and an ideal
total group size of 20-24. The staffing and group size issues are briefly discussed
below, and represented more logistical than conceptual issues.
Given these parameters, we divided the challenges we faced into three conceptualgroups: logistical issues, course content issues, and course delivery issues. This frameworkprovided some structure for the work we now describe, although there were many
interactions that made these distinctions less tidy than they might first appear.
3. LOGISTICAL ISSUES

We identified the following key logistical considerations: instructors, program
location, accommodation, and mode of travel. While none of these matters posed serious
challenges in themselves, they did require consideration due to their impact on other aspectsof the program.
As noted above, the business school does not have great depth in Japanese studies, but
fortunately only two instructors were required. The instructor of the long-running course inJapanese business, though now retired, was available to provide backup support andcontinuity. A younger faculty member who had taught under the JET program in Japan for
two years and who was an expert in cross-cultural studies enthusiastically volunteered to be
the instructor of record, assuming primary responsibility for course design, grading, and so on.
While it is possible to rely to some extent on local Canadian and provincial representatives
for short-term visits abroad, such as those that often comprise a keystone experience in an
Executive MBA program, an immersive experience counting towards course requirements
does demand at least some in-house expertise. In this case, the program provides anopportunity for the retention and development of a new generation of expertise that could
benefit potentially both Japan-related programs and travel study initiatives in other study
locations. This program was seen very much as a pilot for future initiatives at the businessschool involving study elsewhere.
Japan, of course, offers a host of fascinating places to spend time and learn.
Secondary cities, cultural centres and rural areas would each offer unique benefits. However,in planning the proposed study program it was decided to spend roughly two-thirds of thestudy abroad period (i.e. roughly two weeks out of three) in Tokyo, for a number of practicaland conceptual reasons. First, it is Japan’s nerve centre in many fields: government, business,finance, media, and so on. Second, as a huge metropolis, it offers an unmatched variety ofexperiences and accommodation options within its boundaries, and the most flight options toreach Japan. Third, while some lament that Tokyo is not the “real” Japan, this romantic
contention is hard to square with the fact that such a large percentage of the Japanese
population lives and works there, or wants to. Fourth, the city’s central location makes it easy
to stage day trips to important centres of cultural interest, such as Nikko and Kamakura.
Indeed, with the Shinkansen (bullet train), only the very farthest reaches of the archipelago
are out of reach of the really energetic day tripper. The remaining week will be spent mostly
in the Kyoto area, with easy access to the business bustle of Osaka as well as the cultural
treasures in Nara, Himeji and the city itself. One day will be spent in the Nagoya area tofacilitate a visit to a Toyota factory and other related facilities.
Accommodation options are also legion within Tokyo: hotels, ryokans (Japanese-style

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inns), dormitories, capsules, home stays, air B&B, and just about every form of temporary
living arrangement human ingenuity has devised. Dormitories are perhaps the cheapest option,
but would offer a rather impersonal impression of Japan. In the end, it was decided to book
multi-person rooms in small, family-run ryokan in the city’s northeast, notably the famous
Sawanoya district. These facilities provided a more intimate atmosphere, some exposure to
Japanese culture such as bathing practices, and organized cultural learning opportunities incollaboration with local cultural outreach organizations, ranging from lion dance
performances to sushi-making sessions. They are also located in shitamachi (older working
class neighbourhoods) areas that give some flavour of the traditional Japan, albeit within acontext of steady gentrification.
During the two weeks in Tokyo, all travel will be by public transportation. This will
ensure an immersive experience and prevent students from remaining in the “bubble” ofchartered buses or other private means of transport. It is also by far the cheapest and usually
the fastest means of travel. The organizational issue of moving two dozen people together
through Tokyo will provide a built-in opportunity for practical leadership training throughdelegation of leaders to sub-groups. Outside of Tokyo, the day trips will be by regular trains,with the long-distance travel to the Kyoto area by Shinkansen. Japan’s public transportation
infrastructure is itself an important aspect of the business environment and ample exposure to
it will provide both an opportunity for familiarization with an important aspect of the daily
life of a large percentage of the Japanese population and an excellent study site for the highly
integrated nature of Japanese business (for example, the way in which some groups combine
transportation facilities such as commuter train lines with real estate development and retailspace to take advantage of the traffic).
4. COURSE CONTENT

It is important to note that some material is specified, and in some cases evendelivered, by the university’s centre for travel study programs. Mandated content includes
safety orientation and general mental preparation for a cross-cultural experience. Somerelated material will be Japan- and site-specific, such as emergency preparation in the eventof a natural disaster, such as an earthquake, flood, landslide or tsunami, or cautions to bewary in entertainment districts. Other everyday topics will include briefings oncommunication and transportation, as well as general etiquette. These topics alone could
easily fill more classroom time than is available before departure, without even beginning todiscuss topics such as the development of Japanese business practices, current factors
influencing their evolution, and the like.
The course content of this program was designed to increase country specificknowledge of doing business in Japan, while also increasing the students’ international
managerial competence and personal leadership. Given that university administration
required that students receive credit for two courses, the decision was made to create twodifferent, yet complementary courses. The course titled “Doing Business in Japan” helped
prepare students by providing necessary context and background information on Japan, whilethe “Experiencing Japanese Business” course addressed cultural intelligence and personalleadership. These courses were run concurrently, and delivered in a “block week” component
one week prior to departure on a three week travel program. Consideration was given to theuse of technology and the virtual classroom as a way to increase student knowledge as well asgroup cohesion prior to leaving for Japan. The following sections will discuss the content andpedagogy of each of the two courses developed for this program.

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564.1 STRATEGY AND GLOBAL MANAGEMENT (SGMA) 573 – “BUSINESS WITH
JAPAN”
The content planned for the program must take into account various complications
related to both the subject matter and the level of student preparation. One of the key
fascinations of the Japanese business world for students and scholars alike is its unique
combination of cultural and institutional arrangements. While these are in rapid transition due
to economic, political and demographic forces, they remain quite distinctive, indeed
sufficiently so that it would be difficult for an uninitiated observer to correctly interpret manyof the phenomena he/she would observe on a day-to-day basis. This is particularly so due tothe language barrier for English speakers posed by the Japanese writing system, which meansthat most signs and other sources of information cannot be read, even with the aid of adictionary. Clearly advance preparation will assist students to learn more rapidly once they
are in Japan.
It was decided that the best way to prepare students for the study abroad program
would be to run a modified version of “Business with Japan”; a course that one of our
instructors had delivered as a traditional semester-based course for several years. The primaryrole of this course would be to provide the students with relevant knowledge on 1) the legal
and regulatory environment, 2) the political environment, 3) the economic environment, 4)financial structures, and 5) information relevant to student interests and projects.
The primary issue with adapting a semester-based course to an intensive, time
constrained format is how best to cover material normally presented in class. We decided toapproach this issue in three ways: 1) to utilize technology by taking advantage of the learning
information system known as D2L, 2) to provide key lecture material during the block week
portion of the course, and 3) to provide ongoing lectures and support during our visit to Japan.
As participants will be notified of their acceptance to the program approximately four months
prior to our departure date, a virtual classroom will be set up via D2L. The instructors will
identify key readings and relevant news articles and post them periodically for students toread prior to block week. A short online quiz will be a requirement prior to departure to help
ensure that students have completed the relevant readings. Discussion boards will be set up
on D2L to allow participants to chat with each other about Japan related topics, as well as topost relevant or interesting articles. Both instructors will act as moderators for this board,
answering any questions, and providing supplemental material of value to the students.
By creating this virtual classroom well in advance of our departure it is hoped that wewill increase knowledge of Japanese business practices, while at the same time fostering a
sense of community and developing relationships prior to departure. A major consideration isthat the level of student background in matters pertaining specifically to this program will bevariable, but in general very low2. Ideally, the group would be composed of senior students
with Japanese language and culture studies in addition to business training, but the reality isthat most will have one or the other, and some perhaps neither. Thus, nothing can be taken for
granted. Here again, technology can allow students to delve into topics they need to know
more about, while skimming over those with which they are already familiar. We can also
structure groups to maximize the synergy between the skill sets of participants, putting
together, for example, students with a strong business background with some who may lackthis, but have some degree of facility in the Japanese language.
In addition to the virtual classroom, students will be required to attend classes in a
block week format one week prior to departure. The morning of the first and third day of the2This can also be viewed as an advantage, as it minimizes the likelihood of stereotypes oroutdated conceptions dominating student perceptions.
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block will be lecture style, with content from “Business with Japan” that is tailored to support
the required project. The first part of the project (pre-departure) will require the students toutilize readings and previous knowledge of Japan to identify and refine the business idea.
Students will work on this project in the afternoon session of block week, culminating in an
initial “business pitch” to fellow students and the instructors on the final afternoon of block
week. The instructors and students will give relevant feedback and discuss the viability of theidea. The second part of the project (during visit) will require reflecting on experiences while
in Japan and incorporating new knowledge in an effort to refine the business pitch. Students
will keep a journal/scrapbook (either physical or electronic) to collect their thoughts andreflections on any changes to the original business pitch. The final part of the project (postvisit), due within three weeks of arrival, will require students to submit a written businessplan reflecting their refined idea as well as a final “business pitch” to the two instructors.
4.2 STRATEGY AND GLOBAL MANAGEMENT (SGMA) 559 – “EXPERIENCINGJAPANESE BUSINESS”
In addition to cultivating interest in Japanese business practices, a second goal of theshort-term study abroad programs is to promote international managerial competence andpersonal leadership. Anderson, Lawton, Rexeisen and Hubbard (2006) find that study abroad
programs have a positive impact on the development of cross-cultural sensitivity of student
participants. More specifically, DeLoach, Kurt and Olitsky (2015) suggest that businessprograms are more effective than non-business programs in creating global awareness andcultural competence, especially with students that have little previous international
experience. With this in mind, the second course titled “Experiencing Japanese Business”
was developed to increase students’ self-awareness and develop skills necessary to both live
and work in a foreign culture.
Cultural intelligence (CQ) has been defined as one’s ability to skillfully function in a
culture that is different from one’s own culture, and is comprised of cognitive, motivational,
and behavioral elements (Earley and Ang, 2003). The idea of CQ was further refined toinclude a strategic element (see Ng, Van Dyne and Ang, 2009a; 2009b). As it pertains to CQ,
knowledge involves specific understanding of culture, history, and politics, whereas strategy
involves how one acquires and uses the aforementioned knowledge. Individuals with highCQ tend to have the motivation to engage with those from other cultures, are able to adapt toother cultures, and respond appropriately in culturally ambiguous situations. Individuals withhigh CQ are able to effectively engage with those from other cultures through developing
language and nonverbal behaviors.
Another emerging area of research with regard to short-term study abroad programs isthe development of personal leadership skills (see the special edition of leadershipdevelopment in the Journal of Teaching in International Business, 2014). Topics of interest
include personal leadership styles, leadership in times of ambiguity, interpersonalcommunication skills, working effectively as part of a team, and conflict resolution methods.
As this study abroad program will involve close interaction with other participants in a noveland potentially stressful environment, there should be ample opportunity for the participants
to reflect on the effectiveness of their personal leadership skills.
Given that international managerial competence is an increasingly sought after skill in
the global workforce, the “Experiencing Japanese Business” course will focuses on thedevelopment of cultural intelligence and personal leadership effectiveness. Much of the predeparture learning (both in the virtual and real classrooms) will focus on developing Japan
specific knowledge largely related to the other course (Business with Japan). However, aportion of the block session will focus on cross-cultural management as well asorganizational behavior topics specifically related to working effectively with people. This
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58part of the course will incorporate several self-assessment tools to establish a baseline foreach student, and provide insight into potential strengths and weaknesses. Students willsubmit a short self reflection paper prior to departing for Japan.
While in Japan, students will keep a journal that chronicles key reflections andlearnings. The nature of this journal will be quite open, to encourage creativity and the use oftechnology/social media. For example, students could create blogs, video blogs, post insights
to twitter, keep a scrapbook, create a virtual scrapbook on Instagram, or any combination of
the aforementioned. Upon returning from Japan, the students will take another set ofassessments to gain insight into changes in level of cultural intelligence or leaderships skills.
Students will then write a short reflective paper that pulls together key insights from thejournals, as well as pre and post assessment tools. One of the challenges in designing a course
based largely on self-reflection and personal insight is the assessment of materials produced.
To address this issue, the instructors will utilize the Kember Four-Category Coding Scheme
for Reflective Writing (Kember, McKay, Sinclair and Wong (2008) as the basis of thegrading rubric. The Kember coding scheme assesses self reflection through a four category
coding scheme that includes non-reflection, understanding, reflection, and critical evaluation(see Appendix 1).
5. COURSE DELIVERY MECHANISMS

The actual time spent together in Japan with students will be devoted largely to fourtypes of group activities: visits to business sites, such as factory tours; discussions withspokespeople of various organizations; visits to locations dominated by a specific activity(such as organized markets or specialty retail districts); and visits to sites of cultural andhistoric importance. Some time will also be allocated for independent research by groups andindividuals, and of course all participants will be expected to use discussion forums, and soon, on a regular basis.
While one might think that the ideal business study tour would be “chock full” offactory and business visits, to the exclusion of all else, with other activities only as “filler”, infact this would be sub-optimal for several reasons. First, any formal factory or business tour
will be led by a spokesperson, typically from the public relations (PR) department, anxious toconvey a lasting positive impression of a technologically sophisticated business turning out
high quality products in a fashion that is environmentally friendly, which offers virtuallyunlimited scope for self-actualization to its contented and highly motivated personnel. Reality,of course, is often more prosaic. Nonetheless, factory tours offer the opportunity to “seebehind the scenes”, applying prior background knowledge to real issues, and asking
corresponding questions (diplomatically, of course). Second, while assembly lines, robots,and giant machines of mysterious purpose may be fascinating to look at, it is the interactionof businesses with their environments, both human and physical, that is often (if not always)
the key to their success or failure, and this can often best be observed by seeing the firm in its“native habitat”, so to speak. Useful locations for such observation are everywhere, but are
most apparent where one activity dominates the surroundings, such as the Kappabashi
restaurant supply wholesale district, or the Tsukiji fish market (if it is still open) or the
Harajuku youth fashion street, Takeshita-dori. Observation skills as well as prior preparation
are essential to benefitting fully from the learning opportunities in such places. This will
therefore also be an opportunity to hone mindfulness skills by developing the balance
between awareness and record-keeping, a sense often underdeveloped in those raised in asocial-media-dominated age.
A significant portion of the group’s time in Japan will also be spent visiting sites ofcultural and historic importance. To be sure, these sites can be used to stimulate interest in

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in visiting shrines and temples, students can be encouraged to dwell on questions such as thefollowing:
1. What was their original economic and social role in the community and nation? How
did this evolve?
2. What economic and social role do they play today? For example, many shrines andtemples play multiple roles in the provision of green space, service as muster points intimes of natural disaster, provide ceremonies and blessings, sales of good luck charms,
staging of flea markets and festivals, tourism, child care, cemeteries, and so on.
3. How have religious rituals, practices and language been incorporated into Japanesebusiness? (for example, blessings of construction sites, use of temple facilities for
initiation of new employees, and so on)
4. What role have they played in the formation of Japanese business ideology? (i.e. how
Japanese business portrays and justifies its practices and role in society?)
Students are also likely to enjoy and benefit from interaction with Japanese peers andother international students. This would occur more naturally in a program based at a specificinstitution, particularly a longer-term one. In this short, intensive format it will be a challenge,
but will be addressed by tapping into both faculty and student networks to arrange informalsocial interaction opportunities such as an evening of drinks and snacks at an izakaya(Japanese-style gastropub).
As the above section suggests, the time in Japan has been designed specifically tomaximize the student’s experience with regard to cultural, historical, and business activities.
However, the trip must be delivered through a balance of planning and flexibility. Eachstudent will have an individual business proposal to deliver upon returning to Canada, andmay wish to visit sites in Japan specific to this project. Further, students may have personal
interests in Japanese culture that they may wish to explore while in Japan. The program has
thus been designed to allow for flexible time for students to undertake independent researchor satisfy personal interests. Flexible delivery is augmented by the fact that both instructors
for the course have previous experience with Japan, and could split the group into two
subsections to cover different activities in the same day. Consideration must also be given to
maximizing the student experience, without overwhelming them and burning them out. How
we proceed will ultimately depend on the nature of the students selected for this program, andwill rely on the personal leadership styles of the instructors to ensure that the program is of
maximum benefit to all involved.
6. PRE-DEPARTURE CHALLENGES

Although the short-term study aboard program to Japan was developed in anticipationof potential issues, and has thus far been relatively issue free, some yet to be identified issues
may develop between the time of writing this paper and our departure for Japan. One of the
primary challenges faced is not knowing the number of students that intend to enroll in the
program, and booking accommodation for a group that could range from 15 to 25 participants.
Further, it may be the case that we take all students that apply, or that we need to selectcertain students over others. Thus far the criteria for student selection consists of 1) writing a
letter of application, 2) providing academic transcripts, and 3) being interviewed by the
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instructors for suitability. A major concern that the instructors have is finding the right “fit”
for the group; that is to say that letting in one bad apple may spoil the trip. In consulting withanother instructor from the Faculty of Arts (Geography) that has run similar short-term study
abroad programs for the last ten years, having good group cohesion and preventing problem
students from being accepted to the program is a major challenge.
An additional challenge has to do with the final deliverables of the course andmeeting university imposed deadlines for the spring semester. This program officially takes
place in the spring semester, and grades are expected to be submitted by the end of June. A
tension thus arises between giving students enough time to finish key deliverables upon
return from Japan, and having enough time to grade these projects to meet the university
deadline. It is important to have students write while the experience is fresh in their minds,
but time is also necessary for a significant amount of reflection and to do a good job on the
final projects. An additional challenge is that although university regulations state that wemust all be on the same flight over to Japan, students are free to continue to travel on theirown once the program is over. Meeting university deadlines could again become an issue if a
student chooses to spend a significant amount of time travelling once the program has
concluded.
7. CONCLUSION

It is hoped that the short-term study abroad program that the instructors developed
will contribute to the internationalization of the Haskayne School of Business at the
University of Calgary, while at the same time fostering an interest in Japan and promoting
Japanese/Canadian joint ventures. It is also hoped that this program lays the foundation for
future short-term study abroad programs within the business school to other locations. In
addition, the program presents a unique opportunity for research. The instructors have applied
for an internal grant to study how exposure to a study abroad program can increase cultural
intelligence and personal leadership, especially in a program that is specifically designed tohave students reflect upon these qualities. A second research project to be addressed is to try
to get an understanding of students’ expectations about the trip with regard to learning andexperiences, and then to gain an understanding of how the trip met, or did not meet their
expectations.
This program has been exciting to develop, as it speaks to the interests and passions ofboth of the instructors. The aim of the program is to provide the best learning experience
possible for everyone involved, and help the business school to achieve its goal of providing
both experiential learning as well as opportunities for internationalization. As this program
has been approved, but has not yet been implemented, the instructors would welcome any
feedback or suggestions in an effort to make this a truly exceptional experience.

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REFERENCES

Anderson, P. H., Lawton, L., Rexeisen, R. J., & Hubbard, A. C. (2006). Short-term study
abroad and intercultural sensitivity: A pilot study. International Journal ofIntercultural Relations, 30(4), 457-469. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.10.004
Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business, www.aacsb.edu
Brasfield, David W., James P. McCoy, & Mary Tripp Reed. (2011). Effect of global businesscurriculum on student attitudes, Business Education Innovation Journal 3 (2), 73–81.
DeLoach, S. B., Kurt, M., & Olitsky, N. H. (2015). Does content matter?: Analyzing thechange in global awareness between business- and nonbusiness-focused short-term
study abroad courses. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 26(1), 4-31.
Earley, P. C., & Ang, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence: Individual interactions across cultures.
Stanford, Calif: Stanford Business Books.
Hackney, K., Boggs, D., & Borozan, A. (2012). An empirical study of student willingness tostudy abroad. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 23(2), 123.
doi:10.1080/08975930.2012.718705
Kember, D., McKay, J., Sinclair, K., & Wong, F. K. Y. (2008). A four-category scheme forcoding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluationin Higher Education, 33(4), 369-379. doi:10.1080/02602930701293355
Shooshtari, N. H., & Manuel, T. A. (2014). Curriculum internationalization at AACSB
schools: Immersive experiences, student placement, and assessment. Journal of
Teaching in International Business, 25(2), 134-156.
Ng, K., Dyne, L. V., & Ang, S. (2009). From experience to experiential learning: Cultural
intelligence as a learning capability for global leader development. Academy ofManagement Learning & Education, 8(4), 511-526.
doi:10.5465/AMLE.2009.47785470
Ng, K., Van Dyne, L., & Ang, S. (2009). Developing global leaders: The role of international
experience and cultural intelligence. Advances in Global Leadership, 5, 225-250.

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APPENDIX 1 KEMBER FOUR-CATEGORY CODING SCHEME FOR REFLECTIVEWRITING

NonreflectionThe answer shows no evidence of the student attempting to reach an understanding of
the concept or theory which underpins the topic.
Material has been placed into the essay without the student thinking seriously about it,trying to interpret the material, or forming a view.
Largely reproduction, with or without adaptation, or the work of others.

UnderstandingMaterial is confined to theory.
There is evidence of understanding of a concept or topic.
There is reliance upon what was in the textbook or the lecture notes.
Theory is not related to personal experiences, real-life application, or practicalsituations.

ReflectionThere will be personal insights that go beyond book theory.
The writer takes a concept and considers it in relation to personal experiences.
Concepts relate to other knowledge/experiences and then personal meaning is
attached.
Situations encountered in practice will be considered and successfully discussed inrelationship to what has been taught.

Critical Evaluation

Evidence of a change in perspective over a fundamental belief or the understanding ofa key concept or phenomenon.
Critical reflection is unlikely to occur frequently.

Kember, D., McKay, J., Sinclair, K., & Wong, F. K. Y. (2008). A four-category scheme forcoding and assessing the level of reflection in written work. Assessment & Evaluationin Higher Education, 33(4), 369-379. doi:10.1080/02602930701293355

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6313-16 Oct, 2016 | University of British Columbia | Centre for Japanese Research | Vancouver