ASSESSMENT

Class participation 20%; Assignments 20%; Two presentations 60% (30% per presentation)

AUDITING
Not permitted.

LANGUAGE USED IN CLASS

In principle English. However, sometimes you may have to read and/or watch material in Japanese.

ENGLISH LEVEL
The strong ability to understand, speak, read and write academic English to discuss all aspects of Japanese society
and history is essential.

32020 JAPANESE SOCIETY II

CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE SOCIETY
EXPLORING HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

INSTRUCTOR: Robert Croker

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores the lives of women and men in Japan. The first half of the course looks at how
the experiences of women and men changed from the 1500s to the early twentieth century. The
second half of the course explores gender in contemporary Japan. The purpose of the course is to
provide you with an understanding of how femininity and masculinity have been constructed and
performed in Japan, primarily from an historical perspective and augmented by sociological,
political, theoretical, literary and performative perspectives. By the end of the course, you should
have developed a good sense of how women and men in Japan have experienced and performed
their gender from the 1500s to the present. This course is of interest to everyone curious about
contemporary Japanese society.
At the beginning of each class, the instructor will provide a short overview lecture about that
week’s topic, augmented by video and other visual media; occasionally, guest speakers will also
come in to talk about their field. Then, in small groups of three or four students, each of you will
lead a discussion about one reading that you have read for homework and prepared a summary of;
you will also participate in discussions lead by other students about their readings. Japanese
students will join us sometimes as ‘cultural guides’ to share their perspectives and to answer your
questions about contemporary Japanese culture and society. At the end of each class there will be a
class discussion or debate. Occasional field trips will also be organized. Joining these field trips is
optional but recommended. Your thoughtful, active participation throughout the course is expected.

COURSE GOALS
You will understand:
 traditional gender expectations in Japan
 how these traditional expectations have been resisted, challenged, and (re)negotiated in private and social
spheres, at home and at work, and in public and political discourse
 the experiences of women with disabilities and other marginalized identities
 political and theoretical perspectives on gender in contemporary Japan

COURSE SCHEDULE
1. Framing gender, and how to ‘do gender’
2. Gender in medieval Japan, before the Tokugawa Period
3. Gender and sexuality in urban and rural lives of the Tokugawa Period
4. Gender and Modernity in the Meiji Period
5. Nationalism, feminism and ‘new women’ in the interwar period
6. Gender and war
7. Reconstructing gender in the early Cold War era

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 8. Social and gender transformation in the era of rapid economic growth
9. Gendered homes – diverse modern Japanese families
10. Gendered workplaces – prerogatives and resistance
11. Poverty, disability and minorities – fighting invisibility, marginalization and exploitation
12. Performing gender – manga, anime, Takarazuka, … and boso-zoku
13. Gendered aging – caring, social networks, and boke
14. Final written examination

STUDY TIME (OUTSIDE CLASS):

1. To prepare for each class, read one of the assigned readings and create a two-page summary with discussion
points or questions.
2. At the end of the semester, prepare for the final written test.

TEXTS
(printed materials will be provided each class)
Molony, B., Theiss, J., & Choi, H. (2016). Gender in modern East Asia: An integrated history. Boulder, CO.:
Westview Press. (main text)
Dasgupta, R. (2013). Re-reading the salaryman in Japan: Crafting masculinities. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Freedman, A., Miller, A., & Yano, C. R. (Eds.) (2013). Modern girls on the go: Gender, mobility, and labor in
Japan. Stanford, CA: University of Stanford Press.
Frühstück, S., & Walthall, A. (Eds.) (2011). Recreating Japanese men. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Goldstein-Gidoni, O. (2012). Housewives of Japan: An ethnography of real lives and consumerized
domesticity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Holloway, S. D. (2010). Women and family in contemporary Japan. Cambridge University Press.
Holthus, B., & Manzenreiter, W. (Eds.) (2017). Life course, happiness and well-being in Japan. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.
Kawano, S., Roberts, G. L. & Long, S. O. (Eds.) (2014) Capturing contemporary Japan: Differentiation and
uncertainty. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Lie, J. (2001). Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Lowie, K. & Low, M. (Eds.) (2003). Asian masculinities: The meaning and practice of manhood in China and
Japan. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Manzenreiter, W., & Holthus, B. (Eds.) (2017). Happiness and the good life in Japan. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.
Marram, C. L. (2007). Poison woman: Figuring female transgression in modern Japanese culture. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
McLelland, M., & Dasgupta, R. (Eds.) (2005). Genders, transgenders and sexualities in Japan. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.
Nemoto, K. (2016). Too few women at the top: The persistence of inequality in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
Ronald, R. & Alexy, A. (Eds.) (2011). Home and family in Japan: Continuity and transformation.
London: Rutledge.
Shigematsu, S. (2012). Scream from the shadows: The women’s liberation movement in Japan. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Steger, B. & Koch, A. (Eds.) (2012). Manga girl seeks herbivore boy: Studying Japanese gender at
Cambridge. Zurich: Lit Verlag.
Sugimoto, Y. (2014). An introduction to Japanese society (4th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tanaka, Y., et al. (Eds.) (2013). Beyond a standardized life course: Biographical choices about work, family and
housing in Japan and Germany. Tokyo: Shinyosha.
Traphagan, J. W. (2000). Taming oblivion: Aging bodies and the fear of senility in Japan. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press.
Wade, L., & Ferre, M. M. (2015). Gender: Ideas, interactions, institutions. New York: W. W. Norton.
Willis, D. B., & Murphy-Shigematsu, S. (Eds.) (2008). Transcultural Japan: At the borderlands of race, gender,
and identity. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

ASSESSMENT
Weekly two-page reading discussion points and questions 80% (10 readings, 8% each)
Final written examination 20%

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