BA Russian and Japanese / Course details

In this course unit, we will examine a number of key issues in modern Japan through the lens of bodies, gender and sexuality. This involves understanding concepts such as nationalism and colonialism as socio-political endeavours and ideologies that shaped particular gender identities and bodily performance. With this approach, we will aim to gain fresh insights into our understanding of Japanese history and society. We will address questions such as: ‘How  and why did tolerance towards male homosexuality disappear in Meiji Japan?’; ‘How was an effort to improve women’s hygienic practices informed by nation building in the Meiji period?’; ‘How and why was sterilization justified under fascist Japan?’; or ‘What links the (in)famous Japanese work-ethos to the masculinity of salary-men?’

Available on: Japanese Studies, East Asian Studies 

The principal aims of the course unit are as follows:
To provide students with an understanding of some of the major issues pertaining to bodies, gender and sexuality in modern Japan.
To introduce major concepts necessary to develop an understanding of how bodies and gender identities/roles were understood in modern and contemporary Japan.
To help students develop their teamwork skills.
To help students develop communication and presentation skills.
To help students critically analyze primary sources.
(Specific to Japanese Studies students) To help students develop their translation skills.
 

Week 1: Erotic bodies

[Shunga in ukiyoe, shudo in late Tokugawa]

Week 2: Bodies for the nation

[The rise of a new medical administration and education system, civilized ‘posture’, infectious diseases and foreign bodies, conscription – predominantly Meiji]

Week 3: Promiscuous bodies

[Birth control, abortion, infanticide, prostitution, venereal disease control and feminism in the 1920s, ero guro nansensu]

Week 4: Healthy bodies and the Japanese state

[Cult of health, eugenics and fascism, healthy soldiers (free of VDs), healthy mothers and healthy babies (the rise of Koseisho)]

Week 5: Colonial and colonized bodies

[Colonies and the notion of tropical diseases, purity of the Japanese race, Unit 731]

Week 6: READING WEEK

Week 7: Irradiated bodies

[A-bomb, H-bomb and Fukushima]

Week 8: Reproductive bodies  

[Midwifery and cult of hygiene, voluntary public health schemes in the 1920s, from umeyo fuyaseyo in the 1930s to the post-war population control]

Week 9: Queer bodies

[Male homosociality/homosexuality: from shudo to bushido, discourse of lesbianism in jogakusei, hermaphrodites, “gay boy” and commercialism, new-half boom in the 1980s and transvestites, queer movement in the 1990s]

Week 10: Overworked bodies

[Salaryman as Japan Inc., karōshi, education mothers and childcare neurosis]

Week 11: Unproductive bodies?

[declining fertility and ageing population, bad wife and mothers (dependency, gyarumama), frītā, NEET and otaku men]

Week 12: Conclusion  

• Three weekly hours in the class for 11 weeks (week 12 = revision for the exam).
• Two consultation hours per week.
• Further consultation on demand.  

On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to:

• systematically demonstrate understanding of how specific cultural, political and social conditions shaped the perception of bodies, sexuality and gender performance in modern and contemporary Japan;
• show how different understandings of bodies, gender and sexuality have existed in history, thus critically assess Euro-centric views.

On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to:

• present intellectual interests and cultural awareness for areas beyond English-speaking countries;
• debate critically about modern history of Japan.

On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to:

•  improve their skills to describe and discuss primary and secondary sources about Japan;
• improve their skills to handle communication and presentation tools;
  (for students taking part in the translation seminar);
• improve their skills to read Japanese-language primary sources;
   
• (for students taking part in the translation seminar) improve their translation skills;

On successful completion of this course unit, students will be able to:

• demonstrate their skills for reasoned presentation, discussion and argument;
• develop personal qualities of independence of mind in order to make ethical judgments;
• develop collaborative skills to prepare students for professional and vocational work;
• develop communication and presentation skills to prepare students for professional and vocational work;
• confront their own values as global citizens.

1. Früstück, Sabine and Anne Walthall eds. Recreating Japanese Men (Berkeley: University of California, 2011).
2. Igarashi, Yoshikuni Bodies of Memory: Narratives of War in Postwar Japanese Culture, 1945-1970 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).
3. Low, Morris ed. Building a Modern Japan: Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Meiji Era and Beyond (Basingstoke, Hampshire: PalgraveMacmillan, 2005).
4. Molony, Barbara and Kathleen Uno eds. Gendering Modern Japanese History (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005).
5. Nakayama, Shigeru ed. A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan, vols. 1-4 (Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2001-2006).
6. Roberson James and Nobue Suzuki eds. Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa (New York: Routledge, 2003).
7. Tomida, Hiroko and Gordon Daniels eds. Japanese Women: Emerging from Subservience, 1868-1945 (Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2005)

Further reading will be recommended in the class.

Please check your ‘My Manchester’ timetables for days/times.  Any queries can be directed to the Languages Student Information Office.