
- UCAS course code
- QT32
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Course unit details:
Introduction to Japanese Studies
Unit code | JAPA10030 |
---|---|
Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 1 |
Teaching period(s) | Full year |
Offered by | Japanese Studies |
Available as a free choice unit? | No |
Overview
This course lays the foundations of the Japanese Studies major. It will introduce students to the core events and influences in the making of modern Japan taught within a matrix of lectures, workshops, and practical orientations in Japan-specific study skills. The local Japanese experience of religion, language, and nation - from Samurai to ethnic culture, and the basic lineation of post-war and contemporary society, will be taught to ensure that students have a clear grasp of the major compositional and historical facts and issues in readiness for further studies of Japanese history, society, and culture. The course will be divided into 3 sections: Geography, Language, History; The Making of Modern Japan’s Economy and Society – Family, Education, Class and Gender; and Understandings of Person, Society and Cosmos in Japan.
Pre/co-requisites
Available on: Single and joint honours programmes including Japanese or East Asian Studies
Aims
- To provide students with an introduction to the core topics of the Humanities in a Japanese context – revolt, restoration, empire, identity, nation, gender, culture.
- To introduce students to a range of study skills from compiling a bibliography, to skills in reading and assessing academic texts in preparation for essay writing, to accessing and utilizing online and on-shelf library resources in English and Japanese, and accessing and using language materials and media sources provided in the ULC.
- To provide students with a basic understanding of key facts, dates and themes in considering Japanese society, thought, and culture.
- To provide an initial platform and elementary critical tools which will later enable UK-based students to analyse cultural problems and dynamics in and around contemporary Japan in an informed and self-aware manner
Knowledge and understanding
- demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of core dates and major events of modern and contemporary Japan
demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of major influences and topics such as: language systems, modernity and the Meiji restoration, Orientalism, tradition and mythology, and samurai and social class
Intellectual skills
• engage in informed analysis of core readings on the making of modern Japan
• research, prepare, and carry out readings for essay writing
• write informed exam-length essays
Practical skills
• construct ideas and arguments from own research and apply knowledge to finding solutions to authentic real world problems.
• have the skills to discover good sources independently
Transferable skills and personal qualities
demonstrate skills in searching for, compiling, and assessing materials for academic reports in English with appropriate organization of Japanese text inclusion
• demonstrate a practical and critical understanding of how to find, use, and approach media materials critically
Employability skills
- Other
- Project management: Students taking this unit will be learning to work towards deadlines, work independently and to manage their time effectively. Written communication: Students on this unit will develop their ability to communicate a coherent and critical argument of depth and complexity in written form and to write in a way that is lucid, precise and compelling.
Assessment methods
Assessment task | Formative or Summative | Weighting within unit (if summative) | |
Citation and bibliography exercise | Formative | N/A | |
Short essay | Summative | 30% | |
Long essay | Summative | 70% |
Resit Assessment
Assessment task | |
Essay |
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
| Formative |
| Summative (and formative in the case of the short essay) |
| Formative |
Recommended reading
Articles and Selected Chapters from:
- Sugimoto, Yoshio. An Introduction to Japanese Society. CUP.
- Stanlaw, James 2004, Japanese English: Language and Culture Contact.
- Ikegami, Eiko. 1996. ‘Shame and the Samurai: Institutions, Trustworthiness, and Autonomy in Elite Honor Culture’, in Social Research, Winter 2003, pages 1352-1377
- Swanson, Paul L. and Chilson, Clark (eds) 2006 Nanzan guide to Japanese religions.
- Vogel, Ezra. (1961) Japan’s New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb.
- Ogasawara, Yuko. 1998. Office ladies and Salaried Men. University of California Press.
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
---|---|
Lectures | 40 |
Independent study hours | |
---|---|
Independent study | 160 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
---|---|
Peter Cave | Unit coordinator |
Sharon Kinsella | Unit coordinator |