LECTURES AND DISCUSSION SECTIONS

Lectures will amplify and elucidate the required readings. Slide presentations and videos will be scheduled occasionally. Regular attendance is strongly encouraged and will be factored into the final grade.

Discussion sections will be held on Wednesdays (beginning August 29, 2001). These sessions offer students greater opportunity to explore and discuss those issues that are important to the course.  Attendance is strongly encouraged.  Experience reveals that students who attend these sessions regularly perform better on assignments than students who do not.
 

PAPER WORK

Students will be assigned short questions on most (but not every) Friday to accompany the Wednesday readings. Answers must be typed and turned in the following Wednesday. Late submissions will be accepted but not for full credit. Answers will be graded on a scale of 1-5. The purpose of these questions is to help students focus on their readings.

Additionally, two short essays will be required. The first, 3-4 pages, will be due October 1. Students will be assigned a topic for this essay. The second, due on December 3, will be a report on contemporary Japanese culture. Students may select a topic of their own interest: education, mass media, gender bias, pornography, abortion, reactions to the atomic bomb, the portrayal of Japan in American media, and so on. These reports, of 5-8 pages, should evidence reading in a least two outside sources. (For examples of successful essays from earlier classes, see Student Papers.  In all written work, students must adhere to the UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY. Please consult the Course Listings for a copy of the Statement.  Or click the above link.
 

EXAMINATIONS

There will be a midterm on Wednesday, October 10. The final will be given according to the exam schedule.
 

EVALUATION
 

Questions/Quizzes/Lecture Attendance	10%
Essays	30%
Midterm	25%
Final	35%

* Students taking the course P/F or CR/NCR must achieve 70% to pass.

WEBPAGE

Please refer to the course webpage weekly.  Homework assignments will be posted here--under Assignments.  Announcements will be posted to the Syllabus.  And handouts distributed in class will be posted to the Handouts page.

TEXTS

Required Readings:

W. Scott Morton, Japan Its History and Culture (third edition)
Joy Hendry, Understanding Japanese Society
Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society

E-Reserve Readings:

A number of texts have been placed on E-Reserve. You may download these texts directly from the web.  To access E-Reserve you will need a password, which you can get from either the instructor or the teaching assistant.  E-Reserve.

Reserve Readings:

The following books are on reserve at Olin Library Reserves.  These books were selected as representative studies of popular topics in contemporary and historical Japan.  There are a large volume of books not on reserve on a variety of topics related to Japan.  Please consult the BIBLIOGRAPHY  for a more thorough list of what is available in the library.

Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarians
Bridges, Japan and Korea in the 1990s
Denoon, Hudson, McCormak, Morris-Suzuki, ed., Multicultural Japan (on the formation of Japanese “identity”)
Hane, Peasants, Rebels, and Outcastes: The Underside of Japan
Hendry, Understanding Japanese Society
Hendry, Webber, eds., Interpreting Japanese Society: Anthropological Approaches
Imamura, Prehistoric Japan
Kearney, African American Views of the Japanese
Krauss, Rohlen, Steinhoff, ed., Conflict in Japan
LeTendre, Learning to be adolescent : growing up in U.S. and Japanese middle schools
Morris, The World of the Shining Prince (the culture of Heian Japan)
Ohnuki-Tierney, Illness and Culture in Contemporary Japan
Powers and Kato, eds., Handbook of Japanese Popular Culture
Robertson, Takarazuka (a study of a Japanese theater that employs all women.  Robertson looks at gender issues in Japan)
Tobin, Re-Made in Japan (a collection of essays on contemporary culture/society)
Van Wolfren, The Enigma of Japanese Power
Varley, Japanese Culture
Weiner, Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity

SPECIAL EVENTS

Throughout the semester students will have opportunities to attend special events, as listed below.  These are elective.  Students are encouraged to attend whenever possible.  Those who do attend special events will have an opportunity to earn "brownie points" (to enhance the overall "attendance" grade), provided students submit a one-two page summary of the event.  See instructor for more details.

FILM SERIES

Students are encouraged to attend the bi-weekly Japanese film series. Contemporary Japanese films with English subtitles are shown every other week. Admission is free.

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SIGNING OF THE PEACE TREATY
BETWEEN THE U.S. AND JAPAN CELEBRATION

Sponsored by the Japan America Society of St. Louis and the World Affairs Council and in cooperation with a number of universities and institutions in St. Louis, this celebration commemorates the signing of the Peace Treaty between Japan and the United States. The celebration will include a discussion among Japanese and American university professors and members of the business community, followed by a reception.  The celebration is free, but reservations are required by September 3.  Please call 516-7299 for more information
 

EAST ASIAN STUDIES COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Each year the Joint-Center for East Asian Studies—sponsored by Washington University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis—hosts a colloquium series.This year, in lieu of a series, the Center will sponsor a week-end symposium on East Asian Studies and the Popular Imagination on September 22, 2001 from 1:00 to 5:00.  This symposium will feature Kyoko Mori, author of Polite Lies and The Dream of Water; and Chen-yi Chang, animator for the Disney feature Mulan.  Featured presenters and participants will discuss the way "East Asia" has been constructed in the popular American imagination and the role that East Asian Studies Programs have in shaping this construction.  All Japanese Civilization students are strongly encouraged to attend.

THE TONDA BUNRAKU PERFORMANCE

This year the Joint-Center for East Asian Studies will sponsor a performance of Japanese puppetry by the Tonda Bunraku Troupe.  The performance will take place on October 3, 2001 from 8:00 at the J.C. Penney auditorium on the UM-St. Louis campus.  Japanese Civilization students are very, very strongly encouraged to attend.