Presiders/Organizers: Minako Fujitsuka (Political Sciences & Economics) & Hajime Miyauchi (Global Studies & Sociology)

Abstract
The Role of the U.S. and Japanese Funded Educational Programs for the World Development: A Case in Indonesia

Our 4th workshop will focus on the role of the U.S. and Japanese educational aids intending to support countries like Indonesia to develop their infrastructures and environmental conservation systems. Indonesia is an interesting case to study because of the large number of students studying in the US and Japan. We will introduce educational programs sponsored by the U.S. Fulbright and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. These two organizations provide scholarships to study at the higher educational institutions in the US and Japan. On the other hand, these organizations dispatch technicians to transfer their skills to the people within the borders of the country. Which method of training is more preferable to achieve the developmental goals? Moreover, we are concerned about whether training is done locally or abroad, these programs could be imposing interests of the more powerful nations on the less powerful. Some argue that this is a new form of an imperialist strategy to exploit the “have-nots” to keep the economic and political power of the “haves” in the world today. In our discussion forum, we will learn about the organizations and the effectiveness of their programs. We will discuss how the US and Japan could play roles in the development processes in Indonesia and the Global South, as well as the impact of the U.S. and the Japanese political and economic interests on international cooperation issues.

Workshop 2
Friday, October 28th 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. @ 1114 Social Sciences
Presenter: Masako Nakamura (History)
Explaining the U.S. History with the WWII 'War Brides' from Japan
"Disciplining and Integrating the Women of Racially "Ineligible for
Citizenship" into the Imagined "American Families": Brides Schools for
Japanese Wives of American Servicemen and the U.S. Occupation of Japan"

Presentation Abstract and Slide are unavailable

Workshop 3
Friday, November 4th 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. @ 1114 Social Sciences
Presenter: Eunhye Yoo (Sociology)
Learning about the Democratization Processes of South Korea and Japan "State, Intellectuals and Citizens in the Public Sphere During 1945-1950: Comparative Analysis on Korea and Japan"
Presentation Abstract

Workshop 4 DATE CHANGED TO DECEMBER 2
Friday, December 2nd 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. @ 1114 Social Sciences
Presiders/Organizers: Minako Fujitsuka (Political Sciences & Economics) & Hajime Miyauchi (Global Studies & Sociology)
Discussion Forum on International Developments and Japan
"The Role of the U.S. and Japanese Funded Educational Programs for the World Development: A Case in Indonesia"
Discussion Forum Abstract

Workshop 5 CANCELLED
Presenter: Keith G Coggshall (Anthropology)
Finding Out the Role of Christian Imagery in the Japanese Animation "Reproduced Imagery of Christianity in the Japanese Animation: Anthropological Theories of Imagery and Culture"
Presentation Abstract

-Japan, U.S.-Japan relations, and related issues in East Asia
-Theoretical & methodological applications into such Japan related studies, and
-Many other international & multicultural research projects.

Such studies could include U.S.-Japan cultural, economic, and political comparisons. Other possible themes include modern Japan, Japanese American history, international relations closely or partially related to Japan & East Asia, globalization & development projects involving Japan & East Asia, and other international/multicultural studies.

Japan Studies Workshop encourages international and multicultural interactions. We promote better understanding among students and scholars from the U.S., Japan, and other countries.

We present & introduce our work, provide feedback on paper & presentations, invite guest speakers, discuss current social events to develop them for research projects, and participate in research related activities.

We would like to build a friendly "Japan Studies" community at the U of Minnesota. Japan Studies Workshop is for exchanging information on Japan & related research topics and providing suggestions for your new research ideas, papers, and presentations. Everyone is welcome!

Members
-This Japan Studies Workshop is open to any faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students interested in research projects on Japan and related international topics for promoting international/multicultural understanding.
-Current participants of Japan Studies Workshop come from the following disciplines: Business, Economics, Global Studies, History, Political Science, Public Affairs, and Sociology.
-Students and scholars with diverse background participate in Japan Studies Workshop. Current participants are from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Japan Studies Workshop promotes diversity, cross-national, multicultural understanding.
-Students and scholars interested in Japan related international/multicultural research can show up to any scheduled meeting or e-mail us with any questions.

Meetings
-For each meeting, we have a research theme and invite a presenter. Following the presentation, we open up our group for discussion.
-The meetings for Fall 2005 semester is on the FALL 2005 SCHEDULE:

Please check this Blog for updates.

Origin
-Japan Studies Workshop has started with a large influence from the research activities of Chinese graduate students in social sciences. Some of the participants of the Japan Studies Workshop attended their forum organized by Reiping Huang in Sociology in Spring 2005. The forum was to think about issues around the recent anti-Japan movements in China and South Korea. This opportunity inspired Minako Fujitsuka and Hajime Miyauchi to form this Japan Studies Workshop which students and scholars could discuss and learn about current research issues on Japan and related international/multicultural topics.

Japan Studies Workshop meets biweekly and shares stories about their research projects.

Presenter: Chie Michihiro (Public Policy)

Abstract
Criminal Court Response to Violence Against Women and Girls in Singapore: A Content Analysis of Newspaper Reporting, 2000-2003

My Japan Studies Workshop presentation will consider one methodological application into “Gender and Crime” studies in Japan. My research highlights the importance of understanding contexts of a specific society in analyzing criminal courts’ responses to violence against women and girls. I took Singapore – a politically “strong” nation-state with similarly traditional gender role and family expectations to Japan – as a case to analyze the relationship between domestic violence sentencing and victim’s marital status. An analysis of Singapore revealed that the Singaporean government utilizes the family values rhetoric that emphasizes maintenance of marriage in the discourse of nation building. The family values rhetoric and the punitive criminal justice system shaped how the criminal courts treat marital intimate partner violence. I conducted a quantitative analysis of crime news of violence against women and girls collected from a Singaporean newspaper from 2000-2003. The result with the Singaporean data indicates that the criminal court judges might believe that it was more important to protect marriage than to protect the victims. I discuss a possibility of applying this research methodology into “criminal court and violence against women” study in Japan and South Korea with the Japan Studies Workshop participants. Considering similarities of gender role expectations & family values, strong state initiatives in this area, and recent alarms from the international communities (e.g. the United Nation’s CEDAW) to the governments in Singapore and Japan, I predict similar historical trends in the criminal courts treatment of marital intimate partner violence in Japan.

Presentation Slide (pdf)

Presenter: Masako Nakamura (History)

Abstract
Disciplining and Integrating the Women of Racially "Ineligible for
Citizenship" into the Imagined "American Families": Brides Schools for
Japanese Wives of American Servicemen and the U.S. Occupation of Japan

Abstract is unavailable

Presentation Slide is unavailable

Presenter: Eunhye Yoo (Sociology)

Abstract
State, Intellectuals and Citizens in the Public Sphere During 1945-1950: Comparative Analysis on Korea and Japan

Using Habermas’s concept of “public sphere,” I take an alternative approach to explain the development processes of civil society in South Korea and Japan after World War II. My study draws special attention to cultural resources created by intellectuals in the South Korean and Japanese public spheres. Both South Korea and Japan similarly received mass flows of the American capitals and democratic political ideologies during the few years of the U.S. occupation following the war. However, Japan experienced a rather smooth transition to democracy, when South Korea faced challenges with political dictatorships. What socio-political conditions in history made these contrasting outcomes in the development of the public sphere for civil society? The public sphere is a critical condition in transition to democracy. However, few focus on the preconditions for the public sphere moving towards civil society. I argue that cultural resources in the public sphere are critical in explaining the development processes towards democracy. Extreme physical violence by the state paralyzed the audience-oriented communication among citizens, suppressing open and active discussions on a variety of issues, but particularly on politics during this period in South Korea. Due to this, South Korean intellectuals suffered from the lack of cultural resources. This repression from the state resulted in the failure of promoting democracy with their cultural resources in South Korea. More open and active discussions on politics in the public sphere created a great amount of cultural resources for citizens and intellectuals to engage in further elaborations on “their own democracy” in post-war Japan. In Japan Studies Workshop, I intend to elaborate the importance of incorporating the experiences (e.g. physical violence) in the private sphere into explicating the public sphere.

Minutes:
1.Introduction

2.Assigned the work in the group
- Coordinator - Chika Shinohara
- Coordinator & Treasurer - Keiko Morimoto
- Public Relations - Hajime Miyauchi & Minako Fujitsuka

3. Assigned the workshop presenters
- We roughly made a schedule for the workshops for the fall semester. We will contact you to confirm your presentation date.

Our next meeting is October 14, Friday at 5pm. Please check this website for updates.

Chie Michihiro (Public Policy) gave us her presentation on "Criminal Court Response to Violence against Women & Girls: A Singapore Case Study," which led us to further discussion on the subject.

Presentation:
1. Research Question
"How does the Victim-Perpetrator Relationship Matter in Criminal Court Sentencing?"

2. Method
Chie Michihiro conducted her research on the case in Singapore, where there is a strong belief in maintaining marriage. She analyzed court cases on the Straits Time (a major English newspaper in Singapore) and examined the relationship between the victim's relationship to the perpetrator and the length of sentencing.

3. Findings
"The perpetrators who victimized their former or current spouses [were] sentenced, on average, 53.4% shorter jail term, than other perpetrators." This means for the same kinds/degrees of violence against women, sentences were shorter if the perpetrator assaulted his current or former wife. Thus, the press in Singapore during 2000-2003 reported that on average perpetrators were being punished less if they had assaulted their former or current marital partners. They received, however, longer sentences when they had assaulted girls and women who were not their marital partners.

4. Question
How does this apply to Japan?

Further Questions (in discussion):
- Are the marital partners sentenced a shorter term on average than other intimate partners because the victims (who are spouses of the perpetrators) are less likely to demand for harsh punishment?
- Is there any difference between the sentences given to perpetrators of different ethnic groups?

We encourage everyone to comment on this topic or share further questions for inquiry.

The next workshop will meet on October 28th, Friday, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in 1114 Social Science Building. Masako Nakamura will present on 'War Brides' from Japan to the United States.

Description (from Women Make Movies) This fascinating documentary, produced for the BBC, opens a door into the spectacular world of the Takarazuka Revue, a highly successful musical theater company in Japan. Each year, thousands of girls apply to enter the male-run Takarazuka Music School. The few who are accepted endure years of a highly disciplined and reclusive existence before they can join the Revue, choosing male or female roles. Dream Girls offers a compelling insight into gender and sexual identity and the contradictions experienced by Japanese women today.

*_Thursday, October 20_*
*1:00 – 3:00 p.m.* *Collaborative workshop with Jennifer Robertson, Nolte 335.*
*“Robot Revue: Anthropometry as Performance in the Takarazuka Revue”*
This workshop will be open to 15 participants. Graduate students and faculty may sign up by contacting Josephine Lee at jolee@umn.edu .

*7:30 p.m. Lecture by Jennifer Robertson. Nolte Center 125. Free and open to the public.*
*“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: ‘History’ and the Disturbing Ethics of ‘Japanese’ Bioethics.”*

Robertson will trace the unsettling history behind the concept of “East Asian bioethics” coined in the mid-1990s, and raise questions about processes of history-making (and –unmaking) in bioethical debates. A barometer of socio-political attitudes and orientations, bioethics poses reflexive questions about cultural, national and global identity. The century-old janusian relationship between eugenics and bioethics continues to inform the popular perception of the nature and future of postmodern Japan, which since the mid-1990s has been shaped by an asymmetrical and ahistorical celebration of pan-Asianism. The bioethical dilemma posed and produced by a politics of renewal and strategic “dehistoricization,” together with “re-Asianization,” is introduced and analyzed.

What is "Neoliberalism" Good for? Exploring the Concept through the Looking-glass of World Bank Power

A talk by Michael Goldman, McKnight Presidential Fellow, and Associate Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. His books are Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons (Rutgers, 1998) and just released, Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization (Yale,2005).

Friday, October 28th, 3:30pm
445 Blegen Hall, West Bank

3:15pm for coffee and cookies

The 5th East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference will be held in Honolulu, February 16 – 18, 2006, with theme: Sustaining a Resilient Asia Pacific Community: Issues and Solutions. This conference appeals broadly to graduate student scholarship in social sciences, arts, and humanities, and to policy-oriented intersections with applied sciences and engineering, to address issues on the Asia-Pacific region at the local, regional, national, and global scale.

Enclosed is the call for papers announcement for your reference. The deadline for abstract submission is on October 24, 2005 PST. More information about the conference is available at: www.eastwestcenter.org/studentconference/

Kindly regards,

Wilmar Salim
Chair

The 5th EWC International Graduate Student Conference
C/o EWC Education Program
1601 East-West Road, Burns Hall 2083
Honolulu, Hawaii 96848
U.S.A.