In the 1950s, China had clear standards and purposes for introducing and translating Japanese literature. Translators focused on works that criticize war and capitalism, proletarian literature (especially proletarian novels) becoming the center of translation. The indomitable struggle and tenacious spirit of the general public in the work inspired Chinese readers at that time, demonstrating the unique literary significance of that period. The translation of classical literature into Chinese has also begun again, but it is only the introduction or abridged translation, the quantity is not as many as modern literature.
In the 1950s, China had clear standards and purposes for introducing and translating Japanese literature. Translators focused on works that criticize war and capitalism, proletarian literature (especially proletarian novels) becoming the center of translation. The indomitable struggle and tenacious spirit of the general public in the work inspired Chinese readers at that time, demonstrating the unique literary significance of that period. The translation of classical literature into Chinese has also begun again, but it is only the introduction or abridged translation, the quantity is not as many as modern literature.
This article analyzes a range of sociocultural aspects that influence the formation, development and dynamics of consumer behavior among youth in contemporary Japanese society. The authors note that, while the modern context (technology, media) influences the consumer behavior of Japanese youth, traditional values and orientations continue to have an impact on it. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the research is a comprehensive methodology based on Edward T. Hall’s theory of high-context and low-context cultures, which is applied to characterize the stage of decision-making in the purchase of various products. Additionally, a sociocultural approach was employed, allowing the analysis of consumer behavior aspects such as values, value orientations, behavioral stereotypes, motivations. This approach enabled a more in-depth understanding of the target audience’s needs and preferences, which, in the future, will facilitate the development of effective marketing strategies aligned with the cultural and social norms of consumers. To conduct a more detailed analysis of the brand communications effectiveness with the youth segment of the market, four international companies were selected, representing various approaches to interacting with the target audience: UNIQLO, Comme des Garçons (CDG), ZARA, and Louis Vuitton (LV). These brands were chosen based on their popularity among Japanese consumers according to one of the largest ranking websites, ranking.net. The authors then focused their attention on a thorough analysis of a vast amount of empirical data obtained from various sources, including data from diverse resources, including the report from the World Values Survey Association and news media. They analyzed social networking services (SNS) accounts and official websites of the aforementioned international trading companies. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of in-depth structured interviews with representatives of the Japanese youth, with a total of 11 participants, which allowed for the refinement of the research on certain aspects and the visualization of consumers’ attitudes towards the selected companies in the form of perception maps and word clouds.
Each song lyric has a message that the writer wants to convey to the listener about what the writer feels and thinks. This research discusses how Japanese female idols are represented in the opening soundtrack of the anime song “Oshi no Ko” which is currently being discussed among Japanese idol fans. The song titled “Idol” is the work of a duo band known as Yoasobi, telling a story of anxiety and sadness in the romance of Japanese youth life but accompanied by uplifting techno music. When song lyrics are made based on commercial interests, the meaning of the text should be criticized to find out who is in a dominating position and who is not. The song “Idol” in this research is analyzed using Sara Mills’sCritical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (1997) with a feminist perspective to analyze the presentation of the storyteller (subject) and the told (object). The results of this study show that the position of female idols as objects is shown as a figure who does not talk about herself much, her desires and feelings are less well conveyed. Female idols are shown more from the fans’ point of view as the position of the storyteller (subject). The position of female idols in the lyrics is only shown by stereotypical idol characters who are required to have a positive image, have high loyalty to fans, are required to be perfect by covering all flaws, and are prohibited from dating. Although the song “Idol” is an anime soundtrack that discusses the other side of idol life, in this song, the opportunity to voice the thoughts and what female idols want to express is not well displayed. Thus, the lyricist only presents female idols based on what they want for the sake of desire and sexual objects. This research only uses one main data source, namely song lyrics. It is hoped that future research can use a variety of main data sources such as anime or manga.
This article presents an analysis of the contemporary perception of Japan by the Vladivostok citizens, as well as their views of the current state of Russia-Japan relations and their prospects. The research is based on the results of a survey conducted in May–September 2021 by the Public Opinion Studies Laboratory of the Institute of History of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The data obtained are compared with the results of similar investigations of previous years and Vladivostok people’s views of other countries that are significant for Vladivostok, namely, China, the USA, India, and the two Koreas.The authors point out that the Japanese factor has played an important role in the history of the city, and therefore Japan attracts so much attention of the city’s dwellers. In their opinion, the high level of attractiveness of Japan which, in the past two decades, has been recorded by public opinion surveys in Vladivostok and other centers of Pacific Russia is based, primarily, on the people’s interest in the unique culture of the Land of the Rising Sun, their high assessment of the economic and technological development of Japan and the prosperity of the Japanese people. At the same time, the historical experience of Russia-Japan relations and the political contradictions existing between the two countries make a large part of the respondents (about one-third of their total number) believe that there are threats to Russia from Japan, which are naturally associated with Japan’s territorial claims. Yet, the Vladivostok residents, for the most part, demonstrate a fairly high level of trust in Japan, positively assess the quality of current Russia-Japan relations and prospects for their future, and favor their active development.
n this paper, the author analyzes a mysterious phenomenon of voluntary seclusion that had emerged as a mental deviation in Japan in the late 20th century, having spread all over the countries of ―the golden billion‖ since that time. On the basis of numerous works by Japanese and Western sociologists, psychiatrists, ethnographers, and economists characteristic features of the social group called hikikomori are given a definition. Factors that had specific impact on its emergence as well as the connection between the mental deviations of hikikomori and historical changes in modern Japanese society with IT technology shifts at the background are scrutinized in comparison with similar processes in other developed countries of the world. The author also focuses on the methods of treatment of this ―culture-bound syndrome‖ suggested by contemporary psychiatry and the prospects of inevitable expansion of the dangerous social epidemic disease regarding dramatic growth of hikikomori among the younger generations in the first decades of the 20th century.
This research discusses errors in the pronunciation of Japanese accents by Japanese learners. This study aims to determine the forms and causes of accents pronunciation errors in Japanese learners as well as Japanese learners’ comprehension of Japanese accent. The data used are speech data (word and sentence) of 18 people who are students of Japanese literature at a private university in Jakarta, in their 3rd and 4th years (hereafter written as respondents). As comparison data, this research uses Japanese native speaker data from Tokyo and electronic speech data from OJAD (Online Japanese Accent Dictionary). This research used a qualitative research method. Praat application also used to get a detailed visual description of Japanese speech from respondents. The results of this research found a form of error in the form of accent changes that do not match the speech data per word and sentence. The cause of accent errors was the lack of attention to the accent and the lack of learning about accents in the respondent’s learning environment. It was also found that 80% of respondents had minimal understanding of Japanese accents.
Given the complexity and difficulty of discourse-level grammar acquisition, narrative construction can be a challenging task for many language learners as well as for language teachers to provide guidance in classroom. This paper provides a structure for narrative production practices that are based on assigned dialogues in classroom setting by following the Japanese narrative structure of kishōtenketsu 起承転結 (introduction, development, twist, and conclusion), and William Labov’s (1972) six components of a natural narrative model—Abstract Orientation, Complicating Action, Resolution, Evaluation, and Coda. Sample narrations in Japanese are provided to discuss a selected set of discourse-level features commonly used in each phase of narrative production. As pedagogical implications, this paper provides a step-by-step instruction on how to conduct narrative rehearsals in classroom by using a dialogue from the NihonGO NOW! series (Noda, et al. 2020). It also discusses ways to provide support and opportunities for language learners’ narrative skill development.
Language and Literature, Japanese language and literature
This article is devoted to the analysis of the Act on Promoting Measures to Realize a Society in Which the Pride of the Ainu People Is Respected (Act No. 16 of 2019). The problem of compliance of Japan's Ainu policy with international standards in the sphere of protection of indigenous peoples' human rights is actively discussed today by foreign researchers. However, it is hardly studied in the Russian historiography. The article discusses the main provisions of the new legislation and reveals the point of view of the Ainu representatives about the measures taken by the government. It has been found out that Japan's Ainu policy is greatly influenced by the position of international community towards the rights of indigenous peoples. International law has become the main lever of influence on the government for the Ainu people. It has been proven that the mechanisms for promotion and protection of the rights of the Ainu in Japan are imperfect and do not fully comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The main issues facing the Ainu are discrimination, collective rights, indigenous representation in the government, development of ethnic education, etc.
This article is based on a large body of unpublished documents from the State Archive of Russian Federation (SARF). The author analyzes the history of the work of the Russian financial intelligence in Japan in 1909. The position concerning the impossibility for Japan to fight with Russia for the financial reasons was very popular in Russia before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, but was wrong. It caused the special interest in Russia to the Japanese financial system after the war. The conclusive series of Russo-Japanese agreements in 1907 just augment this interest. The Russian military attaché in Japan Colonel Vladimir K. Samoylov recommenced his service in Japan in 1906, and found in Japan a systematic realization of the postwar military program and reforms. Consequently, the Russian financial agent in China Lev W. von Goyer was delivered to Japan to investigate the possibilities of its realization in time and a Japanese capability to participate in new war. He worked in close coordination with Vladimir K. Samoylov and had access to whole his military information. The article explored how von Goyer investigated the Japanese budget and other financial documents. The analyses of his report gave a possibility to conclude his high level of knowledge about Japanese economy, financial system and society. The top quality of his researches determined the accuracy of the conclusions. Two of them had a great importance for the Russian defense policy and the Empire preparation to the World War I. He reported to the Minister of Finance and future Prime Minister Vladimir N. Kokovtsov, that the opinion of reduction funding the Japanese military and naval program is wrong with a high probability. However, Japan will not enter in a new war before it will be finished in 1914-1915. This information let Russian War Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to balance the defense policy of the Empire on west and east borders.
This study focuses on Meiji-period Japanese engagement with the late imperial Chinese novel Sequel to ‘The Water Margin’ (Shuihu houzhuan): an early Qing continuation of the classic Water Margin that focuses on the Liangshan outlaws’ colonization of a mythical “Siam” in the wake of the fall of the Northern Song dynasty. Like its parent work, Shuihu houzhuan found an enthusiastic readership beyond the borders of China. The novel was translated into Japanese several times during the Meiji period: most famously, by the poet and scholar Mori Kainan, whose translation was published by the Tokyo-based Kōin shinshisha publishing house between 1893 and 1895. In addition to the fact that Japan itself appears as a setting in the novel, I argue that Meiji-period interest in Shuihu houzhuan was related to its radically new mode of representing the central characters, who were transformed from rebellious bandits in the original Water Margin into civilized colonizers responsible for protecting and transplanting a reified Chinese essence on an international stage. This interest in expansion and colonization took on new significance against the backdrop of the First Sino-Japanese War, which bisected the publication of the translation and was explicitly addressed in both Mori’s commentary to the novel and the publishers’ marketing of the translation itself. In the context of the shifting relationship between Meiji-period Japan and Qing-period China, “Siam” is ultimately divested of its symbolic significance as a refuge from dynastic crisis and reconstituted as an unintentional trope for the complex linguistic, cultural, and political negotiation underlying Mori’s translation.
Language and Literature, Japanese language and literature
Deajeng Dinda J.D.L, Herniwati Herniwati, Melia Dewi J
Hyouka no toritatejoshi or known as an evaluation of toritate particle is very important in Japanese language. But there are many toritate particles with similar function and meaning, which cause some difficulties for learners to differentiate. This study aimed to analyse the error of four Japanese toritate particles namely nanka, nante, nado, and kurai, evaluating the percentage of errors, type of errors, and identify the factors that caused error in using four toritate particles. The participants of this research were 45 Japanese language students. The instruments used in this study including interview, questionnaire, and a test. The results of this study showed that the error of toritatejoshi nado which shows quotation markers in sentences was the most common type of error. While the error of toritatejoshi kurai mostly when kurai particles combined with the other toritate particles (such as ~kurainara) was the least type of error. The factors that caused errors in using those toritatejoshi were mainly overgeneralization, followed by incomplete application of rules, false concept hypothesized, and the other special factors, respectively.
This study aims to determine the effectiveness and to find out the advantages and disadvantages of the Active Knowledge Sharing strategy through a scientific approach in the Dokkai. In learning Japanese, learners often encountered difficulties in reading comprehension or Dokkai. Based on a questionnaire, the difficulties including reading kanji, followed by vocabulary competence and grammar competence. On the other hand, the time limitation in class cause problems of learning method which teacher rarely provide an introduction step to students in the form of questions or vocabulary exercises related to the reading material they will deal with. To overcome this problem, we need a learning strategy that emphasize the cooperative learning among students to achieve the objective of comprehending a reading. We chose the strategy initiated by Silberman (2013), namely Active Knowledge Sharing, as a good way to introduce students to the subject matter that will be learned. In addition, by monitoring how students solving each other's problems in team, teacher can evaluate how much knowledge they have. In this study a scientific approach is complemented to support the active learning in this strategy. The study conducted using an experimental method with pretest and posttest design. The sample are 38 students of fifth semester students who take Dokkai III course. Based on the analysis of research data, it found that the Active Knowledge Sharing strategy through a scientific approach is effective in learning Dokkai III. The advantages are that students who are initially passive become actively participate in learning and students can also answer the meaning of vocabulary without depending on dictionary or smartphones, and students are encouraged to help each other in solving problems which help students to comprehend the contents of reading easier and faster. However there are the disadvantages of this strategy such as inability to enhance student’s critical thinking and less suitable for students who are more focused if studying alone.
The purpose of this research was to explore any underlying messages or moral principle in Japanese elementary school textbook titled “Watashitachi no Doutoku” and its correlation with the character formation of children in Japan. The method used in this research was the literature review that was derived from corpus data in the form of an original Japanese manuscript. The corpus data were derived from textbooks that were still being used in Japan to date, in the form of original books in the Japanese language from the first grade to sixth grade elementary school, whereas the research method used a descriptive analysis method. The problem analysis was divided into four sections, including intrapersonal morality, interpersonal moral value, morality toward nature, and morality toward society. The conclusion indicates that character installment through special school subjects, namely moral education (doutoku), using Watashitachi no Doutoku influences character formation of elementary school children in Japan.
In 1942, in the middle of The Great East Asian War (World War II), two novels sharing the same title, Opium War, were published in Manshukoku and Japan. One is Sutezou Umemoto’s Opium War published in Sinkyo on July 15 and the other is Osaragi Jiro’s published in Tokyo on October 17. Both were augmented and expanded editions of a publication. This study undertakes to evaluate these two novels to present views on the relationship of the respective works with their political and social context, while clearifying how the novels were formed. Furthermore, it considers several conundrums of historical novels written during wartime. The two novels are definitely contrastive not only from the viewpoint of the relationship to their political and social context but also from the viewpoint of the treatment of a subject. Sutezou Umemoto’s Opium War has a positive view of the war since it was written based on the Opium War study by Yano Niichi and reveals a new pattern of historical novel creation, i.e., a combination of both novel and historical study aligned with national policy. On the other hand, Osaragi Jiro’s Opium War begins with the Phaeton incident at Nagasaki with the main character being a Japanese national involved in the incident. Though this novel has only a first section, it depicts the attitude of the author who tried to maintain distance from the incident. Thus, such an attitude to prevent the novel becoming a "seasonal article" shows another possibility of historical novels during wartime.
This article presents a language specialist’s content analysis of four topics related to the memory of World War II. The purpose of the analysis is to develop critical content-based instruction (CBI) in an advanced Japanese language course that will be implemented at a Canadian university. These specific topics are: Atomic bombs (A-bombs) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Canada’s involvement in the development of the A-bombs, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and representations of peace and war in language arts and history textbooks used in Japan. I identify higai and kagai [suffering from harm vs. causing harm] relations in various materials including articles, literature, textbooks, and films, while demonstrating how these victim-offender relations reflect complex international and domestic relations of power rather than a simple binary. Such intellectual engagement will enable learners to gain multiple perspectives for ethical understandings of historical events in the target and in their own societies. Some examples of materials and activities are presented.
Theory and practice of education, Philology. Linguistics
Shinsengumi, a group of young men recruited by the Bakufu to protect Kyoto from radical Imperial House loyalists in the tumultuous Bakumatsu period, is romanticised and idolised in Japan despite its limited place in history. This article attempts to comprehend this phenomenon by locating the closest crystallisation of popularly imagined Shinsengumi in Moeyo ken, a popular historical fiction by Shiba Ryōtarō. Antonio Gramsci explains readers are attracted to popular literature because it reflects their ‘philosophies of the age’, which may be discovered by examining popular heroes with their subsequent replications.
This article will identify why Shinsengumi is appealing by comparing Shiba’s hero in Moeyo ken with its twenty-first century reincarnation in Gintama, a popular manga series, and by discerning reader response to Moeyo ken from customer reviews on Amazon.co.jp. It will be demonstrated from these studies that a likely reason for the Japanese public’s romanticisation of Shinsengumi in recent years could be their attraction to autonomous, self-determining heroes who also appreciate the value of community.