CJS Seminars
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/50700
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item type: Item , Game of Go in Japan: History and in "Active Aging"(2026-01-13)Item type: Item , Fall 2025 CJS Bento Box Event(2025-10-17)Item type: Item , Incorporating Project-Based Language Learning into an English-to-Japanese Translation Course(2025-09-18) Tateyama, YumikoProject-based language learning (PBLL) has been implemented in world language classes. It helps second language (L2) learners develop target language skills alongside skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration while engaging in authentic, meaningful tasks. In my talk, I will explain how a PBLL project was incorporated into an English-to-Japanese translation course offered at UH Manoa. The project involved translating materials about Japanese immigration to Hawaii at the request of a local cultural center. Through this project, students were expected to a) deepen their understanding of the historical significance of Japanese immigration to Hawaii, b) develop translation skills, and c) reflect on their work through feedback. I will discuss online tools used for the project, including AI, as well as challenges encountered and suggestions for implementing PBLL projects.Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Item type: Item , CJS Seminar by 2025 Library Travel Awardees(2025-06-16)Speakers information: 1) Thomas Monaghan received his PhD in History from Yale University in May 2025. His dissertation is entitled, ’The Satsuma Empire and its Sugar Colonies on the Edges of Early Modern Japan’. In 2025-26, he will be a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan. 2) Lina Nie is a historian of premodern China, Japan, the Mongol Empire, and maritime East Asia. She is currently writing a book on diplomatic exchanges among China, Japan, Korea, and Mongols from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries. Lina Nie received her master degree from Harvard University and PhD in History from the University of Southern California. She went to the University of Hong Kong and Kyoto University for her undergraduate study . Her work has appeared in the Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Bulletin of Ming-Qing Studies, and Monumenta Nipponica, and most recent work has been accepted by the Journal of Asian Studies.Item type: Item , Spring 2025 CJS Bento Box Event(2025-04-17)CJS graduate student presentations -- Bento Box Series -- Spring 2025Item type: Item , The Transformation of National Security in Asia(2025-03-25)National security in the Indo-Pacific has changed significantly over the last decade, with the rise of China being the central focus of the United States, which has enhanced security ties with the Quad (Japan, Australia, India), South Korea, the Philippines, and others, including Europe. In addition to military assets, economic competitiveness has emerged as a critical component of national security. Where is the U.S.-China rivalry headed, and what is Japan’s role?Item type: Item , 20250408-Found in Translation(2025-04-08)Item type: Item , Spirit of Tea and Peacefulness(2025-02-10)Item type: Item , Found in Translation(2025-04-08) Linda HoaglundRenowned translator Linda Hoaglund will share what she has learned from subtitling films and translating books and essays by Japan’s most esteemed animator, filmmakers, and artists. Linda Hoaglund has subtitled 300 Japanese films into English, including Spirited Away and other Studio Ghibli films, Seven Samurai and other Akira Kurosawa films, Battle Royale and other Fukasaku Kinji films, Shoplifters and other Kore-eda Hirokazu films. She has also translated the books, Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture, Pleats Please by Issey Miyake, and Just Enough Design by Sato Taku. She has translated two Heisei Nakamura-za Kabuki performances at Lincoln Center in NY, essays by Kirino Natsuo, Ichiuchi Miyako, Murakami Takashi and others. She also translates branding copy for Japan’s most respected corporations.Item type: Item , What Haruki Murakami talks about when he talks about freedom(2024-10-14) Department of East Asian Languages & LiteraturesThe reasons for Haruki Murakami’s world popularity have been a popular topic for academic discussions as well as social media posts by his general readers. His readable Japanese, his unique storytelling style, and the lack of “cultural odor” in his stories are surely the keys that have attracted readers both domestically and internationally. On the other hand, many of Murakami’s translators explain that his works became popular when the society experienced big social and/or political change and people’s fear and anxiety increased. I argue that Murakami’s stories encourage readers to be themselves without losing a control of their mind and life, when social roles and social orders are destabilized. In this talk, I explain how he understands living one’s own life as well as the idea of freedom in the world that is globally becoming a consumerist and information society. The talk will also touch on Murakami’s thorough research about Aum Shinrikyo, the cult group that perpetrated the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995, a crucial even that made Murakami think deeply about what freedom really is.Item type: Item , The Spirit of Tea and Peacefulness(2024-02-14)This is a flyer for a Center for Japanese Studies seminar: The Spirit of Tea and Peacefulness February 2024.Item type: Item , Aichi University Mini-Symposium 2024 - Women's Issues in Japan Today(2024-03-07)This is a flyer for a special symposium.Item type: Item , Center for Japanese Studies Bento Box May 2024(2024-05-20)The Bento Box series, started in Spring 2022 by CJS Director Mark Levin, provides a venue for graduate students to present their Japan-related research in an informal setting in front of their friends and other graduate students enjoying bentos and the presentations. Additionally, presenters can receive feedback on their presentations from guests in attendance.Item type: Item , The oink in Okinawa: Rooting through changes in Okinawa's heirloom pigs and cuisine(2024-04-22) Schrager, Benjamin; Sakuma, SayakaA rich culture of rearing and eating pigs emerged during the independent Ryukyu Kingdom. As Japan colonized Ryukyu and renamed it Okinawa Prefecture, pigs persisted as a resilient and distinct characteristic of Okinawan society. This presentation develops the idea of a companion breed to explore the unique relationship between Okinawans and their heirloom pigs. Here, we explore how this special partnership enabled unique socio-ecological formations to emerge and evolve. Historically called “island pigs” (shima buta) and today widely called “Agu,” Okinawa’s oldest heirloom pig breed is a small black pot-bellied pig that likely first arrived in the latter part of the 14th century but only thrived after the introduction of sweet potatoes in the early 17th century. This presentation focuses on local responses to three changes in sovereign administration. The first change is the interwar effort by the Japanese government to introduce Western bacon-type breeds like the Berkshire to replace island pigs. The second change is the postwar effort by the US government to disseminate Western pig breeds and industrialize pig husbandry. The third change is the post-reversion effort of Japanese industries to market value-added “Agu” pork as heirloom pig from Okinawa. These changes elicited a range of responses in Okinawa as relations to heirloom pigs and cuisine have continued to evolve.Item type: Item , Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan(2016-04-16) McMorran, ChrisKurokawa Onsen is a rare bright spot in Japan ’ s countryside. Its two dozen traditional inns (ryokan) annually host hundreds of thousands of guests who admire its landscape, experience its hospitality, and soak in its hot springs. As a result, these ryokan have enticed village youth to return home to take over successful family businesses and revive the community. What does it take to produce this family business and one of Japan ’ s most relaxing spaces, and who does the day-to-day labor of hospitality? In this talk, I share findings from a year spent welcoming guests, carrying luggage, scrubbing baths, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, and talking with co-workers and owners about their jobs, relationships, concerns, and aspirations. I share how Kurokawa ’ s ryokan mobilize hospitality to create a rural escape, emphasizing the gendered work or hospitality, as well as the generational work of ryokan owners vs. the daily embodied work of their employees.Item type: Item , Center for Japanese Studies Bento Box March 2024(2024-03-08) Barnes, Richard; Parker, J.D.The Bento Box series, started in Spring 2022 by CJS Director Mark Levin, provides a venue for graduate students to present their Japan-related research in an informal setting in front of their friends and other graduate students enjoying bentos and the presentations. Additionally, presenters can receive feedback on their presentations from guests in attendance.