Asian Studies Program - Kansai Gaidai / Course Offerings

Course Offerings

(3 semester credits each)
Please note that the course offerings listed herein are prepared for publication well in advance and thus are subject to change.

Asian Economic Integration and Globalization (fall & spring)

Globalization is perhaps the hottest concept on the planet. Everybody talks about it, but there are many differing opinions about its meaning. This course examines the processes of globalization and economic integration that have transformed East and Southeast Asia since the 1960s, and considers what lessons these have taught the region. It presents in detail the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) organizations, and considers Asia's future in light of the Asian Financial Crisis.

Contemporary Japanese Economy and Business (fall & spring)

The course surveys recent developments and problems in Japanese business sectors, the economy, and politics. We will start with the "Lost Decade," a time when Japan stumbled through a prolonged economic slump, business restructuring, political upheaval and social crisis. We will examine how Japanese business and government are struggling to adjust to the wrenching social changes that are remaking the business landscape. We will explore the challenges of globalization, the rise of China, and the "New Economy" of a wired/wireless world. Next, we will look at the seismic shifts ongoing in specific economic sectors, such as automobiles and electronics, retail and fast food industries, the IT industry and international trading companies. Finally, we will plot out possible future directions for Japanese business.

Political Economies of East Asia (fall & spring)

The Asia-Pacific economy is the most dynamic in the world. All of East Asia's developmental success has come almost in the blink of an eye since the 1960s, but ironically, the creation of this most capitalist of regions was guided by heavy state intervention and planning. And East Asia has largely remade itself since the calamitous Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998. This course helps you understand the interaction of economics and politics, the fast-paced business energy, and the complicated political realities that have made the East/Southeast Asian "miracle" possible.

Principles of Economics with Applications to the Japanese Economy (fall & spring)

The Japanese economy, characterized as it is by a different set of traditional norms, values and regulatory constraints relative to other countries in the world, is indeed unique, but not so unique as to defy the applicability of the modern economic analysis. The course emphasizes economic modeling and the use of analytical tools to gain deeper understanding of the functioning of the Japanese economy.

Labor, Culture & HRM Operations (fall & spring)

Human Resource Management (HRM) is the management process of meeting organizational goals by acquiring, developing, retaining, terminating, and appropriately leveraging the firm's human resources. In each of these areas, Japanese firms differ in important respects from their counterparts in other countries.

Intercultural Business Communication in Japan (fall & spring)

Through an investigation of key intercultural communication concepts and research findings, this course will help you become a more effective communicator when you work with individuals with different cultural backgrounds. You will learn how your own culture influences your communication and assumptions about life (and business) and develop an understanding of how culture affects the behavior and assumptions of others.

International Business: Doing Business in East Asia (fall & spring)

As business increasingly operates on a global and, particularly in East Asia, regional level, it is no longer enough to be a single country specialist. Technology developed in Japan, for example, may be turned into a product in China for a Korean market. This new reality suggests that an understanding of business management and markets in these three core East Asian economies is essential for those considering a career in business and, more generally, for those seeking to understand East Asian economic activity. Accordingly, this course provides an opportunity for students to develop valuable, practical and transferable skills and insight with regards to doing business in East Asia.

International Business: The Japanese Transnational Corporation (TNC) (fall & spring)

Today Japanese firms can be found operating around the globe, though mainly within the three key centers of economic activity (North America, Europe and East Asia) and in many cases have assumed dominant positions in the host market. How (and why) has this happened and what impact does overseas expansion have on the supposedly unique style of Japanese business organization and management practice? The course will adopt a thematic and regional framework to examine these issues. Students looking to gain a deeper understanding of both the Japanese firm and internationalized production will develop analytical, conceptual and theoretical skills in a global and regional context.

Japanese Business: Business and Management in the Asia-Pacific (fall & spring)

When compared to the two other key areas of economic activity in the global economy (North America and Europe), the Asia-Pacific region is distinguished by its diversity, vigor and complexity, not least in the fields of business and management. Recognizing the regional nature of so-called global business, this course provides an entry route into this most dynamic and vibrant region. The core aim of the course is to familiarize the student with key aspects of business organization and management systems in the region including strategy, markets, human resource management, business logic, and joint ventures. Accordingly the course adopts a thematic and country specific structure allowing for a wide range of relevant issues to be investigated.

Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications (fall & spring)

Advertising is changing rapidly. Media experts, inside and outside Japan, have different opinions on the future of advertising and the implications of the changing media landscape. Yet, they all agree that brand building is important and the need for greater integration and accountability in marketing communication activities is essential for businesses to not only survive but thrive in the future. At a personal level, regardless of the career you choose, having a basic understanding of advertising and integrated marketing communications (IMC) as well as the brand building process is beneficial.

International Entrepreneurship: Focus on Japan (fall & spring)

The role of entrepreneurship in an economy has been well documented and is of interest to business people, politicians, university professors and students. Creating and growing a new venture inside or outside the corporation is a task that few individuals are able to accomplish, even though many profess the desire. Entrepreneurship in a foreign market introduces additional challenges and opportunities to the business owner. Students will learn how to discover and evaluate ideas for new ventures and develop a comprehensive business plan for a new venture in Japan.

International Negotiation: Resolving Conflict and Closing the Deal (fall & spring)

Every business transaction involves negotiation. They may range from the salary for your first job to complex trade treaties between governments. Non profit organizations are equally likely to be involved in negotiations to maximize their effectiveness. In the global environment, understanding the opportunities and challenges involved in transnational negotiations can often make the difference between success and failure. This course introduces the fundamental concepts of negotiation as well as specific challenges, strategies, and opportunities in international negotiations. Through practical exercises, students will learn how to successfully negotiate, implement, and evaluate international business transactions.

The Struggle for Justice (fall & spring)

Newspapers report that Japan is a homogenous country with little or no crime while the United States is portrayed as suffering from a crime epidemic. This course will look at Japan, Thailand, China, and several other countries to see how societies have tried to deal with the phenomenon of crime. No legal background of any kind is required for the course. By the end of the semester, students should understand why Japan has so little crime and be able to predict future trends in criminality in Japan and around the world.

The Dynamics of Modern Japan (fall)

This upper-level course analyzes the transformation of Japan from a pre-modern society, isolated from the rest of the world, to a post-industrial society, interdependent on and successfully competitive with the rest of the world. This course will critically examine the seminal events of the last hundred years: the Meiji Restoration and the Allied Occupation, as well as Japan's current role as a world player in terms of politics, policies, and history.

Japan and China: Problems in Historical & Cultural Interactions (fall & spring)

Anyone approaching the problem of modern Sino-Japanese relations must be struck with the dilemma of how the two peoples have been unable to forge any long-lasting and peaceful relationship. The purpose of this upper-level course is to trace these forces of commonality and disparity. The period from the Tokugawa to the present will be covered.

Pacific Rivalry (fall & spring)

Whether as enemy or ally, partner or competitor, America has, since the mid-nineteenth century, played a vital role in the structuring of East Asia. Perhaps the term competitor is most apt in describing not only the American experience in the East Asia with Japan, but also that of China and Russia. This course will trace the nature of rivalry in the Pacific. Military, economic and political considerations will be highlighted.

Peace, Development, and Democratization: The Asia Challenge (fall & spring)

This course is designed to explore and discuss the interrelated issues of creating peace, the utility of force, the dispatch of peacekeeping, the creation of institutions of justice, and the configuring of human rights. This discussion takes place in a post 9-11 environment. Participants enrolled in this course are expected not to be passive observers. We will attempt to define the limits of Japan's pacifism, the question of Hiroshima, the nature of the state and society in North Korea, the tragedy of Tibet, the oppression in Burma, the lack of democratization in China, and the concept of preemption. Moreover, Operation Enduring Freedom and the continued wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will be discussed.

Challenges in Modern Japanese History and Politics (spring)

This is an upper level political science and public policy fieldwork class in which students are expected to engage in fieldwork. Field trips to the Osaka Peace Museum and the Shiga Prefectural Prison will be conducted.

Introduction to Japanese History (fall & spring)

The course covers the period from pre-history to the early 19th century and focuses on the major dynamics of Japanese history, which are still relevant to today's Japan. Political structures, economic and social development, religious attitudes, foreign relations, and cultural achievements will be considered in their historical contexts.

Survey of Japanese Art (fall)

The course will consist of a series of slide lectures covering the major developments in Japanese art from the earliest times through the 18th century. Weather permitting, field trips will be scheduled to view first-hand some of the works introduced during the class lectures.

Japan and Its World to 1860 (spring)

Japan's largely successful response to the challenge of the West in the late 19th century was conditioned by its pre-modern foreign relations. This course will survey Japan's relations with its neighbors in East Asia from the earliest documented contracts to the transformation of those relations as a result of contact with the West from the 16th through mid-19th centuries.

Culture and Everyday Life in Japan: Japanese Society in Anthropological Perspective (fall & spring)

This survey course is designed to help students make sense of Japanese society by exploring key aspects of cultural meaning and patterns of behavior, along with the institutional contexts that provide coherence as well as make Japan a dynamically changing society. Topics include the construction of national identity; normative understandings of interpersonal relations; youth and the schooling system; gender family and work; urban life; ritual, festivity and religious practice; "the gift," exchange and social relations; and experiences of ethnic minorities.

Popular Culture as Social Practice: Producing Pleasures, Styles, Identities (fall & spring)

This course explores the relationship between the products of popular culture (objects, images, discourses, categories) and social life in Japan. While introducing key concepts in the study of popular culture and society, the course focuses on specific fandoms, subcultures or cultural categories constructed around consumption practices such as otaku, dojinshi writers, J-rappers, gyaru, and the legendary fans of the Takarazuka Revue. Central themes running throughout the course include popular culture consumption and constructions of "deviance," agency and hegemony, and resistance to or reinforcement of dominant norms, particularly concerning gender and sexuality.

Onna to Otoko: Gender and Sexuality in Japan (fall & spring)

This course focuses on gender as cultural belief, as a social structuring mechanism and a source of social inequality in Japan. We will investigate the values and expected types of behavior associated with "femininity" and "masculinity," and how gender interacts with other spheres of life. Topics to be covered include historical changes in gender roles; gender, family and work; gender and sexuality; state policy, gender ideology and the gendered division of labor; the Japanese women's movement; and recent debates over directed change in the realm of gender in Japan.

Sexuality and Culture in Japan: Desire, Power and Social Order (fall & spring)

While sexuality is often experienced as among the most private aspects of human life, our erotic lives are profoundly shaped by history, social beliefs and institutional practices. This course focuses on the shifting beliefs and practices surrounding sexuality in Japan, including the links between sexuality and gender; the role of the state in the regulation of sexuality; the increasing commodification of sexual images, services, and bodies; minority sexual and gender identities and practices; and changes in sexual practices and attitudes among young people in Japan.

The Body and Communication in Japan (fall & spring)

Nonverbal communication, associations between the body and linguistic meaning differ from culture to culture: a gesture in one country can have a very different and perhaps offensive meaning in another country. This class will explore how the body is used in communication in the Japanese context. The focus will be on so-called body language as it complements and/or replaces speech. Japanese Sign Language and its importance to deaf culture will be examined. Finally, the body itself, images of the body and how the body is modified and decorated will also be explored.

Issues in Contemporary Japanese Society and Culture (fall & spring)

The objectives of this course include becoming familiar with and understanding important contemporary issues in Japanese society, conceptualizing and discussing such issues in a critical fashion and questioning stereotypes of traditional Japanese culture. Recent anthropological articles on topics dealing with education, minorities, gender, religion, recreation, pop culture, globalization, etc. will be read and evaluated through class discussions and presentations.

Japan and Globalization: A Cultural Approach (fall & spring)

It is widely held that global scale culture supercedes governments and political boundaries; economy is paramount. "Globalization" is the new buzz word used to describe this contemporary situation. This class will shift the focus from economics to people and their everyday lives within the global village. Globalization is about movement and interaction: people, culture, technology, goods and services, religion and ideologies are moving through porous borders affecting everyone in the world in vastly different ways. Where does Japan and Japanese culture fit within globalization? It is easy to see global influences inside of Japan: McDonald's, Starbucks and European brand names are everywhere. But Japanese culture has long been influencing other areas of the globe as well. This course will investigate globalization from an anthropological perspective focusing on the movements and interactions between Japan and the rest of the world.

Visual Anthropology of Japan (fall & spring)

"A picture is worth a thousand words," and "seeing is believing" are taken to be common beliefs. This class will challenge these notions within the realm of the visual representation of culture. How can a culture be presented and represented through visual means? Who creates such representations and for what purposes? Documentary films, ethnographic photography and electronic media such as blogs dealing with Japanese culture will be examined. Not only will students have a chance to view and discuss such visual representations, they will have the opportunity to create their own visual projects as well.

Intercultural Communication in Japan (fall & spring)

Communicating in an international context requires an understanding of factors that affect interaction between people from diverse cultural perspectives. Study of intercultural communication theory and research is beneficial to the success, relational development, and satisfaction of students who strive to maximize their language and cultural learning while in Japan. This course is a practical introduction to the field of intercultural communication as applied to a Japanese context, thereby assisting students in developing a clearer understanding of their own communicative perspectives as related to life in Japan.

Japanese Communication: Culture as Performance (fall & spring)

The stories of a culture and the daily encounters within are rich sources of cultural learning. This course is an examination of the nature of communication in Japan, as displayed in written texts and in daily life. By analyzing and performing aesthetic texts and utterances, including children's stories, folktales, legends, music, and poetry, international students can develop communicative competencies and gain a deeper understanding of their new environment. Thus, in addition to being a meaningful way to share interpretations with others, performance is also a powerful tool of discovery.

Japanese Popular Media and Culture (fall & spring)

This course focuses on three central elements of Japanese popular media-manga, anime, and television dramas-including aspects of their production distribution and consumption. It will also examine how such media both reflect and influence specific aspects of Japanese culture and national identity.

Japan in Western Film and Literature (fall & spring)

This course examines how Japan has been portrayed in Western film and literature from 1853 to the present day. A central concern is how and why filmmakers and authors have emphasized, exaggerated, distorted or ignored various aspects of Japanese culture in response to specific social conditions and political pressures. We will also look at how images of Japan, constructed in one historical time, are recycled to justify or explain later political developments.

Making News in Japan (fall & spring)

This course has two main objectives. The first is to help you understand the structure of the Japanese news media and their role in society-how news is made in Japan. The second is to enrich your study-abroad experiences by helping you become more aware of, and better able to understand and discuss current events in Japan-the stories making the news.

Japanese Buddhism (fall & spring)

This course looks at Japanese Buddhism as both a living religion and a set of philosophical teachings. Among the topics discussed will be: different practices and views among the various schools of Japanese Buddhism; ancestors and graves; pilgrimage; deities and daily worship. We discuss two films and one novel in order to discover new ways of understanding Buddhism in Japan.

Religion in Japan (fall)

This course presents a panoramic view of religion in Japan. Contemporary religious beliefs and practices will be critically examined. Ancestor worship, the "new religions," Shinto, and Buddhism will be among the lecture topics.

Shinto (fall & spring)

We investigate many aspects of Shinto: mythology; deities; the Emperor; politics; views of the afterlife; intellectual history. A particular focus is the Shinto we see in contemporary Japan.

Zen Buddhism (fall & spring)

This course presents an overview of Zen Buddhism. The roots of the Zen tradition are carefully examined along with the Japanese experience. Specific points of inquiry are meditation, the controversy over sudden versus gradual enlightenment, and Zen and ethics.

Death in East Asian Thought (spring)

Using a multidisciplinary approach, this course examines death in Japanese thought and society. We will look at religious concepts of death and the afterlife (both traditional and contemporary), funeral practices, and ancestor worship, suicide, brain death, and literary treatments of death and dying. The Japanese understanding of death is presented against the background of East Asian ideas about death.

Asian Psychologies (fall & spring)

Psychologies from Asia differ in fundamental ways from the traditional Western psychological understandings and point to alternatives that are helpful for all human beings. This course will first study traditions from India and China that have had important influences on modern psychology and then study how these traditions have been applied in modern psychotherapeutic ways both in Asia and the West.

Cross-Cultural Psychology (fall & spring)

Cross-cultural psychology is the comparative study of psychologies of different cultures. This course focuses on studies of comparisons of two parts of psychology. The first is comparisons of important aspects of psychological functioning: sense of self, thinking, perception, emotions, and cultural understandings of relationships and love. The second is comparisons of psychotherapies in different cultures and a study of ways in which these psychotherapies have been integrated with each other.

Cross-Cultural Social Experience (fall & spring)

In this course, we study basic factors and situations that challenge a person in cross-cultural social experience. The focus is psychological: what are the connections between a person's cross-cultural social environment and their inner psychological experience. The hope is that students will make experiential connections between the factors studied and their actual lived cross-cultural experience. Attention is given to people from "individualistic" cultures learning about "collective" cultures and vice versa.

Anime: Method and Meaning (fall & spring)

Japanese animation, known as anime, has established a world-wide reputation as a unique form of animation. This course surveys selected aspects of theatrical anime with some consideration of anime serials. The nature of animation as a whole and the special qualities of anime will be examined in the context of viewing a number of anime films. Questions regarding gender, politics, culture, sexuality, identity, and representation will be discussed in connection with the ongoing development of the medium.

New Japanese Cinema 1995-2005 (fall & spring)

This course examines a wide range of recent films that represent a variety of most popular genres (i.e. suspense, love stories, period drama, horror, anime, and fantasy) and directors active today. Readings, lectures, and writings assignments will focus on the director?s approach and the cultural and literary backgrounds of the individual films.

From Zen to Paradise (fall & spring)

This is an introductory-level course designed to maximize the experience of seeing Buddhist art in Japan. Often, after visiting "must-see" temples, a visitor with little background in Buddhist religious thought, architecture or imagery, comes away having gained very little. The goal of this class is preparation for both class field trips and independent visits to temples and/or museums with important Buddhist sculpture and paintings.

Japanese Buddhist Art (fall & spring)

The Kansai area has for the majority of Japanese history been the center of Japanese art production. Beginning with the art found in 4th century tombs, the area?s dominance continued until power and patronage shifted to Tokyo during the Edo period (1615-1868). Focusing on locally-produced painting and sculpture from the 4th through the 19th centuries, the class will consist of slide lectures. There will be field trips to sites studied in the class.

This course is not meant for "learning Japanese," but for "learning about Japanese," hence, the objective of this course is not to improve your Japanese, but to deepen your understanding of the features of the Japanese language through objective observations and analyses, i.e., the linguistic study of the language. More specifically, we will be inquiring into the phonetic, grammatical, and semantic aspects of the language, and we will also make observations of the varieties and changes in the Japanese language, especially the ones caused by social factors.

First, we intended to study the basic concepts of society and culture. We will study and analyze social issues related to contemporary Japanese society from Sociological perspectives. We also intended to approach Japanese society from a comparative perspective. We expect international students to bring in their expertise of their native cultures in terms of similarities and differences with Japanese society. With applications of comparative perspectives, we intended to understand and analyze Japanese society further. In the end, we hope to understand Japanese society facing in the global community.