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Informationen zum Autor Edited by Timothy Iles and Peter Matanle Klappentext The aim of this project is to bring together fifteen extensively revised, peer-reviewed articles by international scholars covering a diverse range of fields-from cinema to economics to history to the social sciences-addressing issues in contemporary Japan. These fifteen are all contributors to the first ten years of the EJCJS-the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. The principal strengths of this volume are its diversity of approaches and its fundamentally interdisciplinary nature: it allows researchers in different fields to contribute to an overall understanding of Japan from the 1950s to the present. This 'understanding' is indeed comprehensive: chapters range from economics to politics to theatre, literature, immigration issues, religion, and multiculturalism. The chapters are uniformly precise in their analyses, drawing on many different forms of research, from textual analysis, historical documentation, linguistic analysis, to participant interviews and media studies. The diverse range of subject matter holds together very well, in that the contributors operate within a set of similar central values: the primacy of practical research over theory; the centrality of Japan even in studies which situate that country internationally; clarity of expression over jargon; and the desire to include readers through rhetorical care rather than exclude through esoteric applications of over-specialised terminology or assumptions. The chapters, while academic and informed by current scholarship, are accessible to general readers with interest in contemporary Japan. In this, the volume distinguishes itself as a highly readable, pertinent compendium of scholarship on contemporary Japan. It does not aim to be 'all things for all readers' but rather demonstrates to its readership the ways in which diverse aspects of contemporary Japan interlock and influence each other. Thus, aspects of contemporary religion show the influence of current economic conditions, while questions of Japanese identity reflect immigration issues and aspects of multiculturalism, while emerging in contemporary Japanese forms of mobile communication and linguistic change. Japan emerges as a complex, interwoven whole in this volume, but a whole which, as the chapters demonstrate, is amenable to scholarship from both insider and 'outsider' alike. The international contributors all have equal merit and equal voice here, to give a true multidisciplinary portrait of this intricate, culturally, historically, and economically vital nation. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of FiguresList of TablesPreface, Peter MatanleIntroduction, Timothy IlesChapter 1: The Japan Foundation in China: An Agent of Japan's Soft Power?, Utpal VyasChapter 2: Regulatory Reform in Japan 1994-2010 and the Influence of the European Union, Paul James CardwellChapter 3: Party Financing in Germany and Japan: Comparative Perspectives of Political Corruption, Angelos Giannakopoulos, Konstadinos Maras, Shinya AmanoChapter 4: The Heisei Mergers in Contemporary Japan: A Step on the Road to a Doshu-sei Realignment?, Anthony RauschChapter 5: The Dilemma of "Critical Thinking": Conformism and Non-Conformism in Japanese Education Policy, David RearChapter 6: The Emergence of Positive Fathering Roles in Japanese Social Marketing, Tomoko ShimodaChapter 7: Cell Phone as Metaphor: Japanese Deaf and Hearing High School Students' Concepts of Mobile Communication,Yoshiko OkuyamaChapter 8: Japanese Employment in Transformation: The Growing Number of Non-Regular Worker, Kuniko IshiguroChapter 9: Deprofessionalization of Buddhist Priests in Contemporary Japan, Mitsutoshi HoriiChapter 10: Celebrating 'Multicultural Japan': Writings on 'Minorities' and the Discourse on 'Difference', Chris BurgessChapter 11: Ito and Isabella in the Contact Zone:Interpretation, Mimicry and Unbeaten Tracks...
