Beyond Japan with Oliver Moxham

Oliver is joined by art historian, curator and writer David Elliott to discuss art as a means of cultural exchange. David shares with us his experience of challenging the Euro-American concept of Modern Art by exhibiting contemporary Asian, African and Latin American artists, as well as his new approach of looking at art history through trousers.

Read David's new book, Art & Trousers: Tradition and Modernity in Contemporary Asian Art

Credits:

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] "Coronavirus" by duncan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

[R] "Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)" by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Copyright © 2022 Oliver Moxham, ℗  2022 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed for education purposes.

Oliver is joined by Dr Eiko Honda, Research and Teaching Associate in History at the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies and former Robert & Lisa Sainsbury Fellow at the Sainsbury Institute, to discuss Knowledge Production During Crisis. As an historian of intellectual history, Eiko will explain the need to move beyond universal narratives from Euro-American institutions and embrace a transnational approach to researching global issues for tackling the crises of today.

Read “Undoing the Discipline: History in the Time of Climate Crisis and COVID-19”

Credits:

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] "Coronavirus" by duncan is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

[R] "Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)" by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Copyright © 2022 Oliver Moxham, ℗  2022 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed for education purposes.

Oliver is joined by Dr Christopher Harding, Senior Lecturer in Asian History at the University of Edinburgh, to discuss “Japanese as Other”. Drawing on his career as a cultural historian and his experience presenting a number of BBC productions on Japan, I ask Chris about how Japanese people have been “othered”, presented as something wholly different from other societies, and how he reconciles with that as someone long accustomed to Japanese culture.

Listen to Chris on BBC Radio 4: Archive on 4: Misunderstanding Japan

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] British-Japanese Alliance Postcard.

[R] Osaka Japan by kevin dooley.

Copyright © 2022 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2022 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.Copyright © 2022 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2022 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Dr Forum Mithani, British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University, to discuss her research on the role of nostalgia in shaping expectations of motherhood. I ask Forum about the seductive discourse of nostalgia, its popular manifestations in Japan today and how this has led to romantic yet unfeasible notions of how mothers should be based on a fictional notion of the past. Forum also relates her own experience of preparing to be a mother in Japan and how these expectations appeared in medical guidance as well as popular culture.

Read "(De)Constructing Nostalgic Myths of the Mother in Japanese Drama Woman"

Image and audio credits:

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Entrance curtain of Furusato Sushi Restaurant by Victor Wong

[R] 2009-05-10母親節主日 by ILI_PCT_TW

Copyright © 2022 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2022 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Chris Schimkowsky, PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield, where we will be discussing his research into the "manner posters" on the Tokyo rail network. Manner posters are public service adverts that can be found on trains and at stations across Japan which warn against “low-level deviance” such as wearing your backpack in an inconsiderate position or shaking your wet umbrella onto other passengers. While other scholars have framed this as a means of imposing social order, Chris argues that these posters are a form of customer service, focussing on improving everyone’s experience rather than penalising offenders.

Read more:

'Manner Posters: A Genre Approach', in: Japanese Studies

'Managing Passenger Etiquette in Tokyo: Between Social Control and Customer Service', in: Mobilities

'Crime Prevention in a Low-Crime Nation: An Enquiry into Japanese Bōhan Initiatives', in: Contemporary Japan

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

Images provided by Chris Schimkowsky.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Dr Paula R Curtis, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies at UCLA, to discuss Historians and Online Harassment. Paula will share with me her experiences of being harassed by netto-uyoku (ネット右翼), online far-right nationalists who seek to hassle and discredit historians for their critical approach to Japan’s war history, as well as offer advice for researchers of controversial history who run afoul of nationalist netizens.

Read Paula's article, 'Taking the Fight for Japan's History Online'

Read Prof J. Mark Ramseyer's article, 'Contracting for sex in the Pacific War'

Read the Asia-Pacific Journal's refutation of Ramseyer's article, “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War”: The Case for Retraction on Grounds of Academic Misconduct

Follow Paula on Twitter to see how she handles online harassment.

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Unveiling of Comfort Women Memorial by Melissa Wall

[R] Social Media Keyboard by Shahid Abdullah

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Hiroshi Ōta, professor at the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University, to discuss Net-Zero Japan. With the COP26 gathering and a recently leaked document revealing the Japanese government as one of many lobbying for climate change to be taken off the UN agenda, I ask Hiroshi about the rhetoric and actions of the Japanese government in the face of climate change. Together we explore why they are reluctant to impose serious reforms of their energy policy and what alternatives exist for their dependency on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Glossary

METI – Ministry of Economic Trade and Industries

3E+S – The areas of policy covered by METI: Energy Securities, Efficiency, Environmental considerations + Safety.

TIC – Techno-Institutional Complex: Energy, Manufacture & Transport Industry

Anticipatory Governance – Governance that incorporates ideas of foresight, engagement & integrations

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Historical trends in Japan's primary energy supply. Source: Agency  for Natural Resources and Energy, Total Energy Statistics. Japan Atomic  Energy Relations Organisation (JAERO) [53]. 

[R] The great wave by DonkeyHotey

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Zoe Shipley, graduate from our MA programme in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies to discuss her thesis research, “Reality or Fantasy? 19th c. Photography of Japan”. Zoe’s research is based on a family heirloom, the Japan Album, collected by her ancestor Robert T. Rhode between 1877 and 1884. Made up of a collection of commercial photographs and his own work, Zoe addresses how the album highlights the difference between the reality of modernisation occurring at the time with abstractions of tradition through costume and exaggerated scenes to pander to a foreign audience.

Zoe's blog can be followed here: http://www.theenglishjapanesestudent.com

Find out more about our MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies here: https://japaninnorwich.org/masters-programme/

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

Images provided by Zoe Shipley from the Japan Album.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by Ellen Van Goethem, Professor in Japanese Humanities at Kyushu University, to discuss Capitals of Fate. Ellen’s research focusses on the history and archaeology of Japan’s early and frequently changing capitals from the Asuka to the early Heian period. We explore why these capitals were moved, what the criteria was when creating a new capital city and the influence of practices from mainland Asia.

Capitals in chronological order

- Fujiwara

- Nara

- Kuni

- Naniwa

- Nagaoka

- Heian (Kyoto)

- Edo (Tokyo)

Glossary

- Fūsui (風水): Site divination or geomancy, derived from the Chinese term feng shui.

- Shijinsōō (四神相応): Correspondence of the four deities (vermillion sparrow, azure dragon, white tiger, black turtle-snake)

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

[L] Replica of Nara’s First Audience Hall. Provided by Ellen Van Goethem.

[R] Lantern depicting the Azure Dragon (Heian Shrine). Provided by Ellen Van Goethem.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.

Oliver is joined by David Fedman, Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, to discuss Landscapes of Empire. David will share his research on the legacy of the Japanese Empire’s foresting initiative on the Korean peninsula, taking a look at collaboration and resistance between colonised Koreans and Japanese imperial authorities, how afforestation was rich with oppressive discourse designed to raise Japanese ecology and lower Koreans, and how the initiative continued to shape the landscape of Korea after the empire fell.

More information on the Japanese colonisation of Korea

Image and audio credits

Intro-outro music: jasonszklarek / MotionElements.com

Images: Provided by David Fedman.

Copyright © 2021 Oliver Moxham, ℗ 2021 Oliver Moxham. May be freely distributed in a classroom setting.