Search results for: Japanese culture

Authors: Tomoko Yaginuma, Rosa Cabecinhas

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Recently, the studies of the images about Japan and/or the Japanese people have been done in a Japanese language education context since the number of the students of Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) has been increasing worldwide, including in Portugal. It has been claimed that one of the reasons for this increase is the current popularity of Japanese pop-culture, namely anime (Japanese animations) and manga (Japanese visual novels), among young students. In the present study, the images about Japan and the Japanese held by JFL students in Portugal were examined by a questionnaire survey. The JFL students in higher education in Portugal (N=296) were asked to answer, among the other questions, their degree of agreement (using a Likert scale) with 24 pre-defined descriptions about the Japanese, which appear as relevant in a qualitative pilot study conducted before. The results show that the image of Japanese people by Portuguese JFL students is stressed around four dimensions: 1) diligence, 2) kindness, 3) conservativeness and 4) innovativeness. The students considered anime was the main source of information about the Japanese people and culture and anime was also strongly associated with the students’ interests in learning Japanese language.

Keywords: anime, cultural studies, images about Japan and Japanese people, Portugal

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Authors: Shunichiro Morishita

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This study examines the factors for attracting foreign guests in the Japanese lodging industry and discusses some measures taken for accepting foreign guests. It reviews three different accommodation providers acclaimed highly by foreign guests, Yamashiroya, Sawanoya and Fuji-Hakone Guest House, and identifies their characteristics. The common points for attracting foreign guests were: 1) making the best use of the old facilities, 2) multilingual signs, guidance and websites, 3) necessary and sufficient communication in English, 4) events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture, 5) omotenashi, warm and homely Japanese hospitality. These findings indicate that foreign guests’ dissatisfaction level can be decreased through internationalization utilizing ICT and by offering multilingual support. On the other hand, their satisfaction level can be increased by encouraging interaction with other guests and local Japanese people, providing events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture and omotenashi, home-style Japanese hospitality.

Keywords: hospitality management, foreign guests, Japanese lodging industry, Omotenashi

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Authors: Teresa Mili

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The significance of political and economic factors have barely been neglected while assessing bilateral relations, but the significance of culture as a soft power in Japan-Vietnam relations has largely been understated. While the close ties had their birth ever since the 14th century, this paper sets out with an inductive lens to analyze the role of culture as a variable in bilateral relations. Vietnam, which then had a history of war devastation had taken refuge in Japan and later sought inspiration from Japan’s economy with the simultaneous influence of culture since Japan was a developed nation, and Vietnam a third world country. Evidencing facts with illustrations, the paper shows how the twenty-first century has brought a growing bond as well as the onset of stronger ties between the two states based, primarily, on an emerging convergence of interests and culture. The cultural influence of Japan may be seen much in the Vietnamese cities, through evidences like the growing numbers of Japanese items on sale. The variety in cultural influence may be seen through the acceptance of Japanese fashion trends, mange comic, pop music, cuisine, tourism, Japanese studies and language, the translations of Japanese literature which are very much popular at Vietnam. Using secondary sources as well as assessing travel accounts and official websites, this research work will try to find out how much Japanese culture has influenced Vietnam and whether such influences will be strong enough to qualify culture as an intervening variable in the bilateral relations.

Keywords: influence, culture, language, cold war

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Authors: Yukiko Fujiwara

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As a language learning methodology, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become increasingly prevalent in Japan. Most CLIL classroom practice and its research are conducted in EFL fields. However, much less research has been done in the Japanese language learning setting. Therefore, there are still many issues to work out using CLIL in the Japanese language teaching (JLT) setting. it is expected that more research will be conducted on both authentically and academically. Under such circumstances, this is one of the few classroom-based CLIL researches experiments in JLT and aims to find an effective course design for a class with students at different proficiency levels. The class was called ‘Japanese culture A’. This class was offered as one of the elective classes for International exchange students at a Japanese university. The Japanese proficiency level of the class was above the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level N3. Since the CLIL approach places importance on ‘authenticity’, the class was designed with materials and activities; such as books, magazines, a film and TV show and a field trip to Kyoto. On the field trip, students experienced making traditional Japanese desserts, by receiving guidance directly from a Japanese artisan. Through the course, designated task sheets were used so the teacher could get feedback from each student to grasp what the class proficiency gap was. After reading an article on Japanese culture, students were asked to write down the words they did not understand and what they thought they needed to learn. It helped both students and teachers to set learning goals and work together for it. Using questionnaires and interviews with students, this research examined whether the attempt was effective or not. Essays they wrote in class were also analyzed. The results from the students were positive. They were motivated by learning authentic, natural Japanese, and they thrived setting their own personal goals. Some students were motivated to learn Japanese by studying the language and others were motivated by studying the cultural context. Most of them said they learned better this way; by setting their own Japanese language and culture goals. These results will provide teachers with new insight towards designing class materials and activities that support students in a multilevel CLIL class.

Keywords: authenticity, CLIL, Japanese language and culture, multilevel class

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Authors: Patrycja Pichnicka

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Anime is the Japanese art of animation and a kind of Japanese animated movie, different from the Western ones by its specific features. In the world dominated by live action movies, mostly the ones produced in the United States, Japanese animated movies, which constitute a large part of the Japanese movie industry, play the role of the Other. They adapt elements of Western culture and technology to create something that resists global Western domination. This phenomenon is particularly interesting to observe in the case of narration borrowed from the Western culture, yet transformed in a specific manner: such as Vampire Narration. The phenomenon should be examined using the theory of cultural adaptation of Siergiei Arutiunow, as well as theory of cultural hegemony and postcolonial theories, including the theory of the discourse of resistance. Relations of cultural hegemony and resistance have been mentioned in works of Susan Napier, however they are worth to be fully developed. Anime relations to globally dominating culture reveal tension between submission and resistance in which non-Western identity is constructed and performed. Nonetheless, the tension between the Global/Western and the Japanese is not the only one existing in contemporaneous Japanese society and culture. Sexual, gender, class, and ethnic issues are also expressed in and through pop culture narrations. Using the basic division of the types of cultural adaptation we can trace the line of the evolution of the Japanese cultural attitude towards the West, expressed in the Vampire Narration from the time of American occupation till now. These attitudes changed from the submissive assimilation or reproduction of cultural models, through the simple opposition, to the more nuanced attitude of nowadays. However, according to Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectional theory, there is no one category of discrimination or submission. There are individuals or groups existing on the cross of two or more categories of emancipation. If the Japanese were culturally subdued to the Westerner, the Japanese woman was doubly subdued: as a woman and as a Japanese. The emancipation of one group can deepen the submission of another one, of internal Other, of the group in which two or more categories of domination/submission intersect. That is why some Japanese female authors enthusiastically reproduce the Western cultural models, even if this means a cultural hegemony of the West over the Japanese. They see, as women, more liberal attitudes towards their gender in the Western culture than in the Japanese culture, as it is constructed and produced by Japanese men. The Japanese anime is the realm in which sophisticated art meets social tendencies and cultural attitudes. Anime examination permits to study of the composed contemporaneous Japanese identity, as well as general rules of cultural relations.

Keywords: anime, cultural hegemony, intercultural relations, resistance, vampire narration

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Authors: Shaoyu Ye

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This study aims to investigate the relationship between international students’ (ISs) trust of others (Japanese people and other different-language speakers) and intercultural adaptation in Japan, controlling for the effects of language abilities (both Japanese and English) and their liking of Japanese students. A total of 206 ISs completed a questionnaire survey measuring their degree of liking of general Japanese students (JSs) and trust of others, their most frequently contact persons and their communication ways, their received social support from same-language speakers, Japanese native speakers and other different-language speakers, and their degree of feeling been accepted, and so on. The following results were observed. (a) Neither Japanese language nor English language had significant effects on their sense of acceptance, while their degree of liking of JSs and trust of others had significant positive effects on it; (b) ISs’ Japanese language, along with their trust of others, led them to receive more social support from Japanese people, which helped raise their sense of acceptance in Japan; (c) ISs’ English language and their trust of others helped them receive more social support from other different- language speakers, which led them to feel been accepted in Japan. The importance of distinguishing between the effects of trust of Japanese people on intercultural adaptation and the effects of trust of other different-language speakers on intercultural adaptation is discussed.

Keywords: international students in Japan, language abilities, social support, sense of acceptance, trust of others.

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Authors: Yuko Tomoto

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The purpose of this research is to examine the assumption that female bilingual speakers more often change the way they talk or think depending on the language they use compared with male bilingual speakers. The author collected data through questionnaires on 241 bilingual speakers. Also, in-depth interview surveys were conducted with 13 Japanese/English bilingual speakers whose native language is Japanese and 16 English/Japanese bilingual speakers whose native language is English. The results indicate that both male and female bilingual speakers are more or less influenced consciously and unconsciously by the language they use, as well as by the background cultural values of each language. At the same time, it was found that female speakers are much more highly affected by the language they use, its background culture and also by the interlocutors they were talking to. This was probably due to the larger cultural expectations on women. Through conversations, speakers are not only conveying a message but also attempting to express who they are, and what they want to be like. In other words, they are constantly building up and updating their own identities by choosing the most appropriate language and descriptions to express themselves in the dialogues. It has been claimed that the images of ideal L2 self could strongly motivate learners. The author hopes to make the best use of the fact that bilingual speakers change their presence depending on the language they use, in order to motivate Japanese learners of English, especially female learners from the viewpoint of finding their new selves in English.

Keywords: cultural influence, gender expectation, language learning, L2 self

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Authors: Minoru Moriguchi

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This research introduces the concept of a monolingual Japanese dictionary for non-native speakers of Japanese, whose temporal title is Dictionary of Contemporary Japanese for Advanced Learners (DCJAL). As the language market is very small compared with English, a monolingual Japanese dictionary for non-native speakers, containing sufficient entries, has not been published yet. In such a dictionary environment, Japanese-language learners are using bilingual dictionaries or monolingual Japanese dictionaries for Japanese people. This research started in 2017, as a project team which consists of four Japanese and two non-native speakers, all of whom are linguists of the Japanese language. The team has been trying to propose the concept of a monolingual dictionary for non-native speakers of Japanese and to provide the entry list, the definition samples, the list of defining vocabulary, and the writing manual. As the result of seven-year research, DCJAL has come to have 28,060 head words, 539 entry examples, 4,598-word defining vocabulary, and the writing manual. First, the number of the entry was determined as about 30,000, based on an experimental method using existing six dictionaries. To make the entry list satisfying this number, words suitable for DCJAL were extracted from the Tsukuba corpus of the Japanese language, and later the entry list was adjusted according to the experience as Japanese instructor. Among the head words of the entry list, 539 words were selected and added with lexicographical information such as proficiency level, pronunciation, writing system (hiragana, katakana, kanji, or alphabet), definition, example sentences, idiomatic expression, synonyms, antonyms, grammatical information, sociolinguistic information, and etymology. While writing the definition of the above 539 words, the list of the defining vocabulary was constructed, based on frequent vocabulary used in a Japanese monolingual dictionary. Although the concept of DCJAL has been almost perfected, it may need some more adjustment, and the research is continued.

Keywords: monolingual dictionary, the Japanese language, non-native speaker of Japanese, defining vocabulary

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Authors: Aida Mammadova, Juan Pastor Ivars

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Japanese gardens can be considered as the unique hubs to preserve urban biodiversity, as they provide the habitat for the diverse network of living organisms, facilitating to the movement of the rare species around the urban landscape, became the refuge for the moss and many endangered species. For the centuries, Japanese gardens were considered as ecologically sustainable and well-organized ecosystems, due to the skilled maintenances and management. However, unfortunately, due to the depopulations and ageing in Japanese societies, gardens are becoming more abandoned, and there is an urgent need to increase the awareness about the importance of the Japanese gardens to preserve the urban biodiversity. In this study, we have conducted the participatory educational field trips for 12 students into the to the five gardens protected by Kanazawa City and learned about the preservation activities conducted at the governmental, municipal, and local levels. After the courses, students have found a strong linkage between the gardens with the traditional culture. Kanazawa City, for more than 400 years is famous with traditional craft makings and tea ceremonies, and it was noticed that the cultural diversity of the city was strongly supported by the biodiversity of the gardens, and loss of the gardens would bring to the loss of the traditional culture. Using the experiential approach during the fieldworks, it was observed by the students that the linkage between the bio-cultural diversity strongly depends on humans’ activities. The continuous management and maintenance of the gardens are the contributing factor for the preservation of urban diversity. However, garden management is very time and capital consuming process, and it was also noticed that there is a big need to attract all levels of the society to preserve the urban biodiversity through the participatory urbanism.

Keywords: biodiversity, conservation, educational fieldwork, Japanese gardens

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Authors: Premvadee Na Nakornpanom

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This study investigates the role and impact of English loan words on Japanese language in travel brochures. The issues arising from a potential switch to English as a tool to absorb the West’s advanced knowledge and technology in the modernization of Japan to a means of linking Japan with the rest of the world and enhancing the country’s international presence. Sociolinguistic contexts were used to analyze data collected from the Nippon Travel agency "HIS"’s brochures in Thailand, revealing that English plays the most important role as lexical gap fillers and special effect givers. An increasing mixer of English to Japanese affects how English is misused, the way the Japanese see the world and the present generation’s communication gap.

Keywords: English, Japanese, loan words, travel brochure

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Authors: Denise C. I. Maior-Barron

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This conference presentation proposes to discuss the Japanese tourist perception of Marie Antoinette, at the heritage site which represents the home par excellence of the last Queen of France: Petit Trianon, Versailles. The underpinning analysis has a two-fold aim of firstly identifying the elements that contributed at the said perception and secondly of placing this in the wider context of tabi (travel) culture. The contribution of the presentation lies in its relevance to the analysis of postmodern trends of Japanese travel culture in relation to the consumption of European cultural heritage, through an insight into Japanese contemporary perception of heritage sites and their associated historical figures subject to controversy. Based upon the author’s doctoral studies field research at Petit Trianon - survey led in situ between 2010-2012, applied with the questionnaire method on a total of 307 respondents out of which 53 Japanese nationals - the media sources that were revealed to have had a direct influence on these nationals’ perception of Marie Antoinette, were Riyoko Ikeda’s shōjo manga La Rose de Versailles (1972) and Sofia Coppola’s film Marie-Antoinette (2006). The interpretation of the survey results through an assessment of visitor discourse determined the research methodology to be qualitative as opposed to quantitative, thus what confirmed the empirical hypothesis of the survey was a pattern of perception instead of percentages. Consequently, the interpretation focused on the answers to the questions relating to the image of Marie Antoinette in relation to historical knowledge, cultural background and last but not least media influences.

Keywords: cultural heritage, manga, film, tabi

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Authors: Mária Ildikó Farkas

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Kokugaku of the Edo period can be seen as a key factor of defining cultural (and national) identity in the 18th and early 19th century based on Japanese cultural heritage. Kokugaku focused on Japanese classics, on exploring, studying and reviving (or even inventing) ancient Japanese language, literature, myths, history and also political ideology. ‘Japanese culture’ as such was distinguished from Chinese (and all other) cultures, ‘Japanese identity’ was thus defined. Meiji scholars used kokugaku conceptions of Japan to construct a modern national identity based on the premodern and culturalist conceptions of community. The Japanese cultural movement of the 18-19th centuries (kokugaku) of defining cultural and national identity before modernization can be compared not to the development of Western Europe (where national identity strongly attached to modern nation states) or other parts of Asia (where these emerged after the Western colonization), but rather with the ‘national awakening’ movements of the peoples of East Central Europe, a comparison which have not been dealt with in the secondary literature yet. The role of a common language, culture, history and myths in the process of defining cultural identity – following mainly Miroslav Hroch’s comparative and interdisciplinary theory of national development – can be examined compared to the movements of defining identity of the peoples of East Central Europe (18th-19th c). In the shadow of a cultural and/or political ‘monolith’ (China for Japan and Germany for Central Europe), before modernity, ethnic groups or communities started to evolve their own identities with cultural movements focusing on their own language and culture, thus creating their cultural identity, and in the end, a new sense of community, the nation. Comparing actual texts (‘narratives’) of the kokugaku scholars and Central European writers of the nation building period (18th and early 19th centuries) can reveal the similarities of the discourses of deliberate searches for identity. Similar motives of argument can be identified in these narratives: ‘language’ as the primary bearer of collective identity, the role of language in culture, ‘culture’ as the main common attribute of the community; and similar aspirations to explore, search and develop native language, ‘genuine’ culture, ‘original’ traditions. This comparative research offering ‘development patterns’ for interpretation can help us understand processes that may be ambiguously considered ‘backward’ or even ‘deleterious’ (e.g. cultural nationalism) or just ‘unique’. ‘Cultural identity’ played a very important role in the formation of national identity during modernization especially in the case of non-Western communities, who had to face the danger of losing their identities in the course of ‘Westernization’ accompanying modernization.

Keywords: cultural identity, Japanese modernization, kokugaku, national awakening

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Authors: Anne Crescini

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The number of loanwords borrowed into the Japanese language is increasing rapidly in recent years, and many linguists argue that loanwords make up more than 10% of the Japanese lexicon. While these loanwords come from various Western languages, 80%-90% are borrowed from English. Also, there is a separate group of words and phrases categorized as ‘Japanese English’. These made-in-Japan linguistic creations may look and sound like English, but in fact are not used by native speakers and are often incomprehensible to them. Linguistically, the important thing to remember is that these terms are not English ones, but in fact, 100% Japanese words. A problem arises in language teaching, however, when Japanese English learners are unable to distinguish authentic loans from Japanese English terms. This confusion could greatly impede language acquisition and communication. The goal of this paper is to determine to what degree this potential misunderstanding may interfere with communication. Native English speakers living in the United States were interviewed and shown a list of romanized Japanese English terms, which are both commonly used and often mistaken for authentic loans. Then, the words were put into the context of a sentence in order to ascertain if context in any way aided comprehension. The results showed that while some terms are understood on their own, and others are understood better in context, a large number of the terms are entirely incomprehensible to native English speakers. If that is the case, and a Japanese learner mistakes a Japanese English term for an authentic loan, a communication breakdown may occur during interaction in English. With the ever-increasing presence of both groups of terms in the Japanese language, it is more important than ever that teaching professionals address this topic in the language classroom.

Keywords: Japanese, Japanese English, language acquisition, loanwords

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Authors: Jose Marie E. Ocdenaria, Riceli C. Mendoza

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Culturally, languages meet, merge, share, exchange, appropriate, donate, and divide in and to and from each other. Further, this type of recurrence manifests in East Asian cultures, where language influence diffuses across geographical proximities. Historically, China has notable impacts on Japan’s culture. For instance, Japanese borrowed words from China and their way of reading and writing. This qualitative and descriptive employing contrastive analysis study addressed the true and false cognates of Japanese-Philippine languages and Chinese-Philippine languages. It involved a rich collection of data from various sources like textual pieces of evidence or corpora to gain a deeper understanding of true and false cognates between L1 and L2. Cognates of Japanese-Philippine languages and Chinese-Philippine languages were analyzed contrastively according to orthography, phonology, and semantics. The words presented were the roots; however, derivatives, reduplications, and variants of stress were included when they shed emphases on the comparison. The basis of grouping the cognates was its phonetic-semantic resemblance. Based on the analysis, it revealed that there are words which may have several types of lexical relationship. Further, the study revealed that the Japanese language has more false cognates in the Philippine languages, particularly in Tagalog and Cebuano. On the other hand, there are more true cognates of Chinese in Tagalog. It is the hope of this study to provide a significant contribution to a diverse audience. These include the teachers and learners of foreign languages such as Japanese and Chinese, future researchers and investigators, applied linguists, curricular theorists, community, and publishers.

Keywords: Contrastive Analysis, Japanese, Chinese and Philippine languages, Qualitative and descriptive study, True and False Cognates

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Authors: Mizuno Norihito

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This study attempts to examine Japanese views of Thailand primarily in the 1920s and 1930s through the analysis of documents published by the Office of Governor-General of Taiwan (Taiwan Sotokufu) and its affiliated organizations. Japan regarded Taiwan, under its control since 1895, as a foothold to making inroads into the South, and The governor-general office was active in investigations and intelligence gathering in Southeast Asia, as well as the southern part of the Chinese continent. Documents published by the governor-general office and its related organizations, especially those in a couple of decades following the First World War, reveal that the Japanese paid attention to the presence of the-Thai-Chinese during the time period. It would not be surprising that the desiring to penetrating into the Thai market, as well as the markets of the rest of Southeast Asia, the Japanese could not ignore the presence of the Thai-Chinese because of their local economic influences. The increased Japanese concern about the Thai-Chinese toward the end of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s was, moreover, intertwined with the increased tension between China and Japan. In other words, Thailand, as well as the rest of Southeast Asia, became another arena of Sino-Japanese confrontation. The rise of nationalism against Japan in China infected the Thai-Chinese communities and threatened Japanese economic activities in the country. However, the Japanese simultaneously found out that Thai-Chinese concert with anti-Japanese in China did not necessarily match their business interests and that the Thai government’s efforts to assimilate the Thai-Chinese into the Thais society and strategic approach to Japan in the late 1930s hampered their anti-Japanese actions.

Keywords: Japanese-Thai Relations, Sino-Japanese relations, Thai Chinese, Overseas Japanese

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Authors: Gunawan Muhammad, Takashi Atsumi, Akira Komaru

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Pinctada fucata has been the most important pearl culture species in Japan and known as Japanese Akoya Pearl Oyster. However, during summer 1994, mass mortality devastated pearl culture in most parts of Japan. Therefore, pearl farmers started to import Chinese Pearl Oysters from Hainan Island that came from the same species because they are believed to be more resistant towards high water temperature, despite their lack of ability in producing high-quality pearls. The local farmers were then hybridized Japanese and Chinese pearl oysters and currently known as Hybrid pearl oysters, as an attempt to produce a new oyster's strain which is more resistant towards high temperature but also able to produce higher quality pearls. However, despite both strains were implanted by mantle tissues from the same group of donors, the thickness of pearl nacre produced by both strains was different, even though tablet thickness shows a rather similar pattern. Hence, this leads to a question of whether mother oysters play a major role in both nacre deposition rate and tablet thickness of pearls or not. This study first describes the nacre deposition rate of the shells of Japanese and Hybrid mother oysters towards the water temperature condition in Ago Bay, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Later, a comparative study was conducted among 4 shell positions that had been chosen according to the mantle tissue location and shell growth directions. A correlative study was then taken between shells and pearls nacre deposition rate to know whether mother oyster ability in depositing nacre on their shells is related to that of pearls. All the four shell positions were significantly different in shell nacre growth rate (Kruskal-Wallis, p-value < 0.05), and the third position have faster nacre growth among the other three both in Japanese and Hybrid strains, especially in warm temperature. The ability to deposit nacre between Japanese and Hybrid during warm water conditions (August and September) is also significantly different in almost all positions (Mann Whitney U, p-value < 0.01), Japanese oyster growth faster than Hybrid in all four positions. This leads to a different total growth among the two strains and a higher possibility of thicker nacre thickness in Japanese shell nacre. Tablet thickness is significantly different among all positions of shells (Kruskal-Wallis, p-value < 0.01), the 2nd position deposited rather thinner tablet thickness than the other three, including on the 6th month of culture which is more desirable in producing pearls with good luster. This result gives us new information that pearl growth rate is highly affected by the mother oysters; however, nacre tablet thickness might be the result of the shell matrix expressed by different mantle position from donor oysters.

Keywords: nacre, deposition, biomineralization, pearl aquaculture, pearl oyster, Akoya pearl, pearl

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Authors: Pailin Klinkesorn

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The research aimed to study the use of learning strategies for Japanese language among college students with different learning achievements who study Japanese as a foreign language in the Higher Education’s level. The survey was conducted by using a questionnaire adapted from Strategy Inventory for language Learning or SILL (Oxford, 1990), consisting of two parts: questions about personal data and questions about the use of learning strategies for Japanese language. The samples of college students in the Japanese language program were purposively selected from Suansunandha Rajabhat University. The data from the questionnaire was statistically analyzed by using mean scores and one-way ANOVA. The results showed that Social Strategies was used by the greatest number of college students, whereas Memory Strategies was used by the least number of students. The students in different levels used various strategies, including Memory Strategies, Cognitive Strategies, Metacognitive Strategies and Social Strategies, at the significance level of 0.05. In addition, the students with different learning achievements also used different strategies at the significance level of 0.05. Further studies can explore learning strategies of other groups of Japanese learners, such as university students or company employees. Moreover, learning strategies for language skills, including listening, speaking, reading and writing, can be analyzed for better understanding of learners’ characteristics and for teaching applications.

Keywords: language learning strategies, achievement, Japanese, college students

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Authors: Premvadee Na Nakornpanom

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Language mixing in spontaneous speech has been widely discussed, but not in virtual situations; especially in context of the third language learning students. Thus, this study was an attempt to explore the characteristics of the mixing of Japanese, English and Thai in a mobile chat room by students with their background of Japanese, English, and Thai. The result found that Insertion of Thai and English content words was a very common linguistic phenomenon embedded in the utterances. As chatting is to be ‘relational’ or ‘interactional’, it affected the style of lexical choices to be speech-like, more personal and emotional-related. A Japanese sentence-final question particle“か”(ka) was added to the end of the sentence based on Thai grammar rule. Moreover, some unique characteristics were created. The non-verbal cues were represented in personal, Thai styles by inserting textual representations of images or feelings available on the websites into streams of conversations.

Keywords: code-mixing, Japanese, English, Thai, line chat

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Authors: Marika Kawamoto, Keita Tsuji

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Several decades ago, food and drinks were disallowed in most Japanese libraries. However, as discussions of “Library as a Place” have increased in recent years, the number of public and university libraries that have relaxed their policies to allow food and drinks have been increasing. This study focused on the opinions of library users on allowing food and drinks in public libraries and conducted a questionnaire survey among users of nine Japanese libraries. The results indicated that many users favored allowing food and drinks in libraries. Furthermore, it was found that users tend to frequently visit and stay longer in libraries where food and drinks are allowed.

Keywords: food and drinks, Japanese libraries, opinions of users, public libraries

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Authors: Zixi You

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There are a number of verbal prefixes in Old Japanese. However, the selection or the compatibility of verbs and verbal prefixes is among the least investigated topics on Old Japanese language. Unlike other types of prefixes, verbal prefixes in dictionaries are more often than not listed with very brief information such as ‘unknown meaning’ or ‘rhythmic function only’. To fill in a part of this knowledge gap, this paper presents an exhaustive investigation based on the newly developed ‘Oxford Corpus of Old Japanese’ (OCOJ), which included nearly all existing resource of Old Japanese language, with detailed linguistics information in TEI-XML tags. In this paper, we propose the possibility that the following three prefixes, i-, sa-, ta- (with ta- being considered as a variation of sa-), are relevant to split intransitivity in Old Japanese, with evidence that unergative verbs favor i- and that unergative verbs favor sa-(ta-). This might be undermined by the fact that transitives are also found to follow i-. However, with several manifestations of split intransitivity in Old Japanese discussed, the behavior of transitives in verbal prefix selection is no longer as surprising as it may seem to be when one look at the selection of verbal prefix in isolation. It is possible that there are one or more features that played essential roles in determining the selection of i-, and the attested transitive verbs happen to have these features. The data suggest that this feature is a sense of ‘change’ of location or state involved in the event donated by the verb, which is a feature of typical unaccusatives. This is further discussed in the ‘affectedness’ hierarchy. The presentation of this paper, which includes a brief demonstration of the OCOJ, is expected to be of the interest of both specialists and general audiences.

Keywords: old Japanese, split intransitivity, unaccusatives, unergatives, verbal prefix selection

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Authors: Kazuko Sakamoto, Keiichiro Kawarabayashi, Yoji Kitani

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Japanese sweets are one of the important elements of the Chur Japan strategy. In this research, we investigated what kind of sweets are liked to the Chinese tourist. What is generally eaten is influenced by culture, a sense of values, and business practice. Therefore, what was adapted there is sold. However, when traveling, what its country does not have is called for. Then, how far should we take in Chinese people's taste in a design?　This time, the design attribute (a color and a form) which leads to sweets "being delicious" was clarified by rough aggregate theory.As a result, the difference in the taste of Chinese people and Japanese people became clear.

Keywords: design attribute, international comparison, taste by appearance, design attribute

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Authors: Ka Yi Yeung

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Yuri is a manga culture which refers to the works (manga, literature, TV shows) that depict the intimacy between two girls. It is originally a Japanese culture which then implanted in Chinese fandom after the airing of Maria-sama ga Miteru. There has been a growing fanbase of Yuri culture and most of them are attracted by the subtle and sentimental relationship between girls. The culture is characterized by the spiritual bonding and interactions within girls. A high proportion of female fans in Chinese Yuri community was recorded, and Yamibo forum is their major site for socializing and discussion on Yuri’s work. There is a high tendency that female Yuri fans engaged in a homosexual relationship. However, they seldom directly address themselves as lesbian but non-heterosexual. It is due to the fact that Yuri fans community largely disagrees with the butch-femme role in the mainstream lesbianism. Within Chinese Yuri community, femininity is highly being appreciated. Members with high degree of feminine characteristics are popular among fans community. Besides, since the fans community-based at the online forum, there has been a high tendency that members developed the long-distance relationship. From the in-depth interviews of the research, Yuri fans are mostly pessimistic towards their relationship due to the social and geographical barriers, yet at the same time, they do not lose hope in searching for their true love. This research explored how Chinese Yuri fans challenge the homonormativity in mainstream lesbianism and how they construct their sexual identity through varies discourses on sexuality and homosexual experience.

Keywords: Chinese fandom, femininity, gender, homonormativity, Japanese manga, lesbianism, sexuality, queer culture

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Authors: Kingkan Pongsiri

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The study of marketing mix influencing on hotel booking decision making: Japanese senior traveler case aims to study the individual factors that are involved in the decision-making reservation for Japanese elderly travelers. Then, it aims to study other factors that influence the decision of tourists booking elderly Japanese people. This is a quantitative research methods, total of 420 completed questionnaires were collect via a Non-Probability sampling techniques. The study found that the majority of samples were female, 53.3 percent of 224 people aged between 66-70 years were 197, representing a 46.9 percent majority, the marital status of marriage is 212 per cent.50.5. Majority of samples have a bachelor degree of education with number of 326 persons (77.6 percentages) 50 percentages of samples (210 people) have monthly income in between 1,501-2,000 USD. The Samples mostly have a length of stay in a short period between 1-14 days counted as 299 people which representing 71.2 percentages of samples. The senior Japanese tourists apparently sensitive to the factors of products/services the most. Then they seem to be sensitive to the price, the marketing promotion and people, respectively. There are two factors identified as moderately influence to the Japanese senior tourists are places or distribution channels and physical evidences.

Keywords: Japanese senior traveler, marketing mix, senior tourist, hotel booking

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Authors: Emiko Suzuki

Abstract:

Although some claim that we are in a post-feminist society, the word “postfeminism” still raises questions to many. In postfeminist media, as a British sociologist Rosalind Gill points out, on the one hand, it seems to promote an empowering image of women who are active, positively sexually motivated, has free will to make market choices, and have surveillance and discipline for their personality and body, yet on the other hand, such beautiful and attractive feminist image imposes stronger surveillance of their mind and body for women. Similar representation, which is that femininity is described in a contradictive way, is seen in Japanese media as well. This study tries to capture how post-feminist Japanese media is, contrary to its ostensible messages, encouraging women to join the obedience to the labor system by affirming the traditional image of attractive women using sexual objectification and promoting values of neoliberalism. The result shows an interesting insight into how Japanese media is creating a conflicting ideal representation of women through repeatedly exposing such images.

Keywords: postfeminism, Japanese media, sexual objectification, embodiment

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Authors: Nana Weng

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Localization in the aspect of human resource means more diversity and more opportunities. The main purpose of this article is to identify the perception of local employees and intermediate managers (non-Japanese) and figure out exploratory factors which have been contributing and blocking the level of localization in the aspect of human resource management by using EFA (Exploratory Factors Analysis). Questionnaires will be designed for local employees and managers to inquire about the perceptions of regulations and implementation regarding recruitment, training and development, promotion and rewarding. The study finds that Japanese firms have worked well in the process of localization, especially in hiring and training local staffs in Taiwan. The significance of this study lies in paying more attention to the perception of local employees and intermediate managers regarding localization rather than interviews results from Japanese expatriates or top HR managers who are in charging of localization policy-making.

Keywords: Japanese firms in Taiwan, localization of human resources, exploratory factors analysis, local employees and intermediate managers

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Authors: Soyhan Egitim

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This case study aims to investigate leadership practices in diversity management in the liberal arts department of a Japanese university. In 2013, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) revealed their English education reform plan in response to rapid globalization. Based on the new reform plan, Japanese universities would expand their international faculty in order to promote globalization through an increased number of intercultural communication and content-based language classes in English. The study employed a two-phased qualitative approach to gain a deeper understanding of the management strategies employed in diversity management, and the leadership practices influenced those management strategies. In the first phase, a closed-ended qualitative survey was conducted with ten adjunct faculty members from the liberal arts department. The results indicate that syllabus design, grading scheme, textbook choices, and class management policies are strictly regulated by the tenured Japanese faculty. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were held with international faculty members to understand their personal experiences. Their responses revealed that top-down management approaches are counter-effective in the department’s efforts to promote diversity and thus, a new organizational culture needs to be nurtured to emphasize inclusion alongside diversity. In this regard, the study proposes collaborative leadership as an inclusive leadership practice to minimize power differences in the hierarchy and increase opportunities for inclusion in the rapidly diversifying workforce.

Keywords: collaborative leadership, diversity, inclusion, international faculty, top-down

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Authors: Jihyun Park

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This research suggests that meaning in life or Ikigai can be associated with better academic performances in Japanese college students. To measure meaning in life in Japanese college students, the Ikigai questionnaire and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ) are both used, and the survey was collected using Microsoft Teams Forms for a total of 80 Japanese college students. The data revealed that students who have a higher than a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) showed the highest score in both the Ikigai and MLQ. The participants with between a 2.0 and a 3.0 GPA reported lower scores in both MLQ and Ikigai than the previous participants. The group of students who have lower than a 2.0 GPA had the lowest scores for MLQ and Ikigai. This result can indicate that implementing meaning in life or Ikigai to early college students can bring about better academic performance, which also can improve students’ college life better as well.

Keywords: college students' academic performance, Ikigai, meaning in life, purpose of life

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Authors: Mohamed Yusuf

Abstract:

Aim: The growth promoting the effect of the blue-green filamentous alga Spirulina platensis (SP) was observed on meat type Japanese quail with antibiotic growth promoter alternative and immune enhancing power. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 180 Japanese quail chicks for 4 weeks to find out the effect of diet type (vegetarian protein diet [VPD] and fish meal protein diet [FMPD])- Spirulina dose interaction (1 or 2 g/kg diet) on growth performance, gut microbiota, and sensory meat quality of growing Japanese quails (1-5 weeks old). Results: Data revealed improvement (p<0.05) of weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and European efficiency index due to 1, 2 g (SP)/kg VPD, and 2 g (SP)/kg FMPD, respectively. There was a significant decrease of ileum mean pH value by 1 g(SP)/kg VPD. Concerning gut microbiota, there was a trend toward an increase in Lactobacilli count in both 1; 2 g (SP)/kgVPD and 2 g (SP)/kg FMPD. It was concluded that 1 or 2 g (SP)/kg vegetarian diet may enhance parameters of performance without obvious effect on both meat quality and gut microbiota. Moreover, 1 and/or 2 g (SP) may not be invited to share fishmeal based diet for growing Japanese quails. Conclusion: Using of SP will support the profitable production of Japanese quails fed vegetable protein diet.

Keywords: isocaloric, isonitrogenous, meat quality, performances, quails, spirulina, spirulina

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Authors: Natsuko D'Aprile

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The construction of Nation-States is a historical process that produces a type of national identity and culture that States nowadays mobilise for global outreach. National culture, as a set of norms and values influencing individuals’ actions and decisions, produces a type of policy making of various strategies that impact how a Nation is promoted overseas. The 1990s were marked by a resurgence of the debates on national identity. This period is believed to have paved the way for nationalism and witnessed increased attention to analytical approaches to identity. Public diplomacy is a concrete example of how national culture is mobilised to project a favourable image of a Nation abroad, especially in the narratives on national identity mobilised by diplomatic actors. Public diplomacy is understood as providing tools for States to build and project strategic narratives that represent events and identities in an attempt to influence domestic and foreign audiences, be they domestic or foreign. France and Japan received little attention on the matter. This research hence aims to investigate how France and Japan have mobilised narratives on national identity since the 1990s in the context of their public diplomacy. To understand how identities are framed, qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis has been performed on a corpus of various speeches held by French and Japanese political actors in which they present their diplomacy goals, as well as official documents provided by both Ministries of Foreign Affairs. This analysis showed that the French discourse integrates a narrative on France’s universal vocation, relying on the expression of a Nation whose model is worldly applicable and has the legitimacy to influence international decisions. The Japanese discourse does not concretely emphasise Japanese or Asian values, except for some narratives integrating Confucian and Shintō values. It rather revolves around the need for Japan to ensure its citizens’ security and prosperity, hence the need for the Government to contribute to peace in the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Keywords: comparative politics, culture, discourse analysis, narratives, public diplomacy

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Authors: Kumiko Inagaki

Abstract:

Japanese society is experiencing an aging population and declining birth rate along with the popularization of higher education, spread of economic globalization, rapid progress in technical innovation, changes in employment conditions, and emergence of a knowledge-based society. Against this background, interest in career education at Japanese universities has increased in recent years. This paper describes how the government has implemented career education policies in Japan, and introduces the cases of two universities that have successfully linked career education to university education in Japan.

Keywords: career education, employability, higher education, japanese university, university education

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