CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE SOCIETY

This course is one of the related/supplementary courses of the Japan curriculum of the Bachelor's Degree Programme in "Languages, Cultures and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa" and contributes to the programme's learning objectives in the area of cultural, social and humanistic competences.
Its main objectives are: to provide interpretive tools for a critical understanding of cultural and social studies; to provide knowledge of the themes of collective identity and alterity in modern and contemporary Japanese society; to develop the capacity for judgement, production and communication on these themes from an intercultural, transnational and global perspective; and to provide a method of analysis, practised every week on concrete cases, that remains usable after the exam: recognising and reformulating essentialising statements, checking them against verifiable sources (including sources in Japanese), and situating them with respect to those who produce them and those they address.

Knowledge and understanding:
• to know and understand the main themes of collective identity and alterity in modern and contemporary Japan (1868 to the present) and selected aspects of contemporary society (social stratification by class, gender and ethnicity/race; work; social movements and pacifism; nation branding);
• to know and understand concepts and tools of cultural and social studies from an interdisciplinary perspective (sociology of culture, cultural anthropology, intellectual history, intercultural studies, postcolonial/decolonial studies, global studies): stereotype and conceptions of culture, essentialism, methodological nationalism, invented traditions, nihonjinron, Orientalism, self-Orientalism, Occidentalism, hegemony, discourse;
• to connect the themes of the course critically with the knowledge of Japanese contexts acquired in other courses of the programme from other points of view (historical, artistic, literary, religious, linguistic).

Applying knowledge and understanding:
• when faced with material not seen in advance (a sentence, an image, a figure, an excerpt from an article, the answer of an artificial intelligence): to recognise essentialising statements and reformulate them in a delimited and relational way; to check them against verifiable data and sources, including primary and secondary sources in Japanese; to situate them with respect to the actors, contexts and power relations that produce them;
• to apply concepts of critical theory in interdisciplinary terms, making one's own positionality explicit.

Making judgements:
• to subject different types of sources (statistical, institutional, academic, journalistic, AI-generated) to critical examination from a comparative, intercultural and global perspective, recognising their limits;
• to refine one's capacity for critique of essentialist and stereotyped discourses on "Japanese culture", "Japanese society", "the Japanese", "the East" and "the West".

Communication skills:
• to express and rework the contents of the course in writing and orally in a concise, argued and documented manner, without resorting to automatisms and schematisms resulting from rote learning;
• to declare correctly and verifiably the sources and tools used, artificial intelligence included.

Learning skills:
• to read an academic essay in English, identifying its topic, problem, thesis and arguments;
• to integrate different materials critically (slides, case sheets, set texts, data, alternative sources) and to study independently, including materials not covered in class;
• to use the web, online dictionaries and artificial intelligence consciously and verifiably as study tools;
• to consult sources in Japanese with guidance (issuing body, title, date, table headings, figures);
• to use the course's Moodle platform.

At least an intermediate level of English (B2) is preferable in order to study the set texts. A basic knowledge of modern and contemporary Japanese history is advisable, acquired through (but not exclusively) the course "History of Japan 1/2". The guided consultation of sources in Japanese presupposes the language competence of the second or third year of the Japan curriculum and is not subject to linguistic assessment.

I. Introduction to critical analysis: how to think about identity and alterity? What is "Japanese"? Data and commonplaces; stereotype and conceptions of culture (essence or construction?); the "4D" grid (descriptive, diversity, dynamic, discursive); essentialism, nation-state and nationalism; methodological nationalism; invented traditions; modernity and nihonjinron; colonialism, Orientalism, double Orientalism; hegemony and discourse; self-Orientalism and Occidentalism.

II. Introduction to contemporary Japanese society. Social stratification: class and work (regular and non-regular); gender and sexuality; ethnicity/race, Japaneseness, immigration; conflict, social movements and pacifism (with a guest speaker connected from Japan); nation branding, Cool Japan, popular cultures, Society 5.0.

The course works on a concrete case (a figure, an image, a text, an AI answer) with the same analytical grid and with at least one source in Japanese. The three words of the title — "society", "Japanese", "contemporary" — are themselves objects of analysis during the semester. Slides, case sheets with model solutions and additional materials are made available week by week on the course's Moodle page and are an integral part of the syllabus.

Compulsory reading (attending and non-attending students): six common texts plus one of choice.
• Kubota, Ryuko (2003), "Critical Teaching of Japanese Culture", Japanese Language and Literature, 37(1), Special Issue: Sociocultural Issues in Teaching Japanese: Critical Approaches, pp. 67-87.
• Rots, Aike P. (2023), "Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Three Directions for Japanese Studies", The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, 41(1), pp. 9-35.
• Vlastos, Stephen (1998), "Tradition. Past/Present Culture and Modern Japanese History", in S. Vlastos (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1-16.
• Burgess, Chris (2010), "The 'Illusion' of Homogeneous Japan and National Character: Discourse as a Tool to Transcend the 'Myth' vs. 'Reality' Binary", The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 8(9), pp. 1-23.
• Miyake, Toshio (2014), "Occidentalismo, orientalismo, auto-orientalismo, doppio orientalismo del Giappone", in T. Miyake, Mostri del Giappone. Narrative, figure, egemonie della dis-locazione identitaria, Venice: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, pp. 31-37, 120-130.
• Sugimoto, Yoshio (2021), An Introduction to Japanese Society, 5th ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 2.
One text of choice among:
• Tai, Eika (2003), "Rethinking Culture, National Culture, and Japanese Culture", Japanese Language and Literature, 37(1), pp. 1-26.
• Daliot-Bul, Michal (2009), "Japan Brand Strategy: The Taming of 'Cool Japan' and the Challenges of Cultural Planning in a Postmodern Age", Social Science Japan Journal, 12(2), pp. 247-266.
• Lechevalier, Sébastien (2024), "Society 5.0 and New Capitalism: Complementarities and Contradictions", Asia Pacific Business Review, 30(3), pp. 467-484.
• Chiavacci, David; Obinger, Julia (2018), "Towards a New Protest Cycle in Contemporary Japan? The Resurgence of Social Movements and Confrontational Political Activism in Historical Perspective", in D. Chiavacci, J. Obinger (eds.), Social Movements and Political Activism in Contemporary Japan: Re-emerging from Invisibility, London: Routledge, pp. 1-23.
All texts are available on Moodle. The lecture slides and the weekly case sheets published on Moodle are an integral part of the syllabus. Further materials (statistics, surveys, videos, articles, sources in Japanese) may be provided during the course.

Written and oral examination, identical for attending and non-attending students, on the same day.

Written test (45 minutes, in the classroom, on a paper form): analysis of a short piece of material not seen in advance (a sentence, an image, a figure, an excerpt from an article or from an AI answer) using the "4D" grid practised during the course, with at least one reference to the set texts. During the test students may use their own device to consult the web, dictionaries and artificial intelligence, under the conditions published on Moodle: the tools and sources used must be declared on the form (tool, date, question asked), at least one source must be in Japanese, and no communication with other people is allowed. Students without a device, or in case of network problems, receive an equivalent paper dossier: the test and the assessment criteria remain identical. The materials differ for each session and each row.

Individual oral examination (about 20 minutes, on the same day, following the order of registration): discussion of the written test (sources consulted, choices made, what was discarded and why, positionality) and one question on one of the set texts (the author's thesis and its use in the analysis).

A single mark is given, taking both parts into account.

Assessment criteria:
1. recognising and reformulating essentialising statements;
2. checking against verifiable sources, including sources in Japanese, and indicating their limits;
3. using the web and artificial intelligence critically and declaring it;
4. situating the material with the concepts and texts of the course, making one's own positionality explicit.

The test form, the assessment rubric and worked, annotated examples will be available on Moodle.

The lecturer is available during office hours, in particular in the week before each exam session, for clarifications and mock exams.

written and oral

The instructor is responsible for ensuring the authenticity and originality of all examinations and coursework. In cases of suspected academic misconduct, an additional on-site assessment may be required during the exams, which may differ from the standard format.

A. Marks in the 18-22 range will be awarded for: the ability to identify essentialising statements, reformulated however in a generic way; the use of at least one relevant source; correct but limited references to the texts; sufficient communication skills, especially in the use of the specific vocabulary.

B. Marks in the 23-26 range will be awarded for: delimited reformulation; relevant and correctly declared sources, with at least partial consultation of a source in Japanese; declared use of tools; fair ability to connect the material to concepts and texts; fair communication skills.

C. Marks in the 27-30 range will be awarded for: delimited and relational reformulation; sources read and discussed within their limits, including the source in Japanese; critical and motivated use of tools, artificial intelligence included; good or excellent ability to situate the material with respect to actors, contexts and power relations, with precise references to the texts; fully appropriate communication skills.

D. Honours (lode) will be awarded for excellent independence of judgement, reflexivity about one's own positionality and excellent communication skills.

In-person classes with the following structure: a short recap of the previous week starting from the questions posted on Moodle; presentation of the week's concept (with slides); analysis in pairs or small groups of a concrete case, with guided use of the web, of sources in Japanese and of artificial intelligence; feedback and discussion in class; assignment for the following week.

A weekly question on the Moodle Forum and short anonymous surveys at the end of class, not assessed, are part of the course. The web and artificial intelligence are used in class, at home and in the exam, under three conditions: declare them, verify them, take responsibility for them.

Classes are recorded; slides, case sheets with model solutions and recordings are available on Moodle by the evening of the following day, so that non-attending students can follow the same path under the same conditions.

Attendance is not compulsory and no classroom activity affects assessment. Students with disabilities or specific learning disorders are invited to contact the lecturer and the relevant University office at the beginning of the course to agree on compensatory tools and additional time. The slides, case sheets and other materials published on Moodle are an integral part of the syllabus. The exam may be taken with the 2026/27 syllabus only in the first four exam sessions following the end of the course; afterwards, the syllabus of the following academic year applies.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development