Being multi-ethnic seems to be something of a contradiction. How can someone be Japanese, yet not be Japanese at the same time? The fact that multi-ethnics have access to two or more cultures,...Show moreBeing multi-ethnic seems to be something of a contradiction. How can someone be Japanese, yet not be Japanese at the same time? The fact that multi-ethnics have access to two or more cultures, languages, and consequently two or more sets of values can influence how they identify themselves according to the situation, resulting in multiple possible identities. This study will explore multi-ethnic identities from the perspective of multi-ethnic Japanese individuals themselves. The focus lies on tracking down and exploring multi-ethnic adolescents’ experiences of being Othered in Japan and look at the key elements that need to be examined when analyzing multi-ethnic identity. How do multi-ethnics manage feeling a constant mismatch between how they identify themselves and how others identify them? How do they then find a means to feel ‘normal’, like they belong? These are the main questions that I will focus on answering in this thesis.Show less
Difficulties women experience in career development have been widely discussed and are a worldwide issue. This becomes evident when looking at, for instance, the number of women in management...Show moreDifficulties women experience in career development have been widely discussed and are a worldwide issue. This becomes evident when looking at, for instance, the number of women in management positions. Companies’ top functions are still mainly dominated by men and research has shown that Japan, among others, is a country which is still very much behind in placing women in top positions. This paper is aimed at the relation between the form of welfare state in these two countries and how these models work for combining care of children with a career. In which form of welfare state would women be most successful in combining a career with family care tasks?Show less
Stories such as Madama Butterfly and Memoirs of a Geisha have garnered much attention and have been received with much enthusiasm by the general audience. These stories tend to deal with Asian...Show moreStories such as Madama Butterfly and Memoirs of a Geisha have garnered much attention and have been received with much enthusiasm by the general audience. These stories tend to deal with Asian women as highly sexualised, fetishised and infantilised, mirroring larger processes of power found most evidently in the theory of Orientalism. They integrate both traditional clichés and love stories within the pattern of ‘the West’ portraying ‘the East’, based on the assumption formulated by Karl Marx as: “They cannot represent themselves, they must be represented” (Said 1978, xxv). This paper will focus on how the same process of phrasing and representing can be found in English language news media and how we can understand this through processes of discourse, knowledge and power of which Orientalism provides an important example. The case study which will be used to demonstrate this point will consist of English language news reportage about the presumed massive involvement of Japanese women in an extramarital dating website, Ashley Madison, which has been launched in Japan in 2013. I will try to show how we can identify certain principles and mechanisms of the concept of Orientalism and thereby offer insight into the discursive construct that inform images of women in general, Asian women and also relationships between Japan and other countries. This offers some insight into how unequal power relations, which have their roots in past centuries, continue to thrive today through media representations. The main question answered in this thesis is: “How does reportage on Japanese women in major English language news media reflect the continuing processes of power and knowledge found in Orientalism?”.Show less
This thesis is focused on the foreign reception of visual kei performers. Through an analysis of the concept of masculinity and the online fan community this thesis attempts to grasp the different...Show moreThis thesis is focused on the foreign reception of visual kei performers. Through an analysis of the concept of masculinity and the online fan community this thesis attempts to grasp the different discourses on masculinity that exist within Japan and beyond.Show less
These days, all industrialized countries in the world have some kind of law implemented targeting women's rights on the job market. Yet the wage gap as well as 4other hurdles remain despite these...Show moreThese days, all industrialized countries in the world have some kind of law implemented targeting women's rights on the job market. Yet the wage gap as well as 4other hurdles remain despite these laws. The question is therefore what factors play a role in the fact that Japanese women who are among the best educated in the world, who not only have the Labor Standard Law, but an Equal Employment Opportunity Law as well, must contend with a substantial wage gap and such high unemployment rates? This thesis will consist of two parts aside from the introductory and the closing chapters. The first part will be chapter two, containing a literature review in which the research of several western scholars as well as native Japanese scholars concerning their assessment of the EEOL in Japan will be discussed and evaluated. In addition this part will also discuss the different roles companies and government play with regard to keeping the oppression of women in the labor market as it is, or furthering equal opportunity. In the second part of this thesis, chapter 3, the difficulties that working women, annd specifically working mothers, face in their day to day life will be examined on the basis of interviews conducted by scholars with these working women and mothers.Show less
In this thesis I examine the complications in constructing an identity that is based in a past of conflict, an identity that has been hidden and negatively approached. I focus on three Indisch...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the complications in constructing an identity that is based in a past of conflict, an identity that has been hidden and negatively approached. I focus on three Indisch-Japanese descendants, whose stories show the problems they faced in constructing an identity in a sphere of taboo. I will show how by deriving more information about their past, they can rethink the memory of their history and as such bring a new form of negotiating their identity. In this thesis, I look at the trip to Japan as a central source of gathering information about their background. The stories show that identification to a Japanese background is a process that takes shape over time.Show less
This thesis examines how Japan's declining birth rate and women's work-life balance are related, and how the government has responded to this in terms of policies.
As a reaction to the poor handling by the Japanese government of the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Children Network was established whose main goal it is to...Show moreAs a reaction to the poor handling by the Japanese government of the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Children Network was established whose main goal it is to prevent children from being irradiated by radioactive materials. With the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, mother's would yet again take up their motherhood and use in such a way that they are supposedly the expert concerning their children's well being. This research will analyze the activities of the Fukushima Children Network in relation to the concept of civil society in Japan as coined by Jurgen Habermas. The main research question will be: What is the effect of Fukushima Children Network's actions in the public sphere? More specifically, did their actions lead to a growing awareness of the dangers, such as radioactive contamination, that the use of nuclear energy brings about? Starting with only a few people and setting out their course of action, they gained notoriety throughout the country. Also having inspired other members of the public to take action on their own, it can be argued that they have come quite far within the public sphere.Show less
This thesis considers the role of social capital in the post-disaster recovery of fishermen and farmers in a coastal and rural region. Primarily focusing on two towns in Miyagi prefecture which...Show moreThis thesis considers the role of social capital in the post-disaster recovery of fishermen and farmers in a coastal and rural region. Primarily focusing on two towns in Miyagi prefecture which were affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami in 2011, this thesis considers how the possession of cultural and social capital can hinder or enable recovery and company growth. Through the use of three case studies involving local fishermen and farmers who were affected by the disaster, this thesis argues that social capital plays an important role in enabling the recovery and growth of affected individuals and companies. In addition, not only the possession, but also the characteristics of said social capital determines to what extent and for what purposes social capital can be used to achieve recovery.Show less
This thesis discusses rehabilitation for the mentally ill in Japan. Though not completely new to Japan, rehabilitation as a method is only slowly progressing despite several researches that have...Show moreThis thesis discusses rehabilitation for the mentally ill in Japan. Though not completely new to Japan, rehabilitation as a method is only slowly progressing despite several researches that have shown positive results come from rehabilitation. A light is shown on the current situation from the viewpoint of the government, the patients and the family in order to clarify the reason for this slow progress of rehabilitation in Japan.Show less
Although racism and racial issues are not about the color of people’s skin in itself, the symbolic meanings given to color do determine who is affected by acts of discrimination and who is not. But...Show moreAlthough racism and racial issues are not about the color of people’s skin in itself, the symbolic meanings given to color do determine who is affected by acts of discrimination and who is not. But there is more to racism than it simply being about dark skin versus fair. Even among skin tone, variations that exist in terms color across the range of dark to fair, the type of discrimination faced by people differs. On a related yet deceptively different topic skin color is also strongly tied to beauty ideals. The focus for this thesis lies on the Japanese market. The question that is answered is: what does white skin stand for within Japanese society and is this beauty ideal of fair skin directly linked to a desire to emulate white people?Show less
