This thesis explores the conflicted experience of reading boy's love manga, based on intimate interviews with a handful of non-japanese readers. How are issues such as consent, representation and...Show moreThis thesis explores the conflicted experience of reading boy's love manga, based on intimate interviews with a handful of non-japanese readers. How are issues such as consent, representation and stereotypes perceived, and how does that perception influence reading choices? Boy's love is examined not only as an experience in itself, but also in connection with broader questions with regards to female sexuality and pornography.Show less
This thesis considers the meaning and significance of portraying minorities in film. After a short discussion of existing Zainichi cinema, literature on film and gender and intersectionality, the...Show moreThis thesis considers the meaning and significance of portraying minorities in film. After a short discussion of existing Zainichi cinema, literature on film and gender and intersectionality, the thesis zooms in on Yakiniku Dragon (2018) and the way the film deals with Zainichi identity through the exploration of a few scenes and the analysis of Yakiniku Dragon’s script. Yakiniku Dragon’s underlying gender portrayals has implications for the way Zainichi experiences are perceived and has implications for Zainichi women in particular. The analysis of Yakiniku Dragon’s imagery and script sheds light on how gendered labor divisions and a different attribution of themes to different genders excludes Zainichi Korean women’s voices and experiences from Zainichi nationalism or empowerment discourses.Show less
Because of a rapid-ageing society, Japan is facing a shrinking society in which the relative amount of elderly citizens will increase substantially. Elderly citizens are at larger risk of...Show moreBecause of a rapid-ageing society, Japan is facing a shrinking society in which the relative amount of elderly citizens will increase substantially. Elderly citizens are at larger risk of eventually moving to an elderly care facility or passing away. When their houses become uninhabited or unmanaged, they are designated as an empty house, or akiya. In this thesis, I will investigate the question of how this rapid rise in empty houses can be explained from the perspective of the social dimension of homeownership.Show less
The problem of the elderly in post-3.11 Japan is not solvable at any single level. One cannot reduce all phenomena to results of a single factor, be it governmental practice, change in social...Show moreThe problem of the elderly in post-3.11 Japan is not solvable at any single level. One cannot reduce all phenomena to results of a single factor, be it governmental practice, change in social capital, or arbitrary wills of a group of people. After all, the levels that are investigated in this paper only represent some perspectives of inquiry. It is the variety and specificity of older people’s situations that a proper research on them has to respect. Correspondingly, the foremost implication of this research is the importance of being patient to and leaving space for, the multiplicity of the voices of the elderly.Show less
The 'kizuna' discourse in Japan is about bonding as people. After the 3.11 disaster this bonding became more important. The women in the disaster areas were faced with the pressure this discourse...Show moreThe 'kizuna' discourse in Japan is about bonding as people. After the 3.11 disaster this bonding became more important. The women in the disaster areas were faced with the pressure this discourse placed on the gender role women have. With all the stress they themselves already went through, it was still their responsibility to care for everyone. There was hardly any particular attention for the needs of women in disaster areas. This thesis discusses first the theory on disaster and how such an event affects women in particular. Next a history of women and the role they take in society is discussed, followed by the situation of women after the disaster and during recovery.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
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.
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
