Japanese politics and society

Lectures: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

This course is designed for students seeking a fundamental understanding of Japanese history, politics, culture, and the economy. "Raw Fish 101" (as it is often labeled) combines lectures, seminar discussion, small-team case studies, and Web page construction exercises, all designed to shed light on contemporary Japan.

The 6 unit (pass/fail) and the 9 unit (graded) subjects meet together, and are organized around four substantive topics: 1) Politics and history, 2) Economy and technology, 3) Education and the workplace, and 4) Community and civil society. Each topic is addressed in three separate class meetings. The first will be a lecture, with time for Q and A. The second will be a seminar discussion based upon carefully selected readings on the same topic and guided by students' questions. After we have had four sets of lectures and seminars on the topics, we will have four sessions in which students will make two kinds of classroom presentations: 1) A group presentation of the issues associated with a case study provided by the instructors, and 2) The presentation of a Web page developed by a second group of students.

Additional readings and assignments are outlined below for those who elect the 9 unit variant. Either way, this subject is, as advertised, merely an "introduction". We hope that students will be stimulated to select other subjects related to Japanese studies, consider selection of a concentration in Japanese studies, and/or travel to Japan for a closer look at this critically important, technologically advanced nation.

There are six requirements for both the 6-unit and the 9-unit subjects:

In addition to the starred readings on the syllabus, there is a final exam and two paper assignments:

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