Anthropology 254

PART THREE:

Work, Family, and Schooling in a New Middle Class Society

 

9/30 M "Salary-men" and the large organization model

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Thomas P. Rohlen, "The Company Work Group," in Ezra F. Vogel (ed.) Modern Japanese Organization and Decision Making, pp. 185-209 (University of California Press, 1974) HD31/M63

Allan Bird, "Getting to the Top in a Japanese Company," PHP Intersect, March, pp. 11-12 [1988] P#002375

Suzuta Atsuyuki, "The Way of the Bureaucrat," in Daniel I. Okimoto and Thomas P. Rohlen (eds.), Inside the Japanese System, pp. 196-203 (Stanford University Press) HC462.9/I658/1988

"'Improve Work Every Day' is Motto at Tohoku Oki Electric," Japan Economic Journal, October 26, 1985 P#002377

Katô Tetsurô, "Workaholism: It's Not in the Blood," LOOK Japan, pp. 8-10, February, 1995

Tanaka Hiroshi, "Tanaka-kun," Mangajin 1(1):26-31 [1990] P#000747

"Competing to Climb the Corporate Ladder"


10/2 W "Office Ladies" and the large organizational model

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies, pp. 1-97 (University of California Press) HD6073/M392/J36/1998 [reading notes]


10/4 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "Being Japanese"

Readings:

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men, pp. 98-168 [reading notes]


10/7 M Organizational failures and alternative workplaces

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Kenneth Skinner, "Conflict and Command in a Public Corporation in Japan," Journal of Japanese Studies 6(2):301-29 [1980] P#000744

Anne Allison, "Dominating Men: Male Dominance on Company Expense in a Japanese Hostess Club," Genders 16:1-16 [1993].

Video clip: the chains of subcontractors for the Mazda Corporation in the rural periphery of Hiroshima


10/9 W Down and out--but still in

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Rey Ventura, "Juan, Margie, Miguel" (pp. 46-54) and "Kotobuki Sketchbook" (pp. 55-63), in his Underground in Japan (Jonathan Cape, 1992) DS832.7/A8/V46/1992

Tom Gill, "Yoseba and Ninpudashi: Changing Patterns of Employment on the Fringes of the Japanese Economy," in J. S. Eades, Tom Gill, and Harumi Befu (eds.), Globalization and Social Change in Contemporary Japan, pp. 123-143 (Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2000)

Video clip: scenes from the day laborer area of San'ya (Tokyo)


10/11 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "Full Moon Lunch"

Readings:

review: Peter Frost, "Examination Hell," in Edward R. Beauchamp (ed.), Windows on Japanese Education, pp. 291-305 (Greenwood Press, 1991) P#000725


10/14 M The "credential society": Education for a meritocracy

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Thomas P. Rohlen, "Five High Schools," chapter 1 in his Japan's High Schools, pp. 11-44 (University of California Press, 1983) LA1316/R63/1983

Harold Stevenson and James Stigler, "The Organization of Schooling," chapter 7 in their The Learning Gap, pp. 131-155 (Summit Books, 1992) LA219/S76X/1992

Elisabeth Bumiller, "Back to School," The Secrets of Mariko, pp. 141-178 (Vintage, 1995) [reading notes]

"Preparing for Admissions Tests": questions from a sixth-grade juku practice admissions test (from the New York Times)

Questions from the Kobe University entrance examination (from T. Rohlen, Japan's High Schools, pp. 96-97)


10/16 W Tracks and layers in Japanese schooling

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Catherine C. Lewis, "Learning and Caring," in her Educating Hearts and Minds, pp.149-177 (Cambridge University Press, 1994) LB1140.25/J3/L48/1994. See also her short cases of elementary school classroom dynamics:"Preschoolers 'Bomb' Goldfish," "Studying Mothers' Work," and "First Graders Run a Weekly Class Meeting" from C. Lewis, Educating Hearts and Minds (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Rebecca Fukuzawa, "The Path to Adulthood According to Japanese Middle Schools," Journal of Japanese Studies 20(1):61-86 [1994] P#003799

L. Benjamin Hill, "Breaking the Rules in Japanese Schools: Kosoku ihan, Academic Competition, and Moral Education," Anthropology & Education Quarterly 27(1): 90-110 [1996]


10/18 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "The Learning Machine"

Readings:

Brian J. McVeigh, "The Feminization of Body, Behavior, and Belief: Learning to be an 'Office Lady' at a Japanese Women's College," American Asian Review 13(2):29-67 [1995]


10/21 M Learning for life, learning for labor

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

G. Victor Sôgen Hori, "Teaching and Learning in the Rinzai Zen Monastery," Journal of Japanese Studies 20(1):5-35 [1994] P#000470


10/23 W Family matters

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko, pp. 91-140 (Vintage, 1995) [reading notes]


10/25 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: " Cram School" and "The Story of Noriko"

Readings:

Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko, pp. 179-252 (Vintage, 1995) [reading notes]


10/28 M Marriage: forms and feelings

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Readings:

Elisabeth Bumiller, The Secrets of Mariko, pp. 253-332 (Vintage, 1995) [reading notes]


10/30 W The vagaries of "good wife, wise, mother"

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]


11/1 F VIDEO DOCUMENTARY: "Dream Girls"


11/4 M "Fetus memorials," "flying women," and "parasite singles"

[lecture outline] [audio transcript of lecture] [image gallery] [news clippings]

Yamada Masahiro and Genda Yûji, a debate on "Japan's Dependent Singles," Japan Echo, June, 2000, pp. 47-56 [part one] [part two] [part three]

Peggy Orenstein, "Parasites in Pret-a-Porter Are Threatening Japan's Economy," The New York Times Sunday Magazine, July 1, 2001

 

Special Note: First drafts of the second essay (Assignment 2) are due on Monday, November 11 by 4:30 p.m.