Presentation Announcement:「The “Crisis” of Sociality: Caring for the Dead Otherwise with Anne Allison」

May 23, 2025 / 6:00pm -7:30pm / Room 301, Building 10, Sophia University / In person only / No registration required

Responding to the record low birthrate and population decline of the year before, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida declared Japan “on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions” in 2023. Seeing this as a crisis of social reproduction, he announced policies to incentivize young people into having and raising children—to reembrace the family as the center of life/livelihood. For youth themselves, however, this is a model declining in both viability and appeal. This talk addresses a different contingency; as sociality continues to downsize in Japan—to single households, solo lifestyles, childless futures—what are the effects on the elderly who once counted on “the family” to both care for and bury them? This is another dimension to the “crisis” in sociality today: the post-(re)productive who increasingly find themselves “without anyone else to depend upon” (miyori ga nai) in what some call Japan’s “era of family-less dead” (ienaki jidai no shisha). Facing all-aloneness as they age and enter the grave, seniors—and Japan itself—must confront a model of (reproductive) sociality that is not only being rejected by youth but sentencing the elderly to a wastebin of neglect. Looking at moves that are arising to both avoid and anticipate such an end, the talk considers what any of these new “ending” trends portend for a post-familial future as mapped by caring otherwise for the dead.

For more information: https://www.icc-sophia.com/post/the-crisis-of-sociality-caring-for-the-dead-otherwise-with-anne-allison

Female Body Presentation?

(Photo borrowed from Japan Today, 6/8/09.)

Today's Picture of the Day at Japan Today is rather spicy... Caption reads:

Participants take sweets served on a naked woman, known as Nyotaimori or female body presentation, during a fetish fashion event titled “Night of The Body,” organized by Libido M&J, in Tokyo, on Sunday. Hundreds of people gathered at the event, targeted at fetish fashion enthusiasts, which is a mixture of live performances by pole dancers, a fetish fashion show and other events as a showcase, the organizer said.

Libido M&J have a web site to promote their activities. From their "About" section:

How erotic are you?
How elegant are you?

"Libido”is
sexual drive;
creative force;
appetites.

Concept: Humans need sex, we need love (including self-love) and we have appetites.
All three of these needs can become fetishes.
This party, “Libido M&J,” will showcase fetish people as they express these three human desires in interaction with others in luxurious surroundings.

Details: The party will occur in Sabaku no Bara, in Ginza.
We want to bring the fetish world to Ginza: to show what fetish people are, and how we can get along.
There is no dress code for the party space as a whole, but people in fetish costumes will be allowed entry to the VIP space.
Ten hostesses and hosts, in fetish costumes, will distribute sweets to the VIP room audience, and encourage communication between fetish and non-fetish customers as they circulate around the room.

Link to the Libido web site:
http://www.libidomj.tv/index_e.html

"Tokyo Reality"

Tokyo Reality (Canon 5D MarkII) from utsuru on Vimeo.

My colleague, E.K., brought this video to my attention. It is billed as "The world's first non official short movie shot with the Canon EOS 5D MarkII." We get the following information in the film and at the websites:

1 cameraman with Canon 5D MarkII - 3 days in Tokyo
1 video editor with MacBook Pro - 2 days in France

More informations on:
utsuru.fr (english & french)
lejapon.fr/blog/

David Michaud, Photograph/Cameraman freelance since 2002 in Tokyo/Yokohama Japan

Florent Porta, Freelance Video Editor in France

I can't read French (those that can, please feel free to help me out with comments), but it seems that the whole point of the film is to display the tool that made it. VAOJ usually doesn't delve into the gear so much, but for more information on the camera used, check out the site below.

Information and review of this camera at Digital Photography Review:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08091705canon_5dmarkII.asp

What VAOJ usually does dig into is the way Japanese culture is represented in film and video. How do you think "Tokyo Reality" does in this regard? Technically the film is shot and edited well. The contents are on the mundane side, which is a nice change from the heavy "weird Japan" focus that many filmmakers tend to present as of late. But I wonder if it is too mundane. Is there too much focus on the train/subway? Surely Tokyo is more than that. The music is nice, but it seems to be on the mellow and almost sad side and certainly effects the visual images. So again, the question remains, what does the film tell us about the reality of Tokyo? And whose reality is it? Who is the man that the film focuses on from time to time? Personally I would like more background information on this film. Does this film want to make you seek such backgorund information? This would be one indicater of the film's success. The film has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times according to the websites, so they are doing something right. So what am I missing? Should I focus on the camera/tool and not pay so much attention to the contents? Is "Tokyo Reality" a music video (commercial) for Canon?

PM Fukuda's New Year's Greeting

Link to YouTube clip
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SwtDu1KDYo4

Here's a bizarre little piece brought to my attention from Japan Today.

Link to Japan Today - Quote of the Day
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/quote/2415

It's boring (even more so than speeches by previous Japanese Prime Minister Abe) and blatant propaganda. It is also a lesson on how not to film a speech. Here are some observations form a body/comm visual anthropologist:

It is terribly obvious that Fukuda is reading from a teleprompter; his eyes and at times entire head moves from side to side as he reads. You can also tell when the film shifts to the strange perspective giving us Fukuda's profile against the Japanese flag.

Fukuda is also very uncomfortable during this filming. He has dry mouth and makes some unintentional facial gestures at interesting points in his speech. His eyebrows appear angry when he introduces himself as "prime minister." His eyes make an uncomfortable squint when he mentions "change."

Am I being too hard on the guy? Should I give him an A for effort (after all his pronunciation isn't that bad...)? No. He fails in presentation, and even more important, he fails on content. Happy 2008 indeed...

UPDATE!

"Fukuda seen as tanuki..."

Photo borrowed from El Mundo de Dragon Ball http://www.boladedragon.com/foro/viewtopic.php?p=749681

From an article in the Daily Yomiuri (1/5/08), "Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is a tanuki (raccoon dog)... in a recent Internet survey..."

"On images they associate with Fukuda, many respondents said they thought he was like tanuki as it is hard to guess what he is thinking, he looks hard-nosed, and can sometimes seem vague."

Read the DY article:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080105TDY03105.htm

Should stock photos be used in visual anthropology?

Visual anthropology focuses on the visual, that is some image either still or moving, that serves to illustrate some ethnographic thesis as a complement or substitute for written text. I must admit that sometimes I find many of my posts here on this blog to be problematic because they are only text. Albeit many such posts are of the announcement variety, but still I wonder if I should offer up some photo as eye candy.

I have thousands of my own original images stored in my iPhoto files, but sometimes I don't have an image that "works." What to do? One temptation is the internet and its oh-so-many-photos-at-my-disposal. But what about copyright issues? one might ask. Can a blog, even one that is academic in nature, freely take images from the internet and use them as the blogger/author wishes. Perhaps, but of course with proper citations and source information and the willingness to remove such images if the original author/photographer/illustrator/filmmaker objects to its use. But this seems like a lot of hassle.

Enter stock photos - images on the internet available for free or for a price that can be used anyway the blogger sees fit. I was excited to see a recent posting on Presentation Zen with a list of sources for free stock photos (also, check out the comments for even more suggestions from PZ readers).

Link to Presentation Zen post "10 links to cool, high-rez images"
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/11/there-are-many.html

So now that we have millions and millions of images at our disposal, the questions are, what do we do with them and how do we use them? (Unfortunately the PZ post doesn't take up these questions.) For presentations it might not be so problematic to include a somewhat related visual as a background or to cleverly illustrate a (power) point. Can we do this in visual anthropology? Or how about academia in general?

Recently there was an interesting article in Slate about a medical journal using a photo to illustrate its story about HIV-positive foster children in Harlem. The problem (for which they have apologized) is that the photo that appeared in the story was that of an orphanage in Ethiopia, an image that can be purchased at iStockphoto. This was not explained in the original story. Why was this photo used? Do authors have such a creative license to illustrate a scientific, academic and/or ethnographic text?

Check out the article:

Taking Stock: Every picture tells a story, sometimes the wrong one.
By Jack Shafer

Link to Slate article, Taking Stock
http://www.slate.com/id/2179502?GT1=10733

The bottom line here, I feel, is to be weary of stock photos. They are convenient, too convenient. As a visual anthropologist, why not take and use your own photographs? It seems like everyone has a digital camera at their disposal, even if it is on their cell phone. Taking your own photos brings you closer to the research (which is what anthropology is all about anyway). Taking your own photos and understanding what they are allows you to include important context. The use of images in visual anthropology is not about making something look good or attractive (although these things should not be completely ignored). It's not about throwing in an image at some point to break up ugly text. How creative, original or artistic is the use of stock photos anyway? Presentation is important, but first and foremost we can never forget the purpose of visual anthropology, that is the visual representation of culture. With representation comes responsibility and ethics. Convenience is a poor substitute.

More Contemporary Ainu Resourses

The information in this post comes from an announcement from Japan Focus.

Chisato ("Kitty") O. Dubreuil, The Ainu and Their Culture: A Critical Twenty-First Century Assessment

Chisato ("Kitty") Dubreuil, an Ainu-Japanese art history comparativist, has charted connections between the arts of the Ainu and those of diverse indigenous peoples of the north Pacific Rim. Currently finishing her PhD dissertation, Dubreuil co-curated, with William Fitzhugh, the director of the Smithsonian Artic Studies Center, the groundbreaking 1999 Smithsonian exhibition on Ainu culture.

This wide-ranging and lavishly illustrated interview explores historic and contemporary Ainu arts and Ainu social movements.

This is a very interesting article, and as promised, it includes lots of helpful images and illustrations. There are also some useful links, including one to "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People," a multimedia presentation that should be of interest to visual anthropologists.

Link to The Ainu and Their Culture: A Critical Twenty-First Century Assessment
http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2589