(As seen at Tokyomango...)
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Solar Power? More Weird Japan...
(Image and text below borrowed from Japan Today.)Caption: A model for lingerie maker Triumph Japan wears a “solar-panel bra.” The solar panel can display messages on the removable small electric board when the cell generates electricity. The bra is also equipped with pads designed to hold beverages so that the usage of cans and plastic bottles can be reduced, Triumph said.
Why?
Read comments and reactions to this photo.
Link to Japan Today Picture of the Day:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/solar-powered-bra
The manufacturer, Triumph Japan, has had some other interesting ideas, as you can see in the following two links. The warm biz might be practical, and the Hanshin Tigers' fun, but others are... well, you decide.
Link to 8 Best Bizarre Bras from Triumph Japan:
http://inventorspot.com/articles/best_8_bizarre_bras_triumph_inte_8275
Link to Triumph International Theme Undies:
http://japundit.com/sitemap/triumph-international-theme-undies/
Saturday, May 10, 2008
"Yasukuni" Shown in Osaka
Documentary "YASUKUNI" screened at Osaka theater
(Kyodo News, May 10, 2008, 10:29 AM)
A movie theater in central Osaka began screening the controversial documentary film "YASUKUNI" on Saturday, becoming the first theater to do so in the Kansai area of western Japan.
The Seventh Art Theater in Yodogawa Ward will run the film by Chinese Director Li Ying till June 6. Depending on viewer turnout, the showing will be extended, it said.
Preliminary Report:
I was among the first people in Osaka to see Yasukuni this morning. It was my intention to get there well before the first 9:30 AM showing to see/photograph any trouble that might have been brewing near or inside the theater. I thought I might be lucky enough to get a ticket for the second screening at 11:55 AM or maybe even tomorrow.
When I arrived the only brewing trouble seemed to be coming from the media and its traveling circus outside the theater. I started taking some pictures when a theater staff member asked if I was there to see the film. I replied yes and was told to proceed on the other side of a rope. As I entered the customer line, the media swooped down on the foreigner.
No asking of permission, no acceptance of my claimed language difficulties, boom! I had two TV cameras shoved in my face and was being asked why I was there to see the movie. I replied that I was interested in Japanese politics. Why? I was asked. The questions got longer and longer and I felt as if they were attempting to put words into my mouth. Finally I politely said I was done. I turned around and there were more reporters and cameras aimed at my face, looking to get their shot. So I started taking pictures of them.
Disappointed reporters and cameramen turn away from the visual anthropologist.I was ushered into an elevator and up to the 6th floor. I was asked not to take photographs. It seemed that I had three choices of tickets for the day: 1) a standing room only ticket for the 9:30 show, 2) a ticket for a special hall set up on the fourth floor for the 9:30 show, or 3) a ticket for the 11:55 show. I chose number 2.
The main theater on the 6th floor had about 130 viewers I was told. On the 4th floor in a large hall belonging to a Chinese restaurant a special screen and speakers were set up. About 100 people viewed the film there.
This photo is of the hall on the 4th floor set up to accommodate excess viewers. A few people were taking photographs so I quickly snapped this one. The hall quickly filled up before the film began. There were many staff people ushering customers here and there. There weren't any uniformed police but there were some plain clothed security guards. Two sat in the rear of the hall; they were older men with scars and quite frankly, scary-looking. Before the film began, two more security guards came in and sat on each side in the front of the hall. They had earphones in their ears and handguns under their jackets.
The atmosphere was odd and tense. I felt as if I were at some illegal gathering... Many people seemed to come by themselves. There wasn't a whole lot of interaction between the members of the audience except for a group of older people who sat in the front of the hall. They all seemed to know each other; eventually one woman started passing out flyers for a "Viva! Cuba X Japan Fiesta" on May 20. The woman made a special effort to make sure I got a flyer. I was truly among a hotbed of radical Japanese.
After the film I was able to buy a film program/study guide (700 yen) and talk with theater staff members a bit. I waited my turn to take the elevator and was once again greeted by the media.
I was still processing the film in my mind, so when the microphone was jammed in my face again I said, "No comment..." More disappointed media. But other Japanese people were there to give their comments. I felt this was more appropriate anyway. This is a Japanese issue; why was the media swooping down on a foreigner to get his opinion?
So what is my opinion of the film? I will offer a few brief comments.Overall, I felt as though I really didn't learn anything new from the film. The film portrayed, often times in a jerky and blurry video style, radical right wing activities at Yasukuni, but these were public events that seemed to demand an audience and documentation. They were intended to be public events, so I don't see how real nationalists would have a problem with these scenes. Perhaps some right leaning politicians might feel like they would want to hide such activities to an international audience...
In one scene, war veterans paraded into the shrine and prayed. The movie poster (seen below along with the movie program and my ticket stubs) highlights one of these public events.
What is odd about the movie poster is the position of the man's arms. What is the meaning of this man's gesture?Actually, the gesture is captured/photographed at the wrong moment. The man holds his hands apart before bringing them together for a Shinto prayer-clap. The photo should have been of the prayer/clap itself. The hands outstretched taken out of context is suggesting some other meaning.
Li Ying focuses on a sword maker and much of the footage of the sword being made is quite beautiful. I suppose it is a juxtaposition of a beautiful art resulting in a deadly weapon. Li Ying at times seems a little aggressive when interviewing the sword maker. At times the sword maker seems to not know the answer, or perhaps not want to answer, some more politically motivated questions.
Overall, the film is interesting and might be educational to people who don't know much about the issues surrounding Yasukuni shrine. But one has to wonder if such people would come out to see this film anyway. All of the sensational protests and media coverage gave the film much more attention that it would have otherwise gleaned. A colleague has recorded and given me several clips of news coverage of the film and the screenings in Tokyo and Osaka. They all tend to show the more violent scenes from the film. This is yet another example of the media over-blowing an issue; but it also serves to give Li Ying free advertising for his film.
Does the film deserve all the controversy it has received? In the end, probably not. But the film certainly deserved to be made, and it deserves to be seen. Do check it out and offer your opinions here at VAOJ. What do you think of the film? How does the film serve to help us in out understanding of the visual anthropology of Japan?
(Special thanks to JH. Preliminary report written 5/10; additional text and photos added on 5/12.)
...and more Yasukuni articles trickle in.
Yasukuni: The Stage for Memory and Oblivion. A Dialogue between Li Ying and Sai Yoichi
Translated by John Junkerman, this discussion between "foreign" filmmakers in Japan appears in the latest edition of Japan Focus.
Link to "Dialogue"
http://japanfocus.org/products/details/2750
Friday, May 9, 2008
Photos of Hiroshima from the Robert L. Capp Collection
An announcement from H-Japan...
The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Three of these photographs are reproduced in Atomic Tragedy with the permission of the Capp family. Now that the restriction is no longer in force, the entire set is available below. Please contact Sean L. Malloy (smalloy@ucmerced.edu) if you have any information that might help identify the original photographer.
These are some very disturbing photos. Proof that visual anthropology is not always pretty. War is stupid. Nuclear weapons are stupid. What were they thinking? And what are they thinking now? View these pictures at your own discretion.
Link to Atomic Tradegy
http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/smalloy/atomic_tragedy/photos.html
UPDATE:
There has been some buzz on H-Japan about these photos actually being of Hiroshima.
David Palmer writes:
I would tend to agree with the Hiroshima Peace Museum assessment having serious doubts about these photos.
In late 2004, I presented the paper "The Missing 72 Hours: Are there Hidden Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Photos?" at the Kyoto Peace as a Global Movement III conference. It was based on an assessment of all known photos of the Hiroshima atomic bombing up to that year, including consultation with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on the issue. One interview I did with a Hiroshima hibakusha a year earlier led to him showing me photos he believed were such hidden photos never before seen - which he honestly believed - and which had been handed down from person to person for some 40 years or so.
We had the photos digitalized so that they could be circulated to a range of scholars in the US, Japan, and Europe. Eventually, a number of people in Japan identified them as the 1923 Kanto earthquake, and most likely the Korean massacres in Tokyo (Kanto-ku). Several elements in the photos indicated they were not Hiroshima or 1940s era. These included the buildings, burnt out, that do not match Hiroshima buildings - or terrain. Also, 1920s era straw hats (flat top with brim) were in these photos - something not characteristic of attire in 1945 Hiroshima. It turned out also that the photos were in the collection of the Tokyo Science Museum (which had liaised with the Hiroshima Peace Museum) - it was common after the earthquake to make post cards of the photos and sell them throughout Japan.
Certain parts of the Capp collection photos also have these characteristics. Note, also, that in one photo an arm has clearly been severed, as if cut off. This would be characteristic of the anti-Korean riots, not Hiroshima in August 1945.
Finally, the bodies do not have characteristics of radiation burns that are universal in Hiroshima photos.
The problem of Capp finding the film, however, raises more complex identification issues - but the key is the elements of identification within the photos. It might be useful, too, for those with the original film to have it analyzed for chemical makeup to try to determine the date the film may have been manufactured.
However, when the investigation I initiated - which turned out to be Kanto earthquake photos, not Hiroshima atomic bomb ones - included observations by Hiroshima hibakusha, who were volunteers at the Peace Museum - their response was that regardless of the fact that these were not A bomb photos, the images were very similar to what they remembered in their own experiences.
For 72 hours - as I indicated in my conference paper - there was a void of photography. After that period, official Japanese Imperial Army photos generally show the "atomic wasteland" and individual injuries. They are entirely different than the hibakusha drawings and paintings of a vast human catastrophe. The handful of photos by Matsushige Yoshito - taken some 1000 meters from the hypocenter - are all that we have so far of that 72 hour period. Japan's military tried to surpress all information - radio, printed, and photographic - of the Hiroshima atomic bombing immediately after it occurred because they feared it would ruin public morale. Subsequent US censorship obviously was aimed at preventing the truth of the catastrophe from impacting on world opinion.
This was a project I could not continue because I was denied funding, including from the Japan Foundation. I am convinced, however, that there are photos, somewhere, but it will take a team of researchers and reasonable funding to locate them and authenticate them. They are photos, I believe, that neither the Japanese government nor the US government want the public to see.
They reveal a horrendous war crime (by the US) and continued cover-up of military censorship (by both the US and Japan).
Ann Sherif writes:
Some of the photographs from the Capp collection supposedly of Hiroshima casualties appear in the book by Malloy, Sean L. Atomic Tragedy: Henry Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2008)( p. 3, pp. 139-140). On p. 3 of the book. Malloy states ""Mr Capp donated these photos to the Hoover Institution Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Mr. Capp has since passed away, and I am grateful to his wife and family for allowing me to reproduce these photos in time for inclusion here."
The Robert L. Capp collection at the Hoover Institution Archives contains ten never-before-published photographs illustrating the immediate aftermath of the Hiroshima bombing. These photographs, taken by an unknown Japanese photographer, were found in 1945 among rolls of undeveloped film in a cave outside Hiroshima by U.S. serviceman Robert L. Capp, who was attached to the occupation forces. Unlike most photos of the Hiroshima bombing, these dramatically convey the human as well as material destruction unleashed by the atomic bomb. Mr. Capp donated them to the Hoover Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Three of these photographs are reproduced in Atomic Tragedy with the permission of the Capp family. Now that the restriction is no longer in force, the entire set is available below. Please contact Sean L. Malloy (smalloy@ucmerced.edu) if you have any information that might help identify the original photographer.
These are some very disturbing photos. Proof that visual anthropology is not always pretty. War is stupid. Nuclear weapons are stupid. What were they thinking? And what are they thinking now? View these pictures at your own discretion.
Link to Atomic Tradegy
http://faculty.ucmerced.edu/smalloy/atomic_tragedy/photos.html
UPDATE:
There has been some buzz on H-Japan about these photos actually being of Hiroshima.
David Palmer writes:
I would tend to agree with the Hiroshima Peace Museum assessment having serious doubts about these photos.
In late 2004, I presented the paper "The Missing 72 Hours: Are there Hidden Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Photos?" at the Kyoto Peace as a Global Movement III conference. It was based on an assessment of all known photos of the Hiroshima atomic bombing up to that year, including consultation with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on the issue. One interview I did with a Hiroshima hibakusha a year earlier led to him showing me photos he believed were such hidden photos never before seen - which he honestly believed - and which had been handed down from person to person for some 40 years or so.
We had the photos digitalized so that they could be circulated to a range of scholars in the US, Japan, and Europe. Eventually, a number of people in Japan identified them as the 1923 Kanto earthquake, and most likely the Korean massacres in Tokyo (Kanto-ku). Several elements in the photos indicated they were not Hiroshima or 1940s era. These included the buildings, burnt out, that do not match Hiroshima buildings - or terrain. Also, 1920s era straw hats (flat top with brim) were in these photos - something not characteristic of attire in 1945 Hiroshima. It turned out also that the photos were in the collection of the Tokyo Science Museum (which had liaised with the Hiroshima Peace Museum) - it was common after the earthquake to make post cards of the photos and sell them throughout Japan.
Certain parts of the Capp collection photos also have these characteristics. Note, also, that in one photo an arm has clearly been severed, as if cut off. This would be characteristic of the anti-Korean riots, not Hiroshima in August 1945.
Finally, the bodies do not have characteristics of radiation burns that are universal in Hiroshima photos.
The problem of Capp finding the film, however, raises more complex identification issues - but the key is the elements of identification within the photos. It might be useful, too, for those with the original film to have it analyzed for chemical makeup to try to determine the date the film may have been manufactured.
However, when the investigation I initiated - which turned out to be Kanto earthquake photos, not Hiroshima atomic bomb ones - included observations by Hiroshima hibakusha, who were volunteers at the Peace Museum - their response was that regardless of the fact that these were not A bomb photos, the images were very similar to what they remembered in their own experiences.
For 72 hours - as I indicated in my conference paper - there was a void of photography. After that period, official Japanese Imperial Army photos generally show the "atomic wasteland" and individual injuries. They are entirely different than the hibakusha drawings and paintings of a vast human catastrophe. The handful of photos by Matsushige Yoshito - taken some 1000 meters from the hypocenter - are all that we have so far of that 72 hour period. Japan's military tried to surpress all information - radio, printed, and photographic - of the Hiroshima atomic bombing immediately after it occurred because they feared it would ruin public morale. Subsequent US censorship obviously was aimed at preventing the truth of the catastrophe from impacting on world opinion.
This was a project I could not continue because I was denied funding, including from the Japan Foundation. I am convinced, however, that there are photos, somewhere, but it will take a team of researchers and reasonable funding to locate them and authenticate them. They are photos, I believe, that neither the Japanese government nor the US government want the public to see.
They reveal a horrendous war crime (by the US) and continued cover-up of military censorship (by both the US and Japan).
Ann Sherif writes:
Some of the photographs from the Capp collection supposedly of Hiroshima casualties appear in the book by Malloy, Sean L. Atomic Tragedy: Henry Stimson and the Decision to Use the Bomb Against Japan (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2008)( p. 3, pp. 139-140). On p. 3 of the book. Malloy states ""Mr Capp donated these photos to the Hoover Institution Archives in 1998 with the provision that they not be reproduced until 2008. Mr. Capp has since passed away, and I am grateful to his wife and family for allowing me to reproduce these photos in time for inclusion here."
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Golden Week 2008
Batch 1
Batch 2
Batch 3
Every picture tells a story. Taken together these pictures tell the stories of my Golden Week 2008. I am in every photo. Want to know the details? No narration for you - use your imagination... Can you make up your mind for yourself? Can you trust your own interpretations?
Batch 2
Batch 3
Every picture tells a story. Taken together these pictures tell the stories of my Golden Week 2008. I am in every photo. Want to know the details? No narration for you - use your imagination... Can you make up your mind for yourself? Can you trust your own interpretations?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Design Fest at Tokyo Big Sight May 17-18, 2008
(Image borrowed from Design Festa web page.)Design Festa, Asia’s biggest international art event, will be held for the 27th time in Japan at Tokyo Big Sight on May 17 and 18. The event, which started in 1994 and is held twice a year, is expected to attract more than 50,000 visitors from 69 countries, organizers said.
Artists from Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America will be exhibiting their works. Members of the public will be able to purchase artworks as well as meet artists of all persuasions, said organizers, adding that some 7,000 artists will occupy 2,600 booths. Design Festa will also feature outdoor and indoor stage performances, visual art, film exhibitions and workshops.
Admisasion is 800 yen per day or 1,500 yen for both days, in advance, or 1,000 yen at the door per day or 1,800 yen for two days. (From Japan Today, 5/6/08)
For further information, visit http://www.designfesta.com.
Lots of potential for visual projects...
Monday, May 5, 2008
Film Examines Japan's Criminal Justice System
The Japan Federation of Bar Associations has produced a documentary film on Japan’s criminal justice system, featuring the acquittal of 12 defendants in an election law violation case in Kagoshima Prefecture, to raise public awareness of the problematic aspects of the legal system.
Read the whole story about "Presumed Guilty—Creating False Confessions" at Japan Today.
Link to "Film Examines Japan's Criminal Justice System"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment-arts/view/film-examines-japans-criminal-justice-system
Read the whole story about "Presumed Guilty—Creating False Confessions" at Japan Today.
Link to "Film Examines Japan's Criminal Justice System"
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment-arts/view/film-examines-japans-criminal-justice-system
Sunday, May 4, 2008
"Yasukuni" Opens Under Heavy Security...
So the film finally opened to the general public in Tokyo with police officers inside and outside the theater. Read the whole story at Japan Today.
Link to "Yasukuni" opens...
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/yasukuni-opens-under-heavy-security-gets-mixed-reaction
The film will be shown in Osaka from Saturday, May 10 at the Dai Nana Geijutsu Gekijyo in Juso (tel: 06-6302-2073).
UPDATE (Yes, yet another one...) 5/5/08
Two Yasukuni-related stories appeared in today's Daily Yomiuri. The first is similar to the stories that ran yesterday.
Link to Public Interest in "Yasukuni" High
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080505TDY03105.htm
The second story I will cut and paste here in its entirety as it relates to our on-going discussion of photographing in public and getting people's permission to do so. Let's see how this develops...
Shrine wants 'uncleared' scenes cut; director says no
The Yomiuri Shimbun (May. 5, 2008)
Yasukuni Shrine has asked the maker of the documentary "Yasukuni" to cut scenes from the film that they say contain "unauthorized" footage, but the filmmaker is not planning to comply with the request.
In a letter dated April 11, the shrine asked director Li Ying to cut the scene of a ritual at the shrine, saying he was not permitted to film it.
The shrine also asked him to cut scenes showing close-ups of shrine personnel and visitors for which it said the filmmaker had not obtained permission from these people to shoot their images.
According to the shrine, the documentary's production company, Dragon Films, made three requests for permission to shoot footage of the shrine, but on none of these occasions did it specify that the footage was intended for a documentary to be called "Yasukuni."
Kazuo Hizumi, lawyer for Li and Dragon Films, said: "When you see news and other footage of the shrine, it's hard to believe that every single person seen in it has been asked for permission. It's a place that attracts many people and a lot of attention, and I believe members of the public seen there are usually taking images of it, too."
How specific does one have to be when getting permission to shoot a documentary? In early phases of research and shooting, I believe it is quite rare to know the title of one's film and what form the final edited cut will take. On the other hand, can the subject request that parts be deleted after the final cut if they change their minds? For visual anthropologists this is a legal and an ethical question.
*****
Yes, I know it's been a while since I promised to post a set of guidelines for students of visual anthropology to consider when photographing in public. I have not forgot. I have a stack of related books and articles that I have been reading and taking note of on my desk. Unfortunately I also have stacks of papers to grade and lectures to prepare on my desk as well... Someday all will get done...
Link to "Yasukuni" opens...
http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/yasukuni-opens-under-heavy-security-gets-mixed-reaction
The film will be shown in Osaka from Saturday, May 10 at the Dai Nana Geijutsu Gekijyo in Juso (tel: 06-6302-2073).
UPDATE (Yes, yet another one...) 5/5/08
Two Yasukuni-related stories appeared in today's Daily Yomiuri. The first is similar to the stories that ran yesterday.
Link to Public Interest in "Yasukuni" High
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080505TDY03105.htm
The second story I will cut and paste here in its entirety as it relates to our on-going discussion of photographing in public and getting people's permission to do so. Let's see how this develops...
Shrine wants 'uncleared' scenes cut; director says no
The Yomiuri Shimbun (May. 5, 2008)
Yasukuni Shrine has asked the maker of the documentary "Yasukuni" to cut scenes from the film that they say contain "unauthorized" footage, but the filmmaker is not planning to comply with the request.
In a letter dated April 11, the shrine asked director Li Ying to cut the scene of a ritual at the shrine, saying he was not permitted to film it.
The shrine also asked him to cut scenes showing close-ups of shrine personnel and visitors for which it said the filmmaker had not obtained permission from these people to shoot their images.
According to the shrine, the documentary's production company, Dragon Films, made three requests for permission to shoot footage of the shrine, but on none of these occasions did it specify that the footage was intended for a documentary to be called "Yasukuni."
Kazuo Hizumi, lawyer for Li and Dragon Films, said: "When you see news and other footage of the shrine, it's hard to believe that every single person seen in it has been asked for permission. It's a place that attracts many people and a lot of attention, and I believe members of the public seen there are usually taking images of it, too."
How specific does one have to be when getting permission to shoot a documentary? In early phases of research and shooting, I believe it is quite rare to know the title of one's film and what form the final edited cut will take. On the other hand, can the subject request that parts be deleted after the final cut if they change their minds? For visual anthropologists this is a legal and an ethical question.
*****
Yes, I know it's been a while since I promised to post a set of guidelines for students of visual anthropology to consider when photographing in public. I have not forgot. I have a stack of related books and articles that I have been reading and taking note of on my desk. Unfortunately I also have stacks of papers to grade and lectures to prepare on my desk as well... Someday all will get done...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Tokyo Pop Culture -or- More Weird Japan?
Here's a new documentary for the consideration of visual anthropologists...
TOKYOLOGY is a documentary exploring contemporary Japanese pop-culture.
[T]here's more to Tokyo than crazy nightlife and entertainment: from anime to architecture, political art to gaming, from shopping and style to the Cherry Blossom festival, the city has something for everyone, and its share of surprises, too!
Read more at the Tokyology web page.
Link to Tokyology:
http://tokyology.tv/index.html
There's a different and longer clip available from Boing Boing TV:
The film makes big claims about telling us how it really is in Tokyo, hearing from real people in Tokyo, all in 10 days time... Is this a useful bit about Japanese Pop Culture and/or more weird Japan? Within the realm of cultural representation, is Weird Japan/Cool Japan/Pop Japan a new form of orientalism? Are there similar films about New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, etc. that in effect represent the corresponding city's whole country/culture?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Resource: Japan Society and About Japan
More resources for visual anthropologists, from Japan Society. The first is Japan Society's general web page; the second is a linked and sponsored resource dedicated to k-12 education.
Here is Japan Society's own overview from their web page:
Japan Society is the premier producer of high-quality content on Japan for the United States, offering over one hundred events annually in the performing and visual arts, business and policy sector, and education fields, as well as publications and online forums. Over the course of more than a century, Japan Society has evolved into an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia.
Link to Japan Society:
http://www.japansociety.org/
Here is a description for "About Japan" from their web page:
This site provides educators and specialists in Japan Studies a space for sharing, discussing and developing teaching ideas and resources about Japan, especially as they relate to K-12 classrooms. The site features thought-provoking essays; classroom-ready lesson plans; an area for asking and answering questions; resources including historical documents, maps and images; and member profiles. In addition to user-generated content, the editorial team will develop original materials organized around a theme. The first theme is “Imperial Japan.” We invite you to contribute materials of your own and join the discussion.
Link to About Japan: A Teacher's Resource:
http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/index.cfm
Here is Japan Society's own overview from their web page:
Japan Society is the premier producer of high-quality content on Japan for the United States, offering over one hundred events annually in the performing and visual arts, business and policy sector, and education fields, as well as publications and online forums. Over the course of more than a century, Japan Society has evolved into an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia.
Link to Japan Society:
http://www.japansociety.org/
Here is a description for "About Japan" from their web page:
This site provides educators and specialists in Japan Studies a space for sharing, discussing and developing teaching ideas and resources about Japan, especially as they relate to K-12 classrooms. The site features thought-provoking essays; classroom-ready lesson plans; an area for asking and answering questions; resources including historical documents, maps and images; and member profiles. In addition to user-generated content, the editorial team will develop original materials organized around a theme. The first theme is “Imperial Japan.” We invite you to contribute materials of your own and join the discussion.
Link to About Japan: A Teacher's Resource:
http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/index.cfm
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