"Friday-Signing" Event in Osaka

My Deaf friends asked me to pass this information on.

The organizers of this event sign in both Japanese Sign Language and American Sign Language. It should be an interesting international event. If you have time, check it out. For more information, check out their blog:

Friday-Signing
http://kinyoubishuwa.blogspot.com/

Fun stuff...

Perhaps some visual images might be helpful...

(Image borrowed from The Daily Yomiuri, 1/28/08)




(from The Daily Yomiuri Photo Grand Prix, 1/27/08)

What a great photo! As the Yomiuri put it, this photo certainly "capture[d] the right moment." What does this photo say about Japanese people? What does it say about monkeys? What do you think?

Visual Symbolism, Baseball and the Japanese Rising Sun Flag

"I don't need an interpreter. My bat does the talking."

(Image borrowed from The Official Site of The Chicago Cubs)

The Chicago Cubs have a new ad campaign stressing the international flavor of their team. Japanese player Kosuke Fukudome, formerly of the Chunichi Dragons, is prominently displayed in the new campaign with a version of the Japanese flag in the background. The flag is the one used by the former Imperial Japanese Army and Navy (interestingly enough the flag is still used by the current Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force).

(Image borrowed from GlobalSecurity.org)

There is a lot of symbolic baggage with this flag and the Fukudome ad has generated many complaints from American war veterans. The flag is also a problematic symbol in Japan as well. Many equate it with right-wing nationalism and Japanese imperialism. While the Cubs have defended the use of the flag in their ad, they might have benefited from consulting with a visual anthropologist in the early planning and design stages.

Read more in the following articles:

HARD DRIVES: Fukudome can blow by flag flack (Daily Yomiuri, 1/30/08)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20080130TDY24301.htm

Cubs unleash bold, new ad campaign (MLB.com, posted on the Official Site of the Chicago Cubs)
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080122&content_id=2352968&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Workshop on Documentary Digital Video for Scholars in Asian Studies

This announcement comes from EASIANTH, H-ASIA and H-Japan:

The Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies (EAPS), the Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS), and Applied Technologies for Learning in the Arts & Sciences (ATLAS) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, invite applications for a weekend workshop on documentary digital video for scholars in Asian Studies, May 15-16, 2008, in Urbana, Illinois.

This workshop is intended for faculty and graduate students who are interested in turning a current Asia-focused research project into a documentary digital video for an educational or public audience. Today's user-friendly media inspires many scholars to envision an audio-visual expression of their research. We will offer eight such
scholars introductory training towards the creation of a professional video, in the context of an academic career.

The workshop will provide an introductory overview of the filmmaking process, from framing your project, through funding and planning, to filming in the field, and finally, to post-production and distribution. Equipment choices, ethical issues, and resources for further assistance will be discussed. Both lecture and hands-on components will be included. Participants will produce a short interview project in the course of the weekend. No prior experience or training in media design or techniques is assumed. The workshop will be led by both academics with filmmaking experience and professional filmmakers with research experience.

Eligibility: Scholars at any level of seniority affiliated with an academic and/or research institution. Graduate students should have already defined their dissertation project. Applicants must have an original, current research project on an Asian topic (any discipline), a portion of which they envision expressing in documentary video format. Participation is competitive; successful applicants will have delineated a video project which addresses a gap in available Asian Studies media and will have the potential for bringing this project to fruition. Those accepted must complete a
questionnaire and prepare assigned readings prior to attending the workshop. Accommodations for May 14-16 and meals for May 15-16 are included; graduate students will be offered assistance with transportation costs up to $400.

After completing the workshop, participants will be eligible to compete for two small seed grants to produce pilot videos to launch their projects.

Applications and more information are available at:
http://www.aems.uiuc.edu/events/educator_events/digitalasia.html
Deadline for receipt of applications: February 28, 2008.

With further inquiries, please contact:

Tanya Lee
Program Director
Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS)
Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
805 West Pennsylvania Avenue, MC-025
Urbana, IL 61801
TEL: 217-265-0642 or 888-828-AEMS
FAX: 217-265-0641
tanyalee@uiuc.edu
www.aems.uiuc.edu

A sad day for Gonzo Anthropology...

Dr. Gonzo Fedorowicz, 1992 - 2008. Rest in Peace.


Visual Anthropology of Japan is saddened by the passing of Gonzo. This blog started out with Gonzo. Like his namesake, he was a huge inspiration for the author. As the cat of a visual anthropologist, Gonzo was widely traveled, well known and admired by many in North America and Asia. He will be missed, but his legend will live on.

Globalization of Sushi: Report on "60 Minutes"

Recently the CBS news show "60 Minutes" ran a story about the globalization of sushi. Anthropologist Ted Bestor appears in the story. Check it out at the following link:

Link to 60 Minutes story
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3706693n

60 Minutes "used" a lot of Bestor's material without giving him enough credit, I think. But I suppose it is cool to see an anthropologist on a popular TV show. Check out Bestor's research for more information on this interesting topic.

UPDATE: Is sushi safe to eat? See the recent story (and photos) from the MSNBC website:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22844936?GT1=10755

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

Deaf X-mas in Japan II: The Bad News

Subtitle: Top court rejects appeal by Koreans seeking disability benefits

I have been following this court case since the beginning of my research on deafness in Japan. It has gone all the way to the Japanese Supreme Court, and on x-mas day the court gave this present to my Korean-Japanese Deaf friends in Kyoto: NO BENEFITS!

News of this judgment has been almost non-existent in the Japanese press. It did appear in Japan Today but was quickly removed as it was not a popular discussion article. You can read a short article at the following web site:

Link to Kyodo article on Breitbart
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8TOEJMG0&show_article=1

"...[N]ot taking compensation measures is evidently not unconstitutional." What a wonderful quote! These people were born in Japan and use Japanese Sign Language. They pay taxes but are doubly burdened because of their status as Korean-Japanese (click here for more background information on this issue) and an extremely puzzling law that sets up arbitrary age limits to receive social welfare assistance.

Not much is known about this issue. I certainly didn't know about it when I first came to Japan ten years ago. I remember being at a Deaf dinner party and getting frustrated with everyone asking me if I was American. I decided to confront the next person who asked me the question with "Are you Japanese?" The person I ended up confronting was Mr. Kim, who politely signed to me that, no, he was not Japanese but rather a Korean-Japanese. Mr. Kim has been an active fighter of this issue for several years. I interviewed him and the following passage appears in my dissertation:

I have a double burden, one is being a Korean person living in Japanese society and the other is being a disabled person, and because of that I have experienced really upsetting moments. Now Japan's economy is bad and it has been very difficult for me to have a job. Because of that, my younger brother and deaf friends have found me jobs and I have been working doing public works. I told people from the beginning that I can't hear. My boss said he understood but when I made mistakes at work, he said with his voice that it was incorrect and he told me many things. I told him I didn't understand but he scolded me many times saying "it's wrong" so I got angry, too... I got fired. Even when I was working, I was forced to work for a lower wage. One time my salary was unexpectedly small, and when i asked for the reason, I was told, "disabled people get pension [social welfare assistance] so it should be enough." Most people don't know that foreign "disabled people" living in Japan don't get a pension and even when I explain to them why we don't get a pension, people have difficulty understanding. It was such a chagrin and very upsetting, too. People have thought that I have been getting a pension like Japanese people. (Kim quoted in Fedorowicz 2002:102)

Somehow, Kim's boss, thinking Kim was receiving social welfare payments, deducted the same amount from Kim's paycheck. The double burden is a double penalty here. Deaf people because of their so-called "disabled" status earn much less than their hearing counter-parts in Japan. This is bad enough (and so the social welfare payments in theory try to make up for this difference) but what about the plight of the Korean-Japanese Deaf? The Japanese government doesn't seem to understand their plight, or even care about it.

Mr. Kim's fight continues. Why? Merry Christmas indeed...

Deaf X-mas in Japan I: The Good News

Subtitle: A Global Deaf X-mas

I had the pleasure of attending a party for a visiting Deaf couple from Norway in Namba, Osaka on Christmas evening. Another participant was a Deaf man born in Argentina and living in Italy. I was the only American and the only hearing person as well. The Norwegians and Italian attended Gallaudet University and are fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). There was one Deaf Japanese man (who had also attended Gallaudet) who acted as interpreter as most of us had little experience or knowledge of ASL. I studied ASL for a year or so in grad school, but since coming to Japan I have forgot most of it. I was able to introduce myself in ASL, but needed my Japanese friend to interpret my Japanese Sign Language (JSL) into ASL for the Europeans to understand. Are you following me? This was truly a globalization moment in Japan. It seems as though Deaf people from all over the world attend Gallaudet and learn ASL. ASL seems to be becoming the lingua franca for Deaf people in international settings. However I was told by one of the Norwegians that International Sign Language is more widely used in Europe. Anyway, the evening was fun and cross-culturally educational for all. This is how Christmas should be - peace on earth...

Sorry I couldn't come up with better pictures for the event - I only had my cell phone camera with me. And most of my photos ended up looking like this:


What do you expect with Deaf people moving their hands, arms and entire bodies all of the time? Yet another challenge for visual anthropologists...

KGU Japanese Sign Language Group 2007 忘年会

We had another successful semester of JSL study so of course it was more than fitting to celebrate with an end-of-the-year-party. Fall semester 2007 saw a core group of 7 students who attended every week and picked up a lot of sign language in a relatively short time. I am always wavering over which would be better: a large group of students (to "prove" the popularity of sign language to the dean and other school officials to pave the way for a real university level JSL class) or a small group (because smaller groups are better for more effective language learning). I was especially happy with the group this semester. We did serious study but had plenty of fun along the way. We had opportunity to interact with and learn from many Deaf people in the community.

Our party had 10 hearing people and 11 Deaf people. A happy coincidence was that at the same izakaya, another group of 20 or so Deaf people from a local sign language circle. Downtown Hirakata-shi was buzzing with JSL that night.

To all the Deaf people and friends who have helped us during the semester, 本当にありがとうございました！ To the students who are returning to their own countries, please continue to study sign language! To the students who will return next semester and become shuwa senpai, よろしく！ And to all group members a hearty お疲れ様でした! Happy Holidays and best of luck to all in your future.

Thanks to Kana (her camera) and the izakaya master (the photographer) for the photo at the top.

JSL Study Group will start up again in February 2008. For more info send a comment to this post.