“Interrogating Japan’s Soft Power”
Saturday, February 25, 2006
8:30am-5:30pm
The University of Texas at Austin
Dean’s Conference Room, GEB 3.312
Organized by:
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, San Francisco Office
The University of Texas at Austin, Center for East Asian Studies
This interdisciplinary conference will explore the historical and contemporary avenues of Japan’s soft power. Departing from a narrow conception of soft power that focuses on popular culture, leading scholars of Japan and the US from a variety of disciplines have been invited to also explore the roles of aesthetics, narrative, religion, science and national branding in generating soft power for Japan. We will question the relationships among concepts like soft power, globalization and regionalism and will explore the mechanisms and agents of a variety of forms of Japanese soft power. There are four sessions and each session is composed of two panelists. Fifty minutes are allotted for each person, including a brief summary of the main ideas in the paper (10-15 minutes), comments on the paper by the “partner” in that session (5 – 10 minutes) and Q&A (remaining 25-35 minutes).
Program
| Saturday, February 25, 2006 | |
| 8:00 – 8:30 | Coffee & Continental Breakfast |
| 8:00 – 8:45 | Welcoming Remarks by JSPS & UT |
| 8:45 – 10:25 | Session: Japan’s Aesthetic Influence Susan Napier, The University of Texas at Austin Differing Destinations: Orientalism, Soft Power and Cultural Identification in Anime Fandom Christine Guth, Stanford University The Woodblock Print as Cultural Impression |
| 10:25 – 10:40 | Coffee Break |
| 10:40 – 12:20 | Session: Religion and Soft Power Yamada Shoji, International Research Center for Japanese Studies Zen: An Imagined Soft Power William LaFleur, University of Pennsylvania Pulling Bioethics in a More Balanced Direction: International Attention to Japanese Concerns about Informed Consent |
| 12:20 – 1:50 | Lunch Break Boxed lunches served in conference room for Panelists Optional Tour of UT tower |
| 1:50 – 3:30 | Session: The Soft Power of Narrative William Tsutsui, University of Kansas The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan Takayuki Tatsumi, Keio University Cyberpunk Japan, Avant-Pop America |
| 3:30 – 3:45 | Coffee Break |
| 3:45 – 5:25 | Session: Contemporary National Branding Anne Allison, Duke University J Cool in the Global Imagination Iwabuchi Koichi, Waseda University Uses of Media Culture: Beyond Brand Nationalism into Cultural Citizenship |
| 5:25 | Closing Remarks |
| 6:30 – 9:00 | Dinner for Panelists |