Monday Online Presentation Session 3 Japanese Studies

Session Chair: Zhouyan Wu

15:00-15:25

68539 | Developing Students’ Intercultural Competence in the EFL Classroom Through Reading EnglishLanguage Haiku

Anna Shershnova, Kyoto University of Advanced Science, Japan

It has become a generally accepted standard that learning a foreign language should involve developing linguistic and intercultural competence. Intercultural competence refers to a person’s ability to communicate appropriately and effectively across different cultures. This readerresponse study has shown that using English-language haiku can be essential for raising Japanese students’ cross-cultural awareness in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. English-language haiku is a short poetic form that employs relatively simple language, which encourages students to be more actively engaged in discussing it and allows for incorporating this genre as an English language teaching (ELT) medium in higher education. Based on qualitative and quantitative data of the study, Japanese students have shown a willingness to explore English-language haiku further and discover cultural differences and similarities through reading it, thereby improving their intercultural competence in the EFL classroom.

15:25-15:50

68563 | A Not So Exotic Ideal: Wenceslau de Moraes’s Discourse on Religion in Japan

Antonio Eduardo Hawthorne Barrento, University of Lisbon, Portugal

The Portuguese diplomat and writer Wenceslau de Moraes first went to Japan as a tourist in 1889, subsequently lived in the country from 1897, married a Japanese girl and, after her death in 1912, retired to her native town until passing away in 1929. Deeply touched by Japan, he wrote about the place in several books and other published writings. He engaged with the topic of religion in Japan occasionally, albeit only briefly. Although it was not his focus, it was a matter that impressed him from the beginning. An illustration of this can be found in his earliest book, Sketches of the Far East — Siam, China and Japan (1895). His interest in religion deepened with time, and, by the 1920s, he viewed it as a matter of central importance in understanding Japan and its people, an idea which he articulated in Glimpses of the Japanese Soul (1926).

Notwithstanding the different ways in which Moraes approached the issue of religion in Japan, his trail of thought was, on the one hand, driven by a thread of admiration for Japan which he deemed ideal and superior to other places and, on the other, based on a Western discourse with Christian trappings. Through an analysis of published and archival documents, including his correspondence and diplomatic documents, this paper examines this apparently tense or incongruous combination, and places it in the context of Western views about religion in Japan and of the contacts between Christianity and the phenomenon of religion in Japan.

15:50-16:15

67955 | Masculinities in Doraemon: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Zhouyan Wu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

Zhaoxun Song, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

The study makes a critical discourse analysis of the masculinities of male characters in Doraemon, which is a famous Japanese manga series. It aims to explore the masculinities in Doraemon from three perspectives: text, process, and society. The content analysis of the male characters in terms of their appearances, characteristics, behaviours and values reveals the major masculine traits such as the maintenance of patriarchy, the pursuit and yearning for fame and fortune, competition, and aggression. The process analysis identifies corresponding masculinities of the creators of Doraemon through their life experiences. The social analysis of the Doraemon attributes the masculinities in the manga to the Japanese culture, which has been deeply influenced by Confucianism, androcentrism, and Bushido. This study sheds light on the masculine traits rooted in Japanese culture and invites audiences to reflect on the the male characters in the Japanese artworks.

16:15-16:40

69898 | Constructing Self-conscious in Media: A Textual Study of Media Coverage of Kaoru Mitoma

Chi Hang Cho, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Traditional theories of Japanese-ness suggest that Japanese people value group relationships and tend to find self-worth in groups or relationships with others and may even become overly aware of what and how others think of them (excessive self-consciousness, or Jiishikikajō). There has been a great deal of research on this topic through sociological, anthropological, and psychological perspectives. Research often focuses on groups and relationships such as families, communities, schools, and workplaces. However, when the ‘self-other relationship’ is elevated to a relationship between ‘other countries and Japanese’, how could this private state of “excessive self-consciousness” be discovered and even be reinforced in Japanese society? Using a textual study on headlines, texts, and readers’ reception of Japanese mainstream and web media coverage of Kaoru Mitoma, a Japanese soccer rising star in Premier League, this paper argues that the Japanese media’s extensive coverage of Mitoma reflects that Japanese people attach to foreign opinions, especially praises. In a highly competitive and market-driven web news environment, the content of media coverage and the set-up of headline title often follow the interests and values of the public. This paper will therefore also point out that such media coverage, at the same time, reinforces the stereotype that Japanese people are overly self-conscious.