| Course Title: Anthropology of Modern Japan |
| Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026 |
| Term: Spring Semester 2026 |
| Description: Certain keywords are crucial for understanding Japanese culture and society, words such as amae (dependence), uchi/soto (inside/outside), tatemae/honne (formality/true feeling), giri (obligation), hare/kegare (purity/pollution), seishin (spirit), and en (connection). This course will introduce seminal works that introduce some of these keywords, as well as more recent writing that examines the contexts such as the family, school, and workplace in which these cultural frameworks shape peoples' lives and are themselves reshaped. Also, we will attend to historical moments such as World War II, the postwar era of high-speed growth, and the long recession and era of low birth rate. |
| Distribution(s): III - Social Sciences , MP - Multicultural Perspectives |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Joshua Roth | 413-538-2954 | jroth@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026 | Lecture | Tuesday and Thursday | 03:15PM - 04:30PM | KNDD - Kendade | 203 | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Course Tags | ||
| EASIA0001 | EASIA: East Asian Studies major | This course has been approved to count towards the East Asian Studies major. |
| ASIAN0001 | ASIAN: Asian Studies minor | This course has been approved to count towards the Asian Studies minor. |
| ANTHR0001 | This course has been approved to count towards the Anthropology Cultural Area requirement |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 20 | Enrollment: 17 | Available: 3 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| Title: Sunny Author: Matsumoto, Taiyo Copyright: 2013 Edition: Volume: ISBN: 1421555255 Publisher: VIZ Media LLC |
Required | 17.74 |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |