
Academic Integrity in Research & Writing
On Air
This course is a review of the various pitfalls associated with taking "Japan" as an object of study. It offers concrete examples of the issues of orientalism, simplistic comparativism, and decontextualized essentialism. It argues that attaching the adjective "Japanese" to things, people, phenomena etc. is a comparative act that needs to be deconstructed if we are to say something meaningful. Several concrete examples are employed to illustrate these discussions and various suggestions are offered on how a study of "Japan" can be done without falling into the same traps.