Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Japan

Cultural Heritage and Tourism in Japan
Author: Takamitsu Jimura
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2021-08-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429671636

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of cultural heritage in Japan and its relationship with both domestic and international tourism. Japan has witnessed an increase in tourism, with rising visitor numbers to both established destinations and lesser known sites. This has generated greater attention towards various aspects of Japanese culture, heritage and society. This book explores these diverse aspects of everyday life in Japan and their interconnections with tourism. It begins with a conceptual framework of key theories related to heritage and tourism, serving as a useful apparatus for further discussions in the following chapters. Each chapter studies a specific aspect of Japan’s cultural heritage, from the history of Japan, the development of war sites, such as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to tourist destinations, indigenous communities and their places of residence, festivals such as matsuri, to popular culture and media. Each chapter discusses a certain type of cultural heritage first in a global context and then examines it in a Japanese context, aiming to demonstrate the relation between these two different contexts. In each chapter, furthermore, how a particular kind of Japan’s cultural heritage is utilised as tourism resources and how it is perceived and consumed by international and domestic tourists are discussed. Finally, the book revisits the conceptual framework to suggest future directions for cultural heritage and tourism in Japan. Written in an informative and accessible style, this book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners in the fields of tourism, cultural studies and heritage studies.

Okinawan Diaspora

Okinawan Diaspora
Author: Ronald Y. Nakasone
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2002-02-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780824825300

The first Okinawan immigrants arrived in Honolulu in January 1900 to work as contract laborers on Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Over time Okinawans would continue migrating east to the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba, Paraguay, New Caledonia, and the islands of Micronesia. The essays in this volume commemorate these diasporic experiences within the geopolitical context of East Asia. Using primary sources and oral history, individual contributors examine how Okinawan identity was constructed in the various countries to which Okinawans migrated, and how their experiences were shaped by the Japanese nation-building project and by globalization. Essays explore the return to Okinawan sovereignty, or what Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo called an "impossible possibility," and the role of the Okinawan labor diaspora in Japan's imperial expansion into the Philippines and Micronesia. Contributors: Arakaki Makoto, Robert K. Arakaki, Hokama Shuzen, Edith M. Kaneshiro, Ronald Y. Nakasone, Nomura Koya, Shirota Chika, Tomiyama Ichiro, Wesley Ueunten.

Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages

Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages
Author: Patrick Heinrich
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2015-02-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1614511152

The UNESCO atlas on endangered languages recognizes the Ryukyuan languages as constituting languages in their own right. This represents a dramatic shift in the ontology of Japan’s linguistic make-up. Ryukyuan linguistics needs to be established as an independent field of study with its own research agenda and objects. This handbook delineates that the UNESCO classification is now well established and adequate. Linguists working on the Ryukyuan languages are well advised to refute the ontological status of the Ryukyuan languages as dialects. The Ryukyuan languages constitute a branch of the Japonic language family, which consists of five unroofed Abstand (language by distance) languages.The Handbook of Ryukyuan Languages provides for the most appropriate and up-to-date answers pertaining to Ryukyuan language structures and use, and the ways in which these languages relate to Ryukyuan society and history. It comprises 33 chapters, written by the leading experts of Ryukyuan languages. Each chapter delineates the boundaries and the research history of the field it addresses, comprises the most important and representative information.

Routledge Handbook of Asian Transnationalism

Routledge Handbook of Asian Transnationalism
Author: Ajaya Kumar Sahoo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 583
Release: 2022-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000635368

This handbook presents cutting-edge research on Asian transnationalism written by experts in the areas of migration, diaspora, ethnicity, gender, language, education, politics, media, art, popular culture and literature from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives. The Asian region not only constitutes one of the largest diasporic populations in the world but also the most diversified diasporas in terms of their historical trajectories of emigration, geographical spread, economic and political strength, socio-cultural integration in the host country and transnational engagement with the homeland. Divided thematically into six broad sections, the chapters in this handbook critically discuss and debate some of the pertinent issues of Asian transnationalism: Contextualizing Asian Transnationalism Transnationalism and Socio-Cultural Identities Transnationalism, Education and Infrastructure Transnationalism, Gender and Development Transnationalism and Dynamics of Diasporic Politics Transnationalism, Art and Media The Routledge Handbook of Asian Transnationalism will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers and students interested in the study of international migration, Asian diaspora and transnationalism. Chapter 29 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Self-determinable Development of Small Islands

Self-determinable Development of Small Islands
Author: Masahide Ishihara
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811001324

This book aims to clarify the present situation of the relations between small island countries and territories on the one hand and the great powers, mainland areas, and mega-islands on the other, and explores how small island countries and territories preserve and build their identity under globalization. This book is divided into five parts. The first part presents papers on issues that are related to Okinawa: the American military presence, the formation of a global human network, and the history of and language revitalization in Okinawa. The second part includes papers on security in East Asia and the Pacific Region: the history of and present issues in international relations within the South and East China Sea areas. The third part presents papers on economic issues and social developments on small islands. The fourth part deals with ocean policies and marine resource management in the Pacific Region by the United States, Australia, and Japan. Finally, the fifth part presents papers on the revitalization of three indigenous languages. All the chapters of the book are based on the achievements of the research project “Towards New Island Studies: The Ryukyus as an academic node between East Asia and Oceania” conducted by the International Institute for Okinawan Studies at the University of the Ryukyus. This 5-year project was funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and aimed to contribute academically to the creation of sustainable and self-determinable societies in small island regions. This work will be extremely useful and informative for readers in small island countries and territories and for researchers who are interested in small island issues to understand the current situation and who wish to consider effectual and feasible solutions.

Searching for Home Abroad

Searching for Home Abroad
Author: Jeffrey Lesser
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2003-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0822385139

During the first half of the twentieth century, Japanese immigrants entered Brazil by the tens of thousands. In more recent decades that flow has been reversed: more than 200,000 Japanese-Brazilians and their families have relocated to Japan. Examining these significant but rarely studied transnational movements and the experiences of Japanese-Brazilians, the essays in Searching for Home Abroad rethink complex issues of ethnicity and national identity. The contributors—who represent a number of nationalities and disciplines themselves—analyze how the original Japanese immigrants, their descendants in Brazil, and the Japanese-Brazilians in Japan sought to fit into the culture of each country while confronting both prejudice and discrimination. The concepts of home and diaspora are engaged and debated throughout the volume. Drawing on numerous sources—oral histories, interviews, private papers, films, myths, and music—the contributors highlight the role ethnic minorities have played in constructing Brazilian and Japanese national identities. The essayists consider the economic and emotional motivations for migration as well as a range of fascinating cultural outgrowths such as Japanese secret societies in Brazil. They explore intriguing paradoxes, including the feeling among many Japanese-Brazilians who have migrated to Japan that they are more "Brazilian" there than they were in Brazil. Searching for Home Abroad will be of great interest to scholars of immigration and ethnicity in the Americas and Asia. Contributors. Shuhei Hosokawa, Angelo Ishi, Jeffrey Lesser, Daniel T. Linger, Koichi Mori, Joshua Hotaka Roth, Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda, Keiko Yamanaka, Karen Tei Yamashita

New Worlds, New Lives

New Worlds, New Lives
Author: Lane Ryo Hirabayashi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2002
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780804744621

This book confronts the question of who and what is a Nikkei, that is, a person of Japanese descent, by presenting 18 case studies from throughout the Americas—including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States.

Transcultural Japan

Transcultural Japan
Author: David Blake Willis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2007-11-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134204027

Transcultural Japan provides a critical examination of being Other in Japan. Portraying the multiple intersections of race, ethnicity, class, and gender, the book suggests ways in which the transcultural borderlands of Japan reflect globalization in this island nation. The authors show the diversity of Japan from the inside, revealing an extraordinarily complex new society in sharp contrast to the persistent stereotypical images held of a regimented, homogeneous Japan. Unsettling as it may be, there are powerful arguments here for looking at the meanings of globalization in Japan through these diverse communities and individuals. These are not harmonious, utopian communities by any means, as they are formed in contexts, both global and local, of unequal power relations. Yet it is also clear that the multiple processes associated with globalization lead to larger hybridizations, a global mélange of socio-cultural, political, and economic forces and the emergence of what could be called trans-local Creolized cultures. Transcultural Japan reports regional, national, and cosmopolitan movements. Characterized by global flows, hybridity, and networks, this book documents Japan’s new lived experiences and rapid metamorphosis. Accessible and engaging, this broad-based volume is an attractive and useful resource for students of Japanese culture and society, as well as being a timely and revealing contribution to research scholars and for those interested in race, ethnicity, cultural identities and transformations.

Sustainability Management in Heritage and Tourism

Sustainability Management in Heritage and Tourism
Author: Takamitsu Jimura
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2023-11-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3031402693

Increasingly, the tourism industry is looking towards sustainability, responding to public demand and local environmental policy. This monograph explores the concept of sustainability in the context of heritage and tourism studies, as well as examining the practices adopted to realize or enhance the sustainability of these industries. Beginning with a broad overview, outlining the theory and scholarly landscape, this book then focuses on cases of sustainable tourism in Japan, exploring the concept of ‘mottainai’. Mottainai is a traditional Japanese term and means an ethical attitude towards the use of a range of resources needed for human life. This Japanese word can be understood as ‘what a waste’, and can promote the environmentally-friendly way of life, encouraging reduce, reuse and recycle. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of heritage, tourism, and sustainability management; both those interested in Japan specifically, and those who are interested in new approaches for sustainability in tourism management.