New Books from Japan
In the “New Books From Japan” series, the presenter will introduce their book in Japanese, and the discussant will provide comments in English. Participants may speak in either Japanese or English during the Q & A and discussion.
“New Books From Japan” シリーズでは、発表者は日本語で発表し、討論者は英語で討論いたします。参加者は日本語‧英語どちらでも自由にお使いください。同時通訳はありません。
2023 Events
Thursday, June 1, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 PM Japan Standard Time
Wednesday, June 1, 2023 | 8:00-9:30 AM PM EST
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New Books from Japan #1
「医学とキリスト教 日本におけるアメリカ・プロテスタントの医療宣教」
Medicine and Christianity: American Protestant Missionaries and their Medical Work in Japan
Presenter: 藤本大士 (Hiro Fujimoto, Kyoto University)
Discussant: Garrett Washington (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
This book is the first comprehensive study of the medical activities of American Protestant missionaries in Japan. Beginning in 1859, they offered medical care and education to Japanese people and established several hospitals, some of which still survive today, such as St. Luke’s International Hospital. However, historians have tended to overlook these activities since they have assumed that the Japanese medical community was strongly influenced by German doctors rather than American doctors. Medicine and Christianity situates these American missionaries in the history of medicine in Japan and considers the full range of their activities, including medical education for women, nursing training, postgraduate training for doctors, public health programs, and charity medicine.
幕末からアジア・太平洋戦争後に至るまで、多くの医師資格をもつプロテスタント宣教師がアメリカより日本に派遣され、医療を通じて人々にキリスト教を広めていった。ドイツの強い影響下にあった明治期以降の日本医学界において、アメリカ人医療宣教師たちはいかにその活動を拡大していったか。日々の診療のみならず、医学・看護教育、慈善事業・公衆衛生事業など多岐にわたる彼らの活動とその変遷を検証する。
Wednesday, July 5, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 AM Japan Standard Time
Tuesday, July 4, 2023 | 8:00-9:30 PM PM EST
New Books from Japan #2
『首都の議会 近代移行期東京の政治秩序と都市改造』
The Governing Assembly of the Capital City
Presenter: 池田真歩 (Maho Ikeda, Hokkai-Gakuen University)
Discussant: Jordan Sand (Georgetown University)
What did the governing assembly mean to the capital city of Tokyo? With the transition from Edo to Tokyo, the status system was dismantled and the structure of the city's leadership class and the nature of its political power were reconstituted, as were the major points of contention attending the governance of the metropolitan region. By examining the negotiations between various interest groups across time, this book elucidates the role of the Tokyo assembly during the period of transition from the early modern period to the modern period.
首都東京にとって議会とは何か。江戸から東京へ移行するにあたって、身分制も解体し議会指導層の構成やその政治指導の特質が再編されていくなかで、議会での争点も多岐に変遷していった。そうした諸集団のあいだの相互交渉を通時的に分析し、近世・近代移行期の首都における議会の相貌を描きだす。
Wednesday, September 13, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 PM Japan Standard Time | 1:00-2:30 PM UK | 8:00-9:30 AM PM EDT
New Books from Japan #3
『〈サラリーマン〉の文化史 あるいは「家族」と「安定」の近現代史』
Desire for Stability: A Cultural History of the Salaryman in Modern Japan
Presenter: 鈴木貴宇 (Suzuki Takane, Toho University)
Discussant: Irena Hayter (University of Leeds)
The figure of the "salaryman" emerged in tandem with the rise of Western-style corporations and civil organizations that accompanied Japan's modernization and industrialization starting from the Meiji Restoration. What factors fueled the spread of this type of white collar office work? When did the term "salaryman", nowadays a stereotyped image of a run-of-the-mill office worker, first become widespread in Japanese society? By what historical processes did the salaryman come to be seen as a symbol of social stability and ordinary family life? How has the salaryman been depicted in Japanese culture across different eras, including literature, movies, comics, and materials produced by labor unions? By examining a wide variety of historical materials, this book elucidates how the image of the salaryman evolved over time and how this group of ordinary office workers came to be lionized and celebrated as the backbone of Japan's "universal middle class" society.
明治維新から西欧にならって殖産興業を急ぎ、新しい組織＝株式会社が次々にできたことで生まれたサラリーマンはどのように「成長」してきたのか。現在では「ありふれた一般人」の総称とされるサラリーマンは、いつ社会に登場したのか。また、サラリーマン層を「安定」の表象とする社会意識の浸透には、どのような歴史的・社会的背景があるのか。各時代の文学作品や漫画、映画、労働組合の文化活動はサラリーマンをどのように描いてきたのか。史・資料を精読し、小市民・インテリと称された「ありふれた一般人」の集合体が一億総中流の象徴として「安定と平凡な家庭生活」を求めた実態を分析する労作。
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 | 9:00-10:30 AM Japan Standard Time
Tuesday, October 31, 2023 | 8:00-9:30 PM ET | 5:00-6:30 AM PM PT
New Books from Japan #4
『原敬 -「平民宰相」の虚像と実像』
Hara Takashi: Pioneer of Japanese Party Politics
Presenter: 清水唯一朗 (Shimizu Yuichiro, Keio University)
Discussant: Paul Dunscomb (University of Alaska-Anchorage)
As the first "commoner" prime minister, Hara Takashi led the first full-fledged political party cabinet. Born in the Morioka domain, which had been defeated in the Boshin War, Hara studied hard and worked as a newspaper reporter before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and rising to the rank of Vice Minister. Thereafter, he joined Ito Hirobumi's Seiyukai party and became a party politician. Amidst the Taisho Political Crisis and the 1918 Rice Riots, he served as a cabinet minister, and then as party leader, implementing reforms that sometimes antagonized and sometimes compromised with the various factions based on pre-Meiji feudal domains. After becoming the first elected politician to become prime minister of Japan, he was assassinated in the midst of attempting to bring about far-sighted reforms. Although Hara has sometimes been described as autocratic and dictatorial, this book examines his original intentions and argues that Hara was a realist politician who was willing to forge difficult compromises with his political opponents in order to achieve his aims.
初の「平民」首相として、本格的政党内閣を率いた原敬。戊辰戦争で敗れた盛岡藩出身の原は苦学を重ね、新聞記者を経て外務省入省、次官まで栄進する。その後、伊藤博文の政友会に参加、政治家の道を歩む。大正政変、米騒動など民意高揚の中、閣僚を経て党の看板として藩閥と時に敵対、時に妥協し改革を主導。首相就任後、未来を見据えた改革途上で凶刃に倒れた。独裁的、権威的と評されるリアリスト原の軌跡とその真意を描く。