Unpacking Japan's 21 Century “National Conversation”

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Unpacking Japan's 21 Century “National Conversation” Unpacking Japan's 21st Century “National Conversation”: Images of the Future beyond the Iron Cage of the “Catch Up” Model A Thesis Presented to THE QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Creative Industries Faculty For the award of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by David Lindsay Wright (BA, Japanese Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand; MBusComm, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia) September, 2010 KEY WORDS Futures Studies, Japan, Casual Layered Analysis, Futures Triangle Analysis, poststructuralism, image of the future, communication. ABSTRACT How does the image of the future operate upon history, and upon national and individual identities? To what extent are possible futures colonized by the image? What are the un-said futurecratic discourses that underlie the image of the future? Such questions inspired the examination of Japan’s futures images in this thesis. The theoretical point of departure for this examination is Polak’s (1973) seminal research into the theory of the ‘image of the future’ and seven contemporary Japanese texts which offer various alternative images for Japan’s futures, selected as representative of a ‘national conversation’ about the futures of that nation. These seven images of the future are: 1. Report of the Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century—The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium, compiled by a committee headed by Japan’s preeminent Jungian psychologist Kawai Hayao (1928-2007); 2. Slow Is Beautiful—a publication by Tsuji Shinichi, in which he re-images Japan as a culture represented by the metaphor of the sloth, concerned with slow and quality-oriented livingry as a preferred image of the future to Japan’s current post-bubble cult of speed and economic efficiency; 3. MuRatopia is an image of the future in the form of a microcosmic prototype community and on-going project based on the historically significant island of Awaji, and established by Japanese economist and futures thinker Yamaguchi Kaoru; i 4. F.U.C.K, I Love Japan, by author Tanja Yujiro provides this seven text image of the future line-up with a youth oriented sub-culture perspective on that nation’s futures; 5. IMAGINATION / CREATION—a compilation of round table discussions about Japan’s futures seen from the point of view of Japan’s creative vanguard; 6. Visionary People in a Visionless Country: 21 Earth Connecting Human Stories is a collection of twenty one essays compiled by Denmark born Tokyo resident Peter David Pedersen; and, 7. EXODUS to the Land of Hope, authored by Murakami Ryū, one of Japan’s most prolific and influential writers, this novel suggests a future scenario portraying a massive exodus of Japan’s youth, who, literate with state-of-the-art information and communication technologies (ICTs) move en masse to Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido to launch a cyber-revolution from the peripheries. The thesis employs a Futures Triangle Analysis (FTA) as the macro organizing framework and as such examines both pushes of the present and weights from the past before moving to focus on the pulls to the future represented by the seven texts mentioned above. Inayatullah’s (1999) Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) is the analytical framework used in examining the texts. Poststructuralist concepts derived primarily from the work of Michel Foucault are a particular (but not exclusive) reference point for the analytical approach it encompasses. The research questions which reflect the triangulated analytic matrix are: 1. What are the pushes—in terms of current trends—that are affecting Japan’s futures? 2. What are the historical and cultural weights that influence Japan’s futures? ii 3. What are the emerging transformative Japanese images of the future discourses, as embodied in actual texts, and what potential do they offer for transformative change in Japan? Research questions one and two are discussed in Chapter five and research question three is discussed in Chapter six. The first two research questions should be considered preliminary. The weights outlined in Chapter five indicate that the forces working against change in Japan are formidable, structurally deep-rooted, wide-spread, and under-recognized as change-adverse. Findings and analyses of the push dimension reveal strong forces towards a potentially very different type of Japan. However it is the seven contemporary Japanese images of the future, from which there is hope for transformative potential, which form the analytical heart of the thesis. In analyzing these texts the thesis establishes the richness of Japan’s images of the future and, as such, demonstrates the robustness of Japan’s stance vis-à-vis the problem of a perceived map-less and model-less future for Japan. Frontier is a useful image of the future, whose hybrid textuality, consisting of government, business, academia, and creative minority perspectives, demonstrates the earnestness of Japan’s leaders in favour of the creation of innovative futures for that nation. Slow is powerful in its aim to reconceptualize Japan’s philosophies of temporality, and build a new kind of nation founded on the principles of a iii human-oriented and expanded vision of economy based around the core metaphor of slowness culture. However its viability in Japan, with its post-Meiji historical pushes to an increasingly speed-obsessed social construction of reality, could render it impotent. MuRatopia is compelling in its creative hybridity indicative of an advanced IT society, set in a modern day utopian space based upon principles of a high communicative social paradigm, and sustainability. IMAGINATION / CREATION is less the plan than the platform for a new discussion on Japan’s transformation from an econo-centric social framework to a new Creative Age. It accords with emerging discourses from the Creative Industries, which would re-conceive of Japan as a leading maker of meaning, rather than as the so-called guzu, a term referred to in the book meaning ‘laggard’. In total, Love Japan is still the most idiosyncratic of all the images of the future discussed. Its communication style, which appeals to Japan’s youth cohort, establishes it as a potentially formidable change agent in a competitive market of futures images. Visionary People is a compelling image for its revolutionary and subversive stance against Japan’s vision-less political leadership, showing that it is the people, not the futures-making elite or aristocracy who must take the lead and create a new vanguard for the nation. Finally, Murakami’s Exodus cannot be ruled out as a compelling image of the future. Sharing the appeal of Tanja’s Love Japan to an increasingly disenfranchised youth, Exodus portrays a near-term future that is achievable in the here and now, by Japan’s teenagers, using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to subvert leadership, and create utopianist communities based on alternative social principles. iv The principal contribution from this investigation in terms of theory belongs to that of developing the Japanese image of the future. In this respect, the literature reviews represent a significant compilation, specifically about Japanese futures thinking, the Japanese image of the future, and the Japanese utopia. Though not exhaustive, this compilation will hopefully serve as a useful starting point for future research, not only for the Japanese image of the future, but also for all image of the future research. Many of the sources are in Japanese and their English summations are an added reason to respect this achievement. Secondly, the seven images of the future analysed in Chapter six represent the first time that Japanese image of the future texts have been systematically organized and analysed. Their translation from Japanese to English can be claimed as a significant secondary contribution. What is more, they have been analysed according to current futures methodologies that reveal a layeredness, depth, and overall richness existing in Japanese futures images. Revealing this image-richness has been one of the most significant findings of this investigation, suggesting that there is fertile research to be found from this still under-explored field, whose implications go beyond domestic Japanese concerns, and may offer fertile material for futures thinkers and researchers, Japanologists, social planners, and policy makers. v CONTENTS KEY WORDS i ABSTRACT i STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi JAPANESE AND ENGLISH LINGUISTIC PRACTICES FOR THIS INVESTIGATION xiii CHAPTER 1 Introduction & Background 1 Purpose of Investigation 1 Context and Background 2 Japanese Crisis of the Future/Interregnum 2 Bubble, Post-Bubble and Post Post-Bubble Pathologies 3 From the Bubble Relics: An Emerging ‘National Conversation’ 6 Official Solutions 7 Alternative Solutions to Perceived ‘Mapless-ness’ 8 Method in Brief 10 Three Research Questions 11 Significance of Study 12 Thesis Structure in Brief 13 Introducing the Seven Japan-Specific Image of the Future Texts 16 Key Concepts and Terms 18 Limitations 21 Conclusion 23 CHAPTER 2 The Image of the Future 26 Introduction: Early Image of the Future Research 26 Polak: The Image of the Future as Key History-Producing Dynamic 28 Images of the World in the Year 2000: A Comparative Ten Nation Study 31 Dysfunctioning of the Image 32 Alternative Futures 34 Dissent 35 Utopias as Sources for Alternative Images of the Future 36 Creative Thinking and Creative Minorities 40 Communication Discourses as
Recommended publications
  • Georges Bataille's Philosophy of Transgression and the Cinema Of
    Is Mark of the Devil an Example of Transgressive Cinema? Georges Bataille’s Philosophy of Transgression and the Cinema of the 1970s Marcus Stiglegger translated by Laura Melchior Abstract collective moment of fear, and raises the Witchploitation films of the late 1960s – like question of whether or not this could generate a Mark of the Devil (1970) – were often criticised ‘transgressive cinema’. And in particular it asks: for exploiting inquisitorial violence such as are witchploitation films transgressive? torture and rape for the sake of pure sensation. While the exploitative manner of dealing with Keywords: witchploitation, censorship, historically based violence is clearly an issue, at sensation, transgression, taboo, philosophy, the same time the question of what effect these Georges Bataille, exploitation film, violence, depictions of extreme violence might have on torture. the audience should be raised. Every culture has its own defined and accepted limits, which are made by collective agreement. Reaching and transgressing these limits amounts to the transgression of an interdiction, of a taboo. This article discusses the representations in the media of the act of transgression – commonly associated with the work of the French philosopher and novelist Georges Bataille – as a 21 The witchploitation films which followed the useful to delineate a theoretical key to success of Michael Reeves’s Witchfinder understanding this phenomenon. After General (1968) were often criticised for explaining the notion of transgression according exploiting inquisitorial violence such as torture to Georges Bataille, I will contextualise the and rape for the sake of pure sensation. In witchploitation films by analysing several Germany Mark of the Devil (Hexen bis aufs Blut movies relating to this concept and finally gequält, Michael Armstrong, 1970) was banned comment on the transgressive nature of till 2016, and in England this film was a well- Witchfinder General and Mark of the Devil.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the Monthly Film & Event Calendar
    THU SAT WED 1:30 Film 1 10 21 3:10 to Yuma. T2 Events & Programs Film & Event Calendar 1:30 Film 10:20 Family Film FRI Gallery Sessions The Armory Party 2018 Beloved Enemy. T2 Tours for Fours. Irresistible Forces, Daily, 11:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. Wed, Mar 7, 9:00 p.m.–12:30 a.m. Education & Immovable 30 5:30 Film Museum galleries VIP Access at 8:00 p.m. Research Building Objects: The Films Film Janitzio. T2 of Amir Naderi. New Directors/ Join us for conversations and Celebrate the opening of The 10:20 Family 7:00 Film See moma.org/film New Films 2018. activities that offer insightful and Armory Show and Armory Arts A Closer Look for El Mar La Mar. T1 4:30 Film 1:30 Film 6:05 Event for details. See newdirectors.org unusual ways to engage with art. Week with The Armory Party SUN WED Kids. Education & FRI SAT MON Pueblerina. T2 Music by Luciano VW Sunday Sessions: for details. at MoMA—a benefit event with 7:30 Film Research Building 1:30 Film Limited to 25 participants 4 7 16 Berio and Bruno Hair Wars. MoMA PS1 24 26 live music and DJs, featuring María Calendaria. T2 7:30 Film Kings Go Forth. T2 10:20 Family 7:30 Event 2:00 Film Film Maderna. T1 Film Film platinum-selling artist BØRNS. Flor silvestre. T1 6:30 Film Art Lab: Nature Tours for Fours. Quiet Mornings. Victims of Sin. T2 Irresistible Forces, 4:30 Film Irresistible Forces, Irresistible Forces, 6:30 Film Music by Pink Floyd, Daily.
    [Show full text]
  • MEDIATING SCANDAL in CONTEMPORARY JAPAN Igor
    French Journal For Media Research – n° 7/2017 – ISSN 2264-4733 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MEDIATING SCANDAL IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN Igor Prusa PhD The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies1 [email protected] Abstract Cet article aborde des traits essentiels des affaires médiatiques dans le Japon contemporain. Il s'agit d'une étude interdisciplinaire qui enrichit non seulement le discours des sciences de médias et du journalisme, mais aussi la pholologie japonaise. L’inspiration théorique s'appuie sur la conception néo-fonctionnaliste du scandale en tant que performance sociale située à la limite du « rituel » (la conduite expressive à la motivation socioculturelle) et de la « stratégie » (une action stratégique délibéreée). La première partie de cette étude est consacrée aux caractéristiques du journalisme politique et du contexte médiatico-politique du Japon d’après-guerre. La seconde partie analyse le procès du scandale médiatique lui-même et quelques techniques ritualisées des organisations médiatiques japonaises. Mots-clés Médias japonais, pratiques de journalisme, affaire médiatique, rituel médiatique, procès de la scandalisation Abstract This paper investigates the main features of media scandal in contemporary Japan. This is important because it can add a fresh interdisciplinary direction in the fields of media studies, journalism, and Japanese philology. Furthermore, the sources from the mainstream media, semi-mainstream tabloids and foreign press were examined vie the lens of contemporary neofunctionalist theory, where scandal is approached as a social performance between ritual (motivated expressive behavior) and strategy (conscious strategic action). Moreover, this research illuminates the logic behind the scandal mediation process in Japan, including the performances of both the journalists and the non-media actors, who become decisive for the development of every media scandal.
    [Show full text]
  • 14 JPN 4930 Japanese Business Culture Section 08CE Spring 2017 COURSE DESCRIPTION
    14 JPN 4930 Japanese Business Culture Section 08CE Spring 2017 COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is designed for undergraduate students who wish to acquire a broader understanding of prevailing values, attitudes, behavior patterns, and communication styles in modern Japan in regard to conducting business in the future. A key to being successful in business internationally is to understand the role of culture in international business. In this class we will explore cross-cultural issues and cultural values by reading essays from the perspective of Japan itself as well as from an external view, primarily that of Western society. Mutual assumptions, unconscious strategies, and different mechanics forming barriers to communication between Japanese and non-Japanese will be investigated in order to understand how cultural and communication differences can create misunderstanding and breakdown among individuals as well as during negotiations between companies and countries. Among other topics, business etiquette, business communication, the structure and hierarchy of Japanese companies, gender issues, socializing for success in business, and strategies for creating and maintaining effective working relationships with Japanese counterparts will be discussed. We will read several case studies on Japanese/American negotiations to understand how American managers or public officials negotiated successfully with Japanese counterparts, and what issues or problems were presented during negotiation. During the semester, students are required to submit (1) current relevant newspaper, magazine, or on-line article taken from news sources such as Japanese newspapers (English version), CNBC, Nikkei Net, JETRO, Reuters, BBC, THE ECONOMIST or TIME magazine, etc. to be pre-approved and posted by the instructor on the E-Learning in Canvas Discussion Board.
    [Show full text]
  • Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message Comparing Japanese Kyara with Their Anthropomorphic Forebears
    Debra J. Occhi Miyazaki International College Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message Comparing Japanese Kyara with their Anthropomorphic Forebears This article compares contemporary Japanese entities known as kyara (“char- acters”) with historical anthropomorphized imagery considered to be spiritual or religious. Yuru kyara (“loose” or “wobbly” characters) are a subcategory of kyara that represent places, events, or commodities, and occupy a relatively marginalized position within the larger body of kyara material culture. They are ubiquitous in contemporary Japan, and are sometimes enacted by humans in costume, as shown in a case study of a public event analyzed within. They are closely tied to localities and may be compared to historical deities and demons, situated as they are within the context of popular representations of the numinous created to inspire belief and spur action. However, the impera- tives communicated by yuru kyara are not typically religious per se, but civic and commercial. Religious charms and souvenirs also increasingly incorporate the kyara aesthetic. keywords: Japan—characters—cuteness—marketing—religion Asian Ethnology Volume 71, Number 1 • 2012, 109–132 © Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture his article explores possible connections between cute anthropomorphized Tcartoon characters (kyara) of domestic Japanese origin and use, and a long- standing tradition of anthropomorphized objects and animals used in spiritual or religious contexts. It broadly examines what similarities and discontinuities may be observed in comparing contemporary and historical anthropomorphized char- acters, their narratives, and their uses. This approach is not entirely original: the character Ultraman, for example, has elsewhere been likened to a Shinto savior of humanity (Gill 1998, 38).
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know
    1 Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know Edited by Parissa Haghirian Sophia University Tokyo, Japan 2 Contents About this Book ......................................................................................... 4 The Editor ................................................................................................ 5 Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know ................................................. 6 Contributors of This Book ............................................................................ 94 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 96 Further Reading on Japanese Management .................................................... 102 3 About this Book This book is the result of one of my “Management in Japan” classes held at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University in Tokyo. Students wrote this dictionary entries, I edited and updated them. The document is now available as a free e-book at my homepage www.haghirian.com. We hope that this book improves understanding of Japanese management and serves as inspiration for anyone interested in the subject. Questions and comments can be sent to [email protected]. Please inform the editor if you plan to quote parts of the book. Japanese Business Concepts You Should Know Edited by Parissa Haghirian First edition, Tokyo, October 2019 4 The Editor Parissa Haghirian is Professor of International Management at Sophia University in Tokyo. She lives and works in Japan since 2004
    [Show full text]
  • YOU KILLED ME FIRST the Cinema of Transgression Press Release
    YOU KILLED ME FIRST The Cinema of Transgression Press Release February 19 – April 9, 2012 Opening: Saturday, February 18, 2012, 5–10 pm Press Preview: Friday, February 17, 2012, 11 am Karen Finley, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Richard Kern, Lung Leg, Lydia Lunch, Kembra Pfahler, Casandra Stark, Tommy Turner, David Wojnarowicz, Nick Zedd “Basically, in one sentence, give us the definition of the ‚Cinema of Transgression’.” Nick Zedd: “Fuck you.” In the 1980s a group of filmmakers emerged from the Lower East Side, New York, whose shared aims Nick Zedd later postulated in the Cinema of Transgression manifesto: „We propose … that any film which doesn’t shock isn’t worth looking at. … We propose to go beyond all limits set or prescribed by taste, morality or any other traditional value system shackling the minds of men. … There will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined.“ While the Reagan government mainly focused on counteracting the decline of traditional family values, the filmmakers went on a collision course with the conventions of American society by dealing with life in the Lower East Side defined by criminality, brutality, drugs, AIDS, sex, and excess. Nightmarish scenarios of violence, dramatic states of mind, and perverse sexual abysses – sometimes shot with stolen camera equipment, the low budget films, which were consciously aimed at shock, provocation, and confrontation, bear witness to an extraordinary radicality. The films stridently analyze a reality of social hardship met with sociopolitical indifference. Although all the filmmakers of the Cinema of Transgression shared a belief in a radical form of moral and aesthetic transgression the films themselves emerged from an individual inner necessity; thus following a very personal visual sense and demonstratively subjective readings of various living realities.
    [Show full text]
  • Index to Volume 26 January to December 2016 Compiled by Patricia Coward
    THE INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINE Index to Volume 26 January to December 2016 Compiled by Patricia Coward How to use this Index The first number after a title refers to the issue month, and the second and subsequent numbers are the page references. Eg: 8:9, 32 (August, page 9 and page 32). THIS IS A SUPPLEMENT TO SIGHT & SOUND Index 2016_4.indd 1 14/12/2016 17:41 SUBJECT INDEX SUBJECT INDEX After the Storm (2016) 7:25 (magazine) 9:102 7:43; 10:47; 11:41 Orlando 6:112 effect on technological Film review titles are also Agace, Mel 1:15 American Film Institute (AFI) 3:53 Apologies 2:54 Ran 4:7; 6:94-5; 9:111 changes 8:38-43 included and are indicated by age and cinema American Friend, The 8:12 Appropriate Behaviour 1:55 Jacques Rivette 3:38, 39; 4:5, failure to cater for and represent (r) after the reference; growth in older viewers and American Gangster 11:31, 32 Aquarius (2016) 6:7; 7:18, Céline and Julie Go Boating diversity of in 2015 1:55 (b) after reference indicates their preferences 1:16 American Gigolo 4:104 20, 23; 10:13 1:103; 4:8, 56, 57; 5:52, missing older viewers, growth of and A a book review Agostini, Philippe 11:49 American Graffiti 7:53; 11:39 Arabian Nights triptych (2015) films of 1970s 3:94-5, Paris their preferences 1:16 Aguilar, Claire 2:16; 7:7 American Honey 6:7; 7:5, 18; 1:46, 49, 53, 54, 57; 3:5: nous appartient 4:56-7 viewing films in isolation, A Aguirre, Wrath of God 3:9 10:13, 23; 11:66(r) 5:70(r), 71(r); 6:58(r) Eric Rohmer 3:38, 39, 40, pleasure of 4:12; 6:111 Aaaaaaaah! 1:49, 53, 111 Agutter, Jenny 3:7 background
    [Show full text]
  • Myths & Legends of Japan
    Myths & Legends Of Japan By F. Hadland Davis Myths & Legends of Japan CHAPTER I: THE PERIOD OF THE GODS In the Beginning We are told that in the very beginning "Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo not yet divided." This reminds us of other cosmogony stories. The In and Yo, corresponding to the Chinese Yang and Yin, were the male and female principles. It was more convenient for the old Japanese writers to imagine the coming into being of creation in terms not very remote from their own manner of birth. In Polynesian mythology we find pretty much the same conception, where Rangi and Papa represented Heaven and Earth, and further parallels may be found in Egyptian and other cosmogony stories. In nearly all we find the male and female principles taking a prominent, and after all very rational, place. We are told in theNihongi that these male and female principles "formed a chaotic mass like an egg which was of obscurely defined limits and contained germs." Eventually this egg was quickened into life, and the purer and clearer part was drawn out and formed Heaven, while the heavier element settled down and became Earth, which was "compared to the floating of a fish sporting on the surface of the water." A mysterious form resembling a reed-shoot suddenly appeared between Heaven and Earth, and as suddenly became transformed into a God called Kuni-toko- tachi, ("Land-eternal-stand-of-august-thing"). We may pass over the other divine births until we come to the important deities known as Izanagi and Izanami ("Male-who-invites" and "Female-who-invites").
    [Show full text]
  • Marlon Riggs
    Speaking the Self: Cinema of Transgression Flaming Creatures “At once primitive and sophisticated, hilarious and poignant, spontaneous and studied, frenzied and languid, crude and delicate, avant and nostalgic, gritty and fanciful, fresh and faded, innocent and jaded, high and low, raw and cooked, underground and camp, black and white and white on white, composed and decomposed, richly perverse and gloriously impoverished, Flaming Creatures was something new. Had Jack Smith produced nothing other than this amazing artifice, he would still rank among the great visionaries of American film.” [J. Hoberman] Jack Smith: Flaming Creatures, 1963 • Writer, performance artist, actor. Classic “downtown” underground personality. • Smith endorsed a realm of “secret flix” ranging from B-grade horror movies to Maureen O'Hara Spanish Galleon films, from Busby Berkeley musicals to Dorothy Lamour sarong movies. Singled out Universal Pictures' “Queen of Technicolor,” Maria Montez, star of exotic adventure films such as Arabian Nights (1942), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), and Cobra Woman (1944). • Loose tableau set to scratchy needle-drop music: “polymorphous perverse.” • Banned in New York state, 1964. Vigorous defense by Susan Sontag and others. Outsiders • David Lynch: “John Waters opened up an important space for all of us.” Pink Flamingos • Why has this work come to be celebrated? Midnight Movie shock value or esthetic/cultural importance? • What role does this film play in the lives of its actors? • Film as an esthetic experience vs. film as a liberatory social rallying cry. Compare to punk music. • How does this film address its audience? How might “specific, historical audiences” read this differently? Outsiders “The term camp—normally used as an adjective, even though earliest recorded uses employed it mainly as a verb—refers to the deliberate and sophisticated use of kitsch, mawkish or corny themes and styles in art, clothing or conversation.
    [Show full text]
  • American Independent Cinema 1St Edition Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    AMERICAN INDEPENDENT CINEMA 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Geoff King | 9780253218261 | | | | | American Independent Cinema 1st edition PDF Book About this product. Hollywood was producing these three different classes of feature films by means of three different types of producers. The Suburbs. Skip to main content. Further information: Sundance Institute. In , the same year that United Artists, bought out by MGM, ceased to exist as a venue for independent filmmakers, Sterling Van Wagenen left the film festival to help found the Sundance Institute with Robert Redford. While the kinds of films produced by Poverty Row studios only grew in popularity, they would eventually become increasingly available both from major production companies and from independent producers who no longer needed to rely on a studio's ability to package and release their work. Yannis Tzioumakis. Seeing Lynch as a fellow studio convert, George Lucas , a fan of Eraserhead and now the darling of the studios, offered Lynch the opportunity to direct his next Star Wars sequel, Return of the Jedi Rick marked it as to-read Jan 05, This change would further widen the divide between commercial and non-commercial films. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Until his so-called "retirement" as a director in he continued to produce films even after this date he would produce up to seven movies a year, matching and often exceeding the five-per-year schedule that the executives at United Artists had once thought impossible. Very few of these filmmakers ever independently financed or independently released a film of their own, or ever worked on an independently financed production during the height of the generation's influence.
    [Show full text]
  • The State and Racialization: the Case of Koreans in Japan
    The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies CCIS University of California, San Diego The State and Racialization: The Case of Koreans in Japan By Kazuko Suzuki Visiting Fellow, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies Working Paper 69 February 2003 The State and Racialization: The Case of Koreans in Japan Kazuko Suzuki1 Center for Comparative Immigration Studies ********** Abstract. It is frequently acknowledged that the notion of ‘race’ is a socio-political construct that requires constant refurbishment. However, the process and consequences of racialization are less carefully explored. By examining the ideology about nationhood and colonial policies of the Japanese state in relation to Koreans, I will attempt to demonstrate why and how the Japanese state racialized its population. By so doing, I will argue that the state is deeply involved in racialization by fabricating and authorizing ‘differences’ and ‘similarities’ between the dominant and minority groups. Introduction The last decade has seen a growing interest in the state within the field of sociology and political science. While the main contributors of the study have been scholars in comparative and historical sociology and researchers in the economics of development, student of race and ethnicity have gradually paid attention to the role of the state in forming racial/ethnic communities, ethnic identity, and ethnic mobilization (Barkey and Parikh 1991; Marx 1998). State policies clearly constitute one of the major determinants of immigrant adaptation and shifting identity patterns (Hein 1993; Olzak 1983; Nagel 1986). However, the study of the state’s role in race and ethnic studies is still underdeveloped, and many important questions remain to be answered.
    [Show full text]