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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL PERCEPTION ON POLITICAL AWARENESS: A CASE STUDY IN OKINAWA, JAPAN AYAKO NAKACHI (Bachelor of laws, M.A in Sociology, Keio University) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2004 Acknowledgement Never did I dream that I could finish writing this thesis in such a short time. It was entirely due to many people’s support. I am much indebted to Dr. Yusaku Horiuchi for his valuable supervision. It is the happiest thing I experienced in National University in Singapore that I could study under Dr. Yusaku. I also owe Daiki Shibuichi very much for reading the draft many many times, making a number of helpful suggestions and spending much time discussing with me. I also thank very much to Dr. Yasuhiro Tanaka and Dr. Osamu Tada in Ryukyu University for valuable comments on my field research. Thanks are due to Tay Thiam Chai for reading the original text, Ann Rosylinn and Chua Hwee Teng and Vincent for careful proofreading. Also I wish to express my gratitude to all my housemates, Cecilia Hon Pui Kwan, Ruan Yi, Ptitchaya Chaiwutikornwanich, Hu Chuanxin and Liu Lin. Their support at home really encouraged me a lot. During my field research in Okinawa, I owed enormously to my relatives and friends who have helped with my survey. Also I wish to thank Okinawa International Exchange and Human Resources Development Foundation for their generous financial assistance. Above all, I am also really grateful to my parents, Hiroshi and Midori Nakachi, and Kentaro Fukui. Thank you for supporting me, encouraging me and believing in me all the time. Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................7 THEORY AND CONCEPT: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................8 HYPOTHESES .................................................................................................13 METHODS AND FINDINGS ..........................................................................14 ORGANIZATION..............................................................................................17 2. BIRTH OF THE IMAGES OF OKINAWA.....................................................................18 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................18 IMAGES AND DISCOURSES OF OKINAWA: THE OKINAWA BOOM.....18 CREATED IMAGES OF OKINAWA ...............................................................20 G8 OKINAWA SUMMIT 2000 ......................................................................22 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................27 3. RECEPTION OF IMAGES OF OKINAWA....................................................................29 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................29 UNIVARIATE ANALYSIS................................................................................29 BIVARIATE ANALYSIS: DEPTH OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF IMAGES ...31 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................35 4. CONSEQUENCES OF THE G8 OKINAWA SUMMIT 2000..........................................37 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................37 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION BEFORE AND AFTER THE G8 OKINAWA SUMMIT 2000....................................................................................................................37 DATA AND VARIABLES..................................................................................41 REGRESSION RESULTS................................................................................44 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................45 5. INFLUENCE OF CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS ON POLITICAL AWARENESS..........47 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................47 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: PERCEPTION OF CULTURAL IMAGES ...47 AWARENESS OF POLITICAL ISSUES .........................................................54 REGRESSION RESULTS................................................................................57 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................58 6. CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................59 IMPLICATIONS ...............................................................................................59 LIMITATIONS..................................................................................................61 2 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................63 APPENDIX A: OUTLINE OF OKINAWA......................................................69 APPENDIX B: SURVEY DATA ANALYSIS..................................................71 APPENDIX C: THE ORIGINAL QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................74 APPENDIX D: SUPPLEMENTAL ANALYSIS TO CHAPTER 5.................79 APPENDIX E: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC...................................................82 3 List of Tables Table 1: Cross-Tabulation of Image of Okinawa and Gender Table 2: Cross-Tabulation of Image of Okinawa and Place of Residence Table 3: Unemployment in Okinawa and the Japanese National Average Table 4: Regression of Cultural Perceptions and Political Awareness of the Okinawa Summit Table 5: Regression of Cultural Perceptions and Political Awareness Table 6: Regression of Cultural Perceptions of Stereotyped Images and Political Awareness Table 7: Descriptive statistics 4 Summary Okinawa, the southernmost island of Japan, has had many political problems. In particular, the U.S. military bases concentrated on the island have caused frictions among the Okinawans, the U.S. military and Japan’s central government. Known as an exotic paradise these days, Okinawa attracts many tourists. Recently its unique culture is highlighted by the Japanese media. Fashionable Okinawan culture gave rise to an ‘Okinawa boom’, and Okinawans seem generally happy about their rising popularity. This thesis questions whether the image of Okinawa being “an exotic paradise” is created. It also examines whether such an image obscures Okinawan people’s political sensitivity. In the past, researchers, such as Tada, Tanaka and Morris-Suzuki, regarding culture as artificial and constructed, hypothesized that the culture influences political awareness. However, that hypothesis has not been empirically verified as yet. This thesis aims to clarify the hypothesis using statistical method. The first part of my research examines whether the images of Okinawa as an “exotic paradise” are indeed based on Japanese mainlander’s perception of Okinawa and are intentionally created and produced by the Japanese media and the central government. To test this hypothesis, a case study on G8 Okinawa Summit 2000 is carried out. Available pieces of information from newspapers and other published material are used to examine whether the government or media had intentionally promoted the cultural images of Okinawa. As a second part of this investigation, the causality between Okinawans’ cultural perception and political awareness is examined. A survey was conducted to test the causal relationship between this perception of Okinawa’s created image and the people’s awareness on politics. Based on the survey data conducted in Okinawa, this hypothesis is tested using four types of analysis. First, what kinds of images are most frequently accepted 5 by Okinawans are tested. Using bivariate analysis, the analysis shows that cultural images of an exotic paradise are widely accepted by Okinawans. Following this, consequences resulting from Okinawans’ acceptance of these cultural images are examined. Highlighting G8 Okinawa Summit 2000 as a case, I tested whether those who accept cultural images of Okinawa were more likely to think that the summit brought political and economic benefit to Okinawa. The result of regression in this analysis can thus infer that highlighting cultural images of Okinawa through the Summit had an effect on obscuring Okinawans’ awareness of political and economical plight in their prefecture. Lastly, the generalizability of the above inference was tested. This is achieved through a test on whether those who adhere to cultural images of Okinawa produced in the mainland are less aware of political issue. These findings and interpretations lead us to broadly conclude that culture affects politics. Put it in the context of Okinawa-mainland relationship, Okinawans should be more aware of the consequence of the “Okinawa boom”. When mainlanders highlighted Okinawa’s exotic culture, Okinawa’s gloomy political issues fell into the shadow. Okinawans may unconsciously lose their interests in improving the huge political and economical disparity existing between Okinawa and the mainland Japan. Total number of words: 21,000 6 1. Introduction Okinawa, the southernmost prefecture in Japan, has its own unique history. 1 The Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa) used to be an independent Ryukyu kingdom. In 1879, the Japanese government annexed the Ryukyu kingdom and transformed

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