CONTEMPORARY JAPAN Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies 3 — Contemporary Japan Challenges for a World CALVETTI, MARIOTTI CALVETTI, Economic Power in Transition edited by Paolo Calvetti, Marcella Mariotti Edizioni Ca’Foscari 3 Contemporary Japan Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies Collana diretta da | A series directed by Paolo Calvetti, Massimo Raveri Bonaventura Ruperti, Guido Samarani 3 Edizioni Ca’Foscari Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies General scientific editors Arts and Literature sub-series: Bonaventura Ruperti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) History and Society sub-series: Guido Samarani (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Linguistics and Language Education sub-series: Paolo Calvetti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Religion and Thought sub-series: Massimo Raveri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Scientific committee Arts and Literature sub-series: Tomoko Aoyama (The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia) Jaqueline Berndt (Kyoto Seika University, Japan) Luisa Bienati (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Caterina Mazza (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Carolina Negri (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Andreas Regelsberger (Universität Trier, Deutschland) Silvia Vesco (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Pierantonio Zanotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) History and Society sub-series: Kimio Ito¯ (Kyoto University, Japan) Toshio Miyake (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Andrea Revelant (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Steffi Richter (Universität Leipzig, Deutschland) Sven Saaler (Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan) Linguistics and Language Education sub-series: Patrick Heinrich (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Hideo Hosokawa (Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan) Kikuo Maekawa (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tokyo, Japan) Marcella Mariotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Barbara Pizziconi (SOAS, University of London, UK) Aldo Tollini (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Religion and Thought sub-series: Andrea De Antoni (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan) Federico Marcon (Princeton University, USA) Tatsuma Padoan (SOAS, University of London, UK) Editorial review board Daniele Beltrame (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Sonia Favi (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Claudia Iazzetta (Università di Napoli «L’Orientale», Italia) Daniela Moro (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Executive coordinator Marcella Mariotti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) Head office Dipartimento di Studi sull’Asia e sull’Africa Mediterranea Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Palazzo Vendramin dei Carmini Dorsoduro 3462 30123 Venezia http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/col/dbc/9/JapStuds Contemporary Japan Challenges for a World Economic Power in Transition edited by Paolo Calvetti, Marcella Mariotti Venezia Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing 2015 Contemporary Japan: Challenges for a World Economic Power in Transition edited by Paolo Calvetti, Marcella Mariotti © 2015 Paolo Calvetti, Marcella Mariotti © 2015 Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing per la presente edizione Qualunque parte di questa pubblicazione può essere riprodotta, memorizzata in un sistema di recupero dati o trasmessa in qualsiasi forma o con qualsiasi mezzo, elettronico o mecca- nico, senza autorizzazione, a condizione che se ne citi la fonte. Any part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission provided that the source is fully credited. Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia Dorsoduro 3246 30123 Venezia http://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/ [email protected] 1a edizione luglio 2015 ISBN 978-88-97735-99-1 (pdf) ISBN 978-88-97735-98-4 (stampa) Progetto grafico di copertina: Studio Girardi, Venezia Certificazione scientifica delle Opere pubblicate da Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing: tutti i saggi pubblicati hanno ottenuto il parere favorevole da parte di valutatori esperti della materia, attraverso un processo di revisione anonima sotto la responsabilità del Comitato scientifico della collana. La valutazione è stata condotta in aderenza ai criteri scientifici ed editoriali di Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. Scientific certification of the works published by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing: all essays published in this volume have received a favourable opinion by subject-matter ex- perts, through an anonymous peer review process under the responsibility of the Scientific Committee of the series. The evaluations were conducted in adherence to the scientific and editorial criteria established by Edizioni Ca’ Foscari. Summary Paolo Calvetti Introduction 7 JAPAN’S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Steffi Richter Kizuna? Reflections on Japan after ‘Fukushima’ 13 Alessio Patalano Sea Power and the Geopolitics of Sino-Japanese Security Relations in the East China Sea 27 Andrea Revelant Regional Integration in East Asia Can Japan Be a Leading Player? 49 CUltUral THeorY, Fine Art and PHilosopHY Iwabuchi Ko¯ichi Re-imagining ‘Japan’ Beyond the Inter-national Governance of Cultural Diversity 77 Miyake Toshio Towards Critical Occidentalism Studies Re-inventing the ‘West’ and ‘Japan’ in Mangaesque Popular Cultures 93 Rossella Menegazzo A New Frontier in Art From Calligraphy to Performance 117 Andreas Regelsberger Those in Darkness Drop from Sight Precarity in the Theatre of Okada Toshiki 131 Matteo Cestari Nihilistic Practices of the Self General Remarks on Nihilism and Subjectivity in Modern Japan 141 LangUage and CommUnication New TecHnologies and HUman Relations in Global CommUnication Japan Barbara Pizziconi Japanese Discourses on Nuclear Power in the Aftermath of the Fukushima Disaster 161 Endo¯ Orie Earthquakes and Language Words and Expressions that Resulted from the To¯hoku Earthquake 189 Paolo Calvetti Keitai sho¯setsu: Mobile Phone Novels Is It True that New Technologies Are Changing the Japanese Language? 203 Aldo Tollini An Ancient Writing System for Modern Japan 219 Marcella Mariotti Japanese Language Learning through Authentic Materials Insights from an Italian University Case Study 231 Patrick Heinrich, Masiko Hidenori Japanese Sociolinguistics A Critical Review and Outlook 249 Index of Names 267 Contemporary Japan Challenges for a World Economic Power in Transition edited by Paolo Calvetti, Marcella Mariotti Introduction Paolo Calvetti (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia) This volume is the third of the series Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies, a col- lection of contributions from scholars engaged in common research or debates with the academic staff of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. In particular, the present book is the result of the collaboration between the faculty of the Department of Asian and North African Studies of Ca’ Foscari University and several researchers from other international institutions on a project examining various aspects of the contemporary Japanese society during a period of crisis along with other dramatic changes in economic, political, and cultural fields. In fact, in recent years, as many other developed countries, Japan has faced the rapid changes characterizing the post-global world, vis-à-vis the economic crisis, as well as the new geopolitical equilibrium amongst the Asian countries after the economic and military rise of China. Moreover, the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster of March 2011 poses a series of questions about energy management, social solidarity, and emergency management along with the problems of confidence in the national safety system that Japan has had to cope with. The volume comprises three sections: Japan’s International Relations; Cultural Theory, Fine Art and Philosophy; Language and Communication. In the first section, Steffi Richter, in her contribution «Kizuna?» Reflec- tion on Japan after ‘Fukushima’, focuses on the energy and nuclear indus- try, revealing that the ‘success story’ of Japan accompanying technical progress was not an ‘independent’ output, but was already a part of global forces since the 1950s. Her study also affirms, that the recent anti-nuclear protests are part of a transnational and transversal acting ‘multitude’, demonstrating that another kind of kizuna (solidarity) does exist. Alessio Patalano’s article Sea Power and the Geopolitics of Sino-Japa- nese Security Relations in the East China Sea deals with the importance of the East China Sea for bilateral interactions between China and Japan. It investigates the strategic role of the East China Sea, how it transformed over time, and how this evolution informed and continues to inform secu- rity policy and bilateral relations in more recent times. Concluding the first section is Andrea Revelant’s paper titled Regional Integration in East Asia: Can Japan Be a Leading Player? Within the frame- 7 Contemporary Japan work of the growing commitment on the part of national governments in East Asia towards regional cooperation for trade, finance and security, the author investigates the institutionalisation of intra-regional relations, with a focus on the role of Japan, in order to assess the country’s past achieve- ments, and possible further contributions. In the second section, a broad variety of topics are presented: Iwabuchi Kōichi’s Re-imagining ‘Japan’: Beyond the Inter-national Governance of Cul- tural Diversity focuses on the re-imagination of Japan as a cultural entity under the emerging governance of an inter-national cultural connection within the process of globalisation in which the national