INTL 2300 - Introduction to Japan

Credit Hours: 4.00

Objectives:

1. Identify and discuss significant topics of Japanese geography, history, and economics, including how they relate to other areas of the world.
2. Identify and discuss significant topics of Japanese art, history, religion, and society.
3. Describe and discuss aspects of Japanese popular and traditional culture, including the significance of change in a traditional society.
4. Discuss the development of Japanese political phenomena.
5. Discuss customs and habits (both cultural and linguistic) and explain how they reflect Japanese values.

Outcome 2: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to compare and contrast Japanese approaches to economics, education, warfare, and individual and group responsibilities with those of the United States.

Objectives:

1. Identify fundamental social differences between Japanese and American culture.
2. Describe how Japanese culture assimilated and modified various concepts and practices from other cultures.
3. Identify and discuss different artistic expressions in Japan and what is uniquely non-Western about them.
4. Discuss the impact Western society has had on traditional Japanese concepts and contemporary Japanese society.

Outcome 3: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate competency in writing related to Japan.

Objectives:

1. Research topics related to Japan.
2. Compose a paper that evaluates Japanese concepts (social, religious, artistic) in light of a global community.

1. Orientation: Syllabus and course overview
   Thumbnail Sketch of Japan: education, religion, economy, government, industry, etc.
2. Geography of the Land: Japan and the Pacific Rim, how Japan’s geography influenced various cultural expressions
3. Arrival of ethnic groups on the Japanese Islands: Ainu, Japanese
   The early history of Japan: Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun periods
4. Political and Economic beginnings: The Yamato ascendancy and the establishment of the Imperial House
   Rice agriculture and family identity
5. Religion in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism from the Asuka to the Heian periods

Test 1

6. Art and literature from classical to modern Japan: Genji and Heike, Hokusai and Mishima
7. Philosophy and Theology: ‘awe in the face of nature’
8. Feudalism: The rise of the Shogunate and the Warring States period
9. From Isolation to Modernity: The Tokugawa Period
10. Isolation during Tokugawa Japan: Flowering of Japanese culture and the Samurai ideal
11. The Black Ships: Fall of the Tokugawa and forced interaction with the West

Test 2

12. Modernity and Militarization: The Pacific War
13. Reconstruction: Politics and the economics of a modern global Japan
14. Godzilla and the homeless Samurai: Japan’s economic prosperity and the burst of the bubble economy
15. Anime and Zen: :Japan’s popular culture and its impact on the West
16. Review
    Final Exam