« Reminder: FCCJ Book Break. June 27. 18:00. Hiromi Ito (伊藤比呂美), author of "The Thorn Puller (とげ抜き 新巣鴨地蔵縁起)" | Main | Myth: Japanese Are Only Good At Incremental Innovation »

July 8, 2024

u:japan lectures - Jennifer M. Miller: "Tradition and Growth: American Conservative Adoption of Nihonjinron in the 1970s and 1980s"

From: u:japan lectures : Department of East Asian Studies : University of Vienna <ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at>
Date: 2024/06/14

Dear SSJ-Forum member,
The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming hybrid u:japan lecture:

Jennifer M. Miller:
"Tradition and Growth: American Conservative Adoption of Nihonjinron in the 1970s and 1980s"

Date and time: Thursday, June 20, 2024, 18:00~19:30 (CEST, UTC +2h)

Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East
Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus
Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=23548#c646040

Online: Join the lecture via Zoom (no registration necessary):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65773623843?pwd=UGbUwfkkr6fwLJuITSPlKLpw3NHVTa.1
Meeting-ID
: 657 7362 3843 | Passcode: 916246

Abstract: In the mid-1970s, many Americans took a new interest in Japan, sparked by its "miraculous" economic growth. This attention was especially prominent among an influential and prominent group of writers and thinkers known as neoconservatives, who worried that the capitalist stagnation of the 1970s was leading the United States into nihilism and cultural chaos. Writers with little prior Japan expertise, such as sociologist Nathan Glazer and futurist Herman Kahn, took it upon themselves to become "interpreters" of Japan, explaining to Americans why Japan had accomplished such economic success. They claimed that Japanese growth was due to Japanese culture, arguing that Japan demonstrated a successful marriage between tradition and modernity. Yet where did they get these ideas? Glazer, Kahn and others were heavily dependent on Japanese thinking. Among other sources, they drew on nihonjinron, a literature that sought to explain the "essence" of Japanese-ness and often heralded Japan's allegedly unique social, cultural, and racial homogeneity as the source of Japan's success. Charting how Americans utilized the translations of nihonjinron writers Nakane Chie and Doi Takeo, this talk by Jennifer M. Miller (Dartmouth College, USA) will trace how Japanese thinking about its own success shaped American understandings of economic growth, capitalist possibility, and globalization at the dawn of the 1980s. In particular, it will examine how these Americans used nihonjinron to build a broader argument about the importance of "culture" and a return to "tradition" as the solution to the United States' economic ills. By tracing this process of intellectual transmission, this talk will show Japan's role in undergirding broader conservative visions of economic growth, which emphasized on cultural values and traditions and sought to legitimize both domestic and global inequality.

For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/

We look forward to your participation!
Christopher Kummer, Florian Purkarthofer, Elisabeth Semmler, Astrid
Unger and Ralf Windhab

PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded
lectures section:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/records/

u:japan lectures
Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of
Vienna
E-mail: ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at

Kindly sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation:
https://www.toshibafoundation.com/

Approved by ssjmod at 05:40 PM