This paper analyzes the effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) electricity load using alternative event study methodology. The data set includes TEPCO’s published hourly loads from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2011. Four time series regressions are used to analyze the disaster’s effect on TEPCO’s load curve at an hourly and aggregate level. By examining the hourly impacts of the disaster, this paper provides commentary on the effects of the disaster on the daily load curve, finding transition periods to be the time of day that is most targeted for decreases in electricity consumption. The models control for temperature, population, time of day, week, month, and year, holidays, and trends. The results indicate a significant, negative relationship between the disaster and TEPCO’s electricity load. In addition to examining the effects of the disaster on the daily load curve, four event windows are analyzed, ranging from a week after the March 11, 2011 disaster to the end of the data set (December 31, 2011). These event windows are used to capture the short, medium, and long-term effects of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster on electricity load. These event window results combined with an analysis of the annual and disaster trend variables allow for commentary on the timeline for which TEPCO’s loads will reach pre-disaster levels. Additionally, the results provide insight into both the economic and political implications of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster both in Japan and worldwide.

This doctoral thesis presents a historical study of the diplomatic exchanges between the Japanese and the Korean embassy in the eighteenth century. Neighbourly relationships (J: kōrin, K: kyorin) were maintained between Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) and Chosŏn Korea (1392-1910) for more than 250 years. The visitations of the Korean embassy, dispatched to congratulate a new Tokugawa shogun, were often seen as the symbol of their amicable and friendly relationship, and it is well known that the Koreans were cordially welcomed by the Tokugawa bakufu. Despite these neighbourly relations, the visitations of the embassy had a more pragmatic purpose. More complex political conditions and nature were immanent within and between the both states. In the diplomatic interaction, the officials in the two states had traditional and obstinately-held perceptions towards the counterpart hidden behind the pleasant gesture. In this thesis, I attempt to uncover what is associated with these neighbourly relations, by revealing the cultural awareness and consciousness of these two states in East Asia through detailed examinations of the historical sources. To find the notions behind the exchange, my thesis illustrates Japanese and Korean hua-yi awareness that came to light through the interactions between the Japanese and the Koreans. The Chinese hua-yi order, the concept of looking at the Chinese dynasties as the center, was said to dominate the East Asian order. From the Chinese point of view, Tokugawa Japan and Chosŏn Korea were barbaric and on the margins, but from the perspectives of the two countries, they certainly recognized themselves as the centers. On the basis of the dynamism of historical events, thoughts, and notions between Tokugawa Japan and Chosŏn Korea in the eighteenth century, this research will examine multi-layered perspectives of the individual Japanese and Koreans who played essential roles in diplomacy. How were those officials representing the two states aware of their peers, and how did these notions affect the modern history of the two countries? This question is consistently engaged in this thesis, and to answer it the research will be further explored.

At roughly the same historical conjuncture when it began to be articulated as a concept marking a return of the repressed within the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank, the doppelganger motif became the subject of a veritable explosion of literary attention in 1920s Japan. Several authors – including Akutagawa Ryûnosuke, Edogawa Rampo, Tanizaki Jun’ichirô, and others – repeatedly deployed the doppelganger motif in their fictions against the backdrop of rapid urbanization, imperial expansion, and the restructuring of all aspects of everyday life by a burgeoning commodity culture. Interestingly, as if enacting the very compulsion to repeat embodied by the doppelganger on a historical register as well, a repetition of this proliferation of doppelganger images is apparent in the contemporary conjuncture, in the works of authors like Abe Kôbô, Murakami Haruki, or Shimada Masahiko, as well as in the films of Tsukamoto Shinya or Kurosawa Kiyoshi. To date, much of the previous scholarship on the figure of the doppelganger tends to be preoccupied with the attempt to locate its origins, whether in mythic or psychical terms. In contrast to this concern with fixing the figure to an imagined essence, in my dissertation, I instead place emphasis on the doppelganger’s enactment of repetition itself through an examination at the figure through the prism of the problem of genre, in terms of how it has come to be discursively constituted as a genre itself, as well as its embodiment of the very logic of genre in its play on the positions of identity and difference. By historicizing its formation as a genre, it becomes possible to productively situate not only the proliferation of images of the doppelganger in 1920s Japan but also its repetitions, resignifications, and critical articulations in the present within the the shifting constellation of relations among various discourses and practices that organize colonial and global modernity – language and visuality, the space of empire and the construction of ethno-racial identities, libidinal and material economies – that structure (yet are nevertheless exceeded by) its constitution as a concept.

In this thesis, I examine the relationship between folk tales and Japanese animation, or anime. In spite of the popular association between animation and adolescence, animated television series and films have a dynamic and compelling relationship with various age groups and nationalities. Additionally, anime and animation draw liberally from a number of folk tale traditions. Consequently, in this essay, anime is understood as a global phenomenon that draws on international cultural elements and is consumed in several international markets. Before entering an analysis of the use of folk tales in anime, a history of animation and the place of anime within a Japanese and global matrix is provided. This history not only looks at the development of anime, its connection to Western cinema and animation studios, but also its connection to other Japanese artistic genres, such as manga. Once this foundation is established, it is possible to connect anime with folk tale scholarship in chapter two. This chapter explores this connection in three ways, namely similar content, structure and function. Chapter three builds on the analysis in the preceding chapter and examines the ways anime, as a visual, televised, episodic series, builds on and alters the folk tale tradition. This is primarily explored through the use of visual storytelling techniques and the proliferation of advanced technology. Additionally, this chapter addresses a major point made against the use of folk tales in mass media, specifically the loss of variation. The final chapter concludes and summarizes the ideas, and analysis throughout the thesis. It is in this final chapter that suggestions for further research can be found. This thesis looks not only at the use of folk tales and folk tale characteristics in new media, such as anime, but how these new media contribute to and help to pass on folk tale traditions. Ultimately, this paper suggests anime is an example of a contemporary form of tale telling, which draws on traditional elements as well as catering to a contemporary audience.

This thesis examined the prejudiced attitudes toward homosexuals among university students in Japan, and the relationships of these attitudes with the students' demographic information, contact experiences with homosexuals, attitudes toward men's and women's roles, and living experience in foreign countries. In addition, this thesis compared Japanese and American university students' prejudice toward homosexuals. Survey data were collected from 166 university students in Japan, which is then compared to data on 956 university students in the United States (Baunach and Burgess 2002). The regression results demonstrated that Japanese respondents who had contact with homosexuals and who had relatively egalitarian gender role attitudes were less prejudiced than those who had no contact and who had relatively traditional gender role attitudes. American students expressed more prejudiced attitudes toward homosexuals than Japanese students. Even after controlling for gender, parents' education, gender role attitudes, and contact experiences, American students were more prejudiced than Japanese students.

No description available.

No description available.

Jag var utbytesstudent i Tokyo, Japan under våren 2007. Där intresserade jag mig för de olika kläduttryck som ungdomarna använde sig av i stadsdelen Harajuku. När jag kom hem till Stockholm igen såg jag tydligt hur de Harajukuinspirerade stilarna hade växt fram här. Uppsatsen tar avstamp i Harajukus mode. Syftet är att undersöka hur det har förflyttats och utvecklats i Stockholm, vad har förändrats, förstärkts eller suddats ut och varför? Vad förändras i överföringen? Jag ställer följande frågor:   Hur ser det Harajukuinspirerade modet ut bland unga i Stockholm? Hur ser det ut i jämförelse med de unga i Harajuku? På vilket sätt har modet förändrats och varför? Vad kan jag som bildpedagog erbjuda ungdomar för att de ska få utveckla sina intressen inom subkulturen? Hur kan jag skapa en miljö med verkstäder och utställningar som passar denna målgrupp? I mitt designpedagogiska projekt skapar jag en japansk subkulturfestival med verkstäder och fotoutställning på Lava på Kulturhuset den 24-25 november. Den syftar till att undersöka den skaparkraft som finns hos de grupper som är intresserade av modet i Harajuku och japansk kultur, samt att visa upp stilarna och skapa förståelse för nyinvigda i ämnet. I min roll som lärare vill jag ha stor inblick i de frågor som rör ungdomskultur och särskilt i den här subkulturen, för att kunna skapa en så inspirerande arbetsmiljö för eleverna som möjligt. De resultat jag har kommit fram till har skapats på många plan. Hur modet ser ut i Stockholm besvaras genom, deltagande observation, semiotiska bildanalyser, enkätundersökningar. Skillnaden i modet besvaras i jämförande bildanalyser. Det designpedagogiska projektet beskrivs i en pedagogisk dokumentation. Det Harajukuinspirerade modet är utbrett i Stockholmsområdet och befinner sig i en utvecklingsfas. De vanligaste stilarna är decora och lolitastil. Modet i Harajuku är mer extremt än det Harajukuinspirerade modet i Stockholm. Men i Stockholm utgör kläderna mer en livsstil som bärs varje dag, inte bara på söndagar som ofta är fallet i Harajuku. Jag känner mig nöjd över den mångfacetterade undersökning jag har gjort och att den berör både Harajuku och Stockholm, samt den japanska subkulturfestivalen som blev väldigt lyckad.

Syfte: Denna studie granskar informationen som getts till allmänheten av tre dagstidningar under tsunamikatastrofen i Japan under dess första vecka. Under kristider har medier en viktig roll som informatörer till allmänheten, därför är det viktigt att granska hur denna uppgift utförs. Vi har fem frågeställningar som tillsammans täcker olika delar av mediebevakningen: Vilket har huvudfokus varit i katastrofbelysningen? Vilka källor har använts? Vilka aktörer har fått komma till tals? Hur frekvent förekommer värdeladdade ord? Har medierna valt att göra en koppling till den svenska kärnkraftsdiskussionen? Undersökningen: Uppsatsen bygger på en nyhetsbevakning av den första och mest kritiska veckan av katastrofen, från den 12:e mars till och med den 19:e. Vi har gjort ett urval av tre tidningar, exklusive bilagor. Tidningarna är Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet och Aftonbladet. Materialet har bestått av 15 ledare, 18 krönikor, 94 artiklar och 20 reportage. Totalt bygger undersökningen på 147 texter som har undersökts kvantitativt med hjälp av ett kod- schema. Resultat: Undersökningen har visat att huvudfokus legat på kärnkraftskrisen i Fukushima, samtidigt som många texter gick ut på att personifiera och skapa identifikation för läsaren. Källkritiken framstod under perioden som bristande, då över hälften av det totala materialet aldrig redovisade sina källor. Vad gäller aktörer i texterna var det elitkällor och experter som till mestadels fick komma till tals, men även civila fick utrymme i rapporteringen. Värdeladdade ord förekom i nästintill samtliga texter. Tillslut visade undersökningen att 18 procent utav den totala mängden texter drog paralleller till kärnkraftverksdiskussionen i Sverige.

This essay is a study of whether Japan is secularized on an individual level or not. It is written with the aim of examining if secularization on an individual level has taken place in Japan, and if so, is it possible to make a comparison to Europe and the USA. Key words: Japan, Secularization / Denna uppsats är en litteraturstudie om huruvida Japan är sekulariserat på individnivå eller inte. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om en sekularisering på individnivå har ägt rum i Japan, och om man i så fall kan dra paralleller till Europa och USA.