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While, Japanese marketing strategies in world markets have attracted much attention in international business circles, they have received only secondary attention from researchers. Indeed, most studies into the competitive behaviour of Japanese firms have not identified marketing as a particularly significant factor in accounting for their overall success. By default, therefore, researchers have failed to provide information and insight into an area which is recognised as crucial to efficient performance. The aim of this study was to gain an insight into the role marketing plays in affecting the competitive position of Japanese firms in the British market. In particular, the research focused on the overall approach of Japanese companies to the marketplace, the process by which they identify and bring products to the market and their view towards the 1992 single European market. Care has been taken in describing and explaining the competitive behaviour of Japan's companies in order t o achieve a fair analysis of the contribution of marketing to their overall strategy. In doing so, it is hoped that a more analytic and less subjective outcome will be of value and interest to the Western business community. Based upon the literature review which documented the positive role of marketing in competitive success, analysed the factors that contributed to Japan's success in world markets and highlighted the specific role played by Japanese marketing strategies in achieving such results, a set of hypotheses were developed and tested. The field research was carried out during October/November 1989 following a series of five personal interviews with managing directors and senior marketing staff in August 1989 to pilot test the questionnaire. Questionnaires were despatched addressed in person to the managing directors of Japanese companies operating in Britain. The subsequent analysis is based upon a total sample of 57 companies operating in the U. K. -a substantial proportion of the total (63%). The broad findings emerging from this research present few surprises. Japanese companies do not seem to suffer from a 'sales orientation', 'production orientation' or 'finance orientation' as opposed to a marketing orientation. The in-roads being made into the British market are based by and large on a strategy aimed at satisfying customer needs and wants. Japanese companies saw their strengths in placing emphasis on research and engineering and bringing the right product to the market quickly and decisively. As far as 1992 is concerned, Japanese companies indicate that they will be fighting aggressively to hold onto their market share. They also anticipate increased competition coupled with a necessity to know and serve the market better.

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This thesis looks at the communal identity within particular Hidden Christian groups in the Nagasaki prefecture, specifically in Ikitsuki and the Goto Islands. Identity within these particular groups can seem multivalent to the ‘outsider’, especially when religious rituals and practices are examined, where Christian, Buddhist, and Shinto elements can be found, and an altogether new religious identity formed. This amalgamation of multiple religious identities is not uncommon within the context of Japan, but the fact that they have incorporated Christianity, typically thought of as an exclusivist religion, has made Hidden Christians stand out. For them, however, their religious identity is simply an extension of ancestral filial piety through the preservation of their religious practices. In the case of Hidden Christians in Japan, the function of identity has been of key importance, not only for its role in establishing who they were, but also in maintaining their communal integrity under centuries of ‘hidden’ existence from the early 17th century to today. Identity, it seems, has been the unifying factor keeping the Hidden Christian communities of Goto and Ikitsuki together, and its recent deterioration, or transformation, has led to some of these groups deciding to disband. It is important, therefore, to look into possible reasons behind this apparent development within the communal identity of these particular groups of Hidden Christians. To do this, however, this thesis will go beyond the issues of religious identity, and also look at the ways modernity and an increasing globalisation have influenced the communal identity of these remote groups, affecting the education, economy, and communal framework that have kept these groups together for centuries. For those who have disbanded or are deciding to disband, this study examines the ways in which these groups are dealing with the filial piety associated with keeping both the traditions and rituals of the Hidden Christians alive, and how it affects their communal identity as a whole.

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This study analyses overlaps in naturally occurring multi-party conversations among Japanese long-term residents of Australia, to investigate how Australian culture influences their Japanese communication style. One of the study???s interests is how their gendered communication styles appear in Australian English culture. Japanese gendered communication styles have been discussed in the literature, for example that males interrupt females more than vice versa; active participation by males versus passive participation by females in mixed-gender conversations; self-oriented topic initiation by males versus other-oriented topic initiation by females etc. These styles were assumed to be rarely observed in their L1 communication styles in Australia, where English, in which gendered language is less distinctive than Japanese, is spoken, and gender-free society has been more emphasised and practiced than in Japan. Among conversations recorded by the two informants, three multi-party conversations per informant (i.e. six in total) were selected, in which over 2000 overlaps are observed. The study first established a framework of functional overlap classification in terms of the ownership of the conversational floor. Then, based on this frame, all overlaps were classified into a number of functional categories, and were analysed qualitatively as well as quantitatively. The results showed little differences in the Japanese communication styles of the long-term residents of Australia from the Japanese communication styles which have been discussed in the literature, such as frequent use of aizuchi and other cooperative overlaps at and other than at Transition Relevance Places. As for gendered communication style, at least socio-cultural norms between traditional Japanese husband and wife are observed in the informants??? communication style. Although a number of variables that surround the informants need to be considered, the results may suggest that Japanese socio-cultural norms are, at this stage, more stable and they maintain the communication style of the Japanese long-term residents of foreign culture in their first language communication more strongly than was expected. However, different trends may be observed in future.

Abstract Japanese anime being an important part of modern and contemporary popular visual culture, its aesthetic merits, its roots in Japanese visual arts as well as its rich symbology derived from Japanese folkloristic, literary and religious themes are worth investigating. This research aims to track the visual links between Edo and Meiji period monster art (y??kai-ga) paintings and modern day anime by concentrating on the works of Edo and Meiji period painters and the post-war period animation and manga series Gegegeno Kitaro, created by Mizuki Shigeru. Some of the Japanese origins of anime and manga imagery can be traced back to the early 12th century Ch??j?? Giga animal scrolls, where comic art and narrative pictures first appear. However, more recent sources are found in woodblock prints of the late Edo period. These prints are the forerunners of manga in that dialogues appear with the image, generally no anatomical details are given nor are they in perspective, but often a mood is expressed in a cartoon-like manner. The visual rendering of y??kai (monsters) is a Japanese cultural phenomenon: y??kai paintings originate in the Muromachi period, and take up part of the visual arts of that era. The distinct monster (y??kai) imagery emerging in the late Edo to early Meiji periods is the focus of this research. Investigating the Gegegeno Kitaro series, the study pinpoints the visual roots of the animation characters in the context of y??kai folklore and Edo and Meiji period monster painting traditions. Being a very popular series consisting of numerous episodes broadcast from the 1960s to the present time, by analyzing the changing images related to the representation of monsters in the series the study documents the changes in the perception of monsters in this time period, while it reflects on the importance of Mizuki??s work in keeping visual traditions alive and educating new audiences about folklore by recasting y??kai imagery in modern day settings in an innovative way. Additionally, by analyzing and comparing character, set, costume and mask design, plot and storyline of y??kai-themed films, the study attempts to shed light on the roles the representations of y??kai have been assigned in post-war Japanese cinema.

Amongst the multiple and diverse meanings and functions passive constructions hold, this study considers that the primary function of passives in Japanese is to portray an event from the point of view of an affected entity. The thesis identifies three types of affectedness in Japanese passive constructions: emotive affectedness, direct / physical affectedness, and objective affectedness. Emotive affectedness, often referred to as �adversative� meaning, has drawn attention from many researchers. It has been strongly associated in the past with the syntactic category called the �indirect passive�, but is actually also observed in many instances of the �direct passive�. Direct / physical affectedness is detected mainly in the construction here referred to as the �direct sentient passive�. This meaning is common in passives in many other languages, including English. The last type � objective affectedness � is primarily associated with �non-sentient passives�, more specifically with what is here called the �plain passive�. Many previous researchers have claimed a complete and apparently transparent correlation between syntactic and semantic distinctions of the Japanese passive. The present study rejects these direct correlations. In analysing authentic data, it becomes evident that the correlation is much more subtle than has generally been recognised, and that is a matter of degree or continuum, rather than a discrete, black and white issue. To reflect this view, this study proposes separate sets of categories for syntactic and semantic distinctions. The ultimate aim of this study is to reveal how Japanese passives are actually used in real contexts. In order to achieve this aim, detailed examination of authentic written and spoken data is conducted. Some findings of the data analysis in the present study contradict previous claims, such as the finding of a large proportion of passives with a non-sentient subject and very low frequency of occurrence of indirect passives. This research also finds that, although more than half of the propositional meanings in the passive data examined are �negative�, a considerable number of passives still appear in a proposition with a neutral or positive meaning. Another prominent finding regarding propositional meaning is that it seems to be related to the degree of centrality of the passive subject to the event. With regard to the syntactic classification of passive, in particular, it is observed that the lower the degree of the centrality of the subject of the passive to the event, the greater the likelihood that the passive clause involves a negative proposition.