JAPN 311: Social Issues In JapanCourse descriptionAs the drive to rebuild modern Japan after WWII slowed, latent and new social problems have become visible. This course offers interdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as care of the elderly and homeless, equal treatment of minorities, gender and labor issues, domestic and world ecological concerns, and relevant institutions that promote or attack prejudice towards heterogeneous social groups. Taught in English. (Prereq: GE Areas A1 and A2 and A3 and B4 with a C- or better)
Credit to CSUMB Catalogue.
COURSE NARRATIVE:
This course was taken my third semester here at CSUMB during Fall 2019, as part of the requirements seen in MLO: 4 that required us to undertake a course on a secondary language. I chose this course as it was one of the most interesting ones, considering some of my favorite learning materials is on social sciences. This course then, studying the social issues in Japan fit right into my interests. It was the first time I had the opportunity to look further into the topics that I had previously learned about in world history classes, but this time with a much deeper perspective into the perspective of experience and challenges faced by Japanese people. This course was fascinating with its vast types of materials that we utilized. We had a system of presenting our readings every week, whether they were book chapters or news articles on various topics on Japanese society. We also were able to view a number of films, some even in Japanese (of course, however, with English subtitles) about the other sides of the Japanese society that was personally shocking. It brought to the forefront the idea of the ignorance I held for the island nation. I had a very prejudice perspective on their society. Since the nation is often known for their status with cleanliness and as an advanced society with concerns to technology. I then failed to consider that there are always negative sides to everything, even Japan.
The final task of this course was to create a presentation and a research paper on any topic that related to the readings and topics we had handled in this course. I personally found interesting the events in Fukushima in 2011, with the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. As such, I opted to do some research into this subject. Included here is the presentation I presented as part of an effort to receive feedback and advice from my peers before completing my research paper.
Credit to CSUMB Catalogue.
COURSE NARRATIVE:
This course was taken my third semester here at CSUMB during Fall 2019, as part of the requirements seen in MLO: 4 that required us to undertake a course on a secondary language. I chose this course as it was one of the most interesting ones, considering some of my favorite learning materials is on social sciences. This course then, studying the social issues in Japan fit right into my interests. It was the first time I had the opportunity to look further into the topics that I had previously learned about in world history classes, but this time with a much deeper perspective into the perspective of experience and challenges faced by Japanese people. This course was fascinating with its vast types of materials that we utilized. We had a system of presenting our readings every week, whether they were book chapters or news articles on various topics on Japanese society. We also were able to view a number of films, some even in Japanese (of course, however, with English subtitles) about the other sides of the Japanese society that was personally shocking. It brought to the forefront the idea of the ignorance I held for the island nation. I had a very prejudice perspective on their society. Since the nation is often known for their status with cleanliness and as an advanced society with concerns to technology. I then failed to consider that there are always negative sides to everything, even Japan.
The final task of this course was to create a presentation and a research paper on any topic that related to the readings and topics we had handled in this course. I personally found interesting the events in Fukushima in 2011, with the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. As such, I opted to do some research into this subject. Included here is the presentation I presented as part of an effort to receive feedback and advice from my peers before completing my research paper.
japanese_presentation.pdf |