For Summer Program participants: please post your thoughts about possible research topics as replies to this post. For your reference, here are some of the thoughts I presented at class regarding possible bioethics projects:
*come up with topic for course project and post on course
blog
*think about how you will do the research topic
(bioethics topics: war crimes, abortion, medical
practices, brain death, GMOs, suicide, aging, Fukushima)
**war crimes can include:
--medical
“experimentation”
--chemical/biological
weapons
--mass
bombings of civilian populations?
(perhaps not bioethics, but certainly ethics)
--sexual
enslavement? (ditto)
Other topics that were mentioned include:
*business
*anime culture
*hollidays/cultural practices/art/views of foreigners (need to find one topic)
*diet/food culture or environment
*Shinto
Try to see if you can make some progress towards identifying a particular, feasible project, and put it in a reply to this post.
The deadline for posting is 9 am Friday, which will give Dr. Sorensen and me an opportunity to discuss the topics. Needless to say, you are encouraged to contact Dr. Sorensen or me to discuss your thoughts.
After you have set your topic, your research will be posted on your individual blog.
After you have set your topic, your research will be posted on your individual blog.
I'm thinking about researching the perception and practice of vegetarianism in Japan. Some possible areas of exploration within this topic could be the history of vegetarianism, the reasons for its practice, and whether specific groups of people subscribe to vegetarianism more or less than others.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds good. In the past, while in Sendai, the group has gone to a Zen temple to do some zazen and then to eat a vegetarian meal like the kind the monks eat. Then there's also the tofu restaurant in Tokyo, etc. You can also try to locate a vegetarian restaurant in Kyoto, since you'll have some free time there, and perhaps you can also talk with your home stay families about their thoughts about vegetarianism. There should be good info on the web, and there have also been books about Japanese food culture recently, so you may be able to find something there as well.
DeleteI am working with Dr. Sorensen on his paper.
ReplyDeleteI would love to study anime culture in Japan. A few specific aspects I could investigate include the reception of anime in general by Japanese society, the history of anime and anime culture and how the two have evolved and changed over time, and how Japan has reacted to how anime and anime culture have been received in the West.
ReplyDelete-Jeffrey Lubin
Jeffrey, this is indeed a good topic. The one thing I'd like you to think about is how you can bring an experiential element to your topic. At the very least, it should involve visiting anime-related stores, cafes, etc., and asking your homestay families and perhaps TGU students about anime.
Deletei would like to research Japanese business culture. Specifically i would like to learn more about the induction ceremony and the difficulties of Americans have getting into a Japanese company.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting topic, but I'm not sure how you would do the "experiential" part of the project. It would be impossible to visit a company, and certainly to see the ceremony. You may try to talk with TGU students, but I'm not sure how much time you'll have for this, and whether their English will be at the necessary level. You can talk with some of the business/economics faculty at TGU, I guess, but I'm not sure that's enough. Perhaps you can try to contact Grace Buchele through Facebook. I think she's living in the Osaka area, and she has had some experience with a company in Japan.
DeleteAs of yet, I'm not completely sure of what topic I want to work with. I was thinking about looking at the medical experimentation done on human test subjects during World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War, and perhaps how the testing affected Chinese-Japanese relations.
ReplyDeleteAlternately, I am also interested in perhaps understanding something more about how the Japanese view foreigners, or even ethnic minorities within Japan. I'm not sure where I would go with this topic, or how to focus it without being too narrow, though.
Ally, I gather from your post that you are one of the students potentially interested in working with Sorensen-sensei? If so, then your group will be thinking about the experiential aspect of your project.
DeleteIf you're interested in the other topic, there are perhaps some things you can do, perhaps by exploring minority communities, for example, such as areas with ethnic Chinese or Korean populations, as well as expatriate communities (Iranians, North Americans/Western Europeans, South Asians). Could also do research using texts and the web.
I have a few ideas of what I would like to research. One of the things I am greatly interested in is Shinto religion and spirituality and its impact on Japanese society as a whole. I am also interested in Japanese traditional art, or possibly the transformation of Japanese art over time.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can narrow down your topic soon. Shinto might be an interesting topic, as you can visit numerous Shinto shrines during your time in Japan after studying the religion before you go. You can observe how Japanese visit shrines. And perhaps you can find a festival while you are in Japan, if your timing is fortuitous.
DeleteThank you for your feedback Sensei. I find Shinto to be the most interesting topic at the moment as well, so I will choose that to be my topic.
DeleteI'll be working with Dr. Sorensen on his paper as well. More specifically I'll be looking into the history and events surrounding Unit 731, more specifically on the morality of the human experimentation, moral repair after a moral transgression and the general topic of suicide.
ReplyDeleteGood. I think that there will be some interesting ways of bringing an experiential element to the work that your group does. Not sure where suicide would fit in, but Sorensen-sensei and I have been talking about activities/visits related to bioethics in the larger sense as well as the specific topic of war crimes and moral repair.
DeleteI plan on working with Dr. Sorensen on his research about Unit 731. I want to focus specifically on the moral repair that may be required by either the United States or Japan in order to right the wrongs of the people who were involved in the harms that were committed. This would include evaluating the moral permissibilty of granting the researchers political amnesty in exchange for the data that we received from them on Unit 731.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Richie. I'm really exciting about the project that students will be doing with Sorensen-sensei.
DeleteMy research will be looking into the popularity of gaming consoles and mobile gaming. I want to explore some of the best gaming technology ever created in Japan and see how it came to be. i.e. Sony, Sega, Nintendo. Will possibly look into the active gaming world where a more stimulating virtual gaming environment is possible compared to the usual conventional button-based controllers (If I can find some sources).
ReplyDeleteThere are many myths surrounding the technology of Japan. I plan to learn about some of those myths and either confirm or disprove those myths and ideas. Looking into the Keitai culture (Japanese mobile phone culture) is important especially for those who plan on using phones in Japan because there are many different types of phones that can be used with many different features. Cellphone etiquette is also important for those who are going to Japan because everywhere we go I’m pretty sure that we’ll see people with phones and we will be able to make specific comparisons between the American cell phone culture and the Keitai culture of Japan.
ReplyDeleteI plan to research geisha culture in Japan, including both the stigma surrounding geisha as a result of their work in the past, and what they do today. I also plan to look into the requirements for being a geisha (the training they go through), and the various activities geisha perform.
ReplyDelete