Teaching Japanese Pop Culture in Japan in Diverse Contexts

• In Event: Pedagogies of “The Popular” in Asian Studies

Abstract

This paper discusses how the contexts and contents of two liberal arts courses taught in Japan incorporating Japanese popular culture topics and materials affect their teaching, and how these courses have been revised over time. One is a fifteen-week course taught to a mostly Japanese student body prior to their term of study abroad; they are EFL learners in a small college in southern Kyushu. These students, the majority natives of the prefecture, must develop a sense of Japan and its popular culture in global contexts in order to effectively communicate about these issues when they reach their study abroad location, which may be in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, or the USA. The other is taught in central Tokyo over three weeks to a group of study abroad students from various countries whose experiences and understanding of Japan also vary widely. Both groups are taught in English. However, differences of course format and design as well as the students’ backgrounds and positionalities regarding Japan, Japanese, and English necessitate that even the same popular culture materials must be delivered in different ways. In both cases, the pedagogy is designed to investigate and challenge student assumptions about Japan and to reflect changes in the field over more than a dozen years’ teaching. Local students often need coaching to feel comfortable expressing their positionalities vis-à-vis the dominant ideologies; visiting students bring their own notions of Japan that also must be balanced with statistical and social realities.

Author

• Debra Occhi, Miyazaki International College