Anthropology of Japan

English-medium elective

This course explores the major institutions, ideas, and historical and contemporary issues that shape Japanese culture and society today. Using an anthropological perspective, this course focuses on the three major social institutions in Japan of home, school, and work in order to ground students in the primary sociocultural structures of life in Japan, and also to think about how these institutions are changing under new socioeconomic, demographic, and global transformations. In addition, the course will examine ethnographic case studies to show how anthropologists have examined a variety of social and cultural issues such as religion and ritual, ethnicity and immigration, youth and subculture, gender and sexuality, and globalization in Japan.