Morris Low

Science, Technology and Society in Contemporary Japan

Part I. The Japanese Model of R & D: 1. Basic versus applied research: the role of corporate laboratories and universities 2. Cooperation versus competition: Mitis R & D projects and Japans science cities Part II. Science and Technology for Economic Growth: 3. Quality versus quantity: the automobile industry 4. Technology versus commercial feasibility: nuclear power and electric utilities 5. Consumerism and development versus the environment Part III. The International Dimension: 6 Domestic development versus importation of technology: the aerospace industry and the FS-X fighter plane controversy 7 Domestic technology versus the export of technology Part IV. Science and Technology for the People? 8. Information society versus controlled society 9. Women versus men in the science and technology workforce 10. National interest versus local interests: the construction of Narita airport 11. The patient versus the doctor: changes in medical care and attitudes to the body.

The research function of universities in Japan

Japan has long led the trend towards privatization of Research andDevelopment (R&D). With the recent establishment of corporate R&Dfacilities overseas, this has become more international in character. Therelative impoverishment of Japanese academic science has only recently begunto be addressed by the government. Despite the neglect, there appears to bea gradual increase in Japanese academic research, but international researchcollaborations are still quite limited in number. There are growing tieswith industry, but industry has been slow to recognize the value of graduateschool training. Stronger links may promote greater research activity, butwithout reforms to the structure of the education system and Ministry ofEducation policies, Japan will not be prepared to meet the challenge of the21st century, and the need for a highly-skilled, innovative workforce.

Eco-Cities in Japan: Past and Future

This paper outlines the emergence of eco-cities in Japan from a much needed historical perspective. Since Japans rapid industrialization in the late nineteenth century, there has been an emphasis on economic growth at all costs. Despite the introduction of the concept of the Garden City in Japan in the early twentieth century, industrialization continued unabated. After a disastrous World War II, the nation rebuilt and enjoyed rapid economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s. Japan is still coming to terms with the cost of that economic growth. The paper examines three cities: Minamata, Kitakyūshū, and Kawasaki. Minamata has transformed itself from being a polluted city to a green tourism destination. The city of Kitakyūshū embraced an eco-town strategy in 1997 to promote a structural shift away from heavy industries to green industries. That year, Kawasaki (close to the Tokyo Metropolitan area), too, was designated an eco-town and Minamata received the same title in 2001. This paper identifies key features of eco-cities/eco-towns in Japan, the importance of retrofitting, and examines the roles of citizens, the government, and the private sector. What is surprising is the international orientation of Japanese eco-cities. These cities represent not only Japans future, but also its efforts to deal with its industrial past.

The Butterfly and the Frigate: Social Studies of Science in Japan

In recent years there has been a vast amount of commentary on the state of Japanese science, little of which has added to our understanding of its social role. This paper explores some of the models which have helped to structure the manner in which the growth of Japanese science has been depicted. While some of the models which are employed may be European by origin, their subsequent use has often been by the Japanese themselves. Models have served to constrain science studies in Japan, and the lack of institutional support has acted to further inhibit activity in the area. It is argued that, despite some exceptions, much of the stimulating work on Japanese science has come from outside the country.

Physical Anthropology in Japan. The Ainu and the Search for the Origins of the Japanese

In this paper I examine the quest by physical anthropologists in Japan for the origins of the Japanese. A major focus of this research has been the Ainu people of the northern island of Hokkaidō, who have recently been declared an indigenous people of Japan. The relationship between mainstream Japanese and the very much living community of the Ainu has been the subject of over 100 years of research. Integral to research has been the collection of Ainu skulls, skeletons, and artefacts that have provided a critical if controversial resource for physical anthropologists. This has all been against the backdrop of changing political ideologies about the so-called purity of the Japanese. In the post–World War II period, with the loss of empire, the idea of Japan as a homogeneous nation took hold, and it was only in the last two decades that this notion has been discredited.

Building a Modern Japan

In the late Nineteenth-century, the Japanese embarked on a program of westernization in the hope of building a strong and modern nation. Science, technology and medicine played an important part, showing European nations that Japan was a world power worthy of respect. It has been acknowledged that state policy was important in the development of industries but how well-organized was the state and how close were government-business relations? The book seeks to answer these questions and others. The first part deals with the role of science and medicine in creating a healthy nation. The second part of the book is devoted to examining the role of technology, and business-state relations in building a modern nation.

Pathways to Human Experimentation, 1933-1945: Germany, Japan, and the United States

The history of human experimentation in the twelve years between Hitlers rise to power and the end of the Second World War is notorious in the annals of the twentieth century. The horrific experiments conducted at Dachau, Auschwitz, Ravensbrueck, Birkenau, and other National Socialist concentration camps reflected an extreme indifference to human life and human suffering. Unfortunately, they do not reflect the extent and complexity of the human experiments undertaken in the years between 1933 and 1945. Following the prosecution of twenty-three high-ranking National Socialist physicians and medical administrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg Medical Trial (United States v. Karl Brandt et al.), scholars have rightly focused attention on the nightmarish researches conducted by a small group of investigators on concentration camp inmates. Less well known are alternative pathways that brought investigators to undertake human experimentation in other laboratories, settings, and nations.

Displaying the future: techno‐nationalism and the rise of the consumer in Postwar Japan

This paper explains how, in the aftermath of World War II, a type of techno‐nationalism emerged that linked being Japanese to science and technology and the increased consumption of electrical appliances. By closely examining official exhibitions, we can see how the state and private sector strongly encouraged this techno‐scientific dreaming. Dazzling displays highlighted how the peaceful atom would help lead the nation to achieve high economic growth. At the same time, through the judicious purchase of labor saving appliances, consumers could reconcile the need to spend with the need to save.

Maximum Embodiment: Yōga, the Western Painting of Japan, 1912–1955

as narrative history of the given social conditions (e.g. Ah Q, Xianglin’s wife). Cheng sees that Lu Xun was inclined to stress the effects of death over the details of life in his commitment to confront the “violence in commemoration” (p. 95). She asserts that Lu Xu refuses to mourn, for he insists on keeping the past and the dead alive in writing in order to recover the redemptive meaning in loss. The importance of Lu Xun in modern Chinese intellectual history and literary history cannot be exaggerated and research on Lu Xun will continue to flourish. I am sure, however, that these two books will remain essential reading for both Lu Xun specialists and China scholars for years to come.

Art, photography and remembering Hiroshima

East Asia is now the worlds economic powerhouse, but ghosts of history continue to trouble relations between the key countries of the region, particularly between Japan, China and the two Koreas. Unhappy legacies of Japans military expansion in pre-war Asia prompt on-going calls for apologies, while conflicts over ownership of cultural heritage cause friction between China and Korea, and no peace treaty has ever been signed to conclude the Korean War. For over a decade, the regions governments and non-government groups have sought to confront the ghosts of the past by developing paths to reconciliation. Focusing particularly on popular culture and grassroots action, East Asia beyond the History Wars explores these East Asian approaches to historical reconciliation. This book examines how Korean historians from North and South exchange ideas about national history, how Chinese film-makers reframe their views of the war with Japan, and how Japanese social activists develop grassroots reconciliation projects with counterparts from Korea and elsewhere. As the volumes studies of museums, monuments and memorials show, East Asian public images of modern history are changing, but change is fragile and uncertain. This unfinished story of East Asias search for historical reconciliation has important implications for the study of popular memory worldwide. Presenting a fresh perspective on reconciliation which draws on both history and cultural studies, this book will be welcomed by students and scholars working in the fields of Asian history, Asian culture and society as well as those interested in war and memory studies more generally.