2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration in Contemporary Japanese Politics
| Project/Area Number |
18K01422
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
LEHENY DAVID 早稲田大学, 国際学術院(アジア太平洋研究科), 教授 (80817479)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Politics / Japan / Commemoration / History / Meiji / Narrative / Culture / Nation |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Three newly completed papers this year. The first is "International Status and Japan," in The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics (ed. Robert J. Pekkanen and Saadia M. Pekkanen, Oxford University Press). This paper examines debates about Japan's global status both in Japan and abroad, including those that mobilize the Meiji Restoration as a model of modernization that had clear consequences for Japan's international status. The second is a chapter on nostalgia for a forthcoming book (Routledge, 2021) edited by Noriko Murai and Jeff Kingston on Heisei Japan. Finally, I completed a paper, currently under review at a major English-language journal, dealing with cinematic and literary representations of the life Idemitsu Sazo, whose life and career ran from the Meiji through the Showa Eras.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
As noted above, the original topic held initial promise, but the limited nature of national commemoration -- mostly information provided on government websites, as well as a roughly 2-hour ceremony with Prime Minister Abe, held behind closed doors -- forced a rethinking of the project. My plan had been to leverage the visibility of the then-upcoming Olympics to engage in a larger analysis about political narratives, but obviously the pandemic has forced a radical rethinking of this as well.
I have moved for this reason to a more document/image-based project, one that combines recent narrative productions of Japanese history, as well as their political ramifications. I hope to travel for research to Yamaguchi and Kochi this year, but much will depend on the pandemic.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
With one paper published, a second forthcoming, and third currently under review, I am now focused on one immediate writing project and a second, longer one. The first is a paper I am co-writing with Robert Hellyer (Wake Forest University) about the global commemoration of the Meiji Restoration. My half of the paper is complete, and I am waiting for him to complete his, after which we plan to send to a major journal for review.
Additionally, I am trying to write a book manuscript that places the limited nature of the 2018 commemoration into context, particularly the problems associated with diverse regional memories of the Boshin War. I then plan to contrast this with the effort to produce a cohesive postwar that now definitively includes the challenges and concerns of the Heisei Era.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The pandemic, as noted, combined with the limited commemorative activities of the national government in 2018 have forced a rethinking of the project. While I hope to return to the Satcho-Dohi prefectures (Yamaguchi, Kagoshima, Kochi, and Saga) this year, much will depend on the pandemic. If further field research is impossible, I will shift my book project toward one that draws more heavily from text and film-based sources. This will require less travel but more materials and more equipment. My plans for individual papers have developed on pace; I still plan a book over the next year.
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Research Products
(1 results)
