2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The 150th Anniversary of the Meiji Restoration in Contemporary Japanese Politics
| Project/Area Number |
18K01422
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Waseda University |
|---|
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)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | Politics / Commemoration / Identity / Popular Culture / Nation / Meiji / History / Status |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
New/forthcoming publications include "Meiji at 150:A Global Moment for Japanese Studies, an Ambivalent Moment in Japan" (co-authored with Robert Hellyer). Journal of Japanese Studies, 2023.
- "Precarity's Pirate: The Fictive Afterlives of Idemitsu Sazo," Journal of Asian Studies, 2022.
- "International Status and Japan," in Pekkanen & Pekkanen (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics (Oxford Univ. Press, 2022).
- "The Loss of Nostalgia, not The Nostalgia of Loss: Or, What Happens in Heisei Stays in Heisei," in Murai, Kingston and Burnett (eds.), Japan in the Heisei Era (1989–2019): Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Routledge, 2022).
- "Pop Go the Games: Japanese Popular Culture and Politics at the Olympics," in Freedman (ed.), Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, 2nd ed. (Routledge 2022).
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
The pandemic has, as I've noted in previous reports, forced a dramatic rethinking of a project that already required revision because of the limited nature of national commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Restoration. I drew my research on this project into larger conversations on national narrative and spectacle, but have also sought opportunities to write specifically on the Meiji Restoration. With historian Robert Hellyer, I have an upcoming paper on the Restoration in the flagship English-language source, on Japan, the Journal of Japanese Studies. I also have a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Asian Studies (top English-language journal on Asia) that draws from the narrative research in this project, as well as several book chapters.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I plan to take advantage of the reopening of travel within the country to travel again to sites of Meiji Commemoration in the west, focusing this time on Yamaguchi and Kochi, both to collect data/sources on their 2018 activities as well as to study how these prefectures weathered the tourist downturn during the COVID pandemic as well as how they tried to maintain momentum from the commemoration in attracting domestic visitors. If these trips are fruitful, I will have follow-up visits to Kagoshima and Saga, which I visited in 2018, to make similar inquiries about post-commemoration efforts as well as the consequences of the pandemic for expected tourist revenues. My hope is still to publish a book or at least several more articles from this project.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
Travel limitations during the pandemic make it difficult to arrange for site visits or do my planned conference presentations overseas. While I am still reluctant to schedule in-person conference visits due the the ongoing risks of the pandemic, I plan to visit Meiji Restoration commemoration sites this coming year as well as to engage in the various activities surrounding the crafting and publication of a book manuscript (including getting image rights and so forth). I thank the JSPS for allowing me to have this time due to the unprecedented challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
|
