Nihonjinron - Breaking Ground

Palmer liked my idea about Nihonjinron as a religion. We discussed it this morning and he kept apologizing for not knowing more about Japan, while asking so many questions I didn't have the answers too. He's very helpful like that - sort of prods me into exploring new areas without making it obvious that he's doing so. Sunday I went to the library for an hour and picked up some books for research. I came home with 11 that look like a good starting place. I've found out about three-four other books I really want based on Internet Research, so I'll try to get those through inter-library loans as well, and I also want to pick up one or two books on standard Japanese religion, to put things in perspective.

The ones I picked up were:

Rice as Self, by Ohnuki-Tierney
Japan's Minorities (the Illusion of Homogeneity), edited by Michael Weiner
Multiethnic Japan, by John Lie
Wrapping Culture, by Joy Hendry
Unmasking Japan (Myths and Realities about the Emotions of the Japanese), by David Matsumoto
Japanland, by Karin Muller
Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan, by Kosaku Yoshino
The Japanese and the Jews, by Isaiah Ben-Dasan (translated)
Nationalism and Internationalism in Imperial Japan, edited by Dick Stegewerns
Nationalisms of Japan, by Brian McVeigh
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, edited by Yoshio Sugimoto

I've also still got David Mura's Turning Japanese sitting around, and one or two perhaps marginally useful books at the lakehouse.

I want to get:

Hegemony of Homogeneity, by Harumi Befu
Japan's Modern Myth, by
and
Dogs and Demons, by Alex Kerr.
(I find it odd that this seems to have two choices of titles: Dogs and Demons - The Fall of Modern Japan, and Dogs and Demons - Tales from the Dark Side of Japan. Are these the same book?)
A book or two on more traditional Japanese religion

So far I like my book sources. Hegemony of Homogeneity is going to be of crucial value as it seems like the closest anyone has come to writing about my topic - extremely close, actually. I've got to get my hands on that one, one way or another. As far as the others go, some are going to be more relevant than others, although I think all of them would add something to my understanding. It's just a matter of time and organization. I like that a healthy percentage of the books are written by Japanese authors. (Surprisingly this semi-includes Ben-Dasan, who wrote the Japanese and the Jews - he grew up in Japan and wrote the book in Japanese).

At a surface glance, it seems like the books roughly fall into these categories:

Nihonjinron as Religion:
Hegemony of Homogeneity

Japanese Nationalism:
Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan
Nationalisms of Japan
Nationalism and Internationalism in Imperial Japan

Japan as a Heterogeneous Society:
Japan's Minorities (The Illusion of Homogeneity)
Multiethnic Japan

Japan from Outside Perspective (General):
Japanland
Turning Japanese

Criticism of Japan:
Dogs and Demons
Japan's Modern Myth

Specific Cultural Elements:
Rice as Self
Wrapping Culture
Unmasking Japan (Myths and Realities about the Emotions of the Japanese)
The Taming of the Samurai

General Culture:
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture

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I'm thinking I need to get Hegemony of Homogeneity ASAP. Some of the cultural books seem like they might not fit the topic super well, but they may surprise me. From what I've read of Rice as Self so far, for example, it surprisingly has a lot of specifics to lend to my research. I'm frankly totally confused about Wrapping Culture but can't wait to read it. Modern Japanese Culture is a pretty dense and frightening book despite it's cheery anime-style cover. Nevertheless I think it might be the second most useful book to me other than Hegemony of Homogeneity, because it is pretty comprehensive.

Unfortunately most of the primary sources, and the Nihonjinron writings, my sacred texts so to speak, are in Japanese, so most of my sources are secondary or from a different angle (aka the foreigner reports like Turning Japanese and Japanland).

I want this book too!

The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan, by Alan Booth
At first I thought I wanted it only for pleasure, then reading reactions I realize that even this would contribute to the project.

I'm not limiting myself to books, either, especially at this point. The topic was born from wikifrolicking and blog crawling, and I'm still messing around with that. I never realized before how much anger towards Japan and Nihonjinron there was on the internet. Anger, and just plain disillusionment as well. There are entire blog and forum communities that I'm finding, full of bilingual expats in Japan who are fighting rather viciously amongst each other about all things Japanese, with opinions all over the spectrum. Of course, these people are choosing to live in Japan, so they don't exactly hate it, but I'm finding that there's one of these people who are eager to reveal the 'dark side of Japan' for every, say, 500 Japan-crazed gaijin.

I wonder suddenly if they'll ever read my paper. It's a funny thought. Actually it freaks me out a little bit. Is this real stuff, more than a school project? A little bit frightening. Anyway, I love Japan and I hope that shows in the final product, however it turns out, and even during the processing stages.

Mutsu, Japan - 7/09