Background
With many social changes occurring in Japan since the bursting of the economic bubble, the paradigms for studying Japan in Australia and elsewhere are fraying and need to be rethought, whether connected to older nihonjinron ideas, to a revised notion of area studies, or to the more recent interest in critical cultural studies. Some of those changes involve shifts seen in Japan's labor markets and the way work is organized, including attitudes towards work and the growing awareness of economic inequalities within Japan. Others involve the aging of society, and others yet again concern the vibrant cultural industries.
At the same time, Japanese society has become much more multicultural; Japanese diasporatic communities have begun to emerge abroad; and English has surfaced as an important second language among a growing proportion of the Japanese population. These changes are fundamental and go far beyond requiring a simple shift in the topics which should be engaging Japanese specialists.
With the shift in the motivation of Australians in studying Japanese language from learning it as an economic language to learning it as a cultural language, teachers of Japanese are being challenged to develop and articulate new rationales for their programs. Language training has been fundamental to Japanese studies within the old areas studies paradigm. However, it has often been seen and taught as a medium for disseminating (translating) information, culture and perspectives generated in Japan to people abroad. In a more globalized era with various means of electronic communication, it is perhaps time to consider the way in which Japan specialists abroad might have more feedback and direct participation in debates in Japan that are shaping Japan.
The very positive and active participation of non-Japanese in Australia in the consumption of various forms of Japanese popular culture, as well as the hiring of some overseas executives as CEOs for a few major Japanese firms, has underlined the need to think about the development and significance of Japanese studies in Australian universities and schools.
