Research Strengths

Research strengths in the Japanese Studies department include:

• Contemporary social and political issues in Japan
• Modern Japanese history, particularly pre-1945 twentieth century social and political history
• Japanese intellectual history
• Political philosophy
• Modern Japanese poetry, comparative literature, and Australian literature
• Modern and contemporary Japanese fiction and literary theory
• Japanese cinema
• Japanese linguistics
• Language use in socio-cultural context
• Media and cultural studies: language and culture, language and gender, youth culture, popular culture in Japan
• Transnational media culture in Asia
• Chinese community in Australia and Japan
• Japan’s image among Chinese
• Japan-China relationships, comparative study of Asian societies; class, gender, ethnicity, community and globalization in Asian societies
• 14th and 15th-century Japanese urban history
• Premodern temple and residential architecture
• Spatial theory: “Spatial-Structural History”
• State-Monastic relations

Inoue Yasushi Award for Outstanding Research in Japanese Literature in Australia

The Inoue Yasushi Award for Outstanding Research in Japanese Literature in Australia is given annually for five years, beginning in 2007, for the best refereed journal article or book chapter published in English during the previous year by a researcher based in Australia. The recipient will receive $1000 as well as a certificate of the award’s conferral.

Inoue Yasushi was a prominent post-Second World War novelist and poet. He wrote in many genres ranging from contemporary novels focusing on social problems to historical novels. He was a unique writer who managed to combine serious themes with fascinating and intriguing plots. Inoue works are still very popular reaching a wide general readership as well as scholars and intellectuals. The Inoue Yasushi Memorial Foundation established the award in order to encourage Australian interest in Japanese literature generally, and in Inoue Yasushi more particularly. The Foundation also generously donated 28 volumes of Inoue Yasushi’s collected works, which can be found in the East Asian Collection of Fisher Library at the University of Sydney.

In 2007 Dr Tomoko Aoyama of the University of Queensland received the inaugural award for her article entitled ‘Appropriating Bush Tucker: Food in Inoue Hisashi's Yellow Rats’, which was published in the Journal of Australian Studies. Dr Aoyama received her award at a ceremony held at the Japan Foundation in Sydney, which was followed by a showing of ‘Hyōheki’ (The Precipice), a film based on Inoue Yasushi’s novel of the same name.

Applicants for the 2008 award should submit a statement of the significance of the work, a 200-word abstract and three hard copies of their journal article or book chapter, published in 2007, or preferably, one electronic copy and one hard copy by Friday, 28 March 2008. Submissions should be sent to the chair of the award selection committee, Dr Mats Karlsson. The committee will endeavor to make its selection by 1 May 2008, or as soon after that as practicable. Dr Karlsson’s mailing address is: Japanese Studies, School of Languages and Cultures A18, University of Sydney, NSW 2006. His e-mail address is: