Australia’s view of Japan, as seen from Japanese studies

Abstract

Wallerstein’s concept of world systems theory - which divides the world into historically power-based categories of the core, the semi-periphery and the periphery - still has some resonance in area studies today, but given the international rise of China, India and South Korea, in terms of political status and cultural industries, most would agree that the United States is no longer an unchallenged ‘core’. This volume highlights a shift in the academic ‘gaze’ in Japanese Studies, which calls for closer attention to views from the ‘periphery’, including those from outside the ‘Anglo West’, as defi ned by Okano in this volume’s introduction. This focus on the positionality of the scholar and relations between researchers recalls Frederik Barth’s inquiry into the cross-cultural nature of intellectual enquiry, when he asks: ‘Is knowledge a thing, or a relationship?’ (2002, p. 2) This chapter explores intellectual trends in Japanese Studies from the Australian perspective since the 1990s, to consider what might be defi ned as an Australian voice in the fi eld of Japanese Studies, and what these contributions have made to Anglo-Western views of Japan. To do this, I focus on the distinctive Australian publication Japanese Studies (currently published by Routledge, 1037-1397ISSN) to illustrate the kinds of approaches, concerns and connections made by Australian and Australian-based scholars of Japan and how these complement and differ from work done by those in other regions.