Review of Japanese Culture and Society, vol. 28 (2016)

Distributed for Jōsai International Center for the Promotion of Art and Science, Jōsai University

The Review of Japanese Culture and Society, volume 28 opens with an editors’ introduction:

…“Japanese design” possesses one of the most recognizable profiles, albeit one with multiple personalities. Notions of minimalism, Zen, wabi-sabi, and cute are often ascribed as inherent attributes of Japanese design. This profile operates  across media and disciplines, from graphic design to architecture and interiors, product and furniture design, and fashion and newer industries like interaction or experience design. On the one hand, we hear of “Zen minimalism” associated with architecture, interiors, and the simple lines and matte surfaces of sophisticated product design, and on the other hand, a sort of frenetic hyper-cute sensibility associated with youth culture and digital design.
— Design and Society in Modern Japan: An Introduction, by Ignacio Adriasola, Sarah Teasley, and Jilly Traganou

DESIGN AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN

Japan’s Industrial Arts: Present and Future (1917) (translated by Penny Bailey)
by Yasuda Rokuzō

Industrial Arts and the Development of Japan’s Industry (1932) (translated by Penny Bailey)
by Kunii Kitarō

POST WAR RECOVERY, AFFLUENCE, AND ITS CRITIQUE

Rethinking the Social Role of Architecture in the Ideas and Work of the Japanese Architectural Group NAU
by Kuroishi Izumi

The 1968 Social Uprising and Advertising Design in Japan: The Work of Ishioka Eiko and Suzuki Hachirō
by Ory Bartal

THE EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL DESIGN IN RESPONSE TO THE 3.11 TRIPLE DISASTER

Place-Making Before and After 3.11: The Emergence of Social Design in Post-Disaster, Post-Growth Japan
by Christian Dimmer

Ba of Emptiness: A Place of Potential for 227 Designing Social Innovation
by Yoko Akama

Plus more ARTICLES and ART IN FOCUS, “Archival Considerations,” From the PoNJA-GenKon 10th Anniversary Symposium (2014)

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Find the full text of the issue at Project MUSE

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About the Journal

The Review of Japanese Culture and Society is an annual English-language journal dedicated to the critical analysis of Japanese culture using thematic and interdisciplinary approaches to provide a broad perspective by combining the work of Japanese scholars and critics with that of non-Japanese writers. Dedicated to the translation of works written originally in Japanese, each issue also includes an original translation of a Japanese short story.

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