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Step back in time 30 years to see what Japan was like in the era of bell-bottoms, Pacman and big hair. Our film library holds a treasure trove of short cultural films aimed at introducing Japanese society and culture to English audiences. Produced in the 1970s and 1980s, the films contain fascinating footage of major cities like Tokyo, interviews with local people and discussion of important issues of the time, providing a valuable insight into the Japan of 30 years ago which begs the question – has anything changed? Join us on Wednesday evenings in October for a casual film & talk series that will attempt to answer the question of how much, or how little, life in Japan has changed in the 30 years since the films were made. Each week audiences will watch a 30 minute film, followed by a talk and Q&A session with a leading Japanese studies expert covering the topics touched on in the film and how they relate to Japan today. Covering a wide range of topics, from family life to working conditions, youth culture and manga, the films in this series show the real Japan, inviting us into the lives of ordinary people who share their joys, sorrows, hopes and dreams for the future. |
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Film & Discussion Events |
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| Wednesday 6 October Salary Man (1975) |
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 This film follows a day in the life of a salary man, those white collar workers that have become an iconic symbol of Japan. With fascinating images of 1970s Tokyo, from commuters squashed into subway cars to hurried workers eating lunch while standing at a noodle bar, the life of a company worker in Japan is revealed. After work, we are introduced to various types of salary men, the ‘my home’ type who spends his free time with his family; the networker who drinks with his colleagues after hours or the ‘achievement-oriented’ type who tries to improve himself through activities such as studying English. The film also explores contemporary issues such as housing problems and paternalism in the Japanese corporate world. |
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| Wednesday 13 October Voices of Young Japan (1979) |
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| Wednesday 20 October The Hanawa Family (1980) |
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| Wednesday 27 October Manga: The Cartoon in Contemporary Japanese Life (1982) |
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Film & Discussion Series |
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| Glimpses of Japan – 30 years ago and Today | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Privacy & Copyright © The Japan Foundation, Sydney | ||||||||||||||||||
Mats Karlsson lectures in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney. He researches and teaches on modern Japanese literature and cinema, as well as on social problems in contemporary Japan. He is currently working on a monograph manuscript dealing with material aspects and practical outcomes of the Proletarian cultural movement in Japan around 1930. Recent publications include “Kurahara Korehito’s Road to Proletarian Realism,” Nichibunken Japan Review 20 (2008). Mats Karlsson also covers Japanese cultural issues for the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.
Carol Hayes is a senior lecturer in Japanese language and literature in the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Specialising in modern and contemporary Japanese literature focusing on the poetry of the early and mid-twentieth century and post-war Japanese film, Dr Hayes teaches Japanese language and area-studies courses at all levels. Dr Hayes completed her PhD at the University of Sydney in 1996, including 2 years as a research student at the University of Tokyo and since then has taught at both ANU and the University of Durham in the UK. Her current research interests include the work of the Taisho poet Hagiwara Sakutaro, focusing on his contribution to modern Japanese poetry, and also postwar Japanese literature and film, focusing on the portrayal of the Pacific War in cultural production.
Professor Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong 
Rebecca Suter is a lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney. Her main research interest is in modern Japanese literature and comparative literature. Her first book, The Japanization of Modernity, focuses on contemporary Japanese writer Murakami Haruki’s role as a cultural mediator between Japan and the United States. She is currently working on issues of
translation and cross-cultural representation between Asia and the West, concentrating on the phenomenon of the ‘Japanization’ of Western culture and the way it challenges current views of colonialism, postcolonialism and globalization. Before coming to Sydney, she has taught Japanese modern literature at Harvard University and at Brown University. She also works as
a translator of manga, and has translated works by Shinohara Chie, Anno Moyoko, Asano Inio, and Unita Yumi, among others.
