Alisa Freedman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3786899 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alisa Freedman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alisa |
| FAMILY NAME | Freedman |
| SIGNATURE | FREEDMAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oregon |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1491-1222 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Army Orientations and Student Handbooks
In 1951, the largest cohort of Japanese exchange students in history arrived in the United States. Between 1949 and 1952, around 787 Japanese nationals received Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) scholarships, intended to cultivate a learned group of people to spread American ideas in Japan. The purpose was to provide Japanese university graduates with first-hand experience of US democracy; earning advanced degrees was secondary…
Romance of the Taishō Schoolgirl in Shōjo Manga
Introducing Japanese Popular Culture
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book imparts enduring lessons that popular culture teaches about history, international relations, business, class, gender, sexuality, art, novelty, nostalgia, humanism, nationalism, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, urbanization, and notions of "home." It helps students become aware of how they themselves engage with Japanese popula…
Introducing Japanese Popular Culture
Cultural literacy in the empire of emoji signs
Unicode emoji, originating in Japan but expanded through worldwide usage, is a means to assess how the globalization of Japanese popular culture promotes cultural literacy and awareness of multiculturalism. Emoji reveal discrimination and diversity within cultures, but emoji alone are “unreadable.” They need to be used together with established modes of expression to avoid misunderstandings. Literature, as one of the most intentional and nuanced …
Islands of Protest
Literature is an important vehicle to further knowledge of other cultures, and English translations of Okinawan literary works have had a major impact on the field of Okinawan studies. Yet the riches of Okinawa's literature have yet to be adequately mined. Islands of Protest attempts to address this lacuna with this new selection of critically acclaimed modern and contemporary works in English.The anthology includes poetry, fiction, and drama, dr…
Swaying, Swinging
Sakiyama Tami (1954-), real name Taira Kuniko, was born on Iriomote Island, the largest of the Yaeyama island group in Okinawa Prefecture, where she lived until age fourteen when her family moved to Koza (present-day Okinawa City). Sakiyama graduated from the Department of Law, Economics, and Literature at the University of the Ryukyus. She began publishing in Okinawan periodicals in 1979 and in mainland Japanese literary magazines, a conventiona…
Introduction to the Special Issue in Honor of Kyoko Selden
This issue of The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is the first of three special online issues that can be read in conjunction with a 2015 special issue of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society (Volume XXVII). Together the issues offer examples of Kyoko Selden's literary translations and writings that span Japanese history, literature, and multiple genres. The two journals were venues through which Kyoko shared much of her work. These poems…
Wanderings in the Realm of the Seventh Sense
IntroductionBorn in Tottori Prefecture (where her last name is pronounced Osaki rather than Ozaki), Osaki Midori (1896-1971) was the fourth of seven children in a middle-class, intellectual family. Her mother was the daughter of the head priest of a Buddhist temple; her father was a teacher, who died while Osaki was a teenager. Osaki graduated from the Tottori Girls' School (Tottori Jogakko), and, at age eighteen, became an elementary school teac…
"Selections from "Ukiyo-e Landscapes and Edo Scenic Places
IntroductionAuthor Nagai Kafū (1879-1959; given name Nagai Sōkichi) is best known for his fictionalized personal travel accounts American Stories (Amerika monogatari, 1908) and French Stories (Furansu monogatari, 1915), short stories and novellas about Tokyo courtesans and low-ranking geisha, and an extensive illustrated diary, Dyspepsia House Diary (Danchōtei nichijō, 1917-59). Kafū was fascinated with Edo-period (1603-1868) culture, especially …
Introduction to the special issue on Geographies of Childhood
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlisa FreedmanAlisa Freedman is an Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Film at the University of Oregon. Her major publications include Tokyo in transit: Japanese culture on the rails and road (Stanford University Press, 2010), an annotated translation of Kawabata Yasunari's The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (University of California Press, 2005) and a co-edited volume with Laura Miller and Christin…
Sesame Street'splace in Japan
Sesame Street, the longest running and most popular children's program in world television history, has failed to gain a large fan base in Japan because of notions of place. Since 1969, Sesame Street has taught socialization skills, pioneered programming formats, developed marketing strategies and spread American ideologies. Sesame Street has aired in English in 145 countries; over thirty countries have developed localized versions. Japan's NHK p…
Modern Girls on the Go
This spirited and engaging multidisciplinary volume pins its focus on the lived experiences and cultural depictions of women's mobility and labor in Japan. The theme of girls continues to offer a captivating window into the changes that women's roles have undergone during the course of the last century. Here we encounter Japanese women inhabiting the most modern of spaces, in newly created professions, moving upward and outward, claiming the publ…
Erotic, grotesque, nonsense
Miriam Silverberg, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2009, 390 pp, US$24.95, £16.95 (paperback), ISBN 9780520260085, US$60.00, £41.95 (clothback), ISBN 9780520222731 The 1920s through the 1
The Homeless Junior High School Student Phenomenon
When narrated by children, social issues achieve new emotional meanings. A prime example of such a narration is the transmedia ‘homeless student’ phenomenon. The 2007 autobiographical novel Hōmuresu chūgakusei (Homeless Junior High School Student) by comedian Tamura Hiroshi sold millions of copies and was adapted into television drama, film, manga, children's books and spoofs. Tamura's brother Ken'ichi retold the story in Hōmuresu daigakusei (Hom…
Count What You Have Now. Don't Count What You Don't Have”
Voted top new Japanese word of 2008, “arafô”, abbreviated from the English “around forty”, has been used in various media to describe women born between 1964 and 1973, who came of age during Japan's Bubble Era, and who entered the workforce as the country's Equal Employment Opportunity Lawwas being implemented in 1986. Arafô, or “forty-something women”, theoretically have more choices in relation to work and family than previous generations. Duri…
Street nonsense
Interwar Japanese authors who sought to convey the power of the city called for the creation of literary realism based on incongruous images that represented the times. They used the buzzword 'nansensu' to describe aspects of Tokyo that epitomized their historical moment and to position themselves against proletarian literature, which they attacked for not presenting the realities of modern life. Although glamorizing poverty, nansensu literature …
Stories of boys and buildings
During the past few years, the construction of luxury residential and commercial towers in neighborhoods along the Sumida River has accelerated dramatically, altering the social composition and cultural images associated with downtown Tokyo. The new buildings stand in contrast to the sinking economy and are markers of the growing gap between rich and poor. They also reflect the pattern of urban construction and destruction as well as the unobtain…
Commuting Gazes
In early 20th century Tokyo, female secondary school students and middle-class businessmen emerged from social, ideological, and economic changes and commuted from suburbia to inner-city schools and offices by electric train. Railways and trams became places for observing and being observed, and female passengers were often the objects of unwelcome attention. Increased use of urban transport extended the opportunities for men and women to work, s…
Commuting Gazes
In early 20th century Tokyo, female secondary school students and middle-class businessmen emerged from social, ideological, and economic changes and commuted from suburbia to inner-city schools and offices by electric train. Railways and trams became places for observing and being observed, and female passengers were often the objects of unwelcome attention. Increased use of urban transport extended the opportunities for men and women to work, s…
Count What You Have Now. Don't Count What You Don't Have”
Voted top new Japanese word of 2008, “arafô”, abbreviated from the English “around forty”, has been used in various media to describe women born between 1964 and 1973, who came of age during Japan's Bubble Era, and who entered the workforce as the country's Equal Employment Opportunity Lawwas being implemented in 1986. Arafô, or “forty-something women”, theoretically have more choices in relation to work and family than previous generations. Duri…
The Homeless Junior High School Student Phenomenon
When narrated by children, social issues achieve new emotional meanings. A prime example of such a narration is the transmedia ‘homeless student’ phenomenon. The 2007 autobiographical novel Hōmuresu chūgakusei (Homeless Junior High School Student) by comedian Tamura Hiroshi sold millions of copies and was adapted into television drama, film, manga, children's books and spoofs. Tamura's brother Ken'ichi retold the story in Hōmuresu daigakusei (Hom…
Stories of boys and buildings
During the past few years, the construction of luxury residential and commercial towers in neighborhoods along the Sumida River has accelerated dramatically, altering the social composition and cultural images associated with downtown Tokyo. The new buildings stand in contrast to the sinking economy and are markers of the growing gap between rich and poor. They also reflect the pattern of urban construction and destruction as well as the unobtain…
Commuting Gazes
In early 20th century Tokyo, female secondary school students and middle-class businessmen emerged from social, ideological, and economic changes and commuted from suburbia to inner-city schools and offices by electric train. Railways and trams became places for observing and being observed, and female passengers were often the objects of unwelcome attention. Increased use of urban transport extended the opportunities for men and women to work, s…
Stories of boys and buildings
During the past few years, the construction of luxury residential and commercial towers in neighborhoods along the Sumida River has accelerated dramatically, altering the social composition and cultural images associated with downtown Tokyo. The new buildings stand in contrast to the sinking economy and are markers of the growing gap between rich and poor. They also reflect the pattern of urban construction and destruction as well as the unobtain…
Street nonsense
Interwar Japanese authors who sought to convey the power of the city called for the creation of literary realism based on incongruous images that represented the times. They used the buzzword 'nansensu' to describe aspects of Tokyo that epitomized their historical moment and to position themselves against proletarian literature, which they attacked for not presenting the realities of modern life. Although glamorizing poverty, nansensu literature …
Erotic, grotesque, nonsense
Miriam Silverberg, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2009, 390 pp, US$24.95, £16.95 (paperback), ISBN 9780520260085, US$60.00, £41.95 (clothback), ISBN 9780520222731 The 1920s through the 1
The Homeless Junior High School Student Phenomenon
When narrated by children, social issues achieve new emotional meanings. A prime example of such a narration is the transmedia ‘homeless student’ phenomenon. The 2007 autobiographical novel Hōmuresu chūgakusei (Homeless Junior High School Student) by comedian Tamura Hiroshi sold millions of copies and was adapted into television drama, film, manga, children's books and spoofs. Tamura's brother Ken'ichi retold the story in Hōmuresu daigakusei (Hom…
Count What You Have Now. Don't Count What You Don't Have”
Voted top new Japanese word of 2008, “arafô”, abbreviated from the English “around forty”, has been used in various media to describe women born between 1964 and 1973, who came of age during Japan's Bubble Era, and who entered the workforce as the country's Equal Employment Opportunity Lawwas being implemented in 1986. Arafô, or “forty-something women”, theoretically have more choices in relation to work and family than previous generations. Duri…
Modern Girls on the Go
This spirited and engaging multidisciplinary volume pins its focus on the lived experiences and cultural depictions of women's mobility and labor in Japan. The theme of girls continues to offer a captivating window into the changes that women's roles have undergone during the course of the last century. Here we encounter Japanese women inhabiting the most modern of spaces, in newly created professions, moving upward and outward, claiming the publ…
Introduction to the special issue on Geographies of Childhood
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAlisa FreedmanAlisa Freedman is an Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Film at the University of Oregon. Her major publications include Tokyo in transit: Japanese culture on the rails and road (Stanford University Press, 2010), an annotated translation of Kawabata Yasunari's The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa (University of California Press, 2005) and a co-edited volume with Laura Miller and Christin…
Sesame Street'splace in Japan
Sesame Street, the longest running and most popular children's program in world television history, has failed to gain a large fan base in Japan because of notions of place. Since 1969, Sesame Street has taught socialization skills, pioneered programming formats, developed marketing strategies and spread American ideologies. Sesame Street has aired in English in 145 countries; over thirty countries have developed localized versions. Japan's NHK p…
Swaying, Swinging
Sakiyama Tami (1954-), real name Taira Kuniko, was born on Iriomote Island, the largest of the Yaeyama island group in Okinawa Prefecture, where she lived until age fourteen when her family moved to Koza (present-day Okinawa City). Sakiyama graduated from the Department of Law, Economics, and Literature at the University of the Ryukyus. She began publishing in Okinawan periodicals in 1979 and in mainland Japanese literary magazines, a conventiona…
Introduction to the Special Issue in Honor of Kyoko Selden
This issue of The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is the first of three special online issues that can be read in conjunction with a 2015 special issue of the Review of Japanese Culture and Society (Volume XXVII). Together the issues offer examples of Kyoko Selden's literary translations and writings that span Japanese history, literature, and multiple genres. The two journals were venues through which Kyoko shared much of her work. These poems…
Wanderings in the Realm of the Seventh Sense
IntroductionBorn in Tottori Prefecture (where her last name is pronounced Osaki rather than Ozaki), Osaki Midori (1896-1971) was the fourth of seven children in a middle-class, intellectual family. Her mother was the daughter of the head priest of a Buddhist temple; her father was a teacher, who died while Osaki was a teenager. Osaki graduated from the Tottori Girls' School (Tottori Jogakko), and, at age eighteen, became an elementary school teac…
"Selections from "Ukiyo-e Landscapes and Edo Scenic Places
IntroductionAuthor Nagai Kafū (1879-1959; given name Nagai Sōkichi) is best known for his fictionalized personal travel accounts American Stories (Amerika monogatari, 1908) and French Stories (Furansu monogatari, 1915), short stories and novellas about Tokyo courtesans and low-ranking geisha, and an extensive illustrated diary, Dyspepsia House Diary (Danchōtei nichijō, 1917-59). Kafū was fascinated with Edo-period (1603-1868) culture, especially …
Islands of Protest
Literature is an important vehicle to further knowledge of other cultures, and English translations of Okinawan literary works have had a major impact on the field of Okinawan studies. Yet the riches of Okinawa's literature have yet to be adequately mined. Islands of Protest attempts to address this lacuna with this new selection of critically acclaimed modern and contemporary works in English.The anthology includes poetry, fiction, and drama, dr…
Introducing Japanese Popular Culture
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book imparts enduring lessons that popular culture teaches about history, international relations, business, class, gender, sexuality, art, novelty, nostalgia, humanism, nationalism, multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, urbanization, and notions of "home." It helps students become aware of how they themselves engage with Japanese popula…
Introducing Japanese Popular Culture
Cultural literacy in the empire of emoji signs
Unicode emoji, originating in Japan but expanded through worldwide usage, is a means to assess how the globalization of Japanese popular culture promotes cultural literacy and awareness of multiculturalism. Emoji reveal discrimination and diversity within cultures, but emoji alone are “unreadable.” They need to be used together with established modes of expression to avoid misunderstandings. Literature, as one of the most intentional and nuanced …
Romance of the Taishō Schoolgirl in Shōjo Manga
Army Orientations and Student Handbooks
In 1951, the largest cohort of Japanese exchange students in history arrived in the United States. Between 1949 and 1952, around 787 Japanese nationals received Government Aid and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) scholarships, intended to cultivate a learned group of people to spread American ideas in Japan. The purpose was to provide Japanese university graduates with first-hand experience of US democracy; earning advanced degrees was secondary…
Japanese History and Culture (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Art (9 works) · Asian Culture and Media Studies (8 works) · History (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Literature (7 works) · Media studies (6 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)