Nations in shame and art’s shame: towards a radical politics of image and affect around “Okinawa”

ABSTRACT

This article first examines the resurgence of popular, semi-academic nationalist discourses that solidify the figures of “Japan” and “Okinawa” within post-1945 U.S.-led formation of nation-states across the Asia-Pacific. It critiques two discourses that are symptomatic of such a return to the figure of the nation: developmental economist Matsushima Yasukatsu’s thesis of “Ryukyu’s independence” and philosopher Takahashi Tetsuya’s call to relocate the U.S. military bases from Okinawa to mainland Japan. These symptomatic instances of the mutually transferential nationalisms in Okinawa and mainland Japan rely upon crudely culturalist assumptions about the self and the others and are thus surprisingly oblivious to how the very nation-forms have been instituted as part of imperial modernity. Their implicit figurations of the exemplary national subjects partake in the biopolitical assumptions as to whose lives must be “made to live” and “made to die” within and outside the border of the national. Ultimately, such nationalist discourses about Japan and Okinawa engage in a zero-sum exchange of imperial shame and colonial shame, a process that further stabilizes the co-operative placement of local nation-forms within the U.S.-led inter-state regime of warfare and biopolitics. But insofar as these discourses require the images of the nations that they seek to represent, their (re)production of what Naoki Sakai calls “a schema of co-figurative” nationalities needs to be critiqued through an exploration of a radical aesthetics and affect that pertain to image production.

The second part of the article presents my interpretation of artist Nema Satoko’s recent book of photography titled Paradigm, a work in which both bodies and objects explore their potential transformations in the midst of their precarious exposure to one another. I argue that Nema’s images of fragile bodies and objects in the present landscape of Okinawa are poised on the cusp between the past that invokes a sense of shame and this past’s potential future that necessitates an ethical posture of humility. In the vicinity of Adorno’s notion of “art’s shame,” Nema’s photographic images illuminate an amorphous realm of fragile beings, whose linkage and exposure to one another opens a space of viability that is obscured by the biopolitical imaginaries of nation-forms.     

How Custom Agents Really Detect Lies

Research has found discrepancies among folk beliefs about lie detection, deception cue utility, and retrospective accounts of detected lies. Elite customs agents (N = 37) were surveyed regarding their overall beliefs about how to detect lies (general strategy), their opinions about best practices (best strategy), and about a successfully detected lie (actual strategy). Responses were coded in three nonexclusive broad categories: (a) behavioral cues, (b) communication content and evidence, and (c) interactive-questioning approaches. Behavioral cues, especially nonverbal cues, were listed most frequently as general beliefs. Opinions about the best approach were evenly split across the three categories. Communication content and evidence was the most frequently reported actual detection method and was mentioned in 97% of the responses. The results are discussed in relation to Truth-Default Theory and their implications for lie detection practice.     

日本琵琶湖的保护管理模式及对江苏省湖泊保护管理的启示

日本的琵琶湖在经历了日本高度经济增长期片面的水资源开发利用阶段后，已转向了开发利用与保护相结合的阶段，其长远目标是通过琵琶湖的长期性战略规划的实施，使琵琶湖的水质恢复到日本高度经济增长期以前的水平、琵琶湖的生态得到修复。本文在论述日本琵琶湖的特殊性与重要性、琵琶湖面临的问题的基础上，介绍了琵琶湖保护管理的组织结构、管理体系；分析了琵琶湖以流域为单元、政府主导与全民参与的湖泊保护管理模式。在借鉴琵琶湖保护管理经验的基础上，提出了江苏省湖泊的保护管理模式及相应的建议。     

Intersample optimization in a sampled-data control system using the redundancy of a dual-rate system

The present study discusses the design method for controlling a single-input/single-output linear time-invariant dual-rate system, where the sampling interval of the plant output is longer than the holding interval of the control input. In such a dual-rate system, the intersample output might oscillate even when the sampled output converges to the reference input in the steady state. In a conventional ripple-free method, an existing control law is extended by introducing an exogenous variable, which is independent of the discrete-time sampled response, and the exogenous variable is designed for eliminating the steady-state intersample ripples without changing the existing sampled response. In another method, since a control law is designed such that the intersample performance is optimized, the intersample ripples are eliminated in the transient as well as steady states. However, the preservation of an existing sampled response is not taken into account. The present study proposes a new design method for eliminating the intersample ripples subject to the existing sampled response. In the proposed method, the continuous-time index is optimized subject to the existing discrete-time response. As a result, the intersample ripples are eliminated in the transient as well as steady states, and the existing discrete-time sampled response is maintained. The proposed method is compared to the conventional dual-rate design methods in numerical examples, and the effectiveness of the method is demonstrated.     

Investigating the role of corporate credibility in corporate social marketing: A case study of environmental initiatives by professional sport organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand how professional sport organizations might influence consumer voluntary behavior through their corporate social marketing (CSM) initiatives by focusing on the role of corporate credibility. The study examined consumer responses to environmental initiatives by two professional sport teams, and showed that organizational and program characteristics were associated with the corporate credibility of the teams in supporting environmental protection (i.e., environmental credibility). Environmental credibility, in turn, was found to have a positive association with consumer pro-environmental behavior measured by daily recycling involvement and recycling intentions during the teams’ home games. The results further revealed that environmental credibility was more strongly associated with recycling intentions during games for respondents who were less involved in environmental issues. Together, these findings suggest that professional sport organizations can be an effective vehicle for socially beneficial behavior by increasing their credibility in CSM involvement.     

Towards another kind of borderlessness: online students with disabilities

Online learning is crucial to success for higher education institutions. Whilst the existing literature predominantly focused on its economic advantages, we focused on its inclusivity. At an online learning unit of a UK university, the number of students with disabilities (SWD) is three times higher than the national average. Having a degree makes significant financial and psychological differences in the lives of SWD. Though recent literature focused on inclusivity of online learning, an appraisal of first-hand experience of SWD studying online is a missing perspective. Accordingly, we aimed to explore their experience, using thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews involving ten SWD. Three themes emerged: (1) having control over studies as an advantage of online learning, (2) personal touch helps SWD’s online learning, and (3) challenges SWD experience with the social element of online learning. Our findings will help to develop the inclusivity of online learning to a new level.     

Can earlier literacy skills have a negative impact on future home literacy activities? Evidence from Japanese

We examined the cross‐lagged relations between the home literacy environment and literacy skills in Japanese, and whether child's gender, parents' education and child's level of literacy performance moderate the relations. One hundred forty‐two Japanese children were followed from Grades 1 to 2 and assessed on character knowledge, reading fluency and spelling. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing the frequency of their teaching and shared reading. Results showed that parent teaching increased and shared reading decreased from Grades 1 to 2. Cross‐lagged path analysis indicated that the literacy skills in Grade 1 were negatively associated with parent teaching in Grade 2. The results further suggested that more educated parents of higher performing children, particularly boys, adjusted their involvement to their children's literacy skills, while less educated parents of lower performing children did not. These findings indicate the importance of parents' sensitivity to their child's performance. What is already known about this topic

• Home literacy environment (HLE) plays an important role in children's literacy acquisition in Western and some East Asian contexts.
• Children's early reading skills can have an impact on later HLE.
• The direction of the relationship between HLE and children's reading skills may change from positive in Kindergarten to negative in Grade 1.

What this paper adds

• In line with the findings of previous studies in other languages, Japanese parents adaptively adjust their home literacy activities to their child's literacy skills.
• The effect of children's literacy skills on later shared reading is stronger among boys than among girls.
• More educated parents of higher performing children adjust their involvement to their child's literacy skills, while less educated parents with lower performing children do not.

Implications for theory, policy or practice

• We should encourage parents to be sensitive to their child's literacy skills to help them build a foundation that will boost future literacy development.
• This can be particularly true of less educated parents with poorly performing children.
• We should encourage educators to communicate the children's literacy achievement to their parents and also suggest the means by which HLE could be beneficial for their children's literacy development.

     

Mediacy: what it is? Where to go?

The author re-examines the concepts in the light of “digital literacy” to determine the problems, tasks and fields of common interest. He reviews the government actions in Japan in providing access to digital knowledge and in creating information literacy, such as schools, higher education, life-long education, etc. He explores which findings in recent developments in Japan can be of common interest and shared with other advanced, as well as developing countries. Finally, possibilities for future international co-operation are discussed.     

Open Government in Israel: An analysis of Factors Promoting and Hindering Open Government Practices in Israel

The author re-examines the concepts in the light of “digital literacy” to determine the problems, tasks and fields of common interest. He reviews the government actions in Japan in providing access to digital knowledge and in creating information literacy, such as schools, higher education, life-long education, etc. He explores which findings in recent developments in Japan can be of common interest and shared with other advanced, as well as developing countries. Finally, possibilities for future international co-operation are discussed.