JAPN 311: Social Issues In Japan
Course description: As the drive to rebuild modern Japan after WWII has slowed, latent and new social problems have become visible. This course offers interdisciplinary perspectives on issues such as care of the elderly and homeless, equal treatment of minorities, gender and labor issues, domestic and world ecological concerns, and relevant institutions that promote or attack prejudice towards heterogeneous social groups.
Japn 311: Social Issues in Japan helped me to fulfill MLO 4; secondary cultural knowledge. This course was extremely interesting because the class was composed of students with different backgrounds. There were classmates from Japan, America, Australia, Spain and Mexico making the class very diverse. I was very excited to have an opportunity to learn about another culture. This class focused in the social issues Japan suffers and we were able to analyze and compare them to the social issues here in America.
Most of our class consisted of having group discussions and in every group we made sure we had a least one to two Japanese students to hear first hand experiences from them and from those that had different background. After having the class discussion in small groups then we share what we spoke about with the rest of the class. The topics were very interesting and many times controversial. We talked about the stereotypes that American’s have created for Japanese and vise versa.
One of our class assignments was to present about a certain Japanese prefecture to the rest of the class. I got an amazing opportunity to work with two Japanese exchange students and one American. We were assigned to present about Southern Kyushu that is composed of Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. In our presentation we talked about geography and nature, attractions, and social issues of the entire prefecture. Overall, each area of the prefecture has its own problems and that it will take some years and new policies to reverse some of them. How beautiful is the area with its unique attractions. I also had an opportunity to write a six page research paper about the Japanese educational system. In conclusion this class helped me to learn about Japan's social issues and compare them to the American's.
Most of our class consisted of having group discussions and in every group we made sure we had a least one to two Japanese students to hear first hand experiences from them and from those that had different background. After having the class discussion in small groups then we share what we spoke about with the rest of the class. The topics were very interesting and many times controversial. We talked about the stereotypes that American’s have created for Japanese and vise versa.
One of our class assignments was to present about a certain Japanese prefecture to the rest of the class. I got an amazing opportunity to work with two Japanese exchange students and one American. We were assigned to present about Southern Kyushu that is composed of Kumamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. In our presentation we talked about geography and nature, attractions, and social issues of the entire prefecture. Overall, each area of the prefecture has its own problems and that it will take some years and new policies to reverse some of them. How beautiful is the area with its unique attractions. I also had an opportunity to write a six page research paper about the Japanese educational system. In conclusion this class helped me to learn about Japan's social issues and compare them to the American's.
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