Japan is a world power again. But this time around, the source of its influence isn’t political
or economic might — it’s what scholars are calling the nation’s “gross national cool.”
With Japanese design, digital technology, manga and anime, gaming, fashion, food
and music looming as large as Godzilla over the global cultural landscape, Temple
undergraduates will have an unprecedented opportunity this summer to learn about Japan’s pop culture juggernaut from the inside.

The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University’s Japan Campus (TUJ) in Tokyo has announced the launch of the Summer Institute in Studies in Japanese Popular Culture, a new 10-week, immersive academic program designed to develop a systematic and focused study of Japan’s pop culture as a force of global social innovation.

“We’ve seen a growing interest in Japanese culture here at TUJ,” said sociologist Kyle
Cleveland, director of the Summer Institute and the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies. “Japanese design, aesthetics and consumer culture are the most influential in the world. People talk about the rise of China, which is true politically and economically, but Japan’s cultural power is at its peak — and I think its cultural hegemony will be long lasting.”

An authority on Japanese youth and popular culture, ethnic identity and visual media studies, Cleveland is one of several leading scholars who will teach at the Summer Institute. He will be joined by Roland Kelts, the renowned half-Japanese author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture
Has Invaded the U.S.; cultural anthropologist Patrick W. Galbraith, author of The Otaku
Encyclopedia, a guide to Japan’s pop culture touchstones; and TUJ anthropologist Sachiko
Horiguchi, an expert on Japanese social and political issues relating to youth culture.

Courses in the Summer Institute’s special curriculum include “Anime in Japanese Popular Culture,” “Manga in Japanese Popular Culture,” “Youth and Popular Culture” and “Problems in Sociocultural Anthropology.” Students enroll in three of the courses offered, for a total of nine or ten credits. Students also have the option of studying Japanese language. Courses are taught in English; Japanese
language proficiency or previous background in Japanese culture is not required.

Institute classes will include field trips to art and anime exhibitions, clubs, concerts and other trips and
activities organized for Japanese and international students across TUJ. Students also will be able to attend “The Politics of Popular Culture,” a major academic conference convened by TUJ on June 5-6, where they will have a chance to meet some of the world’s leading authorities on Japanese
pop culture.

TUJ is the oldest and largest foreign university in Japan. Founded in 1982, it has developed into an internationally recognized institution offering an extensive range of educational programs. In addition to its core undergraduate program, TUJ offers graduate programs in law, business, and education; an English-language preparation program; continuing education courses; and corporate education classes. Students come from over 60 countries around the world.

The deadline to apply for the Summer Institute is Feb. 22. The summer program runs from May 19 to July 31. For more information, including application procedures, go to www.
temple.edu/studyabroad/programs/ summer/japan/popular_culture.html or visit the Office of International Programs in the Tuttleman Learning Center (215-204-0720; study.abroad@temple.edu).