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新領域・次世代の日本研究, オタゴ, 2016年11月24日-25日

Globalization, Localization, and Japanese Studies in the Asia-Pacific Region : Past, Present, Future, シドニー大学, 2003年11月10日-13日

This discussion attempts to reconcile various seemingly contradictory research results regarding the origins of Jōmon Japanese. The focus is on testing Oppenheimer’s theory of Holocene outmigration from the former continent of Sundaland in present-day Southeast Asia against the evidence relating to Jōmon Japan and the “Out of Taiwan” hypothesis for Austronesian language dispersal. It is argued here that postglacial flooding of Sundaland prompted some former inhabitants to migrate from around ten or eleven thousand years ago, and that they followed the expanding belt of lucidophyllous forest, eventually to settle in what is now Japan during the Jōmon Period, in accordance with the theory of regional pockets of “laurilignosa culture.” It is stressed that some of these people were probably speakers of Austronesian languages. Further, it is argued that the “Out of Taiwan” movement of Austronesian language speakers could have occurred later as a migratory counterflow accompanying the Holocene maximum, and that an “Out of Sunda” scenario of migration to Japan in the Jōmon period is not necessarily entirely incompatible with such an “Out of Taiwan” theory.

The deities known as araburu kami, malevolent deities, in japanese mytohology have previosly been interpreted as deities of transportation.By employing the structurelist meethodology pf French anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss, this paper explores the meaning of these myths that appear in fudoki in a way in which they have not been approached before, and the result is a new interpretation. In sfort, araburu kami are the 'wild sprits' of female river seities that are pacifes by irribgation and flood control works carried out by the ruling elite or Korean immigrants. The hidden 'message' of these myths is that Korean technology, i.e.'culture', triumpth over Japanese 'nature'.

The thesis traces the development of rural depopulation in post-war Japan. Emphasis is placed on the demographic, economic and social factors which have affected, and been affected by, rural depopulation. Special reference is made to original research on seven remote depopulated settlements of the Tajima region of northern Hyogo Prefecture. It is argued that rural depopulation occurs principally in industrialized nations such as Japan, as a combined result of demographic transition and large-scale rural-urban migration of young, productive people from the remoter rural areas. In the case of Japan, the late development of the communications network and problems of accessibility in remote rural areas are shown to have had a profound impact on the depopulation process. Moreover, the poor organizational structure of forest management and problems in the agrarian structure are major drawbacks to the development of depopulated areas. It is argued that although rural depopulation occurred swiftly in post-war Japan, its potential severity has been alleviated on balance by several devices, notably by benevolent agricultural policy and the practice of seasonal migration for employment (dekasegi), There has been a rapid increase in the proportion of part-time farming in Japan, which, in depopulated settlements that are often beyond commuting distance to off-farm job opportunities, frequently takes the form of dekasegi. Dekasegi is demonstrated to be an important transitional stage in the rural depopulation process. In the remoter settlements of Japan, the instigation of small cooperative activities are shown to alleviate many of the economic and social problems caused by rural depopulation and may help to sustain or revitalize the economy of many depopulated settlements.