MIYAKE Toshio

Institution:
Department of Asian and North African Studies

Photograph:

Brief Self Introduction:
Majors:
• BA hons., Japanese Religion (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice)
• MA, Sociology (Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)
• PhD, Japanese Literature (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice)

Research interests:
• Occcidentalism, Orientalism, Self-Orientalism
• Postcolonial studies, cultural studies, whiteness studies, media studies
• Globalization of Japanese popular cultures (manga, anime, youth subcultures)
• Socio-cultural history of Italy-Japan relations

I am currently a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University. Previously, I was a JSPS post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Sociology at Kyoto University and taught at different Italian universities (University of Venice, Urbino, Perugia, Calabria).

My past research started from a broader interest in the relations between identity, culture and power, drawing from a multi-disciplinary education in anthropology, sociology and literary studies. Starting this year, I will conduct a research project funded by the European Commission under the Seventh.

Framework Program:
•Title: “Beyond “the West” and “the East”: Occidentalism, Orientalism, and Self-Orientalism in Italy-Japan Relations” (2011-13).

A fundamental assumption of my research is that there is still insufficient knowledge about the complex processuality of Occidentalism that enables it to reproduce itself as a hegemonic and naturalized constellation of discourses, practices and institutions in different periods and in widely different regions. This project aims at contributing to critical enquiry into the modern notions of “the West” and of “the East” by elaborating an interrelational theory of Occidentalism, Orientalism, and Self-Orientalism. The first part is historiographic and will focus on the intersectional dynamic of mutual perceptions, actions and representations as seen in Italy-Japan relations from the 19th century to the 1990s. The second part is ethnographic and will focus on the ‘Italy boom’ in Japan and ‘Cool Japan’ in Italy from the 1990s to the present. The final scope is to attest the reproduction or dismissal of the hegemonic relevance of modern Occidentalism, in accordance to the transnational imperatives induced by present regionalism in Europe/Asia and globalisation in the world.

In regards to the second part of this research project, I am doing fieldwork on the intertwined relation between globalization, institutional nation branding of Italy/Japan, and youth consumption of popular cultures. In other words, the intersection of intimate and public spheres addressed by the GCOE program is of crucial interest for my understanding of Occidentalism in relation to Asia and contemporary globalization. Finally, I warmly welcome the opportunity to exchange research issues and findings with so many scholars from all over the world, thanks to the extended network of partners united by the GCOE program.

Selected Publications:
Books:
• Occidentalismi. La narrativa storica giapponese (Occidentalisms: Historical Narrative in Japan), Venezia: Cafoscarina, 2010.

Book chapters:
• “Italy Made in Japan: Occidentalism, Orientalism and Self-Orientalism in Contemporary Japan”, in Graziella Parati (ed.), New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies, vol. 1, New York: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (forthcoming 2011/12).
• “Mostri made in Japan. Orientalismo e auto-orientalismo nell’epoca della globalizzazione” (Monsters made in Japan: Orientalism and Self-Orientalism in the Age of Globalisation), in Matteo Casari (ed.), Culture del Giappone contemporaneo (Cultures of Contemporary Japan), Latina: Tunué, pp. 161-93, 2011.
• “Black is beautiful. Il boom delle ganguro-gyaru” (Black is Beautiful. The Boom of the Ganguro-Gyaru), in Alessandro Gomarasca (ed.), La bambola e il robottone. Culture pop nel Giappone contemporaneo (Dolls and Robots. Pop Cultures in Contemporary Japan), Turin: Einaudi, pp. 111-44 (translated in French: Poupees, robots. La culture pop japonaise, Autrement, Paris 2002, pp. 60-79).

Journals:
• “Economie minori insulari. La persistenza della caccia-raccolta ad Alicudi” (Minor Insular Economies. The Persistence of Hunting-Gathering in Alicudi), Erreffe. La ricerca folklorica, n. 46, October 2002, pp. 125-33, 2002.

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