Although various aspects of research focus on the "kataribe (narrators)" of such "negative heritage" as Hiroshima, Okinawa, and Minamata, few studies examine the dialogue between "kataribe" and "assistants." The present paper explores the possibility of creating appropriate "ba (place)" for pondering upon the past and present concerning the case of Minamata disease, by scrutinizing the interaction of a "kataribe" with "assistant" in the "talk" sessions at Minamata Disease Museum. Through the analysis of these dialogue-type sessions, it is clear that such sessions can produce a rich and fruitful "ba," where all participants can become involved in constructing the meanings of Minamata disease incidents and reflect upon their significance.

View full abstract

As the number of Japanese language students overseas increases, learning environments are becoming more diversified. The recent increase in web based videoconferencing systems has enabled "face-to-face" communication between the Japanese native speaker and the overseas learner. Although web based video conferencing has become an indispensable tool for developing participants' language skills, this technological resource introduces interactive and multiple linguistic issues. To effectively utilize this technology in an educational situation, these issues need to be analyzed from a theoretical perspective and in light of empirical evidence. This study aims to use discourse analysis to decipher characteristic strategies for creating fluid communication in distance contact situations. Focusing on a socio-cultural approach, communication via videoconference creates an opportunity whereby students can learn autonomously while benefiting from collaboration with Japanese participants. Through qualitative investigations of collected protocol analysis, this study identifies strategic behaviors of conversation, based on visual, environmental and phonetic factors. From these observations, the author argues that effective distance communication has considerable linguistic features including multimodal strategies and that ultimately, extensive future research is needed to clarify the varied discourse environments.

View full abstract

While the widely held opinion, which regards rhetoric as civic education, has been conceived as unproblematic, many rhetoricians are not sure how rhetoric could achieve civility through pedagogy without replicating the logic of modernity complicit with nation-state coupled with colonialism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. Indeed, rhetoricians are faced with complexities by which civility could not easily be subject to a modern framework of pedagogy of rhetoric. This paper attempts to open up a forum through which rhetoricians could argue what constitutes civility and how civility could be taught in the current contexts in which many (late) modern constructs are at stake.

View full abstract

This paper introduces a course in Rhetoric with an emphasis on innovation and invention by creatively using rhetorical terms and diagrams. This is prepared for students coming from different disciplines with different goals and interests. The idea is that rhetorical terms and diagrams can help students think innovatively and work creatively. This is a small departure from modern Rhetoric courses that provide knowledge and skills for writing or critical approaches to various discourses. Instead, this course attempts to work with the frameworks, strategies, and elements of other fields in which students study. Examples of Business, Education, and Literature in conjunction with Rhetoric are introduced in this paper.

View full abstract

The paper contemplates how rhetoric is to be organized and delivered in Japanese universities, especially in their Communication Studies departments. After a short literature review in the first section, I will attempt in the second section to describe symbolic power of the departments aiming for practical/empirical learning, as is exemplified in many departments of Communication Studies in Japan, exerting its effect to their rhetoric faculties. Here I will argue that, in order to convey the impact of rhetorical education to students in such departments, rhetoricians need some rhetorical strategy on the podium. In the third section, I will introduce my rhetorical strategy as an experiment/experience of organizing a rhetoric lecture as a set of narratives.

View full abstract

Recently, an increasing number of people, including college students, company recruiters and career counselors are preferably using the term "communication skills." While some scholars of communication studies are pursuing the structure and function of communication, others are discussing social events from a viewpoint of 'knowledge/power' as in Michel Foucault's Panopticism, regarding communication as topos for critical thought and practice. This paper deals with the critical approach, in which we attempt to make reflective thinking to relativize rigid thought patterns that could force us to think or act in a particular or restricted way. We discuss the potentiality of rhetoric research and education that would provide a backbone to communication studies and communication education.

View full abstract