Japanstudien 16

 This year’s DIJ Yearbook, Japanstudien 16, has the title “Grenzgänge – (De-)Konstruktion kollektiver Identitäten in Japan” [Crossing Borders – (De-)Construction of Collective Identities in Japan], and focuses on discourses on difference, homogeneity, and divergence. The studies comprising this book encompass theoretical, analytical, and descriptive contributions. They will, it is hoped, aid in a reconsideration of the all too familiar topos of Japanese ‘group-orientation’, the central argument within the debates on the cultural uniqueness of Japan (Nihonjinron). The essays presented in this volume examine the inhomogeneity of social, ethnic, gender and sexual groupings in Japan, and, by highlighting the occasionally contradictory divisions and intersections, critically discuss the discursive construction of collective identities.