Paper short abstract:

My presentation will review anthropological works on Japan produced by Korean anthropologists since the 1980s with a focus on major research themes and distinctive social and institutional contexts in which anthropological knowledge on Japan is produced and consumed in Korea.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological study of Japan in Korea has a rather short history mainly because anthropology and area studies, in the modern sense, are relatively late comers in Korean social science. My presentation will review, with a focus on the following points, anthropological works on Japan that have been produced by Korean anthropologists since the 1980s. First, it will sort out major research themes and questions and examine how they reflect and interact with the general anthropological theories and paradigms of the time. Second, I will explore distinctive social and institutional contexts in which anthropological knowledge on Japan is produced and consumed in Korea. Lastly, important research themes, challenges, and tasks of Korean anthropology in relation to knowledge production on Japan are reflected.