Monday afternoon’s East Asian Studies class will look at Japan’s controversial whale and dolphin hunting activities focusing on the American documentary ‘The Cove‘ which used hidden cameras to film the bloody annual dolphin hunt that occurs in the coastal waters around Taiji, a seaside town in Wakayama. Japan killed about 13,000 dolphins in coastal waters in 2007, 1,750 of which were captured in Taiji where villages have hunted whales for over 400 years. Japan also hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whales to be killed for research though much of the catch ends up in Japanese supermarkets.

On Tuesday afternoon, students will have the opportunity to experience the food, dance, drumming and traditional performances of Kyoto’s Korean-Japanese population  at the Kujo Madang (Festival). This festival is held annually in the grounds of the Catholic-run South Korean High School (one of only two such schools in Japan), amongst the predominantly Korean neighborhood of Higashi-kujo in southern Kyoto and is organized by members of an undercaste community made up of Koreans permanently residing in Kyoto together with Japanese citizens from a stigmatized neighborhood called “buraku.”

To finish up the week, and following on the success of last week’s classroom discussion meetings with Chris’ ‘American Culture’ course students, there will be a party with the members of Ristumeikan University’s ‘English Speaking Society’ on Friday, November 6th.

Please refer to the Calendar for further details of all these events.