by Daniel A. Ellrick

Daniel Ellrick has been serving with Missions to Unreached Peoples in Hiroshima since 1996, focusing on a ministry among the Burakumin. A former U.S. Marine, he holds the MSEE from the Naval Postgraduate School, and is currently studying through Fuller Theological Seminary's Distance Education program.

Introduction

Some 25 or a few more years ago, when I was at the stage of life that people were uncertain whether to refer to me as a child or a youth, I had a penchant for wandering through antique stores and museums--sometimes aimlessly and sometimes with specific hope of seeing artifacts that I knew only through novels and adventure stories. I would look about and ask myself questions like, "Are there Spanish Pieces of Eight like the ones in Robinson Crusoe for sale?, Or, Is this the very same sort of rum bottle that the pirates drank from?" Or even, "Could that odd, old, carved idol from some indeterminate land be similar to Queequeg's idol Yojo from Moby Dick?" These early quests and the love of reading which was somewhat related to them gave me an early appreciation for the variety of cultures and people in the world. In fact, I would venture to say that a great deal of the insight explicitly taught in Dr. Kraft's course is contained implicitly in Moby Dick and similar stories. In the piles of clever interpretations of Moby Dick, I wonder if there is one that treats the book as a study in forms and meanings? Or one that analyzes the worldview of Queequeg?

One day I was peering into a dark corner of a distinctly unclean antique shop when a ten-volume set of small brown books caught my eye. It turned out to be The World's Famous Orations, 1906 edition, edited by William Jennings Bryan. At the time it was a costly purchase which cleaned my pockets out, but I couldn't wait to hear the ancient voices of Greece and the more recent voices of British and American Indian statesmen speak. Over the years I have enjoyed reading how the skilled communicators of the past changed the course of history time and again by using the right words at the right time. But words alone are not the full story of what is communicated. We can see this clearly in volume VIII of the set, where there is a speech entitled "RED JACKET ON THE RELIGION OF THE WHITE MAN AND THE RED" (1805). I would like to take the liberty of repeating some of Red Jacket's words here.

Friends and Brothers: - It was the will of the Great Spirit that we should meet together this day. He orders all things and has given us a fine day for our council. .......... For all these favors we thank the Great Spirit and Him only. .......... Brother, continue to listen. You say that you are sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to His mind; and if we do not take hold of the religion which you white people teach that we shall be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right and we are lost. How do we know this to be true? .......... How shall we know when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people? .......... Brother, the Great Spirit has made us all, but He has made a great difference between His white children and His red children. He has given us different complexions and different customs. .......... why may we not conclude that He has given us a different religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right. He knows what is best for His children; we are satisfied. .......... Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. If we find that it does them good, makes them honest, and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again of what you have said.

Red Jacket's faith in His Creator is impressive; yet, I do not know if Red Jacket ever embraced Jesus Christ-I certainly hope that he did. Red Jacket's words were spoken "at a council of the chiefs of the Six Nations in the summer of 1805 after Mr. Cram, a missionary, had spoken of the work he proposed to do among them." I do not envy the task presented to Mr. Cram by Red Jacket, "Go preach to my white neighbors and I will see how it helps them to behave better." I cannot help but wonder what Mr. Cram did before and after this episode. And, would Mr. Cram have done it differently if he had studied anthropology? But Mr. Cram has been dead many years and we are alive. So the practical question is not what Mr. Cram would do, but what will we do? Or, what will I, as a missionary to the Japanese, do? One thing that I have determined to do-a determination which has been strongly reinforced by Dr. Kraft's course-is to get as much understanding of Japanese thinking as possible.

This desire to understand-to develop an etic1 perspective is the motivation for the choice of subject and the approach taken in the rest of this paper. As part of my language and culture study I have for some months been subscribing to the Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun-a Japanese elementary school-level daily newspaper. The focus of this paper is a limited examination of the content of this newspaper. In particular, this paper asks, "What insights can be gained about the worldview of Japanese children from reading this paper?"

Cultural Context

There are many excellent books and articles on Japanese culture, and no attempt is made here to duplicate the coverage that these resources provide. However, review of the following points2 may be helpful.

ù Japanese tradition holds that the Japanese are the descendants of the sun god, with the emperor being a direct descendent of the sun god and a god in his own right. This thinking was damaged, but not destroyed, by the Japanese loss in World War II and the subsequent repudiation of deity by Emperor Hirohito.

ù The emperor is viewed as the head of the Japanese traditional religion, or Shintoism. Shinto, literally "the way of the gods" has been variously described as animistic or monistic by different observers. The core of Shinto is the concept of kami. Kami are divine beings which are to be worshipped. A wide variety of things may be identified as kami, human beings, animals, plants, mountains, and rivers, etc., may all under some circumstances be regarded as kami and worshipped. These kami are generally worshipped at shrines. Shrine visits are made at appointed times of the year, at certain points in each person's life cycle, and when people desire to offer special prayers for any number of things. Most Japanese have some level of involvement in shrine worship. However, many do not consider this a religious activity, but instead view it as a cultural distinctive of Japan. Many Japanese find it difficult to distinguish between Japanese culture and Shinto practices.

ù Since the sixth century AD or earlier, Japan has also been heavily influenced by the importation of Buddhism. However, Japanese Buddhism is distinctly different than most other forms of Buddhism. At some periods of Japanese history, Shintoism and Buddhism have been forcibly united into a single state religion. Nearly all Japanese are buried with Buddhist rites.

ù Christianity has influenced Japan in many ways as well. Although most history books first speak of Christianity coming to Japan with Francis Xavier in 1549, there are those who are convinced that Christianity has been in Japan since the 6th century or even earlier.3 Either way, the impact of Christianity on Japanese Buddhism and Japanese society has been considerable.

ù Japan has also been heavily influenced by Confucianism. Confucianist principles of social structure have strongly influenced Japan since at least the Tokugawa period, and probably much earlier. The Tokugawa period, stretching from 1603 to 1867 has left a deep impression on Japanese society. Shortly after this period began, Christianity was banned and the government heavily regulated religious expression. Under the Tokugawa, social mobility was brought nearly to zero and many features of a person's life were determined at birth through membership in castes. Although the Japanese castes were officially abolished in 1871, historic family caste membership still plays an important role in the lives of many Japanese. In particular, those who are descendants of the outcastes, i.e., the Burakumin, still face considerably discrimination and prejudice in modern Japan.

ù Physical conditions in Japan, i.e., the environment, have also deeply influenced Japanese culture. Rice has been farmed as a village cooperative effort in Japan since long ages past. One result of this is the strong group awareness of Japanese society. In the USA mothers often tell their children, "Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean that you have to." In Japan the message from mothers is usually the opposite and children are encouraged to go with the group and do the same as everyone else. In reinforcing this value, Japanese mothers may quote a Japanese proverb which teaches, "The nail that sticks up will be pounded down."

ù Against this historic backdrop and the traditional culture of old Japan, a huge wave of western technology and ideas has been rising in Japan since the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868. The result is that modern Japan is marked by a blending of eastern and western practices that sometimes baffles the mind. It is not unusual for a Japanese person to be taken to a Shinto shrine shortly after birth and every year thereafter for a blessing from the local kami, and then to be married in a Western-style "Christian" marriage ceremony. But it is nearly certain that when they die, the funeral will be Buddhist. Walking the street you may see youth in school uniforms-but with purple hair. Businessmen commuting to work on bicycles make phone calls from their cellular phones at stoplights. The Shinto priest at a nearby shrine, who may have just finished 'blessing' a new taxi-cab, may be seen removing his tall ceremonial hat before sliding into his Mercedes-Benz. As he drives off, you wonder what kind of music he listens to on his CD player, rap? punk rock? or traditional Japanese samisen? This is modern Japan. The forms of Japanese culture have radically changed. But what about the meanings?

The Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun

(Daily Newspaper for Elementary School Students)

Mainichi publishes a number of different newspapers including papers for adults, preschool children, elementary school students, and junior high students, as well as an English-language edition. In this study a brief look will be taken at one of these papers, specifically the paper for elementary school students. This is an eight-page Japanese-language paper which appears seven days a week. It is available in most schools and libraries and is also heavily promoted to parents for home subscriptions. In at least some schools, it is used as a supplement to the standard textbooks and is to some extent incorporated into the curriculum. The focus of the investigation will be the attempt to gain insights into the worldview of elementary school newspaper readers. The data collection methodology used was simple and straightforward. The newspaper was subscribed to from January to August of 1998,4 during which papers with particularly interesting articles were set to one side. Immediately prior to writing this paper those papers were reread with a view specifically to applicability for this subject. Further, a scan of the previous issues of the newspaper for the entire period was made in order to verify suspected trends in the type of material and mode of presentation used by the newspaper. No attempt is made to be comprehensive or scientifically rigorous; instead, specific articles and trends are discussed informally, and from these hypotheses are made. A follow-up effort to this paper might be to take these hypotheses and test them with a more rigorous investigation.

Assumptions and Limitations

ù As a first term missionary to Japan, I subscribe to this newspaper for the primary purpose of improving my Japanese language skills. My current Japanese skills would probably be described by most observers as intermediate level. Since my language skills are limited, it is probable that I have misunderstood at least some statements in the newspaper articles discussed, but this is unlikely to change the overall impression of the articles.

ù Although the stated intent is to examine the world view of elementary school students, the methodology chosen actually tends to examine instead the worldview which the newspaper publisher, editor, and writers are attempting to teach the elementary school students. With the exception of letters from readers we do not hear the voices of the students in the paper, but instead the voices of people writing for the students. To the extent that the students are failing to learn, or rejecting, the views of these writers the hypotheses generated here will be incorrect. This is one of the primary reasons that the results of this effort are not presented as conclusions, but are instead posed as hypotheses in need of further testing. In defense of the use of this newspaper as a vehicle for examining the world view of students, it is noted that the paper is a commercially produced product that must be responsive to the desires and interests of its consumers; i.e., if elementary students did not respond positively to the paper, the paper would lose circulation and money as students, parents, and schools switched to the newspapers of existing competitors (e.g., Asahi Shimbun). For this reason there is a reasonable expectation that the paper mirrors the world view of the students to a considerable extent.

ù In some cases the insights about Japanese world view gained from this study are compared to perceived western attitudes or assumptions and/or to perceived Biblical attitudes or assumptions. In these cases it should be kept in mind that the comparison is actually to my own personal and imperfect baseline understanding of American culture and Biblical teaching; i.e., my own background and corresponding ethnocentrism without doubt shape my comparisons. In order to assist you in evaluating whether my viewpoints might be similar to or different from yours I offer the following information on myself: Caucasian, 40 years old, retired U.S. Marine, Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, raised as a Missouri farm boy, came to faith in Jesus 10 years ago, involved in various churches, mostly non-denominational since that time.

Data Items and Articles, Discussion, Hypotheses

Item: Evolutionary Theory on the Sunday Front Page

ù Discussion: Each week, the Sunday front page is used entirely for a special article, with large color pictures, about animal and fish life. (The only observed exceptions were Winter Olympic and World Cup special reports.) These articles appear in a continuing series which is systematically examining the living creatures of the world according to species and genus. In many articles specific references are made to evolutionary theory and to the "ancestry" of the animal under discussion. For example, an article about dolphins5 states, "As mammals, they used to live on the land, but in order to escape competing for food with larger animals, they returned to the sea. their hind legs regressed and disappeared, their front legs and tail changed to the shape of fins...now they look exactly like fish except they have no scales." In all observed cases this kind of material about evolution is asserted as fact with no mention of any possibility of error. Examination of the overall content "inside" the newspapers revealed many more detailed articles on animal life. In fact, virtually every issue of the paper contains some sort of animal life article. These articles also often make direct or indirect reference to evolutionary theory. No reference has yet been observed to any form of creation theory or any alternative to Darwinistic evolution.

ù Hypothesis: From the quantity and prominence of the coverage, it appears that knowledge about the animal kingdom and sea life is highly valued.

ù Hypothesis: Although evolutionary theory does not appear directly in the school curriculum until junior high school,6 elementary school students are already heavily indoctrinated in the assumptions of Darwinistic evolution. As part of their world view, nearly all elementary school students probably assume that evolutionary theory is correct since it has been consistently presented to them as factual.

Item: International Food and Religion Served on Saturday

ù Discussion: Articles with international themes appear on the Saturday morning front page without variance. For example, a series called "Daidokoro kara Sekai ga Mieru," or in translation, "You can see the World from the Kitchen" has been running for some months. Each week a story, with color pictures, focused on the kitchens of a particular country, is featured. These articles generally provide factual information about what people eat and how they prepare it. Information about geography, language, religion, economy, and other basic information about the country are also often included either in the same article or in an accompanying article. For example, the "Daidokoro kara Sekai ga Mieru" article on the people of Morocco7 includes information about Muslim dietary restrictions and about the Ramadan fast. However, no information is provided about what Muslims believe or about why they fast at Ramadan. In fact Allah is not mentioned in the article.

Based on my reading of the paper over this period, this article seems to me to illustrate a trend in how religion is handled in the newspaper generally. Discussions of religion appear rarely, and when they do the focus is on describing practices which might be unfamiliar to the students. To date in my observations, no discussion about actual beliefs or the meanings behind practices has been observed. Religious discussion is "flat" with no indication that choice is involved in religious beliefs or practice - e.g., the people of Morocco are Muslim; therefore, they observe Ramadan. In addition to the Saturday front page series, numerous other articles about other countries and peoples appear in the paper. The general content is similar - "social studies" type reporting of information about the people of other countries. Articles are generally devoid of any value judgments about whether different lifestyles are "better" or "worse" than Japanese norms. Attitudes and beliefs are rarely mentioned; the focus is on what people in other countries do and on geography.

ù Hypothesis: From the quantity and prominence of the coverage, it appears that knowledge about foreign countries, peoples, and customs is highly valued.

ù Hypothesis: Awareness of the existence of various religions and some of their most distinctive practices is probably generally high. Knowledge of the actual beliefs of those religions is probably generally very low.

Item: Horoscopes and Seers

ù Discussion: A simple horoscope based on birth months appears weekly on page 6 of the Sunday paper. The information supplied reflects the interests of the target audience, which, judging by the published letters from readers, is almost entirely female, aged 9-12 years. Translated, a sample horoscope for readers born in August8 reads (somewhat mysteriously): "Magnolia = Love of Nature For creatures who have lost their way in the home, the key to good luck. <Let's be kind!> Lucky: history books, choices, the number 3. Caution: catchball, lizards. Good affinities: Vegetable sellers, the letter E. Bad affinities: Manicure people."

In addition to providing you with this sort of helpful weekly hints about life, letters from readers are answered and advice provided. The advice is not merely suggestions, but is instead presented in strong terms-presumably as authoritative information from an "expert" astrologer. Normally, no information is provided about how the astrologer came up with the horoscopes or with answers to letters. Most letters inquire about love matters (e.g., I like this boy, but he likes my friend, what should I do?) or ask about advice for future employment. All (published) letters sent in include the author's birthdate and the birthdates of any other involved people.

In the "letters" section of the previously quoted horoscope column, a twelve-year-old girl writes in and says she is considering being either a singer or a radio actor.9 But, according to the reply, the stars show otherwise - this young lady should be a cook! In fact, she should start getting her mother to teach her as much cooking as possible, and perhaps she will even become a famous chef or cooking teacher. This sort of reply could potentially have a tremendous impact on the young girl's life. Aside from the emotional impact of having been told that her dreams of being a singer or a radio actor are "not to be," she is also being redirected away from all academic pursuits. In Japan, those becoming cooks are not likely to go to regular university, or even regular high school. Instead, they generally attend a special trade school after completing junior high. This is not intended to be a judgment about the relative desirability of being a cook or a singer; it is a comment about how a young girl's choices in life may be dramatically impacted by the answer given by an astrologer who has never even met her and knows nothing about her except her birthdate.

In addition to the influence of the weekly horoscope, seer-type figures who can tell others about their future also occur in the comic strips10 carried by the newspaper and in some of the short stories which appear. For example, in one article, a Japanese version of the Ouija board is a central feature of a story11 involving boys trying to find out which girls like them.

ù Hypothesis: Japanese worldview, including that of children, is strongly influenced by fatalism and deterministic thinking, probably largely due to historic and current Buddhist influence on the culture. As a result, there is an assumption that much of your future has already been determined by your environment (e.g., being a Japanese born on a certain date, etc.). The process of choosing a boyfriend or a career is viewed, at least in part, as trying to discover what has already been determined by fate. As a result, there is considerable interest in the opinions of astrologers and seers. However, such material is packaged differently according to gender, i.e., stories and comic strips that target males, horoscopes that target females.

Item: Sexual Content

ù Discussion: The sexual content of the newspaper is startlingly high when you consider that the target audience is elementary school children. This first came to my attention shortly after I subscribed to the paper when I read a story12 in which a young boy (11 or 12 years old?) visited a mixed bathing facility13 with his grandparents and experienced sexual excitement (physical arousal is described in some detail) when he witnessed an old man making explicit comments about the anatomy of a woman. The woman replied in similar language and told the old man, in effect, "You probably couldn't perform anyway." At this point the old man told the young boy, somewhat enviously, "All my copulating14 is behind me, but for you it is all in the future. Be sure to take good care of your (male sexual organ), so that it can enjoy a lot of (female sexual organs)." Throughout this exchange, all parties were nude and fully exposed in the shower area. Male and female sexual organs were both referred to explicitly. The boy's older sister (teenage?) and grandparents were also present and unclothed. The theme appeared to be the awakening sexual awareness of the young boy, who was deeply embarrassed. However, the grandparents seemed to encourage the boy to not be embarrassed about the incident. This was by far the most explicit story I have seen in the newspaper, but stories of similar theme appear occasionally.

In May, a series of sexually suggestive stories appeared. Although less explicit (verbally) than the earlier story, this was a series which contains a number of disturbing features. The basic story line is as follows: A boy (perhaps 11-12 years old) and his older sister meet a sculptor. The sculptor invites the sister (judging by the accompanying drawing, probably 13-14 years old) to model for him.15 The sister isn't sure what is meant, so the sculptor takes the brother and sister into his work room where there are a number of bronze sculptures of nude women. When the boy begins to notice and point out the breasts of one statue, his sister takes him home. In the next installment,16 accompanied by a picture of the boy with his arm around a nude bronze Venus, the boy examines the statues and comments on the variety of poses, standing with chest out, sitting, and sleeping. This time when the boy goes home he tells his father about the statues and asks his father who would have modeled for such statues. The father's reply is that it was probably a "traveling seller of trinkets," (i.e., an example of a person of low social class). But then the boy is startled to notice that on the page of the newspaper17 his father is looking at, a photograph of the same girl who modeled for the nude statues appears. The boy says nothing to his father about this, and it is left to the reader's imagination whether the photograph is also a nude or not.

In installment #11,18 the boy and his sister are watching the sculptor work on a new statue. At this time the boy relates how he is familiar with such statues because of one in a fountain in front of a museum. He then goes on to explain how one day he distracted the museum security guard so that he could stroke the buttocks of the nude statue, and that after that, he touched the statue "here and there" many times. The story ends without the elder sister ever modeling for the sculptor, although she never gives a clear verbal rejection of the idea. On one occasion, the boy offers to model, but the sculptor rejects this on the grounds that he doesn't like males and has no heart to sculpt men. Here and elsewhere, the sculptor is consistently portrayed, not as a detached artist, but as very interested in his subject matter.

The entire series is sexually suggestive in many ways. The sculptor wants the (teenage?) sister to model for his work. The boy wants to touch. The father is looking at pictures of the same girl as the one who appears in the nude statues. Additionally, in Japanese the word for "elder sister" is often used to refer to any older female, and the boy refers to both his own sister and the nude statues as "elder sister." To me, speaking Japanese as a second language, this gives a very odd and almost incestuous tone to how the story reads (although I don't know if a native speaker would see this the same way). E.g., where the boy says, "I reached out and stroked the round buttocks of elder sister," it is clear from context that he means the nude bronze in front of the museum, but in another context it could also refer to his own sister.

In addition to suggestive references to sex in fictional stories, a surprisingly matter-of-fact discussion of sex has also appeared in the "Talking about the Body" series by Doctor Wahaha (apparently a fictional name). In one article,19 a clinically unemotional, but explicit description of sexual reproduction is included. Sperm, eggs, ovaries, puberty, fallopian tubes, hormones, etc., are all discussed. When Doctor Wahaha comes to the point about how the sperm from the male gets to the eggs in the female, he says simply, "the male and the female embrace, the male's penis is placed in the female's vagina and the sperm is ejaculated." The overall explanation is framed in the form of following the life of a "Miss A" from birth, coming to puberty, embrace by a male, to a subsequent pregnancy. The male is not given any name and appears only at the essential moment. This is straightforward sex education, but Dr. Wahaha cannot resist the comment, "Now you understand 'Kokontoko' better, don't you?" This is, apparently, a reference to a classical Japanese story with sexual content.

ù Hypothesis: Japanese elementary school children are informed about the mechanics of sex and are encouraged to be aware of the coming onset of puberty and the emotional feelings and physical changes which accompany it.

ù Hypothesis: The easily observable20 interest of many modern Japanese males in pornography and, in particular, in school girl fantasies, begins as early as elementary school and may include an incestuous dimension.

Note: The family involvement in the stories of a boy's sexual awakening is surprising to me - grandfather, grandmother, father, and sister all appear intimately involved along with strangers and casual acquaintances. In particular, the elder sister's very consistent presence and involvement in the stories is surprising and seems to me likely to inspire incestuous fantasies in younger male readers with unknown consequences for their worldview, particularly with relation to their attitude toward sexual matters and family. Further, the sculptor's desire to use the elder (but, still very young) sister for a (presumably nude) model, and the father being observed looking at a picture of the same young girl who modeled for the nude bronzes, are all suggestive of an interest by older men in much young women/girls.

Item: Japanese Religion

ù Discussion: Traditional Japanese religious forms appear regularly in a variety of ways in the newspaper. The Sun God,21 and/or other Shinto deities appear in the comics regularly, ghosts and spirits of deceased people appear regularly in stories,22 major memorial services for the World war II dead are reported23 with descriptions of Buddhist worship services, etc. The quantity of appearances is such that most editions of the newspaper contain one or more references to traditional Japanese religious forms. In general, with the exception of things like news reports of memorial services, these appearances are usually within the context of fiction. Nonetheless, the consistent appearances, both as the main point of stories and comics and as "backdrop" against which stories occur must have a powerful enculturating impact.

ù Hypothesis: Japanese elementary children are at an early age heavily enculturated to view traditional Japanese religious forms as normative religious expressions.

ù Hypothesis: Japanese children perceive the dead to be in some sense still "present" as spirits and have an interest in "pleasing the ancestors."

Miscellaneous Observations

No attempt is made here to provide discussion or corresponding hypotheses for the following items, but they are provided in order to give a greater breath of understanding about the newspaper's typical content:

ù Western "Christian" cultural forms appear occasionally in articles and photos. Crosses, a cathedral with stained glass, and a reference to the angel Gabriel have all been spotted. No discussion of the meaning of these forms has been observed.

ù Peace, environmental concerns, and "one-world-ness" appear frequently and are consistently presented as extremely important.

ù Problems school children face, including school violence and bullying, are occasionally discussed and some sort of resolution suggested. Generally, the recommended solution to most problems is to "gambare" (try hard, do one's best) and to use "gaman" (patience or self-control).

ù Considerable space is provided to "messages" from television animation heroes, music stars, and similar sources. These are generally friendly, "thanks for being a fan" type communications with dramatic pictures and little verbal content. However, the frequent coverage and considerable space in the newspaper provided to such characters must be a powerful affirmation to children about the importance of these "heroic" characters. As a result these figures, including fictional ones, may have the status of "opinion leaders" to many children.

Closing Comments

In this paper a number of hypotheses about the worldview of Japanese elementary children have been developed. These hypotheses are based almost entirely on the enculturation messages presented in a single, newspaper-format source. The newspaper content is, of course, controlled by adults. As such the newspaper is a tool used by the previous generation to pass their own worldview on to the next generation. For these reasons, until validation is available, it seems inappropriate to draw conclusions about the worldview of Japanese children and thus only hypotheses are presented. However, most, if not all, of the hypotheses presented are cited as characteristics of the worldview of adult Japanese in published works24 on the subject.

Notes

1Etic perspective - An informed outsider's understanding of a culture.

2My presentation of these points is influenced by the work of Takie S. Lebra and William P. Lebra, ed., Japanese Culture and Behavior (Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 1974).

3Angela Jeffs, "First Christmas here: A.D. 551?" The Japan Times, December 22, 1996: 12.

4Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, January 10-August 15, 1998.

5"Mizu no Ikimono-HANDOUIRUKA," (The Sea's Living Creatures-Bottle Nose Dolphin) Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, April 19, 1998: 1.

6According to a public school teacher.

7"Daidokoro kara Sekai ga Mieru-Morocco," Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, July 11, 1998: 1.

8Horoscope, Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, August 2, 1998: 6.

9In Japan, this job title includes the voices for dubbing over foreign-produced movies and TV programs - it is a very popular goal among young girls.

10Especially in "Fushigi Kun wa Kyou mo DOKI-DOKI" - a direct translation of this is problematic; let's just say it refers to a central character in the strip, a male child whose name means "strange/marvelous/wonderful" and who has a heart-pounding adventure again today.

11Katsuhiko Takuhashi, "Angel of Love," Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, January 11, 1998: 3.

12Unfortunately, I have lost this article and do not have a proper reference for it. I believe that it appeared in December of 1997 or early January of 1998 before I began saving the newspaper.

13Public mixed bathing facilities were the norm in Japan until Protestant missionaries condemned the practice over a hundred years ago. Now public bathing facilities are becoming less common and where they are found they are generally separated by gender. However, old-style mixed facilities are still occasionally seen, particularly in some rural areas.

14Sexual vocabulary used in the article was explicit in meaning; however I am not really qualified to judge whether the words used would seem overly rude or shocking to the average Japanese.

15Keiko Watanabe, "Imbalance," (no. 6 in a series of with the same title) Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, May 18, 1998: 2.

16Keiko Watanabe, "Imbalance," (no. 7 in a series of the same title) Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, May 19, 1998: 2.

17In Japan there are many types of newspapers with content ranging from economic news to pornography, and anything in between.

18Keiko Watanabe, "Imbalance," (no. 11 in a series of the same title) Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, May 25, 1998: 2.

19Makoto Yamada, "Wahaha sensei no Karada no Hanashi," (no. 234 in a series of the same title) Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, February 20, 1998: 5.

20If you have not observed this, a few visits to convenience stores and telephone booths near train stations in any larger Japanese city will quickly confirm it.

21E.g., "Fushigi Kun wa Kyou mo DOKI-DOKI," story: Haruka Ishigami, art: Misako Nachi, Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, July 30, 1998: 6.

22E.g. Shun Akasegawa, "Mijikai Monogatari-Goalkeeper," Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, January 4, 1998: 3, and many other places.

23E.g., "Okinawa Haterumajima's Memorial Service," Mainichi Shougakusei Shimbun, August 6, 1998: 1, among numerous others.

24E.g., The Gospel Encounters the Japanese Worldview. Hayama Missionary Seminar, 28th Annual Report, 1987.