The History of Science and Technology in Japan

This course will lecture and discuss historical issues from the history of science, technology, and medicine, as well as th social history of time and clock in pre-modern, modern, and contemporary Japan. It will cover the following topics: the introduction of Western technology in late Edo and Meiji periods, the origin of punctuality in premodern and modern Japan, the competition between traditional and modern mdicine, Japanese physicists and the atomic bomb, postwar economic and technological development and the change of time consciousness, the environmental problems in contemporary Japan. Students will be assigned to read papers, write short essays, and make presentation. All lectures will be given in English, and students are encouraged to discuss and make presentation in English.

Reference: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Technological Transformation of Japan