Why ‘Cool Japan’? The concept was made influential by a prominent article in the leading American journal Foreign Policy which highlighted the boom in Japanese cultural exports and the innovation that drove that. This growing international interest has, in turn, become an impetus for more Japanese in the creative and traditional arts to engage directly with those from abroad with a professional, academic, or personal interest in Japanese aesthetics, cultural products, and style.

The rational of the program is two-fold; to celebrate DH’s growth as a distinctive content education provider and to reach out to those abroad with an interest in Japan’s contemporary culture. To those ends, the program fee is being kept to a minimum and reflects a unique opportunity for participants to explore the diversity and dynamism of Japan’s cultural industries.

Digital Hollywood University (DHU) will offer the program from July 26 to August 6 at our Akihabara Campuses.
Participants will study various aspects of Japanese culture through lectures and field trips to a place of interest such as a Japanese garden, a prominent animation studio, a live performance venue, ‘underground’ Otaku Akihabara venues and sites as well as experiencing tea ceremony.

The course will entail an intensive 10 Day program of lectures and site visits. Typically, participants will have lectures in the mornings and some excursions and events will occur in the afternoons and, on occasions, into the evenings. Whilst many of the guest speakers will be using Japanese, full English interpretation will be provided. DH staff will advise participants on supplementary activities that they might individually undertake outside the program schedule and on the middle weekend of the program in particular.
Its curriculum is distinguished by manga, anime, music, fashion, Japanese hospitality ‘Omotenashi’, well-known Japanese characters and so on. Topics include history of Japanese animation, Gothic Lolita fashion in Japanese modern fashion, pop music from J-pop to visual rock, history and popularity of manga and artistic beauty of Japanese garden. Participants will be provided with a certificate of completion and statement of activities at the end of the course. For those who wish to seek credit from their home institution for the program, DH is happy to liaise with program coordinators about assessment and reporting requirements, including joint or exclusive supervision and evaluation of a related research or field report.

Please note that the running of the program is contingent upon gaining a certain minimum number of participants. Should cancellation become unavoidable for that reason DH undertakes to inform participants in a timely fashion of its decision. However it cannot accept any liability arising for applicants owing to cancellation. We strongly urge applicants to refrain from making final payment on airfares and associated travel costs until final confirmation that the program will run as planned has been issued by DH. We currently anticipate that this will be by June 22nd 2010. We regret this element of uncertainty and ask for your understanding as this is a new and heavily subsidized initiative by our institution. In the unfortunate circumstances that the program does need to be cancelled for any reason, DH undertakes to promptly refund the application deposit. DH requests that all participants take out full travel insurance to cover medical and other expenses, including costs that may arise indirectly through the cancellation of the program.

The course will entail an intensive 10 Day program of lectures and site visits. Typically, participants will have lectures in the mornings and some excursions and events will occur in the afternoons and, on occasions, into the evenings. Whilst many of the guest speakers will be using Japanese, full English interpretation will be provided. DH staff will advise participants on supplementary activities that they might individually undertake outside the program schedule and on the middle weekend of the program in particular.
Participants will be provided with a certificate of completion and statement of activities at the end of the course. For those who wish to seek credit from their home institution for the program, DH is happy to liaise with program coordinators about assessment and reporting requirements, including joint or exclusive supervision and evaluation of a related research or field report.