From the LIST OF POSSIBILITIES, select a role (or devise one of your own definition) to assume in an exploration of Contemporary Japan in a pair of role playing exercises which will conclude the course of study. (Your choice most profitably might be related to the topic selected for your Research Essay).  After making your role choice, write a fictional autobiography of your assumed character of between five and seven pages in length (seven to nine pages for those in HIS 573) following the instructions below:   

• Based on your assumed contemporary role in Japanese society, give us your name, age, address and marital status. 

  
Discuss your place of residence, including a characterization of your living situation (rural, small town, city; apartment block, detached dwelling; traditional-style or modern).  Describe the layout of your residence and the neighborhood in which you reside. 

Note your educational background and employment history, including your occupation, current situation and job title (if appropriate) together with a description of your work duties and responsibilities.   

Tell something about your life, your family and other social ties; discuss your responsibilities within the community, your current social standing, political views and economic position.   

Include a consideration of your religious or philosophical orientation and the degree to which you adhere to its beliefs. Identify a characteristic that sets you apart as unique -- hobbies, interests, passions; unusual personal attributes; uncommon background experiences. 
   

USEFUL SOURCES describing "everyday life" in contemporary Japan.    EXAMPLE FICTIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES to inspire your efforts.   
• Be prepared to discuss contemporary Japanese life from the perspective of your chosen role in our first role playing exercise. 

The role you have assumed should be constructed as well so as to provide you with an appropriate and cohesive background from which to respond to questions asked of you in a MOCK PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY concerning major issues of the day. Your assumed personality also should be developed enough to allow you to formulate an appropriate rationale for whatever position(s) you adopt in your responses to the survey questionnaire.  Be sure to include enough "background information" in your written autobiography to permit these given reasons to sound "realistic". 
  

• Our second role playing exercise at the conclusion of the course will require you -- in your assumed role -- to discuss your (fictional) family tree and the ways in which the past continues to impact on your present life.  To make this discussion possible, you will need to construct that family tree and concoct a ficitional history to bring to bear in the role playing exercise.

  
Discuss in the closing pages of your essay, therefore, not only your family's ancestry but also ways in which life for you and your ancestors is the same and ways in which it has changed dramatically.  

Discuss ways in which the traditional history of your own family has influenced your life and the ways in which more general values from Japanese tradition still exert an attraction for you today and continue to influence your life in 2000.

A series of questions appropriate for inclusion in the MOCK PUBLIC OPINION SURVEY mentioned above is part of the assignment; these survey questions are due Wednesday, April 19, 2000.