Objectives

FY2002
Prior to now Japan and South Korea have engaged in joint research on various historical and culture issues, but research on lifestyle culture in contemporary society and understanding of the same has shown almost no progress. The Japanese government designated 2002 as the “Year for Cultural Interchange between Japan and South Korea” and the fact that during this year MINPAKU and the National Ethnological Museum of Korea are jointly sponsoring the “South Korea Lifestyle Culture Exhibition” and “Japan Lifestyle Culture Exhibition” certainly has deep significance in terms of cultural interchange and mutual understanding between Japan and South Korea. This study aims to conduct basic research for these exhibitions. At the same time, this research intends to use the results of MINPAKU joint research to date concerning anthropological research in South Korea during the high economic growth period and Korean folk culture as seen through “things” as the basis for conducting surveys and compiling records from multiple angles on lifestyle culture in contemporary society in South Korea. The focus will be on clothing, food and shelter, so as to be able to construct a basic database for research on South Korean society such as has not previously existed. By doing so, we should be able to highlight the similarities and differences in the lifestyle culture of Japan and South Korea and examine various cultural problems in Japan-South Korean relations beginning with the liberalization of imports of Japanese mass culture. We will look for new vantage points to pursue our investigations.