Re-Structuring the Multilayer of Japanese Cultural Agents-Actors Towards Thailand from the 1970s to its Way in the 2010s

Conference: The Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities (PCAH2022)
Title: Re-Structuring the Multilayer of Japanese Cultural Agents-Actors Towards Thailand from the 1970s to its Way in the 2010s
Stream: Political Science, Politics
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Preechaya Kittipaisalsilpa, Asian Development Bank Institute, Japan

Abstract:

Throughout the studied periods, several Japanese cultural agents-actors have been re-established and suspended under the changes in their interests towards Thailand. Despite large numbers of Japanese cultural agencies and practitioners in Thailand nowadays, this subject still has not been studied as much as it should be. This study applies the agent-structural framework explained by constructivism, and argues that Japanese cultural policy towards Thailand has been developed as a response by Japanese cultural practitioners to different construction of structures between Japan and the international community. The study divides into three parts. Part 1 engages the agent-structural framework into an analytical framework. Part 2 looks into structural changes where Japan defined its place towards Thailand from the 1970s-2010s. Part 3 discusses four major flagships of Japanese cultural agents; the MOFA, the Japan Foundation, Japanese private institutions, and Japanese private counterparts—how each corresponds in the changing different timeline and social contexts of agent’s practice from government-to-private practices. The result shows the adjustments of Japan’s national interest towards Thailand that prioritises its cultural relations and activities differently in each period of time. While Japanese governmental agencies are responsible for the conduct of cultural policy at the decision-making level, the shift in the structural context after the late 1990s allows more dynamic operations among non-state cultural actors at the practical level. This shift in the state’s identities and national interests bolster better opportunities for non-state actors to build shared expectations of Japanese values and political-social relations among Thai society.

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