For Japan, Our Sister

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BACKGROUND 'For Japan, Our Sister' contributes to Asian Studies and Global Studies. It treats how Indonesians sought to provide assistance to Japan following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. -It contributes to scholarly debates relating to Japanese 'soft power', and also to debates about globalization and 'care at a distance', as for example by Silk's 'Caring at a distance' (1998), and Turner & Khondker's academic book 'Globalization East and West' (2010: 161). Other figures in these discussions include Manfred Steger, Paul James & Roland Robertson. Joseph Nye (2004) is a key contributor re soft power. -Needed in this debate are concrete examples. Valuable is an example where care was directed at a wealthier country. CONTRIBUTION The work asks 'Why did people from Indonesia provide support to Japan even though Indonesia is so much poorer and the funds almost meaningless after currency conversion?' -The work is a short documentary (8 mins). I'm the Executive Director and Producer, and conceiver of the film's concept. -The work explores an example of where care at a distance took place, and reveals much about Japanese soft power. No other work has explored such a revealing example. -The work opened up new research areas presently being pursued through a research grant won by me from the Sumitomo Foundation to explore Japanese cultural appreciation societies in SEAsia. SIGNIFICANCE This work has been shown in academic forums. It was shown at the International Convention of Asia Scholars in Adelaide in 2015. Submissions for this conference are peer-reviewed. It has been discussed in an academic publication by Farrell (2016) as a prime example of a 'global moral economy'. A draft of the film was shown in 2014 at the academic seminar ASIA@RMIT seminar (18Mar); representatives from the Japanese Consulate attended. -The work was funded through a previous research grant from the Sumitomo Foundation.