Omotenashi

<strong>Centre for Japanese Studies (CJS), School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (SLL&amp;CS)</strong> <strong>Omotenashi</strong> (Quality Service) As a source of Japan's soft power and its transferability <strong>Prof. (Dr.) Takamichi Mito</strong> Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan <strong>October 28, 2016 (Friday)</strong> Visitors to Japan often express their appreciation of Omotenashi, Japan's quality service, and regularly comment on their pleasant experience. Recently, Omotenashi has become a widely-used term by the Japanese government, mass-media and hospitality business who wish to attract more inbound tourists, one of the major strategies of Abenomics (Prime Minister Abe's econom-ics). It is a term associated with the promotion of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. What is Omotenashi? What are the fundamental elements and characteristics of Omotenashi? Is it uniquely Japanese? Are there similarities and differences in quality service in Japanese and non-Japanese settings? How can it contribute to increasing Japan's soft power? Can it be transferable to a different cultural setting? This lecture addresses these related questions from an interdiscipli-nary perspective.