1st Edition

Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan

Edited By Matthew Allen, Rumi Sakamoto Copyright 2006
    240 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Japanese popular culture is constantly evolving in the face of internal and external influence. Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan examines this evolution from a new and challenging perspective by focusing on the movements of popular culture into and out of Japan.

    Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the book argues that a key factor behind the changing nature of Japanese popular culture lies in its engagement with globalization. Essays from a team of leading international scholars illustrate this crucial interaction between the flows of Japanese popular culture and the constant development of globalization. Drawing on rich empirical content, this book looks at Japanese popular culture as it traverses international borders flowing out through such forms as manga consumption in New Zealand and flowing in through such forms as foreigners writing about Japan in Japanese and how American influences affected the formation of Japan’s gay identity.

    Presenting current, confronting and sometimes controversial insights into the many forms of Japanese popular culture emerging within this global context, Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan will make essential reading for those working in Japanese studies, cultural studies and international relations.

    Acknowledgements  Note on Japanese Names and Words  1. Introduction: Inside-Out Japan: Popular Culture and Globalization in the Context of Japan  Section 1: Reconfiguring Japan  2. Japanese Popular Culture and postcolonial Desire for 'Asia'  3. South Park does Japan: Going Global with Chimpokomon  4. The Film Bishônen and Queer(n) Asia through Japanese Popular Culture  5. Japan Beating: The Making and Marketing of Professional Taiko Music in Australia  6. Who Reads Comics? Manga Readership among First Generation Asian Immigrants in New Zealand  Section 2: Becoming Global  7. Sportsports: Cultural Exports and Imports in Japan's Contemporary Globalization Career  8. Writing as Out/Insiders: Contemporary Japan's Ekkyô Literature in Globalization  9. Japan's Original 'Gay Boom'  10. Subcultural Unconsciousness in Japan: The War and Japanese Contemporary Artists  11. The 'Most Crucial Education': Saotome Katsumoto, Globalization and Japanese Anti-War Thought  12. Loochoo Beat(s): Music In and Out of 'Okinawa'

    Biography

    Matthew Allen, Rumi Sakamoto