Students

Discussion Questions

Debra J. Occhi, “Kumamon: Japan’s Surprisingly Cheeky Mascot”

• Readers may have their own reactions to Kumamon, as a Japanese yuru kyara, a mascot, cuteness, and the like. How do these reactions reflect readers’ (a) identity construction as members of various social categories and (b) personal histories?
• Choose a familiar mascot from a sports team, brand, locality, yuru kyara, and the like, and compare it with Kumamon. What are the most important similarities and differences? What broader issues emerge from this comparison?
• What are some challenges to Kumamon’s globalization? Do you think Kumamon will become as recognizable worldwide as Hello Kitty?
• Are there yuru kyara or the equivalents where you live? Why or why not?
• Suppose you have been hired to design a local character for your hometown. What kind of character would you design? What would the character look like? What is its name? What kinds of goods would it be marketed on? How is your character similar to Kumamon aesthetically, culturally, socially, and/or historically?

Suggested Readings

Debra J. Occhi, “Kumamon: Japan’s Surprisingly Cheeky Mascot”

• Occhi, Debra. 2009. “Tiny Buds Whispering: Ideologies of Flowers in Contemporary Japanese.” Social Semiotics 19 (2): 213–229.
• Occhi, Debra. 2010. “Consuming Kyara ‘Characters’: Anthropomorphization and Marketing in Contemporary Japan.” Comparative Culture 15: 77–86.
• Occhi, Debra. 2012. “Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message: Comparing Japanese Kyara with their Anthropomorphic Forebears.” Asian Ethnology 71 (1): 109–132.
• Occhi, Debra. 2014. “Yuru Kyara, Humanity, and the Uncanny Instability of Borders in the Construction of Japanese Identities and Aesthetics.” Japan Studies: The Frontier 7 (1) 1–11.

Discussion Questions

Christine R. Yano, “Hello Kitty is Not a Cat?!?: Tracking Japanese Cute Culture at Home and Abroad”

• How has cute culture become both a symbol of Japan and a global phenomenon? What is the nature of the phenomenon?
• What is the appeal of Hello Kitty—in Japan and globally?
• What can Hello Kitty teach us about our world? Why should we take her seriously?
• How does kawaii work as a function of nostalgia? What view of childhood does this nostalgia paint?
• What is the role of kyarakutā in everyday life in Japan?  How does the proliferation of kyarakutā affect the visual world around us, as well as the affective world within us?
• Does knowing Hello Kitty’s backstory change how you think about the character? Why? 

Suggested Readings

Christine R. Yano, “Hello Kitty is Not a Cat?!?: Tracking Japanese Cute Culture at Home and Abroad”

• Allison, Anne. 2004. “Cuteness as Japan’s Millennial Product.” In Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, edited by Joseph Tobin, 34–49. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Japanese American National Museum. n.d. Hello! Exploring the Supercute World of Hello Kitty.
• Miranda, Carolina A. 2014. “Hello Kitty Is Not a Cat, Plus More Reveals Before her L.A. Tour.” Los Angeles Times, August 24.
• Yano, Christine. R. 2013. Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hello Kitty Road Work Barrier in Shinjuku

Hello Kitty roadwork Barrier in Shinjuku, Tokyo, 2016. Courtesy of Toby Slade.

Discussion Questions

Hirofumi Katsuno, “The Grotesque Hero: Depictions of Justice in Tokusatsu Superhero Television Programs”

• How is Moonlight Mask’s role as an “ally of justice” different from the heroism of classic American superheroes, such as Superman?
• What internal contradictions emerged in the production of the Ultra series? How did they symbolize Japanese ambiguity toward American power?
• In what ways do Kikaider’s igyō background make this superhero distinct from pre-1970s superheroes?
• How does the incompleteness of Jirō/Kikaider’s conscience circuit shape his heroic stature?
• How do superheroes reflect their historical times? What do superheroes today say about our world?
• Did you know any of the tokusatsu superheroes described in this chapter before? If so, where did you see them? What are their legacies today? Do they still appear on television, in film, and other media? Do they influence other characters?

Suggested Readings

Hirofumi Katsuno, “The Grotesque Hero: Depictions of Justice in Tokusatsu Superhero Television Programs”

• Allison, Anne. 2006. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Gill, Tom. 1998. “Transformational Magic: Some Japanese Superheroes and Monsters.” The Worlds of JapanesePopular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures, edited by Dolores P. Martinez, 33–55. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Tsutsui, William and Michiko Ito, eds. 2006. In Godzilla’s Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons of the Global Stage. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Watch List

Hirofumi Katsuno, “The Grotesque Hero: Depictions of Justice in Tokusatsu Superhero Television Programs”

Television Series Analyzed in Chapter Four:

• Moonlight Mask (Gekkō Kamen), 1958-1959 KRTV (now TBS)
• Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu), 1963-1966 (Fuji TV), 1980-1981 (NTV), 2003-2007 (Fuji TV)
• Ultra Q (Urutora Kyū), 1966 (TBS)
• Ultraman (Urutoraman, 1966-1967 (TBS)
• Ultraseven, 1967-1968 (TBS)
• Android Kikaider (Jinzō ningen Kikaidā), 1972-1973 (NET, now TV Asahi)
• Kikaider 01 (Kikaidā 01), 1973-1974, (NET, now TV Asahi)
• Android Kikaider: The Animation (Jinzō ningen Kikaidā ~ THE ANIMATION), 2000-2001
• Kikaider 01: The Animation (Kikaidā 01 ~ THE ANIMATION), 2001
• Masked Rider (Kamen Raidā), 1971-1973 (NET, now TV Asahi)
• Rider Stronger (Kamen Raidā sutorongā), 1975 (TBS)
• Masked Rider Kuuga (Kamen Raidā Kūga), 2000-2001 (TV Asahi)
• Ryuki (Kamen Raidā Ryūki), 2002-2003 (TV Asahi)

Films:

• Starman (a.k.a. Super Giant, Kōtetsu no kyojin), directed by Iishii Teruo and produced by Shin-Tōhō, 9 films, 1957-1959
• Mechanical Violator Hakaider (Jinzō ningen Hakaidā), directed by Keita Amemiya and produced by Toei, 1995
• Kikaider Reboot (Kikaidā reboot) directed by Shimoyama Ten and produced by Toei, 2014

Discussion Questions

Alisa Freedman, “Tokyo Love Story: Romance of the Working Woman in Japanese Television Dramas”

• Why are television dramas a good measure of public views toward women’s life courses? Are there any dangers of conflating television representation with lived reality?
• How have depictions of working women on Japanese television changed since the 1990s? What has not changed? Are these changes similar to those in other countries?
• In what ways have television dramas influenced women’s emotional, family, and/or work lives in Japan? Which aspects of women’s lives have they not been able to change?
• Please describe any drama series you have seen that centers on a working woman. How is this series similar to and different from Tokyo Love Story?
• How do depictions of women on television dramas differ from those in novels, anime, manga, games, and other media?
• If you were to reboot or create a new television drama about a working woman in Japan or another country set now, what would be the title? What would the main character be like? What would the plot of the drama entail? How would the drama end?

Suggested Readings

Alisa Freedman, “Tokyo Love Story: Romance of the Working Woman in Japanese Television Dramas”

• Columbia University Press blog. 2022. Jon Wilson in Conversation with Alisa Freedman on Japan on American TV. March 2.
• Freedman, Alisa. 2021. Japan on American TV: Screaming Samurai Join Anime Clubs in the Land of the Lost. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Freedman, Alisa, and Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt. 2011. “‘Count What You Have Now. Don’t Count What You Don’t Have’: The Japanese Television Drama Around 40 and the Politics of Women’s Happiness.” Asian Studies Review 35(3): 295-313.
• Iwabuchi, Kōichi, ed. 2004. Feeling Asian Modernities: Transnational Consumption of Japanese TV Dramas. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Tay, Jinna, and Graeme Turner, eds. 2015. Television Histories in Asia: Issues and Contexts. New York: Routledge.

List of Television Dramas

Alisa Freedman, “Tokyo Love Story: Romance of the Working Woman in Japanese Television Dramas”

• Tokyo Love Story (Tokyo rabu sutorī), Fuji Television, 1991
• Tokyo Love Story (Tokyo rabu sutorī), Fuji Television, 2020
• Before Dinner (Yūgemae), NHK, April 13, 1940
• Off the Bus Route (Basu dōri ura), NHK, 1958–1963
• Daughter and I (Musume to watashi), NHK, 1961
• Oshin, NHK, 1983–1984
• Perfect Blue Sky (Dondo hare), NHK, 2007
• Chiritotechin, NHK, 2007–2008
• Carnation (Kānēshon), 2011–2012
• Ohanahan, NHK, 1966–1967
• Dr. Ume-chan (Umechan sensei), NHK, 2012
• Massan, NHK, 2014–2015
• Princess Atsu (Atsuhime), NHK, 2008
• Gou (Gō: Hime-tachi no Sengoku), NHK, 2011
• I Want to Hold You! (Dakishimetai!), Fuji Television, 1988
• You’re in Love! (Aishiatteru kai!), Fuji Television, 1989
• Classmates (Dōkyūsei), Fuji Television, 1989
• Women’s Company (Oshigoto desu), Fuji Television, 1998
• Tokyo Elevator Girl (Tokyo erebētā gāru), TBS, 1992
• Long Vacation (Rongu bakēshon), Fuji Television, 1996
• Love Generation (Rabu jenerēshon), Fuji Television, 1997
• Around 40: Demanding Women (Araundo 40 ~ chūmon no ooi onnatachi), TBS, 2008
• Shomuni, Fuji Television, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2013
• Newswoman (Nuusu no onna), Fuji Television, 1998
• Top Anchor (Toppo kyasutā), Fuji Television, 2006
• Fake Bride (Hanayome wa yakudoshi), TBS, 2006
• Stewardess Story (Stewardess monogatari), TBS, 1983
• Perfect Woman (Yamato nadeshiko), Fuji Television, 2000
• Unfair (Anfea), Fuji Television, 2006, 2006 special, 2007 and 2011 feature films
• BOSS 1, Fuji Television, 2009,
• BOSS 2, Fuji Television, 2011
• Suits (Sūtsu), Fuji Television, 2018 and 2021
• The Man Who Cannot Marry (Kekkon dekinai otoko), Fuji Television, 2007
• Woman Workaholic (Hatarakiman), TBS, 2007
• Last Cinderella (Rasuto shinderera), Fuji Television, 2013
• Dignity of the Temp (Haken no hinkaku), NTV, 2007
• Terrace House (Terasu hausu), Fuji Television, 2012–2020
• Atelier (Underwear, Andāwea), Fuji Television for Netflix, 2015
• 101st Proposal (101 kaime no puropozu), Fuji Television, 1991

Tokyo Love Story

Rika and Kanji visit Ehime. Tokyo Love Story, Episode 10. March 11, 1991. Author’s screenshot.

Hatarakiman

Hiroko and Shinji say good-bye in Haneda Airport (where Rika first met Kanji). Hatarakiman, Episode 11. December 19, 2007. Author’s screenshot.

Discussion Questions

Kendall Heitzman, “The World Too Much with Us in Japanese Travel Television”

• What can a travel television program teach us about the world and what are its limitations? What can it teach us about the people watching it?
• Is it better to travel to one place and stay for a long period of time or to travel to a number of different places for short periods of time?
• Why do people travel? Are there any bad reasons to travel?
• What are some stereotypes of Japanese travelers, and how do these shows reinforce or go against them?
• If people from other countries were to watch the travel shows in your own country, what impressions would they take away regarding how you travel?

Suggested Readings

Kendall Heitzman, “The World Too Much with Us in Japanese Travel Television”

• Gerow, Aaron. 2010. “Kind Participation: Postmodern Consumption and Capital with Japan’s Telop TV.” Television, Japan, and Globalization, edited by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Eva Tsai, and Jung-Bong Choi, 117–150. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan.
• Iwabuchi Koichi. 2004. “Feeling Glocal: Japan in the Global Television Format Business.” Television Across Asia: Television Industries, Programme Formats, and Globalization, edited by Michael Keane and Albert Moran, 21–35. London: Routledge Curzon.
• Painter, Andrew A. 1996. “Japanese Daytime Television, Popular Culture, and Ideology.” Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture, edited by John Treat, 197–234. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Tsurube's Salute to Families

A chance encounter with a wandering star: “You need to carry within you the life that he didn’t get to live.” Tsurube's Salute to Families, November 4, 2013. Author’s screenshot.

Ainori

A colorful driver’s cap and bubble letters incongruous to the task at hand: “You are at Auschwitz.” Ainori, September 11, 2006. Author’s screenshot.

Walk the Town, Encounter the World

Café denizens of Paris welcome us warmly. “Are you from Tokyo?” “Bravo!” Walk the Town, Encounter the World, June 17, 2014. Author’s screenshot.

Discussion Questions

Rachael Hutchinson, “Nuclear Discourse in Final Fantasy VII: Embodied Experience and Social Critique”

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of analyzing a game text for its underlying ideology?
• Do you think that players of this game would recognize the anti-nuclear critique? Does the player’s reading of the game depend on the context? For example, playing it in 1997 versus playing it this year?
• Think about the games you have played. Did the developers include social or political critique in either the narrative or the gameplay dynamics (or both)?
• How does the player’s immersion in a videogame differ from a reader’s immersion in a book, or a viewer’s immersion in a film?
• Do you think games are an effective means of social and political critique?

Suggested Readings

Rachael Hutchinson, “Nuclear Discourse in Final Fantasy VII: Embodied Experience and Social Critique”

• AIex. 2007. “Final Fantasy VII FAQ/Walkthrough.” GameFAQs, July 15.
• Blom, Johanna. 2021. ‘Challenging Linearity: Microstructures and Meaning-Making in Trails of Cold Steel III.” In Japanese Role-Playing Games: Genre, Representation and Liminality in the JRPG, edited by Rachael Hutchinson and Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon, 77–98. Washington, D.C.: Lexington.
• Bogost, Ian. 2006. “Videogames and Ideological Frames.” Popular Communication 4(3): 165–183.
• Frasca, Gonzalo. 2003. “Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology.” In The Video Game Theory Reader, edited by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron, 221–235. London: Routledge.
• Galloway, Alexander R. 2006. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Hutchinson, Rachael. 2019. Japanese Culture Through Videogames. London: Routledge.
• Mitropoulos, Jonah. 2009. “Shinto and Alien Influences in Final Fantasy VII.”In Final Fantasy and Philosophy: The Ultimate Walkthrough, edited by Jason P. Blahuta and Michel S. Beaulieu, 125–141. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
• van Ommen, Mattias. 2018. “Emergent Affect in Final Fantasy VII and Japanese Role-Playing Games.” Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds 10(1): 21–39.
• Parkin, Simon. 2017. “One Man’s Quest Not to Finish Final Fantasy VII,” The New Yorker,July 23.
• Smith, Greg M. 2002. “Computer Games Have Words, Too. Dialogue Conventions in Final Fantasy VII.” Game Studies 2(2).

Discussion Questions

Tsugumi (Mimi) Okabe, “Policing Youth: Boy Detectives in Japanese Mystery Games”

• 1. What are your opinions regarding the role of videogames in your community? Are they harmful, or do they encourage critical reflection, as I have argued in the chapter? Think of at least three videogames that support both sides of the argument and engage the class in a critical debate. (Considering referring to some of the works cited in this chapter).
• 2. Can you think of other games in your country that depict child detectives? What kind of crimes do they solve? What kind of cultural values do they restore through their detective work? Alternatively, if you cannot think of games that depict child detectives, why do you think this is? Is crime-solving an adult’s domain?
• 3. Both Kindaichi Hajime and Edogawa Konan are inspired by very famous Japanese writers of detective fiction. Hajime is inspired by Yokomizo Seishi’s famous detective, Kindaichi Kōsuke, and Konan’s name is inspired by both Edogawa Rampo, the godfather of Japanese detective fiction, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Scottish writer who is known around the world for his Sherlock Holmes stories. Why do you think people are fascinated with adaptations of these traditional literary characters? What is it that readers admire about classic detectives and stories?
• 4. The question of youth is central to this chapter, particularly in how notions of teenage boys redefine negative stereotypes about youth. How might other well-known “detectives” in Japanese popular culture, such as Yagami Raito from Death Note, and the gentleman thief, Rupan Sansei from Lupin III (although he is not a teenager), complicate my argument that boy detectives are morally upright and justice oriented? Can you think of other examples? Do these characters feed into the cultural paranoia about youth problems? Or alleviate them somehow? (Refer to Allison 2006; Napier 2010; Freedman 2017 in the book bibliography for readings on Death Note.)
• 5. At the end of A Chance Meeting, Hajime and Konan (with the help of the player) restore order within their community. Despite being teens, they often outsmart adult detectives and are seen as competent investigators. This trope of young people saving the world is found outside the genre of detective games. Can you think of other examples in videogames, manga, or anime? Why are youth responsible for the “mess” that adults make? What does this say about the potential power that youth have in society? Should this power be feared or appreciated?

Suggested Readings

Tsugumi (Mimi) Okabe, “Policing Youth: Boy Detectives in Japanese Mystery Games”

• Andrew, Lucy. 2017. The Boy Detective in Early British Children’s Literature: Patrolling the Borders between Boyhood and Manhood. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Cornelius, Michael G., ed. 2010. The Boy Detectives: Essays on the Hardy Boys and Others. Jefferson, NC:McFarland.
• Kawana, Sari. 2008. Murder Most Modern: Detective Fiction and Japanese Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Nash, Ilana. 2010. “Teenage Detective and Teenage Delinquents.” In The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction, edited by Catherine Ross Nickerson, 72–85. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Okabe, Tsugumi (Mimi). 2023. Manga, Murder, and Mystery: The Boy Detectives of Japan’s Lost Generation. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Saitō, Satoru. 2012. Detective Fiction and the Rise of the Japanese Novel, 1880–1930. Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center.
• Seaman, Amanda C. 2014. Bodies of Evidence: Women, Society, and Detective Fiction in 1990s Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Silver, Mark. 2008. Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868–1937. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Discussion Questions

Kathryn Hemmann, “The Cute Shall Inherit the Earth: Postapocalyptic Posthumanity in Tokyo Jungle”

• Why do videogames matter, and why are they worthy of study? How do they differ from other narrative media? Is it possible to read games for their stories or is gameplay more important?
• How would you define “cuteness,” and what is its appeal? Why are some animals cute, while others are considered frightening? Why do you think there is an association between young women and cute animals in many cultures?  
• As discussed in the essay, an executive at Sony expressed concern that audiences outside of Japan might not be receptive to Tokyo Jungle because it does not feature any playable human characters. How do you think operating as a series of nonhuman avatars shapes the player’s perception of the world contained within the game? What can games with nonhuman player-characters (or heavily stylized player-characters) do that more realistic role-playing scenarios cannot?   
• Why do you think Tokyo Jungle is set in Shibuya? How would the game be different if it took place in another city? How does Tokyo Jungle compare to other games set in postapocalyptic worlds, such as those in Bethesda’s Fallout series and Microsoft’s Gears of War series?
• Why do we love postapocalyptic settings? Does our fascination with the end of the world lie in the process of destruction or in the regeneration that comes after? What sort of possibilities and potential does a clean slate represent?   

Suggested Readings

Kathryn Hennmann, “The Cute Shall Inherit the Earth: Postapocalyptic Posthumanity in Tokyo Jungle”

• Bissell, Tom. 2010. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. New York: Vintage.
• Bogost, Ian. 2011. How to Do Things with Videogames. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Jenkins, Henry. 2004. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 118–30. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• Wolfe, Cary. 2003. Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Additional Resources

Kathryn Hemmann, “The Cute Shall Inherit the Earth: Postapocalyptic Posthumanity in Tokyo Jungle”

• Kathryn Hemmann’s website, Digital Fantasy Diary
• Crispy’s! Official Website
• Tokyo Jungle Wiki(English)
• Tokyo Jungle Wiki(Japanese)
• Tokyo Jungle Trailer(English)
• Tokyo Jungle Trailer (Japanese)
• Let’s Play Tokyo Jungle Video Series by Foxman Plays (English)
• Let’s Play Tokyo Jungle Video Series by kobekobe8323 (Japanese)
• TaQ’s Page on Last.fm
• Sony AIBO Official Website
• “My AIBO Obit” by Lance Ulanoff
• The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement’s webpage
• Nick Bostrom’s webpage
• “Critical Posthumanism” Academic Collective webpage
• “Introduction to Deep Ecology” by Michael E. Zimmerman
• Interview with Elizabeth Kolbert on mass extinction
• Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research
• Critical Gaming Project
• Confessions of an Aca-Fan: Henry Jenkins’s Blog
• Kotaku
• Click on the links to view external sites.

Discussion Questions

Mark McLelland, “Managing Manga Studies in the Convergent Classroom”

• In what ways can fan knowledge and academic knowledge about Japan interact productively in the classroom?
• Do you think that academic knowledge about Japan and the kinds of information about Japan that circulate in the general media are different? Is this a problem?
• In the 1980s it seemed doubtful that Japanese cultural products would prove as popular overseas as Japanese electronics exports. What factors have enabled the widespread enthusiasm for Japanese popular culture in the ensuing decades?
• Do you think that the characters and plot development in manga and anime should be studied in the same way as those in novels and film? If not, how should these media be treated differently?
• Do you think that “under-age” characters in manga and anime are sometimes depicted inappropriately? If so, how?

Suggested Readings

Mark McLelland, “Managing Manga Studies in the Convergent Classroom”

• Armour, William Spencer. 2011. “Learning Japanese by Reading ‘manga’: The Rise of ‘Soft Power Pedagogy’.” RELC Journal: A Journal of Language Teaching and Research 42(2): 125–40.
• McLelland, Mark. 2013. “Ethical and Legal Issues in Teaching Japanese Popular Culture to Undergraduate Students in Australia.” Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies 3(2). 
• McLelland, Mark, ed. 2017. End of Cool Japan: Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture. Oxford: Routledge.
• “Queering Our Worlds: Remembering Mark McLelland,” Intersections 46, December 2021.
• West, Mark I., ed., 2009. The Japanification of Children’s Popular Culture: From Godzilla to Miyazaki. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Discussion Questions

Alisa Freedman, “Thumb Generation Literature: The Rise and Fall of Japanese Cellphone Novels”

• What developments made cellphone novels possible? What caused the trend to end?
• Do you consider cellphone novels to be “literature”? Why or why not?
• How have cellphone novels changed notions of authors, readers, and books?
• Is it possible to write a novel entirely in emoji? What would be lost and gained in forgoing written words for emoji? What can we learn about literature? About emoji?
• What trends in Japanese popular culture do cellphone novels encapsulate?
• If you were to write a cellphone novel, what would the storyline be? Who would the characters be? What sort of visual qualities of the page, when read on a cellphone, would you need to consider? What penname would you take as a cellphone novelist? How would your story differ from the bestselling cellphone novels described in this chapter?

Suggested Readings

Alisa Freedman, “Thumb Generation Literature: The Rise and Fall of Japanese Cellphone Novels”

• Dooley, Ben. 2008. “Big in Japan: A Cellphone Novel for You, the Reader.” The Millions, January 31.
• Freedman, Alisa. 2009. “Train Man and the Gender Politics of Japanese ‘Otaku’ Culture: The Rise of New Media, Nerd Heroes and Consumer Communities.” Intersections 20. 
• Goodyear, Dana. 2008. “I ♥ NOVELS: Young Women Develop a Genre for the Cellular Age.” The New Yorker, December 2.

Discussion Questions

Laura Miller, “Purikura: Expressive Energy in Female Self-Photography”

• Purikura has been very popular among people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Beijing. Why do you think this is the case?
• Why do you think purikura machines have not been successful when introduced to non-Asian countries, especially the United States?
• What are some of the ways the purikura machine developers and arcades have made modifications in order to attract customers?
• The proliferation of terms for types of purikura and its associated activities is an index of its cultural role and importance. Can you think of other examples in Japan where we find a similar expansion in vocabulary related to a specific cultural domain?
• In what ways are purikura different from selfies?
• Based on your reading of this chapter, what kind of purikura would you like to take? How would you decorate it? Where would you put your purikura?

Suggested Readings

Laura Miller, “Purikura: Expressive Energy in Female Self-Photography”

• Chalfen, Richard, and Mai Marui. 2001. “Print Club Photography in Japan: Framing Social Relationships.” Visual Sociology 16(1): 55–77.
• Miller, Laura. 2003. “Graffiti Photos: Expressive Art in Japanese Girls’ Culture.” Harvard Asia Quarterly 7(3): 31–42.
• Miller, Laura. 2005. “Bad Girl Photography.” In Bad Girls of Japan, edited by Laura Miller and Jan Bardsley, 127–141. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Discussion Questions

Emerald L. King, “Cosplay Everywhere: Costume Diplomacy at the World Cosplay Summit”

• What can cosplay teach us about the use of popular culture in diplomacy?
• Do you think cosplay is a helpful way to bring people from other countries together? Why or why not?
• Is “cosplay diplomacy” a sustainable way to encourage change?
• If you were to interview a cosplayer, what are three questions you would ask them? How do you think they would answer?
• If you had a chance to cosplay, who or what would you dress as? Why?

Suggested Readings

Emerald L. King, “Cosplay Everywhere: Costume Diplomacy at the World Cosplay Summit”

• Ashcraft, Brian. 2012. “Only Dressing up in Funny Costumes Will Save Us All.” Kotaku. December 19.
• Ashcraft, Brian and Luke Plunkett. 2014. Cosplay World. New York: Prestel.
• Hjorth, Larrisa. 2011. “Game Girl: Re-Imagining Japanese Gender and Gaming via Melbourne Female Cosplayers.” Intersections 20.
• Japan Foundation New York. 2021. “Cosplay: Discovering a Sense of Self Through Fandom.” Episode 11, October 28. Video.
• King, Emerald L. 2016. “Tailored Translations: Translating and Transporting Cosplay Costumes Across Texts, Cultures, and Dimensions.” Signata 7: 361–376.
• World Cosplay Summit official English-language website –

Discussion Questions

Ian Condry, “Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol, Media Platform, and Crowd-Sourced Celebrity”

• The author argues that considering Miku’s live performances alone is insufficient for understanding the phenomenon. Why? What else needs to be considered?  
• Do you agree with the author’s argument that it is important to separate “social values” and “economic values”? Why or why not?
• What is dōjin culture and why is it important for understanding Hatsune Miku?  
• What does the author mean by “celebrities are in some ways platforms as much as they are people”?  
• Can you identify other phenomena that display similar dynamics as Miku? How are they different?

Suggested Readings

Ian Condry, “Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol, Media Platform, and Crowd-Sourced Celebrity”

• Aoyagi, Hiroshi. 2005. Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan. Cambridge: Harvard East Asian Monographs.
• Galbraith, Patrick W., and Jason G. Karlin, eds. 2012. Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kelly, William W., ed. 2004. Fanning the Flames: Fans and Consumer Culture in Japan. Albany: State University of New York. 
• Novak, David. 2013. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Stevens, Carolyn S. 2007. Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity, and Power. New York: Routledge.

Hatsune Miku Resources

Ian Condry, “Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol, Media Platform, and Crowd-Sourced Celebrity”

• Tara Knight. Mikumentary.
• Ian Condry lecture on “The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Media Success,” UTD eLearning, November 15, 2013.
• “Songs Featuring Hatsune Miku,” Vocaloid Wiki. n.d.

Discussion Questions

Michael Furmanovsky, “Electrifying the Japanese Teenager Across Generations: The Role of the Electric Guitar in Japan’s Popular Culture”

• Japan produced two outstanding electric guitar instrumentalists (Terauchi Takeshi and Kayama Yūzō) in the early pop era (1961–1966). However, no Japanese rock guitar god took their place in the rock era (1969–1975). Why did Japanese rock fans of the 1970s take little interest in their own homegrown guitarists?
• Unlike some British teenagers and musicians in the early 1960s such as Keith Richards and Eric Clapton, Japanese electric guitar fans took little interest in African-American blues guitarists and their image and sound. What are some possible explanations for this?
• What are some unique characteristics of B’z, Japan’s most successful electric guitar-based rock band?
• The Runaways achieved great success in Japan and helped pave the way for the adoption of the electric guitar by many female high school and university students. In what sense can this be seen as a re-gendering of the instrument?
• How would you explain Japan’s resilient oyaji-band scene built around American and British rock cover bands featuring men of the so-called dankai generation?

Suggested Readings

Michael Furmanovsky, “Electrifying the Japanese Teenager Across Generations: The Role of the Electric Guitar in Japan’s Popular Culture”

• Bourdaghs, Michael. 2012. Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Cope, Julian. 2007. Japrocksampler: How the Post-War Japanese Blew Their Minds on Rock ‘N’ Roll. London: Bloomsbury.
• Furmanovsky, Michael. 2010. “Outselling the Beatles: Assessing the Influence and Legacy of the Ventures on Japanese Musicians and Popular Music in the 1960s.” Ryukoku University Intercultural Studies 14: 52–64.
• Furmanovsky, Michael. 2012. “The Father of Boy Bands.” Kansai Scene. June 1.
• Furmanovsky, Michael. 2020. “Kitagawa Johnny: The Showa Returnee Who Re-Imagined the American ‘Musical’ as Idol Teen Culture for the Heisei Era and Beyond.” Ryukoku University Intercultural Studies 24: 15–28.
• Furmanovsky, Michael. 2021. “Assessing the Impact of 1960s American Folk Music on the Baby Boom College Experience and Japanese Popular Music.” Ryukoku University Intercultural Studies 25: 51–69.

Japanese Electric Guitar Music Playlist

Michael Furmanovsky, “Electrifying the Japanese Teenager Across Generations: The Role of the Electric Guitar in Japan’s Popular Culture”

• 1. Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans – “Tsugaru Jongara Bushi”
• 2. Yūzō Kayama – “Black Sand Beach”
• 3. Spiders – “Furi Furi”
• 4. Golden Cups – “Ai suru kimi ni”
• 5. The Tempters – “Kamisama onegai”
• 6. Speed, Glue & Shinki – “Stoned Out of My Mind”
• 7. Princess Princess – “Diamonds”
• 8. X Japan – “Kurenai”
• 9. B’z – “Guitar Crazy Rendezvous”
• 10. Scandal – “Harukaze”

Discussion Questions

Jayson Makoto Chun, “The ‘Pop Pacific’: Japanese American Sojourners and the Development of Japanese Popular Music”

• What was the influence of Japanese Americans like Johnny Kitagawa and Utada Hikaru on Japanese popular music?
• Explain this quote in your own words: “A study of the U.S.–Japan music connection will reveal that much of Japanese popular music was part of a larger global web of world music and so labels of national origin like ‘Japanese’ or ‘American’ hide the true nature of the transnational web of popular music.”
• How did Kitagawa and Utada adapt their products to fit the tastes and values of the Japanese society of their times?
• Do you think Kitagawa and Utada could have gained mass mainstream success in the United States as artists? Why or why not?
• Find another example (singer, song, movie, or television show) of the “Pop Pacific” in which U.S. and Japanese influences are combined to create a transnational cultural product.
• To what extent could you consider Japanese popular music to be transnational?
• Now that you have read about the “Pop Pacific,” do you think all popular culture is transnationally created in one way or another?

Suggested Readings

Jayson Makoto Chun, “The ‘Pop Pacific’: Japanese American Sojourners and the Development of Japanese Popular Music”

• Bordaughs, Michael. 2012. Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Furmanovsky, Michael. 2020. “Kitagawa Johnny: The Showa Returnee Who Re-Imagined the American ‘Musical’ as Idol Teen Culture for the Heisei Era and Beyond.” Ryukoku University Intercultural Studies 24: 15–28.
• Galbraith, Patrick W. and Jason G. Karlin, eds. 2014. Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media. New York: Palgrave McMillan.
• Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Stevens, Carolyn S. 2008. Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity and Power. New York: Routledge.

Discussion Questions

Patrick W. Galbraith, “AKB Business: Idols and Affective Economies in Contemporary Japan”

• AKB48 is promoted as “idols that you can meet.” Why is this significant?
• Estimates suggest that AKB48 does not make an immediate profit performing live at their small theater in Akihabara. Why, then, do they perform there?
• Are the idols of AKB48 exploited? Are the fans? Why and how?
• What do you think AKB48 business will be like in the future? Will it continue to have an impact? What do you think will stay the same? What will change?

Suggested Readings

Patrick W. Galbraith, “AKB Business: Idols and Affective Economies in Contemporary Japan”

• Galbraith, Patrick W. 2014. The Moe Manifesto: An Insider’s Look at the Worlds of Manga, Anime, and Gaming. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
• Galbraith, Patrick W., and Jason G. Karlin. 2016. Media Convergence in Japan. Published online by Kinema Club, 2016. Licensed under Creative Commons,
  

  https://archive.org/stream/MediaConvergenceInJapan/Media%20Convergence%20in%20Japan_djvu.txt

• Galbraith, Patrick W., and Jason G. Karlin. 2019. AKB48. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
• Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.

Additional Teaching Materials

Patrick W. Galbraith, “AKB Business: Idols and Affective Economies in Contemporary Japan”

• Primary Sources
• “Aitakatta” (I Wanted to See You) performed by AKB48
• “Heavy Rotation” performed by Ōshima Yūko
• Election Voting Method Explained, AKB48

• Documentary Films about AKB48
• Takahashi Eiki, dir. 2012. Documentary of AKB48: Show Must Go On (Shōjo tachi wa kizutsukinagara, yume o miru). Tokyo: Tōhō. 
• Takahashi Eiki, dir. 2013. Documentary of AKB48: No Flower Without Rain (Shōjo tachi wa namida no ato ni nani o miru?). Tokyo: Tōhō. 
• Kanchiki Yuri, dir. 2011. Documentary of AKB48: To Be Continued (Jūnen go, shōjo tachi wa ima no jibun ni nani o omou no darō). Tokyo: Tōhō. 

• Open-Access Book
• Galbraith, Patrick W., and Jason G. Karlin. 2016. Media Convergence in Japan. Published online by Kinema Club, 2016. Licensed under Creative Commons

Discussion Questions

David Novak, “In Search of Japanoise: Globalizing Underground Music”

• How does this chapter present the concept of “cultural feedback” as a central theme of Japanese globalization? How do Japanese ideas, things, and people circulate across the world? What factors contributed to “Noise” becoming received as a symbol of Japanese culture in the United States?
• How does the author describe the conditions of underground music networks in the 1980s and 1990s? Do you think Boredoms would have been received in the same way today, in the context of digital online distributions? 
• Why is Japanoise so difficult to define as a form of music? How do the examples in the chapter relate to or differ from other popular music styles with which you are familiar?
• How did Boredoms win over foreign audiences, even though their music was so noisy and unfamiliar? Can you think of any other examples of Japanese pop musicians who have “crossed over” to achieve overseas success?
• In what ways did Boredoms’ success in the United States impact their reception in Japan? What is the phenomenon of “reverse importation” (gyaku-yunyu)?

Suggested Readings

David Novak, “In Search of Japanoise: Globalizing Underground Music”

• Condry, Ian. 2006. Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Matsue, Jennifer. 2009. Making Music in Japan’s Underground: The Tokyo Hardcore Scene.New York: Routledge.
• Novak, David. 2013. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Sterling, Marvin D. 2010. Babylon East: Performing Dancehall, Roots Reggae, and Rastafari in Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Stevens, Carolyn. 2008. Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity, and Power. New York: Routledge.

Additional Resources

David Novak, “In Search of Japanoise: Globalizing Underground Music”

• Book website: David Novak. 2014. Japanoise: Music at the Edge of Circulation. Durham: Duke University Press
• Discography: Dave Watson. n.d. Sore Diamonds: The Unofficial BOREDOMS Side Projects/ Cameos Discography.
• Footage of one Hanatarashi performance (with alternate sound source): Hanatarashi, YouTube, June 25, 2008.
• Good quality footage from the Boredoms 1993 US tour: “Boredoms—U.S. Tour 93.” YouTube. June 19, 2011.
• Parts of 77Boadrum film by Alan Poma: “The Boredoms 77 Boadrum.” YouTube. August 12, 2008.
• Footage of 111Boadrum: Kawaguchi Jun. “111 Boadrum.” YouTube, January 8, 2012.

Discussion Questions

Eun-Young Jung, “Korean Pop Music in Japan: Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Japan and Korea in the Popular Culture Realm”

• Discuss the rise of K-pop in Japan as it intersects with the postcolonial political relationships between Korea and Japan.
• Discuss the specifics of Korean entertainment companies’ marketing and promotion strategies in Japan.
• Discuss similarities and differences between the musical and visual characteristics of Korean idol bands and Japanese idol bands.
• Discuss important changes in practice between the first-round Korean Wave singers and the second-round Korean Wave idol bands and how they have triggered different responses among Japanese audiences. How have they paved the way for bands like BTS?
• Many people are surprised that K-pop bands are making a breakthrough on global music charts. Based on your reading of this chapter, what do you think has caused this change? Do you think it will be a lasting trend? Why have K-pop bands been more popular than J-pop bands abroad?
• Did you know K-pop before you read this chapter? If so, how did you first hear of K-pop? What do your experiences reflect about K-pop’s globalization?

Suggested Readings

Eun-Young Jung, “Korean Pop Music in Japan: Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Japan and Korea in the Popular Culture Realm”

• Aoyagi, Hiroshi. 2005. Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center.
• Huat, Chua Beng, and Koichi Iwabuchi, eds. 2008. East Asian Pop Culture: Analysing the Korean Wave. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
• Iwabuchi, Koichi. 2002. Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
• Kim, Youna, ed. 2013. The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global. London and New York: Routledge.

Discussion Questions

William M. Tsutsui, “The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan”

• Why do you think American audiences have enjoyed watching films they considered “cheesy”? How would you explain why American media consumers seem particularly drawn to cheesy entertainment from East Asia, such as Japanese monster movies and Chinese martial arts films?
• “Glocalization” is a name sometimes given to the process of adapting imported products for local audience tastes and preferences in an age of globalization. Is “glocalization” (like the editing of Japanese monster movies for distribution in the United States) inherently a political act? Or should we view it simply as an economic reality? Is “glocalization” something new (as some scholars have asserted) or does it have a history of decades, even generations or centuries?
• Consider the relative merits of dubbing versus subtitling foreign-language films. Does dubbing change the fundamental nature of the film? Would you rather see a dubbed or subtitled version of a film?
• What is “soft power” and how does it differ from “hard power”? How can a nation develop “soft power,” and how (if at all) can a nation use it to gain an advantage in international relations? Do you think the cheesy appeal of some forms of Japanese popular culture undermines Japan’s ability to build “soft power” in the United States?

Suggested Readings

William M. Tsutsui, “The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan”

• Mettler, Meghan Warner. 2018. “Godzilla versus Kurosawa: Presentation and Interpretation of Japanese Cinema in the Post World War II United States.” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 25: 413–437.
• Tsutsui, William M. 2004. Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Tsutsui, William M. 2010. Japanese Popular Culture and Globalization. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies.
• Tsutsui, William M., and Michiko Itō. 2006. In Godzilla’s Footsteps: Japanese Pop Culture Icons on the Global Stage. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Godzilla Filmography

William M. Tsutsui, “The Prehistory of Soft Power: Godzilla, Cheese, and the American Consumption of Japan”

• Tōhō Films:
• Godzilla (Gojira), 1954
• Godzilla Raids Again (Gojira no gyakushū), 1955
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (Kingu Kongu tai Gojira), 1962
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (Gojira tai Mosura), 1964
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (San daikaijū: Chikyū saidai no kessen), 1964
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (Kaijū daisensō), 1965
• Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (Gojira, Ebira, Mosura nankai no daikettō), 1966 
• Son of Godzilla (Kaijū-tō no kessen ~ Gojira no musuko), 1967
• Destroy All Monsters (Kaijū sōshingeki), 1969
• All Monsters Attack (Gojira-Minira-Gabara: Ōru kaijū daishingeki), 1969
• Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (Gojira tai Hedora), 1971
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (Chikyū Kōgeki Meirei: Gojira tai Gaigan), 1972
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (Gojira tai Megaro), 1973
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla Gojira tai Mekagojira),1974
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (Mekagojira no Gyakushū), 1975
• The Return of Godzilla (Gojira), 1984
• Godzilla vs. Biollante (Gojira tai Biorante), 1989
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (Gojira tai Kingu Gidora), 1991
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (Gojira tai Mosura), 1992
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2 (Gojira tai Mekagojira), 1993
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (Gojira tai SupēsuGojira), 1994
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (Gojira tai Desutoroia), 1995
• Godzilla 2000 (Gojira Nisen: Mireniamu), 1999
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (Gojira tai Megagirasu: Jī shōmetsu sakusen), 2000
• Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidora: Daikaijū sōkōgeki), 2001
• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (Gojira tai Mekagojira), 2002
• Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (Gojira Mosura Mekagojira Tōkyō SOS), 2003
• Godzilla: Final Wars (Gojira: Fainaru wōzu), 2004
• Godzilla: Resurgence (Shin Gojira), 2016

• American Godzilla Films: 
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, 1956
• Godzilla, 1998
• Godzilla, 2014
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters, 2019
• Godzilla vs. Kong, 2021

Discussion Questions

Kyoko Hirano, “The Rise of Japanese Horror Films: Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya Kaidan), Demonic Men, and Victimized Women”

• Compare Yotsuya Ghost Story with other ghost story films you have seen.
• Why do you think Yotsuya Ghost Story has been so popular, generating numerous adaptations in film, theater, and beyond over the centuries?
• What is it about this story that fascinates people?
• How do different versions of Yotsuya Ghost Story deal with the victimization of women? Which version do you think most reflects the changing status of women?
• Discuss Nakagawa Nobuo’s cinematic strategies in Yotsuya Ghost Story. How do 1960s horror films compare with twenty-first-century films?

Suggested Readings

Kyoko Hirano, “The Rise of Japanese Horror Films: Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya Kaidan), Demonic Men, and Victimized Women”

• Balmain, Colette. 2016. Introduction to Japanese Horror Film. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• McDonald, Keiko I. 1994. Japanese Classical Theater in Films. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
• Namboku IV, Tsuruya. 1999. “Yotsuya Ghost Stories, Act Three,” translated by Mark Oshima. In Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays, edited by Karen Brazell, 456–483. New York: Columbia University Press.

Selected Yotsuya Kaidan Filmography

Kyoko Hirano, “The Rise of Japanese Horror Films: Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya Kaidan), Demonic Men, and Victimized Women”

• New Interpretation of Yotsuya Ghost Story (Shinshaku Yotsuya kaidan), Kinoshita Keisuke, dir., 1949
• Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya kaidan), Misumi Kenji, dir., 1959
• Tōkaidō Yotsuya Ghost Story (Tōkaidō Yotsuya kaidan), Nakagawa Nobuo, dir., 1959
• Ghost Story Oiwa’s Ghost (Kaidan Oiwa no bōrei), Katō Tai, dir., 1961
• Yotsuya Ghost Story (Yotsuya kaidan), Toyoda Shirō, dir., 1965
• Yotsuya Ghost Story: Oiwa’s Ghost (Yotsuya Kaidan ~ Oiwa no bōrei), Mori Kazuo, dir., 1969
• Summer of Evil: From Yotsuya Ghost Story (Mashō no natsu: Yotsuya kaidan yori), Ninagawa Yukio, dir., 1981
• Crest of Betrayal (Chūshingura gaiden: Yotsuya kaidan), Fukusatsu Kinji, 1994
• Laughing Lemon (Warau Iemon), Ninagawa Yukio, dir., 2004
• Ghost Story (Kaidan), Nakata Hideo, dir., 2007
• Over Your Dead Body (Kuime), Miike Takashi, dir., 2014

Discussion Questions

Tom Mes, “V-Cinema: How Home Video Revitalized Japanese Film and Mystified Film Historians”

• How could further investigation of video benefit the study of film and popular culture?
• Japanese V-Cinema has produced filmmakers whose works are now seen across the world. Can the same be said for American straight-to-video films? Is there another period or movement in American cinema that served as a breeding ground for young filmmakers, comparable to V-Cinema?
• What is your initial prejudice when you think of straight-to-video films?
• What does the example of V-Cinema reveal about the gatekeeping processes involved in the diffusion of Japanese cinema in the rest of the world?
• How has the success of V-Cinema upended concepts of high and low cultural production? Is this representative of other trends in popular culture?

Suggested Readings

Tom Mes, “V-Cinema: How Home Video Revitalized Japanese Film and Mystified Film Historians”

• Clements, Jonathan. 2013. Anime: A History. London: British Film Institute.
• Greenberg, Joshua. 2008. From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Lobato, Ramon. 2012. Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution. London: BFI/Palgrave Macmillan.
• Mes, Tom. 2003. Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike. Godalming, Surrey: FAB Press.
• Mes, Tom and Jasper Sharp. 2004. The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.
• Wada-Marciano, Mitsuyo. 2012. Japanese Cinema in the Digital Age. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Zahlten, Alexander. 2017. The End of Japanese Cinema: Industrial Genres, National Times, and Media Ecologies. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

V-Cinema Watch List

• Tom Mes, “V-Cinema: How Home Video Revitalized Japanese Film and Mystified Film Historians”
• Although not acknowledged in the accepted discourse of continuous decline, the 1990s were one of Japanese cinema’s most vibrant and prolific decades. This was thanks in no small part to V-Cinema, the straight-to-video industry, initiated by former major studio Toei in 1989. Below are my picks for films whose inclusion would do much to spice up our accounts of recent Japanese film history. It must be noted that Japan has not been much kinder to its own heritage: many of these titles were never rereleased after their original VHS incarnation and have been withering in the archives of reluctant distribution companies since the early 1990s.

• Neo Chinpira (Neo chinpira teppōdama pyū, 1990), director: Takahashi Banmei
• A comedy about the day-to-day travails of a low-level gangster, this was an unlikely hit for Toei that made a star out of its lead actor Aikawa Shō. He and director Takahashi—a veteran of Nikkatsu Roman Porno and early 1980s art cinema—would go on to repeat the formula not only in a sequel but in so many other productions that the “Aikawa Sho gangster comedy” became almost a genre in itself. The six-part Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself! series by Kurosawa Kiyoshi (a former protégé of Takahashi’s) is also modeled closely on it.

• Tuff (Tafu, 1990), director: Harada Masato
• An aimless young man who makes a living delivering pizzas finds himself an apt pupil to a professional hitman after finding himself in the middle of one of his murder scenes. The most Hollywood-oriented of contemporary Japanese film directors found a natural home in the genre-oriented environment of V-Cinema and delivered a thoroughly entertaining action film full of visual flair that belies the medium’s meager means. This was the first part in a six-film series whose final installment, Painted Desert (1993), brought Harada full circle by being shot in the U.S. and featuring such Hollywood thesps as James Gammon and Vincent Schiavelli.

• Stranger (Yoru no sutorenjā kyōfu, 1991), director: Nagasaki Shunichi
• A woman who works as a taxi driver finds herself stalked by an unknown assailant in a 4WD. Director Nagasaki, one of the major names to emerge from the late-1970s indie film scene, ramps up the paranoia factor in this urban riff on Spielberg’s Duel. Lead actress Natori Yūko was a major star and household name, but here she appears thoroughly deglamorized in oversized men’s clothing and without makeup.
  Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVduIlQKWPo

• Carlos (Karurosu, 1991), director: Kiuchi Kazuhiro
• Director Kiuchi Kazuhiro is better known as the creator of the oft-adapted manga Be-Bop High School and as a novelist (Miike Takashi’s Shield of Straw [Wara no tate, 2013] is based one of his bestsellers). Throughout the 1990s he also directed a handful of gritty crime films, starting with this straight-to-video tale of a Japanese-Brazilian criminal’s ascent through the underworld. With its reflections on minorities and petty crime in post-Bubble era Japan, Carlos set the template for countless later works by Miike Takashi, Mochizuki Rokurō, Aoyama Shinji, and other leading proponents of V-Cinema. Takenaka Naoto, of Shall We Dance? fame, plays the very Tony Montana-esque title role.
  Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEVVFl6ZTXo

• Female Convict Scorpion: Death Notice (Joshū sasori satsujin yokoku, 1991), director: Ikeda Toshiharu
• As Toei’s V-Cinema line began taking off proper, it was only a matter of time before the company began mining its rich back catalogue for inspiration. One of the first of these was a remake of Itō Shunya’s fondly remembered women-in-prison flick Female Convict 701: Scorpion (Joshū 701 sasori, 1972). Director Ikeda Toshiharu, who would go on to helm the lion’s share of Toei Video’s long-running “female action” series XX (Daburu ekkusu), shot the film in obvious tribute to Itō’s memorably stylish original, although purists at the time heaped scorn on the results, as well as on actress Okamoto Natsuki, who was given the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes of the original’s iconic star Kaji Meiko.
  Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCLemvY7q0

• Dance til Tomorrow (Asatte Dance, 1991), director: Isomura Itsumichi
• This adaptation of Yamamoto Naoki’s manga was Daiei’s first foray into V-Cinema, although the former major studio played to its strengths by giving it a limited theatrical release first—thereby initiating a strategy that would ensure V-Cinema’s legacy as a revitalizing force in Japanese cinema. The film was also a trailblazer by bringing the romantic comedy genre into an until then strictly male-oriented market.
  Fragment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yu9LNGUZU

• Downfall (Daraku, 1992), director: Jissōji Akio
• Jissōji Akio (1937–2006) was one of Japanese cinema’s most unclassifiable filmmakers. Starting his directing career in television in the 1960s on the various incarnations of the Ultraman series, for the big screen he made everything from challenging art films for ATG (such as This Transient Life/Mujō and Mandala) in the early 1970s to large-scale effects-heavy blockbusters like Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (Taitei monogatari, 1988), as well as numerous adaptations of tales by ero-guro mystery author Edogawa Rampo. Many of Jissōji’s films contain taboo-breaking sexual themes, which is likely why he used the medium of V-Cinema to explore the narrative possibilities of explicit, unsimulated sex, sidestepping the restrictions imposed on theatrical releases.

• The Wicked Reporter series (Gokudō kisha, 1993–’96) + The Outer Way (Gedō, 1998), director: Mochizuki Rokurō
• Blessed with a retrospective at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1998, Mochizuki Rokurō should be seen as one of the standard bearers in bringing V-Cinema to world’s attention. The backbone to his oeuvre of 1990s crime thrillers is The Wicked Reporter series, set among the downtrodden in post-Bubble Japan: those forced to scrape by as gamblers, low-level gangsters, grifters, prostitutes, and petty thieves. The almost surreal The Outer Way plays like a Clint Eastwood vigilante movie as directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and is the director’s masterpiece. In all these films, Mochizuki’s background in pink films and adult video shines through in his depiction of sex: devoid of glamour but full of unapologetically carnal lust.

• More information can be found on Midnight Eye: Visions of Japanese Cinema –
• http://www.midnighteye.com (a non-profit, non-commercial database of film reviews, interviews, books, and other features. Edited by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp. Active 2001–2015).

Discussion Questions

Alan Cholodenko, “Apocalyptic Animation: In the Wake of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Godzilla, and Baudrillard”

• Do you think war can exist in domains other than politics?
• Do you think a war continued between Japan and the United States after World War II?
• Do you think national cinemas can be at war with each other?
• Do you think that all film, including live action, by definition is a form of animation?
• Do you think that digital animation has morphed animation into a new, extreme form, hyperanimation, one exemplified in its own way in anime by Akira?
• Do you think that film and media, on the one hand, and reality, on the other, are completely separate realms or that they are inextricably commingled?

Suggested Readings

Alan Cholodenko, “Apocalyptic Animation: In the Wake of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Godzilla, and Baudrillard”

• Baudrillard, Jean. 1987. The Evil Demon of Images. Sydney: Power Institute Publications.
• Baudrillard, Jean. 1993. The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena, translated by James Benedict. London: Verso.
• Brophy, Philip. 1991. “The Animation of Sound.” In The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation, edited by Alan Cholodenko, 67–111. Sydney: Power Publications in association with the Australian Film Commission.
• Cholodenko, Alan, ed. 1991. The Illusion of Life: Essays on Animation. Sydney: Power Publications in association with the Australian Film Commission.
• Cholodenko, Alan. 2000. “The Illusion of The Beginning: A Theory of Drawing and Animation.” Afterimage 28 (1): 9–12.
• Cholodenko, Alan, ed. 2007. The Illusion of Life 2: More Essays on Animation. Sydney: Power Publications.

Discussion Questions

Renato Rivera Rusca, “Toy Stories: Robots and Magical Girls in Anime Marketing”

• Why do so many anime series feature robots and/or magical girls?
• How do the “media-mix” marketing strategies (e.g., tie-in manga, soundtracks, toys, and interactive events) in the Japanese anime industry target consumers? How does this affect the consumption and appreciation of anime?
• How have toy companies essentialized gender in anime genres? Have they started to disrupt gender binaries? If so, how so? If not, why not? Can toys be gender neutral?
• How have the robot and magical girl series described in this chapter influenced any of the anime or films you have watched? What seems similar or different?
• If you were to give advice to any of the creative producers or sponsors described in this chapter, what would you tell them? Why?

Suggested Readings

Renato Rivera Rusca, “Toy Stories: Robots and Magical Girls in Anime Marketing”

• Allison, Anne. 2006. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Condry, Ian. 2013. The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Steinberg, Marc. 2012. Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Watch List

The following anime are discussed in Chapter 24.

• Robot (Robotto) Anime:
• Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-gō), 1963–1966
• Mazinger Z (Majingā zetto), 1972–1974
• Combattler V (Chōdenji robo Konbatorā V), 1976–1977
• Voltes V (Chōdenji mashin borutesu faibu),1977–1978
• Mobile Suit Gundam (Kidō senshi Gandamu), 1979–1980
• Space Warrior Baldios (Uchū senshi Barudiosu), 1980–1981
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross (Chōjikū yōsai Makurosu),1982–1983
• Macross 7 (Makurosu Sebun), 1994–1995
• Macross Plus (Makurosu Purasu), 1995 (OVA)
• Dancougar (Chōjū kishin Dankūga), 1985
• Megazone 23 (Megazōn 23), 1985
• Hades Project Zeorymer (Meiō keikaku Zeoraimā), 1988
• Brave series (Yūsha shiriizu),1990–2005

• Magical Girl (Mahō Shōjo) Anime:
• Sally the Witch (Mahō-tsukai Sally), 1966–1968
• The Secret of Akko-chan (Himitsu no Akko-chan), 1969–1970
• Fairy Princess Minky Momo (Mahō no purinsesu Minkī Momo), 1982–1983
• Magical Angel Creamy Mami (Mahō no tenshi Kuriimii Mami), 1983–1984
• Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi Seeraa Mūn), 1992–1997
• Pretty Cure (Futari wa Puriti Kyua), 2004–present
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Mahō shōjo Madoka Magika), 2011

• Other Anime Series:
• Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atomu), 1963–1966
• Ken the Wolf Boy (Ōkami Shōnen Ken), 1963
• 8 Man (Eitoman), 1963–1964
• Heidi, Girl of the Alps (Arupusu no shōjo Haiji), 1974
• A Dog of Flanders (Furandaazu no inu),1975

Discussion Questions

Susan Napier, “The World According to Ghibli, or How a Small Japanese Studio Became a Global Phenomenon”

• What do you think the title of this chapter, “The World According to Ghibli,” suggests? Can an animation studio really have a worldview?
• What is the Ghibli Worldview? How has it been developed? What outside events in Japan and the world affected it? What cultural aspects influenced it? Please find examples of this worldview in the films analyzed in this chapter.
• How does the Ghibli Worldview contrast with that of the Walt Disney Animation Studios?
• What is your favorite Studio Ghibli film? What worldview does it depict?
• Do you have a favorite Studio Ghibli character? Why do you like this character? What does this character teach us about anime, human nature, culture, or other issues?

Suggested Readings

Susan Napier, “The World According to Ghibli, or How a Small Japanese Studio Became a Global Phenomenon”

• Alpert, Steve. 2020. Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: Fifteen Years at Studio Ghibli. Berkeley: Stonebridge Press.
• Denison, Rayna. 2015. Anime: A Critical Introduction. London: Bloomsbury.
• Denison, Rayna, ed. 2018. Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess. London: Bloomsbury.
• Greenberg, Raz. 2020. Hayao Miyazaki: Exploring the Early Work of Japan’s Greatest Animator. London: Bloomsbury.
• Napier, Susan. 2005. Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave.
• Napier, Susan. 2018. Miyazakiworld. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Discussion Questions

Marc Steinberg, “Condensing the Media Mix: The Tatami Galaxy’s Multiple Possible Worlds”

• What are the main differences between Henry Jenkins and Otsuka Eiji’s models of worlds?
• What distinctions does the author make between the Hollywood model of transmedia storytelling and Japan’s media mix?  
• Are these distinctions convincing? Discuss how these distinctions between transmedia and the media mix may be useful, as well as what their limitations are.
• Review the discussion of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and worlds. What are the differences between “compossible” and “incompossible”? How do these concepts relate to the problem of world or worlds? And what are some of the elements within Tatami Galaxy that hold the multiple worlds together?
• Think about how this chapter argues its points. What methodology does it use, and what bodies of knowledge does it draw on? What other methodologies would be useful in thinking about the distinction between transmedia storytelling and the media mix?

Suggested Readings

Marc Steinberg, “Condensing the Media Mix: The Tatami Galaxy’s Multiple Possible Worlds”

• Jenkins, Henry. 2006. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
• Ōtsuka, Eiji. 2010. “World and Variation: The Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative,” translated by Marc Steinberg. In Mechademia 5: Fanthropologies, edited by Frenchy Lunning, 99–116. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Steinberg, Marc. 2012. Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

The Tatami Galaxy: Still from Episode 1

The Tatami Galaxy protagonist imagines the rose-colored campus life he believes awaits him. Still from Episode 1. Author’s screenshot.

The Tatami Galaxy: Still from Episode 10

The Tatami Galaxy’s protagonist happens upon another incarnation of himself during his trek through his multiple worlds. Still from Episode 10. Author’s screenshot.

Discussion Questions

Ben Whaley, “A Jew and a Nazi Walk into an Izakaya: Tezuka Osamu’s Holocaust Manga”

• Who was Tezuka Osamu and what were some of his major contributions to the evolution and development of manga as a medium?
• What did you find noteworthy or challenging about the artistic, narrative, or storytelling techniques in Message to Adolf?
• How might we reconcile Tezuka’s purported “humanism” with his negative treatment of hybridized and liminal characters, such as Adolf Kaufmann and Adolf Kamil?
• The Empire of Japan was allied with Nazi Germany as a member of the Axis powers during World War II. Why might there be such an interest in representing the Holocaust in manga over more domestic Japanese experiences of the war, such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
• In your view, is manga an effective medium for conveying the gravity of a historical event such as the Holocaust? What might be gained or lost when drawing the Holocaust through manga?

Suggested Readings

Ben Whaley, “A Jew and a Nazi Walk into an Izakaya: Tezuka Osamu’s Holocaust Manga”

• Ban, Toshio, and Tezuka Productions. 2016. The Osamu Tezuka Story: A Life in Manga and Anime. Translated by Frederik L. Schodt. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.
• Frahm, Ole, Hans-Joachim Hahn, and Markus Streb, eds. 2021. Beyond MAUS: The Legacy of Holocaust Comics. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag.
• Goodman, David G., and Masanori Miyazawa. 2000. Jews in the Japanese Mind: The History and Uses of a Cultural Stereotype. Expanded edition. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
• Lunning, Frenchy, ed. 2013. Mechademia 8: Tezuka’s Manga Life. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Whaley, Ben. 2020. “When Anne Frank Met Astro Boy: Reading the Holocaust through Manga.” positions 28 (4): 729–755.

Discussion Questions

Shige (CJ) Suzuki, “Gekiga, or Japanese Alternative Comics: The Mediascape of Japanese Counterculture”

• Based on your knowledge of manga, identify several similarities and differences between gekiga and manga in terms of drawing style, narrative structure, visual elements, themes and audience.
• What do you think about the embedded social critique or political commentary in comics (or other popular narrative forms)? Does it hamper the pleasure of reading? Do you know of any other examples for providing critique or commentary of society through popular narrative forms? What are the benefits of such forms?
• The medium of comics is inherently “graphic”—meaning both pictorial and sexual/violent—which sometimes prompts strong reactions from readers. Do you think this nature of comics is related to a series of censorship over comics? If yes, should we censor or place restrictions on expression in comics—or for that matter, in other popular visual forms such as film, videogames, and music? What are possible benefits and dangers for censorship on popular forms of art for society? How do we decide the appropriateness of comics for audiences of different ages?
• According to one definition, subculture refers to a group within a larger culture or society, which holds beliefs or interests at variance with, or sometimes against, those of the larger, mainstream culture or society. Provide an example of a subculture and consider how your chosen example expresses itself? What kind of meanings does it have for participants? How is it perceived by the general public or an outsider? Do you think subculture promotes social change? What are some of the possibilities and limitations of a subculture?
• What is the relationship between gekiga and counterculture?
• What is your assessment of the status of comics in today’s society? Given the recent re-invention of comics as a medium for expression, often labeled as “graphic novels” in English-language countries, what kind of other ideas or possibilities have been (or will be) explored through the medium of comics? Do you think comics have achieved or can achieve a status similar to literature or art?

Bonus Material:

a. As pointed out in the chapter, gekiga artists in the 1950s often use visual symbols and cues to convey the protagonist’s psychology. Closely analyze several pages from some of Tatsumi Yoshiro’s short gekiga works, if available. Identify the ways in which the author conveys the internal state of the protagonists visually. Consider how and what kinds of psychological states are communicated though visual signs and juxtaposed images of different images.

b. As discussed in the chapter, gekiga artists tend to use the “aspect-to-aspect” panel transition more than others. Given this, analyze the page layout and each juxtaposed panel to identify or measure how much time passes (or not) in each different panel. What narrative effects are produced or intended by the author with the different “speeds” of each panel transition?

Suggested Readings

Shige (CJ) Suzuki, “Gekiga, or Japanese Alternative Comics: The Mediascape of Japanese Counterculture”

• Holmberg, Ryan. 2010. Garo Manga: The First Decade 1964–1973. New York: Center for Book Arts.
• Khoo, Eric, director. 2011. Tatsumi. New York: KimStim.
• Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. 2006. Abandon the Old in Tokyo, translated by Yuji Oniki. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.
• Tatsumi, Yoshihiro. 2009. A Drifting Life, translated by Taro Nettleton. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly.
• Tsuge, Yoshiharu. 2003. “Screw Style” (“Neji-siki”). The Comics Journal #250: 136–157.

Discussion Questions

Deborah Shamoon, “The Beautiful Men of the Inner Chamber: Gender-Bending, Boys’ Love, and Other Shōjo Manga Tropes in Ōoku by Yoshinaga Fumi”

• What is boys’ love, and why might it appeal to girl readers?
• How does Ōoku subvert the tropes of boys’ love?
• The female-led world of Ōoku is just as imperfect as the real history of the Edo period. Why do you think Yoshinaga Fumi chooses to portray her gender-switched leaders as replicating the same mistakes as in real life?
• Many shōjo manga feature gender switching, cross-dressing, or other forms of gender fluidity. Do you know of any other examples from shōjo manga or any other genre? How do they compare to Ōoku?
• Gender flipping is a popular strategy in fanfiction or fan art of text from many different genres, not only in Japan. Have you encountered any gender-flipped stories or characters? How did it change the way you thought of the narrative or characters and why?

Suggested Readings

Deborah Shamoon, “The Beautiful Men of the Inner Chamber: Gender-Bending, Boys’ Love, and Other Shōjo Manga Tropes in Ōoku by Yoshinaga Fumi”

• Levi, Antonia, Mark McHarry, and Dru Pagliassotti, eds. 2008. Boys’ Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
• Matsui, Midori. 1993. “Little Girls Were Little Boys: Displaced Femininity in the Representation of Homosexuality in Japanese Girls’ Comics.” In Feminism and the Politics of Difference, edited by Sneja Gunew and Anna Yeatman, 177–196. New South Wales, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
• Shamoon, Deborah. 2012. Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Takahashi, Mizuki. 2008. “Opening the Closed World of Shōjo Manga.” In Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime, edited by Mark W. MacWilliams, 114–136. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Discussion Questions

Thomas Lamarre, “Cyborg Empiricism: The Ghost Is Not in the Shell”

• To what extent do you think that the cyborg remains an important figure in contemporary popular culture? Why do you think the cyborg has proved so persistent in popular culture?
• How does the figure of the cyborg in The Ghost in the Shell manga challenge a binary opposition between the human and the nonhuman?
• How does the cyborg’s “ghost” challenge a binary opposition between body and mind?
• Although the figure of cyborg in The Ghost in the Shell manga explicitly strives for a non-dualistic approach to mind and body, how does the idea “the ghost is in the shell” thwart this attempt? How do the aspirations of the cyborg and of the sovereign nation become conjoined?
• When the ghost is not in the shell, where is it, and what does it do?
• How (and why) do actual manga techniques such as layout allow for a non-dualist experience?
• What does it mean that cyborgs tend to be conservative in their choice of bodies?
• Are there examples of cyborgs you feel move more successfully beyond dualism than those in The Ghost in the Shell manga?
• How do the cyborgs in The Ghost in the Shell manga compare to those in the anime films and television anime series?

Suggested Readings

Thomas Lamarre, “Cyborg Empiricism: The Ghost Is Not in the Shell”

• Bolton, Christopher A. 2002. “From Wooden Cyborgs to Celluloid Souls: Mechanical Bodies in Anime and Japanese Puppet Theater.” positions 10(3): 729–771.
• Gardner, William O. 2020. The Metabolist Imagination: Visions of the City in Postwar Japanese Architecture and Science Fiction. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Lamarre, Thomas. 2015. “Scan Lines: How Cyborgs Feel.” In Simultaneous Worlds: Global Science Fiction Cinema, edited by Jennifer Feeley and Sarah Ann Welles, 3–28. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.
• Orbaugh, Sharalyn. 2002. “Sex and the Single Cyborg: Japanese Popular Culture Experiments in Subjectivity.” Science Fiction Studies 29(3): 436–452.
• Tatsumi, Takayuki. 2006. Full Metal Apache: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America. Durham: Duke University Press.

Discussion Questions

Damien Brennan, “Hanabi: The Cultural Significance of Fireworks in Japan”

• How have hanabi influenced Japanese society and culture in the present and the past?
• Aside from fireworks, other Edo period popular cultural forms still remain today such as seasonal festivals, kabuki, sushi, izakaya drinking, sumo, and some kimono. Discuss how a cultural form might transition from its origins into the modern era. Why do some cultural forms last and some disappear?
• Compare the culture surrounding fireworks in Japan to how fireworks are used and appreciated in other countries.
• As hanabi culture continues to increase in popularity in Japan, their use is extending to all seasons of the year. Discuss whether you think this will affect traditional notions of hanabi as a summer seasonal event in Japan. How do things which previously were only enjoyed during festivals change in meaning when they become more available?
• Discuss how other seasonal images have been used in film, music, or advertising, and what they convey. How do representations of seasons enhance media forms or make them more marketable?

Suggested Readings

Damien Brennan, “Hanabi: The Cultural Significance of Fireworks in Japan”

• Liu-Brennan, Damien. 2017. “Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Hanabi Hidenshū (The Book of Fireworks Secrets) by Rishō, 1817: A Reflection on Japanese Fireworks (Hanabi) Culture in the Edo Period.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Fireworks, Omagari, Japan, 2017. International Symposium on Fireworks Society. Wisconsin: 477–490.
• Liu-Brennan, Damien. 2017. “A Distinction between ‘Hanabi’ and ‘Fireworks’.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Fireworks, Omagari, Japan, 2017. International Symposium on Fireworks Society. Wisconsin: 461–475.
• Liu-Brennan, Damien, and Mio Bryce. 2010. “Japanese Fireworks (Hanabi)—The Ephemeral Nature and Symbolism.” International Journal of the Arts in Society 4 (5):189–201.
• Markus, Andrew L. 1985. “The Carnival of Edo: Misemono Spectacles from Contemporary Accounts.” Harvard Journal of Asian Studies 45 (2): 499–541.
• McClain, James L., John M. Merriman, and Kaoru Ugawa, eds. 1997. Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 
• Nishiyama, Matsunosuke. 1997. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600–1868. Translated by Gerald Groemer. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
• Okuyama, Yoshiko. 2015. Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 
• Phillips, Alistair, and Julian Stringer, eds. 2007. Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts. New York: Routledge. 
• Shirane, Haruo. 2012. Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts. New York: Columbia University Press.

Hanabi in Songs, Films, and Other Media

Damien Liu-Brennan, “Hanabi: The Cultural Significance of Fireworks in Japan”

Songs:

• 1. Aiko. 1999. “Hanabi” (Fireworks). Pony Canyon.
• a. Release date: August 4, 1999
• b. https://www.aiko.com/discography/?id=7 (Link to the single with link to PV)
• c. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqGHxcTPRfI (Link from above to PV)
• d. http://aiko.com/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiko_(singer) (Artist Wiki)

• 2. AKB48. 2007. “Boku no uchiage hanabi” (My Launched Fireworks). DefSTAR Records.
• a. Release date: March 7, 2007
• b. http://www.akb48.co.jp/about/discography/detail_cd/?media_id=47&po=5 (Link to the album, Team K 2nd Stage [Seishun Girls])
• c. https://www.akb48.co.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48 (Artist Wiki)

• 3. Arashi. 2012. “Hanabi” (Fireworks). J Storm.
• a. Release date: June 6, 2012
• b. https://www.j-storm.co.jp/s/js/discography/JACA-5321?ima=0000 (Link to the single, “Your Eyes”. “Hanabi” is B-side)
• c. http://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=artistTop&artist=10&lang=en_us (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Eyes_(Arashi_song) (Single “Your Eyes” Wiki)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arashi (Artist Wiki)

• 4. BEGIN. 2004. “Natsu no hanabi” (Summer Fireworks). Imperial Records.
• a. Release date: July 14, 2004
• b. https://www.begin1990.com/discography/album#item_27 (Link to the album, Ocean Line)
• c. http://www.begin1990.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begin_(band) (Artist Wiki)

• 5. ClariS. 2013. “Hanabi” (Fireworks). SME Records.
• a. Release date: June 26, 2013
• b. http://www.clarismusic.jp/disco/archive/?SECL-1331 (Link to the album, Second Story)
• c. http://www.clarismusic.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClariS (Artist Wiki)

• 6. Daoko x Kenshi Yonezu. 2017. “Uchiage hanabi” (Fireworks). Toy’s Factory.
• a. Release date: August 2, 2017
• b. Theme song from the film Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom? (Uchiage hanabi, shita kara miru ka? Yoko kara miru ka?)
• c. https://daoko.jp/ discography/daoko-3rd-single『打上花火』/ (Link to the single)
• d. https://daoko.jp/ discography/拝啓グッバイさようなら配信限定リリース/ (Link to the single, alternative version)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchiage_Hanabi (Single: “Uchiage Hanabi” Wiki)

• 7. Dreams Come True. 1992. “Ano natsu no hanabi” (That Summer’s Fireworks). Epic/Sony Records.
• a. Release date: November 14, 1992
• b. http://dreamscometrue.com/discography/discography_year/1992 (Link to the album, The Swinging Star)
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swinging_Star (Album Wiki)
• d. http://dreamscometrue.com/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreams_Come_True_(band) (Artist Wiki)

• 8. Fukuhara Miho. 2009. “Hanabi Sky” (Fireworks Sky). Sony Music Japan.
• a. Release date: June 17, 2009
• b. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/SR/mihofukuhara/SRCL-7043/index.html (Link to the single with a preview)
• c. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/mihofukuhara/lyrics/imgs/lyrics06_01.gif (Song lyrics)
• d. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/mihofukuhara/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miho_Fukuhara (Artist Wiki)

• 9. Hamasaki Ayumi. 2002. “Hanabi” (Fireworks). Avex Trax.
• a. Release date: December 18, 2002
• b. https://www.avex.jp/ayu/discography/detail.php?id=1003360 (Link to the album, “Rainbow”. Click on the album link for a song preview)
• c. https://www.avex.jp/ayu/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayumi_Hamasaki (Artist Wiki)

• 10. Hirahara Ayaka. 2003. “Jupiter.” Dream Music.
• a. Release date: December 17, 2003
• b. https://www.camp-a-ya.com/musics/6272 (Link to Single)
• c. http://www.camp-a-ya.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaka_Hirahara (Artist Wiki)

• 11. Ikimonogakari. 2006. “HANABI.” Sony music.
• a. Release date: May 31, 2006
• b. End theme song to anime Bleach
• c. https://www.sonymusic.co.jp/artist/Ikimonogakari/discography/ESCL-2823 (Link to the single)
• d. https://ikimonogakari.com/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikimonogakari (Artist wiki)

• 12. Inoue Yōsui. 1990. “Shōnen jidai” (Boyhood). For Life Entertainment.
• a. Release date: October 12, 1990
• b. http://yosui.jp/discography/ハンサムボーイ/ (Link to the album, Handsome Boy)
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handsome_Boy_(album) (Album Wiki)
• d. http://yosui.jp/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yōsui_Inoue (Artist Wiki)

• 13. Jitterin’ Jinn. 1990. “Natsu matsuri” (Summer Festival). BODY/Nippon Columbia.
• a. Release date: August 29, 1990
• b. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/夏祭り_(JITTERIN%27JINNの曲) (Single “Natsu Matsuri” Wiki)
• c. https://jit-ter.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. Cover version by Whiteberry. Release date: August 9, 2000. SMR
• e. Cover version by Hatsune Miki. Release date: June 5, 2015. Lucky Lotus Records

• 14. KAT-TUN. 2009. “Shunkashūtō” (Four Seasons). J-One Records.
• a. Release date: April 29, 2009
• b. https://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=discoDetail&artist=14&data=324 (Link to the album, Break the Records – By You & For You)
• c. http://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=artistTop&artist=14 (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAT-TUN (Artist Wiki)

• 15. Ketsumeishi. 2001. “Yoru kaze” (Evening Breeze). Toy’s Factory.
• a. Release date: June 27, 2001
• b. https://www.ketsume.com/discography/detail.html?id=3461&category=discography_single (Link to the single)
• c. http://www.ketsume.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketsumeishi (Artist Wiki)

• 16. Ketsumeishi. 2014. “Shōnen to hanabi” (Youth and Fireworks). Avex Group.
• a. Release date: July 23, 2014
• b. https://www.ketsume.com/discography/detail.html?id=3455&category=discography_album (Link to the album: Ketsunopolis 9)
• c. http://www.ketsume.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketsumeishi (Artist Wiki)

• 17. Kusumi Koharu. 2007. “Koi hanabi” (Love Fireworks). Zetima.
• a. Release date: February 28, 2007
• b. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuboshi (Link to the album Wiki: “Mitsuboshi”)
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koharu_Kusumi (Artist Wiki)

• 18. Mr. Children. 1992. “Kimi ga ita natsu” (The Summer That You Were Here). Toy’s Factory.
• a. Release date: August 21, 1992
• b. https://www.mrchildren.jp/disco/#single/single01 (Link to the single)
• c. http://www.toysfactory.co.jp/artist/mrchildren/disco/340 (Link to the single on the record label website)
• d. http://www.mrchildren.jp/ (Official artist website)
• e. http://www.toysfactory.co.jp/artist/mrchildren/ (Artist website through the record label)
• f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Children (Artist Wiki)

• 19. Mr. Children. 2008. “Hanabi” (Fireworks). Toy’s Factory.
• a. Release date: September 3, 2008
• b. https://www.mrchildren.jp/disco/#single/single33 (Link to Single)
• c. http://www.toysfactory.co.jp/artist/mrchildren/disco/307 (Link to the single on the record label website)
• d. http://www.mrchildren.jp/ (Official artist website)
• e. http://www.toysfactory.co.jp/artist/mrchildren/ (Artist website at record label)
• f. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Children (Artist Wiki)

• 20. MONKEY MAJIK. 2007. “Kōchō” (Morning Light). Binyl Records.
• a. Release date: July 25, 2007
• b. https://www.monkeymajik.com/index/index/packagedata?id=15 (Link to Album “Sora wa marude”. Scroll to release date: July 25, 2007)
• c. http://www.monkeymajik.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_Majik (Artist Wiki)

• 21. Nanase Aikawa. 2000. “Hanabi ga owarukoro” (By the End of the Fireworks). MotoRod.
• a. Release date:; February 16, 2000
• b. http://www.nanase.jp/album/308/ (Link to the Album, Foxtrot)
• c. http://www.nanase.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanase_Aikawa (Artist Wiki)

• 22. NEWS. 2013. “Koi matsuri” (Love Festival). Johnny’s Entertainment.
• a. Release date: July 17, 2013
• b. https://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=discoDetail&artist=12&data=1455 (Link to the album, NEWS)
• c. http://www.johnnys-net.jp/page?id=artistTop&artist=12 (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWS_(band) (Artist Wiki)

• 23. Ōtsuka Ai. 2004. “Kingyō hanabi” (Goldfish Fireworks). Avex Trax.
• a. Release date: November 11, 2004
• b. http://avex.jp/ai/discography/detail.php?id=30 (Link to the album, Love Jam)
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingyo_Hanabi (Song Wiki)
• d. http://avex.jp/ai/ (Official artist website)
• e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Otsuka (Artist Wiki)

• 24. Remioromen. 2005. “Shunkashūtō” (Four Seasons). Speedstar Records.
• a. Release date: March 9, 200
• b. https://www.remioromen.jp/discography/detail?index=26 (Link to the album,)
• c. http://www.remioromen.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remioromen (Artist Wiki)

• 25. Scandal. 2013. “Uchiage hanabi” (Skyrocket). Epic Records Japan.
• a. Release date: October 2, 2013
• b. https://www.scandal-4.com/discography/standard/ (Link to the album, Standard. Click on song for a preview)
• c. http://www.scandal-4.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandal_(Japanese_band) (Artist Wiki)

• 26. SMAP. 1993. “Hanashi o shite itatuke” (I Want to Keep Talking). Victor Entertainment.
• a. Release date: November 11, 1993
• b. http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Discography/A002763/VIDL-10464.html (B-side of the single, “$10”)
• c. http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Artist/A002763.html (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMAP (Artist Wiki)

• 27. Southern All Stars. 2004. “Kimi koso star da” (You Are a Star). Victor Entertainment.
• a. Release date: July 21, 2004
• b. https://southernallstars.jp/mob/titl/titlShw.php?site=SASJP&ima=5505&cd=VICL-35670&search_cate=S (Link to the single)
• c. https://southernallstars.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_All_Stars (Artist Wiki)

• 28. Sumika. 2018. “Shunkashūtō” (Four Seasons). Sony Music Japan.
• a. Release date: August 29, 2018
• b. https://www.sumika-official.com/discography/b545f3f6-420a-476e-831f-64d22bfac859 (Link to Single)
• c. https://www.sumika-official.com/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumika_(band) (Artist wiki)

• 29. Supercell. 2010. “Utakata hanabi / Hoshi ga matataku konna yoru ni” (Transient Fireworks / Twinkling Stars in the Night). Sony Music Japan.
• a. Release date: August 25, 2010
• b. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/SR/supercell/SRCL-7333/index.html (Link to the single with links to audio and PV previews)
• c. http://www.supercell.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercell_(band) (Artist Wiki)

• 30. Utada Hikaru. 2002. “Play Ball.” EMI Music Japan.
• a. Release date: June 19, 2002
• b. https://www.utadahikaru.jp/music/album/title_5.html (Link to the album, Deep River)
• c. http://www.utadahikaru.jp/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Utada (Artist Wiki)

• 31. Yanawaraba. 2008. “Shōnen jidai” (Boyhood). Papaya Records Japan.
• a. Release date: September 17, 2008
• b. http://www.ya-na.net/discography/detail.html?code=A_NAGIUTA&type=all (Link to the album, Nagiuta)
• c. http://www.ya-na.net/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/やなわらばー (Artist Wiki in Japanese)

• 32. Zone. 2003. H.A.N.A.B.I - “Kimi ga ita natsu” (H.A.N.A.B.I - The Summer That You Were Here). Sony Music.
• a. Release date: July 30, 2003
• b. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/SR/Zone/SRCL-5700/index.html (Link to the single with links to audio previews)
• c. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/ZONE/ (Official artist website)
• d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_(band) (Artist Wiki)

Films and Documentaries:

• 1. Katō Mitsuyoshi, director. 2007. Bi no tsubo – kanshō maniyuaru: file 58—hanabi (The Mark of Beauty: Viewing Manual: File 58 – Fireworks). NHK – https://www.nhk.or.jp/tsubo/arc-20070803.html

• 2. Kitano Takeshi, director. 1997. HANA-BI (Fireworks). Japan: Channel Neko.
• a. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119250/
• b. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hana-bi

• 3. Kore’eda Hirokazu, director. 2015. Umimachi Diary (Seaside Town Diary, also known as, Our Little Sister). Toho, GAGA corporation, Fuji Television Network, Shogakukan, and TV Man Union
• a. Based on the manga series Umimachi Diary by Akimi Yoshida
• b. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3756788/
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Little_Sister

• 4. Kunimoto Masahiro, director. 2010. Oniichan no hanabi (Fireworks From the Heart). Japan: Go! Cinema.
• a. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1534483/
• b. http://asianwiki.com/Fireworks_from_the_Heart

• 5. Mizushima Seiji, director. 2007. Ōedo roketto (Oh! Edo Rocket). Japan: Madhouse.
• a. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997284/
• b. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh!_Edo_Rocket

• 6. Obayashi Nobuhiko, director. 2012. Kono sora no hana: Nagaoka hanabi monogatari (Casting Blossoms into the Sky: The Story of Nagaoka Fireworks). Japan: PSC and TM Entertainment – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1746581/

• 7. https://asianwiki.com/Casting_Blossoms_to_the_SkyShinbo Akiyuki and Takeuchi Nobuyuki, directors. 2017. Uchiage hanabi, shita kara miru ka? Yoko kara miru ka? (Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?). SHAFT.
• a. Based on a short television play of the same name by Shunji Iwai, director. 1993.
• b. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6317962/
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireworks_(2017_film)

• 8. Shinoda Masahiro, director. 1995. Sharaku. Japan: Shochiku-Fuji – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114413/

• 9. Shinohara Tetsuo, director. 2004. Tengoku no honya – Koibi (Heaven’s Bookstore). Tengoku no Hon'ya: Koibi Film Partners.
• a. Combines two best-selling novels, "Heaven's Book Service" (Tengoku no Honya) and "Loving Fireworks" (Koibi) by Atsushi Matsuhisa and Tanaka Wataru.
• b. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423360/
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven's_Bookstore

• 10. Sueda Takeshi, director. 2004. Kingyō hanabi (Goldfish Fireworks). Avex.
• a. http://avex.jp/ai/discography/detail.php?id=30 (Disc 2 Short Film —金魚花火—)
• b. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingyo_Hanabi

• 11. Suo Masayuji, director. 2014. Maiko wa Lady (Lady Maiko). Tōhō Company.
• a. http://www.maiko-lady.jp/
• b. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2909724/
• c. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Maiko , https://asianwiki.com/Lady_Maiko

Other Websites:

• Light Up Nippon
• http://lightupnippon.jp

• Cheer Up! Hanabi Project
• https://www.cheeruphanabi.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/cheeruphanabiproject/
• https://www.instagram.com/cheeruphanabiproject

• Online Hanabi Guides:
• Walker Plus, https://hanabi.walkerplus.com/
• Rurubu, https://rurubu.jp/andmore (Search term=花火)

Discussion Questions

Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Kamishibai: The Fantasy Space of the Urban Street Corner”

• How is kamishibai similar to other Japanese popular cultural forms, such as manga, anime, or live-action cinema? Thinking of kamishibai as a communications medium, how is it unique in how it delivers its messages?
• What aspects of kamishibai’s production and distribution system made it possible for the stories and pictures to appeal directly to children, bypassing the usual regulatory structures?
• Kamishibai is associated in many people’s minds with the laboring classes. How did this class affiliation increase its usefulness as a medium for propaganda during the war?
• How can the evanescent “spaces” of street corner kamishibai be considered “tactical” (in Michel de Certeau’s terms), rather than as the “proper places” mandated by city planners?
• Because kamishibai and cinema were developing at the same time, they share many mutual influences. Kamishibai illustrations borrowed “camera angles” and particular kinds of “shots” from cinema. What kinds of techniques do you think cinema borrowed from kamishibai?

Suggested Readings

Sharalyn Orbaugh, “Kamishibai: The Fantasy Space of the Urban Street Corner”

• Kang Jun. 2007. Kamishibai to “bukiminamono” tachi no kindai (Kamishibai and the Modernity of “Uncanny” Things). Tokyo: Seikyûsha. 
• Nash, Eric P. 2009. Manga Kamishibai: The Art of Japanese Paper Theater. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 
• Orbaugh, Sharalyn. 2012. “Kamishibai and the Art of the Interval.” In Mechademia 7: Lines of Sight, edited by Frenchy Lunning, 78–100. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Orbaugh, Sharalyn. 2015. Propaganda Performed: Kamishibai in Japan’s Fifteen-Year War. Leiden: Brill.

Discussion Questions

Paul Dunscomb, “Making a Game of Their Own: Baseball in Japan”

• Based on your reading of this chapter, what are some ways that baseball in Japan differs from baseball in other countries?
• Please describe a Japanese team that you learned about from this chapter. Would you like to see one of their games? Why? What local customs would you expect to find there?
• How is Japanese baseball grounded in specific business practices? Please describe some examples.
• What does baseball teach us about history? Business? Culture? Society? Ideas of nation? Other issues?
• Please describe a film, anime, manga, novel, or another cultural work about baseball from Japan or another country. Why is baseball significant in this work? Do you think it depicts baseball similarly as described in this chapter?

Suggested Readings

Paul Dunscomb, “Making a Game of Their Own: Baseball in Japan”

• Guthrie-Shimizu, Sayuri. 2012. Transpacific Field of Dreams: How Baseball Linked the United States and Japan in Peace and War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Kelly, William W. 2019. The Sportsworld of the Hanshin Tigers: Professional Baseball in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Whiting, Robert. 2004. The Samurai Way of Baseball: The Impact of Ichirō and the New Wave From Japan. New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Discussion Questions

David Leheny, “Pop Go the Games: Japanese Popular Culture and Politics at the Olympics”

• Is “soft power” something that really matters between nations, or does it mostly exist in the eyes and imaginations of its advocates?
• What do the scandals surrounding the Opening Ceremony tell us about the entertainment scene in Japan, or about Japanese culture more broadly?
• Are the Olympic Games primarily celebrations of transnational cooperation or are they instead a national competition?
• What consequences for its global reputation should a country hosting the Olympic Games expect?
• Is it possible to feature entertainment that truly represents a nation during the Olympic Games?

Suggested Readings

David Leheny, “Pop Go the Games: Japanese Popular Culture and Politics at the Olympics”

• McGray, Douglas. 2002. “Japan’s Gross National Cool.” Foreign Policy, May and June: 44–54.
• Sun, Jing. 2012. Japan and China as Charm Rivals: Soft Power in Regional Diplomacy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Watanabe, Yasushi, and McConnell, David L., eds. 2012. Soft Power Superpowers: Cultural and National Assets of Japan and the United States. Oxford: Routledge.
• Winkler, Stephanie C. 2019. “‘Soft Power Is Such a Benign Animal’: Narrative Power and the Reification of Concepts in Japan.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 32 (4): 483–501.

Discussion Questions

Izumi Kuroishi, “Shibuya: Reflective Identity in Transforming Urban Space”

• This chapter argues that popular culture has influenced the urban design and the construction of buildings and spaces within Shibuya, and, at the same time, these buildings and spaces have influenced popular culture. Please explain what the author means by this argument. Has this interaction of popular culture and urban growth been found in other Tokyo neighborhoods or world cities?
• The developer, Tsutsumi Seiji, and planner, Matsuda Tsuji, both stressed the need to create a “theatrical experience” and a “sense of spectacle” when people came to Shibuya. What are some factors that make urban space “theatrical” or a “spectacle”? To what degree are we conscious of them?
• Natural geography is usually a defining feature of an urban design and dictates how the intimate spaces, like cafes and shops, connect to public spaces like squares and streets. But the design of Shibuya has developed around a network of trains, subways, and highways. How do you think this has changed how Shibuya developed?
• Shibuya is undoubtedly one of the centers of Japanese popular culture. What about its physical space, and the history and politics of that space’s ongoing development, might have made it such a place?
• How did the rivalry between the Tokyū and Seibu corporations shape Shibuya? How would the space have been different had only one corporation controlled all the real estate and had there been no competition for the attention of young consumers?
• How does Shibuya continue to grow and change today? How is Shibuya a helpful example for urban planners and producers of popular culture?

Suggested Readings

Izumi Kuroishi, “Shibuya: Reflective Identity in Transforming Urban Space”

• Clammer, John. 1997. Contemporary Urban Japan: A Sociology of Consumption. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Havens, Thomas. 1996. Architects of Affluence: The Tsutsumi Family and the Seibu Enterprises in Twentieth-Century Japan. Cambridge: Harvard East Asian Monographs, 1996.
• Koolhaas, Rem, et al., eds. 2002. The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping: Project on the City. Cologne: Taschen.

Discussion Questions

Patrick W. Galbraith, “Akihabara: Promoting and Policing Otaku in ‘Cool Japan’”

• How did Akihabara, a neighborhood in Tokyo, become the “Holy Land of Otaku”?
• What is the idea of “Cool Japan” and how does Akihabara fit into it? 
• Why were otaku marching in the Akihabara Liberation Demonstration?
• Why were some otaku labeled as weird? What was weird about them?
• The main street of Akihabara is more monitored by cameras, police, and citizen patrols than many other parts of Tokyo. Why might that be?

Suggested Readings

Patrick W. Galbraith, “Akihabara: Promoting and Policing Otaku in ‘Cool Japan’”

• Galbraith, Patrick W. 2012. Otaku Spaces. Seattle: Chin Music Press.
• Leheny, David. 2006. “A Narrow Place to Cross Swords: ‘Soft Power’ and the Politics of Japanese Popular Culture in East Asia.” In Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism, edited by Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi, 211–233. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Morikawa, Ka’ichirō. 2012. “Otaku and the City: The Rebirth of Akihabara.” In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji, 133–157. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Discussion Questions

Tong Lam, “Japan Lost and Found: Modern Ruins as Debris of the Economic Miracle”

• How are modern ruins different from ancient ruins?
• Are modern industrial and postindustrial ruins uniquely Japanese or are they part of a global phenomenon?
• How is the boom of Japanese ruins culture related to other forms of popular culture?
• What is the relationship between ruin culture and online media?
• How do Japanese ruin enthusiasts and artists use ruins to critique and reflect on the history of modern Japan’s political-economic transformations?

Suggested Readings

Tong Lam, “Japan Lost and Found: Modern Ruins as Debris of the Economic Miracle”

• Allison, Anne. 2013. Precarious Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.
• Boym, Svetlana. 2001. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books.
• Garrett, Bradley. 2013. Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City. London: Verso.
• Lam, Tong. 2013. Abandoned Futures: A Journey to the Posthuman World. Darlington: Carpet Bombing Culture.

Tong Lam’s Haikyo Photographs

Tong Lam, “Japan Lost and Found: Modern Ruins as Debris of the Economic Miracle”

• Tong Lam
• Tong Lam, LensCulture

Discussion Questions

Toby Slade, “Cute Fashion: The Social Strategies and Aesthetics of Kawaii”

• What is cute? How does it function as a phenomenon with a purpose and as something without utility that is purely aesthetic?
• Do you think there is anything different about the aesthetic of cute in Japan and the aesthetic of cute elsewhere?
• Do you agree with the author that cute has a political element to it? And if so, what do you think the agenda is?
• When is the use of cute ironic and when is it not ironic? Can you think of examples?
• What are the issues involved when the aesthetic of cute goes beyond characters, manga, and anime, and enters our own self-styling and fashion?

Suggested Readings

Toby Slade, “Cute Fashion: The Social Strategies and Aesthetics of Kawaii”

• Kawaguchi, Morinosuke. 2007. Geeky-Girly Innovation: A Japanese Subculturalist’s Guide to Technology and Design. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press.
• Kinsella, Sharon. 1995. “Cuties in Japan.” In Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan, edited by Lise Skov and Brian Moeran, 220–254. Honolulu: University of Hawai’I Press.
• Lorenz, Konrad. 1969. King Solomon’s Ring, translated by Marjorie Kerr Wilson. London: Methuen.
• Sontag, Susan. 1978. “Notes on Camp.” In Against Interpretation and Other Essays, 275–292. New York: Octagon Books.

Vending Machine with Cute Toys in Shinjuku

Vending machine filled with cute toys in Shinjuku, Tokyo, May 2016. Courtesy of Toby Slade.

Discussion Questions

Narumi Hiroshi, “Made in Japan: A New Generation of Fashion Designers”

• How has globalization affected the Japanese fashion industry?
• How did Japanese fashion designers of the early 2000s define “creativity”?
• Which designer discussed in this chapter interests you most? Why?
• What are some differences between young fashion designers in Japan and in other countries?
• How much influence does a designer have in the creation of a fashion culture, as opposed to consumers?

Suggested Readings

Narumi Hiroshi, “Made in Japan: A New Generation of Fashion Designers”

• Keet, Philomena. 2007. The Tokyo Look Book. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
• Steele, Valerie, Patricia Mears, Yuniya Kawamura, and Hiroshi Narumi. 2010. Japan Fashion Now. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Takagi, Yoko, Hiroshi Narumi, Mariko Nishitani, and Motoaki Hori, eds. 2012. Feel and Think: A New Era of Tokyo Fashion. Munich: Prestel.

Discussion Questions

Tom Looser, “Superflat Life”

• What is the tie between flatness in artistic media and modernity? And how then does flatness differ from Superflatness?
• What are some of the fundamental differences between Azuma Hiroki’s definition of Superflat and Murakami Takashi’s idea of the Superflat?
• If Superflat describes a historical shift in subjectivity, could one say that this is the expression of a specific technology (e.g., digital technologies), or medium (e.g., anime), or economic value system?
• Is it accurate to think of Superflat art as a “global” form? What are the dynamics of global and local in the world of Superflat?
• If Superflat gives us an image of our world—a kind of subject self-image—in ways that at least hint at real changes from a more classically modernist subject, does this appear to be a positive thing, socially or politically speaking? A negative thing? In what ways is it an open image of life, and in what ways is it instead perhaps totalizing and closed?

Suggested Readings

Tom Looser, “Superflat Life”

• Azuma, Hiroki. 2000. “Superflat Japanese Postmodernity.”
• Murakami, Takashi. 2000. Supa Furatto = Super Flat. Tokyo: Madora Shuppan.
• Murakami, Takashi. 2003. Summon Monsters? Open the Door? Heal? Or Die? Tokyo: Kaikai Kiki.
• Murakami, Takashi. 2005. Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Discussion Questions

Adrian Favell, “Aida Makoto: Notes from an Apathetic Continent”

• Are Aida Makoto’s works simply misogynist or can they be understood as a critique of dominant attitudes on gender and sexuality in Japan?
• Why are images of young girls apparently so prevalent in Japanese contemporary art?
• How does Aida’s War Picture Returns series of works reflect problematic historical and political relations between Japan and (both) the United States and Asian neighbors?
• How might Aida be compared and evaluated in relation to Murakami Takashi?
• Can Aida’s work be properly appreciated outside of an Asian context, i.e., in the “West”? Will it be better recognized and appreciated in the future?

Suggested Readings

Adrian Favell, “Aida Makoto: Notes from an Apathetic Continent”

• Aida Makoto. 2012. Tensai de gome nasai (Sorry for Being a Genius). Monument for Nothing. Exhibition catalogue. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, November 17, 2012–March 31, 2013.
• Favell, Adrian. 2012. Before and After Superflat: A Short History of Japanese Contemporary Art 1990–2011. Hong Kong: Blue Kingfisher/DAP.
• Larking, Matthew. 2013. “Nihonga Beside Itself: Contemporary Japanese Art’s Engagement with the Position and Meaning of a Modern Painting Tradition.” Literature and Aesthetics 23 (2): 24–37.

Discussion Questions

James Jack, “The Art of Upcycling in the Seto Inland Sea”

• What are some differences between rural and urban lifestyles in Japan?
• In what ways are cooperative artworks transforming this island region?
• What are “orderly aspects” of culture production? How about “disorderly aspects”?
• Is it possible to apply methods from what is occurring in the Setouchi Triennale to other regions in Japan? Or in the world?
• Can art change society?
• What are some positive changes that have come through upcycling materials? Have you seen examples of upcycling in the places you have lived or visited?

Suggested Readings

James Jack, “The Art of Upcycling in the Seto Inland Sea”

• Akimoto Yūji. 2002. THE STANDARD. Okayama: Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum. Geertz, Clifford. 1998. “Deep Hanging Out.” The New York Review of Books. October 22. https://www.nybooks.com/articles /1998/10/22/deep-hanging-out/
• Jack, James. 2022. “The (im)Possibility of Sharing: An American Artist in Setouchi.” American Art in Asia: Artistic Praxis and Theoretical Divergence, edited by Michelle Lim and Kyunghee Pyun. New York: Routledge.
• Kitagawa, Fram. 2015. Art Place Japan: The Echigo-Tsumari Triennale and the Vision to Reconnect Art and Nature. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
• Naoshima Meeting V. 2000. Art, Region, Locality: Between Macro and Micro Perspectives. Tokyo: Benesse Corporation.
• Willcox, Matthew. 2019. “Scattered over 12 Islands, Japan’s Setouchi Triennale Offers Poignant Reflections of Local Life by the Sea.” The Art Newspaper, August 19.
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James Jack Contemporary Art

Sunset House Images. Courtesy of James Jack.

Sunset House Images. Courtesy of James Jack.

Sunset House Images. Courtesy of James Jack.

Sunset House Images. Courtesy of James Jack.