Cover title: Japan Pop! : Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture author: Craig, Timothy J. publisher: ME Sharpe, Inc. isbn10 | asin: 0765605600 print isbn13: 9780765605603 ebook isbn13: 9780585383316 language: English subject Popular culture Japan, Japan Civilization 1945- publication date: 2000 lcc: DS822.5.J386 2000eb ddc: 952.04 subject: Popular culture Japan, Japan Civilization 1945- Page i JAPAN POP! Page ii This page intentionally left blank. Page iii JAPAN POP! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture Timothy J. Craig, Editor Page iv An East Gate Book Copyright © 2000 by M. E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Japan pop! : inside the world of Japanese popular culture / edited by Timothy J. Craig p. cm. "An East gate book" Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7656-0560-0 (alk. paper) 1. popular culture—Japan. 2. Japan—Civilization—1945- I. Craig, Timothy J., 1947- DS822.5 .J386 2000 952.04—dc21 00-021812 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1984. BM (c) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Page v Contents Acknowledgments vii A Note on Language ix 1. Introduction Tim Craig 3 Part I. Popular Music 2. Can Japanese Sing the Blues? "Japanese Jazz" and the Problem of Authenticity E. Taylor Atkins 27 3. The Marketing of Tears: Consuming Emotions in Japanese Popular Song Christine R. Yano 60 4. Open Your File, Open Your Mind: Women, English, and Changing Roles and Voices in Japanese Pop Music James Stanlaw 75 5. A Karaoke Perspective on International Relations Hiro R. Shimatachi 101 Part II: Comics and Animation 6. Japanese Comic Books and Religion: Osamu Tezuka's Story of the Buddha Mark Wheeler MacWilliams 109 7. The Romantic, Passionate Japanese in Anime: A Look at the Hidden Japanese Soul Eri Izawa 138 8. Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen): Volume 8, pages 17–31 Keiji Nakazawa 154 Page vi 9. Gender Roles and Girls' Comics in Japan: The Girls and Guys of Club Maia Tsurumi 171 10. From Sazae-san to Crayon Shin-chan: Family Anime, Social Change, and Nostalgia in Japan William Lee 186 Part III: Television and Film 11. New Role Models for Men and Women? Gender in Japanese TV Dramas Hilaria M. Gössmann 207 12. A New Kind of Royalty: The Imperial Family and the Media in Postwar Japan Jayson Chun 222 13. Into the Heartland with Tora-san Mark Schilling 245 Part IV: Japanese Popular Culture Abroad 14. Sailor Moon: Japanese Superheroes for Global Girls Anne Allison 259 15. Beauty Fighter "Sailor Chemist" Yuka Kawada 279 16. Doraemon Goes Abroad Saya S. Shiraishi 287 17. Pop Idols and the Asian Identity Hiroshi Aoyagi 309 About the Contributors 327 Credits for Photographs and Illustrations 331 Credits for Song Lyrics 335 Index 339 Page vii Acknowledgments Like most books, this one benefited from the help and encouragement of a great number of people. I would first like to express my gratitude to the University of Victoria's Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) and to its Director Bill Neilson for the support and resources that allowed me to take on this project. Along the way, much-appreciated assistance was provided by Stella Chan, Tomoko Izawa, Heather MacDonald, and Wendy Farwell. For inspiration in a variety of forms, a tip of the hat to Fosco Maraini, Fred Schodt, Steve Mindel, John, Curtis, and magic Tango. A special word of appreciation goes to the many publishers and artists in Japan who generously provided permission for the use of photographs, illustrations, and song lyrics, and to Doug Merwin and M. E. Sharpe, for their enthusiasm for a book concept that other publishers tended to view as either too academic or not academic enough. And to my wonderful family—Hiroko, Danny, and Emily—thanks for putting up with the project and for helping me out so much with your ideas and knowledge of Japan pop—I've been lucky to have such a good resource sitting around the dinner table. Finally, I want to thank all the authors and artists who have contributed their writings and other creations to this volume. Your enchanting and insightful work has provided the real motivation. From my first encounter with it, I knew that I had something special in my hands, and I have since been driven, over a sometimes bumpy road, by a desire to share it with a larger audience. I hope you are happy with the destination. Page viii This page intentionally left blank. Page ix A Note on Language In Japan, people's names are usually written with the family name first and the given name last. However, as this book is written not just for Japan specialists but for a more general audience as well, I have listed Japanese names in the usual English order: given name first and family name last. Japanese words are generally italicized (e.g., yume, namida). An exception is made for words which are used repeatedly in a chapter; such words are italicized and defined the first time they are used (e.g., enka, anime), and thereafter printed in roman type (enka, anime). A "long sign" (macron) over a vowel in a Japanese name or word indicates that the sound of the vowel is sustained; thus the difference in pronunciation between koi (love) and (an act, kind intentions, or goodwill). In Japanese titles that include "borrowed" English words, I have generally used the standard English spellings of those words rather than phoneticizing them; thus "Diamonds" instead of Daiamondo and Club rather than Kurabu. [...]... lyrics, and the words and thoughts of Japan pop's creators and fans, the writings collected here offer not just the facts but also the flavor of Japan' s popular music, its comics and animation, its television and film, and the travels of Japanese pop overseas Along the way, they open up a window into today's Japan that is far more revealing (to say nothing of far more fun) than the works on Japanese economics,... ourselves—Are we the same as the Japanese or different?—there may be no better "textbook" than the rich and often-surprising world of Japan' s modern pop culture In inviting the reader into that world, this volume presents not just writings about Japan' s pop culture; it presents Japan itself Chapters 2 through 5 look at popular music, beginning with E Taylor Atkins's essay on Japanese jazz Japanese jazz... export of the "hard" of automobiles, electronics, and other manufactured goods but a nobody in terms of the "soft" of cultural products and influence, Japan now contributes not just to our material lives, but to our everyday cultural lives as well Why Japan Pop Is Hot One sign of the level of interest in Japan' s pop culture was a conference on the topic held in Victoria, Canada, by the University of Victoria... degrees out of phase from what we would expect in the West."26 The same can be said of other forms of Japan pop, and the Page 17 chance to discover and explore mental universes built up from foundations entirely independent of our own is surely part of its lure There is also an "opposites attract" sort of complementarity between Japanese and Western pop culture which gives certain aspects of one added... 12 For the definitive English-language treatments of manga, see Frederik L Schodt, Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (New York: Kodansha International, 1983); and Frederik L Schodt, Dreamland Japan, Writings on Modern Manga (Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge, 1996) 13 Mark Schilling, The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture (New York: Weatherhill, 1997), p 11 14 Fosco Maraini, Japan, Patterns of Continuity... that is supported by Japan' s native Shinto religion As the Italian scholar Fosco Maraini writes: "The Japanese, both in work and relaxation, enjoy the mere fact of living to the hilt No doubts, caused by the memory of some original sin in the backyards of the collective subconscious, trouble their sleep No need for psychiatrists and couches The world is good; man is a kami [god]; work is good; wealth... feature of Japan' s popular culture is its closeness to the ordinary, everyday lives of its audience American comic artist Brian Stelfreeze has said, "Comics in the United States have become such a caricature You have to have incredible people doing incredible things, but in Japan it seems like the most popular comics are the comics of normal people doing normal things." 19 Part of the normalcy is that the. .. in the West How do these features of Japanese pop culture explain its international popularity? Aside from its universal appeal—consumers of pop culture everywhere seek quality, humor, dreams, and heroics Japan pop speaks in special ways to Asia and to the West For other Asians, Japan' s pop culture has a resonance that is derived from ethnic similarity and from shared values, tastes, and traditions The. .. from the clothes of Japanese "idol" singers and TV stars and from Japanese teen magazines such as Non-No Gossipy stories about Japanese entertainers such as Takuya Kimura and Noriko Sakai fill local newspapers.4 Among the Nintendo and PlayStation set, which encompasses most of the school-age population in many countries, Japanese video games such as Street Fighter, Tekken, and Final Fantasy rule the. .. them a fuller range of forms, themes, and viewpoints to enjoy, and perhaps to be influenced by An Invitation Inside Enough about Japanese pop culture What makes this book special is not that it describes and discusses Japanese pop culture though it does plenty of this as well—but that it takes the reader inside Japan' s pop culture world to discover for him or herself what is there Rich in illustrations, . Craig 3 Part I. Popular Music 2. Can Japanese Sing the Blues? " ;Japanese Jazz" and the Problem of Authenticity E. Taylor Atkins 27 3. The Marketing of Tears: Consuming Emotions in Japanese Popular. from the publisher, M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Business Park Drive, Armonk, New York 10504. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Japan pop! : inside the world of Japanese popular culture. blank. Page iii JAPAN POP! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture Timothy J. Craig, Editor Page iv An East Gate Book Copyright © 2000 by M. E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this