Koichi Iwabuchi

“Soft” Nationalism and Narcissism: Japanese Popular Culture Goes Global

(2002). “Soft” nationalism and narcissism: Japanese popular culture goes global. Asian Studies Review: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 447-469.

Pop-culture diplomacy in Japan: soft power, nation branding and the question of ‘international cultural exchange’

This paper critically examines the development of what is known as ‘pop-culture diplomacy’ in Japan. In the postwar era, the country’s cultural diplomacy was propelled by the necessity to soften anti-Japan perceptions, notably in Southeast Asia. In the late 1980s, the popularity of Japanese media culture in Asia began to attract the attention of policy makers, while subsequent globalized practices of soft power and nation branding gave greater emphasis to the use of media culture to internationally enhance the image of the nation, which has meant the promotion of ‘pop-culture diplomacy’ and, more broadly, ‘Cool Japan’. It is argued that pop-culture diplomacy goes no further than a one-way projection and does not seriously engage with cross-border dialogue. The Japanese case also shows that pop-culture diplomacy hinders meaningful engagement with internal cultural diversity and suggests the necessity of taking domestic implications of cultural diplomacy seriously.

Lost in TransNation: Tokyo and the urban imaginary in the era of globalization

Abstract The 2003 film Lost in Translation has attracted both acclaim and critique concerning its representation of the urban imaginary of Tokyo. Examining both the film representation and the critical responses to the imaginary, this paper discusses how they illuminate some of the emerging issues that Tokyo and Japan face in the era of globalization, such as the loss of the idiosyncratic status of non‐Western modernity that Japan has long enjoyed; post‐(self)Orientalist cultural othering; and the transnational alliance of media and cultural industries in a global cultural economy of branding the nation through media and consumer cultures, all at the expense of the issue of intensifying migration and multicultural situations in the urban space. It will be suggested that both the film and Japanese critiques of the film are lost in the actuality of Tokyo (indeed, of Japan) and its populace, which is being radically transformed by intensifying transnational flows of people, capital, and media imagery.

Multinationalizing the multicultural: The commodification of ‘ordinary foreign residents’ in a Japanese TV talk show

This paper analyses the representation of foreign residents in Japan in the popular television variety show Kokoga hen dayo nihonjin (This Is So Bizarre, You Japanese). It discusses ways in which the increasing presence and visibility of foreign residents in the Japanese public space enhances the commercial value of ‘ordinariness’. In this process the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them-within-us’ are sharply re-demarcated in an international framework and the intensifying multicultural situation is subtly turned into a multinational media spectacle, in a way in which the national imagined community is not fundamentally displaced.

Globalization, East Asian media cultures and their publics

In the last two decades, media and cultural globalization has reached another level of development and penetration. While various (national) media markets have been penetrated and integrated by the powerful missionaries of global media culture such as News Corporation, Disney and Time Warner, the development of East Asian media cultural production and inter-Asian media co-production, circulation and consumption has become no less conspicuous. On the one hand, these developments have highlighted the de-Westernized patterns of cultural production, circulation and connection in, from and within the region. However, on the other, it is still questionable if these developments have eventually challenged uneven transnational media cultural flows and have truthfully promoted dialogic connections among people of various places, as they reproduce hierarchy, unevenness and marginalization. This article will critically review how the rise of Asian media culture production and inter-Asian connections fails to serve wider public interests locally, nationally and transnationally, especially in terms of the promotion of uneven globalization process in which the logic of market has deeply governed the production, circulation and consumption of media culture. Given that the states are supporting the activities of transnational media culture industries, it is imperative for researchers to examine more rigorously the unevenness, inequality and marginalization in the inter-Asian mass culture network, and to collaborate transnationally with various social actors so as to advance inter-Asian media culture connections in more democratic and dialogic ways.

De-westernisation, inter-Asian referencing and beyond

The necessity of de-westernising knowledge production has been widely advocated. This is especially pertinent with media and cultural studies, due to the rise of East Asian media cultures and their transnational circulation, hence a call for ‘looking after Europe’. This article engages the issue by considering the possibility of inter-Asian referencing and the next steps to be taken. Inter-Asian referencing is a significant manoeuvre for making concepts and theories derived from Asian experiences translocally relevant and shared, as well as developing a nuanced comprehension of Asian experiences through reciprocal learning process. It is also significant for the study of East Asian media culture, as it has become an integral part of production and consumption of media culture in the region. The inter-Asian referencing project calls for researchers working both inside and outside of Asia to collaborate to develop the innovative production of knowledge and advance cross-border dialogue.

De-Westernization and the governance of global cultural connectivity: a dialogic approach to East Asian media cultures

In the last two decades, we have witnessed dramatic developments in the production of media cultures and their transnational circulation in non-Western regions. East Asia is one of the key regions in which these alternative cultural expressions flourish, in which cultural mixing and corporate collaboration intensify, and in which intra-regional consumption is set in motion. These developments have posed serious questions about the continuing plausibility of Euro-American cultural domination, and they necessitate the de-Westernization of the study of media and cultural globalization. Yet the degree to which the rise of East Asian media culture challenges West-centred power configurations remains a matter of debate—especially as new configurations of global governance in media culture have emerged which are subtly superseding the East–West binary, and permeating both Western and non-Western regions. This article analyses the rise of East Asian media cultures in terms of the governance of global media culture connectivity, with a particular focus on how the growing regional circulation of media products has promoted dialogic cross-border linkages. The article begins by sketching how the production, circulation, and connectivity of media cultures in East Asia have highlighted new perspectives and experiences in globalization. Homing in on the Japanese context, it then explores how the interplay of three modes of governance in global media culture puts critical limits on the way in which these interlinked media cultures can enhance cross-border dialogue. Specifically, the article examines the collaboration of media and cultural industries, the institutionalization of cultural internationalism, and the growing interest of states in branding the nation via media cultures. While the increasing circulation and consumption of East Asian media cultures have considerably facilitated dialogic connections among people in the region, it is still a matter of debate whether these developments can fundamentally challenge uneven processes of globalization in media cultures and build cross-border dialogue.

Rethinking Race and Racism in and from Japan

Recently, racism and racist discrimination have become prevalent and visible in Japan. For example, a sharp rise in racist attacks (such as ‘hate speech’ and demonstrations against Korean residents and schools) has been the focus of media outlets, Diet sessions, and some academic books. Behind this emergent social problem lie in part the intensifying tensions between Japan and China, South Korea and North Korea over historical and territorial issues, as well as the persistent mistrust of and racism against certain ethnic minorities. In October 2013, the Kyoto District Court judged that the relentless campaigning that the Zainichi Tokken o Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (Citizens’ Association to Oppose Special Rights for [Foreign] Residents in Japan, commonly called ‘Zaitokukai’) had been carrying out around the Kyoto Korean School constituted ‘racial discrimination’ (jinshu sabetsu) as defined by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which Japan ratified in 1995. Their propaganda activities around the school were banned and they were ordered to pay 12,260,000 yen (approximately 122,600 US dollars) in damages (and in June 2014, the Osaka High Court dismissed an appeal). While it remains to be seen to what extent the judgment of one district court will suppress similar discrimination and harassment in the future, a Japanese court of law using the term ‘jinshu sabetsu’ to get to the heart of the matter was an epoch-making event. For decades after the Second World War, the myth that Japan was an ethnically homogeneous, raceless society had long been widely held. However, such a view has come to be seen as problematic and politically incorrect, at least in the public sphere, since around 1990 when changes to immigration law drastically increased the number of migrant workers and their families residing in Japan and the number of international marriages also significantly increased. Furthermore, the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake that hit Kobe and its vicinity in 1995 marked a turning point in making highly visible the existence of ethnic minorities and recent immigrants as well as in spreading the term tabunka ky osei (‘multicultural co-existence’) throughout Japan. Since then, society has become more sensitive to and active in multilingual services and cultural activities. However, tabunka ky osei often remains at the level of what is referred to as the ‘3 F’ – food, festival, and fashion – and has not achieved the true sense of ky osei co-existence (without assimilation) that ethnic Korean activists have campaigned for in their struggles against discrimination. At the same time, growing multicultural exposure has also engendered racialized discourse. The Japanese media have often reported in

Against Banal Inter-nationalism

AbstractThis article discusses, with an emphasis on Japanese and East Asian contexts, the ways in which the increasing pervasiveness of the inter-nationalised modes — “inter-national” with a hyphen in the sense of highlighting the nation as the unit of global cultural encounters — of production, circulation and consumption of media cultures makes exclusive national boundaries even stronger and more solid. The underlying tenet of “methodological nationalism” has been promoted and instituted by the synergism of the process of cultural glocalisation and state’s policy of national branding that endorses it. What has been engendered in this process is “banal inter-nationalism”; a container model of the nation is further instituted as the inter-nationalised circulation and encounter of media culture has become a site in which national identity is mundanely invoked, performed and experienced. Banal inter-nationalism suppresses and marginalises multicultural questions within the nation, as national boundaries are mutually re-constituted through the process in which cross-border cultural flows and encounters are promoted in a way to accentuate an inter-nationalised form of cultural diversity.

Media, communication and the struggle for social progress:

This article discusses the role of media and communications in contributing to social progress, as elaborated in a landmark international project – the International Panel on Social Progress. First, it analyses how media and digital platforms have contributed to global inequality by examining media access and infrastructure across world regions. Second, it looks at media governance and the different mechanisms of corporatized control over media platforms, algorithms and content. Third, the article examines how the democratization of media is a key element in the struggle for social justice. It argues that effective media access – in terms of distribution of media resources, even relations between spaces of connection and the design and operation of spaces that foster dialogue, free speech and respectful cultural exchange – is a core component of social progress.