ISSN 0918-7545 Contents Sociology International of Journal Japanese Number 20, November 2011 EDITOR’S NOTE Daisaburo Hashizume 1 SPECIAL ISSUE—COOL JAPAN Introduction Ian Condry and Yuiko Fujita 2 Post-3/11 Japan and the Radical Recontextualization of Value: Music, Social Media, and End-Around Strategies for Cultural Action Ian Condry 4 Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan Laura Miller 18 The Pitfall Facing the Cool Japan Project: The Transnational Development of the Number 20 November 2011 Anime Industry under the Condition of Post-Fordism Yoshitaka Mo–ri 30 Fabricating Japaneseness? The Identity Politics of Young Designers and Artists in Global Cities SPECIAL ISSUE—COOL JAPAN Yuiko Fujita 43 Number 20 November 2011 Introduction Can Cool Japan save Post-Disaster Japan? On the Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Cool Japanology Post-3/11 Japan and the Radical Recontextualization of Value: Music, Social Media, Jonathan E. Abel 59 and End-Around Strategies for Cultural Action Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan ARTICLE The Pitfall Facing the Cool Japan Project: The Transnational Development of the Anime Relative Rank-order of Salient Identities of the Japanese Industry under the Condition of Post-Fordism Ryotaro Uemura 73 Fabricating Japaneseness? The Identity Politics of Young Designers and Artists in Global Cities AWARDED ARTICLES Can Cool Japan save Post-Disaster Japan? On the Possibilities and Impossibilities 2003 JSS Award winner: Article Division of a Cool Japanology Representations of “the West,” “Japan,” and “the Periphery” in the Discourse of Lafcadio Hearn Studies Yoshiaki Fukuma 89 2010 JSS Award winner: Article Division Social Integration in Post-Multiculturalism: An Analysis of Social Integration Policy in Post-war Britain Satoshi Adachi 107 2010 JSS Award Winner: Book Division Sekinin To Shakai: Fuho Koi Sekinin No Imi O Meguru Arasoi (The Meaning of Tort Liability in Japan: A Sociological Exploration): Summary by the Author Jun Tsunematsu 121 BOOK REVIEWS 124 The Japan Sociological Society 001_ijjs_v20_i1_OC_8.01mm.indd 1 10/13/2011 5:45:32 PM International Journal of Japanese Sociology 2011, Number 20 Contents Number 20, November 2011 EDITOR’S NOTE Daisaburo Hashizume . .1 SPECIAL ISSUE—COOL JAPAN Introduction Ian Condry and Yuiko Fujita . .2 Post-3/11 Japan and the Radical Recontextualization of Value: Music, Social Media, and End-Around Strategies for Cultural Action Ian Condry . .4 Cute Masquerade and the Pimping of Japan Laura Miller . .18 The Pitfall Facing the Cool Japan Project: The Transnational Development of the Anime Industry under the Condition of Post-Fordism Yoshitaka Mo–ri . .30 Fabricating Japaneseness? The Identity Politics of Young Designers and Artists in Global Cities Yuiko Fujita . .43 Can Cool Japan save Post-Disaster Japan? On the Possibilities and Impossibilities of a Cool Japanology Jonathan E . Abel . .59 ARTICLE Relative Rank-order of Salient Identities of the Japanese Ryotaro Uemura . .73 © 2011 The Author International Journal of Japanese Sociology © 2011 The Japan Sociological Society 101-102_ijjs_v20_i1_toc.indd 1 10/13/2011 5:47:50 PM International Journal of Japanese Sociology doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6781.2011.01143.x 2011, Number 20 Introduction Does the idea of “Cool Japan” have a place and possibly transforming, enduring struc- in a post-3/11 world? The images of the tures of power and inequality. tsunami and the ensuing devastation have The next article by Laura Miller contrib- been etched in the minds of people around utes to an understanding of gendered the globe, and one wonders whether this sin- aspects of Cool Japan ideology as found in gular event will permanently transform the government-sponsored texts and imagery, image of Japan, both at home and abroad. In as well as in other international arenas. She the wake of the “triple disaster,” could it be demonstrates that Cool Japan reifies and that Japan will go from kakkoii (cool) to officially promotes male geek culture, by yabai (dangerous)? This special issue of the displacing to the margins female innova- International Journal of Japanese Sociology, tions and creativity in cultural production. co-edited by researchers from Japan and the This discussion shows that Cool Japan’s USA, draws together articles from both otaku (obsessive fan) ethos tends to erase, countries in an effort to imagine possible trivialize, or ignore women and girls who fail futures for analysis for these and other ques- to conform to a narrow model of cute femi- tions related to Japan’s global status. Taken ninity. Cool Japan ideology, as promoted by together, the articles show that Cool Japan government officials among others, thus was never a singular designation, nor was promotes enduring structures of gender it necessarily all that it seemed, and so stratification. the authors take different, though comple- The next two articles focus on the tran- mentary, approaches. Each offers a critical snational production system of media and perspective on various aspects of the cultural products, and problematize the way popular in Japan, whether music, animation, in which the Japanese government natural- manga, fashion, or art, to explore ways izes national borders. Yoshitaka Mo¯ ri draws of re-evaluating “cool” in light of recent attention to the transnational division of developments.ijjs_1143 2..3 labor in the production of “Japanese” The article by Ian Condry uses examples anime, examining how the anime industry from Japanese popular culture to examine developed since the mid-1960s to the the dynamic interplay between social con- present. The international connections in texts and cultural action. He argues that both production and consumption of Japa- music provides a model for cultural move- nese popular culture indicate that we need ments that do not attack power directly, but more nuanced understandings of globaliza- rather operate through a slippery, insidious, tion and of meanings of the popular. “end-around” strategy of change that gains Although anime is seen both as a cultural its force from recontextualizing social logics. product from Japan and as an export in the The elements of “cool” are less important recent Cool Japan promotion projects that than the lessons to be taken from looking at the Japanese government is now pursuing, how framing cultural production produces in fact, anime has been a very hybridized new kinds of value. Some features of music product in the transnational production foreshadow a few of the contemporary system, in particular relying on workers in developments in social media, and may South Korea and China. As these countries point to untapped potentials for subverting, develop their own animation industries, © 2011 The Authors International Journal of Japanese Sociology © 2011 The Japan Sociological Society Introduction 3 there could be a further erosion in the has been tempered by a realization that already difficult position of Japanese popularity can lead to new kinds of distor- animators. tions as well. The goal of including more The research conducted by Yuiko Fujita types of cultural production in the study of looks at another side of Cool Japan, namely, Japan has still left out many people, includ- fashion, design, and contemporary art, ing young women and their creative provo- based on in-depth interviews with young cations, as Miller points out. Similarly, an professional artists and designers working in emphasis on anime as “Japanese” can in London, New York, and Paris. She explores effect erase the substantial contributions how these practitioners negotiate their cul- other Asian people have made, and con- tural identities in subtle ways. They often tinue to make, to animation production. resist the pressure to represent Japan, but Fujita shows that Japan’s visibility on the they have to do so strategically given the global stage can limit the freedom of Japa- constant expectation by those in the media nese artists, some of whom feel hemmed in and art worlds of the West, as well as those by stereotypical understandings of what the in Japan, which constantly remind the public nation represents. Abel and Condry draw that such artists are expected to be attention to the spaces around “cool” in an “Japanese.” effort to track broader social dynamics. Finally,Jonathon E.Abel’s essay discusses The authors collected here represent only the possibilities (and impossibilities) of a a small fraction of academic work world- “Cool Japanology.” He offers a reading of wide that is interested in re-evaluating Cool different dimensions of “cool” and cautions Japan. We, the editors, hope this collection against defining a field of study around Cool can make a small contribution to those Japan, a stance, he notes, that instantly turns broader efforts. We remain confident that a its object of study into something “uncool.” focus on global media and popular culture is As an alternative, he uses the example of a valuable direction for research, provided, the 2009 anime film Summer Wars to give of course, that we maintain a critical stance insight into thinking about otaku, hikiko- and keep a focus on the people most directly mori (shut-ins), and collective action. It is impacted by the kinds of analysis that here that he finds reason for optimism. unfolds. In that regard, the dynamics of Cool What these essays share is an urge to go Japan, regardless of the longevity of the beyond the common formulations of Cool term itself, should provide clues for the cul- Japan that have been in circulation since tural connections, dangerous distortions, 2002, when the journalist Douglas McGray and critical potential of popular culture in a coined the term “gross national cool.”At the way that can contribute to the rebuilding time, he argued that the global strength of and rethinking of Japan’s challenges in the the nation’s popular culture meant that aftermath of 3/11.At least, that is our desire. Japan was “reinventing superpower,” and Ian Condry some media watchers and government offi- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cials took him at his word.