Selling Props, Playing Stars: Virtualising the Self in the Japanese Mediascape Zen Yipu A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney March 2005 For my family Acknowledgements The author is deeply indebted to those who generously helped during the past five years. My discursive thoughts would not have been turned into a cross-disciplinary dissertation without the help of Dr Elaine Lally, who supervised my writing throughout the latter part of my candidacy. Her professionalism was an indispensable element of its completion. Its faults are mine. Professor Ien Ang helped me making a theoretical transition, as well as an institutional one from the Australian National University (ANU) to the University of Western Sydney (UWS). This work would not have materialised without those who shared their time and intellect. For many years since my undergraduate days at the ANU, Professor Geremie Barme gave guidance and inspiration. Dr Mandy Thomas offered generously of her time and support. My time at Canberra School of Art was crucial to my growth. Nigel Lendon and Martyn Jolly showed me the doorway to a journey that eventually led from art to sociology. Many scholars have offered their thoughts. Amongst them Professor Yoshimi Shunya, Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Professor Gavin McCormack gave important clues for this thesis. This work began at the ANU, continued at the University of Tokyo and concluded at UWS. During this time I was supported by an Australian Commonwealth Postgraduate Award and a Japanese Ministry of Education (Monbusho) scholarship – I am grateful for both. This work would have not been possible, as an amusing journey would not be possible, without companions. I owe a long overdue apology to those who suffered from my chronically preoccupied company. This work, for all it is worth, is as tangible a ‘thank you’ as it can be to my friends and family. It was never more important – it was only my inability to manage the curiosity. I certify that this thesis does not incorporate any material previously submitted for a degree or a diploma at any University. It does not contain any material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text. Zen Yipu ------------------------------------- Signature Abstract In the so-called postmodern era, when networked media are increasingly ubiquitous in everyday life, where the ‘real’ and the ‘simulation’ become ever more indistinguishable; the physical and virtual intertwine; machines and man merge, and audience and stars transpose. To understand consumption in a time when realness and authenticity are no longer relevant, this thesis draws attention to the consumption and production of media content through case studies of consumer participation and social trends in Japan. The work begins in a themed shopping mall, VenusFort in Tokyo Bay; continues with the reproduction of Audrey Hepburn‘s image; expands to the dramatised ‘realness’ of television; and finally moves to the omnipresent mobile phone and the impact of networked personal media on our idea of the ‘real’. First, through an analysis of a themed consumption environment, it is suggested that a transition is taking place in consumption from objects to experiences, services and spectacle. Secondly, by showing Audrey Hepburn‘s transition from a Hollywood star to a virtualised idol, technologically-aided illusions are shown to make hierarchical realness irrelevant. Thirdly, via Reality TV dating programs, the focus shifts to the role of audience participation in the consumption of media content. These themes are demonstrated individually, then merged into the last example – the social and cultural evolution induced by the mass consumption of networked media, that promise to revolutionise the way we consume, communicate and connect between people, machines and consumer goods. The thesis grounds its analysis of contemporary trends in the culture of consumption in Japan in theories of commodity and culture, the real and the simulation, speed and reality, the spectacle and the self in mediated spaces, and probes further into the collapse of demarcations between the virtual and the real, the event and the everyday and media and the self in the network society. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................1 Issues of Consumption................................................................................................... 3 The ‘Uniqueness’ of Japanese Consumption.................................................................. 5 Conspicuous Consumption and Distinction ................................................................. 8 Simulation, Aura and Virtuality ................................................................................. 17 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................. 21 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER I Dramatic Stores, Real Simulations.............................................................................35 The Story of VenusFort................................................................................................ 36 The History of Daiba.................................................................................................... 43 The Reincarnation of Daiba ......................................................................................... 48 Simulacrum of Southern Italy or replica of Las Vegas? .............................................. 61 Different Dramas – Tokyo Disneyland and VenusFort............................................... 72 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 85 CHAPTER II Idols in Bytes, History Virtualised.............................................................................90 ‘Postmodern’ Japaneseness and its Cultural Production ............................................ 91 The Enduring Popularity of Audrey Hepburn............................................................ 95 Becoming Hepburn ...................................................................................................... 98 Virtualising the Idol................................................................................................... 104 The Production and Consumption of Audrey Hepburn............................................ 112 The True Rebirth of Audrey Hepburn (in a Canned Tea) ......................................... 121 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 128 CHAPTER III Watching Stars, Playing the Mundane....................................................................134 The ‘Ainori あい’ Story.................................................................................... 135 The ‘Future Diary’ Story........................................................................................... 137 Television, the Mall and Transportation for the Mind.............................................. 140 Melodramatic Reality? – The Question of Genre ...................................................... 146 Scripting ’Reality’...................................................................................................... 151 The Social Context of ‘Ainori’ and ‘Future Diary’.................................................... 170 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 176 CHAPTER IV From Consumers to Cyborgs....................................................................................181 A Brief History of Consumer Mobile Phones in Japan.............................................. 186 Third Generation Mobile Phone, or First Generation Teleportation of the Self........ 195 Merging Media .......................................................................................................... 199 From Wearable Gadgets to Added Limbs................................................................... 207 Mingu and other Inventiveness via the Mobile Phone.............................................. 213 Virtualising Consumption......................................................................................... 222 The Node You Can See (or what does Virtuality Look Like?) ................................... 225 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 228 CONCLUSION Mediating Consumption: from Object to Content ................................................236 The Changing Media Landscape................................................................................ 236 ‘Post-Real’ Realities ................................................................................................... 239 The Merge, the Network and the Evolutionary Self .................................................. 244 Mediating the Body in the Network Society.............................................................. 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................249 Japanese Sources .......................................................................................................