Japan After Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present PDF
Preview Japan After Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present
JapanAfterJapan asia-pacific: culture, politics, and society Editors:ReyChow,HarryHarootunian,andMasaoMiyoshi ©2006DukeUniversityPress Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper(cid:5) DesignedbyJenniferHill TypesetinScalabyTsengInformationSystems,Inc. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationDataappear onthelastprintedpageofthisbook. CONTENTS 1 Introduction HarryHarootunianandTomikoYoda 16 ARoadmaptoMillennialJapan TomikoYoda 54 TheUniversityandthe‘‘GlobalEconomy’’:TheCasesofthe UnitedStatesandJapan MasaoMiyoshi 81 TheUniversity,Disciplines,NationalIdentity:WhyIsThereNo FilmStudiesinJapan? MitsuhiroYoshimoto 98 Japan’sLongPostwar:TheTrickofMemoryandtheRuseofHistory HarryHarootunian 122 NationalSubjectivityandtheUsesofAtonementintheAgeofRecession J.VictorKoschmann 142 ‘‘GiveMeJapanandNothingElse!’’: Postcoloniality,Identity,andtheTracesofColonialism LeoChing 167 ‘‘YouAsians’’:OntheHistoricalRoleoftheWestandAsiaBinary NaokiSakai 195 RevengeandRecapitationinRecessionaryJapan MarilynIvy 216 The‘‘WildChild’’of1990sJapan AndreaG.Arai 239 TheRiseandFallofMaternalSociety: Gender,Labor,andCapitalinContemporaryJapan TomikoYoda 275 Representation,RealityCulture,andGlobalCapitalisminJapan EricCazdyn 299 MonsieurleCapitalandMadamelaTerreDoTheirGhost-Dance: GlobalizationandtheNation-State YutakaNagahara 331 New-AgeFetishes,Monsters,andFriends:PokémonCapitalism attheMillennium AnneAllison 358 OtakuMovement ThomasLaMarre 395 ADriftingWorldFair:CulturalPoliticsofEnvironmentintheLocal/Global ContextofContemporaryJapan YoshimiShunya 415 AngelusNovusinMillennialJapan SabuKohso 439 Contributors 443 Index Introduction HarryHarootunianandTomikoYoda M ore than a decade has passed since the bursting of Japan’s bubble economy,anddespitesomeintermittentsignsofrecovery,thepro- longedeconomicdownturnthatbeganintheearly1990sstillweighs heavilyonthenation.Inthecourseofthedecade,anoptimisticviewthat thenation’seconomicstagnationismerelyatemporarydownturninabusi- nesscycle,anadjustmentoftheexcessivegrowthandtheinflationofasset pricesinthelatterpartofthe1980s,wasabandoned.Whiletheprognosis of Japan’seconomicfutureremainsuncertain,thefactthattherecession- arydecadehascatalyzedawide-reachingtransformationinJapanesesociety seemsindisputable.Duringthe1990s,thewavesofbankruptcyandunem- ploymentreachedpost-1940speaks,palpablyerodingthevauntedlifetime employmentsystemandcuttingdeeplyintothecoreofpostwarJapanese socialcompactandthesenseofnationalidentity.Manyclaimthatthefull revivaloftheeconomywouldentailafurtherprocessofrestructuring—a processthatwillcontinuetoexactserioustollsontheJapanesesocietyin fractiousandunevenways. Theeconomicwoesduringthedecadehavegreatlytarnishedtheimage of Japan, built up over decades, as a nation of an unending economic ex- pansion.The significance of the 1990s as a major historical conjuncture, however,mustalsobeunderstoodthroughthewaysinwhichitmarkedthe dissolutionofthestatusquoinanothersense.Thedecadeappearstohave signaledthelong-deferredendofthepostwar,whichJapanhaskeptalive as vigorously as the state once tried to prolong the life of the former em- perorHirohitoashelaydying.Thisnarrativeofthelongpostwarbeganwith theUnitedStatesconspicuouslyconspiringwithJapaneseandtheimperial houseimmediatelyafterthewartoabsolvetheemperorfromwarresponsi- bility,whichwouldsparehimfromgoingtotrialintheTokyoMilitaryTri- bune.Bypreservingtheemperorandthedynasty,theUnitedStatesliterally underminedtheveryreformsithadimplementedtoeliminateprewarfas- cismandtoputintoplacethefoundationsofagenuinesocialdemocratic structure.Atthesametime,theUnitedStatesalsoservedastheprincipal alibiforJapan’sfailuretoachieveitspostwaraspirations,howeveritwasde- fined(eventhoughtheretentionoftheemperormorethanamplyfulfilled themostprimaryoftheseambitions).The‘‘compensation’’allegedlypaid was one in unprecedented economic affluence and military protection, if notthepromisedsocialdemocracy. Thesignificantdeclineofthispartnershipwasexposedinthecourseof the1990s,providinguswithanopportunitytoreexaminethetangledhis- toricalrelationshipbetweenthesetwocountriessincetheendofthewar. OncetheColdWarhadended,theUnitedStates,withitscontroloverthe globalmarket,andwithoutrealthreatstonationalsecurityapartfromthe rhetoricofso-calledroguestatesandChina,recognizedthattheutilityof the postwar it shared with Japan had outrun its productivity. While the UnitedStateshadbeenprogressivelydetachingitselffromJapanthrough- out the 1990s, Japanese found themselves persuaded to cling even more tenaciouslytoarelationship,whichfordecadeshadexcludedallothersfor thestatusofapartnershipthatwasequalinnameonly.TheJapanesede- siretoretainthedependentrelationshipithaslivedwiththeUnitedStates pointstoareluctancetoletgoofthedistortedhistorythathasretainedfor itboththeprincipleandprincipalofpoliticalauthorityandthusthewhole ofitsmodernhistory.IftheJapanesearealwaysperplexedwhenforeigners, andespeciallyAsians,constantlydemandofthemanaccountoftheircon- ductinthewar,itisbecausetheywerepermittedbytheU.S.militaryoccu- pationtoretaintheirprewarhistoricalexperienceandmakeitafundamen- talpartofthenewpostwarorder,unliketheGermanswhowereforcedto confrontandquestionitasaconditionofsheddingbutnotforgettingit. If the recognition of the end of the postwar hit a Japanese society al- readyreelingfromthemillennialmalaiseofthe1990s,theeventsof9/11 ontheothersideoftheglobewouldconvincethemthatthenewcentury announcedevenworsethingstocome.America’snewimperialturnafter 9/11(returnisabetterdescription),warinAfghanistanandtheinvasionof Iraq,simplyconfirmedtheworstof Japanesefearsandanxietiesthattheir status as America’s partner had always been an empty fiction.While the 2 harry harootunian and tomiko yoda Japanesepressreverberatedwithnewsoftheshockattendingthecollapse oftheWorldTradeCenterbyMuslim,notablySaudiArabian,suicidebomb- ers(thatmusthavemomentarilyrecalledforsomethespecterofkamikaze missions in the last days of World War II), writers on the Left (what was leftofthem)andtheRightcouldsharealargereservoirofagreementover what the event might reveal about the future of Japan and its relation to theUnitedStates.September11anditsaftermathpresentedtothemapic- tureofJapannolongermooredtotheso-calledpartnershipwiththeUnited Statesandthelongpostwarthathadbothhouseditandshieldeditfromthe restoftheworld.Thereemergedacommonacknowledgmentofanational existence no longer exclusively bonded to an interminable Americanized postwarandapartnershipemptiedofallmeaningbutdeceptionandbad faithonbothsides. AsJapanwasrecognizingthatitsworldcouldnolongerconsistofAmer- icaalone,theUnitedStateshadalreadyembarkedonamissionthatsetitself againsttheworldorthatportionofitnotyetassimilatedtoitsimperialex- emplarsandexpectations.InthenewAmericanimperium,Japanwasas- signedtheroleithadalwaysplayed,assimplyapliantclientstateof long andloyalstanding,readytorespondtoimperialdictates(readasrequests) onamoment’snoticebyjoiningthecoalitionofthewilling.AndJapan,in turn,demonstratedtheswiftnessofitswillingnesstorespondwithmoney and personnel. (In the previous Gulf War, Japan only contributed cash.) Compliance with the American demand has simply affirmed Japan’s true clientstatusintheimperium,occupyingasemicolonizedposition. ForboththeJapaneseLeftandRight,themaintenanceoftheequalpart- nershipwasabasicconditionforsustainingtherelationsbetweentwocoun- tries. The blatant betrayal of this comforting illusion, therefore, elicited strongresponsesfrombothcamps.Whatseemstohaveseizedtheatten- tion of left-leaning observers in the wake of the imperial wars unleashed after 9/11 was the manifest desire to emphasize an exceptional universal- ism of the American state according to the tenets of a political theology. KanSanjunputitbestwhenheconcludedthatAmerican-styleuniversal- ismmeansonlythattheUnitedStatesistheworld;andtheworld,nowre- 1 ducedtoAmerica,merelyaspirestorealizea‘‘universalhumanvalue.’’ This sentiment, by no means exceptional these days, has easily seen through the claims employed to underwrite yet another ‘‘just war’’ fought by the UnitedStatesthatimmediatelydemandsaresponsefromAmerica’ssup- posedpartnerslikeJapan.Theeffectof9/11hasbeentostirmemoriesof Americanism and its baneful history Japanese have lived since 1945 and, introduction 3
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