The End of Cool Japan: Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture

241 Pages·2016·5.787 MB·English

by  Mark McLelland

The End of Cool Japan is a forceful intervention into the study and flow of
Japanese pop culture around the world. Taking the arousals of fandom ser-
iously, the essays also consider the ways J-pop culture gets both manipulated
and constrained (by politics, legal constricts, religion, nationalism) to make it
decidedly “uncool” at various hands. Advocating for a critical pedagogy that
scrutinizes Japanese pop culture in all its complexities and iterations, the
volumeissharp-edgedandsmartlyconceivedthroughout.Thisisan invaluable
contribution to the field—that of Japanese studies and also beyond.
Anne Allison, Duke University, USA
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The End of Cool Japan
Today’sconvergentmedia environment offersunprecedentedopportunities for
sourcing and disseminating previously obscure popular culture material from
Japan. However, this presents concerns regarding copyright, ratings and
exposure to potentially illegal content, which are serious problems for those
teaching and researching about Japan. Despite young people’s enthusiasm for
Japanese popular culture, these concerns spark debate about whether it can
be judged harmful for youth audiences and could therefore herald the end of
‘cool Japan.’
This collection brings together Japan specialists in order to identify key
challenges in using Japanese popular culture materials in research and teach-
ing. It addresses issues such as the availability of unofficially translated and
distributed Japanese material; the emphasis on adult-themes, violence, sexual
scenes and under-age characters; and the discrepancies in legislation and rat-
ingssystemsacrosstheworld. Consideringhowtheseissuesaffectresearchers,
teachers,studentsandfansintheUSA,Canada,Australia,China,Japan,and
elsewhere in Asia, the contributors discuss the different ways in which aca-
demic and fan practices are challenged by local regulations. Illustrating from
personal experience the sometimes fraught nature of teaching about ‘cool
Japan,’ they suggest ways in which Japanese Studies as a discipline needs to
developclearerguidelinesforteachingandresearch,especiallyfornewscholars
entering the field.
As the first collection to identify some of the real problems faced by tea-
chers and researchers of Japanese popular culture aswell as the students over
whom they have a duty of care, this book will be of great interest to students
and scholars of Japanese Studies and Cultural Studies.
Mark McLelland is Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Uni-
versity of Wollongong, Australia, and a former Toyota Visiting Professor of
Japanese at the Universityof Michigan, USA. His recentpublicationsinclude
Love, Sex and Democracy in Japan during the American Occupation (2012);
and The Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Studies in East Asia, edited with
Vera Mackie (Routledge, 2015).
Routledge Contemporary Japan Series
Heritage Conservation and Japan's Japanese Women in Science
Cultural Diplomacy and Engineering
Heritage, national identity and History and policy change
national interest Naonori Kodate and
Natsuko Akagawa Kashiko Kodate
Religion and Psychotherapy in Japan’s Border Issues
Modern Japan Pitfalls and prospects
Edited by Christopher Harding, Akihiro Iwashita
Iwata Fumiaki and
Yoshinaga Shin’ichi Japan, Russia and
Territorial Dispute
Party Politics in Japan The Northern delusion
Political chaos and stalemate in the James D.J. Brown
21st century
Edited by Ronald J. Hrebenar and Fukushima and the Arts in Japan
Akira Nakamura Negotiating disaster
Edited by Barbara Geilhorn and
Career Women in Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt
Contemporary Japan
Pursuing identities, fashioning lives Social Inequality in
Anne Stefanie Aronsson Post-Growth Japan
Transformation during economic
Visions of Precarity in Japanese and cemographic stagnation
Popular Culture and Literature Edited by David Chiavacci and
Edited by Kristina Carola Hommerich
Iwata-Weickgenannt and
Roman Rosenbaum The End of Cool Japan
Ethical, legal, and cultural
Decision-Making Reform in Japan challenges to Japanese
The DPJ’s failed attempt at a popular culture
politician-led government Edited by Mark McLelland
Karol Zakowski
Regional Administration in Japan
Examining Japan’s Lost Decades Departure from uniformity
Edited by Yoichi Funabashi and by Shunsuke Kimura
Barak Kushner
The End of Cool Japan
Ethical, legal, and cultural challenges to
Japanese popular culture
Edited by
Mark McLelland
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Firstpublished2017
byRoutledge
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Names:McLelland,Mark,editorofcompilation.
Title:TheendofcoolJapan:ethical,legal,andculturalchallengesto
Japanesepopularculture/editedbyMarkMcLelland.
Description:MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,
2017.|
Series:RoutledgecontemporaryJapanseries;65|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2016009965|ISBN9781138638259(hardback)|ISBN
9781315637884(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Popularculture–Japan.|Popularculture–Moraland
ethicalaspects–Japan.|Japan–Studyandteaching.|Popularculture–Study
andteaching.|Popularculture–Research.|Massmedia–Socialaspects–
Japan.|Comicbooks,strips,etc.–Socialaspects–Japan.|Child
pornography–Socialaspects–Japan.|Japan–Socialconditions–1989-
Classification:LCCDS822.5.E51652017|DDC306.0952–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016009965
ISBN:978-1-138-63825-9(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-63788-4(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
Contents
List of figures ix
List of contributors x
Acknowledgement xiii
Note on language xv
1 Introduction: Negotiating “cool Japan” in research and teaching 1
MARKMCLELLAND
2 Death Note, student crimes, and the powerof universities in the
global spread of manga 31
ALISAFREEDMAN
3 Scholar girl meets manga maniac, media specialist, and
cultural gatekeeper 51
LAURAMILLER
4 Must we burn eromanga?: Trying obscenity in the courtroom and
in the classroom 70
KIRSTENCATHER
5 Manga, anime, and child pornography law in Canada 94
SHARALYNORBAUGH
6 “The lolicon guy”: Some observations on researching unpopular
topics in Japan 109
PATRICKW.GALBRAITH
7 All seizures great and small: Reading contentious images of
minors in Japan and Australia 134
ADAMSTAPLETON
8 “The love that dare not speak its name”: The fate of Chinese
danmei communities in the 2014 anti-porn campaign 163
LINGYANGANDYANRUIXU
viii Contents
9 Negotiating religious and fan identities: “Boys’ love” and
fujoshi guilt 184
JESSICABAUWENS-SUGIMOTO
10 IsthereaspaceforcoolmangainIndonesiaand thePhilippines?:
Postcolonial discourses on transcultural manga 196
KRISTINEMICHELLESANTOSANDFEBRIANISIHOMBING
Appendix I: Interview with Uchiyama Aki 219
Index 222
fi
List of gures
2.1 Penny Booth, “Love Note” 46
4.1 “Carnival, Carnival” in Misshitsu: Honey Room 83
4.2 Honey Room cover images 85
4.3 Abyu-kyo’s manifesto 89
10.1 Coverof chapter one of Ninja Girl Ko by Kriss Sison, a
Mangaholix comic 204
10.2 Magic of Love by Anzu Hizawa 210