Japan After Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present

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Tomiko Yoda, Harry Harootunian
Duke University Press, Oct 4, 2006 - History - 456 pages
The prolonged downturn in the Japanese economy that began during the recessionary 1990s triggered a complex set of reactions both within Japan and abroad, reshaping not only the country’s economy but also its politics, society, and culture. In Japan After Japan, scholars of history, anthropology, literature, and film explore the profound transformations in Japan since the early 1990s, providing complex analyses of a nation in transition, linking its present to its past and connecting local situations to global developments.

Several of the essayists reflect on the politics of history, considering changes in the relationship between Japan and the United States, the complex legacy of Japanese colonialism, Japan’s chronic unease with its wartime history, and the postwar consolidation of an ethnocentric and racist nationalism. Others analyze anxieties related to the role of children in society and the weakening of the gendered divide between workplace and home. Turning to popular culture, contributors scrutinize the avid consumption of “real events” in formats including police shows, quiz shows, and live Web camera feeds; the creation, distribution, and reception of Pokémon, the game-based franchise that became a worldwide cultural phenomenon; and the ways that the behavior of zealous fans of anime both reinforces and clashes with corporate interests. Focusing on contemporary social and political movements, one essay relates how a local citizens’ group pressed the Japanese government to turn an international exposition, the Aichi Expo 2005, into a more environmentally conscious project. Another essay offers both a survey of emerging political movements and a manifesto identifying new possibilities for radical politics in Japan. Together the contributors to Japan After Japan present much-needed insight into the wide-ranging transformations of Japanese society that began in the 1990s.

Contributors. Anne Allison, Andrea G. Arai, Eric Cazdyn, Leo Ching, Harry Harootunian, Marilyn Ivy, Sabu Kohso, J. Victor Koschmann, Thomas LaMarre, Masao Miyoshi, Yutaka Nagahara, Naoki Sakai, Tomiko Yoda, Yoshimi Shunya, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto

 

Contents

Introduction Harry Harootunian and Tomiko Yoda
1
A Roadmap to Millennial Japan Tomiko Yoda
16
The Cases of the United States and Japan Masao Miyoshi
54
Why Is There No Film Studies in Japan? Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto
81
The Trick of Memory and the Ruse of HistoryHarry Harootunian
98
National Subjectivity and the Uses of Atonement in the Age of RecessionJ Victor Koschmann
122
Postcoloniality Identity and the Traces of Colonialism Leo Ching
142
On the Historical Role of the West and Asia Binary Naoki Sakai
167
Gender Labor and Capital in Contemporary Japan Tomiko Yoda
239
Representation Reality Culture and Global Capitalism in Japan Eric Cazdyn
275
Globalization and the NationState Yutaka Nagahara
299
Pokémon Capitalismat the Millennium Anne Allison
331
Otaku Movement Thomas LaMarre
358
Cultural Politics of Environment in the LocalGlobalContext of Contemporary Japan Yoshimi Shunya
395
Angelus Novus in Millennial Japan Sabu Kohso
415
Contributors
439

Revenge and Recapitation in Recessionary Japan Marilyn Ivy
195
The Wild Child of 1990s Japan Andrea G Arai
216

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About the author (2006)

Tomiko Yoda is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and Literature, Program in Literature, and Department of Women’s Studies at Duke University. She is the author of Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Construction of Japanese Modernity, published by Duke University Press.

Harry Harootunian is Professor of East Asian Studies and History at New York University. His many books include Learning Places: The Afterlives of Area Studies (with Masao Miyoshi), also published by Duke University Press.

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