Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture

The "popular culture" dealt with is the broadest sense: from analysis of advertisements to Yoshimoto Banana, the author idol of teen girls. Ten broadly diverse chapters guarantee at least one you'll be interested in, but a number you won't care about, unless your interest in pop culture is wide.

The essays I think PA readers would find interesting are "Race and Relexivity: The Black Other in Contemporary Japanese Mass Culture," as it partly deals with Blacks in early manga, and "Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster From Godzilla To Akira," for obvious reasons. If you're fascinated by the general context within which manga, anime and singers operate, you will also find "Imaginings In The Empires Of The Sun: Japanese Mass Culture In Asia" profitable.

Readers who like our coverage of music will benefit from a couple essays on two of Japan's most historically significant singers. The first is on ex-Yellow Magic Orchestra member Ryuichi Sakamoto, whose artistry reaches into world music and movie soundtracks ["Little Buddha," "The Last Emperor," and "Tokyo Decadence"]. The second is on Misora Hibari, a pivotally important singer in the evolution of post-war pop culture and enka, a mournful form of music culturally equivalent to country music, but with lyrics more akin to the blues. If you're renting programs from the local Japanese grocery store, " Japanese Daytime Television, Popular Culture and Ideology" is worthwhile.

Remaining essays cover advertising, postmodern Japonisme fashion, Yoshimoto Banana, and the influence of culture watcher Murakami Haruki. Asleep yet? Bottom line: borrow it from the library so you can read the appropriate sections, rather than spending your money.

Contemporary Japan and Popular Culture. Edited by John Whittier Treat. University of Hawaii Press, 1996. 324 pgs. ISBN 0824818547.

Reviewed by James Standen Taylor