This book, Japanamerica focuses on how the Japanese popular culture influencing the American culture. The author, Roland Kelts take a neutral prospective in order to create this book, which is done by interviewing many significant individual who took part in establishing the popular culture in both Japan and America. Kelts investigates why the phenomenon of Japanophilia, or the “outsider’s infatuation with Japan’s cultural character” (pg.5), is occurring especially in the United States. Even though Japanophilia phenomenon arose before the twentieth century, it is increasing in number because of the anime, manga, videogames, and other medium of popular culture.
In the first chapter, Kelts talk about the cultural norms between Japan and America. Those seem almost completely opposite when compared on the surface. For example, the author talks about Japanese valuing the characteristics of “restraint, conformity, and consent.”(pg. 23) On the other hand, Americans value the characteristics of “self-assertion, individuality, and iconoclasm.” (pg. 23) The spread of internet has seems like these characteristics to appear publicly. However, in Japan, there is a tatemae and honne. Tatemae, meaning the publicly presentation of yourself, and honne, the real feeling you have inside yourself. Kelts had interviewed Yoshiro Katsuoka, who is a planning director for Marvelous Entertainment about this phenomenon of Japanese characteristics. In his interview, Katsuoka talks about Americans able to bend their characteristic as an American in order to fit in to the Japanese characteristics. This is adapted by reading, watching, and being exposed to the Japanese popular culture. He explains as Americans becoming an “American Otaku,” which pursuing the...
... middle of paper ...
...is considered as an art now. I felt that these pornographic images are serves as a medium for spreading a new culture as well, even though some of them are restricted severely.
Japanamerica started out talking about the author’s friends and their daughter watching Studio Ghibli movie. This beginning somewhat made me happy. I felt happy because I always feel proud when something Japanese attracts attention. America had influenced Japan after WWII in many areas such as economy, politics, and so on. However, after so many years, Japan has been influencing United States in the context of popular culture. I would love to see for more Japanophilia occurring in the States as much as Japanese loves its culture of manga and animation.
Works Cited
Kelts, Roland. Japanamerica : how Japanese pop culture has invaded the U.S. . New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.
Lee, Robert G. 1999. Orientals: Asian American in Popular Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Japanese immigration created the same apprehension and intolerance in the mind of the Americans as was in the case of Chinese migration to the U.S at the turn of the 19th century. They developed a fear of being overwhelmed by a people having distinct ethnicity, skin color and language that made them “inassimilable.” Hence they wanted the government to restrict Asian migration. Japan’s military victories over Russia and China reinforced this feeling that the Western world was facing what came to be known as “yellow peril”. This was reflected in the media, movies and in literature and journalism.4 Anti-Oriental public opinion gave way to several declarations and laws to restrict Japanese prosperity on American land. Despite the prejudice and ineligibility to obtain citizenship the ...
Between 1990 and 1999, the Asian population rose 43% (Census, 2000). However, Asian Americans are still portrayed in a simplistic manner by the American media, which in turn, promotes stereotyping. I have researched various types of mass media in the United States, such as music, films, television and magazines. I will focus on several examples where Asian Americans are portrayed in a negative way. Furthermore, I will give examples of musicians, and independent films that prove Asian Americans have potential in what they can contribute to in the American media.
There are fundamental differences between Eastern and Western cultures and the meeting of these cultures has had several effects, both in Asia and here in the US. Overseas, you can see the juxtaposition of American pop culture on the older modes of Asian thought and society. Here, New Age religions find new excuses in Asian religions and philosophies and Anime is appears regularly on Saturday morning cartoons. Often, this juxtaposition becomes turbulent as the younger generations are caught between two seemingly opposing cultures. As a result, crime rates rise with the integration of Western ideals and culture into Asian society. This is true here in America too as the first generation of Asian-Americans are born and brought up by Asian parents, with Asian thinking, in American society and culture. This conflict manifests itself in our history as a nation as well as in modern universities and businesses.
Recently the concerns of women around their equality in society has become a hotly debated topic in the public spot light. Much of the debate concerns women and the ingrained sexism that permeates most cultures. Many women's activists feel that this ingrained sexism has widened the gap between men and women in a political, social, and economic sense. And for the most part they do have strong evidence to support these claims. Women have suffered through millennia of male dominated societies where treatment of women has been, and in some cases still is, inhuman. Women are treated like subhuman creatures that have only exist to be used for procreate and to be subjugated by men for household use. It has only been very recently that women have become recognized as equals in the eyes of men. Equals in the sense that they have the same political and social rights as males. While the situation has improved, women still have to deal with a male oriented world. Often women in the workplace are thought of as inferior and as a liability. This can be due to concerns about maternity leave, or women with poor leadership skills. But also in part it is due because of the patriarchy that controls all aspects and dynamics of the culture, family, politics, and economy. Even developed countries like The United Kingdom, United States, Germany, and France, could be classified as a patriarchies. These countries may not agree with this notion because of expansive, but not complete changes, that have gradually equalized women in society. However, there are developed countries that openly express a patriarchy and have enacted little societal changes to bring equality to women. Japan is one such country, and t...
Japan is part of our world that not many people know, for the few that do, they know that Japan is filled with an extraordinary history. Some of the history starts with little traditions like, the tradition of kimono’s, to big ones such as their well known Japanese festivals. Ancient Japan was a series of islands and many cultural expansions which included religion, armies, art, classic traditions, and their type of clothing. Ancient Japanese is still alive today, from basic works of art, to then a following of certain religions such as Shinto and Buddhism. Many Americans don’t the cultural aspects that were attributed by many across the world, they don’t know that many of those aspects made what Japan is today in society.
First some technicalities: Most of my research focused on the Japanese Americans and Japanese culture. There will be examples that are specific to this particular ethnic group and race. However, due to the lack of articles specifically on Japanese American students and the tendency to study Asian Americans as a group, I ...
Epstein, Dan. 20th Century Pop Culture: The Early Years to 1949. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2001. Print.
...t on music within Asian and Western society. Within the initial use of both traditional and modern musical styles and genres in order to create a diverse musical culture within a modern cultural, social, and economic movement, Japan has shown a wave of modernization through animation. With the various aspects of music that anime has approached in its spread across the globe, it proves to be a diverse and rapidly changing culture in Japan. With the success of anime in various areas on a global scale, of Japan is able to show a highly diverse subculture that originates from their nation exclusively that has impacted many different areas in life with both their close national neighbors and those who are even across the globe, showing how the large subculture within the island nation has grown since its inception and how much potential it has in the many years to come.
This paper will explore what it is about anime that makes it so appealing to even a Western audience, creating an international fan base. Although manga can be traced to American origins, the comics that the Americans brought over have been intensely modified to create essentially a new form of media. Manga and anime have become a significant component of Japanese culture, and often times they integrate Japanese culture and society. Yet, regardless of its Japanese origin, anime is still viewed on the other side of the planet. The question then becomes what is it that makes it so appealing to a foreign audience? This paper will rely heavily on Susan Napier’s book, From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the
Freedman, Alisa (2009) “Train Man and the Gender Politics of Japanese ‘Otaku’ Culture: The Rise of New Media, Nerd Heroes and Consumer Communities.”
Throughout history, human beings have developed diverse cultures all over the world. Within the many cultures and countries of the world one can also find many different “subcultures” that have appeared over the years. Merriam Webster’s Online dictionary defines a subculture as: “an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society” (Merriam-Webster). That said, this essay will take a look at a subculture unique to Japan, called: “Hikikomori.” Hikikomori have become a major issue in Japan. Practically interpreted as "social withdrawal”, hikikomori refers “to the state of anomie into which an increasing number of young Japanese seem to fall these days.” Thus, in order to understand the subculture of hikikomori, one should first learn what exactly hikikomori are, its effects on the individual involved within the subculture as well as the family and friends surrounding the hikikomori, and lastly how and when this subculture began.
Japan is a large island off to the east of China it is a great country that has a rich culture. The Japanese religion is based off of two main beliefs, the belief in Shinto and Buddhism many Japanese people believe consider themselves both. The Japanese people were known to be around as early as 4,500 B.C. They have constructed their government style to a constitutional monarchy where they do in fact have an emperor, but he has limited power within the country. The main power of the country is held by the Prime Minister of Japan. Japan is made up of many islands that extend along the Pacific coast of Asia. The land area is made up of a lot of forest and mountainous area that cannot be used for agricultural, industrial or residential use. Japan also has one of the largest and growing economies in the world. They are growing every day and it is all because the people of Japan work very hard in order for their economy to flourish as it has.
Manga and anime are a very huge part of Japanese culture. They have a long history in Japan and they have gotten increasingly popular. Even now in modern day Japan, manga and anime have become a major part of everyday life. Though accepted into many households, some people believe that manga and anime are a bad influence to the people that enjoy reading and watching them. However, manga and anime give the people of Japan a huge quantity of stories to explore and enjoy and a wide range of genres to choose from that it makes it such a favored hobby.
Japan is a fascinating multifaceted culture, on one hand it is filled with many traditions dating back thousands of years and yet is a society with continually changing fads,