The Japan Anthropology Workshop
16th Conference
The University of Hong Kong
March 17-21, 2005
Uncommon Translations: Refracted Images and
Distorted Identities in Japanese Popular
Communications
Panel 2: Cultural Translations (Co-Sponsored by
AJJ [Anthropology of Japan in Japan ])
Todd Joseph Miles Holden
Professor, Mediated Sociology
Department of Multi-Cultural Societies
Tohoku University
Sendai, Japan
Uncommon
Translations
Refracted Images
Distorted
Identities
Conversations
About Self,
With Itself:
Sports exports,
imports,
media reports
and the matter of
Japanese identity
On Pressure
Here we are -- the last paper of the last
session of the last day of the conference.
… Not a great spot for a presenter to be.
Unless I happen to say something noteworthy,
provocative, or profound…
Hmm…
… Provocation…
How about this…
In a professional conference where (most) everyone
strives to say something provocative, to offer a
hackneyed “truism” may (actually) be …
A provocative act!
… And Pedantry
Well… anyway… How about:
With regard to Japan -- its national character,
its international orientation, its identity…
The more things change, the more they
stay the same.
Not very provocative or profound… I know
But actually, there’s precedent for it.
“Overconfidence, fanaticism, a shrill sense of
inferiority and a sometimes obsessive
preoccupation with national status -- these
have all played their parts in the history of
modern Japan.” (2004:7)
Buruma, Inventing Japan (2004)
Presentation Premise
In contemporary Japan, given its engagement with and
response to globalization, and especially given the
major role media plays in defining and delivering
“reality” this enduring national orientation is no less
true
-- and possibly even more so.
To see this, though, requires us to look at
globalization, media, and nationalism in
contemporary context.
Research Program
This work builds on work that I have completed:
• Globalization theory as “careers” (Globalization,
Culture and Inequality in Asia, Trans Pacific Press,
2003)
• Explaining Japan’s “global careers” and its
effects on identity (East-West Identities:
Globalization, Localization & Hybridization, Brill,
Forthcoming)
• Japan’s sports exports, media re/imports
(Inside-Out Japan: Popular Culture and Globalization,
Routledge, Forthcoming)
Today’s Presentation
I wish to:
• Introduce some concepts that will assist in
understanding how:
 Japanese identity
 Under conditions of contemporary globalization
 Are most influenced by “sports exports”
 And facilitated (if not driven) by processes and
activities associated with “the media institution”
Underlying this
Discussion
• The Epoch: Globalization
• The Theory: “Global Careers”
• Locally Experienced: In terms of “Sports
Exports/Sports Imports”
• A Key Agent: Media (particularly TV)
• Employing organizational routines that
reproduce a “Frame” of “Everyday Nationalism”
• A Key “Effect”: National Identity
Presentation
Program
1.
A Bit of Historically-Rooted Social
Psychologizing
2.
Mediation in Context
3.
Globalization Theory: over easy
4.
Some Key Concepts
5.
Some Recent Examples
6.
Discussion
7.
Implications
1. Some
Historically-Rooted
Socio-anthroPsychologizing
FROM “GAIJIN COMPLEX”…
In an earlier era, Japanese Studies spoke of an
endemic “gaijin complex” (Christopher 1984)
• The belief -- expressed in Japanese word
and deed that “we” were inferior to
“they” (i.e. foreigners)
• A view pervading everything from politics
to art
… TO SELF-OBSESSED
In the contemporary era, of course, this gave way to
an accreting self-satisfaction; an attention to
Japanese success out in the world of goods and
achievement.
• This confidence was stoked by the “economic
miracle” engineered by the “developmental
State” (Johnson 1982), into the inflated boom of
the “Bubble years”
• It has experienced some chastening in the past
decade
• Post-bubble
• recession-laden
• political scandal-plagued
TODAY: SELF-CENTERED
MEDIATION
Currently, the focus in Japan remains on self
• Despite the recent Korean boom (“kanryu”)
• Or occasional attention on American’s Iraq
intervention
• And a very recent attention on domestic
economics (i.e. “Horie-mon” and the coming of
venture business)
Generally, media attention is on:
• Domestic crime
• Missteps of political leaders
• Popular cultural trends
2. Mediation in Context
Media Role
One domain in which self-awareness-cumsatisfaction has been most clear is in popular
media
• Particularly news and advertising
• Featuring Japanese athletes;
• Participating outside Japan, or
• Engaged in international competitions in
which Japanese athletes are pitted
against foreign rivals
Media Role
Media products provide a daily reminder of
Japan’s connection to “the world outside”
The emphasis has in large part been on popular
culture
• In particular, sports (though also film,
anime, TV shows, video software)
In the main, though, focus has been on athletic
achievement in those worlds beyond
Japanese borders.
The Role of Television
“Binding Mechanism”
• Not only linking citizen to State, but
• Connecting a community through the
inculcation, re/production of shared
beliefs, practices and values
The role of Japan’s sports exports in
serving as an emotional unifier, as a
binding mechanism, cannot be overemphasized
Shunya Yoshimi (2003)
• Historical assessment of TV in Japan
• Argues that TV has been a “symbolic object
linked to nation and gender” (2003: 475).
• Also it has “structured the horizons of
people’s bodily sensations and experiences
through its broadcasts.” (ibid.).
• “The intimate sphere of the Japanese
household in its postwar form was itself
created on a national scale through the
medium of TV.” (ibid.:477)
Shunya Yoshimi (2003)
• Concludes that “TV was the central
medium in the construction of this
postwar nation state.”
• And… “although the nationalism
forming the basis of TV has begun to
disintegrate, on the level of ideology
and program scheduling, nationalism
is even stronger than before.”
TV’s Binding Function
Japanese TV employs genre, form and content to elicit
emotion, thereby creating a national family
• a nation-wide uchi
• See Holden and Ergul (“Japan’s Televisual
Discourses: Infotainment, intimacy, and the
construction of a collective uchi, Forthcoming)
The Binding Function of
Sports Television
TV’s Re-import of Japan’s sports exports (in the
form of advertisements, news stories, wideshow topics, and actual game footage) serve
as:
• an emotional unifier
• a binding mechanism
Supported by the News Routines, Tropes and
Rhetorical Practices of the Media
Key Conclusions
• Media as Primary Purveyor of
Japanese National Identity
• Re/producer of Japanese “Everyday
Nationalism” via:
• Frames
• Fractals
• Refractions
3. Globalization Theory: over
easy
Theorizing Globalization:
Globalization Career
Every country possesses its own unique global
“signature” (or “profile”)
- based on its individualized history of local/global
encounters
- across a range of analytic units and societal
sectors
- Which are specifiable, but not particularly
germane to today’s discussion
Factors Influencing
“Career”
• Every nation’s career differs depending
on an array of factors present in the
context.
• Including:
• ethnic composition
• cultural history
• religious practices
• technological development
• political structure
• economic system
• resource mix
Important Dimensions:
Temporality
• As between nations, “Global Careers”
are not necessarily coterminous
• One nation may be in the midst of
politically-defined globalization, while
another may be engaged in an
economic or cultural globalization
Directionality of Flow:
• Inflow
• Outflow
A Simple Comparison
America
• Political:
•
•
•
•
stages of agrarian, industrial and
postindustrial
• Ethnic Composition:
•
Great diversity of population -- based on
various waves of immigration, from Africa;
Western and Eastern Europe; East, Southeast
and South Asia
• Religion:
•
A core cultural component with visible
manifestations in society – influencing law,
education, and morality.
• Resource Mix:
•
•
•
•
The American political tradition was born
nearly 250 years ago
Decidedly liberal and democratic
Derived from an exogenous politcal tradition
(in reaction to it)
Created by Americans for themselves
• Economic:
•
Japan
Plentiful natural resources
Ever-expanding population
Self-sufficient
Political:
•
•
•
•
•
Economic:
•
•
Very little influx of different ethnicities
over the years.
Religion:
•
•
stages of agrarian, industrial and
postindustrial
Ethnic Composition:
•
•
The (current) Japanese political tradition
was initiated only about 60 years ago
Less democratic, with aspects of monarchy
and authoritarianism
Derived from an exogenous political
tradition
Imposed from external forces
A silent, largely unheeded aspect of
Japanese culture; not present in society.
Resource Mix:
•
•
•
Few natural resources
Declining population
Not self-sufficient; dependent
4. Some Key Concepts
 Frame
 Fractal
 Refraction
News Organizations,
Routines, and Frames
Sociologists of Media long ago demonstrated
that news organizations are guided by
practices that structure message delivery.
These include “newsroom routines” that
“frame” (Goffman 1974) news --temporally,
spatially and topically (Tuchman 1978)
News Organizations,.
Routines, and Frames
This often results in news that are framed
with reference to (“reading the mood” of)
the surrounding world and among media
consumers (e.g. Gitlin 1983)
• In this way, certain values are legitimated
and given preference over others
• “News frames” and organizational routines
thereby help determine the “what” and
“how” of content reported.
Practices in Japanese News
• In the case of Japan, such routines have
been embedded in practices which
structure:
• The formatic organization of reporting news
• The content of news reports
• Specifically: regarding sports news
Formatic Practices in
Japanese Sports News
While the form of sports news varies from
station to station, the general approach is:
• Report capsule summaries of the at bats of
every Japanese Major League baseball player
• Summarize the In-Out substitution pattern of
the European-based Japanese soccer players
• As well as any pass, assist, shot on goal, free kick or
score that may have occurred
• When available, provide interviews with the
players
Content Practices in
Japanese Sports News
Content is in some ways form-driven:
• Emphasis on success and failure
• Set within an international context
• Either overtly or referentially, commentary
is referential
• Comparison between Japanese and foreigners
such routines have been embedded in
Japan’s Distorted Images:
Fractals and Refractions
I will suggest two concepts -- borrowed from
the physical sciences -- to explain how
News Frames operate.
1. “Fractal”
2. “Refraction”
Although this is likely true in any
communication context, it is certainly true
of Japanese communications today
Fractal Defined
A fractal is:
• any of a variety of extremely irregular
curves or shapes
• for which any suitably chosen part is similar
in shape
• to a given larger or smaller part
• when magnified or reduced to the same
size
Simple Fractal
These fractals most commonly come to mind
Complex Fractals
But these profound structures are also fractals
Fractals as Societal Slices
Fractals, then,
serve as visual
representations,
which when
removed from
their totality,
offer a microcosm
of that world from
which they are
extracted
Fractals as Structurespecific
The fractal analogy
must be tempered
by the
understanding that,
just as with a
triangle or a
snowflake, it is
limited to
representing a
particular object
or active field
Fractal Methodology
The importance
in talking about
fractals in the
social world is
specifying the
precise
conditions
under which
they arise and
structures from
which they are
lifted
Fractals Applied
Fractals are most related to News Form
They are found in News Routines
independent of TV Station/news program
• no matter which show, regardless of
the specific ordering of the topics,
baseball and soccer exports are
invariably treated in “capsule” form.
Any and all individual highlights are
excerpted.
This formula appears even across genres (i.e.
News, Morning and “Wide” shows differ
little in this approach).
Analysis
Sport news segments are fractals
 i.e. complete, severable units reflecting
a whole
 Due to their invariant “shape”
 i.e. their physical as well as
ideational frame across shows.
The frame and its underlying meaning are
also identical：
 Across broadcasters and genres
 The frame is about Japanese
achievement out in the world.
This frame is a fractal because its design
and definition are about nation -- in the
guise of individual perform/ers/ances.
Refraction: Defined
Refraction is the bending of
a wave when it enters a
medium where it's speed is
different.
Refraction
A second kind of distortion
engendered by media is
“refraction”
Refraction: Distortion in
Transmission
Refraction is influenced by
the speed of the medium
through which it passes
Refraction: Distortion in
Lens and Substance
Distortion is measured by the “degree of
bending”
•
With light serving as communication (both
as source and by analogy)
Distortion depends on:
•
•
substances that come in contact with the
wave of light
The lens through which that light passes
Applied to Contemporary
Japan
• The medium through which light is being passed is actually the
“media”
• News program, Wide Show, Advertising, Newspapers, etc.
• Where each of these reflect a different “substance” (akin to vacuum,
water, gas, etc.)
• The speed which the communication passes through the medium is
heightened by Internet’s 24 hour news cycle, as well as TV’s 20 hour
cycle
• Supported by nightly news, morning “wake-up” and afternoon “wide
shows”
• The light which is emitted the communication
• The light emerges as vectors reflecting differently colored “light”.
Examples include:
•
•
•
•
•
Consumption
Politics
Internationality
Popular Culture
Nationalism
Refraction Exemplified
1.
Commercial Refraction
2.
Consumption Refraction
3.
Political Refraction
4.
International Refraction
5.
PopCult Refraction
6.
Gender Refraction
7.
Nationalism Refraction
Commercial Refraction
Consumption Refraction
Political Refraction
International Refraction
PopCult Refraction
Gender Refraction
Nationalist Refraction
The Bridge Between
Fractals and Refraction
The connection between
these two concepts is the
Distortion engendered by
underlying Structure:
• Political-Economic
• Historical-Cultural
• Social Psychological
6. Discussion:
Meanings in Context
Fractals of Identity
Media Routines
have created
fractals that
contain specific,
consistent
messages.
One of the major
messages speaks:
(1) of Japan’s
globality, and (2)
Japanese
achievement and
ability under
conditions of
globality.
“MOVE THE WORLD”
Fractals of Distortion
Daily Refractions:
March 1, 2005
2 Nationally-televised news stations covered Miyazato
Ai’s second place finish in the Australian Ladies
masters golf tournament with the headline “sekai no
Ai-chan” and “sekai no Miyazato Ai”
Both stations also ran coverage of “Media Day” in
American Major League Baseball training camps.
Each station showed Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui,
and Kazumatsu Matsui before the cameras.
One station ran a feature on Kitajima, the Olympic gold
medalist and world record-holding swimmer.
An Example:
“Sekai no Miyazato Ai”
Of late, attention has
been heavily focused
on Miyazato Ai, the 19
year old female golfer
who has been called
“Japan’s Tiger Woods”.
The news frame
(including interviews
with foreign golfers) is
that Ai is at a worldclass level
Fractals of Distortion
Daily Refractions:
March 13, 2005
A Sunday morning Yomiuri Television
“infotainment” show presented the “normal”
capsules of Japanese MLB players.
After this, they reported on Japanese golfer,
Aoki, leading a Senior even after the first day
of play. Included was a clip of him being
interviewed in English by an American sports
show.
Then came a report of the golf rankings for men.
When it was noted that no Japanese golfer was in
the current top ten, the host said: “We want you to
try harder, Japan.”
Fractals of Global Identity
Consistently news stories and media
images are of Japanese competing on
world stages – but with Japan as the
implicit frame
Global Japan, Local
Identity
7. Implications
Japan’s Media Fractals
and their Unified
Refractions
Looking at the daily stream of data on TV’s
sports news, one sees consistent frames:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
out in the world
succeeding in the world
national teams
individuals representing the nation
Which basically amounts to the same unified
frame
Japan’s Media
Distortions
• Underscore the extraordinariness of
Japanese performing overseas
• By comparison, no similar phenomenon exists in
America. It rarely covers its athletes performing
overseas (save in the case of an Akebono
achieving sumo’s highest rank).
• Certainly not in daily Fractals, as in Japan
Result: Whether intentional or not, this
perpetuates the inside/outside, We/Them dualism
that has pervaded and characterized Japan’s
international orientation for centuries
“Everyday Nationalism”
• Hayes (1931): Commonplace in the modes of
thought and action… Nationalism is taken for
granted;
• Mayall (1990): Invisible; embedded in the social
fabric and institutional practices of the state;
• Gellner (1996): the root (of nationalism) is not
ideology, but concrete daily experience
• McVeigh (2004): something shared, yet
transcendent, abstract yet visible, mundane yet
profound… demonstable yet not provable.
“Everyday Nationalism”
and Social Reproduction
• In short, nationalism emanates (naturally,
without opposition) from the world containing us.
• Especially through Institutions like the state, but not
only the state
• The media is a major institution responsible for
transmitting and reproducing social knowledge and
“taken-for-granted reality”
• Result: nationalism becomes part and parcel of
lived experience
“Everyday Nationalism”
as “Common Stock of
Knowledge”
• From Berger and Luckmann (1966:41-46)
• CSK is inherent in the “givenness” of things such as
institutions
• The institutions serve as bearers and perpetuators of
social knowledge
• Their activity (embodying Point of View) also reproduces
it
• One example is the State, which is an extensive, external,
objective entity often incomprehensible to human agents
and resistant to their efforts at changing them (Berger
and Luckmann 1966: 60-61)
Frame: Media’s
Transmission Tool
• The “Frame” media adopt is central to
“Everyday Nationalism”
• It is the “taken for granted” view that serves as
a “subjective position” from which a “frame”
arises and/or is developed
• This frame is carried out through the routines
reported in this presentation
• Supported by, but also reflecting, the distortions
of refraction which we have also observed today
and input daily as processors of mediated
content.