Re-made in Japan : everyday life and consumer taste in a changing society
Joseph Jay Tobin (Editor, Writer of introduction)
Colonel Sanders, Elvis, Mickey Mouse, and Jack Daniels have been enthusiastically embraced by Japanese consumers in recent decades. But rather than simply imitate or borrow from the West, the Japanese reinterpret and transform Western products and practices to suit their culture. This entertaining and enlightening book shows how in the process of domesticating foreign goods and customs, the Japanese have created a culture in which once-exotic practices (such as ballroom dancing) have become familiar, and once-familiar practices (such as public bathing) have become exotic. Written by scholars in anthropology, sociology, and the humanities, the book ranges from analyses of Tokyo Disneyland and the Japanese passion for the Argentinean tango to discussions of the Japanese haute couture and the search for an authentic nouvelle cuisine japonaise. These topics are approached from a variety of perspectives, with explorations of the interrelations of culture, ideology, and national identity and analyses of the roles that gender, class, generational, and regional differences play in the patterning of Japanese consumption. The result is a fascinating look at a dynamic society that is at once like and unlike our own
Kongreß Honolulu (Hawaii) 1989
viii, 264 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780300052053, 9780300060829, 0300052057, 0300060823
25048328
Introduction: domesticating the West / Joseph J. Tobin
The Depāto: merchandising the West while selling Japaneseness / Millie R. Creighton
"For beautiful human life": the use of English in Japan / James Stanlaw
Tractors, television, and telephones: reach out and touch someone in rural Japan / William W. Kelly
The Japanese bath: extraordinarily ordinary / Scott Clark
Images of the West: home style in Japanese magazines / Nancy Rosenberger
Alienation and reconnection in a home for the elderly / Diana Bethel
Drinking etiquette in a changing beverage market / Stephen R. Smith
A Japanese-French restaurant in Hawai'i / Jeffrey Tobin
The aesthetics and politics of Japanese identity in the fashion industry / Dorinne Kondo
Shopping for souvenirs in Hawai'i / Fumiteru Nitta
"Bwana Mickey": constructing cultural consumption at Tokyo Disneyland / Mary Yoko Brannen
Tango in Japan and the world economy of passion / Marta E. Savigliano