Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture (Paperback)

~ Timothy J. Craig (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Of the books available, it provides the most balanced cross-section of the topics in Japanese Popular culture. -- H-Net Reviews in Humanities & Social Scienes, June, 2002

Product Description

Examines various forms of Japanese popular culture: pop music, jazz, enka (a form of ballad music), karaoke, manga and more. As pop culture not only entertains but also reflects society, this study is also about Japan - comparing it with the rest of the world and exploring the Japanese way of life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: M.E. Sharpe (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765605619
• ISBN-13: 978-0765605610
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #268,369 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor introduction to the subject, December 6, 2000

By	D M P Al-Badri, Editor, Kansai Time Out (Kobe, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture (Hardcover)

Claiming to be a book which bridges the divide between the worlds of academia and populism, Japan Pop! gets off to a poor start with an absurdly high cover price likely to put it out of reach of the casual J-Pop Culture fan. The price might have been justified had this been a glossy, photo-packed book, but seems ludicrous given that it is merely a collection of 17 essays. The essays dwell on four major areas of contemporary J-Pop Culture: music, manga and animation, TV & film and the popularity of J-Pop Culture outside of the country. It comes as little surprise that Mark Schilling's contribution, about the Tora-san character in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man) film series, is the most interesting - not necessarily because of the topic, but because Schilling is the only contributor who is a writer of any repute. The majority of these essays are written by academics and it shows: footnotes abound, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers get analysed to the nth degree and claims are made that "Sailor Moon's rearrangement of the traditional superhero myth bears hints of not only a new social order, but also the kind of moral struggles, alliances, and identities that may create and accompany it." The book also contains a number of confidence-sapping factual errors (example: Osaka band Shonen Knife "started playing in the mid-1980s" which is not true, they started playing in December 1981). Schilling's Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture (Weatherhill) remains the definitive starting point for those seeking a good, accessible introduction to the subject; Japan Pop! is only for the otaku completist, and a wealthy one at that.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars an academic tired of bad academics, February 26, 2003

By A Customer

In a word, this book is a mess. Methodologically suspect and theoretically uninformed, it relies on antiquated Orientalist assumptions of essential cultural identity and unchanging social forms to make the multifarious sources it cites all sound the same, which is too bad, because it is the only English-language 'scholarship' available at present on many of the topics covered. A wasted opportunity that makes me sad and mad.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, July 19, 2000

By	Bill Buckwold - See all my reviews

This review is from: Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture (Hardcover)

This is an outstanding, enjoyable and entertaining read that gives great insight into Japanese contemporary society and culture. I particularly like the breadth of topics and the depth of knowledge displayed by the contributors. I wish I had read this befoere my recent visit to Japan. Although as a follow-up read, it brought new life to my experience there.