THE WORLDS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE: GENDER, SHIFTING BOUNDARIES AND GLOBAL CULTURES

Dolores P. Martinez (ad.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998, xi, 212 pp., $29.95 (paperback).

The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture is a breath of fresh air for Japan-related studies. While, as Martinez (the editor of the collection) suggests, foreign opinion on Japan focuses on an homogenous culture, this is not the reality, as this collection of papers demonstrates. What is apparent is that Japanese culture `stresses similarity over difference', according to Martinez.

It is surprising to find such a wide range of applied sociology in one collection which includes several different theoretical frameworks. In the first article on sumo, Masao convincingly describes the relationship between Emperor, sumo and kabuki, whereby the decrease in the status and power of the Emperor caused a similar effect in sumo and kabuki attendance. Masao shows that the Emperor is incorporated into both high and popular culture, and that the postwar reconstruction of the Emperor's identity has caused a shift in society at large. Standish looks at `Akira', a highly successful cyberpunk film and its postmodern depictions of Japan. The film's urban punks are mythical representations of Confucian morality (which incidentally was only ever followed by the Samurai class and the city folk, especially in the context of sexual morality)...