electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies
Conference and Seminar Papers“Images of Asia in Japanese Mass Media, Popular Culture and Literature”
Papers Presented at ICAS 2, Berlin, Germany, 9-12 August 2001

Introduction to the Panel “Images of Asia in Japanese MassMedia, Popular Culture and Literature”
Hilaria Gössmann
University of Trier, Germany

Keywords:
Japan, Korea, Asia, return to Asia, Asian identity, nostalgia for Asia, media, manga,
literature, popular culture1.

SummaryThis introduction briefly describes the research project Japan’s ‘orientation towards
Asia’ respectively Japan’s ‘return to Asia‘ in literature, media and popular culture. A
factor in the creation of an ‘Asian identity’? at the Department of Japanese Studies at the
University of Trier, Germany, whose interim findings are conveyed in the papers of thepanel “Images of Asia in Japanese Mass Media, Popular Culture and Literature”. The
papers were presented at the 2nd International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 2),
held in Berlin in August 2001. Furthermore, aspects of a certain “Asian boom”, which
has been observed in Japan since the mid-1990s, are addressed. Keywords for thisdevelopment are “Japan’s Return to Asia”, “Asian Identity” and “Nostalgia for Asia”.

2.

Research Project on Asian Countries in the Japanese MediaThe papers of the panel Images of Asia in Japanese Mass Media, Popular Culture andLiterature are part of a research project on the topic of Japan’s ‘orientation towards

Hilaria Gössmann1Asia’ respectively Japan’s ‘return to Asia’ in literature, media and popular culture. A
factor in the creation of an ‘Asian identity’? The research project1 is being conducted at
the Department of Japanese Studies at the University of Trier, Germany, and is sponsoredby the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the central public funding organization
for academic research in Germany. It is a component of an interdisciplinary project
entitled “Asianisation of Asia?” in which the Departments of Japanese Studies as well as
Chinese Studies, Media Studies and Political Science are participating within the scope of
the Centre for East Asian Pacific Studies at the University of Trier.
The contribution of Japanese Studies consists of the analysis of literature, media andpopular culture since the 1990s. Although the construction of Asia and Asians in literaryworks, media and popular culture has the potential to substantially influence the opinionsof the audience, there is still very little research on the subject conducted, either within
Japan or outside of Japan. Two different types of genres are being analysed during thisproject: On the one hand, fictional genres such as literary works, movies and televisionseries, and on the other, TV documentaries and commercials.
This research project analyses whether the different types of media in Japan present other
Asian countries and their populations as something distant and exotic or rather assomething familiar. The central question is whether a fundamental change towards an
acknowledgment of greater equality among Japan and its Asian neighbours can be observed.
The three papers present case studies concerning the images of Asian countries (notincluding Japan) and non-Japanese Asians in Japanese mass media, popular culture andliterature. The first paper, by Barbara Gatzen, provides an insight into the world of
television documentaries on the public broadcaster NHK, the second paper, by SusannePhillipps, analyses manga (Japanese comics), and the final paper, by Kristina
Weickgenannt, examines novels. This introduction imparts some background informationon these case studies, both about the relationship between media and society as well as
the keywords that are of significance within the context of the “Asian boom” occurring inJapan since the mid-1990s.

3.

Media and Society

Let us first briefly discuss the relationship between the media and society. It goes without
saying that the media reflect trends in society. However, at the same time, the media
contribute decisively to the construction of our perception of reality. The media functions

Hilaria Gössmann2simultaneously as a mirror and a driving force of trends in society. Therefore an analysisof media can tell us a lot about the topics and issues a society is concerned with.
Furthermore, the way the media deal with a certain phenomenon can be very influential.
For example, the images of ethnic minorities in the media can contribute to overcoming
discrimination in society. Conversely, they can also reinforce existing prejudices.
Barry Lowe (1995, p. 79) comments on the relationship of media and society as follows:“The issue of whether the media reflect the ideas and values of society or whether they
impose their own ideas and values on society is really a chicken-or-the-egg argument.
The media are not isolated from the community and therefore many of the attitudes
held by media professionals are common to the wider society (...) Media professionals,
as part of their production work, are constantly informing themselves about the world.
Their output, with its direct access to mass audiences, must therefore play a role inshaping public attitudes towards certain issues, particularly those outside the generalpublic’s direct range of experience”.
Since both the mass media and popular culture aim at reaching a wider audience, there isa limit to what topics might be acceptable. In the words of Canadian media critic Barry
Duncan (1989, p. 11):
“Popular culture can be progressive but not radical. It rather follows trends and seldom
promotes them.”
This leads us to the following point: If a certain issue is usually neglected by the media
and then increasingly appears in the media, it probably indicates that there is growinginterest in this topic. Thus we can suggest that, with regards to the theme of our panel, theincreasing coverage of “Asian” topics in Japanese media may well indicate a growinginterest in Japan’s Asian neighbours. At least the producers of media seem to assume thatthe audience has a certain interest or that they should be interested.
In contrast to producers in the mass media, the writers of so-called “pure” literature(junbungaku), which is considered to be “high culture”, do not always have the generalpublic in mind. Instead they write for a specific audience. Therefore the authors havemore of an opportunity to be radical and they might become pioneers for new ideas. Thismight be illustrated by the literary works of Japanese-Korean writers of the first, secondand even third generations living in Japan.2 These writers deal with topics such as cultural“inbetweenness” and “hybridity”, two themes that are rarely discussed in Japan’s mass
media today.

Hilaria Gössmann34.

“Japan‘s Return to Asia” and “Asian Identity”“Taking into consideration that we modern citizens of Asia today live in a time ofshared feelings and common concerns, Asia Center has organized this comic
exhibition as a canal of communication among our Asian youth for better
comprehending and appreciating the circumstances of each other’s societies and dailyliving” (Japan Foundation, 2000, p. 5).

These introductory remarks in the catalogue of an exhibition on manga from various
Asian countries by the Japan Foundation Asia Centre in Tokyo are of special interest:
Whereas in the Japanese media the word “Asia” often stands for all Asian countries
except Japan, here the Japanese are described as “modern citizens of Asia.”
In the 1990s, the relationship between Japan and other Asian countries became a central
topic of discussion within Japan. The main question appears to be: Is Japan a Western oran Asian country? (Blechinger and Legewie, 1998, p. 15). Although in the above quote
there is no direct mention of anything in terms of an “Asian identity”, the “sharedfeelings and common concerns” in Asia, however, are taken for granted. At the same time
manga are seen to be a means of improving communication between youth in Asia.
Since the early 1970s, the popularity of manga has spread from Japanese audiences toteenage readers in many other Asian countries. Interestingly, due to political andhistorical circumstances, most Asian manga enthusiasts were unaware of the genre’s
Japanese origin. For example, for many decades South Korea imposed a total import ban
on Japanese culture. As a result, most manga distributed in Korea were unauthorised andoften modified versions of Japanese originals.
In the 1990s, import bans on Japanese media products were removed and copyright issues
were clarified. Today, official translations of manga are distributed throughout Asia
under the license of Japanese publishers. Manga and anime (Japanese animated films) are
the basis for the current boom of Japanese culture in Asia. Manga and anime have
expanded their markets not only in the United States and Europe, but especially invarious countries in East Asia. Another genre is the Japanese TV drama, which is
enjoying great popularity in many other Asian countries as well.3
The boom of Japanese popular culture in other Asian countries is widely discussed inJapan. Newspapers and magazines attract readers with headlines such as “Asia Loves
Japan” or “The Youth [in Other Asian Countries] is Longing for Japanese Popular
Culture” (Iwabuchi, 2001, p. 1).

Hilaria Gössmann4But what is the situation within Japan itself? Is Asia in vogue in Japan? Is the Japanese
population indeed interested in other Asian countries, their culture and lifestyles? At least
some media products seem to suggest that all things Asian are the “latest craze”.
For example, CREA, a women’s magazine, published an article in January 2001 with thetitle: “Ajia ni koi suru!” (“Falling in Love with Asia!”). The article features restaurants
and shops in major Asian cities. It also contains a guide of 50 Asian style restaurants andinterior design shops in Tokyo and Osaka. The magazine propagates an “Asian lifestyle”.
Is this just one more trend in lifestyle? Or are we to interpret it as a symptom of a newJapanese orientation towards Asia? In other words, are the phrases “Japans return toAsia” and “Asian identity” not only relevant in the context of economics and politics, butalso in everyday life in Japan?
Two places in Japan where the growing presence of other Asian countries is especiallyevident are bookstores and travel agencies. Books on Asian countries with titles such as
Ajia no hitobito o shiru hon (Getting to Know About Asian People) and Motto shiritai
Hong Kong (I Would Like to Know More about Hong Kong) are increasingly being
published. Travel agencies offer an abundance of catalogues on Asia. The title of acatalogue for Thailand, for example, combines the Japanese verb shiritai (wanting toknow) and the name Thailand into “Shiritairando”, obviously a play on words referring
specifically to the growing interest in Asia. This pun, in the style of kakekotoba inclassical Japanese poetry, means “The Land I Want to Get to Know”. However, althoughmore Japanese are travelling to other Asian countries - especially to neighbouring Korea,
which is currently in vogue - the media remain among the most important sources of
information about these countries.
Research conducted on the images of foreigners in Japanese television confirms that the
Asian boom is really quite a new phenomenon in Japan. A study conducted in 1990 by
the “Forum for Citizens’ Television” (FCT), found that the majority of foreigners andforeign countries covered on Japanese TV were Western. Furthermore, the FCT
determined that television news contained very few reports on Asia. This led theresearchers to the conclusion that “Japanese television does not fulfil the claim that Japan
should regard itself as a member of Asia” (FCT, 1991, p. 58).4 In 1995 and 1996, Barbara
Gatzen conducted an extensive analysis of Japanese news shows which produced asimilar result (Gatzen, 2001).
According to the research group ‘International Television Flow Project’ (ITFP), there
was still very little coverage of Asia on Japanese television in 1999, the only exception
being China. The study also found a tendency toward a distorted image of Korea, withtoo much focus on negative news, such as student protests or strikes and anti-Japanesedemonstrations (Kawatake, 2000, p. 104).
Hilaria Gössmann

5On Japanese television, the topic of Japanese war crimes in Asia is neglected on thewhole. This became particularly obvious during the Women’s International War Crimes
Tribunal which was held in Tokyo in December 2000 and organized by women fromseveral Asian countries, including Japan. Although this would have been an opportunity
to demonstrate an example of Asian solidarity, there was almost no coverage of thistribunal in any program, no matter the channel. The public television network NHK
eventually aired a heavily censored documentary on this tribunal which caused a major
controversy.
As a general tendency, however, there is an increasing presence of Asian countries in the
media, in particular on NHK. As described in Barbara Gatzen’s paper, NHK now has
regular weekly programs on Asia. In the field of fictional TV shows, the increase of
Asian characters is a very recent phenomenon. Japanese cinema saw the beginning of an
Asian boom as early as the 1990s. In contrast, until very recently, Japanese television
dramas rarely featured foreigners. Although this genre claims to provide a “realistic
depiction of society” it did not present the large number of foreigners living in Japan,
including second or third generation Japanese-Koreans. Thus Japanese TV drama
reproduced the myth of Japanese homogeneity of the Japanese population.
However, from January to March 2001, NHK aired a TV drama series featuring the lovestory of a young Japanese man and a female Korean singer. In the summer of 2001, theprivate network Fuji terebi broadcasted two television drama series with Asians actresses
in leading roles, one a Korean and the other Chinese; and in autumn, the private channel
Nihon terebi aired a drama featuring a young woman with a Japanese father and a
Taiwanese mother. In summary, we can now find a larger number of non-JapaneseAsians on Japanese TV.5 In particular, the appearance of Korean figures has to be seen in
conjunction with an increased presence of Korea in the Japanese media as the 2002
Soccer World Cup (2002 FIFA World Cup Korea Japan), hosted jointly by Japan and
Korea, approaches.
A propensity towards Korea also reveals itself in the higher level of recognition now
being granted Japanese-Korean authors. For example, since 1989, three authors of
Korean origin were awarded the Akutagawa Prize, the most prestigious Japanese prize for“pure literature”.6
While in Japanese mass media and popular culture the presentation of other Asian
countries and Asian people appears to be quite a recent phenomenon, Japanese literature
dealt much earlier with the theme of Asia. A recent example is the novel Fukai kawa
(Deep River) by Endô Shûsaku, which was also made into a movie. Irmela Hijiya-

Hilaria Gössmann

6Kirschnereit interprets this novel as a “veritable compendium for the return to Asia”(Hijiya-Kirschnereit 1996, p. 22).7

5.

Nostalgia for Asia

Alois Hahn (1998, p. 171-172), a German sociologist at the University of Trier, points tothe ambivalent nature of the concept of foreignness, which is defined by two extremes:“fascination” and “threat”. This ambivalence is also apparent in the way foreigners or
foreign cultures tend to be depicted in popular movies which, according to media
researcher Werner Faulstich (1996, p. 415), can be characterised as either “exoticism,
salvation or horror”.
As S. Phillips’ paper on manga maintains, we can find these patterns in the attitude that
the Japanese media has towards other Asian countries. Whereas in former times, Asia
often appeared as “horror” or as “the exotic Other” today, the concept of finding salvation
through other Asian countries and/or representatives of these countries is increasingly
becoming the focus of attention. This anticipation of salvation lays the basis for the
feeling of “nostalgia for Asia”. This concept of “nostalgia” is typical of people fromindustrialized nations. They yearn to re-discover in a foreign country what they thinktheir own culture has lost (Holzbrecher, 1997, p. 102) Iwabuchi Koichi (1999, p. 220)
comments on this “nostalgia for Asia”:“(…) in the mid -1990s (…) modernising Asian nations are nostalgically seen to embody a social vigour and optimism for the future which Japan is allegedly losing or has
lost.”The discourse on Asia and Asians is based on the presumed energy and vitality of Asians
and on an “Asian Dream” which is related to the modernisation of these countries. In the
TV drama Doku (1996)8, the vitality of the Vietnamese student Doku who comes to Japanto study is, as Iwabuchi (1999, p. 245) writes, “at once Japan’s vanishing present anddesired future. Precisely because they are not quite modern, Vietnamese are energetic and
can afford a dream of a bright future”: Doku wants to study architecture in Japan in orderto build bridges and skyscrapers in his own country. This is highlighted by the catchphrase of the drama: Ajia no yume wa kitto kanau (Asian dreams will come true).
This “Asian Dream” and the energy that is ascribed to people from other Asian countries
appears to be a key concept in the construction of Asia in Japan since the mid 1990s. In
my interview with the producer of the NHK documentary Shin Ajia hakken (Meeting a
New Asia) in March 2000, he told me that he does not want to deal with politics andHilaria Gössmann7economics. He prefers to send young reporters to various Asian countries to report on
daily life, the feelings of young people and their “Asian Dreams”.
Concerning the image of Asia depicted in the Japanese media, it can be stated that other
Asian countries are primarily represented by young people. This is not only true of the
documentary programs on Asia analysed by Barbara Gatzen, which, in confirming thestatement above, intentionally direct their focus on young people, but also of fictional
Japanese television, such as TV series as well as commercials. This is also evidenced by
the three examples of manga presented in Susanne Phillipps’ paper, which tell the storyof young people travelling in foreign Asian countries and the very different experiences
they have there. The works of Japanese-Korean author Yû Miri also portray the image ofa younger generation.
Undisputedly, it is also characteristic of media as a whole, not only in Japan, to centre on
the younger generation. However, with respect to the topic of Asia, it bears special
significance. It is without a doubt that focussing on the younger generation allows theissue of World War II to be omitted, thus enabling encounters with other Asian countries
to be as uninhibited as possible. This apparently seems to be a common ground in theconstruction of “Asia” in Japan since the end of the 1990s.
Nevertheless, the case studies in the papers of the panel show that the image of other
Asian countries depicted in the media is by no means homogeneous. The main question
posed at the onset of this project, whether the different types of media in Japan present
other Asian countries and their populations as something distant and exotic or rather assomething familiar, cannot be given a sweeping, generalised answer. Within the scope ofthe research project, the construction of Asia in Japanese media will therefore continue tobe analysed by means of various case studies. The objective is to examine whether the“Asian boom” taking place since the end of the 1990s is just one of many fashionable
trends or whether an actual paradigm change in regards to the role of Asia in Japanese
media, popular culture and literature can be observed.

Bibliography
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Tôkyô: Sekai shisôsha.
Blechinger, Verena and Jochen Legewie, 1998, ‘Japans neue Rolle in Asien’ (Japan’s
New Role in Asia), in Japanstudien. Jahrbuch des Deutschen Instituts für Japanstudien
der Phillipp Franz von Siebold Stiftung (Japanese Studies. Annual Journal of the German
Institute for Japanese Studies), 10, München: Iudicium, pp. 15-25.

Hilaria Gössmann8Duncan, Barry, 1989, ‘American versus Canadian Television Families,’ in Mediacry 16(2), pp. 1, 10-11.
FCT (Forum for Citizens’ Television), 1991, Terebi ga utsushidasu gaikoku to nihon
no kokusaika (Foreign Countries as Reflected in Television Within the Context ofInternationalisation), Tôkyô: FCT.
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Spiritual Journey to “Asia”. Endô Shûsaku’s Last Novel “Rebirth on the Ganges”), in
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Vertrautheit? Die Begegnung zwischen Japan und seinen asiatischen Nachbarn im
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Between Japan and Her Asian Neighbors as Mirrored in the TV Drama “Doku”), in
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München: Iudicium, pp. 335-368.
Gössmann, Hilaria and Barbara Gatzen, 2002, ‘Fernsehen als Spiegel und Motor desWandels. Ein Paradigmenwechsel in der Darstellung der asiatischen Nachbarländer?’(Television as Mirror and Driving Force of Change. A Paradigm Change in the Depictionof Neighbouring Asian Countries?), in Medien als Objekt und Triebfeder des Wandels(Media as Object and Driving Force of Change), ed. Hilaria Gössmann and Franz
Waldenberger, Hamburg: Institute for Asian Art (forthcoming).
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Function of Foreign Elements in Japanese Television Commercials), in Shinbun kenkyû
nenpô, 43, pp. 19-36.
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Opladen: Leske und Budrich, pp. 143-181.

Hilaria Gössmann

9Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Irmela, 1996, ‘Leuchtet Japan? Einführende Gedanken zu einer
proklamierten Zeitenwende’ (An Illuminated Japan? Introductory Thoughts on a Proclaimed Turn of an Era), in Überwindung der Moderne? Japan am Ende des zwanzigsten
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About the Author:
Hilaria Gössmann majored in Japanese Studies and German Literature and received her
PhD from the University of Trier in 1992. She held a research position at the German
Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo from 1992 to 1995. Since 1995, she has been aprofessor of Japanese Studies at the University of Trier, Germany. The focus of her
research is on gender and interculturality in modern Japanese literature and TV dramas.
She has edited a Japanese book (together with Muramatsu Yasuko) on the construction ofgender in Japanese and German media (Media ga tsukuru gendâ. Nichidoku no danjo kazokuzô, Tôkyô, Shinyôsha 1998).

1

With the exception of Ulrike Wöhr, the commentator, all authors of these papers are members of thisresearch project.
2
In accordance with the other panel members, the term zainichi is rendered as “Japanese-Korean” rather
than “Korean-Japanese.” Our reasons for this choice are that most of the zainichi are not “naturalized,” thatis they are not Japanese nationals (different from, e.g., Korean-Americans who are usually American
citizens). To use the term Korean-Japanese, we felt, was to ignore this status which is partly due to theHilaria Gössmann10immense difficulties facing those who apply for Japanese nationality, but also involves questions of ethnic
identity.
3
For more on the role of Japanese television series in Taiwan, see Iwabuchi, 2001, pp. 189-239.
4
In TV commercials, an overwhelming dominance of “Caucasians” was detected. This is particularly truein the case of TV commercials: 84% of the foreign figures were “Caucasians” and only 7 % “African or
Afro-American” and 7 % “Asians other than Japanese” (FCT, 1991, p. 58). In addition, later research oncommercials found no fundamental changes in the dominance of “Caucasian” characters (Hagiwara 1994, p.
29).
5
See Gatzen and Gössmann (forthcoming) for an analysis of these dramas and the regular weekly programson Asia.
6
The Akutagawa Prize was awarded to Yi Yang(-chi) in 1989, to Yû Miri in 1997 and to Gen Getsu in
1999. It can be regarded as characteristic of the younger generation of these authors that their works show
us a world in which questions of identity are not solely fixated on nationality. This might be one reason for
the recent success of their works.
7
For more on this work, see also Gebhardt’s review, 1997, p. 21, in which the travel of the Japanese to
India is rightly described as a “healing journey”. Many modern authors visited other Asian countries, as is
described in the book The Asian Experience of Authors (Ashiya, 1992).
8“Doku” is a very interesting TV drama serial because it can be interpreted as an allegory of Japan´srelationship to other Asian countries project (Gössmann, Jaschke and Mrugalla, 1998).

Hilaria Gössmann11