Riding the black ship
Subtitle: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland
By: Aviad E. Raz.
Series: Harvard East Asian monographs ;; 173
Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center; Distributed by Harvard University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Amusement parks -- Social aspects -- Japan; Popular culture -- Japan; Tokyo Disneyland (Urayasu-shi, Japan); Japan -- Civilization -- American influences
Other titles: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland
Description: Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the "company manual." By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz produces not only a cultural reading of the onstage show but also an ethnographic analysis of its production by those who work there and its reception by its customers.

Previous studies have seen Disneyland as a "black ship" - an exported, hegemonic model of American leisure and pop culture - that "conquered" Japan. By concentrating on the Japanese point of view, Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization. Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated "America" showcased by and for the Japanese.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-236) and index.