Paper short abstract:

This presentation will discuss about forms of tourist experiences and images in Japanese international tourism by picking up cases about travels carried out by American soldiers and Japanese tourist industries which planned tours for them in the Japanese occupation period.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this presentation is to historically examine how tourist experiences and images of international tourism in Japan are formed by picking up cases about travels carried out by American soldiers and Japanese tourist industries which planned tours for them in the Japanese occupation period. I focus on a continuity moment of the tourism throughout Japanese modern era and adopt a concept of "tourist gaze" by revisiting from Foucault's theory of "bio-power".

In modern Japanese context, as "tourism(kan-kou)" meant to guide foreigners from the 1880's to the 1950's, a period between before the high economic growth and after the collapse of economic bubble has continuity in geo-politics of Japanese international tourism.

Japan was occupied by GHQ/SCAP from 1945 to 1952, who was mainly American army. US soldiers stayed in Japan carried out sightseeing after their businesses or weekends. Families of US soldiers also experienced various encounters with Japanese society and tourists could come to Japan after 1947. Moreover Japanese tourism industries spontaneously undertook tasks to guide them. Although an influence of the power of GHQ and soldiers to Japanese society was conventionally thought to be violent and direct one, we can consider about the power rather as Foucault's "bio-power" from the viewpoint of tourism. That is, the experience of the occupation period effected to make Japanese society become a subject of "host".

In this research, based on the hypothesis, I will reconsider "the tourist's gaze" advocated by John Urry from a viewpoint of Foucault's "bio-power". Then we will investigate what was orientalism nature of "American tourist gaze" of that time, how it directed to Japanese society, how it was internalized and practiced by Japanese tourist industries. We will pick up experiences and discourses and practices about tourism by U.S. soldiers and their families, discourse about American tourists in Japanese tourism industries and Japanese society. Therefore this study aims to historically think about how touristic experiences and images are formed in Japanese international tourism by the viewpoint of "American tourist gaze".