Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I examine the role of the construction of "Japanese Design" and "Japanese Photography" as unifying cultural categories in the postwar period.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I examine the role of the construction of "Japanese Design" and "Japanese Photography" as unifying cultural categories in the postwar period. The Japanese camera is an important point of connection between these two labels and through its postwar success, I examine the ways in which designers, photographers, and corporate figureheads alike invested in new forms of national visibility. I argue for an understanding of "Japanese Design" as a constructed category which developed beginning in the 1940s in Japan and the United States as a response to allegations that Japanese industries were appropriating the designs of manufacturers around the world. In response to these charges, the camera industry looked for ways to construct its own unique identity both as a means to sell products abroad, and to appeal to new domestic customers. In 1957, upon the establishment of the Good Design Selection System by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the most recent Canon 35mm camera was the first product selected to receive the "Good Design Award." For the next thirty years, cameras continued to be one of the most highly awarded categories of products and thus played a large role in creating a domestic and international image of Japanese design. As Companies, organizations, and individuals turned the "Made in Japan" brand into a successful moniker, it not only applied to consumer products, but visual style and sense making. In this way I argue that central to this discussion are the ways in which new organizations such as the Photographic Society of Japan seized upon domestic enthusiasm for new Japanese-produced cameras to launch events such as a national "Photography Day" on June 1st, 1951 through which it sought to define and disseminate a particular vision of what photography made in Japan looked like. Through the combined perspectives of design history and mass photographic practice in postwar Japan, I examine at the role that individuals and institutions had in constructing official spaces to celebrate the Japanese camera.