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Paper short abstract

This paper examines two Japanese divas (utahime), who are emblematic of particular eras, within the history of Kōhaku Utagassen. I will consider to whom these diva figures 'belong', and what role the contest has played in validating their status as era-defining utahime in a changing media landscape.

Paper long abstract

In late 2018, as pop singer Amuro Namie announced her retirement, many music journalists lamented that the soon-to-commence Reiwa era might never see a national utahime ('diva') of her calibre. Where the public have designated Amuro the representative diva of Heisei period, the late Misora Hibari, beloved star of post-war stage and screen, and of Japan's modernity (Yano, 2017), remains the 'national' diva of the Shōwa period. But how exactly do these stars attain their 'national utahime' status, and what does this status mean?

Inspired by an edited volume on divas throughout Japanese history (Miller and Copeland, 2018) this paper is a comparison of the role that Kōhaku Utagassen plays in creating these emblematic 'national' Japanese utahime, and a consideration of to whom these stars belong. Though there is an apparent national consensus about who Japan's era-defining divas are, changes to the way music and television are consumed in Japan and ambiguities inherent to the term utahime mean that defining a diva is not a simple task.

Whilst Misora Hibari's 1960s appearances saw Kōhaku's audience share hover around the 80 per cent mark, Amuro Namie's turn of the century appearances were to an audience almost half the size. I use the cases of Misora Hibari and Amuro Namie, especially the latter's era-ending retirement performance, to argue that although Kōhaku may be less 'national' in terms of consumption, the show's role as an inductor of utahime into the 'national' popular music canon is maintained to this day.

At the same time, this paper examines how the definition of utahime relates to the Anglosphere notion of the pop diva in the context of previous research into divas as queer icons (Dyer, 1986, Lugowski, 2008, Baker, 2017). It explores the relationship between the canon of iconic, era-defining Japanese divas curated by Kōhaku Utagassen to 'unite the nation' (Brunt, 2014), and their positioning as objects of adoration amongst communities that may see themselves as pushed out of hegemonic notions of 'nation'. By analysing Japan's utahime, this paper aims to draw attention to the complexities of a divas as national, and transnational figures of identification.

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Paper short abstract

Japanese television dramas have historically portrayed patriarchal values towards women’s selfhood. However, during the Bubble Era, ‘trendy dramas’ envisioned novel ways of being a woman. This paper examines how normative ideals of femininity were forged into a new urban woman.

Paper long abstract

Japanese television has historically produced well-established drama genres, some of which date back to the 1960s (Gotō et al., 1991). However, not until the Bubble Era (1986-1991) did Japanese dramas attain their golden age, brought about by the innovative narrative formula of ‘trendy dramas’, love stories that displayed a trend towards urban, consumer-oriented, glamorous lifestyles (Lukács, 2010).

Trendy dramas greatly contributed to the redefinition of the modern and urban woman: instead of reinforcing the dominant national values of marriage and motherhood, they featured young, single women that were succeeding professionally. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that although they challenged previous portrayals and normative conceptions of gender, they continued to propagate patriarchal views (Itō, 2004; Saeki, 2012; Freedman, 2018).

Drawing from media anthropology, cultural studies and gender studies, this paper explores in what ways trendy drama discourses redefined the politics of Japanese women’s identity and to what extent they reproduced patriarchal views towards women’s selfhood. Through an ethnographic study of the all-time popular Tokyo Love Story, 1991, and its 2020 version, qualitative questionnaires, newspaper articles and online forums analysis, this presentation explores the discourse entanglements between the normative ideals of femininity and the forging of a new woman in the drama. I will argue that the 1991 drama not only challenged patriarchal conceptions of femininity but developed novel ways of being a woman. As an informant stated, ’we envisioned a future where women could come into the open both in regards to their love affairs and their professional careers’. Trendy dramas set a primary stepping stone towards womanhood in Japan’s lost generation, characterised by low marriage and childbearing rates amidst the post-bubble uncertainty of a deregulated labour market, a never-ending stagnation, and a collapse of the institutions that allowed the once normative way of life (Allison, 2013). Diachronically, the once groundbreaking 1991 uninhibited, straightforward womanhood seems to have been somewhat normalized in 2020. While Japan still lingers for the glitzy bubble years, new ways of romancing and communicating may have sunk in.

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Paper short abstract

Based on discourse analysis of two significantly popular "LGBT-friendly" Japanese TV dramas and audience's responses, this research aims to discuss about media representation and its contribution and limits to gender and sexual equality.

Paper long abstract

In comparison to previous works, recent Japanese TV dramas tend to represent less discriminated images of LGBT community/people. For instance, the success of the drama series "Ossan's Love" and "What did you eat yesterday?", both of which are love comedies about male homosexual relationships, demonstrated a significant change in the representation of LGBT in Japanese media. It is undoubtable that it reflects generally shared LGBT-friendly attitudes among Japanese audience. However, the attitudes do not necessarily lead to an LGBT-friendly society. By analyzing the popularity of current Japanese TV dramas about homosexuality and the development of LGBT movements in Japan, I aim to examine to what extend media representation contributes to the realization of equal treatment of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

First, based on an overview of Japanese TV dramas about homosexuality and related research, I focus on two drama series whose popularity is especially worth noticing, i.e. "Ossan's Love" and "What did you eat yesterday?". The former was ranked among Twitter's trending topics in Japan and its popularity led to the release of a film continuation and the drama's second season. The latter was a screen adaptation based off a best-selling BL manga. Both of the dramas provided positive gay images for Japanese audience so that opened up an opportunity for more open discussion about homosexuality in public. More importantly, sexuality-related issues such as sexual identity, coming out, and same-sex marriage described in these dramas demonstrated dialogues with the gender and sexuality structure in contemporary Japan.

Next, by conducting discourse analysis of news coverage and interviews about these dramas as well as audience responses on Twitter, I aim to clarify how both audience and producers together constructed the image of hope for an LGBT-friendly Japan. I will especially focus on audience's tweets mentioning gender and sexuality to clarify how they imagine gender and sexual equality in the context related to these dramas.

Following the arguments above, this research attempts to discuss the process in which the hope for an LGBT-friendly utopia represented in TV dramas is being realized in/through audience's discourses.