Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the lyricist Matsumoto Takashi's career as an example of the transmedial extension of author personae in the popular music industry during the era of New Music. I show how Matsumoto's authorial self-staging benefited from his systematic use of both musical and literary paratexts.

Paper long abstract:

The lyricist, drummer and writer Matsumoto Takashi 松本隆 is widely considered one of the more important Japanese pop music artists of the 1970s and 1980s. This paper discusses and contextualizes the then-innovative transmedial techniques that have allowed Matsumoto to exert a lasting influence on the Japanese popular music scene.

I contend that Matsumoto's mastery of intermedial and autofictional literary practices contributed to his success. I apply Genette's (1997) theory of the paratext to analyse Matsumoto's contributions to several rock/pop albums and a selection of related written publications. The analysis sheds an exemplary light on the various textual instruments that music artists in 1970s and 1980s Japan have employed to extend their role as authors: peritextual forms, such as lyrics sheets and jacket designs, and epitextual publications ranging from essays, short stories and poetry to autobiographical novels. I first show how Matsumoto employs these paratexts to divorce himself from the supporting role conventionally assumed by lyricists within the division-of-labor framework of the music industry and become visible as an author. The second function of the paratextual forms examined in this paper is the continuous reinterpretation and recontextualisation of musical productions, allowing Matsumoto to construct an author persona for his song lyrics and continually adapt this persona to changes in the zeitgeist.

His career can thus also be read as an example of the transformation which the Japanese popular music scene underwent from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, and which is exemplified in the rise of New Music (nyū myūjikku ニュー・ミュージック). This transformation combines a growing respect accorded to musicians as authentic artists and independent authors with a simultaneously growing pressure to invent new forms of self-staging, as the same artists see themselves confronted with the need to function as auto-entrepreneurs.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to clarify the significance to research the early period of television, especially focused on 'rural areas' and 'acceptance'. In 1950s, before the cultural form of television was decided in Japan, people accepted television in a variety of ways, based on their culture.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to clarify the significance of the early acceptance of television in rural areas, based on the trends of television research in Japan.

To date, several studies have been conducted in Japan on the early period of television. Hidetoshi Kato explored the lineage of television as part of Japanese traditional audiovisual culture in 'From Spectacles to Television' (Kato 1965). Shunya Yoshimi elaborated on the conventional theory of the early period of television by revisiting the history of the relationship between television and audience (Yoshimi 2003). More recently, with Erkki Huhtamo's media archeology in the background, Yutaka Iida has attempted to reconstruct the history of early period of Japanese television from the development of technology prior to the broadcast of television and the activity of various actors (Iida 2016).

Thus, historical research on the early period of television has clarified the cultural significance of television and how roles are socially constructed. However, these studies deal only with Tokyo and other major cities, and lack the perspective of 'rural areas' and 'acceptance'.

The presenter is conducting a field survey on early television acceptance in Aomori Prefecture, which is located approximately 700 km north of Tokyo. Since the time when television broadcasts began in 1953, given that television signals were broadcast starting from largest cities, it took six years for the television signals to reach most of Aomori Prefecture. The people of Aomori attempted to catch the signals leaking from neighboring prefectures, and when they succeeded in receiving them, they accepted television in a variety of ways, based on their culture.

Early television reception refers to the short period of time of acceptance of television after its appearance in an area until it became popular and acquired the cultural form it is today. As it is indicated that television is currently 'contracting' due to the influence of the Internet, the process of reflecting on the period when television 'expanded' from a relative perspective of 'local' and 'acceptance' can provide an opportunity to consider the future of television.

Paper short abstract:

The purpose of this study is to explore the digital divide within Japanese elderly people and factors affecting their digital media use. An interview was conducted with people aged over 65 using the Internet or smartphones. I found that environmental and individual factors affected their media use.

Paper long abstract:

The current understanding is that elderly people less frequently use digital media and have less knowledge about them than younger people, which is called the digital divide between young and elderly people. However, along with the development of the ICT, elderly people are using technologies more actively than before, and current studies have emphasized that older people are not necessarily inferior to younger people in access to digital media, or rather that the digital divide exists within elderly people. However, it has yet to be shown how Japanese elderly people use digital media and what factors affect their media use behaviors. To better understand about this digital divide, digital media use repertories of elderly people and factors that influence their behaviors were studied. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people aged over sixty-five using smartphones or the Internet. It was found that both environmental factors and individual factors affect digital media use behaviors of elderly people. Environmental factors included (1) social networks and (2) home infrastructure. Most of them received supports from someone such as families, friends, schools and cellphone companies. The more they could get help, the more they could use such technology. Moreover, whether friends and families had smartphones or not affected their use of smartphones as communication tools. People who had home wi-fi connections at home used smartphones more actively. On the other hand, individual factors, such as (1) demographics, and (2) self-efficacy, also affected their digital media use. Young females used more functions. People who have high self-efficacy were enjoying their smartphone lives. These findings demonstrate that providing more social supports and ingenious attempts to improve their self-efficacy can help diminish the digital divide within them. These results provide new insight into our understanding into the development of measures to reduce negative influences by the digital divide.