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.