Paper short abstract:

Against an LGBT Boom in the Japanese media in the last decade, this paper discusses what defines queer representation as ‘appropriate’ for public consumption. I argue that queerness is central to Japan's media, but rarely as the only clear reading of a series, keeping it at an ‘appropriate’ level.

Paper long abstract:

Amidst an LGBT Boom in Japan over the last decade, queer identities have seen greater focus in the media and politics, and with it has come debates over the ‘appropriateness’ of these representations for wider public consumption. This is defined through the interplay of a network of actors, from consumers to media corporations to political and legal institutions. Manga, anime, and TV Dramas that focus explicitly on same-sex romance and the lives of transgender individuals have grown in response to this boom, however its effects can also be observed in works that do not fall into this category, series that are not ostensibly queer. This paper discusses how ‘appropriate’ depictions of queerness are defined through a case study of major anime studio Kyoto Animation and their adaptations of Free! (2013-2022) and Sound! Euphonium (2015-present), franchises about competitive swimming and high school concert performance respectively. Both series are adaptations of novels first released in 2013, feature casts that are almost entirely of a single gender, male in Free! and female in Sound! Euphonium, and follow the narrative tropes of the sports genre. Drawing on Stuart Hall and his colleagues’ Circuit of Culture model, which theorises cultural production as the result of the interaction between production, regulation, representation, identity, and consumption, I argue these series are designed to pass both as completely cisheteronormative and extremely queer simultaneously. Based on my analysis of published interviews with Kyoto Animation creators and the merchandising practices that surround these series, I suggest that both readings are designed to be understood as valid, with neither being overwhelmingly privileged by the narratives themselves. How these works are then read, and the prominence of queerness within each franchise is defined in relation to each consumer and the frameworks of knowledge that they use to engage with these series. Queerness is a central part of the Japanese media and is consistently catered to within media works, even those that are not explicitly about it, but only so much as is ‘appropriate,’ rarely being left as the only unambiguous reading of a series.

Paper short abstract:

This talk focuses on the way scandals are produced in contemporary Japan. I approach Japanese scandal as a media product and focus on the role of Japanese journalists in a symbolic process of transforming leaked gossip into a proper scandal. I offer a map of scandal production in Japanese mediascape

Paper long abstract:

This talk conflates media theory, Japanese studies and cultural sociology in order to better understand the way media scandals are produced in contemporary Japan. It offers an opportunity to see how scandals play out in a liberal democratic system that differs in many respects from the United States and Europe.

In cultural sociology, scandal is understood as a social performance between "ritual" and "strategy". In my previous research I focused on the "ritual" aspect, analyzing Japanese scandals as dramatic public performances of confession, exclusion and reintegration. In this talk, I focus on the "strategy" aspect, approaching scandals as symbolic products of media routines and journalistic practices.

In Japan and elsewhere, scandal coverage concerns specific rules of media organization and production. In this context, I aim to illuminate the role of Japanese journalists in the process of transforming leaked gossip into a proper scandal. In my framework, the mainstream media are represented by the "inside-media" (big dailies, TV broadcast, news agencies), while the "outside-media" (weeklies, local papers, foreign press) are located on the periphery of Japanese mediascape. The main finding is that scandals in Japan are primarily kept private by the inside-media. Big Japanese dailies rarely confront political controversies, while the initial impulse for triggering scandals usually comes from the outside-media. The journalists are, however, not the only influential actors in scandal development. I simultaneously focus on the non-media actors: the power triangle of elite politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, the prosecutors, advertising companies, talent agencies, and the yakuza.

This talk offers a new perspective on the way how elite transgressions are promoted and processed by the media. I highlight the production logic of Japanese scandals by following a three-act structure, consisting of "leak processing", "scandal proper", and "climax & fadeout". In this structure, whistleblowers forward compromising leak to the police, prosecutors, or the outside-media, whereas the involved power circles (sei-kan-zai) attempt to minimize negative media coverage. The inside-media usually ignore the tabloids' revelations while discouraging investigative journalism. Nonetheless, as the public indignation grows, the inside-media eventually start covering the case as well, giving shape to a full-blown scandal.

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