Paper short abstract:

Comparing images of celebrities and domestic life in Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!, two programs released on American Netflix in 2019, provides insight into how television “curates” Japan for international consumption and comments on ideas of nation, identity, and home.

Paper long abstract:

Streaming sites like Netflix (with ties to Japan’s Fuji TV) and Amazon Prime (connected to Japan’s TBS network) have helped globalize Japanese television programs and celebrities, earning them more cachet in Japan for having been popular in the United States. Yet, original programs created for local markets further dominant cultural stereotypes of “cute, tidy Japan.” Prime examples are Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!, two programs released on American Netflix in 2019. Marie Kondo, a powerful celebrity in Japan with at least five self-help books, created her own series on Netflix the same year as the reboot of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo network, 2003–2007); both programs follow the format of lifestyle gurus improving the lives of hurt people by through “tidiness,” by cleaning up one’s home, oneself, and one’s personal relationships. Kondo both participates in and subverts a history of Japanese women “self-orientalizing” on American television by acting cute, playing the role of being ignorant about Japan, the United States, or both. Japan is one of the only countries the Queer Eye Fab Five visited on their show; they provide tips to people who feel alienated in Japan for choosing non-traditional lifestyles. Both programs afford viewers carefully edited views of domestic life and feature locations not often shown in tourist programs. While streaming television has paid greater attention to inclusion and diversity than commercial networks, it perpetuates beliefs in American superiority and visions of Japan as a land where people feel lost. By comparing how Japanese celebrities like Marie Kondo have been cast in American programs and how Japanese media issues are depicted in Queer Eye much can be learned about how television plays a curatorial role in displaying images of Japan for American viewers. I will discuss how American television is a useful teaching tool for understanding how Japanese media and celebrities are transfigured through globalization. Television presents an alternative history of American fascinations with and fears of Japan.