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This paper examines representations of interethnic romantic relationships in Japanese celebrity and tabloid magazines published between 1952 and 1970, focusing on how discourses shifted from showcasing interethnic relationships as morally ambivalent to portraying them as an object of aspiration.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines representations of interethnic romantic relationships in Japanese celebrity and tabloid magazines published between 1952 and 1970.

By 1952, relationships between American servicemen and Japanese women had already become a recurring theme in postwar literature and cinema. War brides and pan pan girls had proximity to American military personnel, and this afforded them increased access to conspicuous consumption. They were depicted ambivalently, oscillating between social stigma and fascination.

However, censorship in Japanese media was significantly relaxed following the end of the American occupation in 1952, and the local press gained greater latitude to address the longer-term social consequences of these relationships. This shift is reflected in the growing number of reports on mixed-race children born as a result of the American military presence.

In 1956 the Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance declared the end of the ‘postwar' era. The period between this year and the first oil shock in 1973 was marked by rapid economic reconstruction and the emergence of the so-called Japanese Economic Miracle. While political leaders framed the United States as Japan’s primary strategic ally, the developing consumer culture drew aesthetic models from Euro-America, looking at the ‘west’ as a source of fascination (akogare).

Within this context, this paper argues that representations of interethnic relationships underwent a gradual shift—from the morally ambivalent or stigmatized imagery associated with war brides and pan pan girls to a more aspirational discourse. Drawing on archival materials from the celebrity magazines Heibon (Heibonsha 1945-1987) and Shūkan Heibon (Heibonsha 1959-1987), as well as Myōjō (Shūeisha 1952-) and Shūkan Myōjō (Shūeisha 1958-1991), this study traces how interethnic romance was represented in media focused on post-occupation celebrity culture. Simultaneously, this paper aims to understand how the gender and ethnic composition of couples, as well as their legal status influenced their media portrayal.

By turning to under-analyzed sources such as the tabloid press, this paper seeks to examine how popular discourse intersected with broader sociopolitical change in reshaping public perceptions of interethnic romance, while also considering the extent to which these narratives may have been transmitted to the following generations.

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This presentation examines how the Japanese publishing industry find the attractiveness of “hate articles”, such as anti-Chinese or Koreans, or LGBTQ, for magazine readers, and how such articles gain the popularity. The research is based on the exploratory interviews with editors.

Paper long abstract

In 2018, an anti-LGBTQ article written by Mio Sugita, a Diet member of Japan, provoked a sensational controversy, which gathered more attention because its publisher, Shinchosha, was one of the Japanese general and traditional publishers well known for their literature series. Eventually, Shincho 45, which published the article, was forced to cease the publication of the magazine. Seven years later in 2025, Shinchosha is being involved in a serious controversy again about an anti-Korean article in Shukan Shincho, while protesting action by insiders of the publishing industry keep going even though Shukan Shincho printed an apology in the magazine.

Looking back the history of the industry, Japanese tabloid magazines published by large general publishers have repeatedly published such articles since the late 1990s. The questions of this presentation are: how did the Japanese publishing industry find their attractiveness of “hate articles” for magazine readers, and how did such articles gain the popularity? Several commentators have pointed out that the rise of such articles resulted from the publishing industry’s slump, especially magazines’ since the second half of the 1990s, which is largely due to the emergence of the internet. To get out of the slump, tabloid magazines began publishing such articles as one of the genres of entertainment.

However, the attitude of the editors who elicited readers’ emotion by producing such articles has never been investigated. This presentation analyses editors' attitudes towards such articles, their expertise in eliciting emotion, and the decision-making structure within publishing houses. The analysis is based on qualitative content analysis of academic and non-academic literature on hate books and exploratory interviews with 30 editors including former and current chief editors of leading magazines, especially embracing the last chief editor of Shincho 45 who oversaw Mio Sugita’s article. On the other hand, Members of BLAR (Book Lovers Against Racism) who consists of counter activism protesting against Shinchosha are also included in the interviewees for examining possibilities for industry-led self-regulation.

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This study examines the 2024 Fuji TV scandal—triggered by sexual assault allegations of a female announcer against top Japanese celebrity—as a pivotal case study in media governance, corporate ethics, and gender accountability in Japan. It analyzes the scandal as a media product and a social ritual.

Paper long abstract

This study examines the 2024 Fuji TV scandal—triggered by sexual assault allegations of a female TV announcer against top Japanese celebrity Nakai Masahiro—as a pivotal case study in media governance, corporate ethics, and gender accountability in Japan. The study reconstructs the "scandal flow," tracing the trajectory from initial tabloid leaks to a full-scale public scandal that resulted in the resignation of Fuji TV’s top leadership. It utilizes a triangulated corpus of media coverage, press conferences, and third-party reports to analyze the scandal through two primary theoretical lenses: The first lens, “Scandal-as-Product,” investigates the structural divide between the mainstream media (dailies, TV stations, wire agencies) that tend to ignore or censor scandals, and the non-mainstream media (weeklies, social media, foreign media) that usually trigger and amplify scandals in Japan. This lens demonstrates how the non-mainstream outlets overrode the self-censorship of the mainstream outlets, effectively reframing the incident from a private trouble to a corporate disaster. The second lens, “Scandal-as-Ritual,” evaluates the effectiveness of apologetic press conferences during the scandal. It shows how Fuji TV’s failure to conduct a proper apologetic ritual has backfired, leading to a massive scandal that alienated investors, employees, and viewers. Besides, the Fuji TV scandal activated a sustained #MeToo mobilization, as women leveraged an online hashtag testimony of workplace sexual coercion. Thus, it also offers a critical insight into the impact of gender accountability on Japanese media outlets during sex-related scandals.