Ebook: Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons

With the spread of manga (Japanese comics) and anime (Japanese cartoons) around the world, many have adopted the Japanese term ‘otaku’ to identify fans of such media. The connection to manga and anime may seem straightforward, but, when taken for granted, often serves to obscure the debates within and around media fandom in Japan since the term ‘otaku’ appeared in the niche publication Manga Burikko in 1983.
Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan disrupts the naturalization and trivialization of ‘otaku’ by examining the historical contingency of the term as a way to identify and contain problematic youth, consumers and fan cultures in Japan. Its chapters, many translated from Japanese and available in English for the first time – and with a foreword by Otsuka Eiji, former editor of Manga Burikko – explore key moments in the evolving discourse of ‘otaku’ in Japan. Rather than presenting a smooth, triumphant narrative of the transition of a subculture to the mainstream, the edited volume repositions ‘otaku’ in specific historical, social and economic contexts, providing new insights into the significance of the ‘otaku’ phenomenon in Japan and the world.
By going back to original Japanese documents, translating key contributions by Japanese scholars and offering sustained analysis of these documents and scholars, Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan provides alternative histories of and approaches to ‘otaku’. For all students and scholars of contemporary Japan and the history of Japanese fan and consumer cultures, this volume will be a foundation for understanding how ‘otaku’, at different places and times and to different people, is meaningful.
With the spread of Japanese comic and cartoons around the world, many have adopted the term ‘otaku’ to refer to fans of such media. As otaku have become a ‘taken-for-granted feature of the global cultural landscape’, so too have they become a taken-for-granted object of analysis and discourse. This edited volume seeks to disrupt this naturalization and trivialization by examining the historical contingency of ‘otaku’ in contemporary Japan. It is common practice to construct a history of otaku from well-known ‘facts’. Indeed, one can simply relay a series of dates – 1983, 1989, 1996, 2005 – people, and events as shorthand for this history. Original documents most often go untranslated and unread, but are nonetheless cited or collapsed into media moments that are ‘black boxed’. Against this backdrop, this edited volume is intended to open a debate about ‘otaku’. Chapters are discussions of primary Japanese documents and translations of key contributions by Japanese scholars of ‘otaku’, which appear here in English for the first time. Though sustained analysis of Japanese documents and translation of Japanese scholars, this edited volume explores the contingency of ‘otaku’ across time and expose the politics of labelling.