Katsuyuki Hidaka - Japanese Media at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Consuming the Past

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com

59 Examining Japans Lost Decades

Edited by Yoichi Funabashi and Barak Kushner

60 Japanese Women in Science and Engineering

History and policy change

Naonori Kodate and Kashiko Kodate

61 Japans Border Issues

Pitfalls and prospects

Akihiro Iwashita

62 Japan, Russia and Territorial Dispute

The northern delusion

James D. J. Brown

63 Fukushima and the Arts in Japan

Negotiating disaster

Edited by Barbara Geilhorn and Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt

64 Social Inequality in Post-Growth Japan

Transformation during economic and demographic stagnation

Edited by David Chiavacci and Carola Hommerich

65 The End of Cool Japan

Ethical, legal, and cultural challenges to Japanese popular culture

Edited by Mark McLelland

66 Regional Administration in Japan

Departure from uniformity

Shunsuke Kimura

67 Japanese Media at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Consuming the past

Katsuyuki Hidaka

This book is my own translation of the greater part of my Japanese book Shwa Nosutalujia to wa Nanika? ( What Is Shwa Nostalgia? ), which was published in May 2014. Both the English and Japanese versions are based on my Ph.D. thesis, which I submitted to the University of London several years ago. This means that, thus far, I have devoted approximately ten years to tackling research on Shwa nostalgia. I began writing my Ph.D. thesis during my time living in Oxford in 2007 and completed it in Osaka in 2011. I then wrote the Japanese version of the book by thoroughly revising my thesis while living in Kyoto and Osaka from 2011 to 2013. I subsequently revised and translated the book into English while on sabbatical in London from 2014 to 2015. During the long period of my research on Shwa nostalgia, I was often submerged in a state of introspection, and repeatedly realized how both the positive and negative legacies of the Shwa period have been crucial for Japanese people living at the outset of the twenty-first century. It is not overstating the case to argue that the Japanese cannot live without ruminating on memories of the Shwa period because they (or should I say we to include myself) have become deeply obsessed with this era.

This books Japanese edition was conferred the 2015 Best Book Award by the Japan Communication Association (JCA). The book sold out quickly and was thus reprinted after only four months owing to the dozens of reviews in major newspapers and magazines, which is uncommon for academic books. The newspapers and magazines that published reviews include Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper , Tokyo Shimbun Newspaper , Chnichi Shimbun Newspaper , Kyoto Shimbun Newspaper , Hokkaido Shimbun Newspaper , Shinano Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper , Chiba Shimbun Newspaper , Weekly Shinch, The Economist , The Readers Weekly , and Publishing News . I am particularly proud that one prestigious critic recommended my book as the Book of the Year in Yomiuri Shimbun Newspaper s review page. In addition, a number of reviews written by authoritative academics have appeared in the journals of Japans major academic associations. The Japanese version of the book is currently widely included on university reading lists at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels in Japan.

The success of the Japanese version and the subsequent publication of the English version by Routledge can be attributed to many people. First of all, I would like to thank all those who supported me during my Ph.D. student days at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Isolde Standish, for her guidance on the topic of my doctoral thesis. Her book Myth and Masculinity in the Japanese Cinema: Towards a Political Reading of the Tragic Hero (2000), analyzing post-war Japanese films from the macro perspective of Japanese modernity, inspired and motivated me to write the thesis that seeks to shed light on the present-day nostalgic films from a similar macro perspective. I am particularly grateful to her for giving me appropriate advice as well as warm encouragement for many years. In addition, I am honoured that I was given the opportunity to present papers based on the results of this study at the London workshop on the Japanese and European New Waves: Convergences and Divergences, convened by Standish at SOAS in March 2011. I also thank Laura Mulvey, Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Yomota Inuhiko, and other colleagues who furnished me with very encouraging comments at the workshop.

Mark Hobart deeply influenced my theoretical understanding of media and cultural studies. The profound wisdom imparted by him during his one-on-one tutorials were invaluable. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Lola Martinez for her encouraging comments on the draft. I am also grateful to her for inviting me to join the panel of Politics of Cultural Production: Memory and Representation at the 13th International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS), Tallinn, Estonia, in August 2011 in order to publish the outcome of this study. I also thank Blai Guarne, Artur Lozano Mndez, and other colleagues who gave me perceptive comments at the panel. Annabelle Srebernys recommendations in the early stages of writing the thesis have proved to be very useful. I am grateful to her for conducting earnest oneon-one tutorials despite her busy schedule as the president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). I would also like to extend my gratitude to two thesis examiners, Alastair Phillips and Griseldis Kirsch, for checking my thesis meticulously. The viva conducted by them was intellectually stimulating and gave me a good opportunity to gain valuable insight. I would also like to extend my thanks to a number of other people, particularly Judy Giles, Simon Sweeney, Christopher Howard, and Togo Yoshihisa, who greatly encouraged my research.