A Coming of Age in the Anthropological Study of Anime?

Introductory Thoughts Envisioning the Business Anthropology of Japanese Animation

Authors

  • Ryotaro Mihara Keio University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v9i1.5963

Abstract

This article highlights how Anglophone anthropological studies of Japanese animation (anime) have overlooked its businesspeople (such as producers, investors, merchandisers, and entrepreneurs) by formulaically advocating anime creators and fans as crusaders subverting the global dominance of Euro–American global entertainment capitalism. Contextualising such orientation as an example of what Gayatri Spivak calls “strategic essentialism”, the article further explores how to break out of this essentialist impasse of analysis in the anthropological approach to anime. The article suggests that a potential exit might exist through envisioning the business anthropology of anime, i.e. by casting an ethnographic focus on anime’s businesspeople as the legitimate interlocutors for anthropological inquiries into anime. The author further explores the preliminary theoretical implications of this analytical turn through his own business ethnography of an international start-up venture of anime merchandising.

Author Biography

Ryotaro Mihara , Keio University

Dr. Ryotaro Mihara is a sociocultural anthropologist and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics at Keio University (Yokohama, Japan). He acquired his doctoral degree in 2017 from the University of Oxford (Anthropology), and held the position of Lecturer in International Management at SOAS University of London from 2016 to 2019. His research focuses on the creative industries (particularly Japanese animation), entrepreneurship, brokerage, and cross-cultural management. Before entering academia, he extensively developed his professional career in the creative industries sector as one of the founding members and Deputy Director of the Creative Industries Division of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and as an overseas cross-cultural business consultant for Japan’s foremost advertising firm and for an Indo–Japanese anime start-up venture. His current interest lies in examining how the activities of entrepreneurs (especially their brokerage activities) span the boundaries of Japanese creative industries’ business in the Asian region. At present, he is conducting fieldwork on Japan’s international film co-production projects with China and other Asian countries. He may be reached at rmihara@keio.jp.

References

Allison, Anne. 2006. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Azuma, Hiroki. 2001. Doubutsuka suru Posutomodan: Otaku kara Mita Nihon Shakai (Animalizing Postmodern: Japanese Society Seen through Otaku). Tokyo: Kodansha.

Barth, Fredrik. 1967. Economic spheres in Darfur. In Themes in Economic Anthropology. Raymond Firth ed. Pp. 149-174. London: Tavistock Publications.

Becker, Howard. 1982. Art Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Carpenter, Charli. 2005. “Women, children and other vulnerable groups”: Gender, strategic frames and the protection of civilians as a transnational issue. International Studies Quarterly 49(2): 295-334. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-8833.2005.00346.x

Caves, Richard. 2000. Creative Industries: Contracts between Art and Commerce. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Clifford, James and Yoshinobu Ota. 2003. Intabyū oukan suru jikan: “Bunka no Kyuujou” no kako to aratana mirai (Interview on the time that reciprocates: The past and the new future of The Predicament of Culture). In Bunka no Kyuujou: 20seiki no Minzokushi, Bungaku, Geijutsu (The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art). Ota Yoshinobu, Keida Katsuhiko, Shimizu Hiromu, Hamamoto Mitsuru, Furuya Yoshiaki and Hoshino Moriyuki trans. Pp. 489-513. Kyoto: Jimbun Shoin. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjf9x0h

Condry, Ian. 2013. The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12152

Daliot-Bul, Michal and Nissim Otmazgin. 2017. The Anime Boom in the United States: Lessons for Global Creative Industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard East Asian Monographs 406. https://doi.org/10.1080/18692729.2019.1708635

Denison, Rayna. 2018. Anime’s distribution worlds: Formal and information distribution in the analogue and digital eras. In Routledge Handbook of Japanese Media. Fabienne Darling-Wolf ed. Pp. 403-418. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315689036-27

Dourish, Paul. 2008. Points of persuasion: Strategic essentialism and environmental sustainability. Available from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.362.4500&rep=rep1&type=pdf [accessed 29 November 2018].

Eide, Elisabeth. 2010. Strategic essentialism and ethnification: Hand in glove? Nordicom Review 31(2): 63-78. https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0130

Eikhof, Doris and Axel Haunschild. 2007. For art’s sake! Artistic and economic logics in creative production. Journal of Organizational Behavior 28(5): 523-538. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.462

Freeman, Derek. 1983. Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/353526

Geertz, Clifford. 1960. The Javanese kijaji: The changing role of a cultural broker. Comparative Studies in Society and History 2(2): 228-249. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0010417500000670

Gluesing, Julia. 2016. Liminality, anthropology, and the global organization. Journal of Business Anthropology (Special Issue 2): 13-34. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v1i1.4958

Hernández, Álvaro David Hernández. 2018. The anime industry, networks of participation, and environments for the management of content in Japan. Arts 7(3), 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7030042

Hofstede, Geert. 1991. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. London: McGraw-Hill.

Humanmedia. 2013. Nihon to Sekai no Media Kontentsu Shijou Dētabēsu: Kūru Japan Senryaku Dētabēsu Kaigaihen (The Database of the Media and Contents Market of Japan and the World: The Cool Japan Strategy Database Overseas Edition). Tokyo: Humanmedia.

Ito, Mizuko. 2012a. Introduction. In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji eds. Pp. xi-xxxi. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2015.0627

. 2012b. Contributors versus leechers: Fansubbing ethics and a hybrid public culture. In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji eds. Pp. 179-204. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2015.0627

Iwabuchi, Koichi. 2002. Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384083

James, Deborah. 2011. The return of the broker: Consensus, hierarchy, and choice in South African land reform. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 17(2): 318-338. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2011.01682.x

Jeffcutt, Paul and Andy Pratt. 2002. Editorial: Managing creativity in the cultural industries. Creativity and Innovation Management 11(4): 225-233. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8691.00254

Jordan, Ann. 2010. The importance of business anthropology: Its unique contributions. International Journal of Business Anthropology 1(1): 15-25.

Kelts, Roland. 2006. Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the U.S. New York, NY: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1177/17468477080030010603

Kinsella, Sharon. 2000. Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society. Richmond: Curzon.

LaMarre, Thomas. 2006. Otaku movement. In Japan after Japan: Social and Cultural Life From the Recessionary 1990s to the Present. Tomiko Yoda and Harry Harootunian eds. Pp. 358-394. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjh.42.3.578

Leonard, Sean. 2005. Progress against the law: Anime and fandom, with the key to the globalization of culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies 8(3): 281-305. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877905055679

Lindquist, Johan. 2015. Of figures and types: Brokering knowledge and migration in Indonesia and beyond. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21(S1): 162-176. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12172

Linnekin, Jocelyn. 1992. On the theory and politics of cultural construction in the Pacific. Oceania 62(4): 249-263. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1992.tb00356.x

Lolli, Dario. 2014. Book review: The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal 9(1): 105-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847713518463a

Masuda, Hiromichi. 2007. Anime Bijinesu ga Wakaru (Understanding the Anime Business). Tokyo: NTT Publishing.

Mazzarella, William. 2004. Culture globalization, mediation. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 345-367.

McCormick, Janice, Sheryl Kirkham and Virginia Hayes. 1998. Abstracting women: Essentialism in women’s health research. Health Care for Women International 19(6): 495-504. https://doi.org/10.1080/073993398246061

McCabe, Maryann and Elizabeth Briody. 2016. Working in liminal states: Fluidity and transformation in organizations. Journal of Business Anthropology (Special Issue 2): 1-12. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v1i1.4957

McGray, Douglas. 2002. Japan’s Gross National Cool. Foreign Policy 130: 44-54. https://doi.org/10.2307/3183487

McLelland, Mark ed. 2017. The End of Cool Japan: Ethical, Legal, and Cultural Challenges to Japanese Popular Culture. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.32926/2017.2.r.tur.endof

Mead, Margaret. 1928. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization. New York, NY: William Morrow.

METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2012. Kurieitibu sangyou ni kakaru chitekizaisanken tou no shingai jittai chousa oyobi sousaku kankyou tou no seibi no tame no chousa houkokusho (Report on the infringement of Japanese creative industries’ intellectual properties and on enhancing the environment for creative activities). Available from: http://www.meti.go.jp/policy/mono_info_service/mono/creative/fy23_creative_report_r.pdf [accessed 29 November 2018]. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786431172.00041

Meyer, Erin. 2014. The Culture Map: Breaking through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. New York, NY: PublicAffairs.

Mihara, Ryotaro. 2010. Haruhi in USA: Nihon Anime Kokusaika no Kenkyu (Haruhi in USA: A Case Study of a Japanese Anime in the United States). Tokyo: NTT Publishing.

. 2017. Brokering anime: How to create a Japanese animation business bridge between Japan and India. DPhil thesis submitted to the University of Oxford.

Miller, Christine. 2016. Towards transdisciplinarity: Liminality and the transitions inherent in pluridisciplinary collaborative work. Journal of Business Anthropology (Special Issue 2): 35-57. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v1i1.4959

Moeran, Brian. 2009. The organization of creativity in Japanese advertising production. Human Relations 62(7): 963-985. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709335541

. 2011. Perspectives in business anthropology: Cultural production, creativity and constraints. International Journal of Business Anthropology 2(1): 16-30.

Moeran, Brian and Christina Garsten. 2012. What’s in a name? Editor’s introduction to the Journal of Business Anthropology. Journal of Business Anthropology 1(1): 1-19. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v1i1.3545

Morisawa, Tomohiro. 2015. Managing the unmanageable: Emotional labour and creative hierarchy in the Japanese animation industry. Ethnography 16(2): 262–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138114547624

Nakano, Haruyuki. 2004 Manga Sangyou-ron (Theory on Manga Industry). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobou.

Napier, Susan. 2001. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York, NY: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780312299408

. 2007. From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. New York, NY: Palgrave.

Ng, Mien Woon and Eyal Ben-Ari. 2000. Books, consumption, and the movement of Japanese business to Singapore. In Japan in Singapore: Cultural Occurrences and Cultural Flows. Eyal Ben-Ari and John Clammer eds. Pp. 112-132. Richmond: Curzon. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203037010

Ortner, Sherry. 2013. Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/fq.2013.66.4.76

Otsuka, Eiji. 2001 [1989]. Monogatari Shouhi ron (Theory on Narrative Consumption). Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.

. 2005. “Japanimēshon” wa Naze Yabureruka (The Reason Why “Japanimation” will be Defeated). Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.

Pellitteri, Marco. 2019. Reframing Japanese animation’s success in the late 1970s: UFO Robo Grendizer at the origin of the first anime boom in Italy and France. Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies 7(1): 3-33. https://doi.org/10.1386/jicms.7.1.3_1

Robins, Steven. 2001. NGOs, ‘Bushmen’ and double vision: The ≠ khomani San land claim and the cultural politics of ‘community’ and ‘development’ in the Kalahari. Journal of Southern African Studies 27(4): 833-853. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057070120090763

Sahlins, Marshall. 1999. What is anthropological enlightenment? Some lessons of the twentieth century. Annual Review of Anthropology 28: i-xxiii. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.28.1.0

Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Sedgwick, Mitchell. 2007. Globalization and Japanese Organisational Culture: An Ethnography of a Japanese Corporation in France. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203933442

. 2014. Contextualising the irrelevance of “values” to the study of international business: A response. Journal of Business Anthropology 3(2): 191-200.

Shiraishi, Saya. 2013. Gurōbaru-ka shita Nihon no Manga to Anime (Globalised Japan’s Manga and Anime). Tokyo: Gakujutsu Shuppankai.

Spivak, Gayatri. 1993. Outside in the Teaching Machine. New York, NY: Routledge.

. 1996 [1985]. Subaltern studies: Deconstructing historiography. In The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean eds. Pp. 203-235. New York, NY: Routledge.

Steinberg, Marc. 2012. Anime’s Media Mix: Franchising Toys and Characters in Japan. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2013.789156

Stovel, Katherine and Lynette Shaw. 2012. Brokerage. Annual Review of Sociology 38: 139-158.

Sudo, Tadashi. 2017. Dare ga Korekara no Anime o Tsukurunoka?: Chuugoku Shihon to Netto Haishin ga Okosu Shizukana Kakumei (Who will Make Anime from Now On? A Silent Revolution Triggered by Chinese Capital and Internet Streaming). Tokyo: Seikaisha.

Sugiyama, Tomoyuki. 2006. Kūru Japan: Sekai ga Kaitagaru Nihon (Cool Japan: Japan that the World Wants to Buy). Tokyo: Shodensha.

Throsby, David. 2001. Economics and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tsugata, Nobuyuki. 2005. Animēshongaku Nyuumon (Introduction to Animation Studies). Tokyo: Heibonsha.

Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Van Gennep, Arnold. 1960. The Rites of Passage. London: Routledge.

Wall, Patricia and Jennifer Englert. 2016. Business ethnography: Inducing liminality in pursuit of innovation. Journal of Business Anthropology (Special Issue 2): 58-76. https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v1i1.4960

Wolf, Eric. 1956. Aspects of group relations in a complex society: Mexico. American Anthropologist 58(6): 1065-1078. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00070

Wong, Heung Wah. 1999. Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers: Power and Control in a Hong Kong Megastore. Richmond: Curzon. https://doi.org/10.2307/2667517

Downloads

Published

2020-04-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).