Table Of ContentRE-IMAGINING JAPAN AFTER
FUKUSHIMA
RE-IMAGINING JAPAN AFTER
FUKUSHIMA
-TAMAKI MIHIC-
ASIAN STUDIES SERIES MONOGRAPH 13
Published by ANU Press
The Australian National University
Acton ACT 2601, Australia
Email: [email protected]
Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au
ISBN (print): 9781760463533
ISBN (online): 9781760463540
WorldCat (print): 1140933891
WorldCat (online): 1140933873
DOI: 10.22459/RJF.2020
This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
The full licence terms are available at
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Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover artwork by Viart Studios, 2019.
This edition © 2020 ANU Press
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Note on Names and Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 . Japan after Fukushima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 . Sustainable Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 . Oppressive Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4 . Heterogenous Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5 . (Still) Cool Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6 . Exotic Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book started as a PhD project under the supervision of Dr Rebecca
Suter at the School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney, from
2013 to 2016. Although I am responsible for the arguments presented in
this book, Dr Suter’s insightful feedback and guidance throughout the
years were indispensable in its creation. From when I arrived at her office
as a 20-year-old, she has been a constant source of academic inspiration
and career mentoring. I cannot thank her enough.
I would also like to thank my three thesis examiners, Dr Marc Yamada,
Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce and Dr Christophe Thouny, who went over and
beyond their task by making suggestions for how to turn my thesis into
a book. My PhD was generously funded by an Australian Postgraduate
Award and was also supported by two grants from the School of Languages
and Cultures, through the Postgraduate Research Support Scheme.
From 2017 to 2019, I significantly revised my manuscript by thematically
re-organising my material. I also added sections on two 2016 films,
Kimi no na wa and Shin Gojira, which are discussed in Chapters 3 and 5,
respectively. I was able to work on this manuscript using the research
time given to me by the University of Sydney as a full-time employee.
During this process, I received detailed and insightful guidance from
two anonymous reviewers, as well as the editor of the ANU Press Asian
Studies Series, Professor Craig Reynolds. I was also fortunate to receive a
Capstone Editing Early Career Academic Research Grant for Women in
2018, which paid for copyediting costs. Many thanks to Dr Lisa Lines
from Capstone Editing and Emily Tinker from ANU Press for their
meticulous attention to detail and editing work.
vii
RE-ImAgININg JApAN AFTER FukuSHImA
Parts of Chapters 1 and 2 have appeared in the Asia-Pacific Journal:
Japan Focus, under the title ‘The Post-3/11 Quest for True Kizuna—Shi
no tsubute by Wagō Ryōichi and Kamisama 2011 by Kawakami Hiromi’
(2015). I am very grateful to the two anonymous reviewers as well as the
journal editor, Dr Laura Hein, for their valuable feedback. Another part
of Chapter 4 has been published in the Japanese Studies journal and
I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for this paper as
well as the journal editor, Dr Carolyn Stevens, for their well-informed
comments.
Last, but definitely not least, I would like to thank Sava for his endless
support and encouragement. If you are a non-Japanese speaker or
a non-academic, you have him to thank for the numerous English-
language definitions and explanations I have added following his reading
of the manuscript.
viii
NOTE ON NAMES
AND TERMS
Foreign words from the Japanese or French languages have been indicated
in italics, with translations provided in square brackets. Word-to-word
translations of foreign-language titles in the reference list have also been
provided in this way. In the case of books already translated into English,
I have placed the title of the English-language publication in the square
brackets, using italics to indicate this. For foreign terms (identified by
italics), square brackets are used to provide English equivalents, while
round brackets are generally used when the term does not have a close
equivalent in English, to provide explanations or translations that are
contextually most appropriate.
The Hepburn system of romanisation is used throughout for Japanese
terms, with long vowels indicated by macrons, except for words that have
been appropriated into the English language, such as ‘Tokyo’ or ‘Kyoto’,
or when referring to characters whose names appear without macrons in
the original text. I have avoided the use of Japanese characters in the main
text unless necessary.
Throughout the main body of this book, the Japanese convention that
the surname precedes the first name is respected with regards to Japanese
authors who publish primarily in Japan. Uncertainty may be resolved
by referring to the reference list, in which all authors are listed by their
surnames, regardless of their cultural heritage.
All quotations from texts in foreign languages are my translations unless
otherwise identified.
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