Co written by Gina Bennett and Madison Krupa
Abstract
This paper discusses the ways by which Japanese subcultures are pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible in Japan.
This paper begins with an introduction to our topic and then is followed by a lit-review that touches on each secondary source used for the purposes of the paper. Our lit-review identifies the main points of the secondary sources and how they are of value to the paper’s topic. Using scholarly sources, this paper outlines how the concept of culture can be defined, Japan’s cultural climate and its traditional values. Following the lit-review, several subcultures that are found within Japan’s culturally complex society are identified and the ways the values of these subcultures align or divide from traditional Japanese values are identified.
Co-authors Gina Bennett and Madison Krupa utilize Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory to analyze the types of messages that subcultures are sending and the various ways that Japanese society as a whole is interpreting these messages. The popularity of these subcultures and the very fact that they continue to exist make it evident that they have found their place within Japanese society. The secondary sources used in this paper provide supporting evidence of both the resistance these subcultures endure and the support that they receive. Ultimately, this paper concludes that Japanese subcultures are pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible within the society that they reside in.
Introduction
The Japanese culture is intricate and diverse.
It has deep traditional roots and values. Over time, Japanese subcultures have emerged and have presented many contrasting messages to those that reflect traditional Japanese cultural values. With Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory in mind, it is easy to suppose that these contrasting messages are being interpreted and ultimately accepted into Japan’s complex culture. That is in fact, the case. The messages of subcultures are finding their place in Japanese society, and as a result, Japanese subcultures are moving the boundaries of what is culturally permissible throughout Japanese society.
For the purposes of this paper, six sources were collected that discuss topics that are relevant to this thesis. One of the sources outlines Hall’s encoding/decoding theory, another outlines anthropologist, Clifford Geertz’s definition of culture, while the remaining five sources discuss Japanese cultural norms and Japanese subcultures. The following section will touch on each of the scholarly resources, providing a brief overview of the works and their significance to the topic, followed by a more detailed look at how Hall’s encoding/decoding theory comes into play.
Body
In his book, The Interpretation of Culture, Geertz discusses how a culture can be defined.
He identifies several points that anthropologist, Clyde Kluckhohn believes to be important in defining culture. These points include but are not limited to: “. . . 1) ‘the total way of life for a people’; (2) ‘the social legacy an individual acquires from his group’; (3) ‘a way of thinking, feeling, and believing’; (4) ‘an abstraction from behavior;’” and “. . . (8) ‘learned behaviour’. . .” (Geertz, 1973). Simply boiled down to its essentials, Geertz states that “’A society’s culture . . . consist of whatever is it one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members’” (Geertz, 1973). Geertz’s definition of a culture determines that Japanese culture consists of accepted norms and the ways by which member’s of society are expected to behave.
In his article “Using Social Scientific Criteria to Evaluate Cultural Theories: Encoding/Decoding Evaluated,” Evan L. Kropp discusses the means by which he evaluates theory models, specifically Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model. Kropp informs his readers of the principles of Hall’s theory in relation to the film and television industry. Kropp highlights that, “message intent and dominance are important aspects of Hall’s ideas” (Kropp, 2005, p. 4), and, “producers communicate messages based on assumptions of shared understandings, while audiences decode the content according to their own norms” (Kropp, 2005, p. 4). After providing this insight to Hall’s thoughts that surround his encoding/decoding theory, Kropp informs his readers of what he believes to be important factors when evaluating a theory’s validity.
These factors are as follows: explanatory power, predictive power, parsimony, testability, internal consistency, heuristic provocativeness, organizing power, and boundary conditions. While keeping these factors in mind, Kropp determines that Hall’s encoding/decoding theory is a valid theory and that it, “represented a breakthrough paradigm variation in audience reception studies” (Kropp, 2005, p. 12). Hall’s encoding/decoding theory suggests that the audience/recipient create their own meaning from the media they consume. These meanings can be positive, neutral, or opposition.
The inclusion of Kropp’s article is important to this research as it informs the reader of Hall’s encoding/decoding theory and its validity, which we will use to analyze the impact of Japanese subcultures on Japan’s culture as a whole.
Tomohiro Osaki wrote an article in the Japan Times” titled, To wear or not to wear: Okayama police in showdown with teen rebels sporting rebellious uniforms, that looks into the idea of counter culture, also known as culture jamming and sometimes referred to as oppositional communication theory. This is an idea that comes from Hall, as part of his encoding/decoding theory.
Osaki’s article explains how some youth in Japan show their freedom of expression by wearing what are “modern-day incarnations of tokkōfuku [special attack uniform] combat uniforms — long considered a symbol of motorcycle gangs — in lieu of their standard school outfits on the day of their annual graduation ceremonies” (Osaki, 2019). Osaki mentions that despite these uniforms once being associated with 1980’s “biker gangs that would cause headaches and disturbances by revving their motorcycles through neighborhoods late into the night . . . over the past decade or two, junior high school students interested in bad-boy looks have fused this fashion with their gakuran [western student] uniforms” (Osaki, 2019). Instead of the stereotypical uniforms “stitched with all these violent phrases or messages” (Osaki, 2019), you now see these kids wearing the biker-style uniforms with nothing but messages of love and peace. “. . .but if you look at them closely, they are all about ‘thank you my sensei (teacher), Dad and Mom for everything’ or something like this” (Osaki, 2019).
Osaki’s article demonstrates the impact the Japanese motorcycle gang subculture has had on Japanese culture as a whole, in line with Hall’s encoding/decoding theory. Kropp and Osaki’s articles complement one another and provide support for the argument that Japanese subcultures are changing the boundaries of what is permissible throughout Japanese society. Expressive clothing is now accepted as appropriate uniform for a formal ceremony.
Researcher Mikiko Ashikari discusses traditional gender roles in Japanese culture in her paper “Urban Middle-Class Japanese Women and Their White Faces: Gender, Ideology, and Representation.” Ashikari explains the concept of “the good housewife” which is a societally and culturally constructed idea used to communicate how a Japanese woman should behave. Ashikari explains that Japanese people believe that "the housewife's place is central to the family and basic to the society" (Ashikari, 2003). She borrows from sociologist Imamura in order to illustrate this point. Ashikari states, “sociologist Anne Imamura, in her Urban Japanese Housewives, points out that ‘for the full-time housewife, obviously the motivation to be a good house wife as defined by society is predominant’, and she explains that the division by gender reflects ‘social structures and values”’ (Ashikari, 2003).
Ashikari’s discussion of the traditional role of females in Japanese society provides insight into what is expected of women and shows a stark contrast against the women who pushback or show a variance to these expectations. Some might argue that the latter do not constitute a subculture, but they are. Japanese women who do not fulfill the expectations of traditional Japanese gender roles are “a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture (citation)”, and their actions are breeding a new kind of women in Japan with more progressive values in line with Western culture.
In her article, “Fierce Flesh: Sexy Schoolgirls in the Action Fantasy of Sailor Moon,” Anne Allison discusses a very popular anime of the 1990’s: Sailor Moon. She gives a bit of background on the pop-culture sphere at the time, showing readers what it looked like, what a few of the dominant forms of entertainment were, and noting that Sailor Moon changed the landscape a fair bit. In her words, it “carried the most risk but also the most market potential, and for the very same reason: it targeted girls. Whereas the other two shows followed the Saturday-morning TV standard of action plots centering on male heroes, Sailor Moon broke this mold not only with a girls’ show but with one whose characters fight and look pretty at the same time” (Allison, 2006). The other two shows that Allison uses as comparison are Masked Rider and Dragon Ball Z.
Allison then goes on to talk about the bulk of what is relevant to this paper: societal and cultural gender norms within Japanese culture, and the impact that Sailor Moon had on girls at the time. Allison states, “when Sailor Moon appeared in March 1992, it was applauded as a showcase about and for shojo (young females)” (Allison, 2006). She compares Sailor Moon to one of the biggest impacting shows on television at the time in Japan: Power Rangers, created by Saban Entertainment. Allison claims that, “unlike the Rangers, then, who don similar unisex uniforms when morphed, girl heroes tend to strip down in the course of empowerment, becoming more, rather than less, identified by their flesh” (Allison, 2006).
Allison goes into a bit of detail about the underlying message that Sailor Moon had on young, impressionable minds when she discusses the process by which a female character, Usagi, becomes empowered “through the following steps: Usagi’s nails turn red, her lashes grow long, jewelry sprouts on her neck and ears, red baubles dot her pigtails, a tiara springs forth on her head, and the outfit she wears – a school (sailor) uniform – is first removed (showing a silhouette of a naked Usagi) and then reappears in a miniskirted, sexier version that shows off the cleavage of newly developed breasts (Allison, 2006).” Allison does not ignore the message of power that this specific show held when trying to empower girls of the day. In traditional Japanese society, girls were taught that they held power with their prettiness and abided by conformity. Now, through Sailor Moon, they were being shown that individuality and confrontation were acceptable, and encouraged to embrace it.
Continuing with the impact of anime, it is worth looking at James Welker’s article, “Beautiful, Borrowed and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shojo Manga.” Welker shares a glimpse of how traditional gender roles in Japanese society are being bent by the Japanese media form: anime. He gives a brief history of shonen-ai, boy’s love manga, which arose in the 1970’s. Welker highlights that when it comes to the idea of shonen-ai, the “beautiful boy is visually and psychically neither male nor female; his romantic and erotic interests are directed at other beautiful boys, but his tastes are not exclusively homosexual; he lives and loves outside the heteropatriarchal world inhabited by his readers” (Welker, 2006).He mentions that this kind of anime and manga styling is a place where people can feel free to experiment with feelings and ideas outside of the stereotypical heteronormative constraints of Japanese culture (Welker, 2006).
Going further, he hints that this type of anime possibly has cross-dressing and transgender influenced roots which can be seen through “much of the sexual ambiguity that they represent” (Welker, 2006). These roots go against traditional gender norms in Japanese culture, yet anime, and manga, have been embraced by readers in Japan and proudly shared throughout the world as a signature Japanese product. The result worldwide is a greater acknowledgement, and in many instances acceptance, of different gender identity or expressions.
In his article, “Discussing Gender and Sexuality in a Context-Appropriate Way: Queer Narratives in an EFL College Classroom in Japan,” Robert Ó’Móchain explains the cultural climate that informs members of Japanese society what is culturally permissible regarding expressions of sexuality. Ó’Móchain tells of his attempt to introduce discussions of sexuality in Japanese classrooms. In his paper he acknowledges that, “the college could be characterized as a ‘heteronormative” environment, by which I mean it comprises a web of social sites where dominant practices equate conventional heterosexual relationships with “normal” sexuality (cf. Butler, 1990)’” (Ó’Móchain, 2006).
Ó’Móchain’s article is important to this paper because it gives readers a clear picture of how sexuality is viewed in Japan. It captures the setting in which the subcultures surrounding sexuality have made their place despite cultural boundaries.
Now that we have provided an overview of our chosen scholarly sources, three subcultures will be highlight, making connections to Hall’s theory, that have emerged within Japanese culture that are pushing the boundaries and making space for themselves within Japanese society.
Osaki’s article identifies a subculture and its actions and how it impacts members of Japanese society who identify more closely with Japan’s traditional norms. The subculture identified in the article is the group of rebellious, Japanese youth who wear uniforms that resemble those of biker gangs to their high school graduation ceremonies. It must be acknowledged that the actions of this subculture received pushback from other members of Japanese society. Osaki informs readers of this pushback when he states, “the Okayama Prefectural Police has launched a full-scale crack down on students planning to don the much-maligned attire” (Osaki, 2019). In addition to the Okayama Prefectural Police, the group of youth also experienced criticism from local citizens who found the sight of these groups to be frightening.
Despite the pushback, the subculture also received support for their right to express themselves freely. Osaki reveals this when he states, “defenders of the youth culture movement have criticized the move by authorities as tantamount to depriving students of their right to freedom of expression” (Osaki, 2019). Osaki also brings to the light the fact that these uniforms display messages of gratitude towards teachers and parents, unlike the typical threatening messages that are displayed on the original motorcycle gang uniforms. Osaki writes about Kazuhiro Nakagawachi, a freelance designer who makes these uniforms. Osaki states, “the industry veteran said few of the custom-made uniforms in question are actually what authorities claim” (Osaki, 2019).
It is of value to this topic that despite the pushback the subculture is receiving, it is also receiving support. This support reveals that this subculture is not being completely rejected from Japan’s culture as a whole but is actually pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible and is helping the group to find their voice and their right to belong within Japan’s complex culture.
It is apparent that Hall’s encoding/decoding theory is at play in this situation. Members of the youth subculture who are having these uniforms embroidered with messages of gratitude are encoding a new message that surrounds the uniforms. Some members of Japanese society who are familiar with the original motorcycle gangs may decode these uniforms and extract meanings of violence and threat. Others, however, will interpret such messages as what the youth are trying to display. The fact that the newly encoded uniforms are being decoded in both ways show that this subculture is in fact pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible in Japanese society.
Another subculture that carved out a place for itself in Japanese society is young empowered women that do not align themselves with the values or dress of the traditional Japanese housewife that Ashikari discussed in her article. This was demonstrated by the popularity that surrounded popular anime series, Sailor Moon. Ashikari makes note in her article that throughout time there has been pushback against the housewife expectation set within traditional Japanese culture. She notes this by summarizing Takie Lebra: “individual Japanese do not always conform to the social values, saying that some of the life histories show the individual's strong determination toward gaining self-fulfillment in the face of social pressures, including the pressure on women to stay at home” (Ashikari, 2003). The popularization of Sailor Moon, in all aspects of the franchise, displays this pushback against conforming to Japan’s traditional social values placed on women.
The type of dress that characters in Sailor Moon wore trickled into mainstream fashion that became especially popular amongst young Japanese women. Exhibiting this type of garment is encoded with messages of female empowerment. When these messages are being decoded, it can be said that essentially these messages do not align with those of traditional Japanese housewives.
The messages that are encoded within the Sailor Moon franchise are those of empowerment, female sexuality and resistance against the role of the housewife. Despite their opposition towards traditional Japanese cultural values, Sailor Moon remained popular amongst young Japanese women and rooted itself in Japanese society. Sailor Moon’s popularity and powerful placement within Japanese society is proof that Japanese subcultures are pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible in Japanese society.
Welker’s discussion about anime and its ambiguity surrounding traditional gender norms and expectations identifies yet another subculture that is changing the cultural boundaries within Japanese society. This subculture is the group, or fan base, that consumes shonen-ai, a subcategory of anime. The types of relationships that are created in shonen-ai are not ones that align with heterosexual values, which traditionally is the dominant mode of accepted sexuality in traditional Japanese culture.
Ó’Móchain’s article maintained the fact that heterosexuality was the dominant form of accepted sexuality in Japan at the time of its composition. He also maintained that other forms of sexuality were rarely discussed or acknowledged when he states, “the existence of queer people in Japan may be under acknowledged by their straight counterparts” (Ó’Móchain, 2006), and “the Japanese Ministry of Education, many parents, and many teachers in Japan promote a culture of silence around issues of sexuality (Ó’Móchain, 2006). It is important to note the accepted forms of sexuality in Japan’s traditional culture that created the climate in which shonen-ai’s popularity rose. Shonen-ai’s continued production and popularity for almost 50 years proves that it has been able to maintain its place within Japanese culture despite it being encoded with messages of sexual ambiguity and experimenting, and resistance to heterosexual relations. This supports the argument that Japanese subcultures are pushing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible within Japan.
Conclusion
Subcultures in Japan have had a long history of challenging cultural normatives, but people are frightened of change.
Japanese society is stereotypically known as a polite culture. Anything that goes against this is seen as something that needs to be controlled. People attack or try to control what they don’t understand, and with that, subcultures seem to push back even harder for their rights to speech and expression. By youth standing up for what they see as a need for social change, they in effect, demonstrate Stuart Hall’s ideas on encoding and decoding. By expressing themselves and going against the cultural norms of society, they are effectively rewriting a message to suit their own purposes, as was pointed out by Osaki when he talked about the altered messages and meaning of the tokkōfuku. The younger generations might see it as a way of standing up for their right to wear what they want which can be seen as an aspect of freedom of speech, but the older generations who endured the motorcycle gangs of the 1980’s would most likely hold on to their preconceived notions of intimidation, annoyance and violence.
That being said, without these subcultures pushing for their freedom of speech with each passing generation, Japan would most likely be very different from what it is today. People wouldn’t think outside the box, expressions and “outsider” ideas would continue to remain hidden. Without this push back against “polite culture”, we wouldn’t have a lot of the subcultures that we take for granted today, not just in Japan, but on a global scale. Yes, subcultures in Japan are changing the boundaries of what is culturally permissible, but it is a process that is slow, spanning not just years or decades, but generations. With each new generation come new ideas that build upon the previous generations’ ideals and thoughts. These new ideas will likely result in the formation of new Japanese subcultures that will continue to push the cultural boundaries within Japanese society by rewriting messages to suit their needs. They will likely continue to create their own space within the traditional society and ultimately continue to change what is culturally permissible.
References
Allison, A. (2006). Fierce Flesh: Sexy Schoolgirls in the Action Fantasy of Sailor Moon. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination (pp. 128-162). Los Angeles, California, USA: University of California Press. Retrieved March 24, 2019, from https://books.google.ca/books?id=Ck2Q5qPVSlYC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=Sexy+schoolgirls+in+the+Action+Fantasy&source=bl&ots=7ilM6DTEmV&sig=ACfU3U0p6qaGWoR-wV9HOmPUUuWfMaxA-A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjO057f0ZvhAhVHo54KHTYXBE0Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ
Ashikari, M. (2003, March). Urban Middle-Class Japanese Women and Their White Faces: Gender, Ideology, and Representation. Ethos, 31(1), 3-37. Retrieved April 24, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3651863
Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from https://library.macewan.ca/full-record/cat00565a/8329819
Kropp, E. L. (2005) Using Social Scientific Criteria to Evaluate Cultural Theories: Encoding/Decoding Evaluated. KOME: An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry. 3(2):10-26 DOI HYPERLINK https://doi-org.ezproxy.macewan.ca/10.17646/KOME.2015.2210.17646/KOME.2015.22
Ó’Móchain, Robert. (2006). Discussing Gender and Sexuality in a Context-Appropriate Way: Queer Narratives in an EFL College Classroom in Japan. Journal of Language, Identity & Education. Vol. 5 Issue 1, p51-66. 16p.
Osaki, T. (2019, March 12). To wear or not to wear: Okayama police in showdown with teen rebels sporting rebellious uniforms. Retrieved from The Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/03/12/national/social-issues/wear-not-wear-okayama-police-showdown-teen-rebels-sporting-rebellious-uniforms/#.XJZ8s_ZFyhd
Welker, J. (2006, Spring). Beautiful, Borrowed and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shojo Manga. Signs, 31(3), 841-870. Retrieved April 24, 2018, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/498987