Television, Japan, and Globalization edited by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Eva Tsai, and JungBong Choi (review)

Television, Japan, and Globalization, the 2010 critical anthology, has far more on its mind than creating a comprehensive approach to genre in Japan’s national television culture. This isn’t to say that the book does not cover genre; it does so with essays ranging in topic from variety shows to concerts to more obvious fare such as anime. However, editors Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Eva Tsai and JungBong Choi, clearly have much larger issues they wish to tackle with this particular collection, which includes interventions on globalization, economics and cultural assimilation. The results are far-reaching and lofty, perhaps outright vertiginous; it is a high-wire book that aims to cover seemingly all issues regarding Japanese television. Despite its grand aspirations, Television, Japan, and Globalization is largely successful in execution. Yoshimoto, in the preface and introduction essay, “Why Japanese Television Now?” sets out two primary aims for the collection: to introduce Japanese television as a significant scholarly topic and to problematize the “Japaneseness” of Japanese television. This second is the more intriguing of the two and renders the book of clear future value in media studies. Yoshimoto and the other writers appreciate the need to discriminate between Japanese television as a national institution with its own set of rules and styles and Japanese television as part of a larger, ongoing globalization of the medium.

While acknowledging that scholarly work on it remains in a rather nascent stage, Yoshimoto details Japan’s growing stature in global television in this first essay. Yoshimoto also argues against what he calls “television’s alleged insularity,” which is to say that any meaning derived from the medium is negated once it is released globally. One only has to watch episodes from the recent proliferation of Japanese game shows on American television to understand Yoshimoto’s point. On the surface, these shows seem incomprehensible, but upon more patient viewing, one can easily grasp their underlying concepts. Yoshimoto further argues against an inherent Japaneseness by discussing how new technologies have created new televisual flows where “the original intentions of producers are often less important than the effects of circulation and consumption.” This is demonstrated, once again, by the existence of game shows on American television such as MXC on SpikeTV, where English-speaking announcers made their own commentaries over the original episodes of the Japanese game show, Takeshi’s Castle. Any original intention to portray Japaneseness, assuming it was there to begin with, are negated by the show’s rearrangement for the global market.

Yoshimoto’s essay is followed by co-editor JungBong Choi’s essay, “Banishment of Murdoch’s Sky in Japan: A Tale of David Goliath.” This, the most fascinating essay in the anthology, recounts the history of Rupert Murdoch’s partial ownership of SkyPerfectTV in Japan, painting the unique portrait of a global conglomerate being “ousted” by local, national stations. Choi details a not terribly well known account of a failed Murcoch attempt to gain a foothold in the global marketplace. However, instead of portraying the story, as the title alludes, as a David versus Goliath story, Choi suggests that the portrait of global juggernaut as evil entity and the smaller Japanese national television as lamb rolling over in defeat isn’t necessarily accurate,. Instead, Choi believes that this traditional binary is outmoded; that through globalization the conglomerates and small markets have become far more similar and intertwined than at any point in the past, and the divergence between the two is dissipating. Ultimately, we should view the two sides as counterparts with many of the same goals and ideals.

These early essays serve as cornerstones for the others to follow. Some focus in on specific issues and genres of Japanese television. In the long essay, “Can’t Live Without Happiness: Reflexivity and Japanese TV Drama,” Kelly Hu argues that reflexive narratives in current Japanese dramas serve as a mode of enhancement, enriching viewers...