Consuming Japan
Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4157880 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John E Van Sant (University of Alabama–Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 105 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 765-766 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jay429 |
| OpenAlex | W2906052266 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
By the early 1980s, Japan's gross national product surpassed that of the Soviet Union, and Japan's economy became the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States. Japanese cars, television sets, VCRs, and Walkmans became ubiquitous around the world, while the television miniseries Shogun (1980) and Japanese-made or Japanese-themed films, cartoons, and books permeated global popular culture. This rise of Japan as an industry (“Japan, Inc.”) on the world economic stage and the fascination with Japanese popular culture led to fear and loathing (known as “Japan bashing”) by some Americans at the time. Meanwhile, Americans who benefited from Japan's growing economic presence or appreciated Japanese popular culture loved the nation, or at least defended it against the advocates of Japan bashing. Andrew C. McKevitt's book is a multipronged dissection of this eventful era of globalization in which Japanese companies, such as Sony and Honda, and Japanese popular culture played central roles in American politics and economy. He begins by examining warnings about the strength of Japan by academics such as Ezra Vogel and Chalmers Johnson, and then progressing to the more extreme “Japan panic” writings of Theodore H. White and Pat Choate, whose race-based complaints about Japan are hard to miss. Criticism of Japan Inc. is then countered by the Sony founder and chairman Akio Morita, Kenichi Ohmae, and Theodore Levitt. They—and McKevitt—argue that Japan's seemingly sudden prominence in the world economy emerged alongside globalization. A borderless world emerged in the aftermath of the “[Richard M.] Nixon shocks” along with the desultory global economy of the 1970s, and Japan was poised to benefit because of its personal electronics consumer products and fuel-efficient vehicles
China · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Globalization · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · White (mutation · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law
| Citations per year | 0.88 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2025 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |