Young Men And Masculinities In Japanese Media

This book provides an in-depth investigation of two Japanese men's magazines, ChokiChoki and Men's egg, analysed as representative examples of the genre of Japanese lifestyle magazines for young men. Employing both qualitative and quantitative content analysis, focusing on topics ranging from everyday life activities up to partnerships and sexuality, it examines how these magazines discursively renegotiate norms of Japanese masculinity. By scrutinizing the way these magazines convey ideas of gendered behavior within different contexts, the book demonstrates how Japanese lifestyle magazines discursively create new ideas of gender and masculinities in particular. It argues that hegemonic gender norms of Japan's society are both altered and reconstructed at the same time and that while altering parts of the gendered habitus in order to adjust to changing social circumstances and perceptions of gender, magazines (un)consciously reproduce core values of the hegemonic gender regime and thus revalidate them as legitimate. A key read for scholars and students of contemporary Japan, Japanese studies, gender studies, and anyone interested in Japanese popular culture and media, this book provides new insights into a segment of the Japanese media market that has received little scholarly attention.

This book is the first comprehensive account of the changing role of men and the construction of masculinity in contemporary Japan. The book moves beyond the stereotype of the Japanese white-collar businessman to explore the diversity of identities and experiences that may be found among men in contemporary Japan, including those versions of masculinity which are marginalized and subversive. The book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of contemporary Japanese society and identity.

Explores the limitations of sexual expression in Tokyo's "safe" nightlife district and in Japanese media

“Recreating Japanese Men is a wonderful and invaluable book. Its interdisciplinary mix of essays opens the door to a new world of scholarship on masculinity in Japan." —David L. Howell, Harvard University “By considering a wide variety of alternative masculinities throughout Japanese history, these essays reveal the tensions, conflicts and overlapping between competing masculine and feminine ideals and practices in surprising ways.” —Robert A. Nye, Oregon State University “This gallery of striking but also subtle images of Japanese masculinity both reinforces old and reveals new historical understandings of Japanese political and military institutions, social divisions, and cultural anxieties. Essential reading in both Japan and masculinity studies.“ --Gary Cross, author of Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity.

The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities offers a comprehensive guide to the current state of scholarship about men, masculinities, and gender around the world. The Encyclopedia's coverage is comprehensive across three dimensions: areas of personal and social life, academic disciplines, and cultural and historical contexts and formations. The Encyclopedia: examines every area of men's personal and social lives as shaped by gender covers masculinity politics, the men's groups and movements that have tried to change men's roles presents entries on working with particular groups of boys or men, from male patients to men in prison incorporates cross-disciplinary perspectives on and examinations of men, gender and gender relations gives comprehensive coverage of diverse cultural and historical formations of masculinity and the bodies of scholarship that have documented them. The Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities is composed of over 350 free-standing entries written from their individual perspectives by eminent scholars in their fields. Entries are organized alphabetically for general ease of access but also listed thematically at the front of the encyclopedia, for the convenience of readers with specific areas of interest.

Over the past two decades, Japan’s socioeconomic environment has undergone considerable changes prompted by both a long recession and the relaxation of particular labour laws in the 1990s and 2000s. Within this context, "freeters", part-time workers aged between fifteen and thirty-four who are not housewives or students, emerged into the public arena as a social problem. This book, drawing on six years of ethnographic research, takes the lives of male freeters as a lens to examine contemporary ideas and experiences of adult masculinities. It queries how notions of adulthood and masculinity are interwoven and how these ideals are changing in the face of large-scale employment shifts. Highlighting the continuing importance of productivity and labour in understandings of masculinities, it argues that men experience and practice multiple masculinities which are often contradictory, sometimes limiting, and change as they age and in interaction with others, and with social structures, institutions, and expectations. Providing a fascinating alternative to the stereotypical idea of the Japanese male as a salaryman, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, social and cultural anthropology, gender and men's studies.

Japanese men are becoming cool. The suit-and-tie salaryman remodels himself with beauty treatments and 'cool biz' fashion. Loyal company soldiers are reborn as cool, attentive fathers. Hip hop dance is as manly as martial arts. Could it even be cool for middle-aged men to idolize teenage girl popstars? This collection of studies from the University of Cambridge provides fascinating insights into the contemporary lives of Japanese men as it looks behind the image of 'Cool Japan.' (Series: Japanese Studies / Japanologie, Vol. 6) [Subject: Japanese Studies, Cultural Studies]

The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities offers a comprehensive guide to the current state of scholarship about men, masculinities, and gender around the world. The Encyclopedia's coverage is comprehensive across three dimensions: areas of personal and social life, academic disciplines, and cultural and historical contexts and formations. The Encyclopedia: examines every area of men's personal and social lives as shaped by gender covers masculinity politics, the men's groups and movements that have tried to change men's roles presents entries on working with particular groups of boys or men, from male patients to men in prison incorporates cross-disciplinary perspectives on and examinations of men, gender and gender relations gives comprehensive coverage of diverse cultural and historical formations of masculinity and the bodies of scholarship that have documented them. The Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities is composed of over 350 free-standing entries written from their individual perspectives by eminent scholars in their fields. Entries are organized alphabetically for general ease of access but also listed thematically at the front of the encyclopedia, for the convenience of readers with specific areas of interest.