DOI: 10.5507/ff.23.24463476.12

VULNERABLE SELVES: THE LONG DECLINE OF JAPANESE MASCULINITY

Maria Grajdian (A.)



Based on 36-month empiric-phenomenological fieldwork in the elusive area of virtual interactions as well as in-depth literature research on new media, masculinity studies, and the entertainment industry with a specific focus on Japan, this chapter aims at clarifying some of the major – and to a certain extent, central – themes recurrent in the obsessive, radicalized consumption of virtual leisure practices among Japanese men: online dating, video games, and digital pornography seem to have slowly, steadily, quietly conquered the Internet, involving large segments of the male population. Previous academic research on the digital space and its relation to masculinity, particularly the seminal studies of Azuma Hiroki (2000, 2001) and Morikawa Kaichirô (2008), deal mostly with the otaku (”nerd”) phenomenon classically linked to the cyber-industry and digital culture. The current chapter analyzes two additional paradigms of masculinity in Japan framing the otaku social appearance – the salaryman (”corporate samurai”) and the ”herbivore men” – in a historical-comparative perspective while highlighting the complex gender dynamics in late-modern Japan, in the dialectical interplay of power, (cultural) consumption and state-driven reproduction politics. It eventually suggests some possible strategies towards a more social-friendly future of the digital universe and of the challenges masculinity is facing currently, in a global perspective. 
 

pages: 367-392



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