On countryside roads to national identity: Japanese morning drama series (<i>asadora)</i> and contents tourism

Scherer, Elisabeth; Thelen, Timo

doi:10.1080/09555803.2017.1411378

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In some countries media content in the form of TV serials has become an important instrument for spreading definite forms of a national identity (Scherer, Thelen, 2020). This phenomenon has been called as «content-tourism» and it is a new type of tourism, caused by mass media images.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact on TV Charity Acts on Mass Audience

2020

Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact on TV Charity Acts on Mass Audience

2020

Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie)

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“…The memory evoked in asadora is highly selective: big political questions and conflicts are omitted, while the story concentrates on everyday life and the personal story of the protagonist. The panorama that the morning drama offers of the Japanese nation is indeed integrative in the sense that even remote regions of Japan such as the Noto Peninsula are given a large presence (Scherer andThelen 2017, 2018)but at the same time, the ethnic diversity of Japanese society is hardly taken into account. In the rare cases in which characters of foreign descent appear, they mostly reproduce stereotypes (see Timo Thelen's contribution in this special issue).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The semi-annual transition from one asadora to the next is thus marked as a significant event in the course of the year, which directs national attention from one region to the next. As I explain in detail elsewhere (Scherer and Thelen 2017), national identity in asadora is strongly conveyed via regional identity. Japanese values, according to the message of many asadora, are more likely to be found in rural Japan than in the city, and images of harmonious life in the countryside serve a longing for an allegedly lost furusato ('home', 'native place ', Robertson 1988).…”

Section: Paratextual Framing Of the Asadoramentioning

confidence: 93%

An everyday glimpse of the nation: NHK’s morning drama (asadora) and rituality

Scherer

2019

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture

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NHK’s morning drama (asadora) has been an important institution on Japanese television since the 1960s and is also known as ‘national drama’. This article discusses this media format in the context of rituals and nationhood: watching asadora has become an everyday ritual that can convey a sense of national unity, and the series functions as a ‘media ritual’ that naturalizes the concept of the Japanese nation, thereby also strengthening the symbolic power of the public broadcaster NHK. As the example of Hiyokko (2017) shows, the producers of this series evoke collective memory and nostalgia by depicting everyday culture and large, nationally charged events such as the 1964 Olympic Games. Reflecting on asadora can shed light on the political and ideological dimensions of seemingly ‘banal’ media products as well as provide more general insights into the development of television in times of social media and the disappearance of the ‘national’ TV audience.

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“…in the morning' (Sakisaka 2014: 106, original in Japanese). Asadora commonly refer to such national and ideological topics (Scherer and Thelen 2017), establishing an imagined national community connecting the series' main characters and the audience. Especially in the recent decade, stories of successful entrepreneurship in early post-war Japan have gained huge popularity and are closely linked to the phenomenon of so-called 'Shōwa nostalgia', a romanticization of the everyday life, culture and consumerism of the 1950-60s (Thompson 2011; see also Scherer's article in this issue).…”

Section: Massan's Whisky Made In and For Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Japanization of wife and whisky in NHK’s morning drama Massan

Thelen

2019

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture

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The story of NHK’s morning drama (asadora) Massan (2014–2015) is loosely based on real events. It depicts the lives of the Japanese whisky pioneer Massan and his Scottish wife Ellie in pre- and post-war Japan. Ellie assimilates and grows into the role of a perfect Japanese ‘good wife and wise mother’, while Massan fulfils his dream and succeeds in producing the first authentic whisky made in Japan. Approaching the series’ narrative from the perspective of multiculturalism, I argue that the series falls into the trap of representing the heroine as a stereotypical foreigner, resembling figures who perform their otherness in Japanese TV shows. Furthermore, when one considers Massan’s whisky entrepreneurship as a symbol for Japan’s postwar economic success, the series reflects several tropes of national ideology such as the belief in a unique Japaneseness. Thus, I suggest that this morning drama establishes an imagined and exclusive national community for its audience, in which a serious discussion of multiculturalism and foreigners living in Japan remains absent.

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On countryside roads to national identity: Japanese morning drama series (asadora) and contents tourism

Cited by 8 publications

References 14 publications

The Impact on TV Charity Acts on Mass Audience

The Impact on TV Charity Acts on Mass Audience

An everyday glimpse of the nation: NHK’s morning drama (asadora) and rituality

The Japanization of wife and whisky in NHK’s morning drama Massan

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