The Author: Satomi Ishikawa studied Chinese Studies at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and Anthropology of Media at the School of Oriental African Studies in London. Later she worked as a freelance translator for international broadcasting services. Having lived abroad for many years, she became interested in her native culture and conducted her doctoral research in East Asian Studies at the University of Cologne, where she received her Ph.D.

• Contents: Consuming Commonality: Manga, Otaku, Tamagocchi – Consuming Empathy – Making a Japanese Individual: the 1970s and the ‘80s – From National to Cultural Japaneseness: the Postwar Period up to 1970 – The Emergence of national Japaneseness: from the Meiji Period to 1945.