Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan

Katarzyna Cwiertka is professor Modern Japan Studies at the University of Leiden. Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is Chair of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University and an established expert on the food history of modern Japan. Cwiertka is managing co-editor of the journal Global Food History and editor-in-chief of Worldwide Waste: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Ewa Machotka is associate professor of Japanese language and culture at Stockholm University.

"Edited books offer varied and diverse views of a particular phenomenon; it is one of the advantages of an edited volume on a given subject. Social themes in general lend themselves well to such a format, and that is certainly true in the case for contemporary consumption patterns in modern societies. And in this aspect, Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan: A Transdisciplinary Perspective is indeed a success. It is a work that provides interesting insights into a variety of contemporary forms of consumption."- Anthony Rausch, newbooks.asia (2021) "A very adroit look at post-bubble Japan through its "social economics" and culture, from robots to garbage, fashion to food. I will use it with enthusiasm in graduate and undergraduate courses."- Merry White, Boston University

• Acknowledgements Notes to the Reader Notes on Contributors List of Figures List of Tables Introduction — Katarzyna J. Cwiertka and Ewa Machotka Consumption Sustainability The post-bubble era and research on consumption Konbini, landscape, and sustainable art Works cited Chapter 1: Post-Bubble Japanese Department Stores: The Need to Search for New Paradigms — Hendrik Meyer-Ohle Abstract Introduction Department stores in Japan Educating customers: Is my diamond the right size? Am I wearing the right dress? Developing new customer groups: Fashioning the salary man and husband — Imagining the old and the new Japan Mangoes on Marine Day: Post-bubble department stores Works cited Websites consulted Chapter 2: Consumption of Fast Fashion in Japan: Local Brands and Global Environment — Stephanie Assmann Abstract Introduction Background: Social stratification and consumer behaviour Declining incomes and consumer expenditures Fast Retailing: The outdoor brand UNIQLO Ryohin Keikaku: The label without a label — Mujirushi Ryohin Fast fashion and sustainability International competitors: ZARA and H&M A high-end fashion retailer: Louis Vuitton The significance of price, brand, quality, and sustainability: The post-bubble consumer Works cited Company websites Chapter 3: Konbini-Nation: The Rise of the Convenience Store in Post-Industrial Japan — Gavin H. Whitelaw Abstract Introduction Coming of age with konbini Relocalizing konbini Convenience becoming ‘konbini’ Shifting perceptions Konbini panics and convenience concerns ‘Konbinize Me’: Waste and want ‘Between’ places Conclusion Works cited Chapter 4: Serving the Nation: The Myth of Washoku — Katarzyna J. Cwiertka Abstract Introduction What’s in a name? The UNESCO nomination National branding and food self-sufficiency Conclusion Works cited Film cited Websites consulted Chapter 5: Consuming Domesticity in Post-Bubble Japan — Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni Abstract The Hanako tribe: Single women as hedonistic consumers The production of new consuming tribes: Women’s magazines at the burst of the bubbleThe new-type housewives as a post-bubble return to ‘traditional’ gender roles? Female domesticity is fun: Marketing the joy of housewifery Tradition in fashionable wear: Designer aprons as symbols of the new femininity Female beauty and domesticity as a new kind of a national spirit Conclusion ? Works cited Websites consulted Chapter 6: The Metamorphosis of Excess: ‘Rubbish Houses’ and the Imagined Trajectory of Things in Post-Bubble Japan — Fabio Gygi Abstract Introduction Attack of the rubbish aunt! Gomi yashiki as the uncanny Consuming the bubble The exaltedness of the new Rendering absent Secondhandedness and mottainai ‘A complicated emotion’: Taguchi’s ‘Jamira’ Conclusion Works cited Chapter 7: Robot Reincarnation: Rubbish, Artefacts, and Mortuary Rituals — Jennifer Robertson Abstract Rubbish, art, and artefacts Robots and rubbish: Consumption and disposal Robot reincarnation Film cited Works cited Websites consulted Chapter 8: Art and Consumption in Post-Bubble Japan: From Postmodern Irony to Shared Engagement — Gunhild Borggreen Abstract Introduction: Japan as consumer society The artist as ethnographer Representations of consumption Art as consumption Community-based consumption Conclusion Works cited Websites consulted Chapter 9: The Fate of Landscape in Post-War Japanese Art and Visual Culture — Hayashi Michio Abstract A.K.A. Serial Killer and the extinction of landscape PROVOKE and the Discover Japan campaign Lee U-fan’s aesthetics: Phenomenology and structuralism Kawabata Yasunari and his Hawai’i lecture Karatani Kojin’s theory of landscape Long Epilogue: Sugimoto Hiroshi and the notion of post-landscape Works cited Film cited Websites consulted [inhoudsopgave gaat nog verder, maar kader is te klein]