Resilient Borders and Cultural Diversity
Internationalism, Brand Nationalism, and Multiculturalism in Japan
By (author) Koichi Iwabuchi
Publication date:
06 May 2015Length of book:
148 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498502252
The acceleration of media culture globalization processes cross-fertilization and people’s exchange beyond the confinement of national borders, but not all of them lead to substantial transformations of national identity or foster cosmopolitan outlook in terms of openness, togetherness and dialogue within and beyond the national borders. Whilst national borders continue to become more and more porous, the measures of border control are constantly reformulated to tame disordered flows and tightly re-demarcate the borders—materially, physically, symbolically and imaginatively. Border crossing does not necessarily bring about the transgression of borders. Transgression of borders requires one to fundamentally question how borders in the existing form have been socio-historically constructed and also seek to displace their exclusionary power that unevenly divide “us” and “them” and “here” and “there.”
This book considers how media culture and the management of people’s border crossing movement combine with Japan's cultural diversity to institute the creation of national cultural borders in Japanese millennials. Critical analysis of this development is a pressing matter if we are to seriously consider how to make Japan’s national cultural borders more inclusive and dialogic.
This book considers how media culture and the management of people’s border crossing movement combine with Japan's cultural diversity to institute the creation of national cultural borders in Japanese millennials. Critical analysis of this development is a pressing matter if we are to seriously consider how to make Japan’s national cultural borders more inclusive and dialogic.
Iwabuchi's is the only book by a Japanese author to emphasize the sociological link between cultural borders and ethnic minority groups in Japan, especially the zainichi. . . .Iwabuchi distinguishes himself from other mainstream cultural pundits in Japan by openly underscoring how national borders are reinforcing invisible ones within Japan.