Sporting Japanese-ness in an Americanised Japan

摘要

As one of the only Asian nations to successfully modernise in the nineteenth century, the Japanese have been on the forefront of the West-East encounter. Many Japanese discussed the diffusion of American culture and the Americanisation of Japan, which accelerated during the inter-war (1920 - 40) period. Despite the fact that the Japanese masses enjoyed cinema, jazz, cafes and baseball, many Japanese were critical of the dynamics of Americanisation. Sport often became the flashpoint of how Japanese were addressing the processes of Westernisation and Americanisation in Japan. This essay discusses the inter-war debates on sport and the 1940 Imperial Anniversary (‘Kigen 2600’) to analyse how the Japanese conceptualised the problematic of projecting and resisting Americanisation vis-à -vis an imagined Japanese national, cultural identity.View full textDownload full textKeywordsGlobalisation, Americanisation, McDonaldisation, inter-war Japan, Japanese sportsRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2011.627193