Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Softcover

Raz, Aviad E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674768949 ISBN 13: 9780674768949

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999

Synopsis

In 1997, over 17 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan. Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the “company manual.” By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz produces not only a cultural reading of the onstage show but also an ethnographic analysis of its production by those who work there and its reception by its customers. Previous studies have seen Disneyland as a “black ship”―an exported, hegemonic model of American leisure and pop culture―that “conquered” Japan. By concentrating on the Japanese point of view, Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated “America” showcased by and for the Japanese.

About this title

About the Author

Aviad E. Raz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674768949
• ISBN 13: 9780674768949
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264