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Japanese Subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the Amateur Manga Movement
Author(s): Sharon Kinsella
Source: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Summer, 1998), pp. 289-316
Published by: The Society for Japanese Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/133236
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SHARON KINSELLA
its masses of girl artists are not artsy fartsy in Tokyo. The amateurmanga
movementis remarkablein thatit has been organizedalmostentirelyby and
for teenagersand 20-somethings.Amateurmanga is not sent to publishers
to be editedanddistributed.It is, instead,printedat the expense of the young
artists themselves and distributedwithin manga clubs, at manga conven-
tions, and through small ads placed in specialist informationmagazines
serving the amateurmanga world. Throughthe 1980s it grew to gigantic
proportionswithout apparentlyattractingthe notice of academia,the mass
media, the police, the PTA, or government agencies such as the Youth
Policy Unit (SeishonenTaisakuHonbu)-which were establishedprecisely
to monitor the recurringtendency of youth to take fantasticaldepartures
from the ideals of Japaneseculture.
In 1989, however, amateurmanga subcultureand amateurmanga ar-
tists and fans were suddenly discovered, as if throughinfraredbinoculars,
and dragged from their teeming obscurity to face television cameras and
journalists,police interrogationand public horror.Amateurmanga artists
became powerfully characterizedas antisocial manga otaku or "manga
nerds"in a suddenpanic aboutthe dangersof amateurmanga,which spread
throughthe mass media.Amateurmangaartists,referredto as mangaotaku,
were rapidlymade into symbols of Japaneseyouth in generalandtook cen-
ter stage in the domestic social debateaboutthe stateof Japanesesociey that
continuedthroughthe early 1990s.
8. Okonogi Keigo, "The Age of the MoratoriumPeople," Japan Echo, Vol. 5, No. 1
(1978). See also "Moratoriamuningen no jidai," Chfi5 kdron, October 1977, and Morato-
riamuningen nojidai (Tokyo:ChM6Kdronsha,1981).
9. New York:Vintage Books, 1991.
10. TanakaYasuo,Nan to naku kurisutaru(Tokyo: KawadeShob6 Shinsha, 1981). For
commentary,see WakabayashiShin, "Understandingthe 'Crystal' People," Japan Echo,
Vol. 8, No. 3 (1981).
11. See AlessandroGomarasca,"Youth,Crisis and Display: The Rhetoricof Shinjinrui
in ContemporaryJapan,"Versus,Quadernidi StudiSemiotica,Vol. 10 (1998).
12. BradleyMartin,"The ShinjinruiBlues," Newsweek,June 8, 1987, p. 32.
13. LaurelAnderson and MarshaWadkins, "The New Breed in Japan:ConsumerCul-
ture,"CanadianJournalof AdministrativeSciences, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1992), p. 146.
Kinsella:AmateurManga Movement 293
14. MerryWhite, TheMaterial Child (New York:The Free Press, 1993), p. 123.
15. Japan Times Weekly,April 5, 1986. These particularfiguressound more like the per-
centage of women in the Japanese population, reflecting, perhaps, the close association of
shinjinruiwith independentyoung women in the media.
16. HayashiChikio, "AtarashiiNihonjin wa donna ningen?"Next, August 1985, p. 101.
17. NakanoOsamu, "A Sociological Analysis of the 'New Breed,' JapanEcho, Vol. 15,
special issue (1988), p. 15.
18. Ijiri Kazuo, "The Breakdownof the JapaneseWork Ethic," Japan Echo, Vol. 17,
No. 4 (1990).
19. FujiokaWakao, "The Rise of the Micromasses,"Japan Echo, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1986).
20. See KuriharaAkira, Yasashisa no yukue: gendai shonen ron (Tokyo: Chikuma
Shob6, 1981); Rokuro Hidaka, "On Youth," The Price of Affluence(New York:Kodansha
International,1984); and Nakano Osamu,Narcissus no genzai (Tokyo:Jijitsushinsha,1984).
294 Journalof JapaneseStudies 24:2 (1998)
24. SharonKinsella, "Change in the Status, Form and Contentof Adult Manga, 1986-
1995," Japan Forum,Vol. 8, No. 1 (March 1996), pp. 103-12; andAdultManga: Cultureand
Power in Japanese Society (London:CurzonPress, 1998).
25. Interview with YonezawaYoshihiro,presidentand founder of Comic Market,July
1994, in Tokyo.
26. "Komikkumaketto46 sankamdshikomushosetto" (Tokyo:KomikettoJunbikai,De-
cember 1993), p. 15.
296 Journalof Japanese Studies 24:2 (1998)
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0 I4 1
75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
AmateurMangaBusiness
Comic Marketis ostensibly a voluntary,nonprofitorganization,but a
range of other commercialenterpriseshave begun to grow on the margins
of the amateurmanga pool. In 1986 specialist amateurmanga printerAka-
bubuTsfishinlaunchedthe Wings amateurmanga conventions,andin 1991
Tokyo Ryik5 Centerset up SuperComic City conventions.Both companies
hold small to medium-sizedconventionsin towns across the countryevery
few weeks. It is possible for amateurmanga artists and fans to visit a con-
vention to find contacts and friends or to search out new amateurmanga
every other weekend, though in fact many smaller conventions are limited
to specific genres of amateurmanga of interestto just one particulargroup
of amateurmanga artists.
Timetables of convention dates and locations are advertisedin several
monthlymagazinesdevoted to the amateurmanga world. In the second half
of the 1970s low-circulationmagazines such as June (San Shuppan),Peke
(Minori Shob6), Again, Tanbi,and Manga kissatengai were established.30
The first of these magazines, entitled Manpa (Manga wave) was launched
in 1976 and its scions continue to occupy the organizationalcenter of the
amateurmanga medium. In 1982 Manpa magazine split into Puff, which
specializes in amateurgirls' manga, and Comic Box, which covers all ama-
teurmanga from a distinctiveleftist political position. These magazinesalso
carry ads for small dijinshi publishers, dojinshi books and anthologies,
meeting places for amateurartists, and small specialist manga book shops
thatmay also sell some dojinshi.ComicBox magazinealso publishesmanga
criticism, interviewswith manga artists,and otherwiseunrecordedindexes
of all publishedmanga matter.
An increasing numberof small companies have also begun to publish
amateurmanga itself. Fusion Productions,which makes ComicBox maga-
zine, also publishes ComicBox Jr., a 300-page monthlymagazinein which
collections of alreadyprintedand distributedamateurmanga organizedby
specific genre or subgenrearepublished,andcollected anthologiesof dojin-
shi, which so far include a now infamous, erotic, three-volumeseries en-
titled Bishojo shokogun(The Lolita syndrome)publishedin 1985. In addi-
tion to small publishers, the growth of the amateurmanga medium has
providedcustom for a large numberof small printingshops such as P-Mate
Insatsuand HikariInsatsu;many of these shops specialize solely in the pro-
duction of dejinshi.
Other commercial enterprises linked to the amateurmanga medium
are large manga shops that cater to the specialist requirementsof amateur
manga artists and fans. In 1984 a chain of manga shops named Manga no
AmateurMangaArtists
In the second half of the 1970s when Comic Marketwas still a relatively
small culturalgathering,a high proportionof ddjinshiartistsgraduatedfrom
amateurto professional status. Ishii Hisaichi, Saimon Fumi, Sabe Anoma,
Kono Moji, TakahashiHakkai,and TakahashiRumiko all printedddjinshi
and distributedthem at Comic Market, subsequentto becoming famous,
professionalartists.3'As the size of the amateurmediumgrew in the 1980s,
this flow of artistsinto commercialproductiondecreasedsharply.
It is evident from Figure 1 that the amateurmanga movementreached
its peak in 1990-92, when a staggeringquarterof a million amateurartists
and fans attendedeach Comic Market.Amateurmanga conventionsarethe
largest mass public gatheringsin contemporaryJapan.It is not only in this
regardthat manga conventions bear a sociological significance similarin
some senses to thatof footballin Europe.Most of these contemporaryartists
and fans are aged between their mid-teensand late 20s. Althoughno statis-
tics have been recorded,YonezawaYoshihirohas also observedthatyoung
Japanesefrom low-income backgrounds,who were typicallyraisedin large
suburbanhousing complexes and attendedlower-rankingcolleges or have
no higher education,are in the majorityat Comic Market.The significance
of this observationis not straightforward.Despite the academicand media
attentiongiven to highereducationand the emergenceof a universalmiddle
class in contemporaryJapan,the majorityof young Japanesedo not go on
to higher education, and of those who do, a large proportionattendlow-
rankingcolleges. At the same time, the majorityof Japanesepeople now
live in suburbanhousing complexes and apartmentblocks. While this could
be taken to suggest that the sociological composition of Comic Marketis
therefore "standard"and "representative,"the significance of this obser-
vation is, perhaps,thatthis is one of the very few culturaland social forums
in Japan(or any other industrializedcountry)not dominatedby privileged
and highly educatedsections of society.
This observationis particularlyinterestingin light of the high levels of
interestin self-educationand the accumulationof culturalinformationthat
can be observedwithin the amateurmanga world.By applyingPierreBour-
dieu'stheoryof the "culturaleconomy" to Anglo-Americanfanzinesubcul-
tures, John Fiske has developed the theory that these subculturescan oper-
ate as "shadowculturaleconomies," providingindividualswho feel lacking
in official culturalcapital-namely, education-and the social status with
which it is rewardedwith an alternativesocial world in which they have
access to a differentkind of culturalcapital and social prestige.32It is pos-
sible that the intense emphasis in Japan since the 1960s on educational
achievementand acquiringa sophisticatedculturaltaste has also stimulated
the involvementof young people excluded from these officially recognized
modes of achievementwith amateurmanga subculture.
Nevertheless, a fractionof the rapidgrowth of the amateurmanga me-
dium at the end of the 1980s was accounted for by the arrivalof teenage
artists from privilegedbackgroundsat amateurmanga conventions. These
new participants,some of them the studentsof elite universities,are attrib-
uted to parentswho were active in the countercultureand political move-
ments of the late 1960s and who passed on both theirsocial backgroundand
some of theirpositive attitudetowardmanga to theirchildren.
The huge proliferationof dcjinshi productionin the wake of the mini
communicationsboom, which allowed many ordinaryJapaneseyouth to
begin producingamateurmanga, meantthatby the 1980s virtuallyall ama-
teurmanga was being made, not by highly skilled professionalartistsseek-
ing alternativeoutlets for their personal work, but by young artists who
had no relationshipwith the manga publishingindustryat all. Of the tens
of thousands of dijinshi writers active in the medium during the 1980s,
only a handfulwent on to become professionalartists.The originally tight
relationshipbetween amateurand professional manga productionbecame
looser. In an attemptto directsome of these amateurartiststowardcommer-
cial production,the Comic MarketPreparationCommitteebeganpublishing
an annualjournal designed to promote amateurmanga artists.In this jour-
nal, Komikettoorigin, publishedevery summer, 15 to 20 amateurartistsof
the best-selling dojinshiof the previousyear arereviewedand introducedto
the public.33
Early in the development of Comic Market it became evident that
printed amateur manga provided an unexpected new gateway into the
manga medium for Japanese women. Though Disney animation and the
cute children'smanga characterscreatedby Tezuka Osamu had long been
popularwith young women, very few of them became manga artistsbefore
1970. Commercialmanga was dominatedby boys' and adult magazines,
and these publishingcategories continueto representthe mainstreamof the
medium and the publishing industrytoday. In 1993, adult manga for men
represented38.5 per cent, boys' manga represented39 per cent, while girls'
manga representedonly 8.8 per cent of all publishedmanga.34The num-
ber of women makingdijinshi increasedquickly afterthe establishmentof
Comic Market,so that the firstresult of the sudden increasein the general
accessibility of the manga medium was a new amateurmanga movement
engenderedby women. In the mid-1970s a group of female artistsproduc-
ing "small quantitiesof extremelyhigh-qualitymanga" emerged35andbe-
came known as the "1949 Group" (nijayon-nengumi), after the year in
which a numberof them were born.36These artists,includingHagio Moto,
OshimaYumiko, YamagishaRyoko, andTakemiyaKeiko,joined otherear-
lier dijinshi artistswho had become professionalmanga artistswhen they
filteredinto commercialgirl's manga magazines.37
Until 1989, approximately80 per cent of dtjinshi artists attending
Comic Marketwere female and only 20 per cent were male. Since 1990,
however,male participationin Comic Markethas increasedto 35 per cent.
The girls' manga genre continuesto dominateamateurproductionbut, and
this is a point of great interest,it has now been adoptedby male ddjinshi
artists. The increase in male attendanceat Comic Marketafter 1988 was
anotherfactorcontributingto the rapidproliferationof the amateurmedium
at this time. New genres of girls'manga writtenby and for boys sprouted
from the fertile bed of the amateurmangamedium.Some universitiesbegan
to boast not only manga clubs but also girls' manga clubs for men. This
manga and those men became the unluckyfocus of the otakupanic.
GenreEvolutionwithinAmateurManga
The realistic, adult-orientedgekiga style, which arose out of anti-
establishmentmanga subculturein the late 1950s andhad a stronginfluence
on the genres utilized within commericalboys' and adult manga, has not
been a big influenceon contemporaryamateurmanga.Amateurmangapro-
ductionhas been far more influencedby girls' manga, which in turnhas far
greaterstylistic continuitywith the less politically controversialtraditionof
the child-oriented,cute, sometimes fantastical,manga style pioneeredby
TezukaOsamu.Not only do amateurandcommercialmangadivergein their
stylistic origins but the social networksof amateurand professionalartists
have become so differentthat they representtwo virtuallyseparatecultural
media. From the amateurmanga subculturehave emergednew genres that
are distinctlyrecognizableas amateurin origin.
.1...
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41. Sagawa Toshihiko,chief editor of the girls' manga magazineJune, confirmsthis in-
terpretationin an interview with FrederickSchodt. See FrederickSchodt, DreamlandJapan
(Berkeley:Stone Bridge Press, 1996), pp. 122-23.
42. This is not an approachunique to Japanesegirls' manga: fanzine subculturein the
United States and Britainalso featuresa strongvein of male homosexualromancefor women.
Fans use materialfeaturinghomosexuallove affairsas devices for stagingthe type of indepen-
dent and free charactersin which they are most interested.Henry Jenkins, TextualPoachers
(London:Routledge, 1992).
Kinsella: Amateur Manga Movement 303
TheAmateurMangaPanic
In 1989 amateurmanga artists and the amateurmanga subculturebe-
came the subjectof what might be loosely categorizedas a "moralpanic"
of the sort firstdefinedat the end of the 1950s by Britishsociolologist Stan-
ley Cohen.57A sudden genesis of interest in amateurmanga artists and
Comic Market,among the media, began with the arrestof a serial infant-
girl killer. Between August 1988 and July 1989, 26-year-oldprinter'sassis-
tantMiyazakiTsutomuabducted,murdered,and mutilatedfour small girls,
before being caught, arrested,tried, and imprisoned.8 Cameracrews and
MAGICHAND OTAKUBRAIN
(for pinching IQ 10,000+
little girls' - (no one else
bottoms) knows what they
are thinking)
GREASY HAIR
OTAKU EYES
GOOFYTEETH (can spot useless
informationat
OTAKUHEART ,0mers
(very hardy)1,0mers
FAITHFULCARRIERBAG
(containsplastic models
of pop-idols,
and d~jinshi)
Police ActionAgainstAmateurManga
The practicalresultsof the new and hostile attentiondirectedat amateur
manga were the partial attempts of Tokyo metropolitanpolice to censor
sexual images in unpublishedamateurmanga and preventtheir wider dis-
tribution at conventions and in specialist book shops. In 1993 guidance
aboutthe appropriatecontentsof dojinshiwere distributedat Comic Market
for the firsttime. The Comic MarketPreparationCommitteedeterminedto
attemptthe enforcementof public bylaws prohibitingthe sale of sexually
explicit published materialsto minors under 18 years old, despite the fact
that a large proportionof amateurmanga is producedand sold by minors.
In the Comic Marketparticipantapplicationbrochureof August 1994, or-
ganizers warned amateurartists that "Comic Marketis not an alternative
society, it is a vehicle orchestratedby you which thinksaboutits useful role
in society. It has become necessary for us to seek social acceptance."68
Eventuallymanga fan cultureand amateurunpublishedmanga also be-
came the targetof extensive harassmentby the police. During 1991 police
arrestedthe managersof five specialist manga book shops where unpub-
lished or amateurmanga was available for sale. This activity began when
six officers broke into the Manga no Mori book shop in Shinjukuand con-
fiscatedcopies of unpublishedmanga works. Police collected the addresses
the most dynamic fronts of the manga medium as a whole in the recent
period.However,they have been humiliatedby the otakupanic andmargin-
alized by the recent anti-mangacensorshipmovement.73Amateurmanga-
derivedgenres are excluded from virtually all of the magazines of leading
publishers of manga.74 The snobbery indirectly expressed toward manga
genres is reminiscent of a broaderdistaste in polite Japanese society for
contemporaryculture produced for, and sometimes by, young women.
As Skov and Moeranhave highlighted,thereis "an almostapocalypticanx-
iety that the 'pure' and 'masculine' culture of Japanhas been vulgarized,
feminized, and infanticized to the point where it has become 'baby talk'
beyond the comprehension of well-educated critics."75Drawing notice
to this vein of criticism that perceives girls' culture as an unwelcome
alien influence within Japan,manga critic Kure Tomofusa described how
"when academicslooked at girls' manga they were amazed. They felt like
English missionaries discovering that there were different societies in
Africa."76
The crossoverof young men into girls' culturehas provokedparticularly
fierce opposition. The universalpopularityof manga genres pioneeredby
women implies that ratherthanbeing a discrete feminine section of manga
culture,girls' manga is in fact centralto the contemporarymedium, as in-
deed young women are to contemporaryJapaneseculturein general.It also
implies that the individualisticand self-interestedthemes of girls' manga
are themes with universalappeal.It is strikingthatalthoughthe majorityof
amateurmanga artists and fans are young women, the media panic about
otaku was focused almost entirely on the young men who have adopted
young women's cultureas their own (see Figure 3). The anxieties released
by the sight of young men flockingto a female-dominatedmangamovement
is reminiscentof the criticism targetedat "wiggers"-or white American
boys emulatingblack ghetto cultureor makingblack music-in the United
States.
Crowdsof teenage girls screamingat the sight of theirfavoritepop stars
takingtheirshirtsoff on stage, or spendinghoursstaringmorbidlyat posters
of James Dean, has been humoredand accommodatedin Japanas much as
it has in the United Kingdom. In Japan,the migrationof women into male
73. See Kinsella, "Change in the Status" and Adult Manga for more detail on the cen-
sorship.
74. One exception is Afternoon,a monthly manga magazine publishedby Kodanshain
which a selection of otaku-kei(amateurmanga style) stories, such as "Aaah My Goddess"
and "Discommunication,"have been serialized from the late 1980s. Significantly,these have
been adaptationsof rorikonmanga ratherthan any other genre, such as yaoi, that could be
interpretedas directlyridiculingmasculinity.
75. Skov and Moeran,eds., Women,Media and Consumptionin Japan, p. 70.
76. Interviewwith manga critic KureTomofusa,June 1994, in Tokyo.
316 Journalof Japanese Studies 24:2 (1998)
boy who just wants to be a girl. Captions,from top to bottom: "A boy!?" "Don'tbe stupid,"
"It's true....,""Look." Used with permission. DISCOMMITNICATION C Riichi Ueshiba/
KodanshaLtd., Tokyo.