CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: POPULAR CULTURE Manga |
| Nowhere in the world is popular culture more influential than in Japan. From Hello Kitty and Pokémon to anime (animation) and manga (comics), the culture of youth dominates Japanese media. In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre explain what Japanese popular culture reveals about the society’s history, religions, and national consciousness. |
Theodore Bestor :: There are all kinds of genre of popular culture, many of which are now pretty familiar in the United States. Manga, for example, comic books, have been around in Japan since at least the 17th century, but since World War II they’ve become a massive industry. It’s argued — I don't know if this is actually true — but it’s argued that Japanese manga are the best selling publications in the entire world and that they sell in the hundreds of millions of copies every year. |
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