Dear reader,
Our present issue starts off with a long-term trend Japan has been confronting, namely demographic change. Japan’s ageing and declining population is especially impacting communities in the countryside. During the last decades, policy makers have come up with programs to counter or at least decelerate and alleviate the effects. Regional revitalization has been the slogan under the Abe administration. The four research papers collected in the Special Section “Art and Regional Revitalization – Case Studies from Japan” and introduced by Barbara Geilhorn critically assess how and to what extent art festivals, exhibitions, installations and theater can “create new types of social, cultural and economic capital” in rural communities. It is not only the countryside trying to attract artists, it is also the art community that is attracted by the countryside to explore new surroundings and to exploit unused resources, such us “akiya” (uninhabited houses). The critical question is to what extent art is able to connect rural areas with the international art community, and how this might relate to what has been termed the “global countryside”.
The Special Section is followed by three research papers, previously published “online first”. They cover similarly pressing social issues, such as “Motherhood discourses and political activism in post-3.11. movements in Japan” (Dawood), “Narrating Against Dominance: Women and Organized Crime in Japanese Discourse and Popular Culture” (Ropers), and “Conscription Insurance in Pre-war Japan – Private Enterprise and National Interest” (Jiang). Although the last article represents a historical paper, it might gain new relevance given recent discussions about Japan’s military build-up being put in question by lack of personnel.
This issue also features a new format for scholarly commentary on contemporary issues. There has been no shortage of scandals in Japan recently, and scandals offer a special window into the darker spheres of societies. This issue’s Current Topic Commentary by Igor Prusa takes the recent revelations of the sex abuses in Japan’s largest talent agency Johnny and Associates as a case at hand. It is the kind of incident where the scandal is fueled not only by the outrageous behavior underlying it but also by the fact that such behavior could continue unsanctioned for a very long period of time even after it had been brought to the attention of the police and the media. Scandals are not unique to Japan, but Japan, like any other country, has a specific way of producing, staging and settling them. Igor Prusa, who just came out with a monograph on scandals in Japan, applies the findings from his book to the Johnny’s case.
This issue concludes with four book reviews. They introduce publications on such diverse topics as Japan’s nationalist right, a cultural analysis of Japan’s national character, immigration, and prison chaplaincy.
Contemporary Japan continues to thrive. The journal is accessible through more than 2,700 institutions. Annual downloads grew an impressive 16% on a year-to-year basis, surpassing 70,000 in 2023. Submissions continue to be strong. We obtained 26 original research articles in 2023. CJ occupies top ranks among international Japanese Studies and Area Studies journals based on CiteScore and other metrics.
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