Fashioning Japanese Subcultures: Decentralization and Diversification as Neotribes

(Paperback, 2nd edition)

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This second edition brings the definitive empirical work on Japanese youth fashion subcultures up-to-date for the 2020s, featuring three new chapters and essential updates in light of new fieldwork and globalized digital media. Based on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and illustrated with striking color images, Fashioning Japanese Subcultures gives a unique insight into how and why subcultures evolve and what they mean to their members. Defined by style and urban district, subcultures such as Lolita in Harajuku, Gyaru and Gyaru-o in Shibuya, Age-jo in Shinjuku, and Mori Girl in Koenji, articulate identities, affiliations, and aspirations. Over the past 10 years social media has dramatically expanded the reach and impact of these cultural phenomena far beyond their traditional geographic groups, leading to worldwide adoption and adaptation. This second edition features three new chapters on the global impact of anime, manga and cosplay, global youth subcultures and -cores in cyberspace and social media, and understanding Japanese subcultures through neofeminist and cyber feminist frameworks. Exploring each subculture over the decade since the last edition, it also features new fieldwork across Tokyo, New York and social media platforms, updated coverage of Euro-American perspectives in light of advancements in postcolonial theory, and new methodological sections on cyberethnography and auto ethnography.

Reviews

An important text that re-thinks subcultural theory at its intersection with fashion beyond the geographic frontier of the West, sharpening our focus on key case studies derived from in-depth fieldwork on the streets of Tokyo -- Dr Elizabeth Kutesko, Senior Lecturer, Fashion Histories and Theories, Central Saint Martins, UAL, UK
Praise for the first edition: An enjoyable and theoretically valuable study of one niche in the fashion world, with wider implications for subculture and youth culture theories... it would be very useful in introductory courses in anthropology or sociology, as well as in courses on youths, subcultures/deviant cultures, globalization, and popular culture. -- Anthropology Review Database, Jack David Eller
We should commend Kawamuras ambitious effort in covering so many different fashion enclaves in one book. For readers in search of a basic guide to the dizzying spectrum of charming Tokyo styles, this overview will serve well. Readers unfamiliar with Japan will also benefit by having such an accessible guide to these splendid female-oriented fashion cultures. -- Social Science Japan Journal, Laura Miller, University of Missouri

Author Bio

Yuniya Kawamura is Professor of Sociology at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Sate University of New York, USA. She is the author of four other Bloomsbury Visual Arts publications: Sneakers (2016), Fashion-ology (2023), Doing Research in Fashion and Dress (2020), and Cultural Appropriation in Fashion and Entertainment (2022).