{"id":1495,"date":"2024-12-02T17:32:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=1495"},"modified":"2024-12-02T17:32:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T17:32:06","slug":"from-soldier-to-otaku-the-case-of-different-man-in-japan-varvara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2024\/12\/from-soldier-to-otaku-the-case-of-different-man-in-japan-varvara\/","title":{"rendered":"From soldier to otaku: the case of different \u201cman\u201d in Japan – Varvara"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of masculinity has never been fixed in one mold in Japan. Instead, it was left to remain contestable, even if that meant, at certain times, nervously guarded, challenged and manipulated.1<\/a><\/sup> Once the Japanese military held in place the authority to determine what a \u2018man\u2019 was \u2013 through tests of minimal physical requirement and strict psychological standards.2<\/a><\/sup> However, what the Japanese bureaucrats and ideologues would desire \u2013 the perfect \u2018state subordinate man\u2019 – would take more than a military exam to forge as not all young men and their families take great pride in their eligibility for military service.3<\/a><\/sup> Many questioned the value of being found worthy of the emperors armed forces and were generally ambivalent towards Japan\u2019s war efforts.2<\/a><\/sup>The postwar constitution situation of November third, 1946, would further unsettle the long-held understandings of gender as the role of the \u2018masculine\u2019 was replaced by the white-collar, middle-class, \u201ccompany man and salaryman\u201d – the embodiment of a middle-class lifestyle.4<\/a><\/sup> The salaryman retained the will of self-sacrifice of the soldier. The \u2018otaku\u2019, on the other hand, did not.<\/p>\n

Masculinity is often judged by its economic productivity in Japanese intellectual writings. What the man has to \u2018offer\u2019 – himself, his work, his life. The \u2018otaku\u2019 can be seen as a new form of Japanese manhood. Instead of economic productivity, it is manhood through consumption. The \u2018otaku\u2019 can be argued to represent men who \u2018failed\u2019 to become salarymen. They depict the perspective of masculinity outside the dominant ideal of male success. A lack of good education, salary, loving wife and children does not make a man less of a man.5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The role of \u2018otaku\u2019 can be further explored in the argument about the future of masculinity in Japan. In the United States, the term \u2018otaku\u2019 implies a \u201cserious anime fan\u201d, but in Japan, it is a word used to indicate people with an obsession for \u201cgeeky\u201d realms of knowledge and activity, such as anime, manga, and computer games.6<\/a><\/sup> This image of a geeky, socially inept, obsessive nerd presents itself to be completely opposite to the image of the gregarious salaryman.6<\/a><\/sup> Since the value of masculinity was grounded in productivity, action, there are examples of \u201cbad otaku\u201d and \u201cgood otaku\u201d – \u2018bad\u2019 produce violence and disturbing, sexualised media; and \u2018good\u2019 produce video games, animated films.7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

They key and biggest differentiation of this new \u2018man\u2019, however, is the notion of \u2018moe\u2019 that otakus introduce. Japanese men in the past upheld the standard of heterosexual, real life, in other terms, \u201c3-D relationships\u201d. Otaku\u2019s, on the other hand, depicted a new reality of \u2018moe\u2019, a term meaning the affectionate longing for the 2-D characters; the internalized emotional response to something with no hope for a reciprocal response.8<\/a><\/sup> Indeed, for some writers, such as Honda Toru, \u2018moe\u2019 constituted a form of \u201clove revolution\u201d for men. Honda sees the new man\u2019s fascination with 2-D characters as the natural evolution of mankind, of masculinity.9<\/a><\/sup> As humanity accepts technology, so too will it accept it through love as well, and that men will \u201cgive up on the analog world of real women in favor of the digital world of characters\u201d.10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Perhaps the rejection of relationships with real women is less to do with enforced gender stereotypes of men in heterosexual relationships, the demands and pressures of being a disputed form of \u2018man\u2019, but rather a form of defence for \u2018failed men\u2019. Men who did not agree with the stipulations demanded to them by the army begat a new generation of salarymen who begat a new generation of otakus. Failed men forge new identities, but retain the notion of competition and productivity in all spheres, be it 3-D or not, they acquire.<\/p>\n

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Bibliography:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, in Sabine Fruhstuck (ed.), Recreating Japanese Men (Oakland, CA, 2011; online edn, California Scholarship Online, 22 Mar. 2012), https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1525\/california\/9780520267374.003.0013, accessed 1 Dec. 2024.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fr\u00fchst\u00fcck S., Building the Nation and Modern Manhood. In: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan, New Approaches to Asian History. Cambridge University Press; 2022:19-46.<\/p>\n

  1. Fr\u00fchst\u00fcck S., Building the Nation and Modern Manhood. In: Gender and Sexuality in Modern Japan, New Approaches to Asian History. Cambridge University Press; 2022, p. 23. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  2. Fr\u00fchst\u00fcck, Building the Nation and Modern Manhood, p. 24. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  3. Fr\u00fchst\u00fcck, Building the Nation and Modern Manhood, pp. 24-25 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  4. Fr\u00fchst\u00fcck, Building the Nation and Modern Manhood, pp. 33-34. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  5. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, in Sabine Fruhstuck (ed.), Recreating Japanese Men (Oakland, CA, 2011; online edn, California Scholarship Online, 22 Mar. 2012), p. 264 [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  6. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, p. 264. [↩<\/a>]<\/span> [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  7. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, p. 265. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  8. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, p. 263. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  9. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, p. 266. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li>
  10. Condry, Ian, ‘Love Revolution: Anime, Masculinity, and the Future’, p. 269. [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The idea of masculinity has never been fixed in one mold in Japan. Instead, it was left to remain contestable, even if that meant, at certain times, nervously guarded, challenged and manipulated.1 Once the Japanese military held in place the authority to determine what a \u2018man\u2019 was \u2013 through tests of minimal physical requirement and … Continue reading “From soldier to otaku: the case of different \u201cman\u201d in Japan – Varvara”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1496,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions\/1496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}