Brown, Paris
(2014)
Selling Japan In Mad Men's Postmodern
America: The Visual Translation Of Japanese
Icons And Images Through A Lens Of Western
Advertising And Aesthetics.
International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), 10 (2).
pp. 136-161.
ISSN ISSN: 1823-6243
Abstract
To what extent do Americans continue to fetishise images of Japan in Western
popular culture? Evinced by generalised twentieth-century stereotypes, as well as
twenty-first-century discussions of anime, manga and cosplay, it appears that
World War II archetypes of Japanese society have had lasting residual effects that
are slowly diminishing. This article unpacks cultural artefacts in order to
understand how American's view of Japanese culture has evolved since then. For
years, reductionist cinema portrayals, along with Ruth Benedict's 1946
anthropological study of Japan—a misguided attempt to redefine Japanese
customs—impacted Western perceptions of a mysterious and militarised people
during the ensuing decades. Benedict, in preparing her analysis, lacked
immersion in authentic Japanese culture; instead, she attempted to gain
perspective by interviewing Japanese Americans who had not lived in Japan since
infancy. This important distinction significantly distorted her resultant theories on
cultural differences. An examination of her influence—contextualised vis-à-vis the
television drama Mad Men, films like Lost in Translation, and Walter Benjamin's
aesthetic aura—sets the stage for determining the extent of fetishism still present
in contemporary American society. These segues provide alternate lenses for
disseminating communicatively unfamiliar cultural spaces between East and West
and exploring Japan through contemporary Western eyes. While negative
sociocultural exchanges portrayed in popular media continue to exemplify both
gratuitous cultural simplifications and post-World War II hostilities, American
perspectives of Japan have improved in the ensuing decades due to globalism and
increasing cognisance of regressive stereotypes. Strong American loyalties
toward anime and manga further provide a positive outlook on progressive
discernment and congruous cultural interests.
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