Journal articles on the topic 'Japan's economic miracle'

AbstractJapan's remarkable postwar growth spurt in the 1960s would not have been possible without Japan's alliance with the United States. Policy makers, political scientists, economists, historians, and journalists on both sides of the Pacific have made this claim, but no study has yet tested it with modern statistical methods. In this article, we compare the economic growth trajectories of Japan and a statistically constructed “synthetic” Japan, which had a similar profile until the late 1950s but did not experience the consolidation of the US–Japan alliance, a process that began in 1958 and culminated with the signing of a formal defense pact in January 1960. We find that Japan's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) grew much faster than the synthetic Japan's from 1958 to 1968. We substantiate these results with in-depth historical analyses on how the United States facilitated Japan's economic miracle.

One of the perennial controversies in the study of Japanese political economy has centred on the role of the government in the economy and in Japan's economic growth. The best-known model of Japanese political economy is the ‘capitalist developmental state’, which offers both a descriptive model of Japanese political economy and an explanation for Japan's postwar economic miracle in terms of bureaucracy-led intervention. As a descriptive model, the ‘capitalist developmental state’ both over-generalises and under-generalises key features of Japan's political economy. It over-generalises because it builds a model of Japanese political economy based on government-business relations in a number of large-scale, export-oriented manufacturing industries ignoring inefficient or ‘laggard’ sectors or admitting them only as system supports. The model under-generalises Japanese political economy because types and modes of bureaucratic intervention are consistent across different sectors of the economy, and in fact are more prevalent in weaker sectors, such as agriculture.

The story of the Japanese system, held up as a model for economic prosperity and growth, underplays the role of non-standard labour in the narrative of `success'. Our analysis deconstructs the narrative of the Japanese economic miracle to shed light on this almost invisible pillar by tracing the historical development of non-standard employment among women. We find that this form of work constitutes a larger and faster growing share of total employment than heretofore realised, and that women account for most of the change. Rather than merely a residual dimension of Japanese employment practices, the evidence indicates that non-standard employment represents a key component of work transformation and underscores the salience of gender in the process of Japan's restructuring. We identify three institutional domains which help to explain this gendered pattern of labour market experiences in Japan: the labour market, the family, and the state. These institutional legacies set conditions for the development of the Japanese employment system which favours men as full-time wage earners and women as part-time wage workers and full-time care-givers.

In the 1970s, Italy's economy grew faster than all in the industrialized world but Japan's. Its growth rates of up to 5 percent, although lower than in the 1960s, compared favorably to the relatively flat figures from Britain, Germany, and the United States, most strikingly in the two years after the second oil shock of 1979. Following its first “economic miracle” in the 1950s and 1960s, wrote The Economist, Italy's “second, lesser miracle” was how the country continued to thrive in the 1970s despite a “bumbling bureaucracy,” ineffective governments, high inflation and public debt, terrorism, and “the left-wing unions’ greedy, if understandable, reaction to the headlong development of the 1960s.” Italy's rapid growth was all the more impressive in light of the ongoing economic stagnation of the South and a general crisis in the big corporations of Lombardy and Piedmont, which had been dragged down by high oil prices, recession abroad, and indexed wages.

The article presents the experience of Japan in the post-war reconstruction of the country in the period 1945–1991. The socio-economic situation of the country after the Second World War was considered. The historical stages of the country's development in the period under study are determined. The historical conditions in which the country found itself in the postwar period are analyzed. Key historical figures who influenced the development of the country were identified. The directions and measures of reforming and development of the country are revealed and presented. The importance of external factors and foreign policy for the country's assertion on the world stage has been proved. The factors of creating an effective political system, effective public administration, sustainable social and human development are formulated. It was proved that the United States has played an important role in forcing both Japan's political and economic systems. The United States provided Japan with significant financial, economic, and food aid to Japan. During the war between the United States and Korea and Vietnam, the United States placed military orders in Japan, which contributed to the development of the country's industrial base. It was found that the quality of the labor force, its general education and professional level played an extremely important role in the reconstruction of the economy. The effective state regulation of economic development in Japan, which on the one hand was aimed at developing the civil sector of the economy, and on the other at concentrating efforts on cooperation between government and private business at the stage of developing solutions to economic development, played a critical role in "Japanese miracle".

Much of the recent work on the economic and social history of Tokugawa Japan (1600–1867) has been driven by a desire to identify what T.C. Smith has called ‘native sources ofJapanese industrialisation’. From the Marxist-influenced historians in the 1920s who sought to explain the pre-industrial roots of the structure of production in interwar Japan, through to contem-poraryJapanese historians' studies of the pattern of Japanese development, a major part of the agenda has been to identify how Japan had got to where it was, in other words, what was the secret of its twentieth century successes and weaknesses. It is not possible to explore the situation of Japan's economy in the century 1750–1850 without benefit of this hindsight, without being aware that while Japan's situation may have been in many ways analogous to that of China and Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, its economic fortunes were by the latter part of the nineteenth century experiencing their own ‘great divergence’ from those of China, India and the other countries of Asia and the near East. To search for the antecedents of this divergence is for economic historians of Japan a parallel exercise o t any search for the sources of the European ‘miracle’. While a focus on the period 1750–1850 as an era of European/Asian divergence means, therefore, that we must highlight the situation inJapan during that century, it must also be accepted that in the case of Japan any comparison with other countries or regions may also suggest the causes of Japan's own divergence some fifty to a hundred years later.

The subject of this article is the Japanese enigma: the long-lasting extraordinarily rapid economic growth, the so-called Japanese economic miracle, and then a very sharp set-back in the growth rate, the prolonged recession. The authors, using an endogenous growth model, have proven that an economic miracle did not happen in Japan either: the very rapid growth proceeded in conformity with the general regularities of economic development. The main cause of prolonged recession, according to the empirical results, is the currency shock, occurred on the basis of an international agreement in the mid-1980s, which decelerated the hitherto extremely dynamic development of Japanese exports, considerably retarding the main factor of rapid economic growth.

In Japan, World War II was followed by a period of reconstruction and economic growth known as 'the Japanese Miracle'. Although the economic aspects of the nation's recovery are known, there is little emphasis placed on the social development efforts that facilitated this. Professor Hiroshi Sato, Chief Senior Researcher, Institute of Developing Economies; Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO), believes that social development policies are the precursor to economic growth and pave the way for social change. He is collaborating with other leading researchers on a range of projects to explore the links between social development and economic growth in developing countries. Sato is collaborating with: Professor Kazuko Tatsumi, Fukuoka University to investigate the rural livelihood improvement movement in post-war Japan; Professor Mariko Sakamoto, Aichi Medical University to explore the impact of Occupation policy on public health; and Associate Professor Mayuko Sano, Fukuoka Prefectural University to investigate the history of coal mining town Tagawa city. Sato believes that the rapid economic growth of developing countries without prior social development is unsustainable and widens the gap between rich and poor, with the distribution of wealth becoming unfairly biased towards the rich.

The phenomenon of the "Japanese economic miracle", which in just two post-war decades turned an ineffective economy exhausted by war into an example for creating innovative models of other states, has attracted the interest of domestic and foreign researchers for a long time. At the same time, there is a consensus in the scientific community that this "miracle" is based on a clear goal setting and consistent - with an emphasis on the introduction of advanced technologies - economic policy of the national authorities. This article is devoted to the study of the formation process of the national innovation system of Japan, the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of its current state.

It is hard to imagine that after Japan’s miracle post-war growth it would go on to suffer more than two decades of stagnation. Although there have been some short-lived periods of recovery, such as in 1995-96, the average growth rate over the period of 1991-2014 was a mere 1%. Despite historically low interest rates and a series of fiscal stimuli, the growth has not revived. Despite the long economic stagnation, Japan still retains its strength in many areas. Its human and physical capital formations are among the highest in the world. The volume it spends on research and development is equally impressive. It still has world-leading firms and modern technologies. The methodology to be followed here is derived from the aims of the study and comparisons of international statistics provide the main means of addressing the research questions and the objectives of this paper. The study concludes that the neoliberal ‘market-centred’ policies have brought inequality, stagnation, and fiscal crisis to the state. Therefore, a radical critical political economy is required to analyse the situation more objectively, one which would mean increased levels of welfare and people-led measures.

AbstractJapanese rule transformed Taiwan from 1895 to 1945, laying the foundations for the post-1950 “economic miracle,” but there is little consensus about the impact on the welfare of Taiwan's ethnic Chinese. A difficulty with past studies is the adequacy of economic indicators to measure the standard of living. Instead of conventional economic data, we use average adult height, an indicator of nutritional status. The rise in the average height of the Chinese indicates welfare improved under colonialism, but the static average height from 1930 highlights the negative effect of the shift in economic policy during the late colonial period.

Purpose Regardless of economic interdependence, there is possibility that two countries occasionally have severe international stress. This is especially true between rising and ruling countries, which is referred to as “Thucydides’s Trap.” In order to analyze how a rising country can manage its growing presence in the world, the purpose of this paper is to examine the case of Japan as a rising power in the past. Design/methodology/approach There seem to be similarities between the “Japan problem” and the “China problem” such as the economic ascendance of a rising country and the failures of American leadership in spite of different time periods. Thus, analyzing Japan’s experience in the past can help understand how the growing international presence of a rising country can be managed. Findings When Japan created international economic policies, it aimed for the following three effects: for its trade liberalization to reduce western countries’ restrictions on its export products, for its economic assistance to contribute to developing countries’ stabilization and for its trade liberalization and its economic assistance to contribute to promoting its international trade and upgrading its international status. To accommodate an emerging country into the international system smoothly, not only the country itself but also others require comprehensive measures while considering policy interactions. Originality/value Most previous studies that analyze the relationship between a rising and a ruling country examine conflicts between the two parties from a bilateral perspective. However, since the conflicts do not only involve the two countries, but also other countries in the world, it is important to consider how the two countries and other affected countries manage the growing presence of a rising power. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze how an emerging country integrates itself into the existing international system from a multilateral perspective based on the case of Japan.

Japan is known around the world for its «economic miracle», since the end of the XX century began to experience an economic crisis, which is even more intense at the present time. Japan is one of the countries that has the highest public debt relative to GDP. Nevertheless, it continues to be one of the most economically developed countries in the world. In addition, there have recently been drastic changes in the field of defense: the transformation of the national defense Department into a full-fledged Ministry, an increase in the budget allocated to defense, etc. The issue of constitutional reform (amendments to article 9) is on the agenda. The practical majority of reforms take place under the rule of the current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The purpose of the article is to study and evaluate the mutual influence of economic growth and the strengthening of Japan’s military power

The domestication of penicillin production in Japan was a priority for the Allied occupation government (1945–1952) immediately after World War II, since manufacturing the drug using raw materials available locally would lower the cost of the occupation. In place of employing the analytical concept of technology transfer, this article explores processes of domestication (kokusanka) using the records of the Japan Penicillin Research Association (Nihon penishirin gakujutsu kyōgikai), an interdisciplinary academic association set up to mediate between government policy and industrial manufacturers, and which directed research in the critical early years of penicillin production. I argue that an examination of the occupation period is especially revealing of the contribution of indigenous knowledge from the World War II and prewar periods to the development of microbiology during Japan’s “economic miracle” (1950s to early 1970s), and I highlight the intellectual dimensions that were specific to Japanese science by comparison with other national cases of penicillin domestication. Beyond the transfer of submerged culture fermentation technology for antibiotic mass production, a distinctive engagement with agricultural chemistry’s longstanding perception of microbes—as alchemists of the environment, with the ability to transform resource scarcity into productive abundance—organized the knowledge by which penicillin scientists made the domestic environment work, and deeply shaped antibiotic research in the subsequent decades in Japan.

The article presents a comparative analysis, found similarities and differences in thedevelopment of student learning and teacher training at universities in Japan and Ukraine. Theorigins of Japanese economic miracle are particularly suited to the training and education of theyounger generation, combining western trends with the traditional humanistic educationalprinciples. The Japanese education system, like Ukrainian, has undergone transformation towardshumanistic many difficulties due to historical conditions and characteristics of the nationalmentality. Comparative analysis of the education system in Japan and Ukraine showed similarapproaches in the educational process in schools: the structure of schools (primary, basic, senior),the operation of private schools, although there is a difference in the period of training; the use ofcredit- modular technology that promotes democratization of education; organizational forms ofthe educational process for the preparation of teachers (lectures, seminars, practical and so on.);Graduate School offers training both competition and on contract basis in government educationalinstitutions; there are p

This article explores the use of the body metaphor as a core communicative tool in times of economic crisis and national indebtedness, and the ways in which it thwarts political dialogue. It first traces the body metaphor in the manga version of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, following Andreas Musolff’s theory of the ‘body politic’ in Nazi Germany. It then argues that the economic resurrection, or ‘miracles’, in postwar Germany and Japan replaced the discourse of the body nation with that of the body economy. Charles Forceville has shown how advertising uses pictorial metaphors to depict commodities and emphasise their qualities. My analysis of Japanese commercials reveals that their metaphors work to ‘incorporate’ consumers through the act of oral consumption, merging them with the commodities. An ‘oral fixation’ is presumed, rendering the relationship between the body economy and the consumer as one between mother and infant. Advertising functions as the wrapping, or ‘skin’, of this body economy, encouraging us to suckle at the mother’s breasts and at the same time to inject unlimited amounts of money into her veins.

This volume explores phenomena frequently noted (yet seldom analyzed) in the scholarly literature: the profound similarities in the industrialization processes and the contemporary political economies of Germany and Japan. These parallels—not just in the early stages of industrialization, but through the experiences of depression and war, and on to the rise of postwar “miracle” economies in both nations—are often casually ascribed to the late-developer effect, to the strategic imitation of German economic institutions in Japan, or to cultural factors, from lingering “feudal remnants” to enduring “traditional” social structures. Tagging the economic regimes which had evolved in Germany and Japan by the 1970s “nonliberal” capitalist systems, the essays in this collection seek to investigate systematically “the many similarities between the two capitalisms, the no less intriguing differences between them, and the differences between the two and Anglo-American ‘standard capitalism’” (p. xiii). More specifically, this volume examines “the origins of some of the social institutions that have constrained the spread of free markets within the capitalist economies of Germany and Japan while providing them with alternate mechanisms of economic governance” (p. 5). Throughout, the contributors argue for a more subtle, historically grounded, and systematic understanding of the distinctive practices and institutions of the German and Japanese “nationally embedded capitalisms.”

Мировая банковская система непрерывно развивается и совершенствуется. Банковские системы отдельных стран модифицируются под влиянием интеграции финансовых отношений государств мира и глобализации в сфере банковского дела. Экономика Японии получила широкое развитие в период так называемого «экономического чуда», во время которого Япония стала второй страной в мире по общему объёму производства, занимая третье место по экспорту продукции. Быстрыми темпами развивается непроизводственный сектор Японии: сфера услуг, финансы, научно-исследовательская деятельность. Статья посвящена изучению деятельности центрального банка Японии – одного из ведущих мировых финансовых институтов. Выделены организационные принципы функционирования Банка Японии. Рассмотрены три руководящих принципа управления, используемых Банком Японии в процессе его деятельности для выполнения роли центрального банка и достижения таких целей, как поддержание ценовой стабильности и содействие экономическому росту в стране. Банк Японии, будучи первым звеном банковской системы страны, реализует денежно-кредитную политику, применяя комплекс мер, направленных на управление совокупным спросом через условия денежного рынка. В статье отражены инструменты денежно-кредитной политики, применяемые Банком Японии для обеспечения стабильности экономического развития страны. Особое внимание уделяется мерам, предпринятым Банком Японии в связи с кризисом, вызванным пандемией коронавируса COVID-19. Речь идёт о поддержке компаний, пострадавших от последствий коронавируса COVID-19, включая предоставление беспроцентных займов, выдачу гарантий по кредитам малому и среднему бизнесу, пострадавшему от пандемии, субсидии по переводу бизнеса в онлайн. Банк Японии планирует использовать пакет фискальных и монетарных антикризисных мер для поддержки экономики страны. Реализация мероприятий необходима для ограничения экономического ущерба от кризисных явлений, вызванных коронавирусом COVID-19, и сглаживания волатильности рынков. Актуальность исследования обусловлена тем, что в условиях финансовой глобализации необходимо учитывать опыт зарубежных банковских систем, особенно в ситуации мирового кризиса, затронувшего экономики всех стран. Ключевые слова: мировая банковская система, глобализация, банковское дело, Япония, центральный банк, денежно-кредитная политика, операции на открытом рынке, экономическая активность, ликвидность, COVID-19, финансовый кризис, антикризисные меры. The world banking system is constantly developing and improving. The banking systems of individual countries are modified under the influence of the integration of financial relations between the countries of the world and globalization in bank-ing. The Japanese economy was widely developed during the period of the so-called «economic miracle», during which Japan became the second country in the world in total production volume, ranking third in the export of products. The non-manufacturing sector of Japan is developing rapidly: the service sector, finance, and research. The article is devoted to the study of the activities of the Central Bank of Japan – one of the leading global financial institutions. The organizational principles of the Bank of Japan are highlighted. Three management principles used by the Bank of Japan in the course of its activities to fulfill the role of the central bank and achieve goals such as maintaining price stability and promoting economic growth in the country are considered. The Bank of Japan, being the first link in the country's banking system, implements monetary policy by applying a set of measures aimed at managing aggregate demand through money market conditions. The article reflects the monetary policy instruments used by the Bank of Japan to ensure the stability of the country's economic development. Particular attention is paid to the measures taken by the Bank of Japan in connection with the crisis caused by the pandemic of the coronavirus COVID-19. It is about supporting companies affected by the consequences of the coronavirus COVID-19, including providing interest-free loans, issuing guarantees for loans to small and medium-sized businesses affected by the pandemic, subsidies for transferring business online. The Bank of Japan plans to use a package of fiscal and monetary anti-crisis measures to support the country's economy. Implementation of measures is necessary to limit the economic damage from the crisis caused by the coronavirus COVID-19, and to smooth out the market volatility. The relevance of this study is due to the fact that in the context of financial globalization, it is necessary to take into account the experience of foreign banking systems, especially in the situation of the global crisis that affected the economies of all countries. Keywords: world banking system, globalization, banking, Japan, central bank, monetary policy, open market operations, economic activity, liquidity, COVID-19, financial crisis, anti-crisis measures.

Since the mid-1990s, an almost universal belief has developed amongst economic commentators that the United States has undergone a productivity miracle and that European economies are now suffering from chronic sclerosis. As a result, the ‘American model’ dominates the agenda of policy towards growth and productivity performance in Britain. This paper urges caution here, given the disappointing experience of earlier British growth policies based on borrowing from the fashionable economy of the moment, including the Japanese and German economies during the 1970s and 1980s, and the American economy (again) during the 1950s and 1960s. A historical perspective suggests that: (1) successful productivity performance requires a stable institutional framework for long-term investments in human and physical capital, which the European model has been particularly good at providing over the last half century; (2) a country is constrained by its geography, so that copying without adaptation to local circumstances is rarely a good policy; (3) it is important to pay attention to the different sectors of the economy when formulating policy.

Japan’s trajectory under globalization is critically reviewed using the world-system perspective and the methodology of historical sociology. The Japanese miracle in the post-war period was a result of interplay between world-systemic opportunities and internal and regional institutional transformation. Japanese success invited US policy changes, ending the growth regime of accumulation in which state-led national economic development was pursued with distributional concessions given to workers. It is argued that misguided policies based on incorrect economic theories under the strong yen, pushed by the US since 1985, prepared a bubble that then burst. The institutions that had provided the Japanese miracle became the source of problems as Japan entered the debacle period in the 1990s. The Japanese debacle was part of the phenomenon of a ‘prosperous US and the debacle of the rest.’ This development was a result of the change in the regime of accumulation from a growth regime to a distribution regime where the rentier class took control of distribution and the project of national economic development was replaced by the monopolistic competition of global corporations. For Japan, both traditionalism and neo-liberalism are dysfunctional. In the short run, Japan as a society needs to focus on survival and the maintenance of people’s living standards under the new rules of the accumulation game imposed by the US. In the medium run, Japan needs to challenge US dollar hegemony ushered in by the new rules. In the long run, the Japanese need to examine whether they should keep engaging in the game of capitalist accumulation.

Japan as a Plan Rational and Developmental State: The Government’s Role in High Speed Growth of Economy in the Postwar PeriodJapanese high speed economic growth, which many of them called it as a miracle or in Japanese term as jukagaku kogyoka, is affected by many factors. Many economists tried to find out the rationale behind this high speed growth. Some of their analysis can be categorized as national character/factor of culture analysis, no-miracle-occurred analysis, unique structural feature analysis, and free ride analysis. To explain the concept of plan rational, it needs to compare to such other concept as the market rational system. Basically the difference between these two concepts is on the function of state in the macro and micro economic policies. On the other hand, the countries which experienced the late industrialization process, the state played the significant role as the driver of the process itself. Thus it has the role of developmental functions. These two different approaches used by two types of countries (Japan and USA) caused the different effect in the states and private sector’s relationship. The differences between these two types of states are focused on the trade regulations, efficiency and effectiveness, structure of domestic industry, and, the institution of decision making. Keywords : Government Role, Economic Growth, Japan

The article is devoted to the formation and implementation of state structural policy, which is closely linked to economic growth and development of the economy as a whole. Economic growth must be sustainable and long-lasting, which requires a combination of all types and instruments of structural policy, depending on the time period and level of functioning of the economy. Due to structural changes, low-income countries can bridge the gap and catch up with highly developed countries. This relationship is not absolute, the intensity of structural change can be both a consequence and a cause of economic growth. At the same time, all significant and long periods of rapid economic growth after the Second World War, as a rule, took place against the background of pronounced structural reforms within national economies. Due to which these countries demonstrated «economic miracles». Highlighting the main trends of structural reforms in the world economy is important primarily in terms of developing an effective structural policy in Ukraine. The study used methods of analysis and synthesis, historical and logical, grouping and classification, comparison. The content of structural policy has been clarified by domestic and foreign scholars. It is established that the concepts of structural and industrial policy are either identified or there is no clear demarcation line between them. The tools of vertical, horizontal and matrix structural policy are highlighted. American, Japanese and European models of structural policy on the example of the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain are considered. The structural policy of these countries is formed as a result of applying an integrated approach to its priority areas and the mechanism of its implementation. It has an internal integrative form, which is manifested in the constant increase in the level of interaction with other areas of economic policy, thus creating a synergistic effect of economic development as a whole. The general tendency of structural changes in the world economy is revealed – growth of a share of sphere of services at preservation of rather stable share of the processing industry. Together, they are seen as drivers of economic growth. Adaptive elements of implementation of world experience in "design" of structural policy of Ukraine are offered.

MacLachlan, Patricia. Word after Word after Word. New York: Katherine Tegan Books, 2010. Print. Ms. Mirabel, a famous writer, starts visiting a grade four class regularly and has a profound impact on a group of five friends by encouraging them to write, even if it means breaking the rules that their teacher believes are essential (such as creating an outline). Ms. Mirabel’s core message that writing “word after word after word” can change your life strikes a chord with the five friends and, as their daily discussions under a lilac tree suggest, there is a lot they would like to change. Lucy’s mom has cancer, Evie wants desperately to find a new woman for her recently-separated dad, a new baby is entering May’s family, and Russell not only has to babysit his younger brother every day but also deal with the recent death of his dog. In contrast, Henry discovers writing helps him not to change anything but to “save everything I have.” The last scene, an open-house highlighting the children’s writing brought a lump to my throat as the parents read their child’s inner-most feelings and realize how their actions as adults and parents have unexpected and powerful effects on their children. I have to admit, Ms. Mirabel annoyed me. She dresses flamboyantly to grab attention; she is sensitive, creative, and wise in a way no ordinary teacher could ever be; and she even encourages Russell’s annoying questions that make the real teacher sigh. Perhaps I am little sensitive about the stereotype of real teachers as boring, rule-bound, and uncreative. On another note, there is something about the kids that does not ring quite true; they come across more like how an adult might romanticize that time of life rather than what real grade four kids are like. To be fair, the real author (Patricia MacLachlan) notes she visits many classrooms and receives letters from young readers of her other books, so perhaps she has a different insight into the thoughts and emotions of that age group. In fact, as she tells us in the author’s notes at the end, this book was written to address the many questions she gets about the hows and whys of being a writer in a more entertaining way. Overall, this is an inspiring book about the joys and power of writing. Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: David SulzDavid is a librarian at the University of Alberta working mostly with scholars in Economics, Religious Studies, and Social Work. His university studies included: Library Studies, History, Elementary Education, Japanese, and Economics. On the education front, he taught various grades and subjects for several years in schools as well as museums. His interest in Japan and things Japanese stands above his other diverse interests.

Introduction Japan has long been cited as a major source of cute (kawaii) culture as it has spread around the world, as encapsulated in Christine R. Yano’s phrase ‘Pink Globalization’. This essay charts recent developments in Japanese society through the cute character Rilakkuma, a character produced by San-X (a competitor to Sanrio, which produces the famed Hello Kitty). His name means ‘relaxed bear’, and Rilakkuma and friends are featured in comics, games and other products, called kyarakutā shōhin (also kyarakutā guzzu, which both mean ‘character goods’). Rilakkuma is pictured relaxing, sleeping, eating sweets, and listening to music; he is not only lazy, but he is also unproductive in socio-economic terms. Yet, he is never censured for this lifestyle. He provides visual pleasure to those who buy these goods, but more importantly, Rilakkuma’s story charitably portrays a lifestyle that is fully consumptive with very little, if any, productivity. Rilakkuma’s reified consumption is certainly in line with many earlier analyses of shōjo (young girl) culture in Japan, where consumerism is considered ‘detached from the productive economy of heterosexual reproduction’ (Treat, 281) and valued as an end in itself. Young girl culture in Japan has been both critiqued and celebrated in in opposition to the economic productivity as well as the emotional emptiness and weakening social prestige of the salaried man (Roberson and Suzuki, 9-10). In recent years, ideal masculinity has been further critiqued with the rise of the sōshokukei danshi (‘grass-eating men’) image: today’s Japanese male youth appear to have no appetite for the ‘meat’ associated with heteronormative, competitively capitalistic male roles (Steger 2013). That is not to say all gender roles have vanished; instead, social and economic precarity has created a space for young people to subvert them. Whether by design or by accident, Rilakkuma has come to represent a Japanese consumer maintaining some standard of emotional equilibrium in the face of the instability that followed the Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in early 2011. A Relaxed Bear in a Precarious Japan Certainly much has been written about the ‘lost decade(s)’ in Japan, or the unraveling of the Japanese postwar miracle since the early 1990s in a variety of unsettling ways. The burst of the ‘bubble economy’ in 1991 led to a period of low or no economic growth, uncertain employment conditions and deflation. Because of Japan’s relative wealth and mature economic system, this was seen a gradual process that Mark Driscoll calls a shift from the ‘so-called Japan Inc. of the 1980s’ to ‘“Japan Shrink” of the 2010s and 2020s’ (165). The Japanese economy was further troubled by the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, and then the Tōhoku disasters. These events have contributed to Japan’s state of ambivalence, as viewed by both its citizens and by external observers. Despite its relative wealth, the nation continues to struggle with deflation (and its corresponding stagnation of wages), a deepening chasm between the two-tier employment system of permanent and casual work, and a deepening public mistrust of corporate and governing authorities. Some of this story is not ‘new’; dual employment practices have existed throughout Japan’s postwar history. What has changed, however, is the attitudes of casual workers; it is now thought to be much more difficult, if not impossible, to shift from low paid, insecure casual labour to permanent, secure positions. The overall unemployment rate remains low precisely because the number of temporary and part time workers has increased, as much as one third of all workers in 2012 (The Japan Times). The Japanese government now concedes that ‘the balance of working conditions between regular and non-regular workers have therefore become important issues’ (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare); many see this is not only a distinction between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, but also of a generational shift of those who achieved secure positions before the ‘lost decade’, and those who came after. Economic, political, environmental and social insecurity have given rise to a certain level public malaise, not conducive to a robust consumer culture. Enter Rilakkuma: he, like many other cute characters in Japan, entices the consumer to feel good about spending – or perhaps, to feel okay about spending? – in this precarious time of underemployment and uncertainty about the future. ‘Cute’ Characters: Attracting as Well as Attractive Cute (‘kawaii’) culture in Japan is not just aesthetic; it includes ‘a turn to emotion and even sentimentality, in some of the least likely places’ (Yano, 7). Cute kyarakutā are not just sentimentally attractive; they are more precisely attracting images which are used to sell these character goods: toys, household objects, clothing and stationery. Occhi writes that many kyarakutā are the result of an ‘anthropomorphization’ of objects or creatures which ‘guide the user towards specific [consumer] behaviors’ (78). While kyarakutā would be created first to sell a product, in the end, the character’s popularity at times can eclipse the product’s value, and the character thus becomes ‘pure product’, as in the case of Hello Kitty (Yano, 10). Most characters, however, merely function as ‘specific representatives of a product or service rendered mentally “sticky” through narratives, wordplay and other specialized aspects of their design’ (Occhi, 86). Miller refers to this phenomenon as ‘Japan’s zoomorphic urge’, and argues that etiquette guides and public service posters, which frequently use cute and cuddly animals in the place of humans, is done to ‘render […] potentially dangerous or sensitive topics as safe and acceptable’ (69). Cuteness instrumentally turns away from negative aspects of society, whether it is the demonstration of etiquette rules in public, or the portrayal of an underemployed or unemployed person watching TV at home, as in Rilakkuma. Thus we see a revitalization of the cute zeitgeist in Japanese consumerism in products such as the Rilakkuma franchise, produced by San-X, a company that produces and distributes ‘stationary [sic], sundry goods, merchandises [sic], and paper products with original design.’ (San-X Net). Who Is Rilakkuma? According to the company’s ‘fan’ books, written in response to the popularity of Rilakkuma’s character goods (Nakazawa), the background story of Rilakkuma is as follows: one day, a smallish bear found its way unexplained into the apartment of a Japanese OL (office lady) named Kaoru. He spends his time ‘being of no use to Kaoru, and is actually a pest by lying around all day doing nothing… his main concerns are meals and snacks. He seems to hate the summer [heat].’ Other activities include watching television, listening to music, taking long baths, and tossing balls of paper into the rubbish bin (Nakazawa, 4). His comrades are Korilakkuma (loosely translated as ‘Little Rilakkuma’) and Kiiroitori (simply, ‘Yellow Bird’). Korilakkuma is a smaller and paler version of Rilakkuma; like her friend, she appears in Kaoru’s apartment for no reason. She is described as liking to pull pranks (itazuradaisuki) and is comparatively more energetic (genki) than Rilakkuma; her main activities are imitating Rilakkuma and looking for someone with whom to play (6). Lastly, Kiiroitori is a small yellow bird resembling a chick, and seems to be the only character of the three who has any ‘right’ to reside in Kaoru’s apartment. Kiiroitori was a pet bird residing in cage before the appearance of these two bears, but after Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma set themselves up in her small apartment, Kiiroitori was liberated from his cage and flies in the faces of lazy Rilakkuma and mischievous Korilakkuma (7). Kiiroitori likes tidiness, and is frequently cleaning up after the lazy bears, and he can be short tempered about this (ibid). Kiiroitori’s interests include the charming but rather thrifty ‘finding spare change while cleaning up’ and ‘bear climbing’, which is enjoyed primarily for its annoyance to the bears (ibid). Fig. 1: Korilakkuma, Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori, in 10-year anniversary attire (photo by author). This narrative behind these character goods is yet another aspect of their commodification (in other words, their management, distribution and copyright protection). The information presented ­– the minute details of the characters’ existence, illustrated with cute drawings and calligraphy – enriches the consumer process by deepening the consumers’ interaction with the product. How does the story become as attractive as the cute character? One of the striking characteristics of the ‘official’ Rilakkuma discourse is the sense of ‘ikinari yattekita’ (things happening ‘out of the blue’; Nakazawa 22), or ‘naru yō ni narimasu’ (‘whatever will be will be’; 23) reasoning behind the narrative. Buyers want to know how and why these cute characters come into being, but there is no answer. To some extent, this vagueness reflects the reality of authorship: the characters were first conceptualized by a designer at San-X named Kondō Aki, who left the company soon after Rilakkuma’s debut in 2003 (Akibako). But this ‘out of the blue’ quality of the characters strikes a chord in many consumers’ view of their own lives: why are we here? what are we doing, and why do we do it? The existence of these characters and the reasons for their traits and preferences are inexplicable. There is no reason why or how Rilakkuma came to be – instead, readers are told that to just relax, ‘go with the flow’, and ‘what can be done today can always be done tomorrow’. Procrastination would normally be considered meiwaku, or bothersome to others who depend on you. In Productive Japan, this behavior is not valued. In Precarious Japan, however, underemployment and nonproductivity takes the pressure away from individuals to judge this behavior as negative. Procrastination shifts from meiwaku to normality, and to be transformed into kawaii culture, accepted and even celebrated as such. Rilakkuma is not the first Japanese pop cultural character to rub up against the hyper productive, gambaru (fight!) attitude associated with previous generations, with their associated tropes of the juken jikoku (exam preparation hell) for students, or the karōshi (death from overwork) salaried worker. An early example of this would be Chibi Marukochan (‘Little Maruko’), a comic character created in 1986 but whose popularity peaked in the 1990s. Maruko is an endearing but flawed primary school student who is cute and amusing, but also annoying and short tempered (Sakura). Flawed characters were frequently featured in Japanese popular culture, but Maruko was one of the first featured as heroine, not a jester-like sidekick. As an early example of Japanese cute, subversive characters, Maruko was often annoying and lazy, but she at least aspired to traits such as doing well in school and being a good daughter in her extended family. Rilakkuma, perhaps, demonstrates the extension of this cute but subversive hero/ine: when the stakes are lower (or at their lowest), so is the need for stress and anxiety. Taking it easy is the best option. Rilakkuma’s ‘charm point’ (chāmu pointo, which describes one’s personal appeal), is his transgressive cuteness, and this has paid off for San-X over the years in successful sales of his comic books as well as a variety of products (see fig. 2). Fig. 2: An example of some of the goods for sale in early 2014: a fleecy blanket, a 3d puzzle, note pads and stickers, decorative toggles for a school bag or purse, comic and ‘fan’ books, and a toy car (photo by the author). Over the decade between 2003 and 2013, San X has produced 51 volumes of Rilakkuma comics (Tonozuka, 37 – 42) and over 20 different series of stuffed animals (43 – 45); plus cushions, tote bags, tableware, stationery, and variety goods such as toilet paper holders, umbrellas and contact lens cases (46 – 52). While visiting the Rilakkuma themed shop in Tokyo Station in October 2013, a newly featured and popular product was the Rilakkuma ‘onesie’, a unisex and multipurpose outfit for adults. These products’ diversity are created to meet the consumer desires of Rilakkuma’s significant following in Japan; in a small-scale study of Japanese university students, researchers found that Rilakkuma was the number one nominated ‘favorite character’ (Nosu and Tanaka, 535). Furthermore, students claimed that the attractiveness of favorite characters were judged not just on their appearance, but also due to specific characteristics: ‘characters that are always idle, relaxed, stress-free’ and those ‘that have unusual behavior or stray from the right path’ (ibid) were cited as especially attractive/attracting. Just like Rilakkuma, these researchers found that young Japanese people – the demographic perhaps most troubled by an insecure economic future – are attracted to ‘characters that have flaws in some ways and are not merely cute’ (536). Where to, Rilakkuma? Miller, in her discussion of Japanese animal characters in a variety of cute cultural settings writes Non-human animals emerge as useful metaphors for humans, yet […] it is this aesthetic load rather than the lesson or the ideology behind the image that often becomes the center of our attention. […] However, I think it is useful to separate our analysis of zoomorphic images as vehicles for cuteness from their other possible uses and possible utility in many areas of culture (70). Similarly, we need to look beyond cute, and see what Miller terms as ‘the lesson’ behind the ‘aesthetic load’: here, how cuteness disguises social malaise and eases the shift from ‘Japan Inc.’ to ‘Japan Shrink’. When particular goods are ‘tied’ to other products, the message behind the ‘aesthetic load’ are complicated and deepened. Rilakkuma’s recent commercial (in)activity has been characterized by a variety of ‘tai uppu’ (tie ups), or promotional links between the Rilakkuma image and other similarly aligned products. Traditionally, tie ups in Japan have been most successful when formed between products that were associated with similar audiences and similar aesthetic preferences. We have seen tie ups, for example, between Hello Kitty and McDonald’s (targeting youthful fast food customers) since 1999 (Yano, 129). In ‘Japan Shrink’s’ competitive consumer market, tie ups are becoming more strategic, and all the more interesting. One of the troubled markets in Japan, as elsewhere, is the music industry. Shrinking expendable income coupled with a variety of downloading practices means the traditional popular music industry (primarily in the form of CDs) is in decline. In 2009, Rilakkuma began a co-badged campaign with Tower Records Japan – after all, listening to music is one of Rilakkuma’s listed favourite past times. TRJ was then independent from its failed US counterpart, and a major figure in the music retail scene despite disappointing CD sales since the late 1990s (Stevens, 85). To stir up consumer interest, TRJ offered objects, such as small dolls, towels and shopping bags, festooned with Rilakkuma images and phrases such as ‘Rilakkuma loves Tower Records’ and ‘Relaxed Tour 2012’ (Tonozuka, 72 – 73). Rilakkuma, in a familiar pose lying back with his arms crossed behind his head, but surrounded by musical notes and the phrase ‘No Music, No Life’ (72), presents compact image of the consumer zeitgeist of the day: one’s ikigai (reason for living) is clearly contingent on personal enjoyment, despite Japan’s music industry woes. Rilakkuma also enjoys a close relationship with the ubiquitous convenience store Lawson, which has over 11,000 individual stores throughout Japan and hundreds more overseas (Lawson, Corporate Information). Japanese konbini (the Japanese term for convenience stores), unlike their North American or Australian counterparts, enjoy a higher consumer image in terms of the quality and variety of their products, thus symbolize a certain relaxed lifestyle, as per Merry I. White’s description of the ‘no hands housewife’ breezing through the evening meal preparations thanks to ready made dishes purchased at konbini (72). Japanese convenience stores sell a variety of products, but sweets (Rilakkuma’s favourite) take up a large proportion of shelf space in many stores. The most current ‘Rilakkuma x Lawson campaign’ was undertaken between September and November 2013. During this period, customers earned points to receive a free teacup; certainly Rilakkuma’s cuteness motivated consumers to visit the store to get the prize. All was not well with this tie up, however; complaints about cracked teacups resulted in an external investigation. Finding no causal relationship between construction and fault, Lawson still apologized and offered to exchange any of the approximately 1.73 million cups with an alternate prize for any consumers who so wished (Lawson, An Apology). The alternate prize was still cute in its pink colouring and kawaii character pattern, but it was a larger and much sturdier commuter type mug. Here we see that while Rilakkuma is relaxed, he is still aware of corporate Japan’s increasing sense of corporate accountability and public health. One last tie up demonstrates an unusual alliance between the Rilakkuma franchise and other cultural icons. 2013 marked the ten-year anniversary of Rilakkuma and friends, and this was marked by several prominent campaigns. In Kyoto, we saw Rilakkuma and friends adorning o-mamori (religious amulets) at the famed Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), a major temple in Kyoto (see fig. 3a). The ‘languid dream’ of the lazy bear is a double-edged symbol, contrasting with the disciplined practice of Buddhism and complying with a Zen-like dream state of the beauty of the grounds. Another ten-year anniversary campaign was the tie up between Rilakkuma and the 50 year anniversary of JR’s Yamanote Line, the ‘city loop’ in Tokyo. Fig. 3a: Kiiroitori sits atop Rilakkuma with Korilakkuma by their side at the Golden Pavillion, Kyoto. The top caption reads: ‘Relaxed bear, Languid at the Golden Pavilion; Languid Dream Travelogue’Fig. 3b: a key chain made to celebrate Rilakkuma’s appointment to the JR Line; still lazy, Rilakkuma lies on his side but wears a conductor’s cap. This tie up was certainly a coup, for the Yamanote Line is a significant part of 13 million Tokyo residents’ lives, as well as a visible fixture in the cultural landscape since the early postwar period. The Yamanote, with its distinctive light green coloring (uguisuiro, which translates literally to ‘nightingale [bird] colour’) has its own aesthetic: as one of the first modern train lines in the capital, it runs through all the major leisure districts and is featured in many popular songs and even has its own drinking game. This nostalgia for the past, coupled with the masculine, super-efficient former national railway’s system is thus juxtaposed with the lazy, feminized teddy bear (Rilakkuma is male, but his domain is feminine), linking a longing for the past with gendered images of production and consumption in the present. In figure 3b, we see Rilakkuma riding the Yamanote on his own terms (lying on his side, propped up by one elbow – a pose we would never see a JR employee take in public). This cheeky cuteness increases the iconic train’s appeal to its everyday consumers, for despite its efficiency, this line is severely overcrowded during peak hours and suffers from user malaise with respect to etiquette and safety issues. Life in contemporary Japan is no longer the bright, shiny ‘bubble’ of the 1980s. Japan is wrestling with internal and external demons: the nuclear crisis, the lagging economy, deteriorating relations with China, and a generation of young people who have never experienced the optimism of their parents’ generation. Dreamlike, Japan’s denizens move through the contours of their daily lives much as they have in the past, for major social structures remain for the most part in tact; instead, it is the vision of the future that has altered. In this environment, we can argue that kawaii aesthetics are all the more important, for if we are uncomfortable thinking about negative or depressing topics such as industries in decline, questionable consumer safety standards, and overcrowded trains, a cute bear can make it much more ‘bear’-able.ReferencesDriscoll, Mark. “Debt and Denunciation in Post-Bubble Japan: On the Two Freeters.” Cultural Critique 65 (2007): 164-187. Kondō Aki - akibako. “Profile [of Designer Aki Kondō].” 6 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.akibako.jp/profile/›. Lawson. “Kigyō Jōhō: Kaisha Gaiyō [Corporate Information: Company Overview].” Feb. 2013. 10 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.lawson.co.jp/company/corporate/about.html/›. Lawson. “Owabi to Oshirase: Rōson aki no rilakkuma fea keihin ‘rilakkuma tei magu’ hason no osore [An Apology and Announcement: Lawson’s Autumn Rilakkuma Fair Giveaway ‘Rilakkuma Tea Mug’ Concern for Damage.” 2 Dec. 2013. 10 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.lawson.co.jp/emergency/detail/detail_84331.html›. Miller, Laura. “Japan’s Zoomorphic Urge.” ASIANetwork Exchange XVII.2 (2010): 69-82. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. “Employment Security.” 10 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/policy/employ-labour/employment-security/dl/employment_security_bureau.pdf›. Nakazawa Kumiko, ed. Rirakkuma Daradara Fuan Bukku [Relaxed Bear Leisurely Fan Book]. Tokyo: Kabushikigaisha Shufutoseikatsu. 2008. Nosu, Kiyoshi, and Mai Tanaka. “Factors That Contribute to Japanese University Students’ Evaluations of the Attractiveness of Characters.” IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering 8.5 (2013): 535–537. Occhi, Debra J. “Consuming Kyara ‘Characters’: Anthropomorphization and Marketing in Contemporary Japan.” Comparative Culture 15 (2010): 78–87. Roberson, James E., and Nobue Suzuki, “Introduction”, in J. Roberson and N. Suzuki, eds., Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 1-19. Sakura, Momoko. Chibi Marukochan 1 [Little Maruko, vol. 1]. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1987 [1990]. San-X Net. “Company Info.” 10 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.san-x.jp/COMPANY_INFO.html›. Steger, Brigitte. “Negotiating Gendered Space on Japanese Commuter Trains.” ejcjs 13.3 (2013). 29 Apr. 2014 ‹http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol13/iss3/steger.html› Stevens, Carolyn S. Japanese Popular Music: Culture, Authenticity and Power. London: Routledge, 2008. The Japan Times. “Nonregulars at Record 35.2% of Workforce.” 22 Feb. 2012. 6 Feb. 2014 ‹http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/02/22/news/nonregulars-at-record-35-2-of-workforce/#.UvMb-kKSzeM›. Tonozuka Ikuo, ed. Rirakkuma Tsuzuki Daradara Fan Book [Relaxed Bear Leisurely Fan Book, Continued]. Tokyo: Kabushikigaisha Shufutoseikatsu, 2013. Treat, John Whittier. “Yoshimoto Banana’s Kitchen, or The Cultural Logic of Japanese Consumerism.” In L. Skov and B. Moeran, eds., Women, Media and Consumption in Japan, Surrey: Curzon, 1995. 274-298. 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It is a series of reform and innovation events leading to tremendous changes in Japanese social and political structure; The " Meiji Restoration " has brought dramatic changes in the political, economic and social fields in Japan. The reform of the Started from the change in perception and thinking: the Japanese bravely broke with traditional views, traditional ideas are outdated and well received the thoughts, the progressive knowledge of mankind that had made Japan entered the period of strong integration and achieved miracules in the progress of national development. The achievements of the Meiji estoration have established a solid framework and foundation for the development of modern Japan. Keywords: Meiji Reform, tradition, modernity, development. References [1] Lý Minh Tuấn, Tứ thư bình giải, NXB Tôn giáo, 2011. [2] Vũ Dương Ninh, Nguyễn Văn Kim, “Một số chuyên đề lịch sử thế giới”, tập 2, NXB. Đại học Quốc gia, Hà Nội, 2008. [3] Fukuzawa Yukichi, Phúc Ông tự truyện (Phạm Thu Giang dịch), NXB.Thế giới, 2017 (Xuất bản lần đầu 1899). [4] B.Sansom, Lược sử văn hóa Nhật Bản, tập 2, Nxb. Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội, 1989. [5] Trung Quốc cận đại giản sử, NXB. Nhân dân Thượng Hải, 1975. [6] Phan Đại Liên, Lịch sử Nhật Bản, NXB. Văn hóa Thông tin, Hà Nội, 1995. [7] Fukuzawa Yukichi, “Khuyến học” hay những bài học về tinh thần độc lập tự cường của người Nhật Bản, Nxb Iwanami Bunko Tri thức và phát triển (Phạm Hữu Lợi dịch), NXB Trẻ, 2017. [8] Vũ Khiêu, Nho giáo và phát triển ở Việt Nam, NXB. Khoa học xã hội, Hà Nội, 1997. [9] Francois Jullien, Minh triết phương Đông và Triết học phương Tây hay thể tạng khác của Triết học, editions du Seuil, Février (Nguyên Ngọc dịch), 1998. [10] Nguyễn Thị Hồng Vân, “Cơ cấu xã hội Nhật Bản thời Cận thế”, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Đông Bắc Á, số 4/2009. [11] Đào Trinh Nhất, Nhật Bản Duy Tân 30 năm, Đông phương xuất bản, Sài Gòn, 1936. [12] Liên hiệp Các Hội KH&KT Việt Nam, “Tạp chí Nhà quản lý", số 27(9)/2005. [13]Fukuzawa Yukichi, “Thoát Á luận”, 1885 (Hải Âu, Kuriki Seiichi dịch).http://www.chungta.com/nd/tu-lieu-tra cuu/thoat_a_luan.html [14] Fukuzawa Yukichi, Bàn về văn minh (First published in 1875; Lê Huy Vũ Nam, Nguyễn Anh Phong dịch), Nxb. Thế giới, 2018. [15] Fukuzawa Yukichi, Khuyến học hay những bài học về tinh thần độc lập tự cường của người Nhật Bản, Nxb Iwanami Bunko Tri thức và phát triển (Phạm Hữu Lợi dịch), Nxb. Trẻ, 2017.

Abstrak: Budaya bagaikan sebuah keajaiban yang akan terus ada bersama dengan masyarakat. Di Jepang, budaya tradisional dan budaya modern berjalan beriringan. Salah satu fenomena budaya modern atau budaya populer di Jepang adalah Dansou. Dansou adalah istilah untuk perempuan yang mengenakan pakaian serta bertingkah laku seperti laki-laki. Saat ini fenomena tersebut sudah terlihat cukup lumrah di kalangan masyarakat. Apalagi ditambah dengan budaya populer yang terus mengikuti perkembangan jaman. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menambahkan wawasan mengenai dansou yang dilakukan oleh salah satu idol group bernama Fudanjuku. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah deskriptif kualitatif untuk menganalisis perubahan perilaku dan faktor yang melatar belakangi Fudanjuku untuk ber-dansou. Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah dansou yang dilakukan oleh Fudanjuku. Sumber data adalah artikel berita baik tertulis maupun yang berbentuk video. Hasil penelitian ini adalah perubahan perilaku yang dilakukan oleh Fudanjuku merupakan perubahan yang disengaja guna untuk terus berada di dunia hiburan Jepang, dansou yang dilakukan oleh Fudanjuku merupakan terobosan terbaru dalam budaya populer yang ada di Jepang khususnya dalam bidang musik (idol group), dansou yang dilakukan dalam jangka waktu lama akan menimbulkan perubahan perilaku yang sedikit mencolok sehingga menyebabkan sisi maskulin pada perempuan akan bertambah. Kemudian faktor yang melatar belakangi Fudanjuku untuk ber-dansou disebabkan oleh faktor internal dan eksternal. Dimana kedua faktor tersebut dapat dibilang sama rata. Seperti faktor bakat, kepribadian, kebudayaan maupun sosial ekonomi.Kata kunci: budaya populer, psikologi kepribadian, dansou, idol group Abstract: Culture is like a miracle that will continue to exist with the community. In Japan, traditional culture and modern culture go hand in hand. One of the phenomena of modern culture or popular culture in Japan is Dansou. Dansou is a term for women who wear clothes and behave like men. At present this phenomenon is already quite common among the people. Moreover, coupled with popular culture that continues to follow the development of the era. This study aims to add insight into dansou conducted by one idol group named Fudanjuku. The research method used is descriptive qualitative to analyze changes in behavior and factors underlying Fudanjuku for dansou. The data used in this study are dansou conducted by Fudanjuku. Data sources are both written and video news articles. The results of this study are the behavioral changes made by Fudanjuku are intentional changes in order to continue to be in the Japanese entertainment world, dansou made by Fudanjuku is the latest breakthrough in popular culture in Japan, especially in the field of music (idol group), dansou made in the long run will lead to changes in behavior that are a bit striking, causing the masculine side in women will increase. Then the factors behind Fudanjuku's background for dansou are caused by internal and external factors. Where the two factors can be considered equally. Such as talent, personality, culture and socio-economic factors.Keywords: popular culture, personality psychology, dansou, idol group