The Body in Contemporary Japanese Society: Perceptions, Expectations, Alterations

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

In our age, the concept of gender has been redefined, yet aesthetic ideals related to physical appearance have remained unchanged in the sense that they are as rigidly constructed and pervasive as they were hundreds of years ago. Our panel is an investigation into how bodies are perceived in contemporary Japan, and into how they are altered to suit the accepted model of beauty, the image required for a certain job or to project a different image of the self. Focusing on the sex industry in Japan, Yoko Kumada will analyze the characteristics that determine the success or failure of women who apply for jobs at an SM club in Tokyo. Also related to the entertainment industry, Carmen Tamas will discuss the transformations drag queens undergo in order to change from the massive, virile-looking men of daily life into the glamorous women on stage. Adrian Tamas will look into the symbolism of hair and lack thereof as markers of physical attractiveness and indicators of social status, while Yusuke Arai will focus on an element of Japanese subculture, gyaru and gyaru-o, and how the transformations their social behavior has suffered during the past twenty years are reflected in their physical appearance. Our project focuses on specific groups within Japanese society (drag queens, sex workers, youth tribes) in an attempt to clarify how they use their bodies to assert and represent themselves, and on how the way their bodies are perceived by society creates a mirror definition of the same self.

Area of Study

• Northeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Carmen Tamas, Kobe University

Individual Presentations

• Wanted Bodies and Unwanted Bodies: Logic and Power in the Process of Selecting Female Sex Workers in Tokyo - Yoko Kumada, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

• The Bald and the Beautiful—Aesthetics and Symbolism of Hair in Japan - Adrian Ovidiu Tamas, Osaka Electro-Communication University

• The Body as Canvas—Osaka Drag Queens from Kabuki to Lady Gaga - Carmen Tamas, Kobe University

• From “Bad” to “Kawaii”: A Case Study of Gyaru and Gyaru-o Tribe - Yusuke Arai, Hitotsubashi University

Discussant

• Irina Holca, Kyoto University