japanamerica

Specs HERE & HERE . Please join us!

[photo Copyright © 1994-2009 Eric T. Jorgensen ( SeattleOtaku )] A Home of One’s Own When I depart Japan for the US, I usually target the American coasts. My flights out of Narita are bound for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle, and many of my fellow passengers are Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Singaporean, with a smattering of other Southeast Asians. As a half-Japanese American, I am surrounded by my ilk—people who look and behave approximately like me. Most of my fellow passengers have dark hair, slender builds and tawny skin. We use chopsticks and drink tea. We grin subtly. With few exceptions, we speak sotto voce . The same holds true when I fly west from T okyo to London or Amsterdam, with a smaller contingent of Middle Eastern passengers. Many Asians trek as tourists or businesspeople to flagship European cities, and numerous flights from the Asian continent connect through Narita. So while I am officially leaving Japan when I board my flights, I remain surrounded by...

"Anime is a prime example of why two nukes just wasn’t enough." So says State Rep. Nickolas Levasseur from my former home of New Hampshire on his FB page: http://www.facebook.com/nickolas.levasse ur He has since apologized--by saying that the remark was "posted in jest." Funny guy. I'm introducing myself to Nick at-- (60 3)782-4862, nickolas.levasseur@gmail.com --with a short reading list on Hiroshima and Nagasaki so he can bone up on his humor. Wonder if he can read.

I am honored to be part of a panel discussion tomorrow, March 26th, at The Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting 2010 in Philadelphia, PA. The panel is titled, "The Japan Knowledge Industry Outside the Academy," and is partly intended to bridge the worlds of journalism and academia. I will join authors Karl Taro Greenfeld ( Speed Tribes ) and William M. Tsutsui ( Godzilla on My Mind ), journalist Misako Hida ( The Wall Street Journal Japan ) and Professor Laura Miller (editor, Bad Girls of Japan ). Pretty heady company and a potentially provocative topic. The panel takes place from 10:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Grand Ballroom Salon D (wherever that is) at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel . For more info, scroll down to Panel #69 here . If you're in the area--and if you can find us--please join in.

From TYO NRT to NYC JFK--a life lived in transit and acronyms.

Is American prudery affecting Japanese law? "The sentencing of 39-year-old American Christopher Handley on obscenity charges in Iowa last month and an upcoming vote on a “virtual porn” bill in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly’s General Affairs Committee have sent shivers of anxiety through fans of Japanese popular culture worldwide. Forget the recent U.S.-Japan dustups over the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base and the Toyota recall debacle. Suddenly, both postwar allies are converging on the same page in their desire to delimit the expressive sexuality in manga and anime. In U.S. courts, Handley pleaded guilty in May of last year to possessing manga featuring “drawings of children being sexually abused,” and was sentenced on Feb. 11 to six months in prison–though his lawyer has recently noted that Handley’s submissive plea will likely win him a few months in a halfway house, with no actual prison time. Yomiuri HERE ; expanded w/reader comments at TCJ HERE , and w/graphics @...

These are heady and head-aching times in Japan--economy tanking, government paralyzed, and otaku culture in the microscope as bills to censor manga and anime await approval. The sentencing last month of Chris Handley in the US for 'obscene manga' possession have inspired fits of anxiety here in Tokyo. Otherwise reclusive manga artists staged a protest press conference on Monday, and the bill gets voted on in a low-level committee in Tokyo on Friday. [**UPDATE: According to this report in Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, helpfully translated by the folks at Anime News Network here , the vote has been postponed--possibly till June. Think the protest was effective?] Thursday night, I speak on these issues and more with Matt Alt ("Yokai Attack!"), Patrick Galbraith ("Otaku Encyclopedia") and Renata Rusca of Kyoto Seika Daigaku. I am honored to be in such vaunted company. Please join us. Specs and info here: GLOBALIZING OTAKU

Please join us this Saturday at Kinokuniya, NYC , on Bryant Park, for a celebration of the US DVD release of Hayao Miyazaki's PONYO. I will give a keynote address at 4 p.m., signing copies of Japanamerica and singing the Ponyo theme song.

Join us in Atlanta, Georgia this week, March 3-5. Public lecture March 4, 6:30-8:00 p.m. (details below).