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Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age

Mark McLelland

Scholarship on Japan has recently broadened to include minority perspectives on communities from marginal workers to those whose sexuality has long been overlooked. This volume, with its combination of fieldwork in the gay and lesbian communities and the use of historical sources such as journals and documents, breaks important new ground in this field. It examines gay life in the Japanese Pacific War, addresses transgender and lesbian as well as gay issues, examines the interface of queer society with the U.S. occupation and the international community, contests major interpretations of contemporary queer society, and introduces readers to the development of lesbian, transgender, and gay communities in postwar Japan.Queer Japan from the Pacific Age to the Internet Age provides a historical outline of the development of sexual-minority identity categories and community formation through a detailed analysis of both niche and mainstream publications, including magazines, newspapers, biographies, memoirs, and Internet sites. The material is also augmented with interview data from individuals who have had a long association with Japan's queer cultures.Including a wealth of images from the "perverse press," this book will appeal to students and general readers interested in modern and contemporary Japan and in gender studies and sexuality.
  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 256 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼
978-0-7425-3786-6 • Hardback • March 2005 • $159.00 • (£123.00)
978-0-7425-3787-3 • Paperback • March 2005 • $71.00 • (£55.00)
978-1-4616-4160-5 • eBook • March 2005 • $67.00 • (£52.00)
Series: Asian Voices
Subjects: History / Asia / Japan
Mark McLelland is lecturer in sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, at the University of Wollongong.
Chapter 1 List of Illustrations
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 Heteronormativity on the Road to War
Chapter 5 Japan's Postwar Perverse Culture
Chapter 6 Gay Boys, Blue Boys and Brother Girls
Chapter 7 The Development of a Homo Subculture
Chapter 8 Toward a Lesbian and Gay Consciousness
Chapter 9 Transgender Lives
Chapter 10 Afterword
Chapter 11 Bibliography
[This] book will serve as a welcome corrective to sparse earlier publications that have overly generalized, homogenized and singularized homosexuality and other queer experiences in Japan. The book will be appreciated by students of Japan's post–World War II era who have found it difficult so far to position Japan's queer culture in an international setting.
— Asian Studies Review


This book provides an accessible and readable introduction to subcultures which have received little attention in English-language scholarship (or in mainstream Japanese scholarship), drawing on little-known archival sources and making good use of more recent Internet sources. There is no comparable study available.
— Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong


A detailed and interesting account. McLelland first discusses the emergence of the category of sexuality within Japanese discourse, then looks at the vast and neglected field of magazines and other periodicals that began to appear postwar.
— Donald Richie; The Japan Times


In this important new book on Japanese culture, McLelland argues against using Western concepts when studying Japan, especially the topics of this book, since Japan historically had no categories of "heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual" or anti-gay oppression from religion, medicine, or law. . . . Highly recommended.
— Choice Reviews


This is history of sexuality at its best, both insightful and finely detailed. Mark McLelland has identified cultural phenomena that might otherwise have been neglected, and has brought them together in a sustained and compelling analysis of queer Japan.
— Peter Cryle, author ofThe Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France


Queer Japan from the PacificWar to the Internet Age is an important accomplishment in the field of Japan studies. [It] will be indispensable for anyone embarking on research on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandings of Japanese society.
— The Journal of Japanese Studies


. . . a major conribution to Japan studies.Queer Japan will be indispensible for anyone embaking on reserach on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandins of Japanese society.
— The Journal of Japanese Studies


McLellands' Queer Japan is a serious contribution to queer scholarship, blending as it does primary and secondary source materials, well-covered territories, and new information for Anglophone audiences. Overall, the book is well researched, well written, and well edited and brings new information forward for inspection.
— Journal of Asian Studies


Meticulously researched and engagingly told. . . .McLelland's accessibly style and knack for provocative translation ensure it will appeal equally to those with a passing interest in gender studies, Japan, or both.
— Justin Ellis, Japan Visitor Website


A richly detailed history of sexual subcultures in postwar Japan. Making use of an impressive array of materials culled from journalistic accounts as well as literary, sexological, and social science texts, McLelland provides Anglophone readers with a wide-ranging introduction to the ways in which various forms of nonnormative sexuality have been imagined and experience in Japan from the 1920s to the present.
— Journal of the History of Sexuality


Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • Scholarship on Japan has recently broadened to include minority perspectives on communities from marginal workers to those whose sexuality has long been overlooked. This volume, with its combination of fieldwork in the gay and lesbian communities and the use of historical sources such as journals and documents, breaks important new ground in this field. It examines gay life in the Japanese Pacific War, addresses transgender and lesbian as well as gay issues, examines the interface of queer society with the U.S. occupation and the international community, contests major interpretations of contemporary queer society, and introduces readers to the development of lesbian, transgender, and gay communities in postwar Japan.Queer Japan from the Pacific Age to the Internet Age provides a historical outline of the development of sexual-minority identity categories and community formation through a detailed analysis of both niche and mainstream publications, including magazines, newspapers, biographies, memoirs, and Internet sites. The material is also augmented with interview data from individuals who have had a long association with Japan's queer cultures.Including a wealth of images from the "perverse press," this book will appeal to students and general readers interested in modern and contemporary Japan and in gender studies and sexuality.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 256 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼
    978-0-7425-3786-6 • Hardback • March 2005 • $159.00 • (£123.00)
    978-0-7425-3787-3 • Paperback • March 2005 • $71.00 • (£55.00)
    978-1-4616-4160-5 • eBook • March 2005 • $67.00 • (£52.00)
    Series: Asian Voices
    Subjects: History / Asia / Japan
Author
Author
  • Mark McLelland is lecturer in sociology in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, at the University of Wollongong.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Chapter 1 List of Illustrations
    Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
    Chapter 3 Introduction
    Chapter 4 Heteronormativity on the Road to War
    Chapter 5 Japan's Postwar Perverse Culture
    Chapter 6 Gay Boys, Blue Boys and Brother Girls
    Chapter 7 The Development of a Homo Subculture
    Chapter 8 Toward a Lesbian and Gay Consciousness
    Chapter 9 Transgender Lives
    Chapter 10 Afterword
    Chapter 11 Bibliography
Reviews
Reviews
  • [This] book will serve as a welcome corrective to sparse earlier publications that have overly generalized, homogenized and singularized homosexuality and other queer experiences in Japan. The book will be appreciated by students of Japan's post–World War II era who have found it difficult so far to position Japan's queer culture in an international setting.
    — Asian Studies Review


    This book provides an accessible and readable introduction to subcultures which have received little attention in English-language scholarship (or in mainstream Japanese scholarship), drawing on little-known archival sources and making good use of more recent Internet sources. There is no comparable study available.
    — Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong


    A detailed and interesting account. McLelland first discusses the emergence of the category of sexuality within Japanese discourse, then looks at the vast and neglected field of magazines and other periodicals that began to appear postwar.
    — Donald Richie; The Japan Times


    In this important new book on Japanese culture, McLelland argues against using Western concepts when studying Japan, especially the topics of this book, since Japan historically had no categories of "heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual" or anti-gay oppression from religion, medicine, or law. . . . Highly recommended.
    — Choice Reviews


    This is history of sexuality at its best, both insightful and finely detailed. Mark McLelland has identified cultural phenomena that might otherwise have been neglected, and has brought them together in a sustained and compelling analysis of queer Japan.
    — Peter Cryle, author ofThe Telling of the Act: Sexuality as Narrative in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century France


    Queer Japan from the PacificWar to the Internet Age is an important accomplishment in the field of Japan studies. [It] will be indispensable for anyone embarking on research on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandings of Japanese society.
    — The Journal of Japanese Studies


    . . . a major conribution to Japan studies.Queer Japan will be indispensible for anyone embaking on reserach on gender and sexuality in Japan, and will also be valuable in undergraduate and graduate courses to increase the diversity of our representations and understandins of Japanese society.
    — The Journal of Japanese Studies


    McLellands' Queer Japan is a serious contribution to queer scholarship, blending as it does primary and secondary source materials, well-covered territories, and new information for Anglophone audiences. Overall, the book is well researched, well written, and well edited and brings new information forward for inspection.
    — Journal of Asian Studies


    Meticulously researched and engagingly told. . . .McLelland's accessibly style and knack for provocative translation ensure it will appeal equally to those with a passing interest in gender studies, Japan, or both.
    — Justin Ellis, Japan Visitor Website


    A richly detailed history of sexual subcultures in postwar Japan. Making use of an impressive array of materials culled from journalistic accounts as well as literary, sexological, and social science texts, McLelland provides Anglophone readers with a wide-ranging introduction to the ways in which various forms of nonnormative sexuality have been imagined and experience in Japan from the 1920s to the present.
    — Journal of the History of Sexuality


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