The ‘Cool Japan’ phenomenon is one of the distinctive features of global millennial popular culture. A History of Popular Culture in Japan provides the first historical and analytical overview of popular culture in Japan from its origins in the 17th century to the present day, using it to explore broader themes of conflict, power and meaning in Japanese history.

E. Taylor Atkins shows how Japan was one of the earliest sites for the development of mass-produced, market-oriented cultural products consumed by the urban middle and working classes. Popular culture was pivotal in the rise of Japanese nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and economic development, and to the present day plays a central role in Japanese identity.

In this book launch, E. Taylor Atkins will present an overview to help understand four centuries of popular culture in Japan as an arena for struggles over power, resources, identities, nationhood, ideology, political rights, civil liberties and personal autonomy.

A History of Popular Culture in Japan is published by Bloomsbury (Oct 2022). It is available for purchase via this link.

Please note: The booking system will close at 5pm on Tuesday 24 January 2023. If you wish to book after this time, please email events@dajf.org.uk

About the contributors

E. Taylor Atkins

E. Taylor Atkins is Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at Northern Illinois University, USA. He is the author of Blue Nippop: Authenticating Jazz in Japan (2001), Primitive Selves: Koreana in the Japanese Colonial Gaze, 1910-1945 (2010), and editor of Jazz Planet (2003).