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subjectivity can be encoded in a panel as a whole, shifting the viewpoint of the panel to a member of the fictive narrative.

Japanese doujinshika---at least at this sort of amateur level---are often very leery of publicity. This might be a reaction to the arrests of several doujinshika in apparently random, token copyright enforcement cases in recent years (such as the infamous Pokemon doujinshika incident), or it might simply be a sign of how negatively "fringe" behavior is viewed in Japanese society

Snape is gorgeous---or at least that's what the djka at this show seemed to believe.

it's how Snape is depicted emotionally that's most telling on a cross-cultural level.

hindrances in a digital world that copyright laws pose for creative works that, while technically infringing, should perhaps be valued and allowed.6 Certain features of digital technologies and the internet,7 according to Lessig, can permit greater restrictions on remix than were allowed in the past.8

hindrances in a digital world that copyright laws pose for creative works that, while technically infringing, should perhaps be valued and allowed.6 Certain features of digital technologies and the internet,7 according to Lessig, can permit greater restrictions on remix than were allowed in the past.8

Lessig and other legal scholars such as Mehra have pointed to dojinshi in Japan as an example of how permitting more “remix” can contribute to a vibrant cultural industry.

Open Call for Applications for Full-time Position: Comparative Culture Institution: Saitama University Institution URL: http://www.saitama-u.ac.jp/ Department: Faculty of Liberal Arts Institution type: National University Content of Work: The successful applicant will teach four 90-minute undergraduate classes per week and one 90-minute graduate seminar per week, and perform the administrative duties required of full-time faculty. Classes will deal with comparative culture (Japanese and a second culture). The primary language of instruction will be English. Research field: Human Science and Comparative Culture               Japanese Culture with a focus on Visual Studies, Film Studies, or Media Studies. Job type: Assistant Professor (Lecturer) or Associate Professor Rank: Full-time tenured position with mandatory retirement at age 65; Assistant Professor: Full-time tenure-track position with 5-year term limit (one renewal possible; tenure comes with promotion to associate professor). Work area: Kanto district ? Saitama Address:  Saitama University, Faculty of Liberal Arts 255 Shimo-okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama-shi, Saitama-ken, 338-8570 Japan Number of positions: 1 Qualifications:  1. Native or near-native level of fluency in English.  2. Ph.D. in the relevant field (advanced Ph.D. Candidates also may apply).  3. Japanese language reading and speaking skills.  4. Experience teaching in English to Japanese college-level students is preferable. Salary & Benefits: This position carries the standard benefits package, including salary, research funds, and pension available to regular faculty at a national university. Deadline for applications: 2009 / 7 /10 - 2009 / 9 /25 Starting date: 2010/04/01 Application materials: mail the following to the Faculty of Liberal Arts: 1. Detailed CV including research publications, research presentations, and teaching experience. 2. Two letters of recommendation. 3. Copy of Ph.D. diploma (if applicable). 4. Three representative publications (in either English or Japanese) 5. Outline of future research plans (around 1000 words). 6. Statement of your views on education (around 1000 words). Contact: Selection Committee for the HSCC Professor (sc-hscc@gr.saitama-u.ac.jp) Additional information: Personal Information accompanying submitted application materials will be used only for selection and employment purposes. Materials submitted with application will not be returned. Saitama University is an equal opportunity employer.

CALL FOR PAPERS Title: From an Intercultural Crossover to a Transcultural Phenomenon: Manga, Comic, Graphic Novel International Conference at the Cultural Institute of Japan, Cologne (Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln, The Japan Foundation), September 30 – October 2, 2010, in cooperation with CITS (Center for Inter- and Transcultural Studies, University of Cologne) Manga, comics and graphic novels are shaped by different cultural codes and shifting visual and narrative conventions. This conference focuses on the historical development and theoretical aspects of comics and manga by stressing their mutual influences. Whereas European and North American art and popular culture exert a great impact on Japanese manga, such as the Franco-Belgian tradition of “ligne claire” on Ōtomo Katsuhiro and Taniguchi Jirō, Walt Disney’s animated films on Tezuka Ōsamu and Christian and Antique ideas on Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese manga influence the concept and visual conventions of modern European and American comics as well, as can be seen in the work by Frédéric Boilet, Moebius, and Frank Miller, among others. Moreover, the intercultural exchange between the Japanese manga tradition and equivalent forms of sequential art in other Asian countries (i.e. China, India, and Korea) largely contributes to the dissemination of new hybrid art forms in the realm of comics and manga. The purpose of this conference is to bring together scholars and other experts of different countries and different fields, i.e. literary studies, picture theory, cultural studies, linguistics, narratology, film studies, and semiotics, who pursue different areas of investigation in this field. In order to adhere to a general outline for this conference, the papers might deal with one or several of the following topics: • Intermedial, intercultural and narrative perspectives for the interpretation of the graphic novel and other genres of sequential art prominent in both comics and manga • Comparative analysis of the construction of time and setting in comics and manga • The functions of color in comics and manga • Similarities and differences between Japanese and other Asian manga and European and North American comics • Impact of wordless comics and manga • Historical development of the mutual influence of comics and manga • Change of the conventional verbal signs (such as speech balloons, sound effects, typography) • Influence of films and cinematic style on the production of comics and manga • Influence of visual codes derived from art history and popular culture in order to create an individual artistic style Contributions from academics and experts interested in any of these areas and in international perspectives are particularly welcome. There are plans to publishing the proceedings of the conference afterwards in book form. The deadline for proposals is: *31 August 2009*. Please email a 300 word abstract (for a thirty minute paper, followed by 15 minutes for discussion) and a short biography as an attached word document to Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer at: bettina.kuemmerling@t-online.de and Franziska Ehmcke at: amm07@uni-koeln.de Notification of the acceptance of proposals will be made by 30 September 2009. The conference fee will be 120 Euro, including catering, technical equipment, conference folders and various arrangements. The conference venue is located in the Cultural Institute of Japan, not far from the University of Cologne. For details, go to www.jki.de (text in German and Japanese). For further inquiries contact the conference convenors: Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer Universität zu Köln Institut für deutsche Sprache und Literatur II Gronewaldstr. 2 50931 Köln Germany E-Mail: bettina.kuemmerling@t-online.de Franziska Ehmcke Universität zu Köln Ostasiatisches Seminar (Japanologie) Albertus Magnus-Platz 50923 Köln Germany E-Mail: amm07@uni-koeln.de

                                  H-JAPAN                                April 5, 2009 From: David Slater <d-slater@sophia.ac.jp> Graduate Fieldwork Workshop April 18th, 2009 Sophia University (Yotsuya Campus) http://www.fla.sophia.ac.jp/about/location.html Bldg. #10, room 301 10 am-noon ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Economic competitive advantage and cultural exports: how Japan got round cultural distance to claim global leadership in comic book publishing. Julien Vig (Sociology MSc candidate at Hitotsubashi University and research student at the Institute of Innovation Research) ABSTRACT: Since the 1990s, the joint influences of nation branding efforts and the increasing globalization of the economic and technological contexts within which media organizations operate have brought upon an era where America's dominant position as an exporter of contents is becoming increasingly challenged by new entrants, often industrial consortia backed by state agencies. Serious contenders may include India's Bollywood movies, Brazil's telenovelas, or South Korea's array of dynamic entertainment industries. Yet beyond the cultural significance of the phenomenon, their actual export performance only qualifies them as cultural niches when compared to the incumbent transnational American corporations, whose distribution monopolies and market power make their economic control of global flows a reality that remains hardly escapable. Japan, however, distinguished itself by securing global leadership in no less than three content industries. In videogames, animation and comic books, it stands out a leading exporting country, boasting impressive trade surpluses with America and Europe. There is a solid, established interdisciplinary body of international literature dedicated to Japan's videogame industry, and the anime industry has been similarly attracting increasing attention in the past ten years. The comic book industry on the other hand, arguably because of its limited legitimacy and economic significance outside the $4bn+ Japanese domestic market, remains largely understudied except for comic book and popular culture scholars. An overlooked specificity of the comic book industry stems from the most peculiar pattern of globalization it has experienced. From the 1950s onwards, the United States, France and Japan each developed their own publishing paradigm and standard formats: *comic book*, *album* and *manga*. These path-dependent creative and industrial trajectories would hardly interact until the second half of the 1990s. After their late encounter, Japanese manga emerged as the undisputed winner, reaching shares of about 1/3 of total comic book sales in value in both France and America in 2007. This achievement has interesting theoretical implications. On the one hand, media scholars showed that the primary vehicles for the development of * contra-flows* (defined as non-Western media flows which counter the previously established one-way information flow from western to non-west countries) are geographic, cultural or linguistic regionalism; yet this framework cannot account for how Japanese manga could succeed in Western markets, as none of the above patterns seems to apply. On the other hand, management scholars, in the dominant models of firm- and industry-level internationalization, accept as a prerequisite that agents are actively and strategically trying to internationalize; yet Japanese manga publishers long maintained a passive attitude towards market expansion outside of Asia. Drawing upon fieldwork in France and Japan, international comparisons of industry data and evidence from a consumer survey conducted in France in December 2008, my research aims to uncover the economics at work behind the success of Japanese manga on the global comic book scene. What are the conditions for the emergence of sustainable contra-flows? The study of Japan's prominent success in exporting domestic contents may hold the answer to this question and provide a blueprint for later entrants in the global cultural market. -- David H. Slater, Ph.D. Faculty of Liberal Arts Sophia University, Tokyo The Sophia server rejects emails at times. Should your mail to me get returned, please resend to: dhslater@gmail.com. Sorry for the inconvenience. 

Echoing the recent coverage of the troubles facing the anime industry, here are translated excerpts of blogs written by Japanese anime industry insiders. Several are taken from a fascinating website called Off the Record Animation Industry Gossip (subtitle: "Read this if you're thinking of becoming an animator! This is the true face of the anime industry! Do you think you can survive?") Bear in mind that as these blogs are anonymous, there is no way to verify the veracity of the claims. But they are a fascinating counterpoint to the "soft power"/"Japan cool"/"otaku utopia" rhetoric often espoused by foreign journalists.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has therefore decided to give a few young leaders who are conspicuously active in the field of fashion the title “Trend Communicator of Japanese Pop Culture,” commissioning them to conduct PR and other activities, and asking them to extend as much cooperation as possible for cultural projects to be carried out by Japanese embassies abroad and the Japan Foundation.

Ms. Shizuka Fujioka: advisor of “CONOMi,” a well-known shop that sells school-uniform-type clothes