1 the well-tempura'd nation:. 2 japan, television food shows, and cultural nationalism

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The Well-Tempura'd Nation:

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Japan, television food Japan, television food shows, and cultural shows, and cultural

nationalismnationalism

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Todd Todd Joseph Miles Joseph Miles

HoldenHolden

Graduate School of Graduate School of International Cultural Studies International Cultural Studies

(GSICS)(GSICS)Tohoku UniversityTohoku University

Sendai, JapanSendai, Japan

By

Todd Todd Joseph Miles Joseph Miles

HoldenHolden

Graduate School of International Graduate School of International Cultural Studies (GSICS)Cultural Studies (GSICS)

Department of Multi-Cultural Department of Multi-Cultural SocietiesSocieties

Tohoku UniversityTohoku UniversitySendai, JapanSendai, Japan

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Prepared forPrepared for

The 10th International The 10th International Conference of EAJSConference of EAJS

Warsaw, PolandWarsaw, PolandAugust 27-30, 2003August 27-30, 2003

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RESEARCH PANEL 4:

Food and Drink in Contemporary Japan

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I. IntroductionI. Introduction

In contemporary Japan, In contemporary Japan, “Food “Food Talk” is a Talk” is a unitary, organized, unitary, organized, continuous, redundant stream of continuous, redundant stream of discoursediscourse

• Filtered through and delivered by the Filtered through and delivered by the most widely-consumed medium of most widely-consumed medium of communicationcommunication in Japan in Japan

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Research PremiseResearch Premise

Food is not a trifling matter on Japanese

television• Aired year-round

• Positioned on every channel

• In every time period

• Throughout the broadcast day

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MethodsMethods

In this paper I demonstrate In this paper I demonstrate this by reporting the this by reporting the

results of a systematically-results of a systematically-collected, qualitatively-collected, qualitatively-

analyzed sample of TV food analyzed sample of TV food programming.programming.

• regularly scheduled TV shows

• news segments

• commercials

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Overview of Results:Overview of Results:

At their simplest, food shows At their simplest, food shows work (both in isolation and as work (both in isolation and as a unity) to:a unity) to:

• reproduce traditional reproduce traditional Japanese cuisine and Japanese cuisine and cultural morescultural mores

• educating viewers about educating viewers about regional customs and regional customs and historyhistory

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OverviewOverview

Unlike a country like America, which has no “national food”, Japan’s culinary culture is presented in an unending stream of television segments as one cloth.

• Ethnic and regional foods do not balkanize identity

• The ingredients, utensils, vernacular, and approaches are similar enough to create a collective cuisine

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OverviewOverview

In this way, and perhaps most saliently, foIn this way, and perhaps most saliently, food-talk engages od-talk engages nihonjinronnihonjinron -- the theory of -- the theory of the uniqueness of Japanese culture.the uniqueness of Japanese culture.

Food talk is shown to be:Food talk is shown to be:

• insular,insular,

• exclusionary,exclusionary,

• reproductive, and, thereforereproductive, and, therefore

• serves as a powerful pull toward cultural nationalism.serves as a powerful pull toward cultural nationalism.

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OverviewOverview

Finally, despite its interior focusFinally, despite its interior focus

-- whether inadvertent or not ---- whether inadvertent or not --

food shows also serve as food shows also serve as globalizersglobalizers They are a geo-cultural screen

working to differentiate indigenous from exogenous

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Overview:Overview:

They teach viewers about the “peculiar” practices of far-away places

and

expose viewers to ideas, words, people and ways of life beyond borders….

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Overview:Overview:

Even if sometimes those “far-away” people are only Japanese in another city or prefecture in Japan

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Overview:Overview:

In this way, then, food shows In this way, then, food shows can assist in integrating can assist in integrating outside influences and outside influences and lifestyles into Japanlifestyles into Japan

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ConclusionsConclusions

Taken together, food shows serve:not only as a medium for reproducing Japanese society,

but as tool for decoding its deeper-most structure, as well.

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ConclusionsConclusions

As such, they can serve as a means for greater theorization about Japan

In this talk I wish to focus specifically on the relationship between food talk, nationalism and identity.

II. Theoretical Dimensions:II. Theoretical Dimensions:5 Threads5 Threads

1.1. Japanese IdentityJapanese Identity

2.2. Sociology of CultureSociology of Culture

3.3. Representation/Representation/SignificationSignification

4.4. Social ReproductionSocial Reproduction

5.5. Mediated IdentityMediated Identity

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1. Japanese Identity

At the risk of oversimplification, contemporary Japanese identity can be seen said to have been problematized in terms of the following dialectic:

Group modelversus Myth of collectivism

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Debunking GroupishnessDebunking Groupishness

“The Japanese have rather developed, though different, concepts of privacy and the self… a close look at Japanese society will reveal healthy expressions of self-interest, non-conformity and the differentiation of one individual from another.”

-- Moeur and Sugimoto 1986: 210

Past ExamplesPast Examples

Holden (1994)Holden (1994): accessories such as buttons, pins, shoelaces and bows serve as “discreet statements of difference for those wishing to be considered as discrete statements.”

McVeigh (2003)McVeigh (2003): cell phone use reveals extensive “interiority” and “personalized individualization”

SMAP (2003)SMAP (2003): sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana humans ought to be more like flowers; recognize that there is no “number one”; the most we should claim is that we are “only one” (of a kind).

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TV Food TV Food TalkTalk

The major – if not the baseline – discourse in televised food talk is that of national group, of collective Japanese identity

With liberal amounts of individual-regarding discourse

especially in advertising.

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2. Sociology of Culture2. Sociology of Culture

Raymond WilliamsRaymond Williams (1981:33-5):“Any adequate sociology of culture must… be an historical sociology…

Directed at the content of this paper, the claim goes that food culture must be seen within the larger socio-political, economic and ideational context, one spanning centuries.

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Sociology of CultureSociology of Culture

Raymond WilliamsRaymond Williams (1981:33-5):Viewed in a macro-context, we must recognize “on the one hand, the variable relations between ‘cultural producers’… and recognizable social institutionsinstitutions; on the other hand, the variable relations in which ‘cultural producers’ have been organized or have organized themselves, their formationsformations.

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Sociology of CultureSociology of Culture

Where the institutional formation is television

And TV programming　 is the “art” that its institutional components produce.

The actors, hosts, guests, directors, camera men, creative consultants, market researchers, advertisers and a whole host of commodity producers (components) are the formation’s “artists”.

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3. Representation/Signifi

cationHallHall (1992): “(Cultural Studies) has to analyze… the constitutive and political nature of representation, itself.”

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Thus… in Media-Centered Studies of Culture

One must focus on how the visual and verbal representations construct their object

One must ask: What is the image purporting to represent? How does the image construct the thing it is purporting to represent? (From Hall, ibid.)

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RepresentationRepresentation//SignificationSignification

As the content of food discourse makes clear, visual and verbal representations can often be read as references to:

Nation Group (such such as gender, age cohort,

region or locality) Self

In short, the signs used and representations made in food programming often serves to further identity discourse.

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4. Social Reproduction“Studies in all… audience research traditions make one key point: the media are powerful agencies of reinforcement.”

-- Curran (1996:149)

The “Agenda Setting Function” of media:Holden (1995)Holden (1995): media images are “directive”: they promote particular

lifestyles and images while suppressing others they are “selective”: they choose to depict particular

attitudes rather than others, presenting them as all that viewers should value

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Construction / Construction / ReproductionReproduction

In short, media’s “selectivityselectivity” is a form of social construction.

And media’s “directivitydirectivity” operates as a motor for cultural reproduction.

Socialization, Social Construction, Cultural

ReproductionBerger and Luckmann (1967):An institutional world tends to present society members with an objectified external reality.

This “objectivated social reality” is internalized in the course of socialization;

It is then used to produce the conditions which will, in turn, reproduce that very same social reality.

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TV’s Social Reproduction TV’s Social Reproduction FunctionFunction

Television is one such institution; a central reproducer, it nurtures and replenishes a societal member’s

“cultural stock of knowledge” it keeps particular images and ideas circulating

throughout society

Media and IdentityMedia and Identity

As Gauntlett (2002) says: “The media disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle.” To this we could include nationnation and

nationalismnationalism (as we will see in the data to come)

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5. Mediated Identity

It is out of the interaction between message distribution and audience processing that identity results

I wish to speak here of a particular kind of identity formation, associated with media (in this case television).

Woodward: Woodward: On IdentityOn Identity

“the interface between subjective positions and social and cultural situations (that) gives us an idea of who we are and of how we relate to others and to the world in which we live.”

Hall:Hall: On Identity On Identity

Identity is “produced within specific historical and institutional sites within specific discursive formations and practices, by specific enunciative strategies.” (1996:4)

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The Nexus Between The Nexus Between Television and Television and

IdentityIdentityHistorically situated: its content treats activities past, and is sustained by practices present;

An institutional site: communications are one of the major institutions tied to politics and economy (specifically) and society (more generally);

Specific discursive formations : thematic concerns about nation, state, gender, development, class, capitalism, consumption, and the like.

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The Nexus Between The Nexus Between Television and IdentityTelevision and Identity

Disseminating statements of affiliation (to “classes” such as nation, sub-group, and self);

Marked by clear practices (genres of TV viewing, packaged using tropes of communication within the particular medium);

Involving specific strategies (ways of communication that are unique not only to the medium but also to each identity-context or identification-group depicted and/or appealed to).

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The Compound Nature of The Compound Nature of Mediated IdentityMediated Identity

A construct that is both interactive (a la Woodward) and institutional (a la Hall)

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Space and TimeSpace and Time

Utilizing Williams and Hall, we can perceive identity discourse as transpiring both in space and time, where:(in terms of space) identity is framed in terms of “levels” or zones by which people arrange themselves in “social space”

(in terms of time) there are historical stages which I call a country (and its people’s) “globalization career”

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Space = Space = LevelsLevels

We can distinguish between four We can distinguish between four zones toward which identity zones toward which identity messages refer and at which messages refer and at which they strike:they strike: trans-nationaltrans-national nationalnational groupgroup individualindividual

Time = “Time = “Globalization Globalization CareerCareer””

Such careers, though unique to every national/cultural context, share the characteristic of having stages of cultural, political, economic, social and ideational inflowinflow and outflowoutflow. examples include: the current flow of athletes

from Japan to soccer and baseball leagues in Europe and America

Globalization Career: Globalization Career: FoodFood

As for food stages of import and export have helped mark certain stages in Japan’s globalization career. Import: the introduction of Chinese culinary ideas – fr

om noodles to dumplings during diplomatic and cultural exchange nearly a millennium ago -- and more recently the “ethnic boom” that attended the so-called “era of internationalization” in the 1980s.

Export: of sushi and the influence of Japanese aesthetics and ingredients such as shitake, tofu, miso, soy sauce and sake in western cooking during the epoch of “minimal cuisine”

Modeling Mediated Modeling Mediated IdentityIdentity

(1) significations(2) conveyed through representations of:

sameness difference

(3) brought into relief by references to: self and/or individual circumstance

(4) and/or depictions of relationship(s) between: individuals and/or groups

(5) references to (socially constructed) group-based traits

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Mediated Identity: Mediated Identity: Institutional SiteInstitutional Site

From this we can infer that institutions (such as commercial, information or entertainment media such as TV) play a prominent role in the construction and communication of identifications In short, the mediations are ensconced in and disseminated via TV

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III. Food and Television III. Food and Television MediaMedia

In past work I have shown food appears in songs, TV dramas, ads, even sporting events like the World Cup

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Deeper Socio-cultural ThemesDeeper Socio-cultural Themes

historical practices

professionalism

preparedness

intelligence

organization

cultural literacy

westernization

aesthetics glo-calization

consumption pleasure Japanese uniqueness

competition star culture

gender

sexuality capitalism Health/body

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Day 日 月 火 水 木 金 土

Show Riori Banzai

SMAP x SMAP

Ninki mono de iko

u

Tonnerus no nama de daradara

ikasette

Douchi no ryori shiou

Ryori no tetsuj

in

Chyu-bo-desu

yo

Time 6 p.m. 10 p.m. 8 p.m. 9 p.m. 9 p.m. 11 p.m. 11 p.m.

Theme

Come to know stars through the foods they

like

Competition, Sexuality, Image mgt., Commercial-

ization

Leveling (of taste,

ideas, and

status)

Emphasis on technique, craft, preparati

on, “ki”

Competi-tion, Informat-ion, Cultural natio

nal-ism

Competi-tion, Ingenuity, Skill, some national-ism

Intimate glimpses of stars abetted by food preparat-i

on

A Sample Week of Food A Sample Week of Food DiscourseDiscourse

To consider the social and cultural discourse that flows through food

Food Out of Context

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Example: London Hearts

In this show various segments appear in which dating activities occur. And

invariably, such activities transpire in restaurants, pubs or coffee shops.

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Regular Programming

Food Shows amount to 5% of the programming between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on any given day.

“Food with Guests” and “Cooking as Part of the Show” average 2 hours each per day.

By Comparison: News accounts for 15% of the broadcast day for all stations from 5 a.m. to Midnight

These figures do not include the minutes in which food is introduced as a minor or inadvertent part of the show.

Food as a Recognized Viewing Category

In TV Guide food is one of the handful of genres singled out for attention outside the simple daily timetable.

genre categories include: “Cinema”, “Music”, “Sports”, “Cooking” and “Animation” (respectively).

prima facie evidence that food holds a special prominence in the consciousness of Japanese TV viewers.

All five major networks (four private, one public) have at least one show listed; including dates, air times, as well as foods prepared

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CodedCoded

1. Instruction

2. Shared with guests

3. Food as entertainment

4. Introduced during a non-cooking show

5. As an element of travel or discovery

6. Advertising.

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1. Instruction:1. Instruction: Kaminuma Emiko no oshaberi kûking (Daily 1:05 –

1:15)

Instruction:Instruction: Kaminuma Emiko no oshaberi kûking (Daily 1:05 –

1:15)Teaches viewers how to cook a particular ingredient, in three styles: Japanese, Chinese and French/Italian.

Imparts the idea that there are proper methods and forms to follow in cooking.

2. Shared With Guests2. Shared With Guests: Tunnerusu no minasan no okage deshita. ("Tunnels' because of everyone") [Thursdays 9:00]

In this show, cooking is a regular “corner”.

Two guests – usually one male and one female – seek to guess which of 4 prepared dishes includes one item that the other guest absolutely detests.

Tunnerusu no minasan no okage deshita

There is more than a bit of sadism in this show as the guest is forced to continually eat something that turns his or her stomach--all the while smiling and pretending s/he loves it. In many ways this suits the Japanese cultural value of gaman, of bearing up under intolerable conditions.

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3. Entertainment3. Entertainment: : Gotchi Batoru Gotchi Batoru (Banquet Battle / [ I will] Treat [you] Battle) [Friday 7:00 p.m]Action:1. a narrator describes the ingredients

of the dish;2. the audience views the chef preparing

the dish;3. the “patrons” (guests) discuss the

food as they taste it and guess its price;

4. Advisories flash on the screen informing the audience whether a guess is close or far off;

5. The farthest off treats everyone else.

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4. During a Non-Cooking Show4. During a Non-Cooking ShowMerenge no kimochi (Feelings Like Meringue) [Saturday 12:00 p.m.]

Saturday 12:00 p.m. Merenge no kimochi (Feelings Like Meringue)

Like many food shows, Meringue uses food as a vehicle for understanding another human being.a star (author, comedian, singer, actor)

The person (generally male) will be “interviewed” by 3 female hosts and then introduce the hosts and audience to a food that s/he likes to cook.

5. During Travel/Discovery5. During Travel/Discovery:Tabi no kaori toki no asobi (“The Fragrance of Travel, Time of Playing”) [Tuesdays 8:00 p.m.]

2 female and one male star take viewers on a tour of different places and show what can be eaten (and done) in those places.

During Travel/Discovery: Tabi no kaori toki no asobi (“The Fragrance of Travel, Time of Playing”) [Tuesdays 8:00 p.m.]

Food is recognized as an integral part of place;

It also serves to introduce people and practices of an area.

6. Advertising6. Advertising(continuity Editing)(continuity Editing)

Advertising plays an enormous Advertising plays an enormous role in placing food at the role in placing food at the center of Japanese societycenter of Japanese society

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Function of AdsFunction of Ads

Used as a device to heighten tension or underscore the show’s major themes

Ads interrupt: just before a judge’s decision (SMAPxSMAP, D

ouchi, Tetsujin) when it is revealed whether the host can follow

the correct procedure (Tonnerus) before the delivery of the punchline to a story a

guest is telling (Merengue) prior to announcing which star correctly evalua

ted an item (Ninki mono).

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Ad FunctionAd Function

But ads are not departures from the world of food, as a large proportion of them are devoted to edible items.

In this way, they underscore food's intimate relationship to economy--a point that SMAPxSMAP and Meringue make with their tie-in goods and yearly recipe books offered for sale. A point underscored by shows which provide maps to and menus of the restaurants where the weekly chefs operate.

Food Ads on TV: some Food Ads on TV: some numerical datanumerical data

Food Compared to Other Products:Raw Numbers (March 2001)

Total Ads, March 2001 (3656)# of Food Ads, March 2001 (681)

Electrical

Food

Events

Cars

Sundries

Most Frequent Ad Most Frequent Ad Categories Categories (Collapsed)(Collapsed)

0% 50% 100%

April2001

April2000

EventsFoodTelecomSalesSundriesHealthStation InfoCars

Drinks

Sweets

AlcoholElectricalBanking

Top Categories of Ads (Itemized)

April2001 April

2000

0

5

10

15

20

25 EventsFoodTelecomSalesSundriesHealthStation InfoCarsDrinks

Sweets

Alcohol

Ele c t r i ca lBanking

Top Categories of Ads (Itemized)

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Qualitative as well as Qualitative as well as QuantitativeQuantitative

Just in terms of numbers, then, advertising serves to reproduce

food-culture in Japan

However, qualitatively, as well, the content of food-ads works to emphasize themes that are most

central to social structure and in social consciousness

Emphasis on Emphasis on secondary secondary socio-cultural discourse.socio-cultural discourse.

Embedded in this commercial discourse one finds deeper social themes such as health, diet, gender roles, sexuality, race, globalization, even death.

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Predominant themes Predominant themes include:include:

* Gender Roles * Health* Gender Roles * Health* Sexuality * Diet* Sexuality * Diet* Sexism * * Sexism * FitnessFitness

* Body * Star-* Body * Star-cultcult

* Consumption * Identity* Consumption * Identity* Nationalism* Nationalism

Gender RolesGender Roles

Food ads reinforce the message that women stay

inside and cook while men go out and play

Gender RolesGender Roles

Or else that women wait at home for their husbands, who they happily greet at the end of the day with a warm

meal

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Gender RolesGender Roles

Ads reinforce the idea that women are food shoppers

And that that they set high standards for freshness which must be met in their kitchen

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Gender Roles

Ads continually send us the message that women keep their families

nourished, healthy and happy—even when they have moved

away to college or work in another

city.

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SexualitySexuality

Through food comes discourse about heterosexual intimacy

SexualitySexualityAnd women as the objects

of lesbian fantasy

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Sexuality

So, too, physical contact and the expression of

emotion are present in ad text

Sexuality

Food also is the occasion to present men as desired subjects

SexismSexismAnd food ads are a medium through which women are continually partialized

SexismSexism

In food ads, women are: ever objectified, taken advantage of, and put on display

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BodyBody

Part and parcel of this trend is

the emphasis

on bodies

BodyBody

Both for women

And men

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HealthHealth

Ads for energy drinks and antacids often focus on the difficult life of the salary-man

Which, of course, also reproduces notions of

gender roles

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IV. AnalysisIV. Analysis

Food, Forms of Food, Forms of Discourse, and IdentityDiscourse, and Identity

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Ubiquity / Invisibility

Well beyond the formal data identified by coding TV Guides content analyzing TV shows whose primary theme is “food”…

Is the informal, invisible data that floods TV programming about food food is present in an overwhelming number of shows—even

those which have nothing to do with food. Quiz shows Sports News Travel Late night talk shows

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3 Forms of Discourse3 Forms of Discourse

1. Dedicated2. Inadvertent3. Secondary

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DedicatedDedicated

A form of discourse devoted exclusively – or at least primarily – to food.Food talk is foremost and overt

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Dedicated Discourse: ExampleDedicated Discourse: Example Do Douchi no ryori shiou: (Which one? Cooking Shuchi no ryori shiou: (Which one? Cooking Show)ow)

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Douchi!? (Which one!?)Douchi!? (Which one!?)

Situation

Competition between rival foods to win the hearts of a panel of seven singers, actors, writers and athletes. Two hosts seek to sway the panel during the on-going in-studio food preparation.

Food’s PositionCenter Stage

Food’s Function

Opens doors to world history and Japanese culture. Also serves as entertainment and competition, creates tension and teaches.

Effect

Educates about Japanese culture. However, one clear message is that Japanese food is distinct, special, irreplaceable, and generally unbeatable.

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Douchi!? (Which one!?)

During these segments, the localities, regions or countries in which these key ingredients are grown, harvested or treated are detailed, along with the ways of life, histories and values of the residents. In this way, Dochi serves as medium for discourse about

globalization

Inadvertent andInadvertent andSecondary DiscourseSecondary Discourse

These two forms are less food-oriented and, in fact, are more often not primarily focused on food.

They can arise in relation to any number of television genres from news to sports to travel to quiz shows to wide shows to advertising

As well as contents health, diet, fitness, body, sexuality, sexism, gender roles, consumption, race, globalization, identity, nationalism, and even life and death

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Inadvertent DiscourseInadvertent Discourse

Involves discourse about things (such as hometown, traditions, gender, nation) that arise in clear connection to or as a result of the presence of food

However, food is not the primary focus of the program.

Most often the discourse about things is overt and, in all cases, their overt nature arises due to the appearance of food.

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Inadvertent Discourse:Example: "Sekai Fushigi Hakken (Discovering the Wond

ers of the World [Saturday, 9 p.m.]

Food is among the “wonders” used to mediate globality:the cultural tastes and practices of other

countries or regions are presented to people “at home” as distinct from (and often peculiar in comparison to) their own.

Typical Examples of Inadvertent or Peripheral

food-discourseMay 9, 2001 (late evening): Binbaba: An entertainment show with singing and

light talk contained a segment in which guests and staff tasted (and endured) exotic foods, such as toasted scorpions.

Tonight 2: An adult (generally sexually-tinged) infotainment show featured two reporters trekking to Nagoya to sample parfaits, fried rice and Italian food. They introduced a dessert shop, a bistro and a small kitchen and brought ice cream back to the studio for on-air sampling.

Typical Examples of Inadvertent or Peripheral

food-discourseMay 25, 2002: NHK News: A visit to an elementary school in a small city hosting the Slovenian soccer team. The children at the school were sampling the food of Slovenia for an entire week during their lunch period.

Commercial News: Sports reporters were invited to a pre-World Cup event in which they were treated to an eleven course meal that would be offered to VIP ticket holders at the up-coming world cup event.

Typical Examples of Inadvertent or Peripheral

food-discourse• Daily: Mezamashi Telebi (‘Alarm Clock Television’)

• Short, five minute segments highlight:

•Rural activities or urban trends

•Edible items invariably appear

Viewed day after day, the cumulative effect of consuming these morning segments is a

bipolar “global” discourse –

• local paired with national;

• rural with urban;

• domestic with foreign

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Letsu! Okusama HikenLetsu! Okusama Hiken

SCENARIO: a reporter strolls through a neighborhood, knocks on a door, invites him/herself in and shows the TV audience what is being prepared for dinner or else what has already been consumed by the family inside.

“Okusama, konya no okazu wa?”

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Letsu! Okusama HikenLetsu! Okusama Hiken

Like Mezamashi Telebi’s “Trends” these “peeks inside” enable Japanese from around the country to observe how others live.

Subtext: Discourse about local and national identity.

Effect: Food serves the meditative function; effectually, it is a socializer, educator, means of comparison.

Reverse Process: Reverse Process: Peeks “Outside”Peeks “Outside”

Reports about Japanese food in the world or world food, itself, serve to:

1. clarify local identity2. render the “global” less foreign

Example: Saturday 6 p.m.: Japanese lives around the world. (February 2003): A sushi chef operating a restaurant in Los Angeles:

Shown training his American staff, shopping in the wholesale market, interacting with his American customers, and going through the daily paces with his wife and Americanized children.

Reverse Process: Reverse Process: Peeks “Outside”Peeks “Outside”

A Second Example: A December, 2002 10 p.m. sportscast featured an

extended segment on the “World's Toughest Firefighter Competition” in New Zealand.

Included footage of firefighters dragging a 90 kilogram dummy 100 meters and ascending seven stories in full gear

In addition, attention was accorded to a cooking competition between chefs from fire departments around the world.

The report detailed how the chefs prepared the food, the menu prepared, what the food tasted like, and who won first prize

Secondary DiscourseSecondary Discourse

Topics or themes that are embedded within food discourse, yet which may neither appear as a primary objective of that discourse, nor even emerge during or after the conclusion of food talk in a patent or “publicly”-recognizable way.

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Secondary DiscourseSecondary Discourse

These terms refer to the level of socio-cultural discourse that exists beneath the first, or denotative, level of representation. Barthes (1957): “second-order connotation” O’Barr (1994): “secondary discourse”

Examples include secondary discourse about gender, individuality, nation, (and the like).

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Identity in Identity in AdvertisingAdvertising

A large area of secondary A large area of secondary discourse in food adsdiscourse in food ads

Strikes at all 3 levels:Strikes at all 3 levels: National Group Individual

NationalismNationalism

Many food companies employ flag-mimicking trademarks (Holden 1999b, 2000, 2003b)

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Nationalism in Ad Text

In this ad, a man is preparing food in his kitchen, only to find himself transported onto a tennis court, facing a powerful foreign player, armed only with a frying pan.

When the egg simmers in the pan, it appears as a percolating HinomaruHinomaru

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National Identity in Ad Text

A Japanese woman bumps into an Indian man wearing a Pugree…

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National Identity in Ad Text

She thinks: “Oh! Curry…”Which she promptly

rushes home to eat.

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Group Identity in Ad Group Identity in Ad Text Text

“What would you like?” the waiter asks…

Cut to a room full of patrons who chant “Sato rice cakes”

Cut back to the customer who says: “I

think I’ll have Sato rice cakes!”

Individual Identity Individual Identity in Ad Textin Ad Text

“Oh! It’s the ham man!”

“This year also… just as you’d expect: the ham

man.”

“I’m Bessho.”

Individual Identity in Ad TextIndividual Identity in Ad Text

"Even if it’s raining, don't let it bother you…"

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Individual Identity: Ki ni Shinai

(don’t worry/don’t let it bother you)

"Even if they laugh at you, don't let it bother you…"

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Individual Identity: Individual Identity: Ki ni ShinaiKi ni Shinai(don’t worry/don’t let it bother you)(don’t worry/don’t let it bother you)

"Even if you don't know, don't let it bother you."

V. ConclusionsV. Conclusions

From Past WorkFrom Past Work

I have talk about how TV food talk:I have talk about how TV food talk:

1.1. signals changes in dietary habits, andsignals changes in dietary habits, and

2.2. changes in human behavior and orientation:changes in human behavior and orientation:* toward a face-paced lifestyle * convenience* toward a face-paced lifestyle * convenience

* rapid consumption * disposable goods* rapid consumption * disposable goods

* solitary living * eating away from home* solitary living * eating away from home

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Food for ConclusionFood for Conclusion

One question remains: "why food?“

What is it that qualifies foods as a suitable source and medium for filtering the raw material of popular culture?

For one, food is something that all Japanese share in common. It is an essential part of daily life.

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TV's food-talk is of interest to almost all viewers

Because of food’s history (the agrarian basis of Japan; its postwar saga from dearth to bounty);

Food’s place in Japanese folklore (animist roots and ritual);

Its ubiquity; Its easy availability to nearly all societal

members; and Its penetration into many aspects of everyday

life.

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Food is a Part of the Food is a Part of the Structure of Every Structure of Every

Viewer’s LifeViewer’s Life

Thus, it serves as a fathomable conduit for all manner of other talk.

Summarizing Thus FarSummarizing Thus Far

Food discourse is rampant on Japanese television today

That discourse comes in at least 3 forms: dedicated, inadvertent and secondary

Moreover, discourse can be either overt or covert

Summarizing Thus FarSummarizing Thus Far

In all 3 forms deeper social, political, cultural and ideational themes flow.

Prominent among these themes concerns identity.

Messages of identification embedded in food discourse refer to 3 levels: national, group and individual.

Associated with this discourse is discourse about matters such as globalization, nationalism, and individuality

Concluding ThemesConcluding Themes

Mediating Global IdentityMediating Global Identity Reproducing NationReproducing Nation Fueling Local ResistanceFueling Local Resistance The Local Nation, Above The Local Nation, Above

AllAll

Mediating Global Mediating Global IdentityIdentity

Food talk provides Japan with is a discourse about itself.

Controlled exposure to “cultures beyond” Japan’s borders in its food-related shows can have the effect of inoculating Japanese viewers against too much foreign intrusion.

It can cauterize the local with the global flame, providing a more impregnable version of indigenous identity.

Mediating Global Mediating Global IdentityIdentity

At the same time, it is not the case that food discourse works monolithically to nurture nihonjinron.The widespread reproduction of traditional Japanese cuisi

ne and cultural mores, the education about regional customs and history, can contribute a certain measure of belief about the uniqueness of Japanese culture.

However, food talk also assists the integration of outside influences and lifestyles into Japanese society.It widens viewers’ “cultural stock of knowledge”It therefore globalizes

Reproducing NationReproducing Nation

Recall Williams (1981) admonition to frame sociologies of culture in historical context.

To that end we can recognize that behind food talk is the legacy of the not-so-distant past:

Embedded in the consciousness of nearly a third of the population is an era of food shortage, which has given rise to overwhelming abundance

So, too, does the data reviewed here indicate that TV food shows provide historical continuity

Historical Historical Re/productionRe/production

One example is Dochi?! which emphasizes nation via repeated attention to domestic cuisine, as well as the ways that foreign cuisines have been indigenized.

Little or no mention is made of the fact that these modifications have been made.

What was formerly a foreign dish is presented as Japan’s own.

Dochi’s approach is to offer documentary style lessons in regional history and practices.

Reproducing NationReproducing Nation

Local historical narratives serve as evidence that globalization may be less transformative than roundly asserted.

In such ways, TV food discourse underscores Curran’s (2002: 182-3) view that, when it comes to media, “the nation is still a very important marker of difference.” Food shows demonstrate that despite numerous continuities with other contexts, national distinction prevails.

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Fueling Local Fueling Local ResistanceResistance

Aggregated, the TV food genre strongly communicates localized discourse. “We Japanese” eat this sort of food For reasons of tradition, practices, and ways of life that under gird these food choices.

This differs from foreign understandings, practices, and tastes

Consistent with revision in globalization theory:Santos (2002): “counter hegemonic globalizations”Localized discourses of “territorial cultures” (Hannerz 1992)

A dominant cultural practice writ nationwide: shared by all and resistant to external pressure to change.

Media,Media, Food DiscourseFood Discourse and and Japanese National Japanese National

IdentityIdentity

The position of TV in Japanese society TV’s enormous reproductive power Its persistent use of food And, through food, the constant theme of “local”

(national) culture

Work together to mediate Japanese identity today.