ABSTRACT
This chapter begins a new approach to the subject of Japanese theme parks. The focus of this chapter will be on ideas of accuracy and authenticity in cultural display, notably in the field of attitudes to 'reality' and replication. The museum in Japan that most resembles a gaikoku mura is a park entitled Little World: Museum of Mankind, mentioned in the last chapter as owned, along with Meiji-mura, by the Meitetsu Railway Company, and therefore a commercial enterprise. The National Museum of Ethnology in Japan, popularly known as the Minpaku, was also constructed in the wake of Expo70 - indeed, it stands on the very site of the exhibition, and its collection began with objects acquired for the purpose of display there. The museum also has a 'videoteque' where 15-minute snippets of film may be selected about almost any of the peoples and activities on display in the museum.
