ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on many events after the break-up of the Beatles, demonstrates how John and Yoko's relationship took the spotlight away from the group and how the couple became a primary lens to view the Beatle John in Japan. It takes the transcultural relationship between Ono and Lennon as an example of how the Beatles mythology in Japan, as elsewhere, was changing. The chapter provides a parallel but still important connection between the Beatles and Japan: namely, it highlights the intersection of the political and the personal in the perceived 'Japanization' of John Lennon through his marriage and artistic partnership with Yoko Ono. John had always fantasised about what he naively termed 'exotic Orientals' and Yoko, despite her fondness for shapeless black and seeming abhorrence of hairdressers, did possess a powerful sexual magnetism. The Japanese media criticism focused on the fact that Ono had strayed too far from culturally acceptable femininity through her unorthodox appearance and sexual immorality.
