ABSTRACT
Works of Japanese pop culture, from media like manga (Japanese comics) to TV dorama (soap operas), are consumed by an increasing number of fans around the world. One reason for this may be the multimodal and interconnected nature of many works – a manga can be the basis for an animated TV series, of which the theme song is performed by a popular J-pop (Japanese pop music) band, and several members of this band may also be actors in dorama, commercials and musicals. Accessing one Japanese work is often a gateway to many more, across a plethora of different media. The popularity and therefore profitability of the J-pop genre (and to a lesser extent J-rock) is such that its winning formula – groups of young men singing and dancing in coordinated outfits – has been adapted by Korean music producers. K-pop (Korean pop music) is now a success not just in Korea, but globally, including countries in Southeast Asia (Korean Culture and Information Service, 2011). Many fans of the genre are young girls, because J-pop and K-pop bands provide their fans with images of masculinity that are non-threatening, “softer” than masculine images in popular media aimed at male audiences. In an analysis of the transnational popularity of K-pop duo DBSK (Dong Bang Shin Ki, or Rising Gods from the East), Sun Jung identifies this “soft masculinity” originally deriving from Japan as a pan-East Asian phenomenon (Jung 2009). In Japan, the popularity of DBSK rivals that of popular J-pop acts like the group EXILE.
