商品詳細

"Things Japanese, Things Unexpected" focuses on objects and the unexpected contradictions which emerge as a result of their consumption. This book fills a gap in the literature by targeting these contradictions. Each essay contextualizes a familiar commodity that involves mass participation and mass consumption, looking at food and sport and asking important questions about many other aspects of Japanese culture. Why in high-tech Japan does the low-tech umbrella remain the number one lost article at the Tokyo Lost and Found Office? Why has the Hello Kitty line of goods, ostensibly and originally marketed for children, now targeted the young female adult as well? Consumption provides ideal sites for the construction of human values in the often contradictory and inconsistent arena of the mundane world. Even the humblest of objects can mask its actual significance and its imprint locally and globally.