The Wacky Japan Project at the National University of Singapore emerged from a problem: the overwhelming depiction of Japan as “wacky” in today’s media landscape and the attractiveness of this depiction to students.
Each year hundreds of students take “Introduction to Japan” at NUS, a module that teaches the foundations of Japan’s history, geography, and society. Each year they are given the freedom to choose a research topic, and each year most students choose topics that depict Japan as wacky.
Instead of vetoing such topics, we decided to encourage students to research these topics, while giving them a critical lens for interpreting the phenomenon. The critical lens comes from a short, accessible article by Wester Wagenaar titled “Wacky Japan: A new face of orientalism” (access article here: http://asiainfocus.dk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/wacky-japan.pdf). In addition to clearly explaining a trend in media about Japan, this article is ideal because it was written by a Master’s degree student, which hopefully inspires students to aim high in their own writing.
After completing the exercise, we reached out to Wester Wagenaar to inform him of our use of his article. We also invited him to explain his inspiration for the article, his feelings about the Wacky Japan Project, and his biographical details.
Inspiration
During a semester abroad at Osaka University, one of my professors brought up orientalism and how it relates to Japan, meticulously explaining to us traditional orientalism and techno-orientalism. I recognised in them many ways I have seen Japan and the Japanese get portrayed. However, the image of Japan that I’d seen perpetuate online was not one of sensual geisha or robotic salarymen. To explain that, these two kinds of orientalism did not suffice.
For years, friends without a research background in Japan had sent me memes, pictures, and most of all videos, like the music video of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s PONPONPON, or one presenting SEGA’s Toylet – a video game concept for urinals. Japanese commercials were also widely popular among my friends. I remember one in which a Japanese man shakes a can of Fanta to spray it on his bikini-clad friend, only to miss and hit a mountain instead, causing it to explode. This was not something to be put into question – the Japanese were wacky. The bits of media had usually been prefaced with sentences like ‘WTF Japan,’ while similarly odd western videos did not receive the same treatment. I lacked a framework to counter this perception, to explain in a satisfying manner how not everything they’d send me was simply weird because Japan was ‘just a weird place’.
In Osaka, I realized this too was part of a long tradition of ‘othering’ Japan. Thus I wrote an essay about the subject and submitted it to the research journal Asia in Focus. Half out of frustration, half out of a personal endeavour to make sense of something that had been bothering me for quite a while. To be fair, it is nice to recommend an article whenever Japan’s ‘wackiness’ comes up in conversations. Unfortunately, this happens more often than one might think. Wacky orientalism is still very much alive.
Comments on the Wacky Japan Project
In the academic world, proposing novel concepts does not amount to anything if these ideas do not gain traction. In other words, it is thanks to scholars like the students of the National University of Singapore, that concepts like wacky orientalism can avoid death in obscurity. For that, I am grateful.
In addition, a concept can only be enriched with the help of others. Further research is always required, after all. It is an honour to see the talented students of NUS go beyond the surface level of supposed wackiness they have encountered, and dive into the origins, history, and background of expressions of wacky Japan.
It goes without saying (but needs to be said), that it is therefore a huge honour and highly appreciated that Chris McMorran, professor at the National University of Singapore, decided to build a website around my essay. I hope the students, as well as the readers of this website, find joy and insight into the many writings published here.
Biography
Wester Wagenaar (b. 1992, Groningen) is an internationally orientated Dutch civil servant with a penchant for developing – and writing about – ideas. Besides Wacky Japan: A New Face of Orientalism, he has published 70+ articles in three editions of Bob de Wit’s Strategy: An International Perspective, as well as a couple of short stories. Wester holds a BA in Japan Studies (Leiden University), an MA in Euroculture (Uppsala University, University of Göttingen), and an MSc in Creative Writing (University of Edinburgh).
His main reasons to haul himself out of bed in the morning are to help others and to face intellectual challenges. At his current employer, The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT), Wester is working as part of a programme that employs and supports people with a distance to the labour market. Outside of work, he volunteers for a green left-wing political party in the Netherlands.
When it comes to Japan, Wester’s main interests are the workings of the country’s society, its international relations, and its vibrant pop culture. Beyond that, politics, strategy, and the art of writing fascinate him. Wester’s hobbies include writing fiction, diving into computer/board games, and exploring cities in search of the cutest cats.
Communication address: westerwagenaarwrites@gmail.com