Synopses & Reviews
In 1996 over 16 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan. Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the "company manual." By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful importation, adaptation, and domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated "America" showcased by and for the Japanese. It is an "America" with a Japanese meaning.
Review
Raz's socio-anthropological study describes how a significant piece of American business, ideology, and fantasy has been remade in Japan. Raz challenges the popular idea of Tokyo Disneyland as being a cultural imperialism. Rather, he found that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese while marketing itself as American...[A] fine ethnography. M. Y. Rynn
Review
Raz's study of Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) is a well-grounded case of domestication. The central question of the study is to examine how Walt Disney World, as a globalizing and imperialistic operation, has been reworked into the localized cultural networks of Japan
This book is a strong case of glocalization, collapsing the global and local. Choice
Synopsis
Disneyland is a simulated America showcased by and for the Japanese. It is an America with a Japanese meaning.
About the Author
Aviad E. Raz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Table of Contents
Maps, Tables, and Figures Abbreviations Introduction
Theoretical Considerations
Globalization: Cultural Imperialism or Local Adaptation?
Japan as a Consumerist Society
Methodological Considerations
Traveling with Disney
A Short History of OLC and the TDL Project
PART I: ONSTAGE
America in Tokyo: The Remaking of Disneyland in Japan
The Dubbed Spiel: Jungle Cruise
Domesticating Disney: Cinderella's Castle
Wishful History: Meet the World
The Exotic and the Familiar
"America" on Stage
"Japan" on Stage
PART II: BACKSTAGE
Working for TDL
Part-time Employees
Hiring and Training in TDL, Disney, and Kōrakuen
Regular Employees
Organizational Culture and Organizational Critique
Service Culture and the "Manual Society"
The Smile Factory
The Taylorist System
Putting the Heart Back in the Manual
Taylorism, Service Work, and the Dialectic of Form and Feeling
PART III: OFFSTAGE
The Theme Park Boom: Remaking the World in Japan
The Theme Park Boom
Japan's Themed Lands in Sociological Perspective
Receptions of TDL-Disney
Disneyland as Socialization: The Early Years
Office Ladies, Burikko, and Disney
TDL and Middle Age
The Problem with Leisure: Rejā/Asobi and Infantile Consumerism
Traveling Theories: Aboard the Black Ship
The Culture Industry Revisited
The Black Ships of Glocalzation
Reference Matter
Notes
Works Cited
Index