Can you help me with my thesis about Japan’s pop culture?

9 comments

1. Sure, filled it in no time!
   What’s so special about Japanese pop-culture?

2. done.

   the first question made me laugh a bit, and is reminiscent of those conversations where you’re asked why you decided to learn japanese:

   -was it manga?

   no

   -anime?

   no

   -j-pop?

   no, although i enjoy some

   -ah. then video games, right?

   nope

   -…japanese drama?

   sorry!

3. I think what you’re trying to look for is great, but I think there are issues with your survey design.
   1. It’s too short. You probably wanted to maximize the chance that people will complete the survey, but if someone is willing to do it at all then they are very likely to be willing to say more.
   2. Some of your questions do not have enough options. There are many reasons why people might be interested in another culture that are just not included. The other option is there to help, but you will start to have problems with objectivity when relying on written responses.
   3. There is a lack of research objectives established. You are doing much better than average by asking what got the respondent interested in Japanese, but you should include questions that better explain what you are interested in. For example, if you ask how long the user has studied japanese, what JLPT level they have or estimate that have achieved, and what methods they use to study, then you might be able say something about what is most effective when it needs to studying at different levels

4. Done

5. I wonder what school you go to

6. Sorry, I wanted to take it but I find this questionaire odd:

   what is a pop culture phenomenon in your understanding?

   what is popular culture? (like how do I understand what is popular and specifically I also dont know here if this means what is popular in Japan or what is popular in my country of origin)

   why you omit non-fiction writing from the first question? it was a huge influence to me, and can also be a popculture phenomenon (Murakami for example exploded at some point in my country)

   why meeting a Japanese person or being exposed to Japanese cultural elements by local events is not an option? (in my home town, the embassy organized several matsuri per year e.g.)

   what do you mean by “better” in the last question? what is the point of this, there will be always misconceptions and misinterpretations before being exposed to the new environment. and certainly, it is not the task of Japanese media to cater to all visitors perfectly being prepared, right? Japanese media is for Japanese, right? This is also true for all other cultures, that is why culture shock and reverse culture shock are a thing, a thing that can be lessened by knowledge and conscious preparation, but still can happen no matter how much prepared for.

   I think you should also ask for country, not just age, because the availability of internet, the availability of Japanese language information, cultural events,, and “popular culture” might vary greatly… <- maybe you could make the survey-taker self assess this, but it could not be accurate.

   Maybe you should also ask for a self-estimate of immersion before comming to Japan: e.g. 1) time and 2) how real-life based it is (so not “popular culture”? even though slice-of-life can be popular, right…), other ideas: did you have a Japanese language partner (meaning you could already ask many of the “but, why?”, have you ever travelled anywhere (outside your country of origin/language sphere) before coming to Japan (IMO some people confuse the mysteries of Japan with the mysteries of the general being different from your personal origin).

7. I’ve unfortunately never actually been to Japan, so I don’t know how to answer those questions 😭

8. I agree with others that you might get better answers if you added more nuance to your questions – but that is meant entirely constructively.

   For example, probably the most important cause of me living in Japan is, ultimately, that it was that Japanese language and culture was the most convenient evening class local to me when I was just wanting to get out and a friend had done it and enjoyed it. Having learned Japanese for a bit, I thought I should probably go and visit Japan and, having done so, realised that I wanted to live there – and then it took nearly five years, but you know covid.

   But, a significant part of what kept me interested and then really wanting to go was watching anime specifically – and a rather limited set of it, because the total time from first enjoying an anime and going was about 8 or 9 months, so I hadn’t had much of a chance.

   But I suspect I am an extreme outlier. I don’t experience the world in the way most people do. So *for me* living in Japan is pretty much what I expected it to be (modulo some other things that have made it rather different) from watching anime, but I doubt most people find that is the case.

   So, I chose “anime” from your pop culture list and I think that’s what you intended, but the semantics of the question aren’t ideal.

   For my masters’ I did a survey based thesis and I included some demographic questions so that I could factor out the fact that I had more males than females and computer scientists and lawyers than normal people.

9. Hope you’re not trying to take on “Japanese pop culture” as a whole. I still roll my eyes every time my former professor mentions the book about “J-pop” that he’s been working on for years.

   I think Japanese culture has remained and/or gained in popularity despite gatekeeping efforts by the industries. Most of what people know outside of Japan is from companies (Sanrio, Nintendo, etc.) that actually made an effort to sell. Meanwhile, if it’s music, anime/manga, drama/film, it’s still fairly locked down, no?