In a comparatively short period, the television industry helped to reconstruct not only postwar Japanese popular culture, but also the Japanese social and political landscape. This book offers a history of Japanese television audiences and the popular media culture that television helped to spawn. In a comparatively short period, the television industry helped to reconstruct not only postwar Japanese popular culture, but also the Japanese social and political landscape. This book offers a history of Japanese television audiences and the popular media culture that television helped to spawn. List of Tables vii List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi PART I INTRODUCTION TO JAPANESE TELEVISION CULTURE Introduction 3 PART II THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE TELEVISION CULTURE Chapter One Prewar Roots of Japanese Television Culture: Imperial Culture, Media Culture, and Radio 17 Chapter Two Postwar Media Culture and Japanese Encounters with TV 35 Chapter Three Pro Wrestling and Body Slams: Early TV as a Mass Event 53 Chapter Four Transforming the Nation: TV Takes Root in Japan (1957-1963) 71 PART III JAPANESE INTERACTIONS WITH TELEVISION Chapter Five Television Spreads to the Countryside 121 Chapter Six Intellectuals Debate TV: Oya's "Hundred Million Idiots" and Kato's "Television Culture" 157 Chapter Seven Protecting the Children and Cleaning Up TV 177 Chapter Eight Politics as Spectacle: Parades, Pageantry and Protests 203 Chapter Nine Anpo Redux: University Riots and a Hostage Crisis 227 Chapter Ten America in Japanese Television: Family Dramas and Cowboys 241 Chapter Eleven After the American Boom: Japanese TV Gains Its Independence 267 PART IV THE MEANING OF THE JAPANESE TELEVISION NATION Epilogue Fractured Television Nation 291 Notes 309 Bibliography 339 Index 353