Islands of Eight Million Smiles: Idol Performance and Symbolic Production in Contemporary Japan

by Hiroshi Aoyagi

Since the late 1960s a ubiquitous feature of popular culture in Japan has been the "idol," an attractive young actor, male or female, packaged and promoted as an adolescent role model and exploited by the entertainment, fashion, cosmetic, and publishing industries to market trendy products. This book offers ethnographic case studies regarding the symbolic qualities of idols and how these qualities relate to the conceptualization of selfhood among...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674017730
• ISBN13: 9780674017733
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"