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This paper examines the introduction, adaptation and popularisation of karaoke singing in the UK. Based on ethnographic field research and interviews conducted in both Japan and the UK, the paper traces the various pathways through which karaoke hardware and software were first introduced and marketed in the UK and the social contexts and entertainment venues within which karaoke has been popularised. The 'domestication' of karaoke in the UK is treated as a complex and multifaceted process involving both 'cultural' factors related to existing traditions of singing and amateur performance, notions of individual public 'display' and musical preferences, for example, and the 'local' economic and regulatory environment into which karaoke had been adapted. As a contribution to the discourse on the relationship between 'global' and 'local' forces in cultural flows, it is argued that although Japanese karaoke producers may have been successful in globalising the karaoke concept, its popularisation as a leisure activity in the UK has involved the localisation of the production, distribution and uses of karaoke hardware and software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global market for virtual items, characters and currencies was estimated to exceed 2.1 Billion USD in 2007. Selling virtual goods for real money is an increasingly common revenue model not only for online games and virtual worlds, but for social networking sites and other mainstream online services as well. What drives consumer spending on virtual items is an increasingly relevant question, but little research has been devoted to the topic so far. Previous literature suggests that demand for virtual items is based on the items’ ability to confer gameplay advantages on one hand, and on the items’ decorative value on the other hand. In this paper, I adopt a perspective from the sociology of consumption and analyse examples from 14 virtual asset platforms to suggest a more detailed set of item attributes that drive virtual item purchase decisions, consisting of functional, hedonic and social attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the ways in which the department store has become a key site for the constitution of Japanese modernity through the introduction of images and goods taken from the West, along with the emphasis on “Western design” and “Western taste”. These new consumer spaces have become aestheticized in various ways so that we can speak of an “aestheticization” of everyday life. Yet this was also a modernizing learning process for Japanese consumers, hence a key problem was how these new experiences were to be classified and ordered into a relatively stable habitus. The rise of the department store has had an important mediating function here. Department stores not only provided new goods along with interpretations of how to use them, but also acted as theatres, as rehearsal spaces, with front and back stage areas where one can watch the performance, try out for oneself new roles. This is especially the case for women in the city, who were able to explore a new identity space with a new set of competence experiences and pleasures. In this process, the department store also provided a form of women's public sphere where they could enjoy shopping, entertainment and learning opportunities. Department stores encouraged not only a sense of luxury and theatrical settings, but also help to teach women how to assemble new tastes and styles into their lifestyle. In addition, it should be emphasized that in the Japanese case, department stores also played an important role not just as a new cultural initiative on the part of the businessmen and cultural intermediaries who invented consumer culture, but also as a political initiative on the part of the government who sought to link them to the reform of everyday life and the production of good Japanese citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food replicas (shokuhin sanpuru) line the show windows of cafes and restaurants in cities, towns, and villages throughout Japan. They are usually found artfully arranged in restaurant show windows or cases, facing and visible from the street, corridor, hall, etc., on which the restaurant is located. Building on consumers' familiarity with foods, ingredients, and cooking techniques, these replicas visually evoke other senses – taste, scent, texture, and mouthfeel – instantly providing massive amounts of information. As a ubiquitous visual marketing tool, sanpuru have contributed to the creation and maintenance of Japan's hybrid national culinary culture, especially the pervasive 'middlebrow' echelon of mainstream, everyday consumer culture. In particular, it is argued in this article that, as an inevitable, almost transparently naturalized part of the visual landscape of food and consumer culture, samples have played a crucial but underappreciated role in the establishment and dissemination of the much-remarked-on visual aesthetic of Japanese culinary culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Valentine’s Day is a culturally hybridized and popularly celebrated consumption ritual in Japan. We examine its historical transformation based on a visual and textual analysis of advertisements in print media over fifty years. Changes in the meanings, functions, and structure of gift-giving rituals correspond to changes in the national economy, social values, consumer ideology, and gender roles and power relationships in Japanese society. There are five major findings: one, the importance of food—chocolate—in the creolization process of the consumer ritual; two, the persistent gender asymmetric nature of the Valentines consumer holiday; three, the ritual’s structural aspects and changes over the time; four, the importance of confession in the ritual process; and five, the transformation of its role from a simple instrument of love and a way to elevate a relationship to a rite to reconfirm gender identity. This study supplements the very limited literature on Japanese gift-giving rituals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on the view that an organizational understanding is crucial to the content analysis of cultural products including advertisements, this article examines the economic conditions which determine the production of television commercials in Japan. Unlike the West, where creative agencies are paid fees, the commission- based remuneration system for agencies prevails in Japan, resulting in a lack of creative rivalry. With the shift from programme sponsorship towards the buying of 15-second spots by advertisers, the prospect for creativity seems limited. As the Japanese markets have become more open and competitive since the 1980s, the stakes have become too high for manufacturers to allow non-conventional, innovative ideas and techniques to be used in television commercials. The way in which the agencies will resolve the dilemma between presenting themselves as the professionals in strategic communications services and insisting on the commission system will further affect the quality of the commercials and media culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]