Hiroki Azuma > Quotes

“The presence of otaku culture is a grotesque reflection of the fragility of Japanese identity. This is because the "Japanese" themes and modes of expression created by otaku are in fact all imitations and distortions of U.S.-made material. On the other hand, the presence of this culture is connected to the narcissism of the 1980s and is also a fetish that can feed the illusion of Japan being at the cutting edge of the world.”
― Hiroki Azuma

“Between the otaku and Japan lies the United States.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“Lurking at the foundations of otaku culture is the complex yearning to produce a pseudo Japan once again from American-made material, after the destruction of the "good old Japan" through the defeat in World War II.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“The obsession with Japan in otaku culture did not develop from Japanese tradition, but rather emerged after this tradition disappeared.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“The image of Japan that obsesses otaku is in fact no more than a U.S. produced imitation.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“The history of otaku culture is one of adaptation, of how to domesticate American culture.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“As I have argued repeatedly, the otaku feel stronger “reality” in fiction than in reality, and their communication consists in large part of exchanges of information. In other words, their sociality is sustained not by actual necessity, as are kinship and local community, but by interest in particular kinds of information. Therefore, while they are quite capable of exercising their sociality as long as they can gain useful information for themselves, they always reserve the freedom to depart from the communication.”
― Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals

“the advent of a society extensively linked together through information technology changes democracy itself; it changes the image we have of politics and governance. Information technology might indeed make democracy possible. But it will likely be quite different from the “democracy” that we have become accustomed to—”
― Hiroki Azuma, General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google