Riding the Black Ship : Japan and Tokyo Disneyland Paperback / softback

by Aviad E. Raz

Part of the Harvard East Asian Monographs series

Paperback / softback

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Description

In 1997, over 17 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan.

Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the â€œcompany manual.â€ By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz produces not only a cultural reading of the onstage show but also an ethnographic analysis of its production by those who work there and its reception by its customers.

Previous studies have seen Disneyland as a â€œblack shipâ€â€”an exported, hegemonic model of American leisure and pop cultureâ€”that â€œconqueredâ€ Japan.

By concentrating on the Japanese point of view, Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign.

Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated â€œAmericaâ€ showcased by and for the Japanese.