Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan

This multidisciplinary book analyses the contradictory coexistence of consumerism and environmentalism in contemporary Japan. It focuses on the dilemma that the diffusion of the concepts of sustainability and recycling has posed for everyday consumption practices, and on how these concepts have affected, and were affected by, the production and consumption of art. Special attention is paid to the changes in consumption practices and environmental consciousness among the Japanese public that have occurred since the 1990s and in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters of March 2011.

Katarzyna Cwiertka is professor Modern Japan Studies at the University of Leiden. Katarzyna J. Cwiertka is Chair of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University and an established expert on the food history of modern Japan. Cwiertka is managing co-editor of the journal Global Food History and editor-in-chief of Worldwide Waste: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Ewa Machotka is associate professor of Japanese language and culture at Stockholm University.

Acknowledgements, Notes to the Reader, Introduction, Post-Bubble Japanese Department Stores, Consumption of Fast Fashion in Japan, Konbini-Nation, Serving the Nation, Consuming Domesticity in Post-Bubble Japan, The Metamorphosis of Excess, Robot Reincarnation, Art and Consumption in Post-Bubble Japan, The Fate of Landscape in Post-War Japanese Art and Visual Culture, Consuming Eco-Art, Artistic Recycling in Japan Today, Notes on Contributors, Index