The Japanese role-playing games attract players worldwide. Though, this is not necessarily due to a fascination with Japanese culture. While considering recent research on video games in Japanese Studies, especially the monograph by Rachael Hutchinson, this thesis puts an emphasis on Game Studies, as represented by Espen Aarseth. Accordingly, it asks whether the attraction of Japanese video games is primarily due to their game ‘play’, or their stories and narrated themes. In Game Studies this issue is known as the controversy between ‘ludologists’ and ‘narratologists’. Taking Atelier Shallie (2014–2020) as its main example, this study studies the different experiences provided by the ludic (gameplay) and the scripted parts (cutscenes). Ultimately it arrives at the conclusion that the combined theory of Ludonarratology has the greatest potential to account for all narrative factors in a video game such as Atelier Shallie. This includes possibilities for future interdisciplinary research.

This study aims to draw and discuss parallels between the humour of kyōgen that is depicted in the play The Delicious Poison, and theories about humour as a behavioural mechanism.  Using existing theories about humour and Japanese dramatic aesthetics as a foundation, the research commences from the following questions: Based on the text and the stage directions, what possibilities do kyōgen actors in the play The Delicious Poison have to use dramaturgic comic devices to cause a humorous reaction among the audience? What are these devices and why do they work the way they do, theoretically?

Based on a collection of qualitative data from both primary and secondary sources, the script of The Delicious Poison was translated and analysed using the theories presented. It was found that the most prominent humour devices used in the play were those of doxa (recognition or prior knowledge), exaggeration, and comprehension-elaboration (element of surprise), along with the escalating structural principle of jo-ha-kyū (introduction, development, climax).  Future research including analysis of kyōgen plays of other genres, is however needed to confirm the correct use of the theories and the findings.

The transcultural consumption of Japan-derived popular media has prompted a significant amount of academic research and teaching. Instead of addressing globalization or localization as such, this article investigates the interplay of anime research and the institution of Japanese studies and recurrent methodological issues therein, in particular, related to representation and mediation, intellectual critique and affective engagement, subculture and national culture.The inclination towards objects and representation in socio-cultural as well as cinema-oriented Japanese-studies accounts of anime is first introduced and, after considering discursive implications of the name animein Japan and abroad, contrasted with media-studies approaches that put an emphasis on relations, modalities, and forms. In order to illustrate the vital role of forms, including genre, similarities between TV anime and Nordic Noir TV drama series are sketched out. Eventually, the article demonstrates that the study of anime is accomodated best by going beyond traditional polarizations between text and context, media specificity and media ecology, area and discipline.

The characterization of manga (graphic narratives) and anime (animated film) as ‘superflat’ is usually accompanied by overlooking the materiality of their craftedness. Media-aesthetic discussions of craftedness focus on stylization, hyper-mediality, and parodic intertextuality rather than the persistence of manual craft, the role of hand drawing, and the preference for an analog look. Taking In This Corner of the World as its example, this article investigates how the story of a hand and its pictorial representation are entwined with the comics-specific employment of free-hand drawing, printed pages, and serial publication format. It arrives at the conclusion that a pragmatic orientation towards tangible proximity between past and present, characters and readers, or viewers, outweighs invitations to critically reflect on the medium of comics as such.

In order to provide a framework for the whole volume, this introductory chapter promotes a shift of methodological focus from shōjo (girl) as a category of social representation to shōjo mediations, considering not only media for and by actual girls, but also shōjo as character type, code, and taste category. Firstly, shōjo research inside and outside of Japan is recapitulated with due regard to changes in both mediascape and critical orientation. Secondly, it is demonstrated that the word shōjo assumes its specific meaning in relation to other, historically changing Japanese names for “girl” and the employed media. Finally, the volume’s individual chapters are introduced with particular regard to the conception of shōjo they apply, relating to Japanese and gender studies, genre theory, transcultural research on popular media, and performativity respectively.

This year’s final issue of Orientaliska studier consists of papers initially given at the conference on Manga Studies held at Stockholm University, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies from 6-8 September. The conference was arranged on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Sweden and Japan. A wide variety of topics within this broad field of research are covered by the 15 contributors. An introduction is written by conference organizer and guest editor Jaqueline Berndt, professor of Japanese Language and Culture at Stockholm University, Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies.

Since the 2000s, the Japanese word shōjo has gained global currency, accompanying the transcultural spread of other popular Japanese media such as manga and anime. The term refers to both a character type specifically, as well as commercial genres marketed to female audiences more generally. Through its diverse chapters this edited collection introduces the two main currents of shōjo research: on the one hand, historical investigations of Japan’s modern girl culture and its representations, informed by Japanese-studies and gender-studies concerns; on the other hand, explorations of the transcultural performativity of shōjo as a crafted concept and affect-prone code, shaped by media studies, genre theory, and fan-culture research.

While acknowledging that shōjo has mediated multiple discourses throughout the twentieth century—discourses on Japan and its modernity, consumption and consumerism, non-hegemonic gender, and also technology—this volume shifts the focus to shōjo mediations, stretching from media by and for actual girls, to shōjo as media. As a result, the Japan-derived concept, while still situated, begins to offer possibilities for broader conceptualizations of girlness within the contemporary global digital mediascape.

This volume consists of articles on imagery in the poetry of various literary canons. Focussing on figurative speech, the authors analyse poetry of the Near East, Greece, the Arabic world, early modern Spain, classical China and classical Japan. The articles present new research based on individual approaches for each particular canon within a wide span from socio-cultural environment to semantic and cognitive properties of specific images. They deal with the poetics of the other, the role of the poet, poetic persuasion in politics, traditional typologies of tropes, intertextuality, and the principle of analogy. The authors combine literary theory with specialised knowledge of the local context and literary tradition and provide innovative and dynamic close readings.

This paper deals with metaphor and the ways it may be expanded conceptually. The expansion of metaphor is used partly for concepts that are not obviously understood in terms of metaphor and partly for extended metaphors, i.e., metaphors that expand to include whole narratives. In this survey it is allusion that is tested both as metaphor and extended metaphor. Examples are taken from classical Japanese literature.

The Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji; hereafter the Genji), attributed to a writer known as Murasaki Shikibu, is a fictional narrative from as far back as 11^th-century Japan. It is authored in a form of Japanese that requires annotations to fully grasp, even for many Japanese readers today. Despite this it still enjoys a place among well-known classical works both inside and outside Japan. It is not only studied at school and university but also in private reading circles. Furthermore, it is often described as the world’s first novel. But how did this come about, and what importance can we attribute to it today and in a historical perspective?

Japan is known to be a country associated with many unique culture elements, but one often forgotten aspect is the dog care. Dog ownership has evolved into a trending lifestyle which is increasingly competing with parenthood amongst Japanese people. However, according to statistics from The Ministry of the Environment, almost 1,2 million dogs have been placed into rehoming shelters across Japan year 1974, of which 97,7 % of the animals were euthanized. Up until 2006 more than 90 % of all the to-be resheltered animals were still euthanized.

    The primary purpose of this study is to access and examine the living conditions of the dogs in Japan, how the Japanese animal laws are distinguished from Swedish counterparts and what actions that have been taken by animal welfare organizations located in Japan. The question at issue is “What are the current conditions of the dogs in the Kansai and Kanto region with regards to breeding, selling and rehoming shelters (hokenjo) and how are they held up against current relevant Japanese laws?”.

     The sources of information that have been used to answer the question are Swedish and Japanese laws, news articles, official websites and documents. The theoretical approach that have been used is based on linguistics and animal laws.

     The yielded results shows that the formulation of the law contents is able to be interpreted according to the personal needs and economic priorities. Due to the lack of concrete formulations of laws regarding dog care, there is a risk that people who are involved can run their businesses in favor of their own likings despite that the laws are broken. This has led me to question the current written Japanese laws. After comparison between Swedish and Japanese laws, it can be stated that dogs are seen differently in Japan and in Sweden.

     Animal welfare organizations are working primarily to help dogs to be resheltered, but also to be sterilized. Other priorities in the country are focused on teaching its population to care and handle dogs, and to transform the hokenjo to an equivalent of Germany’s “Tierheim” and the restricting of laws.

Keywords: Dogs, Japan, laws, living conditions, animal rights, animal welfare.