On November 29, Global Asia Research Center, Waseda University, hosted a postgraduate workshop entitled “Japanese Identity Discourse as Seen in Representations of Foreigners in Football-themed Manga” presented by Himawan Pratama, a Doctoral student at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Mr. Himawan’s talk begins with the overview of his research, stating that his initial research interest lies in how the Japanese describe themselves under the concept of “self-identification.” He analyzes representations of foreigners as a symbol of otherness and the underlying logic of self-idenitification that can be found in the football-themed mangas during the first-half Heisei Era (1989-2004).

Mr. Himawan states that in those mangas, the notion of sports can be seen as a “dualism of perception towards foreigners in sports,” or apolitical cultural exchange, which can also be depicted as a metaphor of war. He shows examples of four mangas — the series of Captain Tsubasa, Shoot, Whistle!, and Fantasista. Throughout his observation, Himawan points to the growing consciousness of globalization in Japan. This consciousness leads to more interactions with foreigners, cultures, and societies of the world; thus, triggering the definition of ‘identity’ in Japan with critiques between the notion of “homogeneity” and “uniqueness” as well as the complexity of Japanese culture.

Mr. Himawan also analyzes the discourse of Japanese identity by discussing two approaches as ‘cosmopolitan-centric’ and ‘national-centric.’ Preliminary findings of his research are as follows: Japan and its national self-consciousness as a football developing country; Sekai (world) as an ultimate goal departing from the Japan-league or national teams; the European characters represent significant roles compared with other foreigner characters; and the representation of Japanese football heroes as an incarnation of hardworking Japanese people.

In the concluding part, Mr. Himawan argues that, despite the presence of cosmopolitan-centric discourse, nation-centric identity remained the central theme of Japanese football mangas. He also remarked that research on the second half of the Heisei period as well as the Olympic Games would enrich sports-oriented analysis as one of the popular cultures and how Japan would represent itself in the context of sports in the future.