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Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience
Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply ind...
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| Format: | Default Article |
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2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/23093060.v1 |
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| _version_ | 1818165271468179456 |
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| author | Taku Tamaki |
| author_facet | Taku Tamaki |
| author_sort | Taku Tamaki (1252998) |
| collection | Figshare |
| description | Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply industry appearing in Japanese vernaculars, I show that railway technology constitutes an integral component of the contemporary Japanese identity narrative, which has been built up through a particular technopolitical regime. These narratives consistently refer to the purported safety, reliability, and punctuality of Japanese railways as one manifestation of the high-quality technological skills underpinning Japanese identity construction. However, the narratives also reveal an inherent irony, whereby the confident Japanese Self at once reveals a countervailing, inexperienced Japanese Self, in which the Japanese railway technopolitical regime realizes that its own domestic strength has resulted in a lack of international experience compared to its European, and increasingly Chinese, rivals. I conclude by suggesting that the Japanese railway identity follows a complex construct involving a confident Self in contradistinction to an inexperienced Self both reproduced in opposition to the European and Chinese Other. |
| format | Default Article |
| id | rr-article-23093060 |
| institution | Loughborough University |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | Figshare |
| spelling | rr-article-230930602023-05-29T00:00:00Z Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience Taku Tamaki (1252998) Japan Japanese identity railways Shinkansen technopolitical regime <p>Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply industry appearing in Japanese vernaculars, I show that railway technology constitutes an integral component of the contemporary Japanese identity narrative, which has been built up through a particular technopolitical regime. These narratives consistently refer to the purported safety, reliability, and punctuality of Japanese railways as one manifestation of the high-quality technological skills underpinning Japanese identity construction. However, the narratives also reveal an inherent irony, whereby the confident Japanese Self at once reveals a countervailing, inexperienced Japanese Self, in which the Japanese railway technopolitical regime realizes that its own domestic strength has resulted in a lack of international experience compared to its European, and increasingly Chinese, rivals. I conclude by suggesting that the Japanese railway identity follows a complex construct involving a confident Self in contradistinction to an inexperienced Self both reproduced in opposition to the European and Chinese Other.</p> 2023-05-29T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/23093060.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Railways_as_Japanese_identity_Riding_between_confidence_and_inexperience/23093060 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Japan Japanese identity railways Shinkansen technopolitical regime Taku Tamaki Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title | Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title_full | Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title_fullStr | Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title_short | Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience |
| title_sort | railways as japanese identity: riding between confidence and inexperience |
| topic | Japan Japanese identity railways Shinkansen technopolitical regime |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/23093060.v1 |