Japan : fictionality, transmedia national branding and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Hernandez Perez, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9974-7056 2018, 'Japan : fictionality, transmedia national branding and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games' , in: Global convergence cultures : transmedia Earth , Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies , Routledge, London, pp. 175-191.

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Abstract

The chapter aims to examine the concept of transmediality (or cross-mediality) in relation to institutional communication in Japan. To do this, it examines several case studies within the current Japanese society, with special attention to crisis communication (Fukushima nuclear incident), the construction of long-term political messages (the myth of the mono-ethnicity and dialogue between national identities) and even reformulations of national Branding (Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games). My hypothesis is that it is almost impossible to build messages that do not replicate or reference elements from other communication structures and purely fictional narrative. This hybridization between fictionality, narrative structures and pseudo-narratives may not be unique to Japan, but we can be found very relevant examples in recent history of media culture in this country. It will be examined, also, the intense relationship between storytelling and institutional message. We can root it to the earliest examples of the Nihonjinron literature and how it was created a story, with global resonances, about “Japanese uniqueness”. The conclusion I expect to reach (or refute) is that transmediality and narrative are common elements of both cultural contents and corporate messages. This explanation can be found regarding the tradition of Political Economy, in the fact that Entertainment and Information spheres share the same political and economic bases.

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