PhD defense presentation: The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods
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Presentation given on 27 October 2014 at the University of Leuven in Belgium for my PhD in Japanese Studies. More information about the research, entitled "The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods", is available at http://www.nelenoppe.net/dojinshi/thesis. This page also contains the full text of the accompanying thesis.
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PhD defense presentation: The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods
- 1. The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan Dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods
- 2. What are dojinshi? Magazines, print and digital, created and distributed primarily in Japan. Self-published by fans of media (manga, anime, film...) and other topics (software, history, photography, ...). The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 2 of open source cultural goods
- 3. What are dojinshi about? (1) Dojinshi can be about anything that is also published by commercial magazines – fiction, non-fiction, and so on. http://www.chalema.com/book/mtm/item.php?id=mtm-20110212183848 The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 3 of open source cultural goods
- 4. What are dojinshi about? (2) Most dōjinshi contain fictional stories that are “fanwork” that makes use of characters and other elements from existing copyrighted works. Copyright issues (just like English-language fanwork) http://www.dojinshop.com/ebay/hp_hfthekingdomofslytherinepisodered_1.gif The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 4 of open source cultural goods
- 5. Conventions (Comiket) http://s165.photobucket.com/user/ohmygigod/media/07122902.jpg.html The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 5 of open source cultural goods
- 6. Dōjin shops http://tsunagu.s3-website-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/image/663/tng_image/iamge_1389070358_article.jpg The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 6 of open source cultural goods
- 7. Online dōjin shop http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/shop/en/category-josei-dojinshi-chuko.html The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 7 of open source cultural goods
- 8. The focus of this thesis: dōjinshi exchange This exchange involves several million people and large amounts of money. There is a large “shadow economy” surrounding dōjinshi that is supported by extensive offline and online infrastructure. The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 8 of open source cultural goods
- 9. Compare with English-language exchange of fanworks • English-language fanworks are distributed mostly for free online • Fans think money has no place in fanworks exchange for ethical reasons (“Fanworks must be non-commercial”) 9 The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy of open source cultural goods
- 10. Little research so far • Fan studies, otaku studies, and research from other fields • Many scholars from English-language fan studies are unfamiliar with Japanese fan culture • Many scholars from Japanese-language fan studies are unfamiliar with English-speaking fan culture • Little comparative work • No comparative work so far about the economic systems of fanworks exchange The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 10 of open source cultural goods
- 11. Question: What role does dōjinshi exchange play in the cultural economy of Japan? What can we learn from it? Goals of this research project: • Provide basic knowledge about dōjinshi exchange that is currently lacking in English-language scholarship on fans • Frame it in a way that makes it useful and understandable to stakeholders in fanwork exchange outside Japan • Provide resources and infrastructure to support more research into dōjinshi exchange The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 11 of open source cultural goods
- 12. One descriptive and two analytical chapters Question What are dōjinshi and how are they exchanged? How to explain that this system of exchange works? Does this system have broader cultural significance? Method Examination of primary and secondary sources, (informal) fieldwork on- and offline Framing dōjinshi exchange as a “hybrid economy” Framing dōjinshi as part of “open culture” The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 12 of open source cultural goods
- 13. Descriptive: About dōjinshi exchange • Definitions and translations of “dōjinshi” (同人誌) • History of dōjinshi exchange • What dojinshi look like, how they are made, and by whom • How dōjinshi are exchanged: o Dōjinshi conventions o Dōjin shops o Mail order o Online auctions o For free online • Dōjinshi outside Japan The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 13 of open source cultural goods
- 14. Results (1): Hybrid economy framing can explain why dōjinshi exchange is functional • Two kinds of stakeholders wanting different things: o Companies want to make money (“market economy”) o Fans want to share their works (“gift economy”) • Dōjinshi exchange is a “hybrid” between gift and market (Lessig 2008) o Fans actually make little money, but selling their works supports dōjinshi exchange infrastructure o Companies get financial benefits out of dōjinshi exchange • Stakeholders involved understand/respect each other’s motivations, and the system gives both what they want The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 14 of open source cultural goods
- 15. Results (2): Dōjinshi exchange can be seen as part of a broader “open culture” • “Open culture”: involvement/empowerment of “amateur” individuals in various cultural spheres • Clarifies the cultural significance of dōjinshi exchange: o What fans want is to maintain their practices o To do this, fans create new processes of creation, distribution, and relations with copyright holders o These can challenge established/legally prescribed methods and are an engine of cultural innovation • Dōjin culture is taking inspiration from open culture/source: o new business models (Hatsune Miku, Tōhō Project) o new license (dōjin mark) 15
- 16. Results (3): Dōjinshi exchange is instable because of copyright problems • The system functions because of a loophole in Japanese copyright law • Moves towards tightening copyright legislation • TPP: could close loophole • Copyright is a concern for many systems of fanworks exchange worldwide o Copyright legislation tightened on international level o However, little international cooperation between fans/companies/activists/academics o Solutions proposed are based on local practices The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 16 of open source cultural goods
- 17. Results (4): Lessons from dōjinshi exchange for “hybrids” for English-language fanworks • Perception that involving money in fan activities means commercialism: untrue • Tight control of fanworks exchange and content by companies is unnecessary, even unhelpful • Copyright issue must be solved to have a stable system (no loophole in law, no trust between fans and companies) Further study of successes and failures of dōjinshi exchange needed The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 17 of open source cultural goods
- 18. Caveats This research: • Represents only one possible interpretation • Focuses strongly one one aspect of dōjinshi, the ways they are exchanged • Relies (mostly) on existing primary and secondary sources and on observation The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 18 of open source cultural goods
- 19. Further research needed • Empirical research on the interactions between people and organizations involved • Cooperative research between English- and Japanese-speaking scholars • Hurdles: o Language barriers o Perception issues o Different uses of terminology o … The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 19 of open source cultural goods
- 20. Potential contributions • Japanese studies: Clarifies the significance of dōjinshi as a Japanese cultural phenomenon • Anime and manga studies: Highlights an overlooked but crucial aspect of Japanese popular culture • Cultural economics: Complicates idea that the Japanese cultural economy is only about professional creation • English-language fan studies: Illustrates the importance of thinking of the “commercial” or “non-commercial” motivations of fans in a more complex way The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 20 of open source cultural goods
- 21. Digital thesis for improving and communicating work The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 21 of open source cultural goods
- 22. Open access output 1: academic work • Full (and improving) thesis text • 5 chapters/articles/papers • 10 conference presentations • 2 reviews of books on Japanese fan culture • 2 translations of Japanese academic articles on fan culture The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 22 of open source cultural goods
- 23. Open access output 2: non-academic work • A Japanese-English glossary of fan culture terminology • An expanded bibliography of sources related to dōjinshi • Educational materials about dōjinshi • Articles on Wikipedia and Fanlore • Reporting and engaging in dialogue about research on social media, at fan conventions, and at professional (un)conferences The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 23 of open source cultural goods
- 24. In conclusion The system of dōjinshi exchange is a functional, innovative, adaptable, and democratic way of producing, distributing, and monetizing media. It is potentially better adapted to the technological and cultural realities of media creation than commercial pop culture, and it is one of the most relevant, promising, and valuable parts of contemporary Japanese popular culture. http://nelenoppe.net/dojinshi/thesis nele.noppe@gmail.com @unjapanologist The cultural economy of fanwork in Japan: dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy 24 of open source cultural goods
Editor's Notes
- Dear members of the jury, members of the public, Good afternoon and thank you very much for joining me here today It is my great pleasure to present to you the results of the last four years of my doctoral research. I will give a very quick introduction to the topic, dojinshi exchange, and why I chose it for my research. Then I will briefly describe the setup of the research and then go straight to the results. This research is first of all about the exchange of something called dojinshi. What are these dojinshi and why is the way they are exchanged interesting as a topic for a PhD in Japanese Studies?
- Dōjinshi are basically magazines, print and digital, created and distributed primarily in Japan. This is what they look like: thin magazines, often professionally printed, very nice-looking. These dojinshi are not commercially published; they are amateur publications. Dojinshi are self-published by fans of media (manga, anime, film...) and other topics (software, history, photography, ...). What is inside these dojinshi? What are they about?
- Dojinshi can be about anything that is also published by commercial magazines – fiction, non-fiction, and so on. For example, the dojinshi on the right is a fictional story about the Meiji government. HOWEVER
- …the majority of dōjinshi today are fanworks. Fanwork is stories or art made by fans that use characters or other elements from existing, copyrighted media. For instance, there you see a dojinshi that uses characters from Harry Potter to tell a new story. One of the first questions that is always asked when I talk about this is, is this legal? In many countries including Japan, making and especially distributing “fanworks” is not actually legal. When you create a story based on characters from a copyrighted work, and you don’t have the permission of the copyright holder of that work, and you try to spread it around, that is copyright infringement. Partly because dōjinshi exist in a legal gray zone, Dōjinshi is little known much dojinshi activity takes place in a fairly hidden way They have not been studied The small amount of studies is not in proportion with the size of the phenomenon itself. Let’s take a quick look at how dōjinshi exchange happens and how large this system is.
- Fans make dōjinshi and sell them at conventions Fans buy dōjinshi at conventions and sometimes sell them to dōjin shops Some dōjin shops sell new dōjinshi on consignment from creators Some dōjin shops are online According to what little research there is, this exchange involves several million people and large amounts of money. Some estimates say there may have been about 70 billion yen circulating in this market in 2012 (half a million euros at today&s exchange rate). However, again, much of this activity is technically illegal. Essentially, we have a large shadow economy surrounding amateur works that exists next to the Japanese popular culture market that we all know, and it seems to involve amateur creators buying and selling copyright-infringing works. This is interesting in and of itself, but the reason why it caught my eye is that this system of exchanging fanworks is very, very different from the system that’s used by fans over here, fans on the English-speaking internet. Fans on the English-speaking internet make fanworks as well, and in the same large amounts as fans do in Japan. However, the way fans exchange these fanworks here is very different from the way fans in Japan exchange dojinshi.
- To make a very rough comparison with English-language This is a fairly strange situation when viewed from the POV of English-language fan culture. There are many questions you would be tempted to ask. -If involving money in fanworks exchange would be harmful to English-speaking fans, why is it apparently not harmful in Japan? -If Japanese fans are using money to exchange fanworks for, does that mean they are engaging in commercial activity? -How could we explain that copyright holders in Japan seem to be tolerating all this copyright infringement? -Is there anything that English-speaking fans could learn from this Japanese system?
- Fan studies, otaku studies, and research from other fields Many scholars from English-language fan studies are unfamiliar with Japanese fan culture Many scholars from Japanese-language fan studies are unfamiliar with English-speaking fan culture Little comparative work, because few scholars are a) aware of both fan cultures, b) know both English and Japanese, and c) are interested in these economic questions No comparative work so far about the economic systems of fanworks exchange In English-speaking academia, we don’t really know How does it work Why does it work What can we learn from it This PhD research tries to adress this issue
- This research asks, What role does dōjinshi exchange play in the cultural economy of Japan? What can we learn from it? To try and answer these questions, I put forward three goals for the project. Provide basic knowledge about dōjinshi exchange that is currently lacking in English-language scholarship on fans Frame it in a way that makes it useful and understandable to stakeholders in fanwork exchange outside Japan Provide resources and infrastructure to support more research into dōjinshi exchange
- This thesis is built around one descriptive chapter and two analytical chapters. In the descriptive chapter, I explain in detail how dojinshi exchange works based on primary sources and secondary sources about dojinshi exchange. Those primary sources include dojinshi themselves, and documents from exchange like convention catalogs and websites. I also rely on informal fieldwork in Japan, and on my personal experiences as a member of a dojinshi creation club and as a longtime member of English-speaking fan communities. Those secondary sources include academic research in Japanese and in English, non-academic research by fans themselves, research reports written by economic research bureaus and government agencies, and so on. In the analytical chapters, I use two very closely related framings of amateur cultural production and apply them to dojinshi exchange, to answer the questions of how this system of exchange works, and what broader cultural significance it may have. The first of these is the idea that today, amateurs who make things and professionals who make things are increasingly cooperating with each other in an economic system called a “hybrid economy”. (explain in bit) The second of these framings is the idea that some of these “hybrid economies” are part of a broader cultural cultural phenomenon referred to as “open culture”, and which has open source software as its most well-known example. In these two chapters, I evaluate how how well dojinshi fits within these framings, where it does not fit inside them, and what that can tell us about the place that dojinshi exchange occupies in the cultural economy of Japan.
- This is the general structure of that descriptive chapter. I’m not going to go over this in this presentation; the members of the jury have read this, and the members of the public can read it online. I’d like to go straight to a discussion of some of the main results that I’ve obtained in the two analytical chapters.
- Firstly, conceptualizing dōjinshi exchange as a hybrid economy is one way to explain why dōjinshi exchange function even though it involves massive amounts of copyright infringement. Essentially, it’s all about the people involved recognizing each other’s motivations. The key thing here is what we see in dōjinshi exchange is not actually fans trying to make money out from other people’s intellectual property. What we see in dōjinshi exchange are two kinds of stakeholders who value and want very different things. -companies are motivated by the desire to make money (they are working within a “market economy”) -fans don’t want money. The fans are motivated mainly by the desire to share their works with others and get social interaction and creative fun out of that (they are working within a “gift economy”) What we see in the case of dōjinshi exchange is that these gift and market economies are cooperating to each other’s mutual benefit. They’ve established a hybrid economy. They’ve established a system where, for instance, the people from the gift economy can use some methods from the market economy to support their gift practices. When fans sell dōjinshi instead of giving them away, fans don’t make much money. However, these sales supports a large infrastructure that supports fan activities. Sales of dōjinshi support dōjinshi conventions, dōjin shops, and other things that make fan activity more fun and stable for fans. In spite of the copyright infringement involved, this system also gives the companies what they want, because this giant system of dōjinshi exchange is actually good for their bottom line in many ways. To give just one example why, it’s free marketing. The companies can see that fans are infringing their copyrights. However, they recognize that fans don’t actually mean to make a profit. They realize that the people who make dōjinshi mostly do not have commercial motives. In short, all stakeholders involved understand/respect each other’s motivations, and the system gives both what they want That is a working hybrid economy This sort of hybrid economy is actually not very exceptional these days. Scholars argue that such hybrid systems are increasingly common. Scholars argue that amateur creators are increasingly finding ways to cooperate with professional creators or companies to build value together.
- This increasing involvement of amateur individuals, and the increasing empowerment of amateur individuals, in the production of media and in other cultural spheres is a phenomenon that is sometimes referred to as “open culture”. People in the audience may be familiar with the most well-known example of open culture, open source software. Scholars are starting to argue that dōjinshi exchange fits in very well with this “open culture”. They argue that using vocabulary and concepts from “open culture” can help clarify the cultural significance of dōjinshi exchange. I find that it is indeed useful to use “open culture” as a lens through which we can explaining the functioning and the cultural role of dōjinshi exchange today. There is a fairly complex argument behind this, but we can summarize it in this way: What fans want is to maintain their practices To do this, fans create new processes of creation, distribution, and relations with copyright holders These can challenge established/legally prescribed methods and are an engine of innovation This is not just a theoretical/academic idea. Dōjin culture is taking inspiration from open culture/source: new business models (Hatsune Miku, Tōhō Project) new licenses (dōjin mark) This sounds quite upbeat, but there are also problems. For instance, the reason why people are making such new licenses is that dōjinshi exchange is constantly under threat from copyright issues.
- We’ve seen that dōjinshi exchange is essentially not legal. However, for now, dōjinshi exchange works because there is a loophole in Japanese copyright law. But, in recent years, there have been a lot of moves towards tightening copyright legislation in Japan. For instance, right now, Japan is taking part in talks for a trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that could mandate changes in Japanese copyright law, changes that could close that loophole Dōjinshi exchange is not actually the only system of fanworks exchange that is facing such troubles. Copyright is a concern for many systems of fanworks exchange worldwide Copyright legislation tightened on international level However, little international cooperation between fans/companies/activists/academics Solutions proposed are based on local practices Based on this research and the work of other scholars and activists that are now working to compare fan cultures across the globe, I would argue that especially when it comes to copyright law and monetization of fanworks, it’s essential for stakeholders in different systems to know more about each other, learn from each other, and cooperate. Going back to just what this research shows,
- I think there are some lessons in dōjinshi exchange for English-speaking fans, media companies, and others who have some stake in the exchange of English-language fanworks Especially now. Like I said before, up to now, fanworks have been exchanged mostly for free on the English-language internet. HOWEVER English-speaking fans are currently experiencing many attempts (by fans and especially companies) to set up a “hybrid economy” for fanworks sales, not unlike the Japanese system of dōjinshi exchange. For instance, just last year, Amazon tried to set up a platform for the sale of fanworks. The problem is, this is not going very well, many of these attempts have failed. I think there are a few points where people can look at dōjinshi exchange for inspiration in order to make good, working hybrid system for fanworks exchange. For instance, Many English-speaking fans who are used to free exchange of fanworks believe that involving money in fan activities necessarily means making them commercial, and this is dangerous. The example of dōjinshi exchange can show that that is not necessarily true. Many Western media companies seem to be thinking that they can only allow fanwork exchange for money if they tightly control where it happens, how it happens, and what content is monetized. Dōjinshi exchange can show that this sort of control is not actually necessary to have a working system. Indeed, tight control from companies is actively unhelpful. Copyright issue must be solved (no loophole in law, no trust between fans and companies) In short, I think this research gives us enough reason to say that further study of the success and failures of dōjinshi exchange could be very practically useful for fans and companies outside Japan.
- Now, I have to add a few qualifications This research represents only one possible interpretation. I have analyzed dōjinshi exchange in Japan using a particular method and within a particular theoretical framework. While this has given me some useful results, it is obviously not the only useful approach. Also - This research has focused very strongly on one aspect of dojinshi exchange, their system of exchange. There are many more aspects to dojinshi that are very relevant but that I haven’t been able to focus on, for instance the actual content of dōjinshi. Finally - There are limits to the approach that I’ve taken. This research has relied mostly on examining existing primary and secondary sources about dojinshi, and on observation of various fan practices. Especially because the topic of this thesis is an ongoing social and economic phenomenon, there’s only so much that I can learn from examining materials and observing people.
- Indeed, we need some particular kinds of further research to develop the ideas in this thesis further. For instance, Empirical research on the interactions between people and organizations involved (I mentioned earlier that I’ve done a lot of informal fieldwork; I need to do more fieldwork in a more structured way, including survey research, interviews and so on) Cooperative research between English- and Japanese-speaking scholars However, there are a lot of hurdles to such research. There are the obvious language barriers. There are also very persistent perception issues. Basically, English- and Japanese-speaking scholars still don’t have a very good idea of what different kinds of fanwork exchange exist and why these systems work the way they do. There are many issues with terminology that easily cause misunderstandings. Like I indicated in the thesis, dōjinshi is a word that is actually very hard to translate. I’ve often used “fan” or “fanwork” as a rough equivalent of dōjinshi, but even that is sometimes questionable, really. And there may be other issues as well. In any case, I and other scholars of Japanese popular culture have a lot of work left to do.
- However, imperfect as it is, I think that this research can contribute very significantly to understanding of dōjinshi exchange in Japan, and that in several different academic fields. For Japanese studies, this research can clarify the importance of dōjinshi as a Japanese cultural phenomenon. For anime and manga studies, this research can highlight that fan creation is an integral part of popular culture in Japan and really cannot be overlooked. For cultural economics, this research can complicate the idea that the Japanese cultural economy is only about what professionals do. For English-language fan studies, this research can contribute a variety of things that I’ve mentioned before, but in particular, I would like to emphasize again: Illustrate the importance of thinking of the “commercial” or “non-commercial” motivations of fans in a more complex way. We can’t just assume that the mere presence of money means that commercial activity is going on. Now, if I want this research to actually make these potential contributions, I still have a lot of work to do. Information from my research is not going to end up with these various people just because I wrote it down. From now on, I need to focus on Not just improving this research, but also Communicating this research efficiently to people in these fields And to make it easy for other researchers to use my work for their projects Right now, I’m using the digital version of my thesis as a springboard for improving and communicating my work.
- This is what that digital thesis looks like. It’s a wiki that I’ve been building since march 2013. I’ll just give a quick overview of what sort of output is available on or through this wiki right now.
- There are several kinds of traditional academic work: Academia.edu views: 2884 on oct 22 Most popular presentation: 734 views on prezi, 9 retweets Numbers do not include this thesis text
- I’ve also worked out output in non-academic contexts: I mention these non-academic things because I think they’re at least as efficient for reaching people as my academic output. For instance, that Japanese-English glossary is actually the most popular page on my wiki. I want to use this digital thesis as springboard to connect with scholars from relevant fields, media industry representatives, fans, and copyright activists to see what further research is needed and how this research can help them. Most popular page: glossary, 3,626 on oct 22 Bibliography 2,601 Ensure data gets to right people and keeps circulating: Keep existing materials up to date and keep adding material to glossary and bibliography Improve promotion via social media Open wiki for editing by others ‘’’/words here/’’’ smw (collaborative Wikiproject?)
- And I mean valuable in every possible sense of the word. Thank you very much for your attention. I hope you’ll find this research useful for your projects and that you have a lot of questions.