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Doraemon and the Information Society in 1969

Date
Wed March 5th 2025, 4:30 - 6:00pm
Event Sponsor
Center for East Asian Studies
Location
Lathrop Library
518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305
224

One of Japan's most famous manga, “Doraemon,” began in 1969 in a children's magazine published by Shogakukan. In fact, it has continued for more than half a century. The year 1969 was a time of numerous discourses on the coming of the information society, with the Osaka Expo to be held the following year.

By exploring the social context in which Doraemon appeared, this presentation will shed light on certain aspects of the social transformation that occurred in 1960s Japan. What are the social and media conditions of the Doraemon story? In what kind of social imagination was “Doraemon” created and accepted? 

Specifically, this presentation will focus on objects such as desks, bookshelves, and books that appear in Doraemon's stories. These objects show that the mechanization of the office, which developed in postwar Japan, had spilled over into the home. With the installation of office equipment, office supplies, and various books in the 1960s, a certain form of material “informatization of the home” was in progress. 

By focusing on these objects that came into the home, this presentation aims to reconsider the transformation of the family that occurred during the high-growth period as a phenomenon related to “information.” (Image courtesy of Shogakukan) 

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here

About the speaker:

Takahito Niikrua is an associate professor of the history of mass communication at Seijo University. He is the author of Noritsu no Kyo-do-tai [Efficient Communities: Middle Class and Nationalism in Modern Japan](Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 2017). 

He is currently preparing a book on the history of running culture in Japan and conducting research on the history of office machines in Japan.