SOFT POWER HARD TRUTH / When the future is bleak, look to the past

Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Last week, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara managed to ram through Bill 156, the so-called nonexistent youth bill, specifically targeting manga and anime that may be deemed "disruptive to society," presumably by Ishihara himself, while exempting live action photography and video, not to mention live human beings who actually possess child pornography. The former taboo-busting novelist turned moralist politico claimed in his monthly press conference last Friday that Japan had become "too uninhibited" compared with "Western societies," and added that readers of offending manga had "warped DNA."

Ishihara's apparent success comes not without ramifications, however, some of which are potentially severe. Led by Kadokawa Group Publishing, 10 of the nation's top manga publishers, including giants Shueisha, Kodansha and Shogakukan, have vowed to boycott next year's Tokyo International Anime Fair, slated for March 24-27, in an unusual act of corporate protest. The announcement prompted Japan's normally blog-shy Prime Minister Naoto Kan to post a message under his own name, pleading for both sides to find a resolution to "prevent a situation where an international anime fair cannot be held in Tokyo."

Reports from this year's TAF were dominated by the arrival of several Chinese anime producers on the scene. Next year, they may have the floor all (or mostly) to themselves.

Given such dire prognostications, it may be better, or at least more fun, to look back at some of 2010's worthy pop culture publications. The folks at Kodansha International help us decode two of the most ubiquitous icons of Japanese pop imagery--schoolgirls and ninja--vis-a-vis two authoritative husband-and-wife teams.

Wired magazine contributing editor Brian Ashcraft and his wife Shoko Ueda, based in Osaka, bring us Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential, a surprisingly capacious work that covers every permutation of the uniformed femmes in manga, anime and flesh and blood live action, fatal or not, even recording the history of the Sailor Moon-style uniform itself, imported from the United States by a fast-militarizing Japan at the turn of the century.

Another conjugal pair, Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, having already enlightened us about Japanese ghosts (Yokai Attack!) and everyday cartoon characters (Hello, Please!), turn their lucid lenses to the myths and realities behind Japan's irresistible secret agents, spies and assassins in Ninja Attack! Revealing what true ninja actually wore (not the sleek black uniforms and masks of popular rendering, of course, because they tried to blend into their surroundings--duh), ate, brandished and so on, the book admirably balances the seductions of ninja fiction with the astonishments of historical truth. (Did you know, for example, that Matsuo Basho, Japan's most renowned haiku master, may have served time amid his nomadic wanderings as a spy for the shogunate?)

Both books are tidy, lightweight and colorfully designed paperbacks with ample illustrations and photographs that won't alienate or bore manga and anime enthusiasts keen for visual aids. Concise sidebar definitions, diagrams and cartoon bubbles keep the layout fresh and inventive, enabling readers to dip in and be edified at random.

At the other end of the scale is the substantial hardcover photography collection, Cosplay in America, by Ejen Chuang, featuring a plethora of schoolgirls, ninja, Super Marios and just about any other manga, anime and video game character imaginable--or at least a bunch of Americans dressed up to look like them. If you've never attended one of the hundreds of manga and anime festivals and conventions held nearly every weekend across the United States, this voluminous bilingual (English and Japanese) tome offers a sneak peek at the variety and dedication of Japanese pop culture's overseas fans, whose elaborate costumes are usually at least partly homemade, if not entirely stitched by the cosplayers themselves.

Perhaps someone should hand a copy of the book to Ishihara so he can see firsthand what those "Western societies" are really up to these days.

Kelts is a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo who divides his time between Tokyo and New York. He is the author of "Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S." (www.japanamericabook.com).