anthropological studies of Jap. TV-shows?

[Michael Badzik]

Birgit Kellner asked:

>A friend recently asked me whether I knew of research about Japanese
>TV-shows from an anthropological perspective,

While it only covers one category of programming you might try to 
find a copy of "A History of Japanese Television Drama", edited by 
Masunori Sato and Hideo Hirahara and published by The Japan 
Association Of Broadcasting Art (Tokyo, 1991). The authors do a lot 
of looking into the impact on television drama of other television 
programs (both foreign and domestic), as well as social and economic 
influences, such as the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty 
and the Tokyo Olympics.

Another one to consider is the paper (that I discovered in the 
KineJapan database) "An Analysis of Kimi no Na Wa (What is Your 
Name?)" by Ono Tsutomu in the book "Japanese Popular Culture" 
edited by Kato Hidetoshi (Rutland, Vt: Tuttle, 1959,). First a 
radio drama, then a movie trilogy, and then multiple television 
incarnations, "Kimi no Na Wa" was hugely popular and this study 
tries to determine exactly why. The conclusions are interesting.

Hope this helps.

Michael Badzik
mike at vena.com