Overview

In 1996 over 16 million people visited Tokyo Disneyland, making it the most popular of the many theme parks in Japan. Since it opened in 1983, Tokyo Disneyland has been analyzed mainly as an example of the globalization of the American leisure industry and its organizational culture, particularly the ""company manual."" By looking at how Tokyo Disneyland is experienced by employees, management, and visitors, Aviad Raz shows that it is much more an example of successful importation, adaptation, and domestication and that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese even while marketing itself as foreign. Rather than being an agent of Americanization, Tokyo Disneyland is a simulated ""America"" showcased by and for the Japanese. It is an ""America"" with a Japanese meaning.

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Raz's socio-anthropological study describes how a significant piece of American business, ideology, and fantasy has been remade in Japan. Raz challenges the popular idea of Tokyo Disneyland as being a cultural imperialism. Rather, he found that it has succeeded precisely because it has become Japanese while marketing itself as American...[A] fine ethnography.--M. Y. Rynn Choice

Raz's study of Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) is a well-grounded case of domestication. The central question of the study is to examine how Walt Disney World, as a globalizing and imperialistic operation, has been reworked into the localized cultural networks of Japan...This book is a strong case of glocalization, collapsing the global and local. -- Eric K. W. Ma Journal of Communication

Author Information

Aviad E. Raz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

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