The Lonely World of Virtual Love: Masculinity between Self-eradication and Neo-Validation in Late-modern Japan

Abstract

Based on a four-year empiric-phenomenological fieldwork in the slippery domain of virtual interactions as well as in-depth literature research on new media, masculinity studies and entertainment industry with specific focus on Japan, this paper aims at clarifying some of the major – and to a certain extent, central – themes recurrent in the, at times obsessive, radicalized consumption of virtual leisure practices among (Japanese) men: particularly online dating, video games and digital pornography seem to have slowly, steadily, quietly conquered the cyber-space – notably large segments of the male population. Previous academic research on the digital space and its relation to masculinity, particularly the seminal studies of Azuma Hiroki (2000, 2001) and Morikawa Aiichirō (2008), deal mostly with the otaku ("nerd") phenomenon classically linked to the cyber-industry and digital culture. The current paper analyzes the two additional paradigms of masculinity in Japan framing the otaku social appearance – the salaryman ("corporate samurai") and the "herbivore men" – in historical-comparative perspective while highlighting the complex gender dynamics in late-modern Japan, in the dialectical interplay of power, (cultural) consumption and state-driven reproduction politics, and suggests some possible measures towards a more social-friendly future of the digital universe and of the challenges masculinity is facing currently, in a global perspective.