| Title | 3. Navigating the Boundary between Subjection and Agency |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Gender-Based Violence in the Japanese Popular Music Industry |
| Contributor | Chiharu Chujo (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0436.03 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0436/chapters/10.11647/obp.0436.03 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Chiharu Chujo; |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-06-23 |
| Long abstract | This chapter explores the pervasive problem of gender-based violence (GBV) within the Japanese popular music industry, a sector that is at once deeply culturally vibrant and informed by patriarchy. Indeed, with Japan ranking very low on global indexes of gender equality, the hyper-gendered norms and power imbalances entrench the male dominance in this industry, especially within genres such as rock and hip-hop. Using Liz Kelly’s “continuum of violence,” this paper analyses how GBV works in subtle, yet pervasive forms, starting from sexist comments to systemic objectification, thereby normalizing the unequal power relation. Despite global momentum, spearheaded by #MeToo in several other cultural contexts, scholarship and policy work on GBV in the music world remains scant within Japan, leaving many issues invisible. Drawing on qualitative interviewing with musicians-industry professionals, this chapter explores enabling discursive and normative structures/cultural conditions linked to GBV in the industry, such as hierarchical mentor-mentorship relationships engendered between men, and commodifying women within male idol systems. The following sections focus on the voices of women who survive in this patriarchal industry by both confronting, resisting and adapting to these constraints. This contribution attempts to bridge the silence in academia on GBV in Japan’s music industry while offering a much-needed nuanced understanding of its causes from a social perspective and locating this within broader debates on gender inequalities in creative industries. |
| Page range | pp. 49–72 |
| Print length | 24 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
Having spent her post-doctoral years at INALCO and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), Chiharu Chujo is currently associate professor at the University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France). Her dissertation, which she defended in 2018, focuses on committed Japanese women musicians from the 1970s to the present. She is currently pursuing her research on gender issues in the Japanese music industry, particularly in the world of hip-hop and electronic music. She has translated numerous books on the subject, including Femmes du jazz (Marie Buscatto, 2007) and Be Creative (Angela Mcrobbie, 2016). She is the author of several articles, including “Chanter l'écologisme dans le Japon de l'après-Fukushima : l'ambivalence de la musique écoféministe chez UA” (Itinéraires, 2021) and “Representing Love among Female Rappers: Transgressing, Poaching and Dialoguing” (in Japanese, Eureka 2023).