A Media History of Radio Crafts

A Transformation of Experiences in Media and Technologies in　Prewar / Postwar Japan

Abstract

　Previous studies of Japanese media history focused on the practices of

radio amateurs in prewar Japan. However, in postwar Japan, they played a

more active role. They crafted radio receivers and audio sets themselves, and

contributed to the development of media technology.

　　This paper attempts to describe their practices in prewar and postwar

Japan. Radio craft was a material practice which meant that crafting equipment

became a hobby, and the popularization and decline of radio craft in postwar

Japan was a process in which a diversity of other radio experiences converged

with receiving programs.