Abstract
This study examines the development of anthropology of tourism in Japanese academia by analyzingthe arguments on "cultural turn" theory. Anthropology of tourism originated in the United States in the 1970s, and was later introduced in Japan in the mid-1980s. Since the 1990s, many Japanese researchers have conducted anthropological studies using cultural turn theory, establishing an independent place in Japan’s present tourism research. Anthropologists have made several attempts to locate research under the framework of anthropology; however, to date, there has been no speculation focusing on tourism research. Therefore, this study re-frames the anthropology of tourism in Japan as a sub-discipline of tourism research, paying aclose attention to thearguments on cultural turn. The extensive review reveals that cultural turn played a key role in the introduction of anthropology of tourism in Japan. However, because of its dominant influence in the field, it unintentionally covered the potential issues discussed in tourism research. Therefore, anthropology of tourism in Japan should overcome this strong influence of the cultural turn theory and uncover the issues that were made invisible by it. The study proposes the application of various other theories and the participation of community development as measures to rebalance the anthropology of tourism in Japanese academia.
