What is food porn? What does it look like and why is a food image associated with pornography? Does the Japanese boom of "hae" (visually appealing) gourmet food and desserts equivalent to food porn? "Food porn" is a particular mode of representing food in which various techniques, such as contrasting colors, slow motion, close-ups, and framing, are used to exaggerate the food’s aesthetically pleasing aspect and affective impact on viewers. An image (a work or television program) that employs such techniques can also be referred to as food porn. After locating the topic within a larger theoretical framework of mediatization, this article explores the arguments of several well-known food porn research in the US and the UK. The launch of Food Network, a famous television station, in 1993 is considered by previous research as a significant backdrop for the industrialization of food porn. Chan (2003) uses the term "pornography" as a metaphor to describe typical plot lines and characters in food shows that are, in his view, similar to sexual porn. Kaufman (2006) extends Chan’s points by examining the shooting of a Food Network cooking show, audience demography, and the visual grammar of food programs parallel to sexual porn. McDonnell (2016) explains in detail the characteristics of the gaze constructed by, and the scheme of, food porn images. Ibrahim (2015) contextualizes the popularity of user-generated food images on SNS within everyday media practices. I agree with Ray (2007), who is suspicious of the use of sensational terms to critically analyze media representations of food. However, it is noteworthy that Japanese SNS users and cooking magazines employ in their food images the same visual techniques that are framed as food porn by McDonnell. Hypothetically, this might show that the typical way of portraying food in the Food Network shows has been disseminated so widely that it impacted people who do not directly watch their programs.

    Andagi, also known as the Okinawan doughnut, is a popular local food unique to Hawai’i. Although the original andagi is the Okinawan traditional pastry sata andagi, it is called andagi in Hawai’i, and its flavor is localized. This study examines the food culture creation process based on the movement of people, goods, and information due to globalization. Accordingly, I conduct a case study of the creative media practice of independent cookbook production by a women’s group that contributed to the formation of food culture in the Okinawan community in Hawai’i. Specifically, I focused on four books on cooking and culture made by the group members. I examined how their design and form transformed, and in doing so, I highlighted each book’s meaning and function, as well as how andagi was told and created. Cookbook editing and production uncovered and promoted a unique Okinawan food culture in conventional home cooking by sharing recipes. This, in turn, contributed to the establishment of an Okinawan food culture in Hawai’i. Andagi was positioned as a symbolic food in Okinawan culture, which yielded a unique Hawai’i-style andagi standard. Andagi is not just a local food but also an ethnic food created based on the daily lives and the creative media practice of the Okinawan people in Hawai’i, who, despite the discrimination they faced as immigrants from Okinawa, always valued a tightly knit and helpful community, remained grateful for their families, and lived with pride in their Okinawan identity.

    This paper explores the connections between Bulgaria and Japan through the lens of yogurt consumption, focusing on the cultural significance of "Grandma’s Yogurt." It delves into the post-socialist period in Bulgaria, examining how the pursuit of "homeland taste" and "authenticity" diverges from the opposition to industrialization, technological development, and large-scale global production often associated with organic and slow food movements. Despite the significant geographical, political, and economic differences between Japan and Bulgaria in the 1970s, the sour-tasting Bulgarian yogurt transitioned from an unknown food item to a powerful international brand, emphasizing health and authenticity. The analysis reflects on the socio-cultural dynamics during the post-socialist era, where Bulgaria’s EU accession and stringent food regulations led to a transformation in the perception of yogurt as a cultural symbol. The everyday production and consumption of yogurt embody a continuous interplay between "tradition" and "modernity," "local" and "national," and "global" and "local," shedding light on the challenges and changes in Bulgarian identity in the face of societal shifts. Each pot of Grandma’s Yogurt not only contains millions of beneficial lactobacilli but also serves as a compass reflecting the Japanese image of "beautiful Bulgaria" and guiding individuals in their sense of what it is to be Bulgarian today.

    Many policy issues are behind the recent eruption of challenges related to food and agriculture, and it is essential to confront these as political issues. For example, the elimination of tariffs on agricultural and livestock products, the decline in food self-sufficiency, inadequate policy support for producers, the ageing of producers and lack of successors, high food prices, and the spread of poverty and hunger. On the other hand, when discussing the limits of capitalist society, there has long been the view that food and agriculture should be common beyond market efficiency and economic rationalism.

    However, regarding food, various issues are often seen as something that should be solved by individual responsibility and competence. It will also be argued from the perspective of food washing that food narratives can sometimes even mask problems. Furthermore, public relations is examined as a type of ’democratic’ communication aimed at communicating risks about food safety, which is ’interactive’ and aims to build ’better relationships’. It further discussed how the boundary between propaganda and public relations can be unclear. The point at which information is seen as something that requires democratic control, making it harder for people to engage in their affairs, was discussed about government intelligence activities.

    As mentioned above, this paper discussed how the right to know must first be guaranteed when it comes to food sovereignty, but how difficult this has become. This paper also points out that no matter how depoliticised food becomes, it is a property that inevitably has to be linked to political action.

    This study discusses how food activism has changed society. Food activism seeks to change society by modifying the ways of producing, distributing, and consuming food. This is often exemplified by local-based food activities such as community-supported agriculture and food cooperatives.

    First, against the background of privatization in food choice, this paper examines food activists’ focus on organizing common food places in civil society, such as community cafés, rather than on expanding their influence on politicians and the bureaucracy.

    Second, this research discusses how food activists have changed society. They are committed to reconstructing direct and close relationships between farmers, distributors, and consumers. Reconstruction is expected to help them realize the presence of (invisible) social relations over food. Food activists also take special care to open facilities providing food to marginalized people and enhance inclusiveness in such places. Furthermore, they create and promote a sense of mutual support among citizens by providing them with opportunities to work together.

    Third, this study examines the difficulties that food activists are currently facing. While a heavy burden is placed on a small number of activists to provide food-related services to fellow citizens, only a limited number of people have access to such services. Food activists struggle with inequality in terms of the burden and benefits related to civil society. They reconsider food issues from the perspectives of justice, citizenship, and democracy, which were not focused on in the past and require local governments to play a part in solving inequality issues.

    We clarify how the emancipatory orientation of sexuality discourse in women’s magazines shifted in response to the momentum of women’s lib. Conventional media studies have highlighted that such sexuality discourse became more active after the 1970s under the influence of social movements such as women’s lib and sexual liberation in Europe and the United States. This study examines this situation from the perspective of the sexualization of women that developed mainly in the mass media during the 1980s, when women’s magazines were booming, and the reader-driven fashion boom that permeated the entire country brought women to the forefront as consumers. At the same time, the appearance of ordinary women in the mass media expanded the gaze that consumed women as sexual symbols. This sexual signification was internalized by the women’s lib orientation toward equal romantic relationships with men. This trend was observed not only in general women’s magazines but also in teen magazines, and especially in the first half of the 1980s, radical sex features in these magazines became a social problem because of their negative influence on youth through their function as "sex manuals" for young people. This study analyzes an article in the teen magazine "Pop Teen," which was called into question by the Diet in 1984 for its extreme sex features. The magazine’s sex features initially had a "sex education" aspect and later shifted to a structure that provided specific contraceptive knowledge in line with the reality of sex in everyday life. We highlight that the seemingly radical sex features in teen magazines literally functioned as manuals, especially for young women in the 1980s, when women were confronted with equal relationships with men that included sex. The findings shed light on the sexuality discourse of teenage sexuality, an area that has been particularly taboo since modernization.

    "Public service" has always been a key term for broadcasting. However, broadcasting has often been criticized for supposedly being lacking in public service. In response to this issue, this study aims to examine the relationship between public service and broadcasting in postwar Japan.

    After World WarII, the Japanese broadcasting system was re-established under the indirect control of the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the American Occupation forces. The system was a dual system, comprising a public broadcasting system based on license fees and commercial broadcasting services based on advertisements. The Japanese government established the Radio Regulatory Commission (RRC), or Denpakanriiinkai, which was modeled after the American Federal Communications Commission, and placed it in charge of broadcasting administration.

    Because these measures were taken at the strong request of GHQ, previous studies have suggested that the Japanese side reluctantly accepted the new system. Therefore, discussions on "public service" in broadcasting were also perceived as imposed by the U.S.

    However, this study of an RRC document reveals that the concept of "public service" was heavily discussed on the Japanese side among RRC officials and individuals who aimed to start commercial broadcasting organizations.

    This study analyzes an important document that recounts an RRC hearing that took place in Osaka. This 1951 hearing was the 9^th hearing held by the RRC, and it was held to determine which organization should be licensed as a broadcaster in Osaka. This marked the only time this kind of discussion took place.

    Five organizations asked for a license in the hearing. They competed against each other in the hearing, and were evaluated by RRC officials based on the degree of "public service" provided by their programs. This demonstrates a deep consciousness of the concept of "public service" in Japan.

    This article explored the compatibility of continuing to be a fan, while expressing disinterest in the fan object, prioritizing continuity in fan studies. This article refers to such fans as "warm-keeping" fans. This theme is significant in that it allows us to understand how fans cope with the troubles they face during their long-term fandom. Data from two of the interviews conducted with 15 fans of Slayers series, produced and distributed in a media mix commercial method, were analyzed in terms of fan objects and fan relationships, drawing comparisons with post-object fandom. The results showed that fans in the "warm-keeping" state were more reluctant to engage in fan activities (such as interacting with other fans) than before but did not rule out the possibility of resuming such activities in future. Considering themselves as fans, they based decisions on their possibility of a fan career different from that of an ideal or typical fan and their possession of various media due to their long-term acceptance of the media mix.

    This study considers the "Men’s Lib Kenkyukai (Men’s Lib Research Group)", the main Men’s Liberation group in Japan that was founded in 1991 and became defunct in 2010. The Men’s Lib Kenkyukai official publication, "Men’s Network," is used as a case study in this research, which attempts to provide, by analyzing participant-provided critical accounts of its group dialogue from the publication in question, an explanation for the reasons behind the group’s gradual decline.

    Though the "permeation of messages," where the men’s movement’s nationwide expansion resulted in a decline in the unique value of men’s issues in the media and government, and the "manifestation of differences," where a diversity of participants brought about differences in problem awareness and goals, have been cited as the main reasons for the Men’s Liberation movement’s decline in Japan during the 2000s, these claims not only lack empirical support but hard data.

    To that end, the concepts of "message permeation" and the "manifested differences" ground the main hypotheses of this research, which then examines their efficacy by contrasting them with critical accounts published in the journal in question. This study seeks to establish the following factors as those which in part contributed to the Men’s Lib Kenkyukai activities coming to an overall standstill: (1) the challenge of discussing personal (private) experiences with other men, a practice not previously highlighted in existing research; (2) variations in male participants’ knowledge regarding feminism; and (3) saturation brought on by the overall loss of the group’s shared objectives. These results offer a more empirical understanding of the complex processes that ultimately resulted in the fall of the Men’s Lib Kenkyukai.

    Media studies have been influenced by dichotomies between: technology and society, "sender" and "receiver," voice and text, and acoustic culture and visual culture. However, materiality and infrastructure opens up the possibility of questioning the very conditions of these dichotomies.

    This paper examines Lisa Gitelman’s media studies as an important exemplar on materiality and infrastructure research. Gitelman defines media as "protocols," and discusses such objects as "documents" and "records."

    First, this paper examines Always Already New which theorizes media as "protocols." Media as protocols include technologies that deliver and distribute information and data, and the everyday practices and material infrastructure used in those technologies.

    Second, this paper examines Paper Knowledge, which deals with the "history of the document." Gitelman goes beyond previous studies on the history of the books and print culture to discuss microfilm, photocopying, and PDF.

    Third, this paper explores Gittelman’s first book, Scripts, Grooves and Writing Machine, which is the origin of the concept of "protocol" and the "history of documentation," published in 1999. This book is a historical exploration that can be called a social history of writing. In addition, the history of protocols on standardization and procedures has been illustrated in this book.

    This paper reveals that Gitelman’s media studies is oriented toward the history of a particular medium, as partly opposed to Friedrich Kittler’s argument on the same subject. It also discloses that Gitelman developed a "social history of truth" in humanities through her exploration of "media history." We show that Gitelman’s argument leads to the problem of standardization and the issue of industrial, mass production, and control technologies.

    This paper discusses the role played by editors in the production of knowledge through publishing media. Specifically, this paper analyzes the editorship of Satoru Kubo demonstrated from the 1960s to the 1970s. This study is a combined survey based on literature sources and interviews.

    Kubo began his career as an editor at Gendai Shichosha before founding Serika Shobo in 1967. Kubo’s work as an editor involved discovering various writers, organizing study groups, connecting people, and creating books based on these connections.

    What emerges through these publishing activities is the portrait of Satoru Kubo as a publisher and editor who was responsible for the production of knowledge. Kubo Satoru’s activities were not limited to the mere publication of books but also had an aspect of "cultural practices". This can be evaluated as an expression of his editorship.