Playing Japan: Japanese Culture and Folklore in Video Games of the Lost Decade and Beyond

Abstract

This thesis explores images of Japanese folklore and culture in video games of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as ways in which game franchises of the period were localized as they were exported outside Japan. Following the introduction, which presents the central problem and scope of the work, the first chapter examines instances of pre-modern Japanese folklore as they appear across a range of video games. Specifically, this section looks at dogū, haniwa, magatama, kappa, tengu, tanuki, and kitsune, and it considers the ways in which appropriations of these images have changed over time in video games. The second chapter reverses this method of inquiry by taking particular game series as case studies to explore more instances of Japanese culture and compare strategies used in their global localization, or "glocalization." Specifically, this section discusses the history, cultural elements, globalization, and localization of the Mario, Kirby, and Pokémon series, ending with an analysis of the Pokémon franchise as representative of and reliant on trans-media storytelling, participatory culture, social capital, and global fantasy commodities. Finally, the conclusion summarizes ways in which Japanese culture has been presented, represented, and transmitted through video games.