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Precis: " Odours of Mobility: Mobile Phones and Japanese Cute Culture in the Asia-Pacific" (2005) by Larissa Hjorth

Larissa Hjorth, in her article, “Odours of Mobility: Mobile Phones and Japanese Cute Culture in the Asia-Pacific” (2005), explains that there is a pervasiveness of an “odourlessness” of Japanese global products in relation to the use of cute culture adornments inside and outside of the mobile net telephonic spaces, and what is says about the position of Japan within the Asia-Pacific sphere. In her discourse, Hjorth examines the thesis of Koichi Iwabuchi (2002) on the “odourless quality” as the defining characteristic of some Japanese products that have been widespread in the region, and Anne Allison’s critic, in particular, “Pokemon as Japan’s New Global Power” (2003), in order to explain the versatility of the product design which can be localised and globalised in relevance to the adopting countries and consumers (in this case, the customisation as part of domesticating technologies, which plays a role in shaping the everyday life of the mobile users), and provide a reinterpretation of Harumi Befu’s “trickle up methodology” (2003) to explain the micro cross-cultural analysis of consumption and modes of domestication across Japan and America. In doing so, Hjorth draws the “influence” mapping of the Asia-Pacific region where the Japanese cute culture predominates, whether by full importation of the adopting country or localisation of the identity it signifies, and its importance as a social phenomenon, which serves as a good foreground for potential researches into this particular pervasive phenomenon. The article is well-researched with important references and citations of theories and researches that are related to the subject matter, thus, making it highly valuable to a future researcher of this topic, and in addition, the author’s writing style makes it accessible and understandable to the layman and students of humanities and cultural studies alike.

(October 11, 2016)

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