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Japan’s retreat to the metaverse
Name
Roquet - Japan's Retreat to the Metaverse.pdf
Size
226.69 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2c47fe487568b2798f2c12815f3d2ed8
Author(s)
Roquet, Paul
Date Issued
2023
Journal
Media, Culture and Society
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
2023. "Japan’s Retreat to the Metaverse." Media, Culture & Society.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
As in much of the world, interest in Japan surrounding the ‘metaverse’ quickly arose in response to Facebook’s embrace of the term and rebranding to Meta in October 2021. While Meta’s own vision focused on blending virtual spaces with existing office environments, prominent Japanese metaverse approaches focused instead on the production of alternate worlds that could more fully substitute for this one. This essay turns to trade paperbacks from metaverse developers and proponents released in Japan in the wake of Facebook’s rebranding, exploring the emphasis on physical and social withdrawal that characterizes these metaverse appeals. Examining the conservative ‘otaku’ politics that underwrite this retreat to more comfortable, more controllable forms of media immersion, I offer a critical examination of these Japanese proposals to outsource the space of everyday social interaction to for-profit American technology platforms.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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