Visual Counterculture in Japan

Visual Counterculture in Japan presents innovative analysis of emergent visual trends in Japan from the late 1960s to the present day. Adopting a case study approach, this interdisciplinary text deconstructs the role that visual practices played in shaping a variety of countercultural discourses related to politics, gender, identity, sexuality, censorship, ethics and disasters. It makes the case that visual practices in Japan-such as photography, reportage, photojournalism and film-drive countercultural shifts in society. The practices, actions and discourses that push against preconceived norms or orthodoxies are also examined in detail; by considering world-renowned photographers and artists whose work transgressed or subverted assumed socio-cultural boundaries in Japanese culture, this book investigates the cultural dynamics that foregrounded the role of visual practices in society. It also highlights the interconnectedness between these various practices from a global perspective.