Japan Festival’s new approach emphasizes modern culture

Ben Norton stepped onstage wearing a loose button-up shirt over a loose white T-shirt, a blue baseball cap sitting askew on his head. Norton, a freshman international business major, and his two backup dancers threw out a few brief moves while the intro music swelled.

Norton opened his mouth ... and started singing a slow Japanese enka song – a style that was popular in the 1950s and '60s. The group was imitating Jero, an American who has recently become popular in Japan for mixing hip-hop style with old enka music.

Norton's performance was one of nine karaoke songs sung by students at Thursday's Japan Festival in the Nebraska Union. The festival usually focuses on traditional Japanese culture such as karate and taiko drumming, but this year, the Japanese department wanted to focus on modern culture with the karaoke, a movie and the chance for students to dress up as their favorite anime or video game character.

The festival also included presentation by Ikuho Amano, an assistant Japanese professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, exploring Japanese pop culture and national identity.

In her speech, Amano described how Japan, formerly a large economic and cultural power, has been pushed to the background of the world stage. As a result of tough economic times and the loss of identity, more and more Japanese people are using pastimes such as anime and video games for escapism.

"Japan has pretty much lost their national pride and identity," Amano said. "Pop culture has become somewhat of a retreat or a sanctuary for the Japanese people."

This is the first time in 16 years that the festival has taken a more modern focus, said Chisato Nii, a lecturer for the Japanese program who helped organize Thursday's events.

"By doing different things I think we got different groups of people than usual, and that's nice," Nii said.

For example, in the past the festival drew more community members and older people, but this year the audience was mostly younger people and students.

There were more than 50 people at the events Thursday afternoon. This was a pretty good amount, Nii said, but she would have liked to have seen more people come and enjoy the festival.

The festivities wrapped up Thursday night with a screening of the Japanese movie "Train Man" at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.

Norton said he was glad to see so many people who came to watch the karaoke and learn more about Japan.

"It was fun just to see all the people who share an interest I have," Norton said. "It's an open classroom to anyone who wants to know anything about Japanese culture."

jennagibson@dailynebraskan.com