4/13(土) 午前8:10-午前8:40にNHKで「最深日本研究～外国人博士の目～」という番組が放映されました。4/20(土) 午前8:39 までAvailable on NHK+で す2It seems to be touched upon in the article. It also examines "kawaii" as the embodiment of "ideals" in Japan. Recently, the metaverse has become a topic of interest in the field of international standardization of identity and privacy, so I found it very helpful.
Below are some notes on the show's overview, followed by some thoughts on identity and privacy.
Program outline
The outline of the show is as follows. It's a scribbled note, so it's not very organized, but you can probably get the gist of it. I recommend watching the show until it ends on NHK+.
(Source) NHK+ "The Deepest Japanese Studies: From the Perspective of Foreign Doctors"https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/RJ5G2XZ4N3/episode/te/J1K96JLJ9K/
Introduction
- The Metaverse is another world that has spread online since the 2000s. People use avatars, which are alter egos of themselves, to enjoy meeting strangers.
- Among these, Vtuber girls stand out in the Japanese community.
- Swiss cultural anthropologist Lyudmila Bredykina (31)3is interested in this.
- Research seeks to answer why Japanese men want to become beautiful girls
- The world is paying close attention to Japanese culture, including anime, Japanese food, and J-POP. And there are foreign researchers who love Japan and want to learn more about it from a perspective that we don't have.
- How does Japan appear to them? A virtual anthropologist reveals the true face of Japan that we do not know - The deepest Japanese studies
Chapter 1: Investigating the latest metaverse experience facility
- There are no such facilities in Switzerland
- Everything you need to experience the Metaverse
- There are also guides for beginners.
- Introducing the Metaverse to a General Audience
- Choosing your avatar ~ Becoming your favorite avatar ~ Expressing your identity
- In virtual space, you can travel through hundreds of thousands of worlds in an instant.
- You can enjoy the scenery, drink with people, and have fun just like in the real world.
- The metaverse has approximately 400 million users worldwide
- Enjoy the unique experience of looking up at fireworks from a distance
Chapter 2: I want to study the Japanese virtual world
- Mira started researching virtual worlds four years ago.
- I was surprised to learn the term "Baminiku" (Virtual Beautiful Girl Incarnation) during a research survey. It is a term used when a man has a beautiful girl character.
- "Incarnation" has a religious meaning in the West, but Babiniku are not interested in religion at all. That's what intrigued Mira.
- The survey revealed some surprising results: Approximately 80% of men use beautiful girl characters.
- Female 78.3%
- Male 15.2%
- その他 6.5%
- Their main feature is their appearance: they are cute girls like those in anime, whereas in the West they are cool and sexy. Unlike kawaii, they give the impression of being strong women.
(Source) NHK "The Deepest Japanese Studies: From the Perspective of Foreign Doctors"https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/RJ5G2XZ4N3/episode/te/J1K96JLJ9K/
- Mila: I grew up in the West and as a woman I wanted to be beautiful and elegant. Why do Japanese men want to be called kawaii? As a Westerner, I would like to understand this different perspective better.
- Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- It was established as an academic field in the early 20th century.
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Ruth Benedict
- Tadao Umezawa
- This is an academic field that explores what it means to be human, not just by sitting at a desk, but by going to the field and interacting directly with people through fieldwork.
- Anthropologists visit ethnic groups around the world, live with them, closely observe their lives, and compare them with the society they belong to to shed light on their similarities, differences, and diversity.
- Virtual World: A New Horizon
- At first, I tried to talk to the Vtubers through social media, but they didn't trust me because I was an outsider. Because I was a Westerner and a woman. So, Mira used fieldwork, a method of anthropology, to approach the Vtubers. Creating her own avatar was important because it allowed her to gain their trust in the virtual world.
- By wearing an avatar, Ludmila was able to stand on the same level as the other Vtubers and interact with them directly.
- They sometimes did live streams together and volunteered to translate their original songs into English.
- Over the course of a year or so, I gradually became part of the community.
- It was established as an academic field in the early 20th century.
Chapter 3: What does it mean when even your voice is cute?
- Both voices4Introduction
- Generally, the voice remains male or a voice converter is used.
- But,Amachi Johnko (Youtuber @johnko_amachi X: @johnko20100711) transform their voices with their own virtuoso techniques.
- The person inside is John-aniki.
- What I aim for: I want to be a cheerful and innocent girl, like the kind of little girls you see in everyday life.
- If you just make the voice higher, it will sound like a man's high-pitched voice. The voice is like an instrument, so you change the shape of the instrument. That way you change the sound quality, and then you change the pitch. The two combine to create Jonko's voice.
- It took two years to find the perfect cute voice
- "It's so much fun to be able to become someone else. And I just try to pursue the idea of having fun. I'm no genius, so I just have to work hard."
- Training for cute movements. It's difficult when you actually try it. You have to move with the mindset of a small child. For example, if you put your right foot forward when walking, your center of gravity will shift to the right. If you repeat this, you will look unsteady. This unsteady movement looks cute to the people watching because it conveys the desire to protect you.
- Mira
- I've never thought about being cute when walking, so I thought it was very interesting.
- Before, I only had a superficial stereotypical image of Japanese men as either salarymen or nerds. However, as I started researching, I learned about the diversity of Japanese men and the tolerance of Japanese culture, and found it very interesting.
- Mira's background
- Born in Russia. Moved to Switzerland at age 12. Studying French and Japanese manga."Angel Sanctuary"5I had never seen such beautiful paintings before, so a new world opened up for me.
- At the age of 27, he enrolled in a master's program at the University of Geneva to study Japanese culture.
- Published the paper "Babiniku"6
- Similarities between males playing beautiful girl characters and female roles in Kabuki, one of Japan's traditional performing arts
- A paper examining Vtuber through the lens of traditional Japanese culture, such as the commonalities between Bunraku puppet theatre and the use of avatars, received an academic award from a university.
- I found Japanese culture very interesting and wanted to study it as both a hobby and something that would be of practical use.
- Professor Brenda Murphy
- "What's fascinating about her research is that it focuses on Japanese culture, which is not mainstream in the West."
- Virtual anthropology is a very new field, and she is a challenger to global culture.
- This is Ludmila's sixth visit to Japan. When you go to the city, you'll notice beautiful girl characters. You can see them everywhere in the city, on signs and in restaurants. Beautiful girl characters are an indispensable part of Japanese culture, not just in Akihabara.
- Mira visits anime and manga specialty stores and discovers Japan's subculture, where new things are constantly being created, as part of her research.
Chapter 4 I want to meet a beautiful girl character
- Idol VTuber Norakat (@NoraCat0415 ch. Over 86000 subscribers). Fan name: "Mouse-san"
- This was created by"NoranekoP" (@PIMR, X: @VR_Produce_Nora) Interview
- Tell us about your relationship with the fan who says he is in love with Norakatto.
- Nora-chan is a bit clumsy but strong and cute, and that's largely because fans think that way. The mice were created with the hope that NoraCat would be like that, so the influence of fans is very strong.
- How does Norakat feel when fans tell her she's cute?
- It's similar to a parent feeling happy when their daughter plays with her best friend in the park.
- Has your life changed since Norakatto was born?
- I used to go to work, come home, sleep at home, and have very few friends, but now I have 10 times as many friends who I can really enjoy talking to. I no longer feel lonely because I can talk to someone whenever I want.
- It's great to be able to become a cute beautiful girl. "Everyone can do it."
- Being in demand by fans makes the beautiful girl characters even cuter, and it also enriches the life of the man who created them. This was the most important discovery today.
- Tell us about your relationship with the fan who says he is in love with Norakatto.
Chapter 5: I want to know why people become beautiful girls
- The interaction between virtual beauties and their fans has further evolved. A place where real-world fans gather. I visited after hearing that my friend's beautified body would be performing. "Shinjuku Nemu Bar"
- Virtual Beautiful Girl Nemu-san (Youtube @nemchan_nel, X @nemchan_nel )＝“Metaverse Evolution Theory” (Gijutsu Hyoronsha)and Mira's trusted research collaborator.
- Mila: "Let's meet in person and talk more about beautiful girls, the metaverse, and the things we're passionate about."
- Nemu: "Sounds fun. I'm looking forward to talking a lot."
- Mira: "Then in the real world."
- Nemu spends most of her free time in the Metaverse, where she reads technical books.7He is a man who has continued to think about this world so much that he has published a book titled "The World of Sinners."
- Mira: I want to ask her directly why she became a beautiful girl character.
- Nemu-san wishes to remain anonymous, so the video and audio have been edited. The size of the mosaic has apparently been adjusted considerably.
- We first met through social media four years ago, and we even worked together to investigate the lifestyles of Metaverse users.
- Mira's interview with Nemu
- What did you think the first time you fell asleep?
- I felt so embarrassed.
- Guilt: I felt like I was doing something wrong by becoming a different person.
- But gradually words that would never normally come out of my mouth started to come out.
- Does this mean that becoming a beautiful girl changes how you express yourself?
- "I wonder if I would try to act cool in real life."
- "I thought of myself as a pretty calm person who doesn't get easily shaken, but with Nemu-chan I was freed from that and was able to express myself more freely."
- What does a beautiful girl mean to you?
- I think that beautiful girl characters are the embodiment of the concept of "kawaii"
- When you strip away titles and the constraints of the real world, the essence of a person is really cute. I think the soul is actually cute, and I feel like kawaii is a compliment to a person's true nature.
- It gives me confidence, and makes me feel like there is meaning in being myself.
- Why do Japanese men want to become beautiful girls? Mira has been doing fieldwork to find the answer and now she has this conclusion
- Japanese men are relieved from stress by becoming beautiful girls and achieving cuteness.
- Because being cute means you're forgiven for making mistakes and you don't have to take responsibility.
- I felt that there was great potential in kawaii, a concept born from Japanese culture.
- However, as an anthropologist, I do not want to generalize about communities, but rather want to continue to listen to the voices of many people.
END: A young anthropologist delves into Japan's virtual world
Consideration
Identity and Vtuber
Although the word "identity" does not appear in the program, I have organized many of the comments as being "identity" related. For example, Jonkos comment, "It's so much fun to be able to become someone else. And I just pursue the idea of having fun." seems to suggest that she is deriving a sense of happiness from the establishment of her ego in a new context that goes beyond the existing contexts of work and friendships in the real world, and from the expression of that self-perceived identity (expression of one's own identity), as well as the enjoyment of the feedback of what is observed by others in the community (other-perception). (For more on self-perception and other-perception,"A Non-Technical Introduction to Digital Identity"below)
A similar thing can be seen in Nemu's words, "(When I first became Nemu) I felt very embarrassed. I felt guilty - like I was doing something wrong by becoming a different person. But gradually, words came out of my mouth that I wouldn't normally say." and "When I became Nemu-chan, I was free from those feelings and could express myself more freely."
On the other hand, Noraneko-P's statement that "Nora-chan is a bit clumsy but strong and cute is mostly because that's what the fans think, and she was created based on the wish of the mice that Norakatto should be like, so the influence of the fans is very strong" seems to be the opposite of the "usual" way of minimizing the discrepancy between self-view and other-view, which is to change the other-view by adjusting the attributes that are expressed, and instead is an approach of making the self-view match the other-view. Instead of trying to make the other-view match the fundamental ego, the ego is adjusted. However, if this is really one's ego, it would probably be quite a psychological burden. In order to reduce the psychological burden, it seems necessary to remove that personality from oneself and objectify it.
I felt that this was also expressed in Noraneko P's comment, "It's similar to the feeling a parent has when they see their daughter playing with her close friends in the park and looking happy."
At this point, Milla says, "Being in demand by fans makes the beautiful girl characters even cuter, and it also enriches the life of the man who created them. This was the most important discovery I made today."
Beautiful girl characters and privacy do not function as an excuse
The next thing I would like to consider is Mila's statement that "Japanese men are relieved of stress by becoming beautiful girls and achieving kawaii. This is because with kawaii, they are forgiven even if they make mistakes and don't have to take responsibility." I may be misinterpreting this, but it sounds like she is saying that Japanese men want to achieve kawaii because kawaii functions as a kind of excuse. Since she says "Japanese men," we can imagine that the concept of "kawaii" and its scope of application are primarily limited to Japan. With that in mind, whether kawaii functions as a kind of excuse is a bit difficult to answer, I think.
I think that so-called idol VTubers are examples of the embodiment of "kawaii". However, those who have been following this area for a while will know that these girls, who are supposed to have this exemption, are sometimes slandered and criticized by the community, and are forced to "graduate". If "kawaii" functioned as an exemption, I don't think this would happen.
Perhaps the ideal of "kawaii" is filled with people's expectations, and if those expectations are betrayed, then there is a structure in which they are criticized. In other words, "kawaii" does not function as an excuse. In a sense, "beautiful girl characters who embody the concept of 'kawaii'" are modern-day shrine maidens, and just like in ancient times, they can be said to be scapegoats when expectations are betrayed. So, I think we shouldn't create scapegoats.
The main reason why modern shrine maidens become scapegoats is because out-of-context information gets mixed into the context. For example, someone's chat is reflected on the screen, someone else's voice gets mixed in, or your face gets reflected in the screen. In the future, information mixing will likely occur in the form of actions in other worlds being reported to the world in question. In some cases, malicious people may do this intentionally by placing monitoring characters in various places. This also includes matching the names of the people inside and the different avatars they use.
During the program, Nemu appears with her face blurred and her voice altered, saying that she "want to remain anonymous," but this can also be viewed as part of an effort to prevent unwanted name matching or information mixing.
How to prevent and crack down on such things will likely become increasingly important in terms of respecting privacy in the metaverse, which is also the background to the start of work on creating international standards for metaverse privacy.
"My natural self = Beautiful girl character" as a being free from all ties
So why do Japanese men become avatars? Taking the above into consideration, what Milla says, "Japanese men are relieved of stress by becoming beautiful girls and achieving kawaii. Because kawaii means you're forgiven even if you make a mistake and you don't have to take responsibility," seems a little off.
In the show, Nemu said, "I think beautiful girl characters are the embodiment of the concept of 'kawaii.' If you strip away titles and other ties to the real world, the true essence of a human being is very cute. I think the soul is actually cute, and I feel like kawaii praises a person's true nature. It gives you confidence, and makes you feel like you have meaning just the way you are." Does this mean that the true essence of a person stripped away from the ties of the real world is "kawaii," and that when you express that true self, or "self-perception," in Japanese culture, you become a beautiful girl? That may be true. After all, nearly 80% of people aspire to be that way.
In the program, it seems that the interviews with each interviewee lasted several hours, but each one was condensed into about five minutes. There must have been many comments that shed light on this issue among the things that were cut out. In that sense, it seems that an after-talk is also being prepared, so I'm looking forward to it.
(Addendum) It seems the date and time for the after-talk has been decided. It will be on Saturday, April 4th at 20pm. I'm not sure about the time of my flight from San Francisco though... I wonder if the archive will be made public...
<Change history>
- I had written Mira as a doctor, but since it appears she is still in the doctoral program, I have changed it to just "Mira-san."
- The date and time of the after-talk has been added.
- I replaced the thumbnail because it was rejected by Facebook.
- Fixed the mistake of writing "Bredykina" as "Predykina"
footnote
- It will also be available to watch on NHK On Demand afterwards.https://www.nhk-ondemand.jp/goods/G2024137649SA000/[/not]. Swiss cultural anthropologist Lyudmila Bredykina (31) (X: @BredikhinaL, hereafter referred to as "Mira"), is an approach from the cultural anthropological perspective to the region and culture known as the "Metaverse" in Japan, and in particular to the question of why the majority of men have become "virtual beautiful girl characters - ba-miniku."
The background to this is that in the traditional Japanese culture of Kabuki, where women are played by men, and puppet-like characters, there is a connection to Bunraku puppet theater, as explained in Mira's paper "Babiniku."1Bredikhina, Liudmila. (2022) Babiniku: what lies behind the virtual performance. Contesting gender norms through technology and Japanese theatre. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03781957/
- Liudmila Bredikhina
- A person who can voice both genders, such as a man who can voice a woman.
- Yuki Kaori"Angel Sanctuary" (Hakusensha)https://amzn.to/3vRNefW
- Bredikhina, Liudmila. (2022) Babiniku: what lies behind the virtual performance. Contesting gender norms through technology and Japanese theatre. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03781957/
- “Metaverse Evolution Theory” (Gijutsu Hyoronsha)https://amzn.to/3VUkM7X