Eroticism, Grotesqueness and Non-Sense: Twenty-first Century Cultural Imagery of Japan in the Israeli Media and Popular Culture1

The formation of cultural imageries amidst the current transnational dynamics is presently a highly debated issue. In this paper I explore a significant contemporary discourse about Japan in the Israeli media and in different forms of Israeli popular culture that objectifies and differentiates Japan as a futuristic and often decadent Other, exhibiting the conventions of an Orientalist style of thought. Although Israelis are actively involved in the production of this discourse, it relies heavily on imagery derived from globally circulating images of Japan. Beyond its popularity in Israel as an entertaining diversion that reverberates the contemporary fascination with Japan, it serves to familiarise Israelis with the Japanese Other while keeping its alienness, and also to assert the Western identity of Israeli culture. As this study shows, globalisation is about re-territorialisation as much as it is about de-territorialisation.