(Re)branding Tokyo: coexisting views of Tokyo in the Tokyo 2020 audiovisual advertising campaign

Heindrichs, Tracy Isabelle Lucia Maria (2019) (Re)branding Tokyo: coexisting views of Tokyo in the Tokyo 2020 audiovisual advertising campaign. MRes thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the image of Tokyo, Japan’s capital, within a Japanese and international context in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The aim of this work is to determine how and why Tokyo is simultaneously branded and rebranded in the audiovisual campaigns surrounding the event. After a historical contextualisation of Tokyo within Western and Japanese narratives, Tokyo’s past images are analysed. As Chapter One shows, Japan’s past depictions of Tokyo are negative, seen as Tokyo was associated with Westernisation and occupation. Chapter Two explores Tokyo’s reputation in Western cinema, which has resorted to Occidental patterns of Orientalising in order to turn Tokyo into a colonised, exploitable space. Finally, Chapter Three compares the findings of Chapter One and Two with the images of Tokyo found in Tokyo 2020 advertising campaigns. It shows how Tokyo is indeed unchanged for the West but rebranded for Japanese audiences. Through a discussion of the Tokyo 2020 advertisements as autoethnographic texts, it becomes apparent that there is more to the rebranding of Tokyo as it may seem.

• Item Type: Thesis (MRes)
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Due to copyright issues the full electronic version of this thesis is not available for viewing. An edited version (3rd party copyright removed) is available.
• Keywords: Nation branding, place branding, film, television, Japan, Japanese media, Japanese cinema, Olympic Games, film-induced tourism, westernisation, orientalism, occidentalism, Saïd, Tokyo Sonata.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DS Asia; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts
• Supervisor's Name: Martin-Jones, Prof. David and Dimitris, Prof. Eleftheriotis
• Date of Award: 2019
• Depositing User: Miss Tracy Isabelle Lucia Maria Heindrichs
• Unique ID: glathesis:2019-41169
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 31 May 2019 13:46
• Last Modified: 05 Mar 2020 22:11
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.41169
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/41169