Mathieu Deflem Google Scholar | ResearchGate | ORCID
This is the English version of an article published in Japanese in the journal 法と社会研究 (Japanese Law & Society Review), May 2025.
Citation: Deflem, Mathieu. 2025. "Law and Popular Culture in the United States and Japan: Foundations for a Comparative-Transnational Perspective." (English-language version of an article published in Japanese Law & Society Review). Available online at Deflem.blogspot.com.
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss aspects of my research on the relationship between law and popular culture that I am presently conducting in the United States and in Japan. This ongoing project is framed against the background of my dual sociological interests in law and culture, especially from an international viewpoint. The primary objective of this work is to develop a comparative-transnational perspective of selected themes of law and popular culture in contemporary Japan in relation to similar developments in the United States. Specific empirical attention thereby goes to litigation involving celebrities, the control of deviance in popular culture, and the development of celebrity activism. This research is conducted in collaboration with colleagues in Japan and thus also seeks to contribute to establishing a meaningful Japanese-American dialogue on important dimensions of law and culture in and between both societies.
Introduction
For many a scholar in the social and behavioral sciences working in the United States, the country of Japan still holds special fascination today. Although the difficult years during and following World War II as well as days of the ubiquity of ‘made in Japan’ products available in the West are well behind us, the patterns and dynamics of Japanese society in the eyes of those of us located elsewhere are still such that an orientalization of the different and peculiar nature of Japanese society remains a constant danger. Avoiding such an impoverishment of our thinking, it is fortunate to note that great pathways have by now been made to establish a better understanding of Japanese society in its own terms, including the many political, economic, and cultural ties that connect Japan with other parts of the world. Under conditions of globalization and an ever-increasing interconnectedness of social life across nations, the case of Japan shows that it has become increasingly difficult, if not outright impossible, to study societies that are geographically dispersed across space in isolation from one another.
Framed in the context of the sociology of law and, especially, the relation between law and culture, my current research engages with various aspects of Japanese law and (its relation to) popular culture as a complement to my work on similar such sociological themes that I have in recent years conducted in the United States. Specifically examined are the following three themes: litigation involving pop stars and celebrities; the control of deviance in popular culture; and celebrities’ engagement in activism. My academic background, it is to be noted, is not rooted in Japanese studies, and I do not lay any claim to be a specialist of Japanese society in any way. However, an elaborate body of research on Japan is available to non-expert scholars and can be relied upon to facilitate collaboration with specialists on Japanese society in terms of comparable aspects of social, legal, and cultural life in other nations. Such collaboration will be particularly useful when concrete links exist among various societies in such a way that each society cannot be adequately understood without reference to one another. Under these conditions, international academic collaboration is no mere luxury but an indispensable requirement for sound social-scientific research.
Inasmuch as the histories of Japan and the United States are intertwined —in political, economic, and cultural respects— the broader aim of my research is to develop a comparative-transnational perspective of the legal and other normative frameworks that constitute and regulate popular culture in these two countries. In what follows, I will explain how this research is conceptually framed, specifically in terms of the study of the relationship between legal norms and cultural values. The research themes on litigation, social control, and activism in popular culture are thereby examined in dialogue with scholars working in Japan against the background of the study of these issues which I have recently conducted in the United States. To advance this trans-Pacific exchange of ideas in concrete terms, I will explain the analytical models and methodology applied in this research, particularly with respect to the legalities involved with celebrity culture and the development of celebrity activism. I will also review the intellectual foundations of these examinations in the sociology of law and the study of culture and additionally clarify my own position as a transnational scholar and citizen in our current global age.
Law and Culture Across the Pacific
The choice to conduct research on the sociological dimensions of legal aspects of popular culture in Japan is not the result of a mere curiosity and not only justified because of my work on these themes in the United States. The comparative direction of this inquiry also extends organically from the interconnected histories of these two nations. Indeed, the history of Japan is, in some distinct ways, also a history of the United States and of that powerful nation’s influences in political, economic, and cultural respects. This transnational component of Japanese national development has taken place over many years, but it has been marked most concretely and uniquely by the tragic events of August 6 and 9, 1945. This historical fact remains with us until today. Yet, arguably as important have been the cultural and related societal changes that have taken place in Japan from April 1952 on, when the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect and the once again sovereign nation of Japan began to enjoy the advantages of its new political constitution and its remarkable progress of favorable economic conditions.
Less well studied than the relevant political and economic aspects of the relationship between Japan and the United States, at least until recently, have been issues of culture and popular culture. The relative neglect of a focus on popular culture mirrors similar such unfavorable intellectual conditions among social scientists in other national contexts (Deflem 2017). Yet, times have changed in recent years, and the study of popular culture has been increasingly embraced as a theme worthy of academic reflection. Even from a rudimentary viewpoint it can be observed that what is particularly noteworthy about Japanese (popular) culture is the extent to which tradition and modernity co-exist and, additionally, the manner in which American and other foreign elements of society and culture have been adopted and incorporated into a distinctly Japanese framework. These processes are to some extent a function of the global spread of American culture after World War II. Similar to the experiences of many other nations, popular culture in Japan has as such indeed been influenced by many aspects of American culture in such areas as cinema, television, and popular music (McKevitt 2017). As a result of these processes, Japanese popular culture contains within itself an American component. But the manner in which that transnational component is expressed will in turn become distinctly Japanese in character.
Given general conditions of expanding globalization and an increasing porousness of national borders, American influences on other nations’ expressions of popular culture are in many ways not unique to Japan. However, the local reshaping of extra-national influences that takes place in any national context is arguably more pronounced, and at least different, in Japan than elsewhere in the world. The peculiar nature of the mode of adoption of American culture in Japan can be attributed to the country’s now rather long history of adjusting to outside forces since the Meiji era and its relative homogeneity in ethnic and other respects. What is furthermore remarkable, and what does not apply to many other countries to the same extent, is that elements of Japanese popular culture have in recent decades themselves also traveled beyond the boundaries of Japan to experience their own processes of globalization and transnational diffusion (Kelts 2007).
Among the best known examples of the globalization of Japanese culture is the international spread and popularity of anime and manga, which are very popular in many parts of the world, including the United States. Along with animated media, other forms of Japanese popular culture in the areas of cinema, television, and popular music also enjoy considerable popularity across the globe (Daliot-Bul and Otmazgin 2019; Otmazgin 2014, 2021; Hutchinson 2018). With the advance of the internet, an interconnected global subculture of fans of ‘cool Japan’ has emerged (Abel 2011; Bouvard 2015; Craig 2020; McLelland 2017; Iwabuchi 2015). This transnational diffusion reveals how Japanese popular culture, partly influenced by American (and other Western) culture, has in turn been successful in contributing to influence pop culture outside the borders of Japan (Cheung 2015; Cross and Smits 2005; Imaoka 2010; Ito, Okabe, and Tsuji 2012; Iwabuchi 2002; Tsutsui 2010; Lam 2016; Yano 2009).
While there is no doubt that the interdependence of Japanese popular culture with the United States, as in many other nations, is marked by an unevenness whereby American influences are typically stronger, an important sociological observation is that popular culture and other societal forces within nations are themselves transnational. Therefore, any sound comparative research conducted on relevant issues cannot be thought of as merely articulating an analytical curiosity on the part of the scholar, but should be conceived of in terms of a focus on (intra-)national developments that are transnationally constituted. In the case of popular music, for example, the style and music of Japanese rock and pop music, commonly referred to as J-pop, originally emerged in response to American and British popular music but subsequently also, in its uniquely Japanese form, gained popularity and exerted influences in Western culture. Such observations open the way towards an examination of the constituent parts of a broader transnational-comparative framework.
Perspective and Themes of Research
It is in the context of cultural globalization that specific research themes can be examined to develop a comparative-transnational perspective of popular culture in Japan in comparison to, and in connection with, similar themes in the United States. As popular culture is a broad theme that can be explored from different angles, the main focus of my research concerns the sociological study of selected empirical issues of law that relate to important normative underpinnings of culture and aspects of cultural deviance and social control. To make theoretical sense of these developments, adequate sociological tools need to be developed for their comparative-transnational study. As such, my work engages most essentially with the nexus between values and norms from an appropriate sociological viewpoint.
Study Perspective
As an effort in the sociology of law and culture, my work is theoretically rooted in ideals from the Enlightenment as they have been expressed in sociology since the founding of the discipline and influenced the sociology of law (Deflem 2008). Classical sociologist Max Weber (1922) usefully differentiated three approaches to the study of law: 1) the moral approach of the philosophy of law (oriented at critique); 2) internal perspectives of jurisprudence (geared towards legal efficiency); and 3) the external perspectives of the social and behavioral sciences (oriented at analysis). Among the latter perspectives, the sociology of law is defined as the scholarly study of law in society. Society is thereby conceived as being constituted by functionally differentiated institutions, including economy, polity, culture, and law. It is in this sociological context that my work is concerned with studying the relationship between norms (law) and values (culture).
The conceptual difference and association between norms and values is of critical importance. Values are conceptions of how one ought to live, which guide actions within groups or among individuals within specific delineated groups. The corresponding function of the cultural values system is socialization. Norms, on the other hand, refer to standards of conduct meant to regulate interactions across different groups or individuals, regardless of the similar or varying cultural values they hold. The corresponding function of the normative system is integration. It is an essential characteristic of modern societies that cultural values have become increasingly diverse as a reflection of the implications of growing individualism and that law, correspondingly, becomes the most central formal institution that seeks to secure normative integration.
The attention to culture, in the sociology of law as well as other specialty areas, is not a triviality. Broadly, I contend, history shows that the 19th century was primarily an era of economic changes (with the expansion of capitalism and industrialization), whereas the 20th century was primarily marked by political developments (not least of all involving two world wars, but also global processes related to democratization). The 21st century is marked primarily, though not exclusively, by cultural processes, ranging from secularization and post-secularization to the formation of pluralistic societies and a globalization of culture via the expanding means of communication via the internet. If this broad perspective is accurate, the study of culture is today, more than ever, essential to the study of society and its constituents parts, including law.
Within the sociology of culture, the study of popular culture has in recent years been taken on more seriously and more elaborately than in the early days of the sociological discipline (Deflem 2017). This literature, to which I have primarily contributed in the form of research and teaching on various aspects of American popular culture, has also engaged with Japanese pop culture and its American influences and impact (Kelts 2007; Tsutsui 2010). Most work on popular culture has either come from cultural studies interested in hermeneutic inquiries and esthetic evaluations or has focused on the market components of the so-called (popular) culture industry, as critical theorists Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno labeled it (Horkheimer and Adorno 1944). What has not yet been examined quite as extensively are the many legal (and other normative) dimensions of Japanese popular culture and its comparison to, and inter-relationships with, similar issues of law and normative regulation in the American context.
The study of law and popular culture can be approached from several viewpoints and disciplines. Much of this work has been conducted in the jurisprudential field of entertainment law, which is largely technical in nature and not oriented at explaining sociologically relevant dimensions (e.g., Cederblom 2023; Landers 2021; Pelc 2017; Schendl 2016). In the social sciences and humanities, the nexus between law and popular culture has typically been examined in terms of the representation of law and legal phenomena in a variety of forms of popular culture, such as the portrayal of legal professionals in television shows (Freeman 2005), an approach that has also been applied in the Japanese case (e.g., Pearson, Giddens, and Tranter 2018; Rajapakshe 2023; Wolff 2015). What my research is focused on, however, are the legal and other regulatory dimensions of popular culture itself. Sociologists of law (and socio-legal scholars, more broadly) are ideally positioned to examine these regulatory dimensions of popular culture in an appropriate scholarly manner. As a sociologist specialized in the study of both law and popular culture, therefore, my work seeks to take advantage of my academic background and scholarly interests to examine the relationship between law and popular culture in Japan from as sociological perspective. Related to my interests in globalization and sociological theory, moreover, I especially endeavor to make sense of these developments in the mirror of, and in connection with, similar issues in the United States.
Research Themes
To derive meaningful comparative insights from the proposed project, the specific themes of research are based on investigations on law and popular culture I have conducted in the United States. Because of their formal similarities and the interconnections that exist between them, these themes can be examined in the case of Japanese popular culture to be meaningfully compared with one another. Specifically, the following three research themes are distinguished:
1) Litigating and Regulating Pop:
The industries of popular culture have changed dramatically in recent decades. Among the examples, the economics of popular music have shifted from recordings to live performances and merchandise as the main sources of revenue, a development that has largely been brought about by the expansion of the internet and its advanced means of file sharing. As a result of such developments, the rights and entitlements of music and other artistic endeavors in terms of copyright, trademark, and other legalities have become more important to be guarded. More than ever before, therefore, pop culture stars and representatives are heavily involved in litigation. In the United States, I have examined the litigation of pop in the case of Lady Gaga and other women pop stars in terms of celebrity culture and the movement of law as a result of the dynamics of fame (Deflem 2017). The findings of this research show that pop stars and other celebrities are, as famous and wealthy people, generally subject to a large amount of legal activity, especially involving compensatory styles of law enacted through civil procedures (see below).
Extending this work to Japan, I am interested in researching how Japanese pop culture celebrities are engaged in lawsuits and other legal actions to safeguard the products of their work (e.g., Lee 2009). I examine these developments sociologically on the basis of the theoretical model of the social geometry of law to examine the quantity and quality of law involving major Japanese pop stars in function of their relative social distance to the public (Black 1976). Though far removed, the celebrities of pop are at the same time also attractive as legal targets, not least of all because of their accumulated wealth. The main research question therefore is: How do the dynamics between law and fame shape the popular culture landscape in Japan?
2) Deviance and Social Control in Popular Culture:
Within the broader framework of law and culture, certain forms of popular culture and the arts can be observed to be subject to special sanctions as efforts to control deviant expressions. The United States is formally committed to freedom of speech on the basis of a written constitution and is, culturally, also oriented towards the protection of the freedoms of individuals to make important life choices as autonomous citizens. Yet, not everything goes, not even in the land of the free. In the world of popular music, the dual forces of the protection of individual freedom and the regulation of public life has brought abought occasional attempts of control and censorship of popular culture. In recent work, I have examined the history of music labeling in the United States in the context of a moral panic over obscenity and other alleged forms of deviance in popular music (Deflem 2020).
Although the realities of crime and crime control are well-known to be very different in Japan as compared to many other advanced nations (Brewster 2020; Miyazawa 2012), Japan has recently also experienced concerns over obscenity and deviance in popular culture. Besides a variety of questions regarding censorship (Hutchinson 2013), receiving much media attention, for example, has been the case of Rokudenashiko (pseudonym of Megumi Igarashi), a Japanese artist who was arrested and trailed on obscenity charges for crowd-funding a 3D-created artwork modeled after her vagina (McLelland 2018). Popular idol singing groups that consist of young teenaged women but mostly attract older men among their fanbase have at times also been criticized and (informally) sanctioned for their risqué videos and sexually-charged lyrics (Windle 2016). Other Japanese pop stars and music insiders have faced public disapproval and legal difficulties for drug abuse and sexual crimes (Prusa 2012), most recently and publicly involving the late powerful music executive Johnny Kitagawa (Brzeski 2023). Examining such cases of deviance and social control in Japanese pop culture, a sociological model of legal rationalization, formulated along the lines of Max Weber (1922), can be applied to examine the varying relationships between tradition and modernity in Japan and, comparatively, other nations such as the United States. The central research question concerns how cultural deviance is defined and variably responded to by means of (formal) law and/or (informal) public disapproval.
3) Celebrity Culture and Celebrity Activism:
Over the past decade, my research has mostly dealt with the study of the patterns and dynamics of celebrity culture. I have particularly examined the conditions of fame in pop music and the move towards political and racial activism among celebrities (Deflem 2022b, 2023). In the United States (and Europe), the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 greatly propelled the involvement of celebrities in a multitude of issues concerning health and social justice. The causes of this activism initially involved support for relief efforts dealing with the medical aspects of the COVID-19 virus, but in response to certain high-profile events taking place during the pandemic, especially the video-taped police killing of George Floyd, celebrity activism also extended to matters of racial justice, police reform, and politics. In the American (and broader Western) context, activism among celebrities has in recent years grown and spread to such an extent that it has now become part and parcel of celebrity culture itself (Deflem 2019).
In comparison to the conditions that have spread in the United States, Europe, and much of the West, my research is focused on examining the manner and extent to which Japanese celebrities are involved in activist causes. Generally, celebrities in Japan have traditionally stayed away from politics and justice advocacy, some exceptions notwithstanding (Johnston 2023). It can also be observed that some links between Japanese pop culture and activism have slowly begun to emerge. Examples include the discussion in Japan on bullying and anti-harassment laws following the death of professional wrestler and reality-TV star Hana Kimura, who was reported to have suicided as a result of cyber-bullying (Yeung, Jozuka, and Benoza 2022; Ueda et al. 2017). Also relevant is the extent to which global justice concerns (such as Black Lives Matter), which have been promoted by celebrities, have begun to infiltrate Japanese social life as well (Deflem 2023). The trails and adventures of idols, pops stars, and other celebrities in Japan have increasingly been examined by scholars (Frost 2011; Galbraith and Karlin 2012), including examinations of their role in activist causes (Katayama 2021; Miller 2020; Ogiso, Funahashi, and Mano 2022). Contributing to this work, the central question of this component of my research is if and how celebrity activism is possible in Japan.
Data and Methodology
Given linguistic and broader cultural differences between nations, it is impossible for one scholar alone to meaningfully build a comprehensive comparative-transnational perspective. As individual scholars and citizens we each find ourselves molded by, and to some considerable extent limited to, our respective national and otherwise localized settings. Therefore, in order to meaningfully address the questions of my research and develop a comparative-transnational project of popular culture in Japan in comparison to, and in connection with, the United States, I examine relevant data along with available published research in explicit dialogue with colleagues in Japan who work on similar and related themes.
1) Primary and Secondary Sources:
There is today an elaborate literature available that expresses and contemplates on various aspects of Japanese law, culture, and popular culture. Among the data are primary sources of publicly available media reports, which are essential in the case of the study of popular culture, which is, by definition, indeed popular and therefore expressed and discussed in the media. For those among us who lack adequate Japanese language skills, such news sources are also available in English. Internationally oriented Japanese news media are indeed very well developed (e.g., The Japan Times and Japan News newspapers and websites; NHK World television). Likewise, a wealth of secondary data and insights communicated in published research efforts by scholars from various fields of inquiry are available to reveal insights on the three identified themes of inquiry. The field of Japanese studies has indeed grown to be very elaborate and should be duly relied upon, especially with respect to law (e.g., Foote 2007; Vanoverbeke and Johnson 2020; Vanoverbeke et al. 2014) and popular culture (e.g., Craig 2000; Daliot-Bul 2014; Freedman and Slade 2018; Minamida and Tsuji 2012; Nagahara 2017).
The reliance on available published sources, in the news media and in the scholarly literature, is appropriate in the context of this research because, instead of seeking to present novel empirical data on the specified research themes, the central objective of this project is to develop a comparative-transnational perspective. Nonetheless, certain intricacies of Japanese society cannot be properly understood from an examination of published data alone, not even in a project such as this that is geared towards a sociological perspective of transnational-comparative study. Both to collect adequate data and to make sense of the research findings, therefore, I conduct this research in collaboration with colleagues who work in relevant fields in Japan and, additionally, rely on interviews with scholars working in Japan on similar themes.
2) Collaborative Research and Interviews:
To advance this project in a meaningful and productive way, I am fortunate to be able to rely on the assistance of many colleagues working in Japan, both to collaborate in the data collection and analysis process as well as to formulate appropriate questions and make sense of the findings. As immediate research collaborators, Professors Dimitri Vanoverbeke of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo and Jason Karlin of the Interfaculty Initiative for Information Studies at UTokyo cooperate with me in the research component on Japanese law and popular culture on the basis of their respective specialties. Educated in Japanese studies and teaching sociology of law, Dr. Vanoverbeke is an excellent collaborator to this research because of his combined expertise in Japan and the study of law. Similarly, for the research focus on celebrity culture and activism, Dr. Karlin’s expertise in Japanese popular culture and media is instrumental to advance this work. Combined, colleagues Vanoverbeke and Karlin make for the ideal team in support of my two projects on the regulation of pop culture and celebrity activism. Their deep and extensive knowledge of relevant Japanese social and cultural matters will greatly aid my work. In turn, my own expertise and research experience should bring a comparative focus and intellectual dimension that will advance our joint interests.
Finally, as an additional source of information, I conduct interviews with scholars from various disciplines who work in Japan on related and similar themes. These colleagues include academicians in sociology, law, cultural studies, and related fields, who have confirmed to be able to meet with me during my visit. Directly engaging with Japanese scholars working on themes of popular culture and law adds invaluable insights to this research project and establishes a meaningful dialogue. Counteracting the traditional view of looking at Japan from the outside in, such cross-national conversations are an absolute necessity to collaboratively advance a comparative-transnational focus. In recent years, I have been very fortunate to have established contacts with some 50 scholars in Japan with whom I am able to share my research questions and discuss our mutual and related interests through interviews. The insights derived from these interviews (conducted during a sabbatical stay in Tokyo and Kyoto in the spring of 2023, with an additional research visit planned for the summer of 2024) greatly helped to inform and supplement the ongoing data collection and analysis conducted in collaboration with Dr. Vanoverbeke and Dr. Karlin. Resulting from these contacts, moreover, a collaborative work in the form of an edited volume on law and culture in Japan is planned for publication (Deflem, Takahashi, Vanoverbeke, and Karlin 2025).
Models of Law and Popular Culture
The questions of my work on Japan are informed by my research on relevant conditions in the United States, especially in theoretical respects. This research could build on my long-standing involvement in the study of culture which I initially developed, as an undergraduate student, in the cultural sociology of music and subsequently extended in the anthropology of religion and ritual (Deflem 1991). In most recent years, I have sought to deepen these interests in research on fame and celebrity culture, areas of study to which I have contributed in the form of both research and teaching (Deflem 2017, 2019). Additionally, I have examined sociologically relevant aspects of cinema (Deflem 2007, 2016), the control of popular music (Deflem 2020), and gender dynamics in rock music (Rogers and Deflem 2022). In what follows I will briefly review these inquiries in theoretical and methodological respects with respect to the study of litigation involving celebrities and the development of celebrity activism. This overview of the analytical models that I have applied in my work in the United States (rather than the resulting empirical findings) should help explain how they can serve as comparative elements of orientation for similar research in Japan.
Dimensions of Celebrity Law
In terms of litigation in the world of popular culture, celebrities attract a lot of legal activity which is primarily compensatory in nature. Theoretically, this development can be clarified —as I did in the case of pop star Lady Gaga (Deflem 2017)— on the basis of the perspective of social geometry developed by sociologist Donald Black (1976). Following Black’s model of the various dimensions of social space, it can then be postulated, first, that with respect to the qualitative style of law as a function of the elevated location of celebrities in vertical space, celebrities are only rarely involved in criminal law, demonstrating that upward law tends to be compensatory in style. In a quantitative sense, furthermore, law is seen to vary directly with stratification, so that celebrities, who are more famous, wealthy, and influential than the average member of the population, attract more law and legal behavior. The general proposition is that law varies directly with fame and celebrity.
In terms of stratification as a dimension of social space, law is predicted to vary directly with rank. Celebrities generally have excellent access to justice and can afford to secure good (and expensive) legal representation. This fundamental inequality in the administration of law is not surprising sociologically but it contracts, in a normative sense, the vey ideal of modern legal system to adhere to the principle of equality before the law. As a result, celebrities will typically be victorious in legal disputes. And whenever legal decisions are made against the interests of celebrities, they may remain inconsequential to their fame and success. Further, with respect to the direction of law, downward law will be greater in cases involving celebrities than upward law. Such downward law is demonstrated, for instance, by the fact that celebrities will often invoke legal entitlements regarding the products of their activities (most notably in cases of copyright and trademark) against any and all who might threaten these rights, even when they involve consumers and fans of their work. Legal actions initiated by celebrities, also, tend to go relatively unnoticed in the news media, while the rare cases of celebrities being sued typically receive much attention, yet also be less likely to be successful. In terms of horizontal space, the relationship between law and relational distance is shown to be curvilinear in the case of celebrities as evinced from the fact that litigation against celebrities is most likely to come from within the professional world of popular culture (industry insiders) who are both close to yet also somewhat removed from the targets of their legal action.
Finally, legal actions involving celebrities can be seen to vary directly with culture and organization and inversely with social control. Complex societies such as the United States (and Japan) today have more formal laws regulating social life, including many of the aspects of popular culture, rather than rely on other, more informal means of social control. Celebrity law is typically very complex and highly rationalized by professional (entertainment) lawyers in terms of intricate aspects of law. Moreover, celebrity law varies directly with conventionality as celebrities demonstrate to be very conventional by partaking in formal legal proceedings, while otherwise engaging in relatively non-conventional ways in their creative work. From an organizational viewpoint, litigation involving celebrities is typically well organized, for instance as part of a broader effort to protect artists’ rights or as a class-action lawsuit. And, in terms of social control, finally celebrity law can be expected to vary directly with other types of conflict management as cases will inevitably involved specified formal legal frameworks. Even celebrities can only rely on a legal framework that already exists and within which they must seek to do the best they can on grounds that are, at least formally, the same for all legal subjects, whether famous or not. Celebrities cannot fight the law, even though they can fight better with the law.
Celebrity Culture and Activism
In recent years, social scientists have begun to take more seriously the dimensions of fame and celebrity that more and more affect the organization of social life. Whether we like it or not, celebrity culture is far frivolous and presents a central and highly visible aspect of broader cultural trends. Sociologically, celebrity can be studied in relation to the institutions of politics, economy, and law in order to bring out that which is distinctly cultural and unique about celebrity. In today’s age, celebrities have been more than at any other time in history engaged, particularly by means of online media, in communicating with a public that is larger and more concerned with celebrity than ever before. This situation presents critical possibilities as well as potential obstacles to creating effective pathways to justice and equity with respect to the objectives of activism. Yet, whether the public readily believes celebrities or is suspicious about their motives should not preclude us from examining the manner in which celebrities have been responding to various causes and justice movements and how, in turn, the public at large has responded in more or less favorable ways. Relying on my recent and ongoing research of these conditions in the United States, the analytical and methodological aspects of this work should be helpful towards a comparative study in Japan (see Deflem 2022a, 2022b, 2023; Deflem, Routh, Hickey, and Brunson 2023).
The twin concepts of fame and celebrity can sociologically be conceived to refer to a particular kind of social relationship. Analytically, fame and celebrity can be defined as the quality of being well-known and the quality of being known for being well-known, respectively. Relying on Max Weber’s (1922) conceptualization of status as a form of esteem, celebrity specifically involves various kinds of privilege (Kurzman et al., 2007). First, celebrities rely on a special interpersonal privilege to engage in interactions with one another and with members of the public. Celebrities of various forms of entertainment and sometimes very different backgrounds will get to know one another and establish durable relationships. With their fans and others more generally, celebrities are able to control their profile and image. Because celebrity status is socially constituted, the role the media is essential to be analyzed, especially in today’s age of the internet and the widespread popularity of social media. Second, the normative privileges accorded to celebrities allows them to act as role models that take on activist causes. The steady elaboration and diversification of celebrity activism may count among the most peculiar aspects of the development of celebrity culture in recent years. Third, celebrities typically enjoy financial privileges as a result of their fame and popularity. And, fourth, of special relevance in the present context it is to be observed that celebrities enjoy legal privileges that are relied upon to protect themselves and the products of their efforts.
Examining the development of celebrity activism, a model of analysis can be employed that differentiates at least five components: 1) Actors: Who are the celebrities that engage in activism related to a variety of causes? Which forms of popular culture do they represent?; 2) Media: Which media do celebrities rely on to engage with the public concerning their chosen justice issues? How has this mediation process been influenced by the turn towards virtual communications in view of the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to engagements in the physical world (e.g., protest rallies) and the traditional media such as radio and television?; 3) Actions and Objectives: What do celebrities (objectively) do to engage with a variety of expressed concerns?; Why do they undertake these activities in terms of their expressed (subjective) motivations?; How are these motives (inter-subjectively) understood by various segments of the public? 4) Functions and Dysfunctions: Which functional and dysfunctional contributions do celebrities make to bring about changes in the social order that are, or are considered to be, beneficial or detrimental to the causes they take on? 5) Consequences: What are the effects of celebrity activism in the public discourse relative to the societal conditions that their causes relate to? Are celebrity actions perceived as intended or does the public also display hostility and resistance, and if so, how and when?
Methodologically, celebrity culture can be studied in terms of the media through which the elevated status of celebrity is constituted. Hence, research can readily rely on the social media interactions that celebrities engage in to communicate their concerns to the public. Thus, analysis can focus on the celebrity activism that is expressed on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media. Importantly, an analysis of social media also allows for a study of the public’s response, for instance by means of Twitter likes and retweets and comments on media platforms. An additional important source of information are the many internet news sources that report on relevant celebrity activism. Such news stories typically provide further details of celebrity activities and their context, along with an assessment of their relevance and reception by the public. News stories can also be used to retrieve and examine additional celebrity activities on social media.
Briefly reviewing the findings of research in the United States, celebrity activism can be seen to have greatly expanded during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and, even more so, following the publicity of the video-taped police killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 (Deflem 2022a). Celebrity activism had already expanded greatly since well before the pandemic, as activist causes began to be more and more embraced by celebrities from multiple areas of entertainment (Deflem 2019). Besides this steady expansion of celebrity activism, it is also noteworthy to observe that many celebrities —at least in the United States and many countries in Europe— have been embracing an ever-widening wide variety of causes and concerns, including both issues relatively close to the celebrity’s background and professional activities as fare removed therefrom. An immediate and rather fundamental irony can be observed in that celebrities often speak out about matters of injustice and inequity which they themselves, because of their elevated status and privileges, are largely insulated from. Celebrity is sociologically relevant precisely because it represents a form of privilege higher than others can enjoy. And as celebrity culture can only be expected to continue and expand, it is deserving of systematic study across national settings.
Sociology and Society in a Global Age
It has often been observed that the choice of a sociological theme of reflection is not only the result of an intellectual process but also relates, in various more or less manifest ways, to personal matters that move and shape the authors of research to select their scholarly interests. From an intellectual point of view, my scholarly work has involved two main lines of inquiry, which in my current work I apply jointly in the context of the United States and Japan, in particularly including the relationship and comparison between both societies.
A first relevant line of research, which I have developed since my graduate studies, concerns the sociological study of law and law-related phenomena. Specifically, I have examined the dynamics involved with the enforcement of law and social control, especially in an international and historical context (Deflem 2002). While not specifically centered on Japan or Japanese-American relations, this aspect of my work has made me greatly aware of the value of comparative studies and the social and sociological relevance of international and transnational processes. I have also developed expertise in the sociological study of law as distinct from jurisprudential perspectives, work that relates closely to my interest in sociological theory. I have explored theoretical questions in various respects, including the history and systematics of the sociology of law as a specialty area in the broader sociological discipline (Deflem 2008). In that context, I rely on the work of classical and modern scholars in sociology, especially Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons, to contemplate on the centrality of culture.
My interest in culture is not only related to my work on law and social theory but is also independently driven by my background as a student of anthropology and cultural sociology. In most recent years, it has been this dual interest in law and culture that informed my work on popular culture, as explained above. It is at the intersection of law and popular culture that my current work applies my two main interests to the United States and, comparatively and interconnectedly therewith, Japan.
From a societal viewpoint, justifying my choice to select Japan as a point of comparison with the United States is the special place of Japanese popular culture from a global perspective as well as my own personal relationship with the country. To many an observer, Japan is readily seen as unique in its embrace of elements of foreign cultures while also preserving the authenticity of Japanese cultural expressions. It is also remarkable to observe that Japanese culture has in various respects globalized itself into a world-wide phenomenon, enjoying broad appeal in many countries. As such, Japan presents a special opportunity for research given the increasingly transnational constellation of popular culture today.
Although I cannot in any way consider myself an expert of Japan, I have enjoyed strong personal as well as professional ties with Japan for more than a decade now. Among my earliest scholarly efforts with scholars from Japan, I have collaborated with Japanese colleagues in the form of invited contributions to anthologies edited under my direction (Abe 2018; Ishizuka 2014; Takahashi 2013). I have also guest-lectured at several Japanese universities and presented papers at conferences of Japanese professional groups. Moreover, some of my publications on the state and objectives of sociology as an academic discipline have appeared in Japanese translation (Deflem 2015a, 2015b). Most recently, I have held a semester-long sabbatical stay as a Visiting Research Scholar at The University of Tokyo in 2023 and conducted studies on popular culture in the Japanese context, including work on the impact of Japanese tennis sensation Naomi Osaka (Deflem 2022b, 2023).
Because much of my work is explicitly of an international and/or comparative nature and because of my personal background as an immigrant, I am well aware of the challenges presented when working in another country. Linguistic competency alone is not sufficient to overcome cross-cultural challenges, but nor need linguistic limitations prevent useful work abroad. Raised in Belgium and educated in that country as well as in England and the United States, I have previously spent time for research and teaching in countries with which I am both more and less familiar, including Canada, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, and Korea, besides Japan. Through these experiences, I have come to appreciate the need to be flexible to locally varying conditions.
From a professional viewpoint, most important are the contacts I have established with many colleagues in Japan and, in that respect, I take special note of the adaptability my colleagues have shown to work with me in a collaborative manner. Besides my personal familiarity with Japan and its culture, my research experience has also made me greatly aware of the value of comparative studies and the relevance of international and transnational practices. In this dual manner of cross-cultural societal relevance as well as personal familiarity, my ongoing sociological work on, and associations with, Japan have deepened my understanding of Japanese society. As a sociologist, I realize that such experiences have molded my work to extend the questions of my research from the United States to Japan, thereby seeking to draw meaningful comparisons. As such, both my professional background and personal experiences support my scholarly efforts to develop a systematic sociological study on law and popular culture in the United States and Japan. In sum, both because of my personal experiences and my scholarly work, I hope to be sufficiently well-positioned to conduct this project and look forward to its elaboration and completion in the coming years. Taking full advantage of my position as a transnational scholar (and citizen) interested in law and popular culture will benefit the development of pertinent sociological work and establish a fruitful Japanese-American dialogue.
About the Author
Mathieu Deflem is Professor of Sociology at the University of South Carolina. His research and teaching interests include law, social control, policing, popular culture, and social theory. He is presently examining celebrity culture in (post-)pandemic times and conducting research on law and popular culture in the United States and Japan. More information is available via his website at: Deflem.blogspot.com.
References
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