Globalization,corporate nationalism and Japanese cultural intermediaries: Representation of bukatsu through Nike advertising at the global–local nexus

Abstract

This article examines the corporate re-imagining of ‘the nation’ by focusing on the representation of Japanese school sporting culture, bukatsu, through Nike advertising in Japan. Bukatsu serves an important site for the analysis of cultural globalization because it is located not only at the global–local nexus but also at the intersection of Japanese traditional principles, youth culture and sporting practice. Using a multiple-method approach including contextual and textual analyses, along with interviews with advertising personnel, the article reveals that values, experiences and identities of the local cultural intermediaries play a key role in reflexive, yet subjective, incorporation of bukatsu lifestyle within a television commercial in Japan. Thus, it is argued that the subjectivity and reflexivity of the local cultural intermediaries need to be considered as key constituents for representation of national identity within the discourse of corporate nationalism. Overall, the article highlights the complex, interdependent and reflexive relationship between the global and the local by examining links between the ‘glocal’ advertising representation and Japanese sporting identity within the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al., 1997).