Exploring the history, influences and meanings of the many zombies featured in Japanese films.
What is it about?
This article exposes how Japan is perhaps the world's second largest producer of zombie films (after the US and above the UK) and aims to broaden our understanding of this large corpus. More than mere imports of Western popular culture, the zombies made in Japan are incredibly diverse and have their own specific influences and meanings, which set them apart from their Western counterparts. In line with recent debates within zombie studies, Japanese cinematic zombies shake the common view that zombies are soulless creatures with an Afro-Caribbean heritage.
Why is it important?
The recent massive success of One Cut of the Dead [カメラを止めるな!] (Kamera O Tomeru Na!, Dir: Shinichirō Ueda, 2017) brings to attention the increased popularity of zombies in Japan over the last fifty years or so. Investigating the possible reasons and meanings behind this, this article shows how animism, the belief that all life comes with a soul, is a major aspect of how Japanese people conceive zombies.