Mapping Tokyo in Fiction and Film explores ways that late
20th- and early 21st- century fiction and film
from Japan literally and figuratively map Tokyo. The four dozen novels,
stories, and films discussed here describe, define, and reflect on Tokyo
urban space. They are part of the flow of Japanese-language texts being
translated (or, in the case of film, subtitled) into English.
Circulation in professionally translated and subtitled English-language
versions helps ensure accessibility to the primarily anglophone readers
of this study-and helps validate inclusion in lists of world literature
and film. Tokyo's well-established culture of mapping signifies much
more than a profound attachment to place or an affinity for maps as
artifacts. It is, importantly, a counter-response to feelings of
insecurity and disconnection-insofar as the mapping process helps impart
a sense of predictability, stability, and placeness in the real and
imagined city.