The population the size of a large regional city, about 200,000 to 300,000, gathers in Tokyo twice a year.  While their demographic makeup tends to concentrate in the late teens to early twenties age range, many other older and younger groups are there too.  Furthermore, for a gathering taking place in a society marked by gender segregation, the crowd is remarkably close to being evenly divided between men and women.  People of all different types of occupations, income brackets, social backgrounds, ethnic identities, sexual preferences, and educational backgrounds gather from every corner of Japan.  The gathering lasts for two to three days, taking place for only a few hours each day. The gathering is not run by a corporation but instead is operated by volunteers.  The center stage of this gathering is not reserved for politicians, sports stars, media celebrities, musical performers, nor religious leaders.  The center stage belongs to some books that people bring on their own to share among themselves.  Books that reflect a wide range of viewpoints.  Books that are private, personal, intimate, and non-commercial.  During one of these gatherings, over 5 million copies of these books exchange hands. 
     Both the books and the medium are called doujinshi.  Doujinshis are a type of hobby publishing in Japan.  They are non-commercial and are primarily privately distributed books.  Doujinshis are coterie publications put together by similar minded individuals intended to be read by people who share their interests.  While poems, novels, essays, artwork, and anything else that can be printed on paper can be included in doujinshis, here we specifically refer to manga (Japanese comic book) doujinshis and other doujinshis that are concerned with manga. 
     Currently in Japan, most of these books are fan publications that celebrate popular comics and cartoons.  Fans use the books as a means to express their enthusiasm over their latest interests.  Many of the books are erotic parodies, but the production of erotic material is not limited to any sex.  Both men and women publish large amount of erotic publications, and at times there were more women publishing erotic material then there were men.  But the contents of doujinshis are by no means limited to fans material or erotica.  Anything that can be put to print can become the subject of a doujinshi.  There are books that specialize on Chinese history, original dramatic fiction, both Western and Eastern fairy tales, military hardware, American Westerns, music idols, scientific experimentation and analysis, overseas travel, fetishism, education, heavy metal music, sports stars, computer programming, literature, media analysis, and so on. 
     The gathering described in the introduction is the Comic Market.  Most, if not all, books that have been mentioned above are all available at this one gathering place.  It is a colossal marketplace for interaction and exchange.  20,000 doujinshi publishers come to sell their books to roughly 300,000 people over the course of two to three days (CMPC, CM46C, p.301).  It is a widespread convergence of people with various interests and backgrounds, but all most all of them share a common affinity to Japanese comic books. 
     A gathering of this magnitude is possible thanks to Japan's national level obsession with comic books.  In Japan, comic books are not regulated to any specific genre.  In America, most people equate comic with the superhero genre.  Comic books, along with cartoons, are thought to be an entertainment appropriate for younger children.  There is very little comic books or cartoons available in America that appeals to more mature audiences.  In Japan, animation and comics are less bound to any specific age group or genre.  There are comics for young adults, for men, for young girls, for older women, for boys and so on.  The contents of comic books that are published in Japan are just as varied and diverse as with the movies come out of Hollywood.  Nearly 40% of all books sold in Japan in 1996 were comic books or comic books related publications (Schodt 1996, p.20).  In Japan, comic books are among one of the most popular vehicles through which the nation is entertained, indoctrinated, informed, and enlightened.  This mass support and enthusiasm for manga (comic books) overall forms a backdrop the success of the Comic Market, but the Comic Market represents another different and distinct element in Japanese society. 
     The people that come to the Comic Market are atypical among others in Japanese society in one crucial sense.  They are actively participating in the manga community instead remaining to be passive consumers of the commercial publications that are available everywhere in Japan.  Most in Japan read comics.  Many are infatuated with their favorite characters.  Some can doodle and draw the characters themselves.  A few will draw comics on a consistent basis.  Far fewer draw and create on the presumption of having their material be read by others.  Those who craft publications that celebrate their own interests and are willing to share these interests with others are a rare breed in Japanese society.  People that publish doujinshis devote a lot of time, money, and effort in a venture that is essentially a hobby.  Few rely on doujinshi publishing as means to make a living.  Many in Japan have hobbies, but few have hobbies that involve creativity, self-expression, individual preference, and involves association with individuals that are not part of your immediate occupational network or residential community network. 
     The lives of most Japanese are closely tied to their immediate occupational environment and/or geographical locality.  People tend to identify with the immediate small group (be that of the local merchant association, classmates, and/or coworkers) that they belong to and adopt value orientations and preferences that are shared by the group overall.  Relationships between individuals are usually defined in terms of relative positions within a hierarchy.  Many Japanese people do not identify themselves to their specific occupational specialty, but instead emphasize their relationship with the organization that they belong to.  For example, if 3M was a company in Japan, then the programmers that work there will tend to identify themselves as workers in 3M instead of identifying themselves as programmers specifically.  Under these circumstances, the association between individuals on the basis of shared attributes are the exception and not the norm (Nakane, 1-22).  Many if not most relationships between individuals are based on organizational affiliation as opposed to mutually shared attribution.  The significance of organizational affiliation cannot be stressed enough.  People who work similar jobs but work in different companies are not like to bond as closely compared to people who work in the same company even if they do very different types of work (Nakane, 23-25).  In our example of 3M, programmers would be feel closer to people in marketing or development in their own company and not bond as closely with fellow programmers in Honeywell or DEC.  A lot of research regarding the socialization tendencies of the Japanese have revealed that these tendencies to be common and ubiquitous in Japanese society (Nakane, Hendry, Sugimoto) and yet we have a group of individuals gathering at the Comic Market that show tendencies that are contrary to this.  
      The medium of doujinshis provide individuals who have strong interests in manga, animation, publishing, and/or creative writing with a community independent from their immediate social environment.  It is a community through which people can socialize and interact with like-minded individuals.  This is an aspect that encompasses both the creators and readers of doujinshis.  While there is no question that the authors have a lot more in stake in this community, the readers also form an integral component in this world. 
      As it so happens, particular communities of specific interest groups are referred to as "worlds" in Japanese.  Hence there is the used book retailers' world (furuhonya-gyoukai), the mass communication news media world (masukomi-kai), the entertainment celebrity's world (geinou-kai), and the subject of this research, the doujinshi world (doujinshi-kai).   
     One important difference between the residents of the doujinworld and other worlds are the relative importance of the consumers.  Within the scope of Japanese thinking, the world of entertainers and journalists only includes those that actively participate in the creative process.  While the audience is certainly recognized for their influence over the nature of the industry, they are not considered to be residents of that community.  This is not the case for all "worlds."  In doujinshis, the readers, especially long time readers, are thought to be residents of the world as well.  The reason is because there is an emphasis in doujinshis to celebrate personal preferences.  Authors are considered to be asserting their preferences more actively by virtue of their creative efforts, but the readers are also exercising this power through the decisions they make in which books they buy and support.  Hence, long time readers, or those who have asserted their preferences from before and helped steer the direction of doujinworld, can be considered to be important members of the community. 
     A community does not come about from a vacuum.  Institutions have to be in place to facilitate, regulate, define, and develop a community.  Originally, the only institutions that were in existence were the fan clubs and creative manga writing clubs, both of which were small associations of publisher. Most interactions between them were taking place via mail and/or small local manga conventions.  A group of disgruntled participants in a general manga marketplace launched a gathering place specifically catering to doujinshi transaction in 1976.  Only 700 people attended the first time.  On the 50th time when the same exhibition/marketplace was held, 200,000 to 300,000 people attended.  The growth of the Comic Market, arguably most influential and by far the most largest formal institution that facilitates interaction between readers and buyers, paralleled the germination and blossoming of the doujinshi culture. 
     Over the course of 20 years, the identity and function of this community was defined by the operations of the Comic Market, but was also steered by the trends in preferences of its participants.  In the early 1980's, the Comic Market doujinshi community was characterized by the dominance by male publishers of science fiction related material.  In the late 1980's the same community was characterized by the overwhelming dominance of female publishers of Captain Tsubasa (sports comic), Saint Seiya (greek mythology fantasy/action comic), and Samurai Troopers (Japanese mythology fantasy/action animation series) fan publications.  Popularity in the format and genres of the books have constantly been in a state of flux over this time.  Even units of organization of the publishers have transformed.  Previously, the publishers tended to have more members in each, but now author associations have decentralized, living many publishers with only one principle author active.  And through all this, certain core principles and fundamental assumptions distinct to the doujinshi culture have remained relatively unchanged and resilient. 
     First of all, there was a clear emphasis on the creative abilities of the authors.  Generally speaking, parodies and other creative material that incorporated other author's characters were tolerated and, in many respects, encouraged.  After all, this was a collective that comprised largely of manga and anime (Japanese animation) fans.  At the same time, it was understood that no one should be rewarded for someone else's efforts.  It was fine for authors to be rewarded for their own hard work.  Through their own efforts, they had given a new incarnation, a different life to those characters.  Overt piracy and plagiarism, however, was rarely deemed acceptable.  People were expected to contribute something to their creations, either by virtue of their own artwork, text, intelligent editing, and/or satirical collage skills. 
     There was a general respect for the freedom of expression, and this at times brought about strains in the relations both within the doujinworld as well as between the doujinworld and the outside world.  Attached to this was the respect for diversity.  While not every agreed, overall most were permissive of the publications that others were putting out.  Tolerance was a virtue that would be severely tested in times of crisis, but many in the doujinshi community appear to be comfortable with the presence of material that they themselves might find objectionable as long as the material was compartmentalized and the genres were separated. 
     Through out the community, there was the assumption that the medium of doujinshis was suppose to provide a function that was different from those of commercial publishing.  Doujinshi publications were idealized as private, hobby-like, and non-commercial.  For many those were the characteristics of doujinshis that made so attractive.  In principle, anyone with access to a photocopying machine had the potential of doing a doujinshi.  There was far fewer restrictions regarding the content of the books compared to their commercial counterparts.  Unlike commercial publications, the author had final control over the content, distribution, timing, pricing, and packaging of the books.     
     The doujinshi community largely accepted the notion that it should, for the most part, remain outside the channels of commercial distribution.  Crossing-over might be perceived to be an encroachment into the realm of their commercial counterparts, inviting the wrath and competition by big business publishers.  From the vantage point of the commercial publishers, most were willing let the "copyright violations" go un-noticed because doujinshi publishers were not directly competing against their product, and furthermore, it was clear that some of these fans and their books were much more effective at luring more fans to consume the original product.  Fan doujinshis could be seen as free advertising.  They can also be the source of fresh talent.  Many famous authors were originally doujinshi authors, and it was clear that the doujinworld was the single largest community supplying the next generation of authors to the commercial industry.  Both the commercial industry and the doujinshi community could see benefit come about from this arrangement and, for the most part, worked to preserve this arrangement. 
      Doujinshi publishing adopted a distinct set of assumptions in defining its function within the scope of the general publishing industry and the overall fan community.  At the same time, the doujinshi community became aware of a distinct self-identity and value-orientation that was different from those in commercial publishing and mainstream society.  This awareness in the uniqueness of their medium permeates in their publications and are inexorably tied to debates that surround the merit of doujinshis. 
      This brings us closer to the subject of shared identity, symbols, and worldview.  In many respects, the members of the doujinshi community have internalized a set of beliefs and aspirations that do not fit easily within the framework of contemporary mainstream Japanese society.  They associate to each other on the basis of shared acquired attributes.  They do not passively accept the state's assertion in prescribing morality.  The actively manipulate the very material that they consume.  They are engaged in the production of ideas and manipulation of meanings and cultural references.  They reside in the same world as mainstream society yet their worldview is consistently and significantly different from those of most people in Japan.  These characteristics most certainly fits the model of subculture as proposed by Dick Hebdige.   
     Dick Hebdige pioneered the analysis of socially distinct groups that reside within a larger cultural construct with his research of the punk rockers and other alienated youth groups of Britain in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  While the members of the Japanese doujinshi community are not as antagonistic to the cultural hegemony as the British youth were in Hebdige's research, there are a significant number of issues that the doujinshi community take issue with mainstream society.  The Japanese government has had a heavy hand in dictating the moral identity of the nation especially since the Meiji government came into being after 1868 (Kasza, Rubin), and while the government itself has somewhat receded from directly dictating public morality, the authoritarian streak left in Japan continues to manifest itself to this day (Allison). 
     One such issue that brought the culture of doujinshi and mainstream society came about when there was a strong outcry against pornography in comics initiated by conservative, reactionary moralists from the rural parts of Japan.  At heart of the issue was conflicting views on standards of decency and the need for regulation.  This brought about a generalized crackdown on pornography against Japanese comics in 1991 that quickly spilled over to the doujinshi world.  This issue nearly cracked the solidarity that held the doujinshi community together.  The Japanese police force launched a crackdown on erotic comic books produced by men for men, but did not go after erotic comic books produced by women for women (of which there is a fair amount of in Japan.)  When the threat of police intervention extended on to the Comic Market, loud cries were voiced urging the operators of the Comic Market to cut the male erotica sector off, arguing that their material was too graphic and their presence would undermine the entire institution.  The president of the Comic Market stood by the "for men by men" publishers and uniformly enforced tighter policies on the depiction of sexually explicit material regardless of what gender was producing it.  Both the cute-girl fantasies of men and handsome gay comics by women were closely regulated after this decision was made (Toyoshima).  
     Time passed and both the government as well as the public lost interest over the issue.  Censorship standards were loosened to the point where now in 1997, it is hard to discern the impact left behind by the 1991 crackdown.  But within the shared mental construct of the doujinshi publishers, the 1991 crackdown left behind a lasting legacy. 
     Even if a given doujinshi publisher does not publish material that mainstream society would not find objectionable, the mere association with a community that does produce that type of material and remains relatively unregulated, has made many aware of the precarious nature of their medium.  While the threat of government shut down of the doujinshi realm has receded, the siege mentality that was instilled in the hearts and minds of the doujinshi fans continues to remind. 
     One implication of Hebdige's theory is that people who seemingly share a large amount of information, reside in the same society, speak the same language, and function within a specific socio-economic system can go through life experiencing significantly different worldviews.  An association with the doujinworld and the cultural identity that comes along with that community provides one such alternate outlook on the relationship between the individual and society in Japan.   
      The significance in doujinshi subculture does not originate in the medium that they are using, but rather the distinct social identity that are able to assert through participating in this medium.  The Japanese youth who participate in the non-commercial, hobby publishing medium of doujinshis overall do not challenge the views of society, nor do they attempt to bring about social revolution, nor have they been outright rejected from contemporary Japanese society.  Many are living double lives, one public (mainstream) and the other private (doujinshi).  For in fact, many Japanese people go about living double lives.  Most Japanese people define their relations with society on the basis of tatemae (group obligation) and honne (private aspirations).  But usually the honne is left inside, revealed only to closes friends and/or to those that were unfortunate enough to be next to the person when he or she was roaring drunk.  Yet the members of the doujinshi community do not need the aid of alcohol to reveal their deeper and more intimate interests and feelings.  The doujinshi realm presents the research of Japan exciting opportunities to peer into the intimate and private aspects of the individual Japanese, something that usually tend to be hidden from view or whitewashed to conform to social expectations and standards. 
      The research of doujinshis and the subsequent blossoming of the doujinshi subculture also poses interesting questions regarding the relationship between mainstream society, the production and maintenance of public morality, and access to the means of production of ideas.  While the Japanese comic book fans have had access to the doujinworld for the last 15 years, America has just begun to have access to a similar world which is the Internet.  While I do have the space to diverge into interesting parallels between the two accessible and relatively unregulated mediums, it is clear the lesson that the doujinworld teaches us may very well apply to the Internet and visa versa.  Japan in increasingly becoming wired and more and more doujinshi publishers are coming on-line into the Internet for all the world to see.  What will the world see and how will that influence how the residents of doujinworld see themselves? 
 

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