Tokyo connection
For me there has always been a very clear connection between cyberpunk and Asian megacities. In general, and Tokyo in particular. In the interest of full disclosure, I have had the opportunity to spend years in Tokyo first as a student and later while working. On cramped subways on the last train home where everyone is in their own little virtual bubble connected by their cellphones, watching the sundown transforming the landscape of tall buildings into a scene from Blade Runner or on walks through the vast concrete landscape, many themes and scenes from cyberpunk movies naturally come to mind.
The perceived connection probably stems from four major sources that will be discussed in this article. First and foremost, almost all cyberpunk stories are set in large urban areas. Secondly, there is Japanese society with its strict rules that result in the creation of tightly knit groups of social outcasts, not unlike the subcultures from which the major protagonists in many cyberpunk stories emerge as well as strong corporations. Then, Tokyo as Japan’s capital provides a unique futuristic vision of a technologically advanced society that is at the same time highly interconnected and yet strangely disconnected. Finally, Japan has produced some of the most prominent works of the cyberpunk movement in various medias, a topic for a future dedicated article.
Megacities
Megacities are the setting of almost every major cyberpunk work. Setting the stories in a manmade environment of steel and concrete sets the scene for the typical cyberpunk issues of biology versus technology and more crucially the limits of their fusion. It is difficult if not impossible to imagine Blade Runner in a rural setting.
One more practical reason why the cyberpunk genre as a subcategory of science fiction sets its stories in megacities is that most visions of the future contend with an additional large increase in population lying just ahead. That these people will mostly be living in cities is almost taken as a given. Cyberpunk relies on this high concentration of people, usually specific subcultures to provide it with both a cast of interesting characters.
The high population density is often a very crucial input into the grittiness and the brutality that is often encountered in cyberpunk fiction. The parallel that comes to mind are lab rats (yes, the white, redeyed kind) which are known to show an increased tendency to violence as the population density in cages increases. The most horrific example of which would be mothers eating their young. In the cramped, constrained and overpopulated settings featured in many works of cyberpunk survival is often a zero-sum fight over resources. This environment further gives birth to the interesting moral dilemma situations that much of the more sophisticated works feed off.
Most “cyberpunks”, the main characters of cyberpunk stories, are dependent on society as a whole in an almost parasitic way. Their occupations and preoccupations usually antisocial, in economic terminology, do not add value to their respective societies. While they are often portrayed as being outcasts of society, they paradoxically also live off societies in a parasitical manner. The hacker and contract killer characters which are a common staple of these stories need society to create systems to hack into and enemies to kill. Thus, while for example Neo from Matrix or Motoko from Ghost in the Shell could be called outcast revolutionaries, they are reliant on the respective societies for subsistence.
Tokyo is a manifestation of a crowded vision of the future. Due to its landscape, Japan has always had to contend with a large amount of population living on very small plots of land. The crowded subways are an example of this. Of the largest agglomerations Tokyo is both one of the oldest and one of the most tightly knit. The greater Toyko urban area spans from Saitama via central Tokyo on to Yokohama. The total population of this megacity is 35 million people, though of course the numbers vary considerably where the boundaries are drawn. It can even be argued that Interestingly, Japanese society has adapted itself to this situation of chronic overpopulation and the statistics do not show the violence and brutality that the labrat metaphor evoked earlier suggested. This strict social structure that allows peaceful coexistance however does lead to the formation of tightly knit communities resembling those most cyberpunk heroes come from.
Subcultures and Corporations
Japan is host to a number of exceedingly strange to radical subcultures that predominantly manifest in the big cities. Particularily in the greater Tokyo area. Two of the more relevant subcultures to cyberpunk are the Bosozoku motorcyle gangs and the Otakus, technology and often also fans of Japanese Animation.
The Bosozoku or “Speed tribe” are are mostly disaffected young men, often from a lower class background, who protest their status in society with loudly roaring bikes and otherwise borderline legal activities. One of the earliest Japanese Animation work despicting this subculture in a cyberpunkesque vision of the future is Akira (1988). Links between the Bosozoku and the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, are often alledged.
The Otaku on the other hand are a different sort of tribe. Often men, they have build their own niche in society around technology, games and Japanese Animation and Manga. They have their own Mecca in Akihabara, a district in Tokyo full of all sorts of electrical appliances, movie stores and maid cafes. Dialogue among various different subgroups that have distinct focus topics is occurs primarily over the internet, famously over 2channel. Though technically adebt, they are often considered by mainstream Japanese society to be socially awkward and thus end as social outcasts. These socially weak but technologically strong geeks often make an appearance in cyberpunk in similarily endowed characters as well.
Both of these subcultures contrast sharply with the stereotype Japanese salaryman (and salarywoman) epitomized by long working hours and strict adherence to social convention. Though, with recent changes in the Japanese labor markets, the number of these corporate samurai has actually been decreasing, they are still very commonly met in the works of cyberpunk. Warriors of the capitalist system, they owe their loyalty and show their dedication first and foremost to their company. These large corporations that are often a power onto themselves and can be active in a multitude of industries. The Japanese zaibatsu and their intelectual successors, the Keiretsu conglomerates are the empitome of the allpowerful corporation encountered so often in cyberpunk.
Connected society
Japan is very famous for its high level of technology driven by a relentless focus on efficiency. Ever since Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony, started producing transistor radios, Japan has been synonimous with electronics. Though facing increased competition from South Korea it has remained squarely at the forefront of technological Innovation. In more recent years, the development of humanoid robotics is a field in which Japan has been aweing the rest of the world its ingenuity and technological prowess. It is hardly necessary to remind anyone what an important role robots, androids and cyborgs play in this genre.
And yet, Japan is at the very edge of technology in yet another way: Connectivity. While most of the world still struggles to get decent internet especially to mobile devices, but also to conventional computers, Japanese citizens enjoy perhaps one of the best build out ITC infrastructure. And this has had a very heavy impact on how society works. On nearly every subway, it is possible to observe Tokyoites connected to their personal social networks via cellphones. While I have never made the effort to count it I would wager that almost half of the passengers on any given train are using some electronic device to communicate or perhaps play a game. (The other half is sleeping.) Everyone is in his own digital bubble. Connected and yet strangely disconnected from everything around them. Is not this disconnection one of the fundamental emotions that is evoked so strongly by many works of cyberpunk
Conclusion
Through this article, I have made the case that there are compelling arguments that Japan is an outpost of a cyberpunk future in today’s reality. For the mentioned factors, Japan is a very strong influence and inspiration on the genre of cyberpunk. A look at some major works of cyberpunk seems to reaffirm this notion. For example the greater Tokyo urban area features prominently in Neuromancer, the book that is often identified as starting the whole cyberpunk genre.
It seems that several of the authors of cyberpunk spent time in Japan or let themselves be inspired. William Gibson certainly calls Tokyo the “handiest prop shop for as long as I’ve been writing.” A part of this effect is surely the result that the cyberpunk genre came into existance during the brief span of time when it seemed like Japanese economic power would soon surpass the US power. While that particular situation never came to pass, Japan has certainly been a large influence on the cyberpunk genre. Not least because its megacities, in particular the concrete and steel behemoth Tokyo, inspire cyberpunkesque visions of the future. The discussed social dynamics with its particular subcultures and the technological trappings of the connected society have surely also flown into the imaginations of the creative minds of the genre.
Thanks to Anvisuals for the pic of the cute white rat.