| Abstract |

Drawing on a collected archive of Punk Rock Issue Bollocks, the only magazine publication (雑誌) dedicated to punk music and culture in Japan in the present, this presentation will explore how the punk music-culture scene in Japan is imagined and represented through print media and in what ways this mediated form contributes to and delimits the function of such representations. Print materials and commentaries are frequent references within studies of musical scenes in Japan, but are not commonly implicated in supporting the creation of the genre which they address. On the other hand, zine and magazine commentaries written by and for community consumption in punk scenes are well-known attendant aspects of punk culture. As frequent productions associated with punk music, how do these materials circulate, how are they valued, and who do they target?

The presentation makes use of dissertation research on punk music and culture in Japan begun at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the vital role of print materials in identifying and arbitrating the outline of a musical scene. The example of Punk Rock Issue Bollocks offers a distinct processual viewpoint onto the work of bringing communities of practice to life as they develop in-person and when distanced from a physical site of enactment. Based on both collected materials and ethnographic observation of punk places and events, this presentation offers interventions in studies of music, Japan, and punk to suggest that ephemeral materials can play a role beyond archival reference in ethnographic exploration.

| Date & Time |

u:japan lecture | s12e02
Thursday 2026-03-26, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)

| Place | 

| Platform & Link |

| Further Questions? |

Please contact ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at or visit https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/s12/#e02.