Anime Tourism for Finnish Enthusiasts of Japanese Contemporary Pop Culture: A Traveller´s Profile
Yliverronen, Pihla (2024)
2024
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202404288133
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202404288133
Tiivistelmä
Anime tourism has been an important phenomenon within Japanese culture tourism for the past decades. The country of Japan has taken fiction tourism into the official tourism marketing strategies. The aim of this thesis was to investigate Finnish enthusiasts of Japanese contemporary pop culture tourism to Japan and use the collected data to build a traveller’s profile.
The theoretical background was built around Japanese pop culture. Key concepts were Japanese contemporary pop culture, anime, manga, and videogames, which create the basis for Seichi Junrei. Japanese comics, known as manga, is an umbrella term which includes comics, drawings, and animation. Seichi Junrei refers to a phenomenon created by anime enthusiasts, and has sometimes even the characteristics of a pilgrimage, when the hobby is carried out passionately.
The study represented a quantitative research approach. The data collection was implemented with a Webropol survey in autumn 2023. The questionnaire mainly included multiple choice questions and answer options. The data was collected and processed in accordance with research ethics guidelines. The basic information was reported with Webropol’s analytical tools, open ended answers were sorted by methods of content analysis.
It was summarized that the Japanese contemporary pop culture enthusiast was a person in working life who was in a stable financial situation and had the opportunity to enjoy tourism. Respondents considered CO2 emissions, but less than could have been predicted. The enthusiast was interested in Japanese tourism through their hobby, but Seichi Junrei was rarely the single reason a Japanese contemporary pop culture enthusiast decided to travel to Japan. The reason to travel was the Japanese culture in general.
Seichi Junrei is an emotionally intense form of cultural tourism, which many enthusiasts did not relate to. The term "Pilgrimage" was for Finnish fans of Japanese pop culture, too strong a term that they are more willing to use when referring to religious practices.
The theoretical background was built around Japanese pop culture. Key concepts were Japanese contemporary pop culture, anime, manga, and videogames, which create the basis for Seichi Junrei. Japanese comics, known as manga, is an umbrella term which includes comics, drawings, and animation. Seichi Junrei refers to a phenomenon created by anime enthusiasts, and has sometimes even the characteristics of a pilgrimage, when the hobby is carried out passionately.
The study represented a quantitative research approach. The data collection was implemented with a Webropol survey in autumn 2023. The questionnaire mainly included multiple choice questions and answer options. The data was collected and processed in accordance with research ethics guidelines. The basic information was reported with Webropol’s analytical tools, open ended answers were sorted by methods of content analysis.
It was summarized that the Japanese contemporary pop culture enthusiast was a person in working life who was in a stable financial situation and had the opportunity to enjoy tourism. Respondents considered CO2 emissions, but less than could have been predicted. The enthusiast was interested in Japanese tourism through their hobby, but Seichi Junrei was rarely the single reason a Japanese contemporary pop culture enthusiast decided to travel to Japan. The reason to travel was the Japanese culture in general.
Seichi Junrei is an emotionally intense form of cultural tourism, which many enthusiasts did not relate to. The term "Pilgrimage" was for Finnish fans of Japanese pop culture, too strong a term that they are more willing to use when referring to religious practices.