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108 Panel 3Thai comics by local youth with the style of shojo andshonenmanga, supported by the same constituents asJapanese comics in Thailand, sold in bookstores with arather expensive price (around 50 baht).I found myself attracted to the cheap Thai comics. Theformat is very similar to Indonesian cheap comics thatusually contain religious and humorous themes. Theyare also very similar to the Red Comics Books thatbegan the manga industry in Japan.When I held those cheap Thai comics, I thought, hereit is, an affirmation of the domination of the mangaindustry: this cheap comic, with its cheap paper and poorprint quality, sold on the periphery of the market, outsidethe formal institution of the market (the immaculatelyshiny bookstores). Who knows what the future holds foryou, O marginalized one?And I still don’t have a clear understanding on whyOyas Sujiwo was compelled to spread a Japanese flagduring Indonesian Independence Day. I just know thathe doesn’t do that anymore.NOTES1234This paper is a first draft and is still in development.Nonetheless, I dedicate the paper to Rika Febriyani, withoutwhom my journey would not be possible. I am also grateful tomany others who have helped me, especially KrisnadiYuliawan, my chief editor in Rumahfilm.org, Rane Hafiedzin Tokyo, Ade Armando and Putut Widjanarko in Jakarta,and Jay Santhipap in Chiang Mai. And of course, to all thehelpful board members and staff of the Nippon Foundation,API Fellowship program.The popular Japanese term “otaku” has a slightly differentmeaning outside Japan then the original Japanese meaning. Iwill get back to this difference later, but for now, suffice to saythat the term is used by Daniel Choo for a group of peoplearound the world (usually youth) who are immersed inmanga and anime (Japanese animation) subculture.Millennium in Maps: Culture, a supplement for the GlobalCulture issue of National Geographic, vol. 196, no. 2, August1999.As promised to the API Fellowships Program in Jakarta, I amwriting a journalistic book about the globalization of mangasubculture and visual identity. This work is still in process.But as it turned out, my stay in Japan was very inspiring and Ihave already completed a manuscript about my first monththere, titled Sebulan di Negeri Manga (A Month in MangaCountry). The manuscript is now on the process of beingpublished in Jakarta.56Roland Barthes, Empire of Signs, translated by RichardHoward. 1982. Hill and Wang, New York.Kawai is a contemporary Japanese word, usually translated as“cute”. It has becomes a subculture in itself, the Japaneseaffinity and excitement for all things cute, known as “Kawaiculture”.7 Mary Grigsby, “‘Sailormoon’: ‘Manga (Comics)’ and ‘Anime(Cartoon)’ Superheroine Meets Barbie: GlobalEntertainment Commodity Comes to the United States,”Journal of Popular Culture 32 (1998): 65, quoted by WendySiuyi Wong, “Globalizing Manga: From Japan to Hong Kongand Beyond,” Mechademia Volume 1, University ofMinnesota Press, 2006.8Donald Richie, The Image Factory: Fads & Fashions inJapan. 2003. Reaktion Books, London.9 Donald Richie, idem.10 One could dispute this assertion quite easily. What aboutHollywood? Yes, for a long time, the USA could claimsupremacy in the world’s “image-based industries”. Butdespite its size in the world, the American image-basedindustry is much smaller than its military industry. In Japan,the motor industry is the country’s largest, and one couldargue that it is partly a life-style based industry and partly animage-related industry.11 Many equate the Meiji Restoration with the opening up ofJapan to foreign (Western) influence after long isolation.Actually, the first time Japan opened its doors to Westerninfluence was in 1854, with the treaty of amity with theUnited States, and continuing in 1858 with commercialtreaties signed with the US, The Netherlands, Russia,England, and France. But the treaties did not place Japan onan equal footing. The Western countries considered Japan asan underdeveloped country. The Japanese gradually realizedthat they were not equals to the Westerners, so they sped upmodernization so they could demand a more equal position.The Meiji Restoration itself was a restructuring process of thegovernment system into a more modern (more centralized)system from the earlier feudalistic system.12 I found out about this after I asked around about what is sofascinating about Germany for a Japanese, so much so that wecan find many German references in the comics of OsamuTezuka and Naoki Urasawa?13 Wendy Siuyi Wong, idem.14 As defined by Hiroki Azuma, a self-proclaimed otaku whohappened to be a philosopher, otaku is: “…a general termreferring to those who indulge in forms of subculture stronglylinked to anime, video games, computers, science fiction,special-effects, anime figurines, and so on….”ept Thisdefinition can be found in his book, translated by Jonathan E.Abel and Shion Kono, Otaku, Japan’s Database Animals,University of Minnesota Press, 2009.15 A well-known, and much debated, definition of comics fromScott McCloud’s seminal work, Understanding Comics,1993. Tundra Publishing.The Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows