Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

The biggest incident in post-war Japan happened two years ago . That was the terrorism and massacre in underground stations using sarin gas by a new religious cult, Aum Supreme Truth . The cult also assassinated many people who were against their beliefs. The media analysed that Otaku characteristics were often found in the members of the cult. We saw unexpressed anger and discontent towards society in the beliefs of the cult. As I mentioned earl ier, just as some Otaku were fascinated by military and pro-wrestling , the cult was secretly produci ng military weapons to use. Again, the Japanese society single-minded ly carried out another anti-Otaku campaign, just like the one at the time of Miyazaki case. In fact, I am one of those referred to as Otaku . I spend hours and hours processing trivial i nformation , i ndulge i n a fantasy world , take an agg ressive view of the media which attacks Otaku yet takes no action. Furthermore I built a wall of non-communication between people in general and myself, and compete to build the highest wall among Otaku . When I ask myself if it is abnormal in today's Japan, I must say no. Everything is j ust a weak excuse to pass th rough problems. Even the country itself stands on lies and excuses. My works are like self-portraits which reflect myself. However the self-portrait can express problems, suffering and the solutions that are engraved at each moment of production . Mr DOB was created as our post-war culture itself, or a tool to search where I stand as Otaku . It is more important to be fresh and pretty in today's Japan than to accumulate knowledge and experience to find truth . However, I think there are not only negative aspects in such reality. I continue to search for elements, which can lead to hopes. I believe there is a true modern identification field in such shallow reality. Otaku world has continued to expand after the Aum incidents just like the subsequent period after the M iyazaki incident. The thought that we are different from the ones killed has encouraged us, even furthering our inclination. An underground "comic market" has the ability to mobilize 250, 000 in 2 days. (The Woodstock concert attracted 1 20 , 000 people.) Most of the content of those comics is sex scenes of gays (preferred by female audience) and deformed women (preferred by male audience) . Contai ned frustration is expressed in closed media such as coterie magazines (which cannot be traded as commercial magazi nes). The scale of the expression has grown to the point where it is no longer referred to as u nderground. I believe I can show one of the answers to future vision through my art. 1 1 9