Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life

My sister, the smarter half of the Ito family duo is an expert on Japanese youth culture and mobile culture. Her book just came out from MIT Press. I've been running around in a scatterbrained fashion all my life trying to reach into academia. She has been immersed in academic rigor but has been reaching out to the public from the inside. Recently, we've begun to cross paths more and more. This book is another step in bridging our worlds.

Anyway, I'm totally biased and very proud of my sister, but you should still take my recommendation and buy this book. ;-) (Or at least download the introduction.)

Mizuko Ito
Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life

The book I edited with Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda is out from MIT Press and available on amazon.com. Click here for a pdf of a draft of the introduction.

The book is an edited collection of social and cultural studies of keitai (mobile phone) and pager use over the past decade or so in Japan. We included our own research as well as research by a variety of mostly Japanese scholars whose work we translated from Japanese.

10 Comments

01. Justin Hall - Aug 10, 2005 - 09:18

I've read "Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life" - I can vouch that it's completely fascinating reading, at least for anyone who uses a mobile phone.

02. Mike B. - Aug 10, 2005 - 10:19

"Pedestrian". Very clever.

03. Malo Girod de l'Ain - Aug 10, 2005 - 15:36

Seems great. Will read the intro. We published the French translation of Smart Mobs from Howard Rheingold: "Foules Intelligentes". Thanks to ask your sister to contact us to discuss this. Best, Malo.

04. ANDREW BERGLUND - Aug 10, 2005 - 17:02

this is fantastic news - the book I have been waiting for - Rheingold's Smart Mobs was a good book - but I believe that Mizuko delves deeper into the social impact of the keitai phenomenon - ordering this book as we speak...

05. MostlyVowels - Aug 10, 2005 - 17:11

I thought you also had a brother ;-)

06. anon - Aug 10, 2005 - 23:37

I look forward to reading it. Wish there was a CC licensed copy to be able to browse on my keitai.

I'm amused at the irony that academically published works are often less free than commercial ones.

07. chiao - Aug 11, 2005 - 00:06

Ordered. Look forward to reading it. BTW any publisher in Taiwan / China contacted your sister about tranlating her book into Chinese? If not...you know what I mean :-)

08. Saha - Dec 25, 2005 - 23:06

09. Marry - Jan 02, 2006 - 18:12

I look forward to reading it. Wish there was a CC licensed copy to be able to browse on my keitai.

10. Martina - Sep 13, 2008 - 05:48

I liked this japaness mobile phone every colour is very nice .

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Studying Keitai (or ‘Mobile Phones’ in Japanese) from Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog
August 10, 2005 4:41 PM

Mizuko Ito, an anthropologist who specializes in technology and youth culture in Japan, has announced on her website that she with Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda (a psychologist and a sociologist based in Japan) has co-edited a volume titled Person... Read More

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian from HYPERCORTEX
August 15, 2005 5:40 PM

Personal, Portable, Pedestrian : Mobile Phones in Japanese Life Mizuko Ito Daisuke Okabe Misa Matsuda The MIT Press 2005 Available on Amazon.com [Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life] is out, at last...! ... Read More

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