A Cold Of The Soul
Designed by Isabel Righi
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Title Text Futura Medium / Bold max 108/112 pt Layout Grid: 8 Column Grid Module proportion: 1 : 2,269 CPL | Character per line - Body Text: 65 characters including spaces Binding: Saddle stitch binding
Printed: Bozen-Bolzano, January 2020 Inside pages – Digital Print | Canon - Digital Print | Roland UV Cover – CanonDigital Print
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano Faculty of Design and Art Bachelor in Design and Art – Major in Design WUP 19/20 | 1st-semester foundation course Project Modul: Editorial Design Design by: Isabel Righi Magazine | A Cold Of The Soul Supervision: Project leader: Prof. Antonino Benincasa Project assistants: Maximilian Boiger, Andreas Trenker Paper: Inside pages – Glossy, 200 g/m2 - Curious skin red, 270 g/m2 Cover – Glossy, 250 g/m2 Format: 160xy x 210xy mm Fonts | Font Sizes & Leading: Body text Futura Medium 10/14 pt Caption Text Futura Medium 7/14pt
Pages 49-50
Pages 46-48
Page 43
Haru Kitarumi
Mark James Hill
Lukasz Palka
Page 59-60
Page 57
Pages 55-56
Reinaldo Kevin
Mark James Hill
Mark James Hill
Page 63 Mark James Hill
Pages 37-38
Pages 35-36
Takaaki Ito
Lukasz Palka
Pages 53-54
Pages 51-52
Mark James Hill
Mark James Hill
Page 63
Page 61
Mark James Hill
Lukasz Palka
Page 13
Page 11
Pages 9-10
Lukasz Palka
Lukasz Palka
Mark James Hill
Pages 25-26
Pages 23-24
Page 23
Takaaki Ito
Alva Patt
Haru Kitarumi
Page 34
Page 33
Pages 31-32
Mark James Hill
Victoriano Izquierdo
Mark James Hill
Pages 5-8, 71-74
Cover
Mark James Hill
Banter Snaps
Pages 17-18
Pages 15-16
Lukasz Palka
Lukasz Palka
Pages 29-30
Pages 27-28
Lukasz Palka
Endy Yana Yana
12
It remains necessary to raise awareness of depression in the general population of Japan, through massive health communication campaigns, alerting on the seriousness of the untreated cases and
Being lost
13
Being lost
about the possibility now of addressing the problem effectively. As depression is on the rise globally, the approval of a drug to treat cases resistant to treatment is a reason for hope.
14 Being lost
Being lost
DEPRESSION LEADS TO SUICIDE Aside from the effects on health and on people’s well-being, depression exacts a heavy economic toll on individuals, families, and society as a whole. The London School of Economics has estimated that the economic cost of depression is over $14 billion annually in Japan. That includes decreased productivity, medical expenses and indirect medical costs.
15
D
epression is a major contributor to suicide. According to the WHO, almost 90 percent of people who attempt suicide suffer from depression. There are approximately 800,000 suicides globally every year. In Japan, although the total number of suicides has diminished in recent years, the high number of suicides among children is an ongoing cause for concern.
70 Alcoholism
Alcoholism
アルコール依存症はまだ恥ずかしいことと
17
考えられており、覆い隠されています。
Alcoholism
アルコール依存症はまだ恥ずかしいことと
18
考えられており、覆い隠されています。
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is still considered something to be embarrassed about and
67
covered up.
66 Alcoholism
Alcoholism
“People don’t like inebriated drinkers because they are generally slovenly and disorganized, and alcoholics are viewed as being the most extreme form of that. No one ever thinks they are an alcoholic. We have no other option but to show what we are really like as recovering alcoholics.�
65
Otsuki.
Alcoholism
“I felt as if my life was over, I was caught between the past — the good ol’ days of working for 25 years with a successful firm — and the present. It wasn’t until I joined the association that I realized I had to let go of my past in order to move forward in life. “
64
Otsuki.
Alcoholism
A WITNESS
63
Otsuki is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for more than 20 years. He once held down a good job at a leading trading company and was in constant competition with his colleagues to succeed. It was this desire to succeed, however, that drove him to drink. He started drinking heavily after work and woke up each day with a monstrous hangover. He was hospitalized several times and was forced to quit his job when he was 48 years old.
Alcoholism
“Alcoholism is not exclusively defined by whether or not someone has a compulsion to drink ”Higuchi says “pointing to other symptoms such as delirium tremens (“the shakes”), depression and chronic disease (diabetes, high-blood pressure, cirrhosis of
62
the liver, etc.)”.
Alcoholism
“
Higuchi, who headed the health ministry’s research team, is Japan’s leading expert on alcoholism, and the medical center where he works is the largest treatment facility in the country. He believes more than 1 million people in Japan are not getting the treatment they need, adding that patients typically only come when they are very seriously ill.
61
ADDICTION OR NOT?
Japan is a society that loves to push people to drink a lot,” says Susumu Higuchi, director of the National Hospital Organization Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center in Kanagawa Prefecture. “However, once someone becomes an addict, he or she is looked down on and it is not easy for that person to regain his or her status back in society after recovery.”
60
“Not many people are aware that alcoholism is a disease. Anyone can become an alcoholic. However,
Alcoholism
59
many people in Japan believe that it is a matter of character, and that alcoholics are generally slovenly and weak.� Alcoholism
58
When it comes to alcoholism, however, Japan tends to look the other way.
Alcoholism
57
Alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcohol is widely accepted as a part of life in Japan.
I
56
n everyday life, too, alcohol seems to play a major role in people’s social networks. Employees are encouraged to go out for drinks after work with their colleagues for “nomunication,” a Japanese portmanteau coined from nomu (to drink) and communication. Young adults, meanwhile, can regularly be seen signing up for two-hour all-you-candrink sessions, while convenience stores offer a wide variety of alcoholic beverages 24 hours a day.
Alcoholism
WHAT ABOUT
55
ALCOHOLISM?
32 Being lost
33
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52
Toru Honda.
“Years ago I married a character from a bishōjo game. … Her name is Kawana Misaki.”
Escape from reality
51
Escape from reality
Escape from reality
50
“It’s a rea If it were t away, ma would no able
Escape from reality
49
ason to live; to be taken any people o longer be to survive.�
Escape from reality
W 48
hen asked what moe means to him, Jun Maeda, a writer of bishĹ?jo dating simulation video games, is frank:
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Escape from reality
Escape from reality
“Moe is quasi-love for a fictional character. You can desire something in the two-dimensional world that you don’t desire in the three-dimensional world. … There is a truism in otaku culture that those who feel moe for little-sister characters in manga and anime don’t have little sisters. If these men actually had little sisters, then the reality of that
46
would ruin the fantasy.”
Escape from reality
MOE
A
nyone who has visited Tokyo’s Akihabara district in the past decade will have run into countless images of cartoonish girls: in posters, in figurines and in the form of real women dressed up as French maids. The cute cartoon girls, or bishōjo, are visual hieroglyphics in the language of otaku (obsessive) desire.
Otaku scholar Patrick W. Galbraith has tried to decipher the semiotics by focusing on one keyword in the otaku lexicon: moe. It’s from the Japanese verb moeru, meaning either to burst into bud or to burn, depending on the way it’s written. In geek-speak, it signifies the emotional attachment that otaku feel for their favorite characters.
45
Galbraith’s “The Moe Manifesto” is a collection of 19 interviews with manga and anime artists and producers that aims to better understand what motivates otaku.
44
tionships with virtual girlfriends.�
I met two otaku, who believe themselves to be in rela-
- a figure that had doubled in the space of two years.
of Japanese males aged 16 to 19 had no interest in sex
try of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2010 found 36%
tionships with the opposite sex. A survey by the Minis-
like existence and, worryingly, withdrawn from rela-
becoming a salary man. They have taken on a mole-
powerhouse and no interest in joining a company and
war alpha males who made Japan such an economic
“It seems they no longer have the ambition of the post-
Escape from reality
Escape from Alcoholism reality
43
unio Kitamura, of the Japan Family Planning Association, describes many young Japanese men as “herbivores� passive and lacking carnal desire.
RELATIONSHIP
VIRTUAL K
42 Escape from reality
Escape from reality
私は3D女性と付き合うことについて
45
もう一度考える 。
Escape from reality
私は3D女性と付き合うことについて
46
もう一度考える 。
Escape from reality
“I think twice about going
39
out with a 3D woman”.
Escape from reality
38
Akihabara, an area of the city dedicated to the manga and anime subculture provides one clue to the country’s problems. Akihabara is heaven for otaku. They are a generation of geeks who have grown up through 20 years of economic stagnation and have chosen to tune out and immerse themselves in their own fantasy worlds.
Escape from reality
BIRTH PROBLEM
U
37
nless something happens to boost Japan's birth rate, its population will shrink by a third between now and 2060. One reason for the lack of babies is the emergence of a new breed of Japanese men, the otaku, who love manga, anime and computers - and sometimes show little interest in sex. Tokyo is the world’s largest metropolis and home to more than 35 million people, so on the face of it, it is hard to believe there is any kind of population problem at all.
36
A
recent survey of young Japanese people's attitudes to relationships and sex turned up some extraordinary results. Published in January by the Japan Family Planning Association, it found that 20% of men aged 25-29 had little or no interest in having a sexual relationship. Wataru Nishida points to the internet and the pervasive influence of online pornography.
Escape from reality
35
Escape from reality
Mr Nishida.
symptoms are often too scared to talk about it�.
understanding of depression. Those suffering its
very much a taboo here. There is little popular
have few places to turn to. Mental illness is still
do find themselves isolated and depressed, they
no idea how to deal with it. When young people
they think about sex they have high anxiety and
forgotten what it's like to touch a person. When
idea how to express their emotions. They have
but they have no life experience. They have no
"Young people in Japan have a lot of knowledge,
Escape from reality
34
Japan is famous for a condition called hikikomori, a type of acute social withdrawal.
The young person affected may completely shut himself - it is most often a male - off from the outside world, withdrawing in to a room and not coming out for months or even years. But that is only the most extreme form of what is now a widespread loss of direct face-to-face socialising.
Escape from reality
33
he Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines hikikomori as people who refuse to leave their house and isolate themselves from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months.
HIKIKOMORI
T
54 Being lost
55
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30
over the desires of the inDIvidual.
Japanese culture stresses the good of the group
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THE
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GOOD I
f you have this phobia, you might be intensely fearful that your body’s appearance or functioning is offensive or displeasing to others. Some Japanese people with taijin kyofusho particularly focus on odors, others on the way that they move, and still others on their body shape or aesthetics. The fear can also be of aspects of your mind rather than your physical body. You might be afraid that your attitude, behaviors, beliefs, or thoughts are different than those of your peers.
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OF THE GROUP
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A
higher threshold exists for social anxiety symptoms as psychopathology in collectivistic societies, and a lower threshold in individualistic societies. In individualistic countries, social withdrawal and shyness are regarded as interfering with quality of life and are labeled as problematic. As a result, children in these countries are more likely to learn to modify their shyness.
28
On the other hand, social reticence can be interpreted positively in collectivistic countries; therefore, introverted behavior may be understood and supported during development. As a byproduct of these different developmental trajectories, people in collectivistic countries are likely to manifest more social anxiety symptoms compared to people in individualistic countries.
27
SOCIAL ANXIETY
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26
NOT COM
Mr Nishida.
"There are not many ways to express anger or frustration in Japan. This is a rule-oriented society. Young people are moulded to fit in to a very small box. They have no way to express their true feelings. If they feel under pressure from their boss and get depressed, some feel the only way out is to die."
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Being lost
MPLAINING 25
Financial anxiety and insecurity are compounded by Japan’s culture of not complaining.
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DOES “FINANCIAL PRESSURE” CAUSE SUICIDE? T
24
he fastest growing suicide demographic is young men. It is now the single biggest killer of men in Japan aged 20-44. And the evidence suggests these young people are killing themselves because they have lost hope and are incapable of seeking help. The numbers first began to rise after the Asian financial crisis in 1998. They climbed again after the 2008 worldwide financial crisis.
Experts think those rises are directly linked to the increase in “precarious employment”, the practice of employing young people on short-term contracts. Japan was once known as the land of lifetime employment. But while many older people still enjoy job security and generous benefits, nearly 40% of young people in Japan are unable to find stable jobs.
23
Being lost
22 Being lost
Being lost
他のすべてが失敗した場合、あなた は自分自身を殺すことができ、保険
65
が支払われます 。
Being lost
他のすべてが失敗した場合、あなた は自分自身を殺すことができ、保険
66
が支払われます 。
Being lost
“When all else fails, you can just kill yourself and the
19
insurance will pay out�.
18 Being lost
Being lost
J
17
apan has a complex cultural framework with firmly established values and expectations which, over the years, has contributed towards making it a nation with one of the highest rates for suicide inw the world. The country’s work culture means that labouring to the point of physical and mental exhaustion is seen by many as the norm – death (including suicide) that is linked to overwork even has its own name: karoshi.
16 Being lost
Being lost
K
15
en Joseph from the Japan Helpline says their experience over the last 40 years shows that elderly people who are in financial trouble may see suicide as a way out of their problems.
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14
“Japan has no history of Christianity, so here suicide is not a sin. Some look at it as a way of taking responsibility.�
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eople often cite Japan’s long tradition of “honourable suicide” as a reason for the high rate here. They point to the Samurai practice of committing “seppuku” or to the young “kamikaze” pilots of 1945, to show there are distinct cultural reasons why Japanese are more likely to take their own lives. To an extent Mr Nishida agrees.
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Suicide is not a sin
P
“Isolation is the number one precursor for depression and suicide�
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Depression is widespread, largely undiagnosed and rarely treated in Japan. Until the late 1990s, depression was largely ignored outside the psychiatric profession. Depression has been described as “kokoro no kaze” (a cold of the soul) and only recently it is being accepted in Japan as a medical condition that shouldn’t provoke shame in those suffering from it.
Being lost
IS DEPRESSION A MEDICAL CONDITION?
76 Being lost
77
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09-10 Being lost
31-32
Escape from reality
53-54 79
Alcoholism
Being lost
WHY DO PEOPLE FEEL LOST ?
W 80
e feel lost because of something that happens to us — we make a mistake, have to deal with a big disappointment, lose something or some-
one we care about, or have to deal with situations that are really stressful or overwhelming.
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Being lost