Faculty of Global Management: Professor Igor Prusa from Ambis University Prague and Metropolitan University Prague gave a talk on Scandals and the Media in Japan

Professor Prusa is a Czech scholar in Japanese studies and media studies, currently affiliated with Ambis University Prague and Metropolitan University Prague. He worked at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Prusa received his first PhD in media studies at Prague’s Charles University in 2010. In 2017 he defended his second doctoral thesis at the University of Tokyo. His research interests include Japanese culture and society, media scandals, and anti-heroism in popular fiction. His research has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Media, Culture & Society and Japan Forum. His first book "Scandal in Japan: Transgression, Performance and Ritual" was released by Routledge in 2024. 

Professor Prusa was in Japan on a book tour to promote his latest book ‘Scandals in Japan’. On this tour he gave presentations at The University of Tokyo, Sophia University, Ritsumeikan Kyoto, The University of Kyoto, Nanzan University Nagoya,.The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, and of course we were lucky to have him come to Chuo University’s GLOMAC to present in Rab Paterson’s ‘Understanding The Media’ class Monday 8th July, 2024.

The book has been reviewed by the prominent Harvard professor Helen Hardacre! (In European Journal of East Asian Studies).

Click here to read the review.

"...Prusa’s overall conclusion is that 'scandals become spectacles and entertainment that seek to scapegoat the transgressor while generating greater commercial profits for the media’ (pp. 111–112). Engagingly written and based on extensive research, Prusa develops his arguments with admirable clarity.”

The lecture was attended by students from the media class and other students from other courses as the talk was open to all. In the talk Professor Prusa explained how the media can work to maximise or minimise scandals in Japan depending on the situation and type of scandal. He gave multiple examples of these and also showed how those who commit the scandals have to do a type of contrition performance and the extent to which this is done and received by the public determines how long the transgressor is kept away from the public eye and their old position. Again multiple examples were given showing a range of these outcomes. The session closed with a lively quest and answer session with the students and Professor Prusa. Overall the students gained a good understanding of these topics and how they play out in Japan.