The Futuristic Imagination Sprawl: Charting Concepts vs. Social Realities

Abstract

This introductory article provides the theoretical framing for the Japanese Studies special issue, ‘Japanese Technofutures – Imaginaries, Narratives, Social Realities’. The contributions focus on Japan as a primary site for technofuturistic imaginations, driven by both external techno-orientalist attributions and deeply internalized self-conceptualizations. Yet, these technological promises frequently present a paradox: they commodify the future while masking persistent social and structural inequalities in the present. Acknowledging that both area studies and science and technology studies (STS) discursively construct their respective subjects, this introduction bridges the two fields by charting the conceptual landscape of the ‘futuristic imagination sprawl’. It demonstrates that differentiating Sheila Jasanoff’s sociotechnical imaginaries from adjacent concepts enriches our investigation of future-oriented imaginations with greater clarity and precision. Grounded in this framework, the special issue’s case studies examine how Japanese technofutures are envisioned, institutionalized, translated, and contested from the 1960s to the present.