Global fans of Japanese popular culture are changing universities, giving rise to new curricula and pedagogies and raising new legal and ethical issues for educators. Popular culture is among the main reasons why generations who have come of age since the 1990s are taking Japanese language and culture courses. Students use their knowledge to pursue careers in fields as diverse as education, business, law, psychology, and art. Popular culture has shaped Japan’s international image and created an explosion of cultural influence and hybrid creativity. At the same time, it has made inevitable the use of illegal materials in the classroom. 

Drawing on her experiences editing the textbook Introducing Japanese Popular Culture and teaching Japanese popular culture in the US and Japan, Alisa Freedman give a Wine Chat on “Anime Academy: How Fans Have Changed Universities” on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at Capitello Wines. Freedman will suggest strategies for applying student engagement with popular culture to help analyze how trends reveal the values of the societies that produce and consume them. An important lesson is to make students aware of how they access popular culture and are facilitating its globalization, often in unintended and legally challenging ways. Freedman will address these important questions: How does popular culture provide a means for discussing topics about society, economics, politics, and identity that are otherwise difficult to approach and depoliticize problems? How can we promote cultural literacy while avoiding cultural essentialism? How is Japanese popular culture both “national” and “global”? How can educators encourage the creation of new content within legal confines? Are there any negative effects of regarding Japan as the “capital of cool”? 

Alisa Freedman is a professor of Japanese literature, popular culture, and gender at the University of Oregon. She is author of Women in Japanese Studies: Memoirs from a Trailblazing Generation (2023), Japan on American TV: Screaming Samurai Join Anime Clubs in the Land of the Lost (2021), and Tokyo in Transit: Japanese Culture on the Rails and Road (2010) 

The Wine Chat is free and open to the public. Beverages are available for purchase, and a food cart is on the premises of Capitello Wines. There is ample parking at Banner Bank across the street.