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Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- 1: Introduction: The Japanese Robot and Performance -- Japanese Culture and the Robot -- Defining the Robot -- The History of the Japanese Performing Robot -- Japanese Modernity and Technology -- Theatre and Performance Concepts Through Japanese Culture -- Performativity and Geinoh -- The Performing Object and Staging -- Double Vision -- Participatory Spectatorship -- In This Book -- Notes -- References -- 2: Robotics and Representation -- Japanese Humanoid Research -- Japanese Robotics and Manga/Anime Culture -- Astro Boy Syndrome -- The Presence of the Japanese Humanoid -- Notes -- References -- 3: Futuristic Spectacle: Robot Performances at Expos -- Robot Spectacle at the Japan World Expo, 1970 -- Celebrating Japan´s Robots: The Tsukuba Exposition, 1985 -- Nature and Technology: Garden and Greenery Exposition, Osaka, 1990 -- Integration and Fantasy: Expo 2005 in Aichi -- Cultural Essentialism and Dramaturgy: In Tokyo and on the Australian Tour, 2007 -- Notes -- References -- 4: The Anthropomorphic Robot and Artistic Expression -- Oriza Hirata´s Robot Theatre -- The Failure of Sayonara -- Hiroshi Ishiguro´s Android Experiments -- Cultural Affordance and Preconceived Outcomes -- Robots and Disillusionment -- Notes -- References -- 5: Robots, Space, and Place -- Giant Robot Statues -- Dreams of a Giant Robot -- Robot Restaurant -- Notes -- References -- 6: Hatsune Miku, Virtual Machine-Woman -- The Development of Hatsune Miku -- Japanese Fanzine Culture and Otaku -- Lolicon Manga and Otaku Desire -- Critique of the Otaku Imagination -- Kawaii and Female Idols -- Circuits of Signification: Otaku Sexuality -- Notes -- References -- 7: Competition Robots: Empathy and Identification -- Robot Contests -- Robo-One -- The Puppet, the Puppeteer, and the Spectator -- Robots as Mediators

The term, otaku, which addresses varied fandom-related activities, is a buzzword in discussions of Japanese popular culture. This article addresses the most controversial aspect of otaku practice: the stereotypical male otaku's admiration for, and investment in, cartoon images of young girl characters. While this practice has been discussed in terms of the notions of perversion and of queerness, I see this otaku practice not in terms of a sexual politics, but as operating through a highly culturally-specific tradition that understands signs in embodied terms. I consider how Japanese traditions of somatic and material conditioning relate to and assist to explain this practice. I propose the concept of 'performance' as a profound process for making social meaning, and the key term with which to understand the Japanese engagement with artefacts, in contrast to an idea of performance as essentially false, and to do with mere appearance. The article illustrates how an exchange between the male otaku's coded gesturing and his embodied relations with the young girl cartoon image is derived from traditional concepts. The 'radicality' of the otaku's 'perversity' lies in its aberrant construction of intersubjective communication through a cultural habitus that is extended to the Internet, merging the subject and the object of desire.