Return of the foreign devil : the construction of AIDS discourse in contemporary Japan

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to link the two AIDS memorial quilts, Japan's first AIDS Memorial Message Quilt and a second quilt marked only by the initials of an anonymous husband and wife, with the comments of Japanese critics of the 10th International Conference on AIDS and STD , held in Yokohama in August 1994. Through the re-deployment of specific examples of the contemporary packaging and circulation of AIDS discourses in Japan, Professor Buckley seeks to develop the context of production for both the silence of the white space of the two AIDS memorial quilts and the static of media coverage of criticism of the AIDS conference in Yokohama.