The Transformative Power of Subversive Subcultures in Shibuya Through Jet Set Radio and NEO: The World Ends With You's Interactive Metaspaces

This paper examines how two video games set in Tokyo's Shibuya district, Jet Set Radio (2000) and NEO: The World Ends with You (2021), reproduce and reinterpret the relationship between youth identity and urban space. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's theory of socially produced space, the author develops the concept of "Interactive Metaspaces" to analyze how these games engage with the district's spatial practices, representations of space, and lived representational space. The central argument is that both titles reflect Shibuya's long-standing connection between youth subcultures and the city, while presenting differing attitudes toward how young people claim and express themselves within it.

The analysis traces Shibuya's history of youth spatial production through three interrelated trends. Youth fashion cultures took shape in Harajuku from the 1950s and spread to Shibuya by the 1980s. The district's underground music scene, including the Shibuya-kei movement and the growth of record stores, reinforced these fashion practices. Subcultures such as gyaru and graffiti, the latter emerging in nearby Shimokitazawa in the 1990s, further tied youth identity to notions of rebellion and "delinquent" behavior. The paper also notes that businesses have courted these subcultures commercially, even as authorities seek to regulate public space.

Regarding the games themselves, the author identifies a philosophical divide. Jet Set Radio frames graffiti, pirate radio, and illegal skating as explicitly anti-establishment acts through which youth gangs claim territory. NEO: The World Ends with You instead presents consumption as a form of self-expression enabled by Shibuya's commercial environment, emphasizing connection with others as a means of claiming space. The author suggests these contrasting portrayals may reflect shifts in youth attitudes across the 20-year gap between releases. The study's evidence rests primarily on close textual analysis of the games and a review of secondary scholarship on Shibuya and Tokyo youth culture.