was a Japanese
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
noted for his research and commentaries on
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...
.
Biography
Born in what is now part of
Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan where his father was a
soy sauce brewer, Ōya showed an early interest in social issues, and after dropping out of the
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
, he became involved in the Japan
Fabian Society (a gradualist Socialist group). He was also active as a literary essayist and founded the Mass Communication Juku (マスコミ塾, literally the "Mass Communication Workshop"). His legacy includes the
Oya Soichi Nonfiction Award, which recognizes the contributions of young journalists, and the
Ōya Sōichi Library, a library that is the major archive in Japan collecting popular publications that most institutions ignore. Most of his literary works are included in the ''Ōya Sōichi Zenshū'' (大宅壮一全集) published by Sōyōsha (蒼洋社). He was praised "as an iconoclast and hailed for the 'heckling spirit' he had cultivated throughout his career," but he has also been criticized for his critical attitude towards
new religions.
Notes
External links
Ōya Sōichi Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oya, Soichi
1900 births
1970 deaths
People from Takatsuki, Osaka
Japanese journalists
Japanese non-fiction writers
Social critics
20th-century journalists