Japan's Empire of Cool

The Wicked Priest writes "The Washington Post is reporting that culture is among Japan's leading exports." Talks about Anime, Manga, Music, Video Games and so forth. Interesting reading.

Comments

Cultural Symbols vs. Culture

[P!Alexander]

I think it's important to note that cultural symbols are not akin to culture itself. Japan can export all the anime it likes but that isn't representative of it's entire culture nor will it affect other cultures enough to make them resemble Japanese culture in something other than a superficial way. For example, Japanese corporate structure and the loyalty given to your company (a structural phenomenon) is unlikely to get passed along through its cultural symbols. Just like American structural phenomenon are unlikely to get passed along through our blockbuster movie exports.

In the end, reality is highly individualized and rarely is a culture made up solely of a selective portion of its symbols.

Yeah, that's interesting until you consider...

[HunterZero]

That since Japan opened itself up to the west it's been a maniac for other cultures. With the exception of the years before and during ww2, Japan has long been a rabid consumer for American culture, along with european culture.

Just take a walk throughout Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno or Akihabara. You'll find a massive number of japanese teenagers (and adults) wearing shirts with "engrish" on them. Music is often sprinkled with a hearty dose of engrish as well. Try watching their TV programs sometime, you'll find plenty of american culture. Of course, they like to take it and modify it to their own means and that's exactly what Japan has been doing forever.

This brings up an interesting question: Why are the Japanese so keen to take, modify and integrate other cultures to suit their needs, yet they're still incredibly racist of other cultures? If you doubt their racism, ask why they still have stores and places of business that advertise "Japanese Only"? Of course, for Americans it is a bit hard to understand the concept of being a distinct civilization since we've long been a melting pot, a nation made up of other nations.

But I'm getting off the point. This article is nothing new. The reason why collectables are so expensive overseas is that it's so damned expensive in Japan! Whenever you feel like complaining about the price of dvds, remember that they charge around 40-60$ per dvd, and usually it has half as much as a dvd here in America.

Re:Yeah, that's interesting until you consider...

[BlueQuark]

Funny thing, when I lived and worked in Japan, I never felt out of place and the people I worked with, almost all Japanese at Japanese company, never made me feel like an outcast, I was always involved and invited and not as a token gaijin or anything.

My wife is Japanese and when we go back to her parents house, I feel more at home in Japan than I do here in Los Angeles, CA. And I'm a white guy with blond hair!

But some of the foreigner's I worked with did feel out of place and had a few problems. But to be honest, I never experienced it.

I think alot has to do with attitude and pre-conceived notions about things. But with all things your mileage may vary..

And no I don't think Japan is perfect, it has a ton of problems. Expensive yes, but I found that Japanese produce is fresher, tastes better and looks better. Housing is expensive, but have you tried to buy a house in LA, or SF lately? A Japanese mortgage through a private lender will run you about 1.8 - 2.7% (depending on who you go to) ((4.5 if you go the govt.

Most companies pay for you're daily commuter fee if you take the bus, subway or train.

And personal income taxes are alot less for people making under 150k a year, than it is in the US. But if you make more than that you will get soaked more so than in the US.

But with all things....

I talked to an exchange student from Japan...

[grungebox]

recently at this party I was at. Apparently, he says Japanese don't look down on Americans like Europeans do (admittedly with reasonable justification). He said Hollywood movies are huge over there as an earlier post mentioned, and the stars are on posters all over the place. For some reason, Brad Pitt is hot right now.

Although the one interesting bit of Japanese culture that's taking over like crazy is manga. If you look at Border's or Barnes, you'll see five or six shelves of Manga, and American comics have been pushed into one small shelf at the end. It's apparently the "in" thing for youngsters, much like Fear Street books were the "in" thing back when I was in school.

Food for thought...

Like this?

[herrvinny]

The significance of anime

Anime And The Tech Lifestyle

Movie Review: Princess Mononoke

An Extensive History of Anime

This story is not exactly a dupe, but much of it is discussed in these earlier topics.

OT, but has anyone had any success in loading /.'s search function? It always times out on me for the past two weeks or so, and I have to keep resorting to using Google search (which is not really a hardship, since Google beats out /.'s search function easily, but still, I'd like to at least access it.)

Re:The U.S. is a major exporter of culture as well

[BroncoInCalifornia]

Food used to be most of the economic output. Then we got good at mass producing food.

We had the industrial revolution. Most of the economy went to the manufacture and distribution of manufactured goods. Food became a small percentage of the total economic output.

Now we are very very good at manufacturing stuff. Everything is so cheap now. TVs are cheap. Computers are cheap. Not long ago it was a big deal to buy these mass produced toys. Now they are impulse buy. For a while Japan led the world in this manufacturing revolution.

Are we getting to a point where manufactured goods are not so imporant anymore. Perhaps manufactured goods are becoming a smaller part of the world economy. "Cultural" products are becoming more important and now onece again we are competing with the Japanise.