Japan’s Culture Industries: Cool or Cruel?

By Asia Pacific Memo on May 1, 2012

Memo #152

By Philip Seaton – seaton [at] imc.hokudai.ac.jp

The world loves sushi, J-pop, and manga. Now the Japanese government is in on the act. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has a Cool Japan / Creative Industries Policy, and in January 2012 launched Cool Japan Daily, a blog introducing Japanese pop culture. Behind all this are ambitious plans to increase Japan’s share of the global market for culture industries. It tends to be uncritically assumed that pop culture will enhance the Japanese national image, too. The current popularity of music groups such as AKB48 outside Japan indicates the potentially lucrative and beneficial aspects of pop culture promotionalism. But evidence from some international media suggests the need for caution.

A study of images of Japan on the BBC provides a sobering counter-perspective to METI’s heady promotionalism. For the BBC, “Cool Japan” is a phenomenon to be reported more than a cultural value system to be embraced. Up until 2008, the BBC typically introduced manga as frequently containing explicit sex and violence. By 2009 the BBC had dropped this standard line, and interestingly began portraying manga almost as high art form – a descendent of ukiyoe (woodblock prints) and offshoot of traditional culture.

But the old images die hard. Combined with the BBC’s reporting on Japanese cinema, a second phenomenon emerges: “cruel Japan,” a country that does a particularly “good” job of extreme cinema and sadistic pornography. There is a “cruel is cool” subculture, but when the BBC states, “Japanese audiences find extreme screen violence more acceptable than many other cultures,” this is not meant as a compliment.

Using pop culture for national promotion may be high gain, but it is also high risk. Definitions of “cool” vary, and as the BBC demonstrates, elements of “cool Japan” may even evoke distinctly negative images abroad. By contrast, geographical images like Mount Fuji or traditional images such as women in kimono are broadly accepted as non-offensive, enduring elements of Japan’s national image.

In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair’s “cool Britannia” strategy quickly became clichéd, and the current strategy is “Great” Britain. Will the “cool Japan” fad go a similar way?

About the Author:

Philip Seaton – Associate Professor in the Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University.

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