Cool Japan

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Cool Japan is a word created by the American journalist Douglas McGray , which nowadays often refers to the successful Japanese popular culture , especially J-Pop . Since the term was first coined in May / June 2002 in the article Japan's Gross National Cool , as a reaction to the “ Cool Britannia ” concept, this media term has been used again and again by other authors, and finally even by the Japanese side To describe the emergence of a new, positive image of Japan.

background

Although Japan faced economic difficulties and political problems in the so-called "lost decade" of the 1990s and had to cope with two national shock experiences ( Ōmu Shinrikyō attack and Kobe earthquake ) in 1995 , the Japanese entertainment and creative industries have been able to do so since the middle of the International marketing successes to a large extent in the 1990s.

Japanese comics , cartoons , video games and accompanying merchandising have enjoyed worldwide success since the 1990s. These successes were recorded both in economic terms and in symbolic capital, the nation branding . In connection with this international advance, other cultures were influenced by the so-called "J-Lifestyle", which includes J-Pop , Manga , Anime and Cosplay, as well as products such as Robopets (e.g. Aibo ), Sudoku , J-literature and video games and Dorama belong.

McGray's word creation is increasingly used today within scientific analyzes of Japanese popular culture, such as those carried out by Kōichi Iwabuchi and Anne Allison , among others . J-Pop was also instrumentalized relatively early in the political arena. A prominent statement about J-Pop as a prestigious export good and as a medium of cultural diplomacy was made by the former Foreign Minister Tarō Asō in April 2006. In his speech at the "Digital Hollywood University" in Akihabara ( Tokyo ), the politician encouraged representatives of the Japanese creative industry to make a sustainable contribution to cultural diplomacy in their field.

Use in Japan

After “Cool Japan” had established itself in Western comments on the successes of the Japanese entertainment industry, the slogan was also used as a predicate by the Japanese . So were considered cultural politicians in 2005, a generation of followers of Japanese with the help of this concept worldwide animated films to be used. The “discussion group on the promotion of cultural diplomacy” ( bunka gaikō no suishin ni kan suru kondankai ) presented a report to Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi on July 11, 2005 (“For the establishment of a peace state of cultural exchange in Japan”).

criticism

Although the state side is happy about an image gain and relies on the slogan, there are also critical voices from political and intellectual circles about the use of "Cool Japan" in this context. There was often talk of a controlled campaign, which in retrospect does not appear as a targeted, bundled or state-controlled offensive, especially since Japan has in recent years mainly presented the image of a system unwilling to reform. Other analyzes went so far that "Cool Japan" is not real Japan, but a "fictional vanishing point".

It is also contradictory that Japan should be “cool” at the same time, but that growing social coldness (“Japanese precariat ”), psychological deformation (such as the phenomena otaku , Hikikomori , Freeter , NEETs ), hopelessness and disorientation appeared in the 1990s .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Douglas McGray : Japan's Gross National Cool . In: Foreign Policy . May / June, 2002 ( douglasmcgray.com [accessed August 10, 2014]). www.douglasmcgray.com ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.douglasmcgray.com
  2. ↑ a b Hiroki Azuma : ク ー ル ・ ジ ャ パ ン は ク ー ル で は な い . (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 10, 2008 ; Retrieved April 4, 2008 (Japanese, "Cool Japan is not cool"). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / plaza.bunka.go.jp
  3. ↑ "Cool" Japan: The economy is picking up momentum. (PDF) Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO): Economic Research Department, March 2005, accessed April 7, 2008 .
  4. ^ A New Look at Cultural Diplomacy: A Call to Japan's Cultural Practitioners. April 28, 2006, accessed April 14, 2008 .
  5. ^ Christian Oberländer: Otaku. Rise and internationalization of a mass phenomenon in Japan . In: mass people. The "we" - linguistically asserted, aesthetically staged . Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2006, ISBN 3-89812-394-4 , p. 99-113 .
  6. ^ Anne Allison: Millennial Monsters. Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination . University of California Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 0-520-22148-6 .
  7. ↑ Michael Zielenziger: Shutting Out the Sun. How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation . Random House, New York 2006.
  8. ↑ Climate theory of Japanese culture in FAZ of December 17, 2014, page N3

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