perhaps the fever dream is ending and a less sparkly, more brutal, more self assured Japan is stirring.

Well, it is genuinely refreshing to hear you talk about 'reclaiming the magic'! Personally, I don't care that Shibuya-kei is dead, it had its five years, time to go. I don't care that my favourite Tokyo cafe (Scala-Za) got demolished. It was just a building with ivy on it, why get attached to physical things? The sensibility will re-appear somewhere else. I don't even care that I did an interview last night with a local paper with a journalist who had no idea who I was... who I used to be in the 90s. And I don't care whether girls are wearing new clothes or secondhand clothes, whether they have less disposable income or more. China grew by more than 9% last year, those who want glitz and money and consumerism should go to Shanghai.

This morning I saw the coolest thing, an old man jogging. He must've been over 75, he looked like a wizened old monkey. The sidewalk with white with packed snow, and against it his clothes looked great: orange top, sky blue tracksuit pants, a gnome hat and a white mouth cover. Over his eyes he wore a transparent perspex scuba visor. I wanted to photograph him, but he zipped by too fast even for my new Sony Cybershot M1 (hey, if we're talking exciting technology, it's still around! MPEG4 video straight to the hard disk). Maybe it's time, in Japan, for very old people to be very cool. And for poverty to be cool. And yes, for bathing collectively with red-nosed monkeys in volcanic hot springs, and worshipping no god, and invading no foreign nations, and all that other good stuff.

Plus, I have to add that this Future University place is a million times cooler than any university I've seen in the west. I just love being here in my office! Who in the West would have given me this place to potter around, recording sounds? Who in the West would have built such an excellently cool minimalist building and created stuff like this Media Architecture Department I'm working in? This place alone is cooler than a thousand Neil and Iraiza records (sorry, never cared for them).

and shabby is better than sparkly in any light.

So, "my culture" is in decline, and I have spun that into a tale of Japan in decline. I admit this.

"your culture"? My take on this is that the local culture you like is an artifact of the Bubble. In that sense you are joining the mass mourning of the Bubble which seems to be still taking place all over the nation.

However, if you are reading this blog, this is all your culture too.

Not me. I dont actually like most of the music you talk about and knew almost nothing of it besides a few P5 songs. Lots of the youth culture here from the Bubble and afterwards looks derivative and dull to me. Fact is I'm a middle aged punk who ended up as a salaryman (que "Death or Glory" by The Clash). My only connection to the glory years of the Bubble and all the imported/distorted culture it created was marrying a woman who came of age back then.

I may not be in decline, but upper-middle, interesting Japanese popular culture is. We can either ignore it or get down to the bottom of the problem.

I dont think its a problem at all. I think cultural vitality is cyclical and can not be kick started or re-ignited by Standing Order #2056-3/B of The Ministry of Cool. Fact is that the extreme economic distortion created by the Bubble and the very long period of decline and mini recoveries which have followed have left alot of the nation in a state of shock which doesnt leave lots of room for frivolity. The upper-middle are right now more worried about keeping hold of their status quo than innovating culturally. Pity the people who bought land or mansions at 5X the current value yet are still paying off 30 year mortages and facing the threat of resutora.

I really dont see that Japan is in such a state of decline as to foster the growth of a genuine underground either. Heck most of the EU is facing worse unemployment than we are here. Things are just chuto-hampa and will probably stay that way for a while.

Chris_B wrote: Fact is I'm a middle aged punk who ended up as a salaryman

Another anthem for you Chris_B:

http://www.paradise-engineering.com/quotation/modelworker-magazine.mp3

Yes, never mind Neil and Iraiza, here's Devoto, Adamson, Formula and McGough!

Here's what Metropolis magazine (the American design mag, not the Tokyo one) has to say about China's development:

'The issue of historic preservation is only one of a legion of problems raised by China’s breakneck urban development. The Loeb Fellows whom Wood was showing around had just finished a two-week tour of China, and much of what they saw had horrified them: repetitive, aesthetically numbing megadevelopments; an utter lack of attention to the relation between structures or to integrating residential with industrial, service, or other functions; madly wasteful energy use; runaway growth of private cars and failing public transport; and development proceeding faster than governments could plan for it. “What upsets me,” one of the fellows said, “is that they took all of these things that by the late eighties everyone in the world knew just absolutely do not work, and they went right ahead and did them.”

http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=1117

If bad stuff like that happens when your economy speeds up, maybe good stuff happens when it slows down, ne? All this Slow Life stuff may well be the antidote, and Japan may now want to strike a self-consciously 'civilised' pose in the face of China's materialism. Quality of life and cultural issues will become increasingly important.

Momus wrote:

I don't care that Shibuya-kei is dead, it had its five years, time to go.

I agree completely, but I do want something as sophisticated as Shibuya-kei to replace it. Shibuya-kei did a lot to reallocate financial resources towards more creator-oriented artists. As much as we'd like to think otherwise, capital pushes innovation. The Beatles were the only band in '67 with the clout and funds to create something like "A Day in the Life." Technology has helped level this playing field, but we now miss the taste run-off that Shibuya-kei provided. There are less spaces designed by and for upper-middle culture individuals because they are no longer receiving the funds from the lower middle mass to invest in their projects.

those who want glitz and money and consumerism should go to Shanghai.

No, you're missing the point. Japan was like that in the Bubble and awful. Japan reached possible utopia-territory in the 90s when a group of urbanites took over the culture and made sophisticated foreign items into mass-consumer products. I don't care about the glitz: I liked that they would have one-week long Wong Kar-Wai festivals at mainstream theatres in Ginza. Or that a intellectual folk singer from Scotland would get to write ironic #1 hits.

Plus, I have to add that this Future University place is a million times cooler than any university I've seen in the west.

If you were a product of the American university system you would not have made this statement. I don't know about the UNK, but there are third-rate universities in third-rate American states that have more money and better facilities than Future Univ. just judging from the pics.

Who in the West would have given me this place to potter around, recording sounds?

I'd like to hear from Duckworth on this one but I have a feeling that the experimental music departments of American universities are vastly superior.

I'm not try to knock FU, but your statements don't hold up.

why get attached to physical things?

I'm not: I'm attached to the spirit of Japanese mass indie culture in the 90s.

And then Chris B. wrote:

My take on this is that the local culture you like is an artifact of the Bubble.

That's an interesting idea - that I liked what was essentially a temporary blip in the Japanese cultural stream, not an integral part of Japanese culture itself. This may be true, but I think it's important to say this seeing that most people attribute all of this Cultural Bubble culture to Japan and not the Bubble itself.

Not me. I dont actually like most of the music you talk about and knew almost nothing of it besides a few P5 songs.

Yes, I understand that. But I think we all like literate, smart culture and I think the mass-embrace of intelligent culture in Japan is declining even faster than that of America.

I think cultural vitality is cyclical

This is the mythic, spirtual view: that somehow cultural genius descends from the heavens at random points in time. The semi-Marxist view is that culture is the product of its production process and environment, and the changed in the market determine the cultural flow. If this is true, things look bad for the future mass embrace of upper-middle culture in Japan.

Things are just chuto-hampa and will probably stay that way for a while.

This is the worst possible condition, since people will neither abandon what they're doing nor be tempted to work harder on what they're doing.

If bad stuff like that happens when your economy speeds up, maybe good stuff happens when it slows down, ne? All this Slow Life stuff may well be the antidote, and Japan may now want to strike a self-consciously 'civilised' pose in the face of China's materialism. Quality of life and cultural issues will become increasingly important.

Momus, you've just hit the main point of most revisionist arguments against Japan: If Japan clearly is not going to have a high-growth economy, why don't they start allocating resources towards QoL and culture?

They just don't. The whole economy is based on industrial growth and consumer fads. If they did what you are saying they should do, I wouldn't have to write as much as I do.

While your blog is ostensibly about pop culture, you tend to focus mostly on music, I notice. No beef with that...work with what you know, right?

But might the legacy of thos folks from the Shibuya-kei mid-90's be turning up more in the film industry in Japan now? Rather than picking up a guitar or sitting down in front of a piano, it seems the more "literate, creative types" are picking up a DV camcorder or sitting down in front of iMovie.

During the mid-90's, I remember tons of interesting music coming out of Japan, but nearly no movies worth mentioning. Now any film buff worth their salt anywhere in the world is already into the innovative movies that Japan is producing. The instrinsic value of something like "Juon", "Ringu", or "Hanabi" is perhaps arguable, but they certainly are unlike anything being produced anywhere else, or at least they put totally new twists on established genres.

Maybe it's just me. Selective memory? Something. But now when I go to Japan, I'm more interested in seeing what movie is playing where, rather than who's playing in what club.

The instrinsic value of something like "Juon", "Ringu", or "Hanabi" is perhaps arguable, but they certainly are unlike anything being produced anywhere else, or at least they put totally new twists on established genres.

I think Hanabi editing was very interesting, but it seems that the only Japanese films that accrue acclaim these days are mildly-innovative horror movies. The two hot Japanese directors seem to be Kiyoshi Kurokawa and Takashi Miike. I probably need to see their movies, but I don't get a sense that they are revitalizing youth culture per se.

Music has traditionally been the realm where young people can become leaders and innovators, and now it seems that computer science is taking that over. The dropouts of the 50s seized cultural power from the right-track squares by making rock'n'roll become the most important plane of social existence. Now, the nerds of the 80s and 90s are taking over the world from the snobs of rock elitism.

I like music and I don't want to see myself abandon it, but I also am very open to idea of jumping ship to more innovative territory. The symbols of electronic music aren't as meaningful to me as those of pop melody, but I do greatly respect those pushing the boundaries.

what the hell is "the spirit of mass indie culture"?!?

I would agree with your point about the move from the guitar to the keyboard, but isn't it just another example of the proliferation of new media? 20 (heck, 10) years ago, you didn't have blogs or easy movie editing tools, etc. You picked up a Casio or a Gibson and went to work.

Now you have kids coding web sites and games and stuff from an early age or using their parents camcorder to shoot home movies and editing them on the family iMac or whatever. The focus or emphasis on music as a form of self-expression, a creative outlet, a method of rebellion, what-have-you has been diluted by the internet, video games, movies, etc.

I'd say that while focussing on one genre or media is certainly fine, I'd hesitate before bemoaning the downfall of the culture without investigating other areas. Sure, maybe there are no interesting musical releases, but what's to say the film industry isn't rampant with creativity? Or video games? Or manga/anime? If you want to ring the death knell of pop culture, you have to include more than just music.

Hmmm, Marxy, you and Momus are both making some good points. I think that the theory at the crux of this issue, to me, as a neocontemporary feminist anti-Derridian, is best expressed by Adorno and Horkheimer,

"Marxy is a cranky old man. 'These damn Japanese kids these days! I do not understand their damnable music,' is how Marxy sounds." (Adorno & Horkheimer, Descent of Common Pluralities, 34)

Quoth Marxy: As much as we'd like to think otherwise, capital pushes innovation...

I really, really disagree on this point. Robbie Williams got £80 pounds to make a new album, you and me and Robert got nothing. Is Robbie's new album more innovative than ours? HELL NO.

Quoth Brad: what's to say the film industry isn't rampant with creativity? Or video games? Or manga/anime?

The thing that stops Marxy considering these points is that his mind is already made up. He has a thesis, that Japan is in terminal cultural decline, and he's going to stick to it. Which is what makes it so much fun to debate him. Just how stubbornly is he going to cling to his gloomy thesis, despite all evidence to the contrary? How many new 'portents of doom' can he find daily?

(Of course I meant that Robbie Williams got £80 million.)

Marxy said (in response to my previous comment): This is the mythic, spirtual view: that somehow cultural genius descends from the heavens at random points in time. The semi-Marxist view is that culture is the product of its production process and environment, and the changed in the market determine the cultural flow. If this is true, things look bad for the future mass embrace of upper-middle culture in Japan.

I'm not trying to advocate any mysticism at all. I'm not educated enough to cite sources, or even know what to call it, but I am of the opinion that there is some kind of relationship between cycles of economic activity and creative activity. The highs and lows seem to have correspondance (but I dont know about causality). There are obvious exceptions, but it seems that we both agree that not alot of good is likely to come out of a chuto-hampa market.

Brad wrote: I'd say that while focussing on one genre or media is certainly fine, I'd hesitate before bemoaning the downfall of the culture without investigating other areas. Sure, maybe there are no interesting musical releases, but what's to say the film industry isn't rampant with creativity? Or video games? Or manga/anime? If you want to ring the death knell of pop culture, you have to include more than just music.

I cant speak for marxy but I see the same problems in almost all pop culture media output here. There are well known and well documented problems with domestic film & tv production and even though manga/anime is enjoying an export boom right now, I'm betting on a cool out on that market within two years. I've never seen detailed income breakouts from any of the publishing houses here, but I kind of doubt they really derive lots of income from overseas royalties with the possible exception of Nintendo's earnings on the Pokemon franchise.

As for video games, well besides prettier graphics, the rules of the genres solidified 25 years ago. SCEI may be providing the bulk of the Sony group's domestic profit right now, but their numbers are trending downwards. Nintendo just reported lower numbers and MS is not talking numbers in Japan. Xbox is more of a market distortion than a market force. Other giants of yesteryear like Sega & NEC arent even in the game any more so to speak. What does it say when Square & Enix have to merge and still cant publish anything better than Final Dragon Fantasy XXII Gaiden? Again, I'm not playing taps on the trumpet, but I'm not blowing any boogie woogie either.

momus speculated: Japan may now want to strike a self-consciously 'civilised' pose in the face of China's materialism.

Wow momus, you really really surprised me with that one. I just cant see any east asian nation changing their ways and going agianst a thousand years of behavioral history.

momus also stated: Robbie Williams got £80(M understood) pounds to make a new album, you and me and Robert got nothing. Is Robbie's new album more innovative than ours? HELL NO.

Having no real idea who Robbie Williams is and not having heard much of yours, marxy's or Robert's cept what might be available online, I cant firmly agree or disagree by first hand experience. Google tells me that Robbie Williams is a pop star so I'm inclined to agree with you. The only thing I'd add is that £80M buys alot of neat gear and studio time. Whereas that would never turn a pap star into a lasting icon of pop, it sure as heck could give any of you three (or me for that matter) alot of time and room to explore sounds and production forms. I wouldnt turn it down, would you?

FWIW I still have some music and videos available off superfami.com

what the hell is "the spirit of mass indie culture"?!?

The utopian idea that the lower middle mass would embrace essentially elite underground products.

Now you have kids coding web sites and games and stuff from an early age or using their parents camcorder to shoot home movies and editing them on the family iMac or whatever

Yes, they are making movies but none of them have become pop culture phenomena yet. But look at Flash animation with Homestar Runner and Mumbleboy - those guys have huge audiences for a very new art form.

"Marxy is a cranky old man. 'These damn Japanese kids these days! I do not understand their damnable music,' is how Marxy sounds." (Adorno & Horkheimer, Descent of Common Pluralities, 34)

What Adorno and Horkheimer didn't get was that I do "understand" the music of the kids these days, I just think it's bad.

I really, really disagree on this point. Robbie Williams got £80 pounds to make a new album, you and me and Robert got nothing. Is Robbie's new album more innovative than ours? HELL NO.

The whole experiment hinged on Robbie Williams and he failed! I guess you're right about everything, and I am sadly wrong.

The thing that stops Marxy considering these points is that his mind is already made up. He has a thesis, that Japan is in terminal cultural decline, and he's going to stick to it. Which is what makes it so much fun to debate him. Just how stubbornly is he going to cling to his gloomy thesis, despite all evidence to the contrary? How many new 'portents of doom' can he find daily?

Let's rewrite this for fun:

The thing that stops Momus considering these points is that his mind is already made up. He has a thesis, that Japan is an anti-Platonic utopia, and he's going to stick to it. Which is what makes it so much fun to debate him. Just how stubbornly is he going to cling to his optimistic thesis, despite all evidence to the contrary? How many new superficial 'pieces of evidence' can he find daily?

I am of the opinion that there is some kind of relationship between cycles of economic activity and creative activity.

Me too and there's no decided reason that things should work on a decided cycle. Japan's economy will most likely be in a permanent rut for the next 10 to 20 years (at least there is a very high chance of this), and if things decline as slowly as they are declining, the culture markets will not be reformed but just slowly thaw out.

And why is the problem in Japanese culture not one of exhaustion with certain media?

1) The fact that the Japanese have no concept of creator-oriented high art besides the one they imported from the West and use only with high art. (More on this tomorrow in a new essay.)

2) The fact that there is no legal protection against payola which gives large labels and companies the most access to the distribution network - both physical distro and information distro. In America and the West, we have a huge network for indie stores and indie magazines that keeps new releases at people's doorstep. In Japan, these distribution structures were cursory at best and shrinking. It's not just who's making the culture, but how it gets to the consumer.

The fact that there is no legal protection against payola which gives large labels and companies the most access to the distribution network - both physical distro and information distro. In America and the West, we have a huge network for indie stores and indie magazines that keeps new releases at people's doorstep. In Japan, these distribution structures were cursory at best and shrinking. It's not just who's making the culture, but how it gets to the consumer.

There is massive payola in the West (US radio, Clear Channel, etc), media companies are merging into ever-bigger monolithts, taking over distribution, etc. The Guardian reports high level lobbying by Rupert Murdoch to buy UK Channel 5, for instance, here:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/0,9054,442882,00.html

(legal anti-monopoly measures are being overturned by new legislation).

As for the indie stores and indie mags in the west being so great, why is it that Japanese Tower has many more indie releases than US Tower? The same with Japanese HMV versus British HMV. And Japan is full of indie stores with extremely eclectic selections. There are mags like After Hours and OK Fred which I consider far in advance, tastewise, of their western counterparts. And the US avant indie scene is currently very much in thrall, creatively, to groups like The Boredoms and the Japanoise crew. (Sorry, not Neil and Iraiza.)

This is yet another example of the way your failure to document the failings of the West undermines your valid points about the failings of Japan.

There is massive payola in the West (US radio, Clear Channel, etc), media companies are merging into ever-bigger monolithts, taking over distribution, etc.

Yeah, and it's a problem. But it's one that well-minded indie people are trying to find solutions for and fight against. We have a tradition ingrained to stay alive whether or not the major labels collude against us.

In Japan, there has always been payola and collusion and no one cares. There is no system to fight it or go around it. The big indie magazines here essentially play the same game. (Beikoku is different, but not publishing regularly unfortunately.) OK Fred is great, and it'll be interesting to see where they go. After Hours acts too much like a consumer guide when we need it to be more.

And Japan is full of indie stores with extremely eclectic selections. There are mags like After Hours and OK Fred which I consider far in advance, tastewise, of their western counterparts.

Yes, and those magazines and their ilk have way less readership than 5 years ago. And even though the "indie" sections increase in Japanese HMV or Tower, their conception of indies and yours are totally different. The majority of Japanese indies is now punk or rock that aspires to be major label Jpop. Meanwhile, yougaku-oriented indies drop off the map.

This is yet another example of the way your failure to document the failings of the West undermines your valid points about the failings of Japan.

No, the problem is that you are always comparing your well-understood version of a flawed West with a totally idealized (circa 1998) version of Japan that you refuse to think deeply about (and then take pride in your embrace of only the superficial). I'm not trying to claim that they never had a better market because they did. I'm saying that the indie market is falling apart and not being replaced by anything you or I would ever be able to like. If you want to go on about the virtues of Mongol 800, go for it.

I fully understand the flaws of the West, but I have to say, in the last two or three years I see more vitalization in the Western "alternative" market than in Japan. And when compared on just these points, I don't see that Japan's decline from a high point 6 or 7 years ago is really something to go ga-ga over, whereas at least the emergence of a new indie scene on the English-language Internet (Pitchfork, mp3 blogs, etc) seems to be vital and inclusive. It's positive growth vs. negative growth.

marxy replied: Me too and there's no decided reason that things should work on a decided cycle. Japan's economy will most likely be in a permanent rut for the next 10 to 20 years (at least there is a very high chance of this),

As long as I can stay employed that works fine for me. I still got 24 years left on my mortgage.

and if things decline as slowly as they are declining, the culture markets will not be reformed but just slowly thaw out.

This is where I think there is a problem. I disagree with the idea that the market for pop culture can be "reformed". Consumer disposables markets dont work in the same way as general industry or general market retail. What are you suggesting? Passing a law that 10% or more of all Pop Culture Product must be from "indies"? Regional banks should setup low interest loan funds for new creators?(intentional hyperbole).

It's not just who's making the culture, but how it gets to the consumer.

momus already raised some good points on this, but let me add that the means of distribution of goods and information are better now than they ever have been in Japan thanks in large part to gadget based Net access and the ease with which small business can sell through Yahoo!/Rakuten. (personal note on that, I've bought two specialty bicycles from a dealer in Hiroshima off Yahoo! Auctions. No retail dealer in Tokyo even knew of the bikes I wanted)

If you are specifically talking about boutique type retailing, remember they have to have product to sell that people want to buy in order to stay in business. In any case, just walking around Shibuya/urahara I see at least as many boutique music shops and specialized pop culture product retailers as I ever have. Thats a subjective opinion of course but its all I've got till I see stats proving me wrong. If you are referring to the distribution chain before retail, please educate us a bit more on that.

1) The fact that the Japanese have no concept of creator-oriented high art besides the one they imported from the West and use only with high art. (More on this tomorrow in a new essay.)

In the field of video games that seems to have been untrue for a decade or so, or at least started changing back then. Konami has Kojima, Nintendo has Miyamoto, Sega had (has?) Suzuki, Square had Uematsu doing highly regarded soundtrack work for the Final Fantasy series, Enix employed the character designs of Toriyama. All of these people were given better treatment than run of the mill pop stars and managed to achieve more international recognition as well. It could be that these people are given "sensei" recognition and you mean something else about creator-oriented high art than the tradtional understanding of "sensei".

momus mentioned: This is yet another example of the way your failure to document the failings of the West undermines your valid points about the failings of Japan.

Momus you raised good points. Tower Records Shibuya beats the old 4th & Broadway Tower even when it was at its peak. HMV shops I went to in London were crap. Payola is more of a problem now in the US than ever before and at least we knew it was a problem where as here its business as usual. At the risk of speaking for marxy, let me point out however that your logic fell down at the last sentance. Marxy's point remained valid valid even after the flawed comparison on payola.

I just realized. Momus is still wearing Bubble era rose colored sparkley mirror shades. That explains everything.

I disagree with the idea that the market for pop culture can be "reformed".

No, I understand this, but I do think people need to go back to the underground to reform their strategy. This sounds vague, but you have to understand that the reaction to this current malaise in the cultural world is that everyone is trying to work harder and make material way more commercial, instead of just abandoning the consumer part of the game to create art for a while.

If you are specifically talking about boutique type retailing, remember they have to have product to sell that people want to buy in order to stay in business.

My arguements are all over the place now, but essentially the boutique retail style has been drowned out by lower-middle culture start-ups masking as boutiques. I'm too jittery on cafe au lait at the moment to go further with this...

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Konami has Kojima, Nintendo has Miyamoto, Sega had (has?) Suzuki, Square had Uematsu doing highly regarded soundtrack work for the Final Fantasy series

Video games are completely user-oriented art works! No one makes a game just for themselves, devil be care if the user understands! Those guys are skilled master creators and elders, but I don't think their art is regarded as "art" in a high art sense. We may, but the industry does not.

I don't like the word "sensei" here either because it implies a nenkou jouretsu kind of social stratification that essentially says, he's talented because he's old/wise. Creator-oriented art criticism attaches value in a different way.

Payola is more of a problem now in the US than ever before and at least we knew it was a problem where as here its business as usual.

Elliot Spitzer is supposedly going to go after payola in NY. Who ever stood up to it in Japan? Or tried to find away to go around it?

marxy replied while high on caffeine: We may, but the industry does not.

Kojima is referred to/credited as "kantoku" (director), the others I cant say for sure. I guess I'll have to wait and hear what you mean with creator-oriented high art.

Picasso really should have lived here when the money was falling from the sky. If he could get suckers in the US/Europe to accept napkin doodles as payment, just think what he could have managed here!

I don't like the word "sensei" here either because it implies a nenkou jouretsu kind of social stratification that essentially says, he's talented because he's old/wise. Creator-oriented art criticism attaches value in a different way.

I'm waiting for you to clarify your terms then. Personally I have no problem with a word that accredits talent/wisdom in a creator.

Elliot Spitzer is supposedly going to go after payola in NY. Who ever stood up to it in Japan? Or tried to find away to go around it?

I call red herring on thee!

1) "business as usual" is not a crime here. Tell me how any part of the pop industries here are breaking japanese law

2) We have no governmental offical to Elliot Spitzer. The concept of an Attorney General does not map to anything that I know of. There is some govt. office setup to investigate consumer fraud, but see point #1

3) Tell me who tried and failed? Give me some examples of pop culture retailers or distributors who tried to go against the mainstream and were prevented from or unable to engage in business for any reason other than their own lack of business accumen?

Darnit the web just aint the right format for all this. I wish we could do a round table discussion. I'd be happy to video tape it, encode it and host the video on my server at home.

That would be good, actually. Because, although in a sense we're all telling lies about Japan, taken together they might add up to a truth.

OK, so let me see if I get this straight. marxy, your argument (at least with this post) is that the negative economic situation in Japan is carrying over with a negative effect on the quality of pop product. Is that pretty much what you're trying to say?

Because for a minute I was confused by Chris_B bringing up the decline in the game industry as evidence of decline in quality. I'm sure none of us here equate sales with quality, so I didn't think his was a valid point. There were way too many games released this past holiday season for me to keep up with. I know a lot of great games didn't sell well because there were just too many quality games on the shelves. Who has time to play Metal Gear Solid 3, Gran Turismo 4, Lumines, Dead or Alive Ultimate, etc. and all of the others. That doesn't even count games from American companies (Jak & Daxter, Halo 2, KoToR II, etc.). So I can't see the slump in sales having any effect on the quality of the output, at least here.

I also had the same thoughts as Chris_B, when marxy said:
The fact that the Japanese have no concept of creator-oriented high art besides the one they imported from the West and use only with high art.
Again, at least in the video game industry, certain creators are revered as true artists, craftsman with eyes for detail and incredible talent. Sure Suzuki and Miyamoto are the old masters, perhaps sensei in Chris_B's and marxy's sense of the word, but there's lot of others, like Mizoguchi, creator of Rez & Lumines, Tecmo's Itagaki and the aforementioned Kojima of MGS fame. Young upstarts, if you will.

I'll disagree with marxy's statement:
No one makes a game just for themselves, devil be care if the user understands!
I've read several interviews with game creators, like Mozoguchi and especially Itagaki, who really don't make games with users in mind. They make the game they want to make and if the user doesn't like it, well, that's the user's problem. If the user can't do well in the game, well, that means the user's not skilled enough. This sometimes works, as with Rez and Ninja Gaiden. Sometimes this approach fails, as with DOAXBV. Look at the success of Katamari Damacy. What target market could that have possibly been made for?

But, as Chris_B mentioned, I'll wait until you explain your concept of creator-oriented high art.

I just want to say again that I really don't think money and creativity are significantly correlated.

I just want to say again that I really don't think money and creativity are significantly correlated.

Money and creativity are not corrlelated, but money and the process of a innovative creative product reaching the audience are.

The good thing about music is that digital technology is reducing the need for capital, although someone like Cornelius probably spent $$$ on Fantasma in a very capital-intensive studio. To be honest, you can't make that album without having someone else's money to back you.

The poet needs nothing but a pen, and the good thing is that the entry cost for musicians is dropping like a rock. Mbox + Mac + instruments + $100 mic is about all you need if you're smart. All that Sound and Recording elitism is just consumer culture.

Marxy writes:

"Women are happy to all wear Louis Vuitton bags , even though they are now obvious markers of lower-middle mass culture."

Comrade, I think we need to have a word or two about your line on gender politics. We have noted some of these generalising statements about women before and, frankly, they don't sit too well on the stomach.

Do you actually believe the above statement to be true?

Do you actually believe the above statement to be true?

Let me rephrase:

Women and men are all to happy to wear Louis Vuitton bags even though they are now obvious markers of lower-middle mass culture.

I honestly see as many men in Vuitton as women. What's your issue?

Nevermind, my Grandmother died earlier today. I don't really like feel bitching about this at the moment...

Marxy - sorry about the bad news. Please accept my sympathies.

No real issue at all that I'd want to raise over the death of your grandmother. I'm sorry to hear that.

condolences

I thank you all for your condolences, but I am also not looking to exploit my grandmother's death to get out of these tight rhetorical spots.

I just finished a big translation (the bending moments and steel beam reinforcement!) and should start up blogging again today.

Thanks.

I was under the impression that you enjoy the tight rhetorical spots that you get yourself into.

This is changing the topic completely, but I'm wondering if any one else here on Neomarxisme was troubled by the questionaire on the new Disembarkation Card.

If I remember correctly, the questionaire asks:

(a) have you ever been convicted of a crime in Japan

(b) are you carrying narcotics etc...

and (for certain visa types):

(c) list the denomations of foreign currency notes you are carrying (didn't apply to me)

Tokubetsu eijusha are the only non-Japanese who are don't have to answer the questions. I am an eijusha (permanent resident) but didn't know whether or not the people at immigration think I am tokubetsu. So I left the questionaire blank to see what would happen. The officer coldly commanded me to fill in the questionaire.

Turns out the tokubetsu eijusha are the zainichi Kankokujin, and their descendants, who were brought forceably to Japan during the colonial years.

Back to the strange part. I've got a visa and I've been registered at the local yakuba. Shouldn't they already know whether or not I've been convicted of a crime in Japan? So exactly what function is this questionaire supposedly to fill?

And, if Japan wants to make itself more attractive to immigrants, is this a good way to make people, who have already qualified for a visa, comfortable?