Hi there, I’m Scott, the “pro-Japan” friend David referenced above.

The point i was trying to make is that yes, it is easy for foreigners to beat up on Japan for all the things that are "wrong" with it. many times this is based on a judgment (at times unintentional) that compares japan to the US, the world's #1 economy and media market. What i feel to be a far more valuable comparison is to examine how Japan (#2) stacks up to Germany (#3 economy), or other industrialized states such France or Italy (and to a lesser extent, South Korea). These countries are also mature economies that are far more similar to Japan in terms of size, media landscape, average per capita income, amount of government involvement/regulation, population, demographic trends, etc.

While this analysis could be pursued on any of the above points, today I will attempt to limit my comments to the realm of overseas cultural and commercial reach, more specifically to record sales & television program distribution.

One does not see a lot of German artists breaking overseas, nor does German TV have much of an impact outside its immediate region/language sphere (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein). While having a few noteworthy exceptions (basically Daft Punk and Air) France too produces relatively few acts that cross-over into the global mainstream, and a grand total of none that do so in French. When viewed in this light, we can say that the Japanese contemporary pop scene does quite well in terms of overseas sales—racking up big numbers in Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. While these are not western countries, I don’t think it matters, as in business terms, a sale is a sale.
I would wager to say that Japanese acts, as a whole, sell more discs abroad than the combined total of any other non-English speaking country’s acts. (Sweden may be a close competitor here, though again, their bands that break overseas are singing in English.)

Japanese TV shows also find larger markets in terms of overseas syndication than do those of any European country. If we take anime and shows like Spike TV’s “Most Extreme Challenge” into account, we can see that Japanese-produced programming has even made its mark in the US, to say nothing of the Asian TV market, where Japanese content has enjoyed wide exposure for years. The same cannot be said of the programming that comes out of any other country, not even the UK. Japan’s TV content can rightly claim its place as #2 in terms of global distribution.

The point of my story is that, despite what its many detractors claim, Japan is not that bad off. While it has problems, they are often overstated. Its pop cultural creations aren’t going to lose all global meaning/impact, it is not about to implode economically at any point in the near future (even with slightly skewed figures, Japan enjoys far lower unemployment than anywhere in continental Europe), its people are not going to die out, the yakuza or rightists are not about to stage a coup, nor will the whole place slide into the ocean (though out of the lot, this may be the highest risk).

Japan is a country with problems equal to any other. Some of the challenges it faces may be different than those in the west, or gain more attention as they seem “unique” to us, but in general, it is no worse off than any other industrialized state in the early 21st century. If it was, people would be migrating the heck out of there—and they’re not. When considered in a wide view, comparing it to other contemporary nation states, Japan and (its pop culture) ain’t that bad.

**Also, while I look to make no excises for what some would consider the “low” quality of current Japanese popular music, again it is important to keep things in a comparitive perspective. Keep in mind that just being ashlee simpson’s ex-boyfriend (aka being ryan cabrera) is enough to get your album into the top 10 in the US (somehow the dude sold 325,000 albums!). When I have more time and space, we can talk about what sells in Europe as well... with some exceptions, the picture there is equally as grim for what hip music critics would define as "quality" product.

i FUKING love the above ground power lines.. i wish we had them here.. blandness is not appealing to me. flaws are equaly as great, if not more so, then prefection. some of the best things are flaws in something. like a phone ringing in the back ground of a song.. "mister doctor". distorting preamps.. over driven tape. misplaces microphones. and mp3s fragments.
i would be terrible sad if japan did away with there above ground wires.. i just love them soo.

There is something to this argument of cultural relativism

First of all, there is nothing wrong with cultural relativism! In fact, if you subscribed to it, you might stop waffling in your ethnocentric way about a 'world standard', and stop collapsing questions of cultural difference into questions of 'quality'. 'A new Absolutism' might be a good slogan for a fascist dictator, but for someone studying marketing it seems somewhat naive. Would you really run the same advertising or marketing campaigns in Poland that you'd run in Argentina? Is there 'a new Absolutism' in market research too? Of course not. You listen, research, measure, test, then listen again, and you market in each country based on what you learn. Alex Kerr would be a lousy marketer and an even worse advertiser. (He might make a good protestant minister, though: hellfire sermons served every Sunday! How Japan is losing its soul!)

When thinking about Japan in terms of my personal pet topics (information barriers and the relation of economic success to culture), Japan is hopelessly behind.

'Information' is not a culturally neutral term. But even on fairly objective measures, I don't know how you can say Japan is behind. Japan has its 'thumb tribe' using keitai phones to access the internet far, far more than anybody is currently doing in Europe or the US. The technological standard of these phones is way beyond the WAP crap we have here. People in the UK are mostly texting still.

Japanese surf while riding their zero emission bicycles or their exemplary public transport, while Americans are more likely to be listening to some dismal Christian fundamentalist radio in their polluting cars while crossing some low density suburb where the trash is burned rather than recycled.

As for the relationship of economic success to culture, it seems to me that Japan is doing pretty well -- world's number two economic power and number one creditor nation, more or less underwriting the US national debt. Extremely high literacy rate. Readership of a serious daily like the Asahi Shimbun is ten times what equivalent papers sell in the west, at around ten million daily. Fantastic availability of records, best-stocked record shops in the world, excellent art book stores, a huge number of cultural magazine titles, world-beating graphic design, a very healthy fashion industry, the pop music and pop culture successes mentioned above...

In short, Marxy, what are you talking about?

Marxy, you know what 'would' be impressive? If you stood behind all your assertions and passions and actually wrote all your criticisms of Japan in 'Japanese' and got the word out to the Japanese media about your blog.

But wait, you've got a CD coming out in Japan soon, so...I guess that won't happen...

Or will it?

Stand behind your words mate, speak truth to your subject (the Japanese people) and let's see how your music career soars or plummets.

I am working on trying to make this blog bilingual. I would appreciate any advice on the matter, because I have not seemed to get MT to accept Japanese.

My CD is not coming out in Japan at this point, although there are plans for it.

You are right to point out this hypocrisy, and I think a lot of this dialogue is more important to have in Japanese than English.

While there is a strong indie scene in the West that has a anti-major label attitude, this has faded some in Japan. I do indeed think my screeds would get me in trouble with the media system, but I would be lame to use this as an excuse for silence.

Thanks.