Remember back in the 80s during the huge Japanese boom, when people parodied them buying all the US real estate? Well ... all the kids back then are now grown up, and so much of the culture back then was Japanese. Nintendo, classic late 70s-80s anime syndicated on affiliates, anime-inspired Rancid/Bass type stuff, etc.

I can't connect my thoughts right now, but I think that's part of why Japan is chic among that generation and younger (you probably won't find too many 35 or 50 year old Americans waxing about cool, weird Japanese crap). I knew Nintendo BASEBALL came came from Japan - and that they took over the car factory from Michael Keaton and friends, leading to various cultural misunderstandings.

>Americans grossly miscalculated that Japanese voraciously eating McDonalds and proudly wearing blue jeans were somehow closer to understanding democracy, liberty, and the role of Protestant >individuals in society

It goes both ways: there's a lot of chitchat about Japan in Anglo-West but I don't think these countries are going to start adopting Japanese ways of living anytime soon (for example, adopting the Shinkansen, riding bicycles in the city, not drinking as much soft drinks, etc.)

Though I understand that there are quite a few "japan geeks" in America, "us" are still an irrelevant group, whose cultural interests and influence will remain in the cultural sphere only for the time being.

As an example to illustrate my comment Japan is Australia's biggest trading partner but still you have a hard time finding a decent Japanese restaurant in Sydney (in other cities it's even worse), and people in tune with Japanese films and music are a marginal group. The mainstream here is more "genuinely" interested in Japanese economy first and foremost.

”all the kids back then are now grown up, and so much of the culture back then was Japanese. Nintendo, classic late 70s-80s anime syndicated on affiliates, anime-inspired Rancid/Bass type stuff, etc.”

I definitely agree with this, but I do think there are some "Japanese" products that appeal to older people.

Sudoku, for example, appears to be a massive cottage industry at the moment, and I doubt it has anything to do with young people weaned on Japan. That being said, try finding sudoku books in a Japanese book store. They will be in the "games" ghetto, with about 10 titles max. Sudoku has that "Japanese cool" vibe in the States, but in its current carnation, it's infinitely bigger than it ever got in Japan.

"I don't think these countries are going to start adopting Japanese ways of living anytime soon"

Yeah, I agree. Or at least the parts that we respect that would be beneficial to the world. They are selling bottled green tea now (without sugar), but it's just one more consumer option, opposed to a real big shift away from carbonated sugar water.

"Sudoku has that "Japanese cool" vibe in the States, but in its current carnation,

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&isbn=1402743432

it's infinitely bigger than it ever got in Japan."
(Are HTML tags and links not working these days? Firefox 2 here)

"I want these motherfucking snakes off this motherfucking sudoku" etc etc etc...

Damn you're fast.

Woo, there's lots in this post. It narrows down considerably at the end to "What is the Japanese state going to do with those of us who love Japan?" And I think the answer is "Nothing". Our role is to be unpaid, largely unrewarded ambassadors for a culture we've chosen to embrace.

You do raise the question of whether soft power is even controllable by governments anyway. Sure, Tony Blair could see himself, circa 1997, as a figurehead for "Cool Britannia". But the people generating the wave he so narcissistically and opportunistically surfed were artists, designers and the like: the worker bees of cool, the creators of content. The government can facilitate these people through organizations like the British Council, but it tends not to be able to make or break them, or even, for that matter, understand them. I suspect the Japanese government is the same. Nobody should expect the authorities to sustain them. We have to simply go back to our beehives and create the stuff that continues to give our beloved culture kudos.

Foreigners are able to do this. I did it with Shibuya-kei, my friend Florian Perret arrived from France and ended up doing the opening animation for the TV version of Densha Otoko. And so on and so on. I'm torn between saying the contribution of foreigners to Japan's "gross national cool" is part of an emerging Tokion magazine-style "Third Culture" or whether it's part of an effort to Japanize the world, indistinguishable from the efforts of Japanese creators. I suspect the answer to that question is of the "glass half empty, glass half full" type. At any rate, we all seem fairly clear about what Japan is, even if it's only "the culture that inspires us to do the work we do". It's the culture that's able to enlist our support and help, without obvious reward. The "what's in it for us?" question is, ultimately, rhetorical.

I don't really mean it as "what's in it for us?" because, yes, why would I need a reward for being interested in something? But if the GNC is really a national goal I see a lot of people who could be used in service of the state instead of teaching English.

The Japanese government could definitely help with the domestic pop culture market more - not by encouraging artists per se, but by making the industries in which they work less "feudal" and more open to creativity and innovation. They could start by clearing out organized crime from the entertainment and art worlds, which as you know, I believe is at the root of a lot of problems. I think it's worth noting that a large number of the Japanese artists/creators we like did not come out of the "dark side" of the industry, but instead were able to be creative because they were on the fringes of the "system." I think it would be more productive and efficient for the artists not to have to go abroad to get accepted at home, but they aren't going to in this particularly repressive industrial organization.

Your latest comment is very different from the way I initially interpreted your last paragraph, which did kind of sound like "what's in it for us." But you have to wonder sometinmes: What IS in it for us?

If people are smart enough to eventually figure out something practical to do (such as in the creative industry as you mention), there can certainly be employment opportunities for the cultural ambassador types. There are also translation/localization positions as well as the resident PR positions that tend to waste the talents of whoever gets hired (these positions were singled out for criticism by Alex Kerr in Dogs and Demons). And there are several examples of successful Western businesses that have been started in Japan, some of whom are members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

But I understand your strong feelings toward the population of Westerners who have made Japan studies into some sort of obsession. The "make foreigners interested in Japan" angle of Japanese public diplomacy has been going on more than 20 years (the beginning of the JET Program) and it's had direct effects on you, me, and many of this blog's core readers. I've met some former eikaiwa teachers/JETs etc who did feel some kind of sense of entitlement/bitterness at the dead-end nature of much of Japanophile-related pursuits, and it's true that ultimately there are limited opportunities for people who have made Japan their lives, for various reasons.

Case in point: When I was quitting my job in Washington (translation on US-Japan trade issues), I had the opportunity to interview several Americans who wanted to keep a connection to Japanese culture in their careers, usually after a stint in the JET program. Most of them had been having a lot of problems trying to find satisfying jobs that "made use of Japanese" or some such thing. What struck me about them is that they tended to see their connection to Japan as a way to set themselves apart from the rest of the recent college graduates, who were looking at sales positions or, if they were lucky, spots at think tanks.

But most of them didn't have the language capabilities to make themselves useful, at least to my office. And in general, what difference does it make if someone taught eikaiwa for a few years if they don't speak fluent Japanese? I get the feeling that a combination of college classes and over-flattering Japanese hosts has made these people overestimate their own value. I mean, your average "Japanese studies" major in a US university can't speak Japanese worth a damn and has little idea about how the Japanese system works. What good is this?

All in all, I don't think there is a real point in terms of the end goals of creating a population of Japan-enthusiastic Westerners, except for the cultivation of Japan hands in various countries or whatever "soft power" benefits come from intermarriage or word of mouth experiences.

But perhaps there should be, what with their growing numbers and current political focus. What can Japan do with the Frankenstein monster of Japan enthusiasts it has created? Do you or anyone else have any ideas?

What might be lacking in the current system is a realistic view of what it means to come to Japan, what opportunities there are, and what opportunities there could be. Japanese people are quick to tell a Westerner that his/her Japanese is "good" as a simple compliment even when the person's actual level might be very far from what' required to be successful in the country. Perhaps people should come to be trained in the so-called "imported" skills of programming etc and then given the opportunity to work in the country. Though it's not all the Japanese side's fault (US universities often encourage unrealistic expectations, I think) as it stands there's a population of dissaffected Westerners who could be put to use to spread the good word about Japan

Oh and in terms of J-tv in the US don't forget Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (god I hope thats still on)

"it's worth noting that a large number of the Japanese artists/creators we like did not come out of the "dark side" of the industry, but instead were able to be creative because they were on the fringes of the "system."

It's richly ironic that you add this thought to a conversation that revolves around Nigo!

dzima, they make a pretty mean ramen at this place sort of between wynyard and circular quay, can't remember the name, a the bottom of a hotel.

the way I read this conversation:

Sure, cool japania has brought tourism money, increased cultural exports (and broadened the possible realm of cultural exports), encouraged more people to take the language seriously (to the point of making it a standard option at large US high schools), in turn brought more talented young people from all over the world to Japan and her universities, smoothed relations with china and south korea to a degree, increased global perceptions of the capability of Japanese expats, and made the country itself a more interesting place to live... but what has it done for me?

Yes, I know those twin restaurants, I think they're ok.

I have been to places which serve ramen with a nice soup but the main problem is that the noodles are never freshly made. I can't understand why because you can find handmade Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese noodles by the lot but never Japanese, even though there is enough of a population here to cater for.

And adding to my last comment, Australia has finally recently caught up with Bape as well but only because it's now cool in America, not for being Japanese.

>Teaching English remains the dominant position for the Japan-curious immigrant

Please allow me to balance this debate with some third world country bias: what do you make of people like my friends from Slovenia, Spain, Chile and other acquaintances of mine from Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal, people who are not even entitled to teach English in Japan (or to any other type of decent job) because after all they're not "native-san" like all Neormarxistes in this room?

a good deal of my coworkers aren't native speakers.

dzima: Nepalis working in kitchens don't count as cultural diplomacy, do they? If you're going to harp on marxy for a cultural bias, you might want to take a look at the narrow focus of the cultural diplomacy policy as well. As a boorish American, I think that allowing immigrants to come to Japan and make a living is probably the best cultural diplomacy policy, not just Captain Tsubasa in Iraq or whatever.

nate: That's pretty much right on the money. Maybe the answer is that the "new group" is already being used about as effectively as can be expected - people who have Japan experience can be useful, depending on their other training, to a number of Japan-related endeavors. But other than providing scholarships to excellent students etc and making it possible to work in the country as long as a company likes you well enough to sponsor your visa, what else should the Japanese government be doing?

As I noted above, it's kind of sad to see a bunch of Japanophiles struggling to find that dream "Japan-related" job, but maybe they should realize that along with language skills (which have to be really good -JLPT 2 minimum- to be of any real use to begin with) and cultural sensitivity (or whatever else might put people like that at an advantage), actual qualifications (one of those importable skills) are more likely to look good to employers than just having spent a year in college taking Japanese classes or some time as a NOVA teacher. And of course, thinking about the other groups of immigrants in Japan (and all the Thais who want to go there very badly but get denied), it's hard to feel sympathy for them.

//you can find handmade Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese noodles by the lot but never Japanese,

good question. i can think of a few minor answers, one would be that the japanese community in sydney is extremely fragmented compared to the other ones, they're not migrants in the hardcore sense, they've slackened into some version of she'll be right mate, they're somewhat stuck with this idea that australian people can only handle certain kinds of foods (ie teriyaki chicken) etc etc

//Australia has finally recently caught up with Bape

and graniph tshirts,, goodness

//smoothed relations with china and south korea to a degree

well with the talk of the kyushu-pusan tunnel and stuff it looks like things are most certainly heading towards an EU kind of thing

I think I adding Nepalese to my example didn't help but I was friends with people from not rich non-English speaking countries like Slovenia, Bulgaria, Spain, Chile, Argentina, etc., who were in Japan not to "help their families", "look for a better future" but for a cultural interest above all. If they knew about this website, they'd probably be here debating (in fluent English) head to head in knowledge with any of the other regulars.

I mean, if Marxy is saying that English speakers that have it as good, what am I supposed to think about these people I mentioned since no one is going to hire them because of their lack of an English background.

Somehow I doubt Hi! Hi! Puffy Amiyumi is the best way to use soft power, at least if you're talking about relations with Japan's neighbors and addressing the Rape of Nanking and other such atrocities.

"the way I read this conversation"

I think you are reading it way too antagonistically going into it, because again, I don't really care about the "what is Japan doing for me" thing. I don't feel entitled to anything. (I regret the long-winding nature of the essay that's making you assume my final point is self-serving.)

My point is just that I think Japan is attracting a lot of people here as a result of GNC, but there's no real infrastructure to have those attracted then assist in the goals that theoretically seems to be suggested by the GNC concept. I was trying to look at it objectively - what do you with these people? - rather than sympathetically to my fellow believers - why won't you please do something???

Most of your "cool japan advantages" though do not follow directly into the kind of nation-state level statecraft that Ogura and others are arguing against. Obviously, there is a net gain (mostly economic or pro quid pro cultural), but is there a large enough gain in the political sphere as was promised? Remember, the whole concept was launched in a magazine called "Foreign Policy."

"If they knew about this website, they'd probably be here debating (in fluent English) head to head in knowledge with any of the other regulars."

That sounds great, honestly.

"smoothed relations with china and south korea to a degree"

I seriously doubt this. As far as I have heard, sales of Jpopcult went down in Korea after it became legal. Also, Japan's real diplomacy/foreign policy - at least in rhetoric - has destroyed any "soft power" progress they may have been making. Each time Koizumi went to Yasukuni, it destroyed about seven years' worth of manifold dorama fandom in China.

>what am I supposed to think about these people I mentioned since no one is going to hire them because of their lack of an English background.

As a native french speaker I'm also interested in the answer to that question... If you're not an engineer form a prestigious euro school and you're not "even" a native english speaker, do you really have a future in Japan (apart from living there until your money runs out and it's time to head home bitter, and bitch about the fact that there's no decent ramen restaurant in your Vaterland) ?

The problem as I see it: all of these Tokion type, Japanophiles are mostly interested in the same things, which groups of Japanophiles have claimed as being hip about Japan(some of which there is a higher ratio of westernes intrested in the subject then Japanese), thus there is an overflowing of westerners in these fields(some areas of fashion, indie rock, anime, games). It'd be like trying to find a path in japan in the 80's because you had an interest in in investment/economics.

However Japan still has vast other cultural areas where foreigners are so rare that a foreigner that can only speak pathetic conversational Japanese can get by just fine/ still have being a gaijin be a huge advantage. (You saw this with the likes of Ken Yokoyama Band, his western bandmates could not speak Japanese at ALL when the band began, and were not exceptionally talented) and I've still gone to completely sold-out Studio coast, 3000-seat Melocore concerts featuring supporting bands on fat wreck chords label that ARE FROM AMERICA and been the only gaijin not on stage in attendance.

Whereas indie rock shows, no matter how small the venue I see a couple of other gaijin there, and some bands that come over from America like the Shins, the show might as well just be in America.

re: Sydney
A lot of the Japanese population live on the lower North Shore, and there's a string of restaurants catering to them in Neutral Bay. I also remember a couple of good noodle bars on Kings X road, towards Rushcutters Bay. Mind you it's quite a while since I was last in Sydney, that info may be out of date.

A few thoughts:

1. On the issue of just how much soft power is of any relevance to high level statecraft; I think Chinpokomon did a good job of ridiculing the pro position. The arguments advanced by the con position are largely the same as those advanced by Parker and Stone.

2. Are these arguments reasonable? African Americans are a good reference frame. While not endowed with States of their own, African American culture exudes the same cachet, the same cool, tho not neccessarily of the same quality as the Japanese. Has African American gross national cool translated into institutional power for said people? Hardly.

3. Yet, Japanese GNC need not be of relevance in high level statecraft - it perhaps need only serve as the modern phase of a certainly ancient Japanese practice: the cultivation of foreign apologists. The fatal flaw in a dismissive attitude towards GNC is underestimating just how influential these cultivars can turn out to be in dire circumstances.

marxy, actually, I did the same thing. I kind of stuck something on the end that wasn't really the crux of what I wanted to say.
maybe "what does that really mean?" would have been more too the point.
That many of the westerners who have come to the country enter the eikaiwa system doesn't mean they have a lack of opportunity... in one sense, quite the contrary.

Most of my coworkers are using eikaiwa as a steady income source while they do something grander. I've got musicians, programmers, graphic artists, neuroscientists, et cetera, all developing their own careers while they teach. Not a one of them resents the eikaiwa system (excluding complaints about its effectiveness), because they know that their alternative would be working in an even less charming job in a much less charming city in their home countries.
also there's a guy who gets a lot of ass. he likes it here too.

English speakers have a free soft landing, and in some realms unparalleled access to work. Where is "cool" failing them?

Mitsuko, I was living in Kings Cross until last December and I can assure that those restaurants are not that great (namely Juju). Next block to it, there's this organic vegetarian obaasan run joint but it didn't really please my taste.

The most "authentic" ramen place outside of Japan I've ever been to was in Auckland, New Zealand. It looked, felt and tasted like one of those simple but nice ramen-san-ya.

"African Americans are a good reference frame."

I think this is a good (counter)example. Certainly the spread of hip hop around the world has given African Americans - especially in Japan - a better cachet than before, but I am not sure it completely counters previous discrimination.

For Japanese abroad, yes, Japanese cool has helped their position with foreign locals, but reversely, has this helped the Japanese nation state opposed to just the people who have left the nation state (at least temporarily)?

Another point - America still has way more "soft power" than Japan, but America's recent deplorable foreign policy has pretty much canceled any of those effects of creating goodwill towards the population or the nation state. I bet there are people who happily watch Friends, for example, but pretty much hate the United States unequivocally. I can imagine the same thing going on in China. There are also perhaps people who stopped watching Friends because of the Iraq War.

Marxy wrote: "I do strongly believe there is one area in which Japanese pop culture has made a big impact: the increase in foreigners living in Japan or studying Japanese because they are interested in the culture, rather than looking for personal economic gains in Colonialist relapse."

The demarcation is not that clear. Many of the white foreigners who got drawn into finance and real estate during the bubble originally went to Japan because of an interest in the culture, whether that was martial arts, studying Japanese as an end in itself, religion etc. Some went on to become the rich Roppongi bankers that everyone seems to hate. That's really what you would expect: by the time people outside Japan had really noticed the boom, it was already 1986/87. Add a three or four year course in Japanese & Economics onto that date and you soon realize that most of the people who chose to specialize in Japan for business and financial reasons either arrived at the tail end or missed the boom completely. In spite of the lack of opportunities, a lot of this later crowd still stayed because they had fallen for the place, the scene, you name it. Many ended up doing jobs that the original culture vultures had been doing - namely translation, teaching, setting up their own businesses. They may have sought economic gain but they are also often fans of local pop culture and would like this site if they saw it. If there was a repeat of the bubble tomorrow, I've no doubt that a lot of the new crowd of pop culture fans turning up at Narita would end up sitting on a trading desk in an investment bank.

Adamu is right that an interest in Japanese pop culture alone doesn't necessarily give you a lot of useful skills. There are numerous Japanese who can tell you chapter and verse about the Beatles, Major League Baseball, Monty Python, or Beatrix Potter who don't have the language skills to do a newspaper round overseas and wouldn't dream of expecting to be welcomed with open arms in the US or UK. They might be more receptive to working for a foreign company in Japan, though.

"It's richly ironic that you add this thought to a conversation that revolves around Nigo!"

Point taken.

I say the bad role model is Donald Richie.
This year happens to be his 60 years anniversary and lefty Japan focus had his interview.It goes like this."Do I care what the Japanese make of me or think of me?I think I'm more ambitious actually;I want to be a world figure.I want to become emblematic of somebosy who lived sucessfully someplace else."He also says he"liked when Japan was a third world country".Now this mentality is what made Alex Carr moved to Thailand after all the ranting about Kyoto landscape to why Chinese can make to Hollywood and not Japanese and so on and so on.

Do these people ever think about there are SO MANY Japanese crowd out there who think gaijin Japan expertds are holding the microphones for much too long and not letting 'We Japanese' sing the karaoke?

If you want to live in Japan and be treated like everybody else,my humble advice,"Get a real job".

"Or is the point just to get kids in local malls to buy Sanrio gumballs and fake Bape?"

That is the point as I see it. JGNC is probably much more practical than "Cool Britania" in the sense that its not supposed to be anything more than a stopgap for sagging manufacturing exports.

Regarding aliens working here, Aceface came closest to nailing it, but fact is the best any of "us" can hope for is to be tonari no gaijin with very very few exceptions. But ya know what? Thats fine by me. I dont aspire to be any more. Anyone who thinks they have a "right" to life anywhere without a marketable skill needs their head examined.

"and one product alone - despite its popularity - can only make limited change on a foreign society."

Oh, you are so wrong, If that product is a camo hoodie, there is no limit to the societal change it can wreak!... or not. Aren't they all cranked out by some factory in Vietnam or Malaysia anyway?

I find it odd that in the 60's the counter-cultural point of view was that judging people on the cut of their clothes was uncool, thus hippies wore whatever outrageous stuff they could find as a statement. Thirty or forty years later we have people like marxy obsessing over labels and belonging to a super-secret-limited edition society based on the presence of an exclusive t-shirt.

"the nature of Western foreigners living and visiting Japan has drastically changed over the last decade. More non-natives speak fluent Japanese than ever before, because there now exists an inherent desire for many to go deeper into the culture instead of just expecting the Japanese to adhere to our colonialist standards."

Has it really changed or are you just more aware of it? Technology is shrinking the world. 5 years ago I never would have been able to know you exist, yet now you are broadcasting to the world and it is easy to find others. I know quite a few people who were in Japan 10 and 20 years ago. They were interested in the culture. They were not expecting the Japanese to adhere to "our colonialist standards" whatever they may have been. I am not saying that there are not some changes, but I would say that post-occupation, colonialist standards were not on most people's minds when they went to Japan. In the 80's the interest had a high economic component. As that waned, perhaps only the anime lovers remained, but I'd contend that they were there all along, but looking at more traditional culture (pottery, architecture etc.) rather than pop culture. Further, is this happening only with Japan vs. the US or are other countries involved? Surely Latino culture is bigger in many parts of the US than Japanese is. The Korean boom shows that Japan is also more open than previously. Call it a globalization of culture and you might have me nodding in agreement, but framing it as some sort of US-Japan phenomenon is rather limited don't you think?

"Japanese pop culture has made incredible gains in the United States over the last ten years."

I grew up in the US with Ultraman, Speedracer and Godzilla movies being just part of the landscape and that was more than three decades ago. You think it is just arriving here? Where is the historical perspective?

Rather than wonder about what Japan can do with us, Japanophiles, better think about what we could give to Japan...It may sound naive, but that's what I think!

As for the GNC theory, so to speak, it could have been more interesting to debate if it was taken more seriously, politically speaking! Too bad Rozen Aso, AKA Taro, failed to replace Koizumi!

[...I think this is a good (counter)example. Certainly the spread of hip hop around the world has given African Americans - especially in Japan - a better cachet than before, but I am not sure it completely counters previous discrimination...]

Perhaps I misunderstood your point. The model you presented seemed to suggest a ethnocultural base with a certain amount of cultural prestige that could not be translated into institutional power - hard power; etc. In that sense, both Japanese and African Americans are in the same boat - i.e. their coolness is just that: coolness. It is not a license for autonomous action. This is the critique of GNC and soft power. I think the French would be an example of an ethnocultural base whose cultural prestige actually buys them some leeway on the international scene (at least historically). Another good example of a people that used to be in the same boat as the Japanese and African Americans: Jewish people.
I understand Oguras criticism and your agreement to be: Yes, Japan has oodles and boodles of GNC - but how does this affect the price of Nukes in Russia? Or purchase a seat on the U.N?

Thirty or forty years later we have people like marxy obsessing over labels and belonging to a super-secret-limited edition society based on the presence of an exclusive t-shirt.

I am not sure I am a big advocate of brand-based discrimination, although I was once enamored by the idea that consumption of certain fashion brands could place me in a warm and cozy "subculture" I felt I could identify with. Bape was almost like the official Cornelius clothing line for a while and I appreciated the interplay between music and fashion. These days, I only buy brands on the basis of the clothes actually fitting me - which almost none do.

"I grew up in the US with Ultraman, Speedracer and Godzilla movies being just part of the landscape and that was more than three decades ago. You think it is just arriving here? Where is the historical perspective?"

And there was Nintendo in the 80s. I am not saying it's brand, brand new phenomenon, but it's so much more entrenched and diverse than before. My brother and sister grew up on Speed Racer, but they made fun of it mercilessly. I think there's a big difference now between the style of appreciation - a lot of it is authentically respectful, opposed to just being kitsch. I don't think kids intentionally watch Hi! Hi! Puffy Amiyumi because it's poorly animated.

Also, I don't want to cast all pre-contemporary ex-pats in Japan as "Colonialists" but I can't help but notice two things: 1) the fact that the spoken Japanese of many of my peers is way better
than a lot of the prestigious "Japan hands/experts" over 50. 2) that I used to be the only foreign kid at some weird Japanese music event in 2000, but now I am like the fifth one to arrive. Maybe there were a lot of pop culture maniacs here in the past, but I get a sense that it's a larger proportion now than just seeing Japan as a job opportunity. The number of traditional culture fans probably has stayed stable. At least my certain taste culture has seen an increase in arrivals. (For the record, I don't want to claim that I was "first" on a lot of this stuff, because I wasn't. Or that it was better when it was just me. But objectively speaking, there were much fewer people involved 5-6 years ago.)

"Yes, Japan has oodles and boodles of GNC - but how does this affect the price of Nukes in Russia? Or purchase a seat on the U.N?'

Ogura is taking a pretty hard line on what the desired power is and it's difficult to disagree.

I think what is being forgotten though a bit is of "personnel recruitment" angle. If globalized nation states are no longer homogenous bodies of a single race and must bring in outsiders, then there need to be incentives to attract foreign talent. J-GNC works well in this regard. This is a very "corporation" view of the state, but a firm with clearly exciting corporate culture is going to be more attractive than one without it. Samsung may be a much bigger company than Sony, but Sony clearly is the "cooler" place to work - just by nature of its product line. If Japan saw itself as this kind of state (opposed to one created through a history of bloodties), it would actual have a pretty good advantage over other countries - especially in Asia.

(There is then the problem of the pop culture products attractive to Westerners not really reflecting an employment/economic/political environment ideal to Westerners, but at least you've got them here!)

Marxy wrote "I can't help but notice... the fact that the spoken Japanese of many of my peers is way better than a lot of the prestigious 'Japan hands/experts' over 50."

I wouldn't disagree. But I'm not sure what you think it signifies. Times change. Utada Hikaru speaks better English than Yoko Ono.

Marxy wrote: "I used to be the only foreign kid at some weird Japanese music event in 2000, but now I am like the fifth one to arrive."

Rewind 40/50 years and you could be Aceface's favourite, Donald Richie, talking about Japanese cinema. Or 1970's Alan Merrill talking about the Group Sounds scene. Or even 1980's Karl Taro Greenfeld reminiscing about Gold.

Jack touched on a point earlier: technology has made a huge difference. The weird music event you mention probably has a website now whereas before it may have been just flyers and posters. Even if it doesn't have a website, someone can still tell you about it by email or reach you on your keitai just before it kicks off.

I agree with your point that Japan ought to be thinking about how to use the goodwill which is out there. I don't think you've yet made your case that it's larger and/or qualitatively more significant now than in years gone by. but, if the goodwill is there, then that's just a side issue.

"There is then the problem of the pop culture products attractive to Westerners not really reflecting an employment/economic/political environment ideal to Westerners, but at least you've got them here!"

So now the discussion is back at square one! A certain amount of despair can set in after someone comes to Japan and realizes it's not all it's cracked up to be for some reason or another. (letsjapan.org springs to mind but we've all met/been people in their bitter gaijin phase).

But what can these people do now? The Yomiuri had an interesting article on this topic in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the JET program. Basically it listed what some JET alumni have done since leaving the program:

Get your masters in Japanese Studies, get an English teaching degree (both of the above being done in the home country), become a school administrator at Temple U's Japan campus, quit your job as an attorney>do JET> teach high school back home, get "language pay" as a US Army paratrooper, cultivate a taiko hobby back home, become a diplomat, marry a Japanese/have half-Japanese babies, run for mayor in your host town in Japan (as Anthony Bianchi is doing), write books like "Learning to Bow", become a journalist (at home or in Japan), start a skiing website in Japan after quitting your job as a cancer researcher, or working for an int'l development agency in NYC.

Aside from what's mentioned in the article, I *think* the jlist.com guy was a JET, but I'm not sure. And let's not forget the massive amount of ex-eikaiwa people working as headhunters in Tokyo.

The dev worker sums up the career opportunities presented by JET pretty well:

"My current career has no connection with my JET experience on paper as it does not involve Japan, but I feel that the JET experience has had a strong hand in shaping the person I have become."

Many of what ex-eikaiwa teachers get into either stems from "crimes of opportunity" like the Learning to Bow author or using the dead time provided by JET to consider what they want to do with their lives, maybe learning Japanese and gaining some perspective along the way. And most of them go home, never to return.

Since JET is Japan's largest govt-run cultural exchange program, this is probably the best place where the government could show some leadership in creating that elusive "employment/economic/political environment ideal to Westerners."

If JET serves a role similar to a stint in the Navy, ie: a repository for people who got "lost on the way to a real job" then maybe it should be steering people toward careers in Japan, if indeed they are really necessary (there's a case to be made that they're not, but let's assume). Could there be more than this? Should it be like the Peace Corps, which gives its alumni a foot in the door when applying for US government jobs? Maybe JET could start offering an internship program or correspondence courses other than Japanese language classes.

"I don't think you've yet made your case that it's larger and/or qualitatively more significant now than in years gone by. but, if the goodwill is there, then that's just a side issue."

Do I personally need to explicitly make that case? I think everyone agrees that objectively, Japanese pop culture is selling more abroad than ever. Have their been manga fans in the past? Yes, but my local Waldenbooks didn't have two whole bookcases dedicated to it in 1996.

You may be right, though, that the Westerner influx could be cyclical. Japan has more immigrants now than ever, but the number of Westerners in that is still miniscule. Judging from my Japanese class size, I got in at the end of that late 80s wave and right before the late 90s "cool" wave.

"I wouldn't disagree. But I'm not sure what you think it signifies."

I think the pedagogy has gotten better. From what I hear about learning Japanese at college in the 60s, you'd just go through a book with a non-native speaker (sounds like Japanese learning English, actually). My Japanese program was all native speakers, with class everyday, including two drill periods weekly. They always focused on practical usage rather than literature. They built up this program precisely to deal with that huge 80s wave of learners. At one point, Japanese was the most popular language class for freshman. Maybe in the 60s, it was like learning Tibetan, and so they didn't really feel the need to max out the teaching skill.

There also may be way more kids who are willing to take the plunge into speaking properly rather than just "getting by." There are psychological factors preventing someone from really sounding native - the more glaring example is people who say, "Hey, I am Western, so I don't have to use keigo." I assume that there was also an idea, "Hey, I'm foreign, so I don't have to actually use hard Japanese vowels and accents when I speaking Japanese" - whether conscious or not. My friend in China said that there a lot of American kids who can speak Chinese very fluently, but none of them are using tones...

I am sure there were super-fluent foreigners in the past (John Nathan's kind of goes over the line by bragging about being able to recite the Kojiki in his book "Japan Unbound"), but I can't imagine them putting Dave Spector on TV if he had really had a lot of competition. I've said it before, but I think the "Japanese speaking foreigner oddity" can't exist on TV much longer since it's really not so odd anymore.

On technology: Aside from the obvious benefits of technology (generating interest in underground bands, distributing fansubbed anime, etc), the Japanese language itself is now much more accessible than it's ever been. I for one made great strides in teaching myself to read Japanese while in the US on a diet of hours of obsessively trying to read the Japanese web. Tools like JDIC and rikai.com make the Japanese news an instant learning tool. I might be something of an extreme example, but there are ways for those inspired to do so that were in their infancy 10 years ago.

This type of stuff can supplement the "better pedagogy" (which I still think isn't all that great a lot of the time) and also lower the psychological barrier to speaking another language that haunts a lot of Americans (note Patrick Macias' need for some psychological distance to maintain his notion of objectivity as an American otaku).

I think Japan is on its way to becoming a land of opportunity if the hurdles for entry to society continue to be lowered as they are trending toward. Even Aso makes passing mention of building a "Japanese dream" as a part of the Japan brand. This applies both to people from the 3rd world who see Japan as a place to earn money, middle class Chinese and Koreans who treat Japan as a place they can go when they either don't pass their countries' entrance exams or want a career change, or Westerners who just think Japan is the coolest place on this Earth.

"Frankenstein monster of Japan enthusiasts"... any chance of visual/s of that intriguing imagery?

As recently as 2003 Pakkun was wowing audiences with his oyaji gag-level hilarity, and he's still all over TV. But could he be the last big gaijin talent? Or are there others on the horizon that I don't know about?

"I got in at the end of that late 80s wave and right before the late 90s 'cool' wave."

And this is your central conceit that makes it hard to take much of what you say seriously.

Oh yeah. I was just saying the 80s was the height of Japanese power and influence in the US - it was the culture to aspire to (which is why eating sushi is still seen as something very yuppie to do, even though everyone does it now... that's what I'm guessing, at least). All the fun stuff was Japanese, too, so all anyone did was talk about Nintendo, anime-inspired cartoons ... so some broader aspects of Japanese design and culture became ingrained into kids through those things who now consider it perfectly normal.

So you know, you have entire generation who, during their formative years, grew up with Japan as something aspirational. I remember even into the early 90s the blue-collar working class parents of some kids I was friends with - they hated many races, but reserved a deep, special hatred for the Japanese, which, may seem kind-of ridiculous now.

OK,Maybe I was a bit harsh on Richie.Always make you feel guilty about hacking on senior citizens and pioneer in the field.

But what I wanted to say is,being an "culture expert"is one thing,but being a part of the society is something else.I mean consider all the people in the villege or Heightashbelly,Rive Gauche and Bloomsberry.They were (and perhaps some still consider themselves) all marginalized and rebellious.So I have no doubt about some of gaijin brothers and sisters would be the engine of the creation and innovation here.
But being a part of the society is ,well you've got to take more meat and potatoe strategy.Like wear some blue suits and regimental ties(and I mean that of salarymen uniforms!),pay tax,and pay pilgrimage to Yasukuni or whatever.
In another word, you've got to be decent, not a dissent.

When I was in New York some 25 years ago,
I pledge allegiance to the flag and sung Star-Spangled Banner every morning,knowing all this would create a havoc if practiced back home.
Being as an ordinary-Asian-teacher's-pet and by underlining every single page of the handbook to the American way,I melt into the society,
no multiculturalism mojos there.
Oh yeah, America is WAAAY more open society than the land of the rising sun , definitely more generous ,but that doesn't mean more tolerant to a foreigner who constantly rock the boat saying I'm-only-doing-this-caz-I-luv-ya.at least in Scarsdale,NY,it was not.

But if you are a gaijin in Japan, you would be an instant hipstar here. A dramaqueen even.and that is a previlege no matter how you object.
I understand there are some joy and sorrow of being a gaijin in the Japanese society and since I'm hearing this much so often ,even wonder why Weinstein Brothers hav'nt come out here to make a movie on the subject.I also know there is a saturation of Joe Gaijin in Tokyo,even feel it. but I also know that's not the case in ,say Shimane or some other place where people can still get slayed by a black bear.There is always a new frontier left untouched in this country waiting you gaijin to plow.and people DO welcome in their own way.

Looking the otherway,Could I have a JET sort of job I could exploit from the U.S government . Nope.I need to go to Iraq for that.Or getting laid with a Puffy Ami-Yumi crazed prom queen? That was not the case 25 years ago in NY and my huntch,still isn't.Even if it is I don't want have sex with a Puffy Ami-Yumi fan anyway.
That's the limit of JGNC on our side.

P.S
Shit,I still type like a 15year old.But listen , I wouldn't write this if I don't believe in the prospect of the fellow gaijin friends in this country!Only the tough gets goin'.

Apple's device has sold quite remarkably in Japan as well, but you are not going to see anyone in Japan speak to its massive social import in the same way, because it was a superficial introduction to the market.

This whole paragraph caught my eye, I've been looking it over and I think it could much more fleshed out, but I suppose there's limited space here. Anyway, by 'superficial' do you mean that the iPod was simply a cosmetic difference to what previously had been on the market?

"And this is your central conceit that makes it hard to take much of what you say seriously."

In general or for this essay? Because if you mean the former, that may just mean the end of this blog, JohnH!

Any old-timers want to challenge the idea that "Cool Japan" used to make big banner headlines before about 5-6 years ago?

"Scarsdale,NY"

Nice 帰国子女 reference, my friend.

"well you've got to take more meat and potatoe strategy.Like wear some blue suits and regimental ties"

I buy that to a certain degree - in as much as I personally have a "normal" job in a (somewhat international) Japanese company.

Ironic that one of "rock the boat" Debito's big experiential triumphs is that he forced his employers to treat him like a "normal employee" and not like a foreigner who was going to go back home at some point.

There's a bigger question of "going native" vs. "going expat" but it strikes me that Japanese society has more leeway between the two now. Was Hiroo always a place where foreigners who didn't want to admit they live in Japan moved? I am not sure my generation is really aspiring towards that.

"Anyway, by 'superficial' do you mean that the iPod was simply a cosmetic difference to what previously had been on the market?"

That's pretty much what I am saying. I am not sure people are treating iPods very differently than the Discman. Anyone ever used iTunes Japan? There's absolutely nothing on there - even decent Japanese music. (Mostly due to the Sony boycott.) As far as I know they will release the iTV in Japan. What are consumers here going to watch? Does iTunes Japan even have video downloads? Are enough people going to buy this thing just to watch reels of music videos? And is there a huge population anyway that wants to download all the wideshows they are missing at work every day and view them on their own time?

"But what I wanted to say is,being an "culture expert"is one thing,but being a part of the society is something else"

That is for the next generation as Debito keeps informing us, we have more mixed western/Japanese kids or even western kids growing up their entire lives in Japan then ever before.(besides maybe post-war, where however it was a bit shameful) but now that it's cool, these kids are going to completely rock society of typical gaijin stereotypes as more of them hit teenager years, The new Japanese generation grows up(we are already seeing the early ones come about).

Don't forget Japanese porn on the Internet. Anyone who surfs for porn has probably seen Japanese porn. Ask anyone about Internet porn and the conversation will lead undoubtedly to it. I think more than anything, porno has contributed to so-called Japanese Gross National Cool. The sexual motivation is natural, yes?

Furthermore, I suspect there is a gender bias in the number of people who move to Japan based on GNC.

"Any old-timers want to challenge the idea that "Cool Japan" used to make big banner headlines before about 5-6 years ago?"

Japan was on everyone's minds in the 80's, but it was more envy and fear that made the headlines rather than "coolness".

Where I live (SF Bay Area) I don't see any uptick in fascination with Japan or an increase in feeling that Japan is "Cool". Maybe the headlines are just going over my head.

Japanese films used to be a mainstay at the San Francisco International Film Festival, but it seems they have been eclipsed by others in the past decade or so.

Japantown is now a bunch of Korean Karoke clubs. I know of more than one sushi-bar who's owners have retired.

Shogun used to be a TV miniseries. There used to be a bunch of Japanese villains in mainstream movies. Now it is Chinese guys. Hello Kitty has been around so long she only has one life left.

Now, you can say, yeah, but that was just related to Japan's economic strength and this new "Boom" is based on camo hoodies! (isn't that what hunters in Wisconsin wear?)Feel the POWER!

It might be different in Japan. Here, I see the current interest in japan to be a step down from the turn of the century and two steps down from a couple decades ago.

There was certainly a dead spot right after the bubble burst. If that is your point of reference, then maybe you need to look back further.

PPP - Yes, to the gender bias part, no other country on earth will make a man that would be socially ostracied in thier home country feel like an alpha dog. However that's obviously a by-product that makes males stay here, not bring them over. However GNC still hits at females heavily, female readership/viwers of manga/anime.

Also, I take problems with your Sexual motivation being the a major reason people come over to Japan though(it is for sure a small factor though), Asian fetishes have been round since the 20's, most of these people are in Thailand/ other 3rd world countries. Unless you are insanly rich or Japanese you aren't going to fare too well comparativly.

Also, When you hear talk about Japanese porn, most of it is again in the "CRAZY" Panty-vending machine / tentacles!!!! Japan meme.

"Ironic that one of "rock the boat" Debito's big experiential triumphs is that he forced his employers to treat him like a "normal employee" and not like a foreigner who was going to go back home at some point"

Yeah,but he may have partially won a combat,but I could hardly take it as a victory.

"That is for the next generation as Debito keeps informing us"
Looks like someone in Japan had already been there done that.

There was so called 日立闘争,Hitachi strife back in early 70's.It was this zainichi Korean man was rejected from one of the Hitachi software companies , because he was writing his Japanese name on CV instead of his real name and denied to hand over family register since he is a korean national. The company said the korean man is not fulfilling what he was required to be an employment candidate,But this guy picked race card and brought the case to the supreme court.Mindan joined in and all the liberals and Media sided this guy and eventually Hitachi gave in.Somehow he's been off the rader of nationwide news for about 25 years,but launched another quixotesque venture sometime around Obuchi administration made Hinomaru an official national flag.He asked the company to bring down a hinomaru displayed infront of the building,the flag presumably this guy was seeing almost everyday until that day,and suddenly it starts bothering him by reminding the nagative memory of Japanese colonialism in Korea.Hitachi,also known as a major defence contractor,agreed this almost like reflex,and removed the hinomaru and now only the company flag is waving on the flagpole.

You know what I think about Ardou Devito?
He is pretty much like a suicide bomber without explosives and has no intention of killing himself.To us natives,there is no escape from a fearless guy like him.He is not my candidate of a
nextdoor gaijin...
I read in one of his interviews that he wanted to start something of a Rosa Parks bus boycott-like movement in Japan.That explains everything.
A bus and a bath sounds same in Japanese!
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The catalyst: Fape. Fape = Bape = Fape: Bape is just an innocent, insular Japanese kid's regurgitation (rip off is too strong a term due to the seemingly unconsciousness of the act/product) of 80s Def Jam/Run DMC/adidas products/styles. What went around came around and went on sale in the mall. The Gorilla - Godzilla - King Kong: essentially, American pop culture syphoned through a kid into America in Japan and, hey presto! Japanese pop culture, right back at ya.

Hiroo:
The place was always for gaijin diplomats and buisiness people who do not wish to interact with us natives.
Did some research on Azabu-Hiroo area before. Actually there are only three embassies in Hiroo But has quite a few Gaijin apartments.
These area used to be buddhist temple related estate and mansions of local feudal lords,武家屋敷 for annual protocol jobs in Edo,参勤交代.After Meiji restoration and Edo turned to Tokyo,all the feudal lords' and some of the buddhist temple's property were confiscated by the Meiji government. Then they were given to foreign envoys , starting American consul Townsent Harris with Azabu Zenpukuji麻布善福寺 in Motoazabu,the first of it's kind in Tokyo and that's why there are so much concentration of foreigners,now become 10％ of the whole population of Minato Ward.
None of them,I presume a neomarxisme reader.

"That's pretty much what I am saying. I am not sure people are treating iPods very differently than the Discman. Anyone ever used iTunes Japan? There's absolutely nothing on there - even decent Japanese music. (Mostly due to the Sony boycott.) As far as I know they will release the iTV in Japan. What are consumers here going to watch? Does iTunes Japan even have video downloads? Are enough people going to buy this thing just to watch reels of music videos?"

So what? So Japanese people are buying cds or borrowing from Tsutaya or friends and ripping them instead of using iTunes. Most Americans with iPods aren't using iTunes all that much either. USA is the ONLY region that has feature films and tv shows on iTunes today, and that includes Canada! That doesn't stop people from using bit torrent or ripping DVDs. I'm afraid I just don't understand what you are trying to say.

"I'm afraid I just don't understand what you are trying to say."

I am trying to say that the "cultural meaning" of the ipod - how ever you subjectively construe that - is just not as significant in Japan as it is in the U.S. Maybe it's not actually a big deal in the U.S. either, but everyone is acting as such. I don't think you can say that the iPod "revolutionized" the Japanese market or that anyone thinks that is the case.

"That doesn't stop people from using bit torrent or ripping DVDs."

Do you think this practice is as widespread in Japan as America? We are talking about a country where most people still access the net via their phones, not a home computer than can "rip" stuff. And ripping a DVD/bittorrenting something is much harder than ripping a CD, because you automatically have software for the latter.

"Do you think this practice is as widespread in Japan as America?"
A lot of my friends back home are relatively computer illiterate, whereas virtually all the Japanese men in their 20's I've met here are old hands at downloading movies and such. I've even traded tips on using DVD Decrypter with some of my junior high school-age students. Somehow I don't put much stock in the idea that "most people still access the net via their phones" only, although the keitai probably serves as a good gateway drug for early teens (and hell at this point, a growing number of pre-teens). Some champions of Japanese technology could take the opportunity to be snide in saying that "Americans STILL access the net via their computers, cuz they're still using Nokias with B/W screens". But for my sake, as an American without a パケ放題 plan, I send email from my phone more than I talk on it, but I don't find much use for i-mode other than that...
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the iPod's impact here, it's just the next level up from an MD player, hence the popularity of smaller, more portable, dare I say cuter, Nanos and Minis as opposed to the "revolutionary" effect of having instant access to the bulk of your music collection.
When I first saw you use the acronym GNC in a conversation based around a trip to a shitty local mall, I thought you were talking about General Nutrition Centers. I could use a protein shake about now.

// the bulk of your music collection.

that probably means japan is closer to the music of our future. they had all the bulk in the 90s anyway.

My point is that the ipod's "revolutionary power" is in allowing me to randomly access a large portion of my music collection (although 60GB is seeming small these days) wherever I am, and I don't see too many Japanese people taking advantage of that, opting for 2GB or less, just enough for a couple hundred songs. Maybe they're a lot more selective about what they put in their earholes, but I doubt it. The kids I teach see my ipod and say "damn that's big" in the same way that they see the original DS as outdated because of its size, ignoring the "revolutionary power" of larger-capacity music players.

Almost every japanese person I know has a iPod (except for the very uncool who tend to have some ghetto looking cheap player). The usage patterns tend to be more "whats new"/"my playlists" oriented than the hoarding usage patten described in the last few comments. To me this is the "revolutionary" aspect of the iPod in regards to transforming the music industry: a return to a new pop/singles oreinted market space as opposed to the album collection market.

When has the Japanese music industry not been new pop/singles oriented?

Right, although Japan went super singles oriented in the 90s.