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Japan's Gross National Cool

Author(s): Douglas McGray
Source: Foreign Policy, No. 130 (May - Jun., 2002), pp. 44-54
Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC
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 GLOBALIZATION AT WORK

JAPAN'S
GROSS

I mpo , 0

Japan is reinventingsuperpower-again.Insteadof collapsingbeneathits

widelyreportedpoliticaland economicmisfortunes,
Japan'sglobalcultural
influencehas quietlygrown. Frompop musicto consumerelectronics,
architecturetofashion, and animationto cuisine,Japan looksmorelike a
culturalsuperpowertodaythan it did in the 1980s, whenit was an eco-
nomicone. But canJapan buildon its masteryof mediumto projectan
equallypowerfulnationalmessage?I By Douglas McGray

44 FOREIGN POLICY
 NATION
COOL
-I I Lilc

4-.

I, I

its..oe

ALA L"

n Sundaymornings,
teenagers specializesin the Americanvinyl recordsplayed in
crowd the sidewalks of Tokyo's
Shibuya district until they spill
over the curbsand into the streets.
They start at Hachiko Square,under a video mon-
itor that takes up the entire face of a glass and steel
high-rise, and spread out, 30 or 40 wide in the
crosswalks.They mill around displaysstackedwith
new sneakers-Nike and New Balance from the
United States, Puma and Adidas from Europe via
New York. They gather in a small music store that
(D
az Douglas McGray is a contributing writer of FOREIGN
~
-1 POLICYmagazine. He spent the spring of 2001 in Japan as
a media fellow of the Japan Society.
Tokyo's popular soul bars-Grandmaster Flash,
Curtis Mayfield, Parliament.They spend 370 yen
(roughly$3) at Starbucksfor a tall iced latte, which
tastesjust as it does in Washington,D.C., and is just
as overpriced.Like any global metropolis, Tokyo
serves up a substantial dose of American culture,
particularlyto its youth. Sometimes,like Starbucks
or Nikes, it is authentic.Sometimes,like a "Harbard
University"sweatshirtor a potato salad pizza, it is
not. But cultural accuracy is not the point. Less
important than authentic American origin is the
whiff of Americancool.
A few blocks from the Starbucksin Hachiko
Squareyou will find Mandarake, a shop that sells
MAY I JUNE 2002 45
 Japan's Gross National Cool
used manga and anime (Japanesecomic books and
animation, respectively).There is no storefrontfull
of dog-earedcomics in plastic sleeves,just a maw of
an entrance carved cavelike out of fake rock and
flightafterflightof stairsdown to the basement-level
shop. There,comic books and videotapesare stacked
to the ceiling, alongside the toys and collectibles
they inspired. The real esoterica are under glass,
rareGodzillaand Ultramanaction figuressellingfor
hundredsof dollars each.
With a networkof shops acrossJapanand a list-
ing on the Nikkei Stock Index, Mandarake Incor-
Overthecourseofanotherwise
dismaldecade,
Japan theartoftransmitting
hasbeenperfecting
kindsofmassculture.
certain
porated is positioning for global expansion. New
stores opened in Los Angeles in 1999 and in
Bologna in 2001. Japan accounts for the bulk of
Mandarake's revenue, said company president
Masuzo Furukawa, "but in, say, about five to 10
years, it should be the other way around. The for-
eign market should be much bigger."
Already,"thereisn't much of a time lag between
what sells well in Japan and what sells in the Unit-
ed States," Furukawa said, comparing business in
Tokyo and Los Angeles. The buxom, gun-toting
pixies, cute monsters,and transformingrobots that
fill Mandarakein Shibuyashow up in MTV graph-
ics, street fashions, bars and dance clubs, and even
museums. Last year,the Getty Centerin Los Ange-
les debuted a blockbustershow on Japan's "Super
Flat"movement-young Japaneseart inspiredby the
two-dimensionallook of commercialcartoons.
Sometimes,like an IsseyMiyakegown, theJapan
thattravelsis authentic.Sometimes,likecreamcheese-
and-salmonsushi,it is not. Butculturalaccuracyis not
the point. What mattersis the whiff of Japanesecool.
THE POKEMON HEGEMON
Critics often reduce the globalization of culture to
either the McDonald's phenomenon or the "world
music" phenomenon. For the McDonald's camp,
globalizationis the processof largeAmericanmulti-
nationalsoverwhelmingforeignmarketsand getting
46 FOREIGN POLICY
local consumers addicted to special sauce. In this
case, culture flows from American power, and
American supply creates demand. For the world
music camp, globalization means that fresh, mar-
ginal culturereachesconsumersin the United States
throughincreasedcontactwith the rest of the world.
Here, too, culture flows from American power,
with demand from rich Americansexpanding dis-
tribution for Latin pop or Irish folk songs.
But Japanese culture has transcended U.S.
demand or approval. Director and actor Takeshi
Kitano, arguablythe Japanesefilm industry'smost
noteworthyrecentexport,was first
embraced in Europe, then in the
United States. At this year'sBerlin
Film Festival, Hayao Miyazaki's
SpiritedAway becamethe first ani-
mation feature ever to win a top
festival prize. A major publishing
show in Frankfurt,for the firsttime,
opened an exhibition of Japanese
manga.Namie Amuro,reigning"J-
Pop" (Japan-Pop)music diva of the 1990s, built a
huge fan base in Asia without ever going on tour in
the United States. Millions of teenagers in Hong
Kong, Seoul, and Bangkokcovet the latest fashions
from Tokyo, most of which never make it to New
York.Japaneselifestylemagazines,some of the most
lavishlyproducedin the world, are smuggledby ille-
gal distributorsacross Asia as soon as they are on
newsstandsin Tokyo, though none has launchedan
Americanedition.
At the same time, Japan has made deep inroads
into Americanculture,usuallywrittenoff by the rest
of the world as aggravatinglyinsular.BestsellingSony
Playstationand Nintendo home video games draw
heavilyon Japaneseanimeand mangafor inspiration.
So haverecentHollywood films,suchas TheMatrix,
and television series, including director James
Cameron'sDark Angel. "Tokyo is the real interna-
tional capitalof fashion,"the styleeditorof the New
York Times proposed this spring, spurning Paris,
New York,and Milanas pretenders.Japaneseanime-
style cartoonscurrentlyfill the majorityof time slots
in the after-schooland Saturdaymorningscheduleson
U.S. cable television. The cartoon and video game
franchisePok6mon-broadcast in 65 countriesand
translatedinto more than 30 languages--evenmade
the cover of Timemagazine.
In the 1980s, Japan pioneered a new kind of
superpower.Tokyo had no army to speak of, no
puppet regimes to prop up, and no proxy wars to
 JpnsIss iyake

mind. Just an economy. What made

Japana superpower,more than just a
wealthycountry,was the way its great
firmsstakedclaim to a collectiveintel-
lectual high ground that left competi-
tors, even in the UnitedStates,scram-
bling to reverse-engineer Japanese
successes.Seekingguidanceon every-
thingfrom "qualitycircles"to "just-in-
time"inventorymanagement,U.S. cor-
porateexecutivesboughtstacksof books
onJapanesemanagement techniques.The
to
key Japan's economic ascendance was
not ideology,at least not by Cold War
standards;but it was a method,it drove
the most dynamiceconomyof the era,
and it was indisputablyJapanese.
Fastforwardto 2001. Highincomes,
longlifeexpectancy, andmanymoreof the
statisticsthatmeananythingin termsof
qualityof lifestilltiltinJapan'sfavor.But
thenationalswaggeris gone,a casualtyof
a decade-longrecession.Grossdomestic
productis down; the yen is down; the
NikkeiStockIndexhita 17-yearlow;and
fullemployment, practicallya naturalright
inJapan,hasbeenreplacedbynear-record
ratesof unemployment. Tokyohastriedto
keep the InternationalMonetaryFund
from investigatingits bankingsystem,
which is suspectedto be in even worse
shape than the finance ministry has
admitted. A recent downgrade from
Moody's InvestorsServiceratesJapan
only slightly more creditworthythan
Botswana.The country limps its way
into G-8 meetingsand remainslocked
out of the U.N. SecurityCouncil.
YetJapanis reinventingsuperpower
again.Insteadof collapsingbeneathits
politicalandeconomicmisfortunes, Japan's
global culturalinfluencehas only grown.
In fact, from pop musicto consumerelec-
tronics,architectureto fashion, and food
to art,Japanhas fargreaterculturalinflu-
ence now than it did in the 1980s, when it
was an economic superpower.
Its culturalsway is not quite like that
of Americancultureabroad, which, even
CL in its basestforms, tends to reflectcertain
common values-at the very least,Ameri-
can-style capitalism and individualism.
 - IiI~
mer
adimmoetan10,00Al
ww1
;wduts wi
:
%.s
ContemporaryJapaneseculture outside Japan can
seem shallow by comparison. Or it can reflect the
contradictoryvalues of a nation in flux, a superfi-
cialitythat promptedthe Japaneseart magazineBT
to equate contemporary Japanese culture with
"SuperFlat"art, "devoidof perspectiveand devoid
of hierarchy,all existing equally and simultaneous-
ly." "We don't have any religion," painter Takashi
Murakamitold the magazine, a bit more cynically.
"Wejust need the big power of entertainment."
Butgradually,overthe courseof an otherwisedis-
mal decade, Japan has been perfecting the art of
transmittingcertainkinds of mass culture-a tech-
nique that has contributedmightilyto U.S. hegemo-
ny aroundthe world. If Japansorts out its econom-
ic mess and militaryangst, and if youngerJapanese
becomesecurein assertingtheirown values and tra-
ditions, Tokyo can regainthe role it brieflyassumed
at the turn of the 19th century,when it simultane-
ously soughtto engagethe Westand to becomea mil-
itary and culturalpower on its own terms.
JAPAN'S POSTMODERN POP
I spent three months last year traveling around
Japan, interviewing artists, directors, scientists,
designers,and culturemavens.Many of themseemed
48 FOREIGN POLICY
open
surprised at the idea of Japanese cultural might
abroad. They tended to think very little about for-
eign audiences.What they talked about insteadwas
foreign inspiration. At times, it seems almost a
strangepoint of pride,a kind of one-downsmanship,
to argue just how little Japan there is in modern
Japan.Ironically,that may be a key to the spreadof
Japanesecool.
"I can'talways distinguishelementsof tradition-
al JapaneseculturefromJapanesecultureinventedfor
tourists,"confessedToshiyaUeno, a sociology pro-
fessor at ChubuUniversityand, in his spare time, a
techno deejaywith gigs in Tokyo and Amsterdam.
"Duringthe FirstWorldWar,in Japan, already
there was a strong argument about overcoming
modernity,"Ueno said, sitting in his cluttereduni-
versity office behind two turntablesand a mixing
board. "Already,postmodern eclecticism was sur-
facing." In other words, Japan was postmodern
before postmodernismwas trendy,fusing elements
of other national culturesinto one almost-coherent
whole. It makes sense:Japan'shistory is filled with
examples of foreign inspirationand culturalfusion, C
from its kanjicharactersystemto its ramennoodles.
Considerthe case of a new band, LiplessX Sis-
ter, and a new dance, the Pada Pada. Like most
Japanesepop musicacts, LiplessX Sisteris a concept
group, dreamed up by record producersand mar-
keting executivesand then assembledthroughaudi-
tions. In this case, the conceptwas 18- to 22-year-old
girls with 2-year-oldchildren.A producerexplained
the band'sname to local press:"Youcan like them.
But they're mothers,so you can't kiss them."
Their debut performancetook place in March
2001 on a makeshiftstage outside 109, a tall shiny
departmentstore in Shibuyathat, for a few million
of Japan's teenage girls, is the most stylish, most
important, and most exciting place in the world.
The girls in the band, like every girl in every mag-
azine that season, had light cedar tresses, denim
skirts, and tight tops with vintage sports lettering
(no doubt all of it was for sale inside).They wheeled
their kids out in strollers, all in a line. Then they
startedto sing. "PadaPada mama, Pada
Pada mama."
A new dance then sweepingthrough
Tokyo's clubs, the Pada Pada is Japanwaspostmodernbefore
"uniquely Japanese," said Katsuo
Shimizu,a culturecolumnistat the daily wastrendy,
fusing
Asahi Shimbun, touting it as the first
popular dance step to originate in cultures
Japan. In fact, the Pada Pada looks like
nothing if not the Macarena.The dance
didn't seem uniquelyJapanese.It didn't seem at all
Japanese.But then, what should one expect, geishas
grooving on a Shinto arch?
The Pada Pada doesn't require a great cultural
leap for foreigners.The band has an Englishname,
not that it makes much sense to a native speaker,
but English words travel well. If the Pada Pada
spreads across Asia, however, it will be on the
strength of Japanese pop songs, Japanese music
videos starringJapanesegirls with light cedar hair,
and Japanese cool. Maybe there is not much tra-
ditionally Japanese about any of it. But if that is a
requirementfor national branding,American pop
culture is hardly more respectful of traditional
Americana-unless you count when Madonna
wears a cowboy hat.
MEET HELLO KITTY, DAVOS CAT
Japan'smost visible pop icon, Sanrio'scartoon cat
Hello Kitty, takes the national ambiguity of the
Pada Pada further.Kitty is not actuallysupposed to
be Japanese.In fact, Kitty'slast name,announcedfor
the first time in spring 2001 in Sanrio'sofficial fan
magazine, is White.
Kitty White?Kitty is a WASP!
Hello Kitty drives an empire worth almost $1
billion in global sales per year. "From Target to
McDonald's, she went big time," wrote Asian-
Americanpop culturemagazine Giant Robot, pro-
claiming her the best "CorporateWhore" of 2001.
Sanriolicensesso many productswith Hello Kitty's
likeness that a company spokesmancould not con-
firm the currentcount. Put it between 12,000, the
estimate he gave, and 15,000, a number that is
widely reported.You can buy individuallywrapped
Hello Kitty prunes. You can buy a toaster that
burns Hello Kitty'sface into a piece of bread. You
can buy a Hello Kitty vibrator. "We don't have
such strictregulations,"the spokesmansaid. "Hard
alcohol, maybe that would not be appropriate."
Hello Kitty's longtime designer, Yuko Yama-
postmodernism
ofothernational
elements
intoonealmost-coherent
whole.
guchi, met me in a small Sanrio conference room,
dressedin darkjeansand a baggyshirt.A cell phone
and a dozen Hello Kitty dangles hung from a chain
aroundher neck. So which is Kitty,foreignor Japan-
ese? "When Kitty-chanwas born, in those days it
was veryrarefor Japanesepeopleto go abroad,"she
said. "So people yearnedfor productswith English
associations. There was an idea that if Kitty-chan
spoke English, she would be very fashionable."
Today,teenagersand 20-somethingsin the Unit-
ed States and elsewherebuy Hello Kitty purses and
cell phone cases as icons of Tokyo pop chic. In the
1980s, however,Sanrio'sAmerican-basedmarketing
team had to customize Hello Kitty for American
audiences,which they considereda tough sell. Often,
that meant designingtwo Kitties, one for Japanese
and one for Americans."Purpleand pink were very
strong," Yamaguchisaid, recallingSanrio'sAmeri-
can market research. "Blue, yellow, and red were
believed to be taboo."
"Therewere also motifs that were taboo in the
United States.Therewas a snail, one of Kitty-chan's
friends. When there is a rainstorm,Kitty-chanhas
an umbrellaand a flower, and beside Kitty-chanis
a snail. In the United States,that was not accepted,
and there was a requestto eliminatethe snail," she
MAY JUNE 2002 49
 Japan's Gross National Cool

said. "Differencesin color were easy, but I had dif- U.S. National Basketball Association (NBA), for
ficulty accommodatingall the little requests-there instance,which in recentyearshas aggressivelypro-
were so many." moted its sport aroundthe world and hinted that it
"Now, there is no differencein design.Now, we might place a new team in Mexico City, or even a
have the sameKitty-chanin both markets,"she said. whole division of teams in Europe.
They have to. Sanrio'shead of marketingfor Asia, It is no wonderwhy the NBA-and the U.S. foot-
Shunji Onishi, describedthe company's disastrous ball and baseballleagues-takes a global approach.
attemptin the 1990s to customizeHello Kittyfor Tai- Foreignfans mean extra licensingand broadcasting
wan and Hong Kong, two of Sanrio'sstrongestmar- revenue.And if a foreignstar emerges,you have the
kets. They put Kitty in local clothes and surround- possibility for another Ichiro. The day Japanese
ings, and the products sat on the shelves. "They baseballstar Ichiro Suzukileft Japan to bat leadoff
know Kitty is from Japan.That'swhy they like it," for the SeattleMariners,Japanesesportsshops were
alreadyfilledwith officialMariners
jerseysand baseball caps in antic-
ipation. Duringthe season, Japan-
Perversely, mayhaveboosted
recession Japan's ese television covered every
Marinersgame live, despite a 12-
national
cool,discrediting rigidsocial
Japan's hour time difference.
By that logic, the fact that 25
andempowering
hierarchy entrepreneurs.
young percent of the wrestlersin sumo's
top two divisionsare foreign-born
should be great for the sport-it
he said. "Especiallythe youngergeneration."Evenif raises the level of competition and offers up home-
she is actually English? "Kitty has a sort of inde- town heroes to potentially lucrativeforeign broad-
pendentexistence,"Yamaguchianswered,hedgingon casting markets.But instead, it is a source of great
nationalitya bit. "I let her transcendthe bordersof anxiety.Sumo is a rarething, a part of Japan'scom-
London." A regularDavos cat. mercial pop culturethat looks much as it did hun-
dreds of years ago.
Sumo is seldom broadcast outside Japan, but
WHY 600 LB. WRESTLERS DON'T TRAVEL
Hawaiiantelevisioncarriesall the tournaments.So a
Hello Kittyis Western,so she will sell in Japan.Sheis tall, skinnykid namedChadRowan grew up watch-
Japanese,so she will sell in the West.It is a marketing ing Konishiki(whosegivennameis SalevaaAtisanoe),
boomerangthat firmslike Sanrio,Sony,and Ninten- a fellow Americanfrom Hawaii who left the United
do manage effortlessly.And it is part of the genius States to become sumo's first 600-pound wrestler.
behindJapaneseculturalstrengthin a global era that He also knew Takamiyama,anotherHawaiian, the
has many countriesnervousabout culturalerosion. Jackie Robinson of foreign sumo wrestlers, who
Imagine for a moment if modern Japan were enduredhatemailand deaththreatsas he rosethough
more like France, less culturally plastic and more the sumoranksin the 1960s. Rowanneverconsidered
anxious that globalization might erode its unique wrestling, himself. But he knew it was a big deal
national character.Its cultural reach might look when Takamiyama,now a powerful coach, offered
something like that of Japanesesumo-popular at Rowan a chanceto go to Japanwith him and train.
home but stubbornly closed to foreign influence, Rowan took the nameAkebonoand becamethe first
and as a result, largely invisible outside Japan. foreigner the sumo association would declare a
Tokyo's official sumo museum, maintained by Yokuzuna, a grandchampion.
the JapaneseSumo Association, ought to be one of When I arrivedat AzumazekiHeya, the training
the city'sbig foreigntouristattractions;instead,it is club on the easternedge of Tokyo where Akebono
a dreary, one-room obscurity. The sumo associa- now coaches alongside his former mentor,a dozen
tion sellsno officialmerchandise,at home or abroad. wrestlers were waiting for their turns in the ring.
Occasionally,the associationwill hold an exhibition Even so, you could not miss Akebono, not at 6 feet
match outside Japan but only when a foreign city 8 inchesand 512 pounds. "Osu osu osu!!" he yelled,
campaigns for a visit, and then never more than crossing his arms and resting them on the bulge of
once or twice in a year.It is a markedcontrastto the his stomach. "Pushpush push!!" A largerwrestler
50 FOREIGN POLICY
 leaned stiff-leggedon a smaller one, and the small-
er one pushed him from one side of the dirt ring to
the other, and back, and again, and back. Sisyphus
with a fleshy boulder.The smallerman gasped and
collapsed to the dirt, his sweat turningit to reddish
mud. "What's wrong with your legs?" Akebono
taunted in Japanese, grinning. "Youcan go for 30
minutes, can't you? It's only five or six minutesand
you look exhausted!"Akebono speaks only Japan-
ese at the heya, even with Azumazeki (the name
he is looking for more than just athleticism and a
frame six meals a day can bulk up. "Wetry to find
someone who would get along with Japan, who
wants to be a Japanesekind of person."
Heya masterslike Azumazeki,like coachesin any
sport, are under pressure to produce bigger and
strongerathletes.At the same time, there is a strong
stigma against travelingthe world in search of for-
eign giants. If all else fails, the sumo association
will enforcea seldom-mentionedquota of 40 foreign

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Takamniyama took when he retiredfromcompetition,
instead of his given name, Jesse Kuhaulua).
Wrestlerslive at their heya, train at their heya,
and eat at their heya. For a foreignerlike Akebono,
the instantimmersionis twofold:immersionin sumo
and immersionin Japan. Not everyonewould face
that kind of culturalrebirthfor a chance at success
in the most foreign of sports, and that is part of the
point. "It'snot easy, man. It's not easy," said Azu-
mazeki,in a LouisArmstrongraspthat has made his
voice one of the most recognizable in Japan.
Although he also discovered Konishiki abroad, he
(n
does the vast majority of his recruiting in Japan.
co "Back in Hawaii, my relatives and friends intro-
duce us to kids," he said. "I don't encouragethem.
I preparethem for the hardship."He explainedthat
wrestlersin sumo at one time-or about 15 percent
of the total. But all else has yet to fail.
YOUTH WITH A YEN FOR TECHNOLOGY
A culturalsuperpowerneedsa healthyeconomicbase
but not necessarilya healthy economy. Perversely,
recession may have boosted Japan'snational cool,
Japan'srigidsocialhierarchyand empow-
discrediting
eringyoung entrepreneurs. It may also have loosened
the gripa big-businesscareertrackhad over so much
of Japan'sworkforce,who now face fewersocialstig-
mas for experimentingwith art, music, or any num-
ber of similar,risky endeavors."There'sa new cre-
ativeness here because there's less money," said
Tokyo-basedarchitectMarkDytham,a Londontrans-
MAY IJUNE 2002 51
 Japan's Gross National Cool

plant."Goodartis appearing,youngstrongart.Young which opened its Tokyo boutiquein the midst of the
fashionis appearing." GraphicdesignerMichaelFrank, currentrecessionand marked up prices 50 percent
who shares a flourishing downtown studio with over Parisshops, makes more money in Japanthan
Dytham,agreed:"A lot of interestingsmallermaga- anywhereelse in the world. Sonyelectronicsare also
zines appearedin the last four or five years.A lot of frequentlymoreexpensivein Japanthan abroad,one
smalllittlebusinesses,peoplerunningtheirown shops, Sony industrialdesignerexplained,becauseJapanese
peoplerunningtheirown musiclabels,peoplerunning consumersstronglypreferlightermaterialsand sleek-
theirown clubs.Biggercompaniesarestartingto pick er designs,even if they cost more. A sliverof a mini-
up on those littlethingsand supportthem." disc playerin pumpkinorangeand limegreen,a nar-
Meanwhile, a constellation of factors distinct row cell phone with a big color screen for Web
from the economy and its woes has kept yen flow- browsing,a tiny MP3 personalstereothatclipsdirect-
ing to the pop industriesand other cultural media ly in your ear-these are goods that inspiretechno-
that Japanprojectsaroundthe world so effectively: lust in the levelestof heads,Japaneseor foreign.
demographicsthat favor youth and their whims, a
reliabledemandfor luxury goods, and a reputation ALL MEDIUM, NO MESSAGE?
for cutting-edgetechnology.
A generation of declining birthrateshas filled Last summer,the prestigiousNew York art gallery
Tokyo with one-child families. In scarcity,there is P.S.1 announced an exhibition called Buzz Club.
power.Not politicalpower,not yet anyway,but con- "Animation, cell phone art, fashion, sculpture,
sumerpower,lots of it. "[Children]sensethattheyare anime, films, elaborategraphics,popularaction fig-
rare,"said MarikoKunoFujiwara,of the Hakuhodo urinesand models, electronicmusic, and sound and
light installations,"the gallery
promised, billing it as "the
largest exhibition of Japanese
financial
firmshavestrong
Japanese incentives
to pop culture creators ever
assembled outside of Japan."
hewtothedemandsofa generation
withhighdispos- Exhibitors included Groovi-
sions, a design group most
ableincome,
regardless upsanddowns.
ofeconomic famous for dreaming up a
nationally ambiguouscartoon
girl named Chappie, and an
a
Instituteof Lifeand Living, sociological think tank electronic music and design collective called
attachedto one of Japan'smajor advertisingagen- Delaware.GlobalJapanhad achievedthe New York
cies.And so theytendto be spoiled.Fujiwararecalled scene'sseal of approval.
one newspaperheadline-"Our ChildrenKings"- There is much more to Japan than the national
with a laugh.Tokyo'syouthspendan averageof $150 cool of Buzz Club. Most foreignerswill never pen-
a month on cell phone bills alone. They propel a etrate the barriers of language and culture well
dizzying turnoverin street fashion. They drive the enough to see Japan as the averageJapanesesees it.
secondlargestmusicindustryin the world, by far the But that is part of Japan'ssecret to thrivingamidst
largestin Asia and one that is second only to that of globalization.Thereexists a Japanfor Japaneseand
the UnitedStates.At an HMVmusicstorein Ginzaone a Japan for the rest of the world. Often, in the case
afternoon,I countedmorethan 100 peoplein line,and of youth fads, for instance, there is a good deal of
not one of them looked to be over 30. Japanesefirms overlap. Sometimes,in the case of sumo or the lay-
havestrongfinancialincentivesto hew to the demands out of a typicalsuburbanhouse or the varietyshows
of a generationwith high disposableincome,regard- that proliferateacrossJapanesetelevisionnetworks,
less of economicups and downs. there is none.
Luxury goods have also fared well in Japan's More than 60 yearsago, in a classic studycalled
slackeconomy.Japaneseconsumershaven'tstopped Mirror,Sword, and Jewel, a Germaneconomist at
buyinghigh-endproducts,as a numberof sociologists Tokyo ImperialUniversitynamed Kurt Singerdis-
I spoke with stressed.They simplysave up longerfor cussed the contrast between the "plasticity" and
them. So even as the economy languishes,rush hour "endurance" of Japanese culture, the ability to
F-
in Tokyo is like a luxury car show. Louis Vuitton, absorband adaptforeigninfluenceswhile still retain-
52 FOREIGN POLICY
ing an intact culturalcore. Yet for Singerwriting in
the 1930s, the question was "why this gifted and
active nation has produced so little that has been
found acceptableby other countriesin an age open
to all foreign influences."
Today,Japanhas outgrownthat question,thanks
largelyto the qualitiesof Japaneseculturethat Singer
himself identified.In fact, in culturalterms at least,
Japan has become one of a handful of perfectglob-
alization nations (along with the United States). It
has succeeded not only in balancing a flexible,
absorptive, crowd-pleasing, shared culture with a
moreprivate,domesticone but also in takingadvan-
tage of that balanceto buildan increasinglypowerful
global commercial force. In other words, Japan's
growing cultural presence has created a mighty
engine of national cool.
It is impossibleto measurenationalcool. Nation-
al cool is a kind of "soft power"-a term Harvard
dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. coined more than a decade
ago to explainthe nontraditionalways a countrycan
influence another country's wants, or its public's
values.And soft power doesn'tquantifyneatly.How
much of modern Americanhegemony is due to the
ideological high ground of its democracy, for
instance, how much to its big corporatefranchises,
to Hollywood, to rock music and blue jeans, or to
its abilityto fascinateas well as intimidate?National
cool is an idea, a reminderthat commercialtrends
and products, and a country'sknack for spawning
them, can serve political and economic ends. As
Nye argued in this magazine more than a decade
ago, "There is an element of triviality and fad in
popular behavior,but it is also true that a country
that stands astride popular channels of communi-
cation has more opportunities to get its messages
across and to affect the preferencesof others."
However, while Japan sits on that formidable
reserve of soft power, it has few means to tap it.
National cool ought to helpJapaninfuseits universi-
ties,researchlabs,companies,andartswith foreigntal-
ent. But in a vast public opinion study conducted
throughoutAsia in the late 1990s, respondentswho
admiredJapanese culture and Japanese consumer
productsthoughtlittleof the ideaof studyingor work-
ing in Japan,even less of movingtherefor good. And
as open as Japanesecultureis to foreign influences,
there is neitherpoliticalnor public supportin Japan
for immigration,or for immigrants.
When Nye firstwrote about soft power,he right-
ly believedthatJapan'sinsularitykept it from taking
advantage of its formidable economic soft power.
Today, a decade of globalization has made Japan
somewhatless inwardlooking,but a decadeof reces-
sion and politicalturmoilhas made many Japanese
seem less securein some of theirfundamentalvalues,
underminingtraditionalideasin everythingfrombusi-
ness cultureto familylife.Those valuesmay rebound
A•0
sop,
?
Colphn
.bu
hae nthngm
 Japan's Gross National Cool

withtheeconomy,or theymaytransform intosome- lyto berebirththanruin.Standing astridechannelsof

infusedwitheven
thingnew-a nationaluncertainty
moreanxietyby the demographicchangesthatwill
the of
accompany graying Japan'spopulation.
Japan'shistoryof remarkablerevivalssuggests
is morelike-
thattheoutcomeof thattransformation
communication, Japanalready possessesa vastreserve
of potentialsoftpower.Andwiththeculturalreachof
a superpower alreadyinplace,it'shardto imaginethat
Japanwillbecontentto remainso muchmediumand
so littlemessage.tO

Want to Know More?

For intelligenceon new trends in art, music, entertainment,and fashion from Japan, check out fun
and brainyAsian-Americanpop culturemagazine Giant Robot; slicker,bilingual Tokion;or Shift,
a Tokyo-basedonline magazine.Lingerover TakashiMurakami'sSuperFlat (Tokyo:MADRA Pub-
lishingCo., 2000), an eclecticcollectionof works fromyoungJapaneseartistsmixed with mass media
and Edo-eraprints. Also see the Web site of the NTT IntercommunicationCenter, a Tokyo gallery
of high-tech, interactiveart sponsored by telecom giant NTT.

Those curiousabout sumo should read Sumo World,the only English-languagemagazineon the
sport.Sushihas far more fans outsideJapan,a phenomenonTheodoreBestorexplainsin "How Sushi
Went Global" (FOREIGN POLICY,November/December2000). For more on Japan'sbillion dollar
Kitty,see Mary Roach's "Cute Inc." (Wired,December1999) and visit Sanrio'sWeb site. Two other
recentissues of Wired are also useful:August 2001 packages 10 reasons why "JapanRocks," from
"demandcreation"to "gameshows," and May 2001 documentsin epic, illustratedform,how Japan-
ese firms came to dominate the world's video game industry.

For an inside look at the world's consumer electronicshegemon, see John Nathan's Sony: The
Private Life (New York:Harper Collins, 2000). On the potential economic power of regional and
national reputation,see Michael Porter's"Clustersand the New Economicsof Competition"(Har-
vard Business Review, November/December1998). For an argumentthat nations are like brands,
see Mark Leonard'sBritainTM:Renewing Our Identity (London: Demos, 1997). Also see Bruce
Mau'sthoughtson mediumand messagein a global context in Lifestyle(New York:Phaidon,2000).

A usefullong view of Japanesemight is FrankGibney'sJapan:TheFragileSuperpower(Rutland:

Tuttle, 1996). Also see Manuel Castells'strilogy The InformationAge (Oxford: BlackwellPublish-
ers, 1998), particularlyhis comments in volume three on johoka shakai (informationsociety)-"a
Japaneseinvention,"he argues.Joseph S. Nye Jr.makes a case for the changingnatureof power in
his influentialarticle "Soft Power" (FOREIGN POLICY,Fall 1990). Nye returnsto the topic in The
ParadoxofAmericanPower:Whythe World'sOnly SuperpowerCan'tGo ItAlone (New York:Oxford
UniversityPress,2002), where he arguesthat Americandominancedoes not precludethe rise of new
"hubs"and that nationalculturescan fuse and diffusewithout dilutingnationalessence.Mario Var-
gas Llosa attacks the notion that national cultureshave ever been pure in "The Cultureof Liberty"
(FOREIGN POLICY, January/February 2001). For a bullishview of Americanculturaldominance,see
David Rothkopf's "In Praise of Cultural Imperialism" (FOREIGN POLICY, Summer 1997).

The Economistprovidesa grimsurveyof Japan'seconomicwoes in "The Sadnessof Japan"(Feb-

ruary 16-22, 2002). For an exhaustivecollection of public opinion polls that chronicleshiftingval-
ues in Japan and Asia throughoutJapan'srecession,see the researchreportsof the Dentsu Institute
of Human Studies.

?For links to relevantWeb sites, access to the FP Archive, and a comprehensiveindex of related
FOREIGN POLICY articles,go to www.foreignpolicy.com.

54 FOREIGN POLICY