Japanization: A few thoughts about Japan’s global influence

The contemporary world can be referred to as a global network. But what does “Globalization” actually mean? Indian film director Anmol Vellani holds that national values could never influence globalization. It is an economic phenomenon which maintains its own culture and ideology, a culture and lifestyle of consumerism. The project of globalization can only succeed in this certain way (cf. Vellani 2006: 15) and creates “unprecedented connectivity between people from different parts of the world (Vellani 2006: 16).”

One could argue that Japan is obviously influenced by the States. If you get one step closer you will observe that this may only be true to a certain degree. Many western trends have reached the Far East but the Japanese society was always able to incorporate these influences into their own styles and versions. Moreover Japanese exports are more important than imports in terms of national identity (cf. Holden 2006: 119) and local forms of food, music, films and other cultural elements are also cornerstones of Japan’s inside-out globalization (Allen/Sakamoto 2006: 2).

(Using American-Halloween as another Japanese-Cosplay occassion. Here you can see the One Piece crew.)

Every educated human being should be familiar with the term “Americanization”, but have you ever heard of “Japanization”? It is only fair to use this term for a country which is still an economic leader. The impact may not be as obvious as the one from the US, but it exists. When I think of Japan, many brands come to my mind: Toyota, Nintendo, Sony, Hello Kitty, Panasonic, and, and, and. Also some Japanese acclaimed themselves outside of Japan such as the international esteemed directors Akira Kurosawa or Hayao Miyazaki. Maybe their names have little recognition value for a random audience but their art definitely has. Thanks to their success more and more Japanese movies are translated, synchronized and subtitled than vice versa. Recently several foreign representations of Japanese Culture in Non-Asian countries are thriving. Companies are buying and selling Japanese products (cf. Vellani 2006: 16). The imports and collaborations have been very successful especially in the popular culture segment (cf. Holden 2006: 117 and Allen/Sakamoto 2006: 1).

(Especially the tech. industry has a high national economic and also export value.)

I was able to observe a downright boom of Manga, Anime, Video Games and Cosplay in German speaking countries since many years now. To go a little bit more in detail: I was influenced by Japanese Pop-Culture before even knowing anything about Japan and before knowing what the term Pop-Culture means. Thanks to RTL II [i], Anime and Manga with Japanese origins [ii] became famous. Furthermore, the frequent audience informed themselves about the Program and its origins on the internet. Thousands of websites and fan pages dedicated to Anime and Manga were created; the German equivalent to the Japanese Otaku scene was born. The afternoon program is now its own channel-in-channel called Pokito TV, mainly airing Anime series. I observed a real wave of Otaku-development, because RTL II was seriously criticized from Anime-fans all over Europe for bad synchronization, inappropriate airtime, national editing in terms of child-welfare and rebroadcasting one season of an Anime again and again [iii].

Somehow these Anime had a big impression on me as a child. I learned from Japanese values, which are embedded in the Comics in a very simple way. In first place I could for example never understand why the main team in the series Kickers (jp.: Gambare! Kikkāzu) was unable to win. Even when they finally won, they celebrated their victory as if they just got the world champion trophy. After watching it over and over again I could understand that the plot wasn’t only based on the victory theme. It was about friendship, teamwork and passion, values which are certainly important in Japanese society. This now makes even more sense to me because the series is originally based on a Shōnen [iv]. Comics which are not only produced for entertainment but also for cathartic reception (Marci-Boehncke/Just 2006: 10). These values affect non Japanese viewers as well, nevertheless the real Japan remains dislocated; the main focus of these popular products is, as already mentioned, consumerism (cf. Allen/Sakamoto 2006: 1).

(Logo from Nippon Connection, the biggest Japanese Filmfestival in Europe.)

Info:

The Mega Manga Convention 2009 is starting today in Berlin.

Clip:

A Clip from a Pokito TV episode.

Recommended Readings:

Japan Must Shake Off U.S.-Style Globalization

Japan's influence on American life

About Anime Censorship on RTL II

Literature:

Allen, Matthew/Sakamoto, Rumi (2006): Introduction – Inside-out Japan? Popular culture and globalization in the context of Japan. In: Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto (Ed.): Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan.

Holden, T.J.M. (2006): “Sportsports” – Cultural exports and imports in Japan’s contemporary globalization career. In: Matthew Allen & Rumi Sakamoto (Ed.): Popular Culture, Globalization and Japan.

Marci-Boehncke, Gudrun/Just, Dominik (2006): Höher, schneller und weiter – Mediale Leistungsideale am Beispiel japanischer Sport-Animes. Found on mediaculture.

Vellani, Anmol (2006): Speech about Globalization and Culture. In: Globalization and Asian Values. Asia Culture Forum Kyoto 2006 Report.

Endnotes:

[i] RTL II is a private German TV-channel and part of the RTL-Group
[ii] The first aired Anime shows in German-speaking television were based on European literature like Heidi, Maja or Pinocchio
[iii] The persons in charge had severe problems with getting the full sending authorization. For example Dragonball, even though one of the most successful Anime in Europe, suffered from unrealistic plot twists caused from fictive translation and some episodes of Dragonball GT have never been broadcasted
[iv] Manga which are produced for adolescent boys