cool japan

Cool Japan (English: Cool Japan / Japanese: クールジャパン) is a term used in the phenomenon of Japan's cultural soft power being evaluated internationally and its content itself, or in the Japanese government 's external cultural promotion and export policy. It is sometimes called Japan Cool.

The name and policy idea itself originated in the UK in the 1990s. It is an imitation of the 'Cool Britannia' promoted by Prime Minister Tony Blair 's Labor government.[1]

2010 On June 8 , Japan established the Cool Japan Office, a department in charge of Cool Japan, under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry .

Cool Japan's main goals and strategies are as follows.

Specifically, it often refers to popular culture such as modern Japanese culture, games , manga , animation , J-POP , and idols . It also refers to Japanese products such as automobiles , motorcycles , and electronic devices , modern food culture, fashion , contemporary art , and architecture . In addition, all things related to Japan, such as traditional Japanese martial arts , traditional Japanese cuisine , tea ceremony , flower arrangement , and Japanese dance , can be targeted. #

Some media analyze that Japan's move was conscious of Korea and China 's cultural export policies. However, since China still lacks the ability to export culture, it should be seen that Japan, rather than China, felt a sense of crisis from the Korean wave in Korea and made the Cool Japan policy. In particular , there is a strong perception among the far right and net right wing that the Korean Wave has risen unjustly as a national project utilizing the National Brand Committee and the Korea Creative Content Agency . are paying

Of course, it is true to some extent that the Korean government provided support for the Korean Wave after it took off . However, until then, it had been developed purely through the power of those working in the cultural field. Rather, in the past, there were cases where government-led attempts to promote Korean food ended up wasting budget. In fact , considering that the logic justifying national support for cultural promotion in Korea was because Japan had succeeded in that way, Japan's reaction could not be more than ironic.

In fact, Japan's promotion of its culture to the West dates back to the early 20th century. Japan's efforts, from supporting various Japanese studies research institutes to registering Japanese cuisine as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, have actually continued even before Cool Japan, and have been made steadily based on larger budgets and networking compared to Korea. What's unique about Cool Japan is that it actively supports so-called subcultures that were downplayed or ignored by the Japanese government in the past.

However, Korea's cultural promotion was mainly focused on so-called high culture, and popular culture was mainly focused on movies. Full-fledged support after K-POP or Korean dramas emerged at the center of the Korean Wave was following the success of the pop culture industry itself, and is far from the result of national fostering. Unlike the 1980s, it is closer to 'the cultural industry was not actively suppressed'.

As such, Cool Japan judged that it was a move to strengthen Japan's soft power diplomacy while being quite conscious of Korea's cultural export policy. Japan is said to be investing more than 50 billion yen in Cool Japan. This bill is said to have been submitted to the Diet by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and it is said that it was included in the 2013 budget bill as a public-private investment .

Japan once had a global influence with subcultures such as manga, anime, and games, and it is still unrivaled in this field. Japan's broadcast content exports were 6.25 billion yen in 2010, but rose to 52.95 billion yen in 2019. The driving force behind this rapid growth is animation, and a separate copyright handling organization was established to unify copyright. It is said that 83.6% of exports are sales of animation broadcasting rights, secondary sources, and character use rights. As for export regions, Asia accounts for 52.9%, North America 25.3%, and Europe 9.1%. The total export value of the Japanese animation market exceeded 1 trillion yen in fiscal 2018.

Japanese films received rave reviews in the 1960s and 1970s and had a significant impact on the Hollywood market. It is impossible to explain anything other than the huge influence of Japanese culture, including the Star Wars series , which is even called America's alternative founding myth . The Seven Samurai, which is considered one of the best classics in the most American genre of Western movies, is a Hollywood remake of Seven Samurai, produced by director Akira Kurosawa . Director Akira Kurosawa had a great influence on Hollywood and the European film industry, and at the 1990 Academy Awards , he appeared with the support of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and won the Achievement Award. The influence of Japanese popular culture at the time can be inferred from the fact that the movie Ready Player One, which is considered a culmination of American popular culture , also includes Japanese content. # # As a bonus, Q Sakamoto 's 'SUKIYAKI (Let's Walk Looking Up)' ranked #1 on the Billboard chart for 3 weeks in 1963.

Japanese dramas are lagging behind Korean dramas, so among Japan's broadcast content exports, drama exports amounted to 2.88 billion yen in 2019, far behind Korea. Still, it is a field that is in demand overseas, and if animation films are included, overseas exports once again surpassed Korean films. While preserving the characteristics of Japanese culture, it is trying to change to some extent by adapting it to the localization of overseas markets, and it is highly likely that it will revive if the government provides support in an appropriate way.

However, the problem is that this cultural market has been stagnant in recent years. It was from the 1970s to the 1990s when Japanese mass media spread aggressively to foreign countries, especially to the West . During this period, Japan wielded strong national power that could threaten the global economy, just like China today . Even though it took a downward trend in the early 1990s when the power of the bubble economy disappeared, objectively at that time, national power was still strong. Internally, popular culture prospered more evenly than now, and externally, it used strong hard power as a channel to spread soft power to the West. There was no country in Asia that could compete with Japan economically or culturally, so it was truly the heyday of Japanese popular culture.

It is unreasonable to say that Japan's mass media and other subcultures were propagated through the cultural promotion system strategically created by the state during the economic golden age. Since Japan's economic power has a great influence on the world and its cultural content production capacity is high, it is reasonable to say that foreigners have accepted it on their own. #

In particular, in the 1980s and 1990s, Japan was a country with strong national power worldwide, and was virtually the only place in Asia that produced popular culture to deal with the West. There was also a Hong Kong culture that popularized genres such as Hong Kong noir , but it did not exert as wide a cultural influence as Japan. At that time, it was not an era where a lot of information was shared in real time around the world like now, so there were many fantasies about Asia (some based on ignorance like Orientalism) in the West. Even if they did not set up a national promotion strategy, Japanese culture went well in its own way. Of course, this trend is still as strong as it is in the field that is currently doing well.

Films made in Hollywood around this time often directly or indirectly expressed awe, fantasy, or fear of Japan. The 'future dominated by Japanese conglomerates' shown by the movie Back to the Future is a typical example of such a description. Wapanese, presented as examples of western orientalism , became standardized from this period.

Exports of foreign visitors to Japan and broadcasting contents (comparison between Korea and Japan)

Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan , Korea Creative Content Agency

Of course, the contribution of animation is large, but the growth trend is also prominent in the drama sector. In addition, among the overseas exports of Japanese films , theatrical version animation plays a bigger role than live action films. Thanks to that, even movies that break the 100 million dollar mark, which is hard to come out among Asian films, are coming out of Japanese theatrical animations.

In the mid-2010s, TV program exports are gradually increasing due to the unification of copyright processing and the overseas expansion boom. However, with 70% of sales coming from animation, there is a strong bias toward subculture genres. Conversely, the level of influence of Japanese animation is high. Rather than selling the broadcast itself in a variety of ways, it makes money through various rights to use one broadcast. It is estimated that the import amount is still greater than the content export amount (this is KOCCA's guess in 2017). However, overseas sales of animation have surpassed the previous record and profits are expanding significantly enough to be called the so-called 4th animation boom .

Japan's broadcast content exports have increased more than 9 times over the past 10 years, and it is showing good progress in exporting subculture content at the level of popular culture. Other content companies are also actively joining in and working hard to expand their content. It is also having the effect of attracting tourists who had decreased due to the Great East Japan Earthquake.

However, questions still remain as to whether the above-mentioned achievements are truly the results directly brought about by the government-led Cool Japan policy. Rather, like the case of Korea, it can be interpreted as a case where cultural content has succeeded in self-sustaining without the need for active intervention.

The above Japanese broadcasters quoted Thai broadcasters as saying, “Japanese content has potential, but lacks publicity methods.” We are moving forward,” he said. It is related to this that anti- Koreans say, " The Korean Wave is a forced phenomenon created by the Korean government sprinkling money ."

However, contrary to the Japanese government's idea, the revival of popular culture is not successful only by the government's initiative. If so, world powers such as the G7 would have controlled and dominated all popular culture around the world by pouring government-led cultural revival policies and enormous financial power.

To analyze the reason for the popularity of the Korean Wave according to the logic of such nonsensical net right-wing anti-Koreans, "If it was true that the Korean Wave became popular by pouring money into it, Cool Japan failed because Japan was a poor country without money, and Korea is a rich country with lots of money." That's why the Korean Wave succeeds." Like the same sound, something awkward and nonsense should come to a strange conclusion. If it was possible to revive the cultural phenomenon only with money from the beginning, the revival of Hallyu should have been more likely to fail because other economically wealthy countries than Korea lacked the financial power to invest in the cultural industry.

As an actual example that refutes this far-fetched logic, we can see it in China today. Although China is a developing country, it would have dominated the world with China's popular culture, which was enormous in quantity, by mobilizing capital power at once due to the nature of being a great and dictatorship. However, in reality, many Chinese elements have been exposed through American Hollywood or Korean drama PPL using China Money, but the reality is that the quality of the work has deteriorated and the antipathy of viewers has increased. After all, excellent cultural content is not made only with money. This is a good example that shows that not all things will work if you push and force them with money.

In Korea, many citizens are averse to the idea of ​​the state artificially interfering with culture, and many express doubts about whether state agencies taking the lead will have a positive effect on reviving the cultural industry. In fact, compared to the efforts made using taxpayers' money, the effectiveness of concretely verified policies is little, and a representative example is the failure of the government-led globalization of Korean food in the early 2010s. In addition, the Korean Wave, which is evaluated as an important resource of soft power, owes much of its success to the efforts and development of the private sector and did not succeed through state-led projects.

As you can see from the history of the development of Korean soft power from the 1990s to the present in the 2020s, the growth of the Korean Wave, represented by the name Hallyu, has been led by the private sector, not the government, and the role of the government is to help the private sector spread the Korean Wave. It only helps to facilitate development and advancement. Also, compared to other countries, Korea does not spend too much of its budget. In the end, the growth of the cultural industry led by the state has its limits, as in any country, and it can only be more effective if led by the private sector.

Nevertheless, in Japan, despite the global box office success, success, and award records of the movie Parasite , “a movie like this was able to come out because of the Korean government’s support for the film industry.” They're just saying nonsense like "Japan made a lot of movies like this, but they didn't take off because they didn't know how to sell them," so there's just no answer. To conclude, it is very difficult in Japan to make films that satirize real society like this. Detailed circumstances are well explained in the Japanese movie/problem document.

Above all, the movie Parasite is a commercial film with social satire . It is a work that can never be created without a perspective that provides insight into the fundamental contradictions of one's society from various angles, a critical view of society, and the consumption power to enable the general public to consume it commercially. It is embarrassing to say that socially revealing works, such as A Family, which Japan is making a fuss about making, are not elaborate satires in the first place, and have been sufficiently consumed in Japan as well.[2][3]

Even in the era of harsh cultural censorship under dictatorial regimes, Korea has developed an eye for indirectly criticizing the government and its policies, and based on this, has built up an eye and ability to metaphorically criticize the absurdity and inequality occurring in the world. will be. On the other hand, in Japan, criticism of the government and its policies is suppressed with the logic that it is 'anti-social' and 'anti-national', and the so-called 'reason' that the citizens themselves must perform 'the duties of members necessary to maintain the country'. 'Ninmae' is so deeply rooted that it is virtually impossible to make social satire films or plays. Currently, Japan is a society in which it is not possible to even mention the Emperor , so the far-fetched logic that a satirical play with a parasite-like character can be made cannot be established.

Nevertheless, some middle-aged Japanese people claim, “We also have the technology and people to make such movies.” Of course, Japan also has a sufficiently capable and talented talent pool, led by coach Hirokazu Kore -eda. However, no matter how it is, young consumers and the general public find works such as A Family uncomfortable and burdensome, and middle-aged and older people criticize them, saying that they expose Japan's shame. Originally, satires and movies that criticize society can be freely produced only when the level of consumers is met, but Japan is currently trying to ignore the absurd aspects of its society and focusing only on live-action films.

Currently in the 21st century, the Korean government's support for content production is focused on 'establishing a foundation for free creation' such as screen quota systems, creative subsidies, and contests. Of course, as of 2024, the screen quota system has decreased significantly over time. It would not be completely wrong to call this 'support from a country that does not exist in Japan', but it is problematic to misanalyze the cause by blaming so-called Cool Japan. Anti-Koreanists set the wrong precondition that Korea spread the Korean Wave by pouring in government-led taxes , and came to the wrong conclusion that Japan can only spread Japanese culture to the world only if Japan also pours in tax money and implements government-led policies.

In addition, there are many incorrect analyzes in the Japanese media that unconditionally refer to the Korean Wave as a national policy. In the late 1990s, when the Korean Wave began to boom, when Kim Dae-jung's People's Government took power, control of the broadcasting sector and culture was gradually dismantled in Korea, and in the 1970s, when the state's controlled influence on broadcasting and culture was strong, In the 1980s, with the exception of some works and songs, Korean culture was barely known outside the world. What the Korean government has tried to promote by investing tax money is not pop culture content, but the promotion of Korean cuisine , but the global recognition of Korean cuisine has only begun to take its first steps in the 2020s.

If we consider this phenomenon in relation to the characteristics of Japan, the starting point can be found in the fact that Japan is a country with very strong elitist and totalitarian tendencies, contrary to the Japanese perception that it is more free and civilian-led than Korea. In other words, I think government officials can design a business in a specific field, and the private sector can simply raise funds or create content as instructed by the Japanese government .

Of course, it is true that the government taking the lead and private companies following was the secret to Japan's rapid growth. In fact, Japan rose to the ranks of developed countries by going all-in on manufacturing in this way until the 1980s after its defeat in World War II, and until the 1990s, Korea's economic officials also achieved rapid growth by imitating much of Japan's methods. However, after the foreign exchange crisis in 1997, Korea's role model for economic development was forced to change from Japan to the United States.

However, even if it is an industry such as manufacturing, this direction does not work easily in the industry of popular culture revival. The heyday of the Japanese cultural industry in the 1980s and 1990s, when it swept across Asia and naturally spread to the West, had nothing to do with government-led support. It grew naturally in the private sector amid fierce competition in the KRW 100 million domestic market. Before the 2000s, the Japanese government had never established a policy to intensively foster the cultural industry or invested a large amount of budget. Simply put, the Japan Expo , which has been held every year in Paris, France since 1999, was an event planned by the private sector targeting a fan base immersed in Japanese culture, and was completely unrelated to the Japanese government. In other words, it was able to grow because the government did not interfere at all.

In addition, there are many criticisms and grounds that the Japanese government's support of 'selecting' culture can be direct cultural regulation. Regarding Cool Japan, Manabu Tsuchimoto, founder of Inside and editor-in-chief of GameBusiness.jp, raised various questions about Cool Japan. He harshly criticized Cool Japan, saying, "There are almost no cases where content that the country invested taxes in created a culture that was successfully evaluated." Therefore, when looking at the level of the Japanese government's capabilities, it can be seen that China, which has much stronger driving force than Japan, which boasts a huge population under the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party , still has not been able to easily show much influence in the field of cultural content.

Conversely, China is being more influenced by Japanese cultural content. Evidence of this is when games or animations made in China preferentially support Japanese rather than English. Games like Azur Lane and Girls' Frontline seem like Japanese games without any explanation that they were developed in China. In other words, just because the government pushes the popular culture industry, it does not mean that it will all succeed, and in fact, it is more likely to fail.

In addition, it was pointed out that it had little relevance to the Japanese government's goal of providing economic benefits to companies, promoting Japan's fashion, music, and food culture to the world, and supporting creators' expansion into overseas markets. Lastly, he indirectly criticized the regulation and censorship of culture, saying that the government's job is not to interfere with private business and creativity rather than providing economic support.

The reality is that high-ranking figures from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 's ruling party, are openly provoking Korea and other neighboring countries with past history issues to their faces. The uncomfortable attitude of politicians makes even Koreans who were interested in Japanese culture turn away. As those with experience participating in anti-Japanese demonstrations during the June 3 Uprising in the 1960s are part of the current ruling class, there are also moments of conflict between them. In the end, 'Why is Cool Japan so hated?' It is said that a book called.

Since the 2000s, Japan is no longer the only advanced country in Asia, nor the only production site of popular culture, and the Japanese tendency abroad is not as strong as it used to be. On the contrary, since the early 2010s, as the alternative right has become popular, there have been more cases of Japanese people being isolated and treated as pedophiles, incels, far-right, and racists. This is a change from the fact that Japanese people were liberal Orientalists who opposed Western white supremacy and Eurocentrism until the late 2000s .[4]

It may be something to be proud of for the Japanese that many elements influenced by Japan remain in foreign cultural content, but the problem is that they are not just accepting Japanese elements, but are starting to develop independently, emerging as new competitors. Also, some Japanese popular cultures are completely out of touch with global trends, and they are not even looking at the phenomenon of their own Galapagos .

On the other hand, this is one of the reasons why anti-Korean and anti-Chinese sentiments are particularly strong in the 21st century . Japan continues to look down on Korea and China, thinking they are still developing countries from decades ago, so it is natural to understand why the industrial products and pop culture content of these two countries, which are 'uncivilized' by their standards, are surpassing Japan's in the global market . They either can't do it or don't even think about understanding it. As a result, they believe that the reason for this is not that they are lacking, but that the governments and companies of each country fabricated it or only pushed it through an offensive in terms of quantity . Right now, from Japanese politicians who have a strong social and cultural influence to intellectuals who have had some experience with universities, they are giving distorted interpretations in this way, so there is simply no answer.

The main logic behind disparaging Korea's technological prowess and popular culture is, "They were made by stealing something from Japan!" , or “We are the first to make it in Japan!” There are cases where an unreasonable claim is made. However, this logic is nothing more than spitting in one's own face. The fact is that Japan, which is no different from the 'original' and 'original owner', is unable to outperform Korea, which they disparaged as an imitation. This is an even more serious problem when you consider that from the beginning, the 'original' has almost no better performance or superior skills and performance than the 'imitator'. In the end, if it is not because of lack of ability or technology, we have no choice but to blame Japan's incompetence and ignorance.

In this way, escapism from reality is maximized, and as a result, it becomes impossible to face reality properly. As a result, "Japan can't be a country that lags behind Korea!!" Like this, ‘faith’ was created based on an unreasonable mental victory. That belief actually led to actions that falsified reality, and the incidents that occurred were the Shinichi Fujimura incident, which caused worldwide disgrace in the archeology world, the pluripotent cell research paper falsification incident , and the Toyota recall incident.[5] , incidents such as the Korea-Japan trade dispute . And, although it is a slightly different case, other Japanese-style other-world films are also examples that reflect this movement. Just by looking at the series of events that are concentrated in the 21st century, when Korean culture is beginning to advance globally, we can see how serious Japan's escape from reality and spiritual victory have reached regardless of class. This is because the Cool Japan movement also misjudged that it would do better if they did the same, due to the delusion that "Korean and Chinese content is making rapid progress simply because the governments of each country are pushing it with volume." This is the result.

Therefore, if the Japanese cannot correct this collective delusion in the future, Japan's culture will decline even further, rather than experiencing a revival.

The current Japanese government promotes cosplay, characters, cartoons, and animation rather than exporting dramas, music, and movies. The area where Japanese culture can be seen as having the strongest advantage abroad is also in the field of subculture. First of all, pop culture has a decreasing position in the domestic market, so there are many problems in pushing it as an export item. The so-called 'subculture' is included in mass culture (popular culture in a narrow sense; culture provided and formed by mass media - e.g., newspapers, magazines, and broadcasting), but pop culture (popular culture in a broad sense, consumed or enjoyed by the majority of people in society). culture) are not included. Otaku have a deep relationship with subcultures.

You may ask, "Haven't fields like Japanese manga, animation, and console games already established themselves in overseas markets?" First of all, Japan's status in this field is still solid, and its export volume is large and its profits are continuously maintained.

However, it may not be the case in the past, but these days, as the trend has changed to Moe- like content, it is easy to cause serious repulsion to those who are not interested in this way, and most of the works are famous for illegal copying , and the size of the 2D animation/manga market in other countries is larger than that of Japan. small. In particular, it is safe to say that content that combines this moe element with sex appeal should almost give up on regular route exports to regions where conservative tax is strong (such as the Islamic world). In the Islamic world, even the Super Board dares to dig up its income just because a dirty pig is talking, and it is often presented as a fingerprint for various tests.

However, it is not at all that Japan is prepared to sell its contents to foreign countries at a low price or turn a blind eye to pirated versions like Korea did. Rather, in Japan, there is a louder voice saying, "We must actively fight copyright infringement, such as illegal distribution." Of course, in principle, it is right to eradicate such illegal activities, but the reality does not always conform to the principles.

For example, looking at computer operating systems , Apple 's OS Although Microsoft is aware that pirated copies of Windows are having a negative impact on its profits, it is not being too aggressive in its efforts to maintain market share. In Lee Won-bok 's ' Diagnosis of Modern Civilization ', while dealing with this issue, there is a scene in which pirate distributors make a red- faced statement to Microsoft, saying, "If it weren't for us, you would have been ruined in the first place."[6]

Even if it is illegal, once people use Windows, they become accustomed to it, which attracts them to potential future customers, or the other way around, such as forcing many software developers to release only Windows-related software using Windows' market share as a weapon. You can increase your income in any way.

As another example, in the past, Napster was a program that could access and use copying very quickly and efficiently, so record labels took a big hit, so DRM was applied, but the damage was actually seen by genuine users who paid for it. There are cases where people who used to use only replicas bought genuine products because they were easy to use by making paid payments very convenient with very simple payments and a simple approach. However, if we ignore this reality and adopt a policy that just kills them unconditionally, the influence of Japanese subcultures that survive overseas will begin to diminish, and there is a possibility that their breath will stop altogether.

There are three main reasons why illegal distribution is rampant. First, foreigners who do not know Japanese do not have many ways to legally view Japanese cartoons and animations, and even here we can see the limitations of this short-sighted policy. For example, Japanese subculture production companies are so small, except for a few large production companies, that it is difficult to produce foreign language translations. However, in the Cool Japan project, the Japanese government provides 'methods for subculture production or sales companies to produce foreign language versions'. There is no news at all like ‘we decided to support’. Second, the content is not officially imported because it is judged to be unhealthy in light of the cultural sentiments or social norms of the importing country . At this point, the value as cultural content is cut in half. Lastly, even in markets where consumers have the ability to pay the regular price, the time it takes to officially export Japanese content is so slow that it often happens that they have no choice but to resort to illegal channels. For almost all Japanese theatrical content, there is no concept of simultaneous release, and it is taken for granted that there is a time lag of several months until the Korean release. This will be described later.

Although the Japanese government supports cartoons and animations, it is also famous for not treating workers in the cultural industry very well and making a mess on the contrary. A plan to 'let illustrators or animators create publicity materials for free' came out in Japan's related parliament, and a famous illustrator said, "I'll put your picture in the Cool Japan catalog, so I'll give you 50,000 yen and an illustration. " Give it up!” The Japanese animation market is already famous for its 3D industry, which is notorious for its long working hours and extortionate labor costs.

Compared to mainstream popular culture such as dramas and movies, it is difficult for animations, cartoons, and games to embrace various classes due to the nature of subcultures. For example, except for works that focused on oriental mystique and martial arts, they were not very popular in the West. Viewers of trendy dramas or historical dramas can be men and women of all ages who watch TV as a hobby. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe , famous for his dislike of Korea , and his wife, Akie Abe, also watch Korean dramas. There were even rumors that Ms. Akie was a hidden Hallyu drama otaku, but it turned out to be true. After the relationship between Korea and Japan cooled down, these references simply disappeared. This is because anime viewers are likely to be formed only among some young people who like subcultures.

Half-jokingly and half-seriously, the idea of ​​presenting pornography such as Japanese AV as Cool Japan's content once appeared. Of course, that is never feasible. It would not be legally easy to export obscene materials led by the state, and it goes against Cool Japan's basic purpose of renewing Japan's image . Besides, it's not just Japan that makes porn.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out that the strategy of Cool Japan Fund (CJ) is not effective at all. Most of the 18 projects that were invested in over the four years after the launch of the project far fell short of expectations , and even though a whopping 45.9 billion yen was allocated from the government budget in 2017 alone, the investment agenda was largely unclear. In fact , it is pointed out that it is a waste of tax .

Unlike Hallyu, Cool Japan has no clear goals or content. The Japanese government has not yet decided which areas of culture to focus on exporting. Even Japan itself doesn't know what to advertise, so things that have nothing in common, such as Hatsune Miku , Doraemon, Hello Kitty , flower arrangement , ramen , and toilets (?), coexist among the targets of publicity. Japanese who like to travel often use portable washlets (the Japanese name for a bidet ) when going abroad where the standard of toilet facilities is poor. In Korea, portable bidets are often toilet-only wet wipes, but in Japan, several types of portable bidets are sold. At this point, I don't know what I want to appeal to before the specifics of the strategy.

Japanese bureaucrats who had no interest in the field of leading international trends are now leading the Cool Japan business as a national policy, so their ability to select content is significantly reduced. At least, even on the side that positively encourages the cultural industry, such as Korea, 'What is the government doing? They're the people who will catch their ankles', and Japan will do the same or more, as negative reactions are considerable.

Minister Tomomi Inada, an official of Cool Japan, introduced the goth loli look to France , claiming that it was a garment that embodies the tradition of Japan 's Junihitoe . At that time, the minister himself came out wearing a goth loli look. It is not the traditional clothing of the country, but it is introducing subculture fashion from Europe, which is not popular or general purpose, to Europe, the origin of Japan. Junihitoe is an ancient Japanese aristocratic female costume in which several layers of unlined clothes are worn. Lolita fashion, which was influenced by modern European costumes and romanticism, and goth look fashion, which started in Europe from the beginning, of course have nothing to do with traditional Japanese clothing.

In the second volume of the Japanese edition of <New Distant Neighbors > published in 2000, Professor Lee Won- bok, an educated cartoonist, also pointed out that "Japan prides itself on being an open country that actively accepts the world's culture, but it is also difficult to achieve globalization ." Japan's unique culture, which has been universalized worldwide, is limited to some fashion design elements of yukata and sushi (rolls) . Perhaps that is why Toyota and Nissan are also trying to shed their Japanese colors by launching 'Lexus' and 'Infinity' brands, respectively.

In this way, even though the purpose is to spread Japanese popular culture abroad, the naming sense, which is tantamount to aggressively looking down on other countries, is rather easy to cause rejection rather than goodwill in neighboring countries. Even in various fields, including the Japanese political world, "The name 'Cool Japan' is so strange and disgusting. To say that they are cool means that they are not cool," they say, countless times .

The overseas market that Cool Japan tried to enter first is Southeast Asia , where the culture of the United States and Korea has already spread widely through YouTube and Google , and is taking the lead. Japanese content is relatively weak to deal with the content of the British and American cultural sphere, which has become a daily routine beyond fashion.

Japan has a competitive edge in the animation and cartoon market in Southeast Asia, but pop culture that leads overall life trends, such as music, movies, and broadcasting, is still dominated by Western content . The next most influential are Korean contents. In China, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, etc., preference for Korean dramas, music, and entertainment is second only to English-speaking content, and preference for Japanese content other than cartoons and animations is clearly behind that of the West and Korea. Rather, now it is time to worry that Japan will not be pushed behind by rapidly growing Chinese content before catching up with the West and Korea.

It is not for nothing that Japan uses the Korean Wave as a comparison model and rival to Cool Japan. Even though Japan doesn't want to admit it, it is a fact they are reluctantly acknowledging. Foreign countries conclude that "Japan was jealous after seeing the success of the Korean Wave with its own eyes and created the Cool Japan policy," and Japan itself should never deny that fact. The Economist 's article on the topic of Cool Japan also introduces policies with Cool Britannia as a motif, and the stories in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry documents are all related to the Korean Wave .

Cool Japan's 2019 budget was 58 billion yen (KRW 600 billion), while Korea's Conjinwon's 2019 budget is less than 400 billion won. In other words, they are spending more money on Cool Japan than on all of Korea's cultural promotion projects. In Korea, in the early 2000s, the Kim Dae-jung government aggressively invested in cultural promotion, with an annual budget of less than 10 billion won.

Considering that Korea's national income at the time was around 9,000 dollars, it should be considered that about 30 to 35 billion won was invested considering inflation . Currently, the national income of Korea is about 30,000 dollars. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, during the Kim Dae-jung administration, the minimum hourly wage was about 2,000 won and the bus fare was about 400 won. As of 2019, the minimum hourly wage is 8350 won, and the bus fare is 1100 won for the village bus . Of course, even taking that into consideration, it is only about 7% of the money Japan spent.

The reason why the budget was allocated so unnecessarily is that the Cool Japan Organization does not stop at playing the role of a supporter like the Korea Creative Content Agency, but also functions as a commanding department that determines and oversees all promotional targets, content, and strategies. However, the organization that actually decides the direction to spend the budget has only about 70 executives and employees, and even their professionalism and teamwork are evaluated as a mess. Even, in 2017, whistleblowing allegations that executives sexually harassed female employees broke out. ( Bloomberg (English) / Asahi (Japanese) )

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in Korea . This is in contrast to Korea's Content Agency, which is under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In addition, there are only 70 employees, but the number of employees working in CJ Group, a conglomerate that invests a large amount in Korea's cultural industry, or affiliated organizations, of course, is 70, and the number of employees is much higher than that of Cool Japan.

However, the funny thing is that there is no organization like the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US or the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Japan for areas that require a powerful central control tower, such as infectious diseases . 460 billion won is about 30 to 40 percent of the annual tax revenue of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the end, Japan suffered disgrace internationally after the Ministry of Health and Welfare and local governments played separately and wandered around in the face of the COVID-19 crisis .

As of the 2010s, Japanese content is in a state where the capacity of popular culture is weakened compared to the 1980s and 1990s, when the economy was at its heyday, and even the domestic market is criticized for stagnating and regressing. I am not easily able to appeal. As a representative example, looking at animation, which could be said to be Japan's national industry in the 1970s, in the 2010s, many works that are only popular with so-called otaku are being released. A representative problem is that the number of commercial works that rely only on female characters or Moe attributes rather than their own storytelling or artistic quality is increasing.

Eventually, Gundam's father Yoshiyuki Tomino also pointed out this problem. In addition, contents that cannot be understood without proper knowledge of Japanese cultural codes have begun to increase, and even the contents are becoming poor.

It is true that the demand for these pretty girl films cannot be ignored, and the profits in the animation market are increasing, so the animation market is booming in quantitative terms. In the animation market, Japan still ranks second after the United States, and since many Japanese works are consumed and liked overseas, it is true that their influence on the public is no less than during the heyday. For more details, refer to the article ‘Even though movies, dramas, and J-pop are all dead… why Japanese animation is doing well’ . In particular, overseas exports increased, exceeding KRW 10 trillion in 2019. Additionally, since the mid-2010s, the number of works targeting popularity has been increasing again. Of course, the problem is that the impact is still small compared to the size of the industry.

In addition, Japanese films have already lost their reputation in the past, which exerted influence even in the Western world, and due to the limitations of the production system that revolves around sponsors, the reality is that they are mass-produced cheap and low-level films and are criticized a lot in their own countries. Even the American version of Godzilla , which was produced in the United States, was evaluated as a masterpiece rather than the original work. In particular, in the case of the American version of Godzilla, it is unique in that it is promoted as an object of awe rather than a monster who does destruction by adding a character such as the absolute power of nature that transcends humans, rather than as a monster mutated by simple radiation.

It is also related to the characteristics of the Japanese content market, where income from content does not go to field producers such as directors and actors as the budget invested in content production decreases day by day. Hirofumi Arai , a famous Japanese movie star, criticized the reality that the Japanese film industry is gradually regressing.( # )

In addition, it is a problem to think about that all live-action movies based on cartoons are going to fail. Compared to the works of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which are realistically recreated based on cartoons, the fact that it is criticized as a cosplay show is criticized for lack of awareness of filmization. enough for Still, if you turn your eyes to art films, there is an opinion that the Japanese film industry , which had long forgotten its past reputation and was stagnant, began to gain momentum again after 21 years when a family of Hirokazu Kore- eda won the Palme d'Or , but Japan's domestic market and political circles If you think about being completely shunned by "Well, let's come?" Only the same reaction comes out. Even that contains the same social criticism, and the social criticism was not sophisticated enough to the parasite level that is so ferocious in Japan, and it is incomparable at the box office level.

The game industry, which had not seen the light due to being pushed by the North American market, was also in its heyday, with works such as Nier: Automata and Super Mario Odyssey receiving favorable reviews from critics and being evaluated as masterpieces, such as the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild winning the Game of the Year award. It also announced the revival of Japanese games. In other words, it is true that a lot of Japanese content from the 2000s to the early 2010s was sluggish in terms of quality and popularity, but since then, it has been resurrected by regaining its past glory in a number of fields, so it is difficult to assert that the current situation is unconditionally bad. Anyway, in the past and now, Japan is still a game powerhouse.

However, the game sector also has an absolute limit due to its unique Galapagosization. In a situation where the Japanese game market is thoroughly focused on consoles, Japanese games have no choice but to be very narrow in terms of genre, such as adventure or RPG, which are easy to respond to pads. Koei, one of the leading titles in the Japanese game world The situation in which the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series struggled beyond the limits of the console response system and was being beaten without an answer as soon as the outstanding competitor titled Total War: Three Kingdoms came out symbolically shows this while it was just maintained by inertia in Korea, which was the existing major market.

In a discussion program comparing Korean idols and Japanese idols, a Korean panelist said, "It is true that we started by benchmarking Japanese idols in Korea, but after developing to a certain level, we judged that this trend had no future, so we turned our eyes to North America." He also threw a stone fastball . However, strictly speaking, Korea's benchmarking of Japanese idols is limited to public relations and marketing. Basically, K-POP started from the influence of the British and American music world represented by Seo Taiji and Boys. There are cases in which fire truck groups are mentioned, but they were only passing singers in a short period of time, and the actual singers who had a great influence on K-POP are Seo Taiji and Boys .

If you look closely at this discussion video, unlike the Korean panelists, most of whom are in the Korean entertainment industry , the Japanese panelists do not have any serious answers, perhaps because there are few experts with deep knowledge of the music market. Jira became even more chaotic. In this way, we can see how distorted and distorted the current Japanese people are about the cause of the global popularity of the Korean wave.

In fact, it should also be taken into account that Japanese people react too sensitively to praising Korea on TV as Japan's shift to the right has been prolonged . It's okay to introduce and explain Korean culture, but if you go one step further and praise Korea even a little bit, viewers will say, "Then Japan is behind you?" It's because the road is running rampant while saying.

In the papers, columns, or discussions dealing with Cool Japan, there are not many articles pointing out the lack of Japanese content. Most of them said, 'Japanese content is not known because of marketing failure.' It often ends with the wrong conclusion, 'The quality of Japanese content is excellent.' It was just a desk discussion based on the same premise, and not a conclusion obtained from an investigation in a foreign country. Unlike Japan, in Korea, the trend of the content market is investigated every year, and regular surveys are conducted to thoroughly analyze and investigate foreigners' preferences. However, this part has been steadily being conducted under the leadership of the Cabinet Office for several years.

It is also pointed out that in Japan, there is a widespread problem that the government, companies, and human resources producing content do not want the challenge of 'export' at all and are complacent with the reality. Even if Japanese broadcasting stations try to export just one show program broadcasting rights to a foreign country, they often run into dozens of legal regulations, and handling copyright issues is also very difficult.

Japan has not unified copyright due to its unique custom. Therefore, when trying to sell a particular work, it is necessary to go to the consent of all relevant copyright holders one by one. Let's say you sell the rights to a TV show. Starting with the producer, scriptwriter, and performer, consent must be sought individually for the person who created the BGM briefly inserted in the middle of the show. What if the copyright owner moved abroad or quit work long ago and can't be contacted? You have to do it until you do. Of course, dealing with copyright in this way can only take years.

Companies are so passive about exporting that they are reluctant to even put foreign language subtitles or dubbing on their content. After all, I have no interest in markets that are unlikely to turn profitable quickly. In other words, if you don't think you'll get what you pay for, you're not going to sell anything.

However, the copyright law is very strict, making it difficult for people living abroad to legally purchase or view Japanese content. This is in stark contrast to Korea's continued infiltration into foreign markets by exporting dramas and movies at low prices. In the end, as the pace of unraveling legal regulations without aggressive overseas exports has slowed down, overseas people's access to Japanese content continues to decline. Even the US, which has a market size several times that of Japan, has a higher ratio of foreign demand than Japan. As of 2015, the share of content exports in the US was 17.8% of total imports, and that of Japan was around 8%.

For example, looking at the major Japanese theatrical animations released in 2023, The First Slam Dunk was officially released in Korea one month after its Japanese release, but Suzume's Lockdown and The Lonely Castle in the Looking Glass were released in four months, and How Do You Guys Live in three months . It wasn't until months later that it was released, and even this was considered very quick for a Japanese film . Then, instead of being considerate of this late schedule, they end it like a knife according to the schedule in Japan, so we end up having to suck our fingers until the official VOD or OTT is released.[7][8] Not only for movies, but also for related events and goods, the work process and licensing are very conservative, so even if a pop-up store is opened, the Japanese side's confirmation is delayed, so the announced goods are not displayed on time, or the contents of events such as exhibitions are poor. There are also funny things that happen, such as things increasing one by one as you start .

If Cool Japan wants to succeed, the first thing that needs to be corrected is the extremely domestic demand-oriented attitude of private capital, but the government is trying to carry out cultural export policies while embracing this domestic demand orientation. However, as mentioned above, only in the field of games, animation, and cartoons, internationalization is currently actively taking place.

As you can see from the outline of this document, Cool Japan's original purpose was to spread Japanese culture to foreign countries. However, as can be seen from the reactions and various data in Japan in the 2020s, it was a failure overseas, and it can be easily confirmed that most of the results achieved were through domestic consumption. To put it simply, this was the exact opposite of Cool Japan's original goal .

As you can see from the trend of Cool Japan, at first, efforts were mainly made to spread mass culture such as kimonos and tea ceremony overseas. However, the result was a huge failure, and the only thing that worked was subculture. Because of this, Cool Japan became virtually meaningless as it was perceived as ‘the rise of a subculture = patriotic business in Japan’.

Japanese people have a strong tendency to perceive only Japanese products as special, superior, and safe ( much more than they do in foreign countries such as Korea) . As can be seen in data comparing Japanese people's tendency to consume domestic and foreign products, Japanese people often strongly believe that Japanese products are treated the same as German or French products.Just by searching for 国産信仰, you can easily find articles criticizing this phenomenon (written by experts in Japan), but the reality is that this praise of domestic products is very deep-rooted in Japan.

The fact that Cool Japan is a policy that has worked better within Japan than abroad shows well the characteristics of Japan. In a situation where kimonos and tea ceremony are introduced to foreign countries and the response is poor, if you praise Japanese pop culture in front of Japanese people, they will say, "I'm Japanese too, but what should I do if foreign kids don't like those things?" Because it only received a moderate response, it probably didn't last long. In comparison, in subculture, a large number of new animations and comics are released every year, and a market has been formed in which people who are into subculture continuously consume them regardless of nationality. Thanks to this, the market size of subculture is the only one in Japanese culture that has grown (regardless of Cool Japan).

For the government, which must somehow find results from its national projects, since animations are made in Japan, simply adding Cool Japan on top of them somehow completes the table of results. The government paid attention to this and took the initiative to change the image of otakus, which it had previously looked down on, 180 degrees.

It may be hard to imagine Japan in the 2020s, where anime goods are everywhere just by going to the convenience store in front of your house, but until the early 2000s (the early days of Cool Japan), Japan still had a very strong hatred of otaku culture. This is because it was a time when social problems such as economic stagnation due to severe aging and the younger generation becoming hikikomori , otaku , and NEET were at their peak. The Japanese government created a stereotype to encourage society to ostracize otaku in order to encourage greater participation in the labor market. The word otaku, which contains the image of a person who does not do any proper work but stays indoors and only plays games or watches anime, was created during this period. It is established in This image was created by various news reports treating otakus confined at home as problem children and reporting on children who love animation committing murder because they could not stand it after being bullied at school. Therefore, it was from here that otaku and mass media in Japan began to regard each other as enemies.

Then, at some point, when the Japanese government realized that there was no other Japanese culture that was popular in other countries other than animation, it reversed its previous attitude and started to promote “Otaku culture is Japan’s pride and major industry!” This is a completely different attitude from the time when people looked down on him for quite a long time, and ironically, this was possible because otaku are the ones who consume the most mass media in Japan.

In just 10 years since the 2010s, the view on otaku in Japan has improved somewhat compared to before, but as many people know, in the 2010s, most male NEETs and otakus were rounded up and treated as human trash or net right-wingers. However, in the 2020s, he was portrayed as a patriot who ‘loved domestic products and actively protected Japanese culture.’ It's better than the days when people were criticized simply for liking games or being an animation fan, but this clearly shows how the Japanese government and business community's control of public opinion (using mass media) can be frighteningly smooth. Like the hatred of otaku before Cool Japan and the anti-Korean craze after it, any phenomenon can be easily promoted or destroyed through propaganda depending on the needs of the political world.

In the end, the consumption tendency of 'Japanese people's preference for domestic products beyond imagination' remained the same, unable to change, so Cool Japan's policy of favoring domestic products also stuck to being consumed only in Japan, not overseas. Simply put, this means that even if a product sold only to its own citizens has “made in japan” written on it, they will consume it. This is possible because the country has a strong domestic market in many ways. It is easy for a domestic company to grow, but it is difficult to maintain a strong domestic consumption trend, but in Japan, the exact opposite is often seen.

In fact, economically, there is nothing bad about this phenomenon. As a result, it had some impact on reducing the decline in consumption by turning around the domestic economy and also helped to stabilize domestic demand. However, since there was no reason to focus on the subculture market domestically, the original purpose of spreading culture overseas failed miserably.

In any case, otakus, who were no longer criticized by others, began to actively consume animation, and as investors and companies naturally flocked to the industry, which became bigger as a result, it could see tremendous quantitative growth from the 2010s. there was. However, a large number of Chinese investors came in at that time, and the Japanese animation industry was ultimately forced to bow down to Chinese money . At the same time, praise for Japanese culture appears at least once in various other-worldly works set with medieval Western motifs, and the life of an otaku is often reflected in everyday works such as Dried Fish Little Sister Umaru .

In 2014, NHK regularly broadcasts a program called 'Cool Japan Discovering Wonderful Japan' through BS1 and World Premium Channel. Mostly, foreigners living in Japan are invited as guests, and the production team presents some cool topic related to Japan, and the MC and the guests chat about the topic. This can be thought of as if there are no gender restrictions on programs such as Chatter of Beautiful Women or Abnormal Summit , which gather friendly foreigners who are friendly to Korea and hold a talk show .

However, even the chatter between the beauties and the non-summit meeting were by no means such a gukbong-only broadcast like Japan. Considering that it only glosses over the absurd things that can be seen in Korea from time to time, Korean culture that is difficult to understand, and the advantages of other countries over Korea, the quality is much lower than that of Korean public broadcasting programs.

There is an attraction called Cool Japan in Fuji-Q Highland . As the name suggests , put it in cool water.

It is said that there is Cool Korea in Korea.[11]

It was revealed in 2017 that the Cool Japan project, which had been promoted by the Japanese government , had a deficit of 4.4 billion yen. Most of the projects invested by the 'Industrial Innovation Organization', a public-private fund that introduces ' excellent Japanese culture ' overseas and supports exports of comics, animation, food, and fashion, failed to produce any results, and 6 out of 14 funds suffered losses . ( # ) The government-controlled film company was sold to the private sector without producing any results since its establishment, resulting in a loss of over 2.2 billion yen.

Until 2017, the public-private funds invested in the Cool Japan organization far exceeded 50 billion yen , but it was revealed that it suffered a serious deficit to the extent that more than 40% of the investment agenda was passed over. #

Even Malaysia, which opened in 2016 and was jointly operated by Cool Japan Organization and Mitsukoshi Isetan Holdings. The "Japanese department store" in Kuala Lumpur is a base for disseminating Japanese culture abroad, and it has products and sake that convey pop culture such as traditional handicrafts, clothing, and anime, and was intended to be used as a center for dissemination of Japanese culture, but it was unexpected. The sales struggle continued, and in 2017, sales fell far below the target, resulting in a loss of 500 million yen, and it is said that the Cool Japan organization gave up all stock in the company that ran the store and withdrew. Cool Japan, Malaysia Withdrawal from Japanese department stores, successive highs and lows for every investment... The 'Cool Japan Strategy' creaks

Some people talk about the Japanese tourism industry as a success story of Cool Japan, but most of the investment agenda of the Cool Japan Organization (abbreviated as CJ), which is the center of the Cool Japan business, has nothing to do with tourism. CJ's goals were mostly focused on increasing content exports, expanding overseas markets, and disseminating information overseas, not improving domestic tourism facilities, and rather leaving the tourism business to the private sector as before. In the end, it is a business that has nothing to do with Cool Japan’s purpose. In the first place, the tourism industry itself is an industry that must be activated in the private sector even if it is not necessarily encouraged by the government.

Basically, the expansion of tourism revenue is due to the large increase in the number of tourists visiting Japan. Most of the tourists who have increased like this are Asians. The period when the value of the yen fell coincided with the period when people in developing Asian countries began to travel abroad. Coincidentally, Koreans have the idea, "It is cheaper to go to Japan because domestic travel destinations are expensive."

The foreigners who make up the overwhelming majority of tourists visiting Japan are Koreans and Chinese. Coincidentally, Japan ranks first among the ‘overseas travel destinations people want to visit’ among people from these two countries. First of all, it’s close and it doesn’t cost a lot of money. What is noteworthy is that neither Korea nor China are among the countries targeted by the Cool Japan policy. Emerging markets in Asia and North America and Europe. Korea and China were benchmarking targets and competition targets. The point is that there is no special policy aimed at a specific target.

Rather, various economic factors, the increase in overseas travel demand in Korea and China, the Japanese tourism industry's own efforts to attract tourists, and the Korean government's policy to expand the LCC market in a timely manner created synergy. It is reasonable to see that In the case of the Korean drama Iris , which was reborn as a great tourist destination after being filmed overseas in Akita Prefecture , Japan, the Japanese government did not play a big role.

On the other hand, the reality that Korea-Japan tourism demand has been hitting the bottom for more than half a year due to Korea's boycott of Japan in 2019 shows well that the recent Japanese tourism industry has been maintained by a kind of inertia. Here in 2020, while risking the opposition of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and other cabinets, Japan imposed a blitz of visa restrictions on Korea and China in an instant.

Compared to the 1970s and 1990s, when the Japanese economy was in its heyday, the influence of Japanese culture has shrunk compared to that of the British and American cultures, and Japan is no longer the only culture exporter in Asia or a creator of popular culture. To assert that, the number of competing countries, such as Korea and China, with capital and the ability to create independent content has also increased. Since Cool Japan was launched in the 2010s, it has not improved until now, many years later. ( Article from 2017 )

Of course, as of 2018, Japan's cultural influence is ranked 5th in the world in Falklands Soft Power and 6th in the world in US News, a famous American weekly. The fact that it is still the best cultural power in Asia remains unchanged. However, in some areas of popular culture, such as movies, dramas, and popular music, it can no longer be called an unrivaled number one. While it is true that Japanese culture still exudes a significant presence in Asia, its soft power is not as dominant as it once was.

In fact, Japan did not start Cool Japan, a national public relations strategy, in fear of losing the No. 1 spot in Asia to other countries. After realizing that they would regret it if they neglected their efforts to increase their soft power by settling for first place, they belatedly took out their trump card of cultural promotion at the national level . The problem, however, is that the main body ( the Japanese government ) doing the publicity does not know the situation in the foreign market at all, and the publicity system is only conducted through exhibition administration. #

If you look at a 2015 article in The atlantic in which an Australian reporter in Tokyo introduces Japan's Cool Japan policy, it is in fact an article criticizing the Cool Japan policy. The comparison that Korea has far surpassed Cool Japan is a bonus, and it also contains cynical reviews such as "Japan is the only country where Cool Japan is currently booming." When analyzing Cool Japan in a foreign country, " It was created with the Korean Wave in mind, but it is an ambiguous national policy whose achievements and awareness fall far short of the Korean Wave." is often evaluated as

According to an article dated August 19, 2019, the Cool Japan organization reported a cumulative deficit of 17.9 billion yen or a loss due to lack of performance. #

In 2024, the goal was to increase domestic content exports, including comics and games, to 20 trillion yen (approximately 177 trillion won) by 2033, more than four times the current level. #