The origins and strategies of Japanese soft power are rather interesting in comparison to that of other nation states. Particularly in contrast to the other countries perceived as powerful in terms of soft power. Japan was ranked 5^th in the 2018 Soft Power 30, yet Matsui claims that it was not until 2002, from an external source, that Japan really realized the power of it’s national branding or “gross cool” (82).  He hypothesized that this is largely due to the fact that anime and manga were stigmatized by the government despite their large appeal abroad (85).  After the United States wrote about such media artifacts being ‘cool’, they were able to reconcile their previous internalized stigma about anime as positive representation. Therefore intentional foreign diplomacy based on the spread of culture is fairly new in Japan. There was a large morning period in the 90s during an economic recession known as the lost decade. While Japan was losing some of it’s edge economically it was still doing well with its cultural influence through the private sector. Particularly with the series Pokémon, which became known around the world in the early 2000’s.  Pokemon had a tv series, a video game, a trading card game, and quite a few movies. However, this series was mainly for young people. The Japanese government did not really take into account just how big the market could be and what it could do for the Japanese name worldwide.

Around the same time Disney, one of the largest and influential enterprises in the world was making a contract with one of the best and most popular anime film studios in Japan, Studio Ghibli. Again, thanks to private enterprises and Disney’s English dubbing and marketing of the 2001 hit “Spirited Away,” Japanese culture in the western world was thriving. This foreign film went on to win the best animated film award, beating Disney’s own original creation, “Lilo & Stitch”.  In 2002, the prime Minister spoke of Spirited Away and really decided that it was important to promote Japanese content and culture abroad. Thus, in 2004 the Intellectual Property Headquarters of Japan established a group dedicated to cultivating and distributing what they referred to as ‘content’ abroad. Japanese officials had noticed that the United States and many European countries were making profits from intentional marketing of cultural products (Matsui 87). After the decision was made to follow suit, the Ministry of Economic Trade and industry (METI) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) made direct efforts to promote ‘Japanese cool’ abroad in hopes of seeing economic success as well as simply creating a positive image of japan in the minds of others. Examples of efforts made by the foreign affairs center include the world cosplay summit and the international manga award and appointed anime ambassadors as well as a team of ‘kawaii taishi’ (cutesness ambassors) (90).

However, as previous mentioned a lot of Japanese media was already being spread abroad through the private sector without government direction or involvement. One major example of this phenomenon was the popularization of Hayao Miyazaki’s film, “Spirited Away,” translated and marketed to western audiences in 2001. This film went on to win several awards including a 2003 Oscar and international film festival golden bear in Berlin. While this film was one of the foundational reasons for the “Japanese Gross Cool” article to have been written, Miyazaki himself stated that he simply had a desire to be creative and captivate and educate his audience and does not care who watches the films or why  (Nasier).  Napier explains that Miyazaki is trying simply to tell stories through the medium of Japanese animation and he does this in a way that relates to the universal human experience. As Nye said, the best propaganda is not propaganda and Miyazaki was never trying to be cool or partake in diplomatic action. Anime became part of “Japan’s gross cool” because it was unique and interesting compared to other forms of animation, not because the government cultivated it to be sold to the masses. Miyazaki and his films became popular because he didn’t care what people thought. He just wanted to tell stories… and people, all over the world, just wanted to hear them.

Works Cited

Matsui, Takeshi. “Nation Branding through Stigmatized Popular Culture: The “Cool Japan” Craze Among Central Minitieries in Japan”. The Hitotsubashi Journal of Commeerce and Managemnet 48, Tokyo, 2014, pp. 81 – 97.

Napier, Susan. “The Enchantment of Estrangement: The Shojo in the World of Miyazaki Hayao”. Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle: experiencing contemporary Japanese animation (revised edition)”, Palgrave, New York, 2010, pp. 151 – 169.

Nye, Joseph. “The Information Revolution and Soft Power”. Current History 113(759), Cambridge, 2014, pp. 19-22.