Jonathan Phan

JAPN 308
9/27/2017

Reading Reflection: 2

One of the articles I have chosen to write about is “Japan’s Gross National Cool” By

Douglas McGray. The article was talking about how Japan’s “culture” plays into their

economics. It also talked about how it played into things such as its cultural influence around the

world and what is their own cultural identity within Japan.

“Instead of collapsing beneath its political and economic misfortunes, Japan's global

cultural influence has only grown.” (McGray pg.47) Japan has gone through a cycle of

misfortunes and fortunes. Japan’s “culture” has reached nearly all countries, because of this

Japan was able to create a worldwide influence. One of the biggest, and well known examples,

would be “Hello Kitty”.

“Hello Kitty is Western, so she will sell in Japan. She is Japanese, so she will sell in the

West.” (McGray pg.50) this excerpt is a prime example of how Japan as become one of the

world’s most powerful economic super power. Most of the Japanese market is tailored to

targeted groups, mainly young people. Many young Japanese Citizens are very obsessed with

Western Cultures. Because of this, Hello Kitty was created as a character to represent the

English. This however, does not translate well in a western environment. That is why when Hello

Kitty began to come to places such as The US, she was representing Japan. This was one of the

things that helped Japan gain much more influence globally, but it also created a new problem

for the Japanese.

 Something like “Hello Kitty” was created in Japan to represent western cultures, and then

got exported to represent Japan. Because of this, Japan now has a dilemma in trying to show

what “Japanese Culture” is. “The Sumo Association sells no official merchandise, at home or

abroad.”(McGray pg.50) The reason being is, Sumo is a traditional and authentic “Japanese

Culture” . If it were to change in order to gain more influence worldwide, than it will no longer

be an authentic “Japanese Culture”. This is why some things such as Sumo, that represents

“Japanese Culture” ends up being being a bit obscure to those who do not actually follow the

sport. On a worldwide scale this group of Sumo followers are heavily outnumbered by followers

of other “Japanese Culture”, for example Otaku.

Another Article I have chosen to write about is “ Japan - Otacool Nation Trends of

Japanese Otaku Youth” by Joseph Britton. This article talks about a group of people who identify

as Otaku, but focuses the group who are in Japan. Otaku can be a large group, depending on

what category the person in question identifies with. “refers to a fanatic with the character traits

of a geek or nerd.” (Britton pg.12) These can range from anything from gamers to those who are

into robotics.

Otaku use to have a bad connotation, especially in the 1980’s, but as time has passed,

many other people have adopted the word. Britton wrote about his experience about talking with

Osaka Prefecture University Professor Nobuhiro Sugimura, whom is known for his work with/on

IMES. “Professor Sugimura believes that as Japanese have grown up with robots, there is a level

of comfort and admiration.” (Britton pg.15) This is an example of one of the subcategories of

Otaku, that Britton wrote about.

 In my opinion, groups such as Otaku, drove Japan into its power state. There are many

things that has been created for the Japanese market, by the Japanese. Many of these things have

cultural influence of cultures outside of Japan. It is when these things get adopted to be

consumed by foreign culture, Japan may begin to struggle to show what is their own national

culture. In my opinion this creates a dilemma for Japan when trying to show what should

represent them. They have already seen how successful the results of adapting something like

“Hello Kitty” was. Because of this, they know that if they want something traditionally Japanese

to become popular, they must adapt it for a foreign market. However, when it comes to

something such as Sumo, it is almost a taboo to change what it is just to create a foreign market.