Speech Story

 According to Lucy Craft, a CBS news correspondent, Japan has become a pop-culture oasis based on anime and manga.

Craft talked to students about this new wave of pop-culture at 6 p.m. Friday at the Center for Undergraduate Education. Craft has covered social and political trends throughout Asia and is currently based in Tokyo, Japan. “Japan is involved in what is known as the ‘cool Japan’ promotion strategy,” said Craft. She described ‘otaku’ as the Japanese word for ‘nerd.’ Otaku describes people with a deep passion and obsessive interest in anime, manga and video games.

Pop-culture consists of Pokémon, Sailor Moon and Hello Kitty. Japan has generated a ‘creative industries promotions office’ whose goal is to turn Japan into a pop-culture paradise and market it around the world.

Anime and manga made its mark in Japan after World War II. Japan was hungry for western culture, especially in the comic books brought over by soldiers that contained animated cartoons from Walt Disney. Osamu Tezuka was the ‘god’ of anime and manga as he pioneered the Japanese style of cartoons. He drew comics similar to sketches of frames for a film. “We have a comic culture here, but over there they have different aspects of a comic culture,” said Joshua Hardy an Asian Studies major.

Akihabara, Japan, is well known as a nerd paradise. The area is filled with stores that sell the hottest new games, costumes, and manga. “Akihabara is the one place in town for geeks to hang out, they don’t have to dress well or even take a bath!” said Craft jokingly. There are Mai cafes where girls greet the customers by saying “welcome master” and serve comfort food such as macaroni and cheese. Akihabara is so popular, the name is used in a famous music group called AKB48: 48 girls who sing, dance, and explore the fantasy world of nerds.

Not all Japanese are fans of the nerd culture. In the 1980s there was a serial killer known as the ‘otaku murderer’ who was a pedophile obsessed with anime. There are 2-D Otaku who prefer romance with cartoon characters rather then humans. This phenomenon has created concerns among the Japanese culture. More and more young people are not getting married and having kids. Many Japanese believe this 2-D trend is to blame.

Japan is extremely sensitive to what other countries around the world think of them.  They are very interested in making friends and influencing people. Joseph Nye, a professor of international relations, calls this concept ‘soft-power’ or the countries ability to attract others through cooperation and attraction. “I never thought of Japan using their culture to deal with politics,” said Kaho Tsang, a WSU student. “I thought it was just pop culture, like how we view football in America.”

Craft hopes that Japan will use this cool image to move on to more important issues facing their country such as immigration reform and tackling the greenhouse gas matter. “What if Japan could reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020 like they promised?” said Craft. “Now that would be really cool. That will make Japan really cool.”

3 questions for Lucy Craft:

1.     How did Japan go from big and scary like Godzilla, to cute and small like Hello Kitty?

2.     Have there been anymore major hate-crimes against otaku in Japan?

3.     Why are the young Japanese no longer interested in studying abroad?