Abstract
Japan is seeking to project its “soft power” through the allure of manga and anime in its public diplomacy. The production, diffusion and global consumption of manga and anime are driven by market forces and consumer tastes and not by the Japanese state. However, the latter is seeking to harness this popular culture to burnish Tokyo’s international image. Despite the attractiveness of Japanese pop culture and other more traditional forms of public diplomacy, Tokyo’s pursuit of “soft power” and a good international image is undermined by its failure to overcome its burden of history.
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Notes
See Matt Thorn, “Japan: The Hollywood of Manga”, Japan Echo, April 2006 and the special feature titled: “Manga Mania” in Japan Plus: Asia-Pacific Perspectives, Vol.4, No.11, March 2007, pp.3-21. Interestingly, Kyoto Seika University has established the nation’s first faculty of manga in 2006. The Kyoto International Manga Museum has also been set up in the same city.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, Diplomatic Bluebook 2006, p.208
“Japan pitches pop culture for diplomacy”, Reuters, 28 April 2006. <http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=id=638972006&format=print> (Accessed:15 February 2007). See The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “A New Look at Cultural Diplomacy: A Call to Japan’s Cultural Practitioners: Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Aso at Digital Hollywood University”, 28 April 2006.
Ibid.
“Pop culture takes center stage in Japanese diplomacy”, Kyodo News, 22 December 2006.
“Aso eyes comic-book heroes to rescue diplomacy”, Asahi Shimbun, asahi.com, 8 January 2007. Besides manga and anime, J-pop, video games, fashion and TV serials are also popular among Asian youths.
See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Policy Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso to the 166th Session of the Diet”, 26 January 2007.
On Japanese cultural icons, see Saya S. Shiraishi, “Japan’s Soft Power: Doraemon Goes Overseas” in Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi (eds), Network Power: Japan and Asia (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997) and David Leheny, “A Narrow Place to Cross Swords: ‘Soft Power’ and the Politics of Japanese Popular Culture in East Asia” in Peter J. Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi (eds), Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2006). For a special issue on anime in the world, see Wochi Kochi, Vol.13, October 2006, a publication of the Japan Foundation.
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. wrote on the concept of “soft power” in his book Bound To Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 1990) pp.188-201. Apparently, the book was a response to Paul Kennedy’s thesis that great powers (including the US) are susceptible to “imperial overstretch” and the resultant inability to meet the competing demands of “butter and guns”. Simply put, history shows that all great powers face inevitable decline. However, Nye rejected Kennedy’s thesis and argued that the US is bound to lead because it is also underpinned by “soft power” including the universal appeal of its culture and ideology.The term “soft power” became popular only after Nye wrote about it explicitly in the influential Foreign Affairs and subsequent books and articles. After September 11, 2001 and the Bush Administration’s botched occupation of Iraq, Nye argued for a more balanced approach in US foreign policy: greater reliance on “soft power” and less on coercive and destructive military power. See Joseph Nye, “The Decline of America’s Soft Power”, Foreign Affairs, Vol.83, No.3, May/June 2004.
Douglas McGray, “Japan’s Gross National Cool”, Foreign Policy, May/June 2002.
See, for example, Watanabe Yasushi, “sofuto pawa ron saiho” [Revisiting soft power], Wochi Kochi, Vol.13, October 2006. See also comments by Kato Norihiro, professor at Waseda University, “Kato urges Japan to use soft power”, Nikkei Weekly, 6 March 2006. For a special issue on the theme of “Cool Japan”, see Gaiko Forum, June 2004.
However, Aoki Tamotsu warned: “While we should welcome the description ‘Cool Japan’, ‘cool’ can be an ephemeral concept. I happened to hear that McGray who kicked off the thinking about Japan’s cool two years ago, is now interested in India. ... If Japan is to be more than simply a passing fad, politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and ordinary citizens have to make a concerted effort to add new dimensions to our cultural power and, looking ahead to a global era of soft power, devise a ‘cultural strategy’ for Japan in the twenty-first century”. See Aoki Tamotsu, “Toward Multilayered strength in the ‘cool’ culture’, Gaiko Forum, Summer 2004, p.16.
The flying geese pattern of East Asian economic development (with Japan as the lead goose) has become obsolete with the rise of China. The two East Asian great powers are also competing for turf in Southeast Asia especially over the forging of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements with the region.
Yoshizaki Tatsuhiko, “Japan, The Quiet Genius: Towards a Strategic Public Diplomacy”,Gaiko Forum, Vol.7, No.1, Spring 2007, p.26.
See Heng Teow, Japanese Cultural Policy Toward China – 1918-1931: A Comparative Approach (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Asia Center, 1999).
Germany is perhaps the only other great power today which eschews hard power due to its defeat after World War II. However, Germany has dispatched ground troops to Afghanistan while Japan did not. Tokyo’s SDF ground troops were deployed only for non-combat peacekeeping operations within the United Nations framework or “humanitarian” assistance to its US ally’s occupation of Iraq. For the US, “soft power” is merely the velvet glove that covers the iron fist; Japan only has a satin glove without an iron fist.
A newspaper noted: “Some have even suggested that Captain Majed was the reason the Japanese were not attacked during the two and half year mission there”. See “Japan’s government counting on cute cartoons to raise overseas profile”, Mainichi Interactive, 18 February 2007. It is hard to say whether cartoons actually contributed to a kinder and gentler image of the SDF in Iraq. That they were not attacked by the Iraqi insurgents could simply be due to the fact that the SDF was not deployed to a hot spot, was protected by other forces from the “coalition of the willing”, actually provided humanitarian assistance to Iraqis, and perhaps was just plain lucky.
Okazaki Shiori, “A Japanese Comic Hero cheers Iraqi Children”, Japan Now, Vo.1, No.8, 1 December 2005. Foreign Minister Aso noted: “The Japan Foundation concluded an agreement to provide the largest Iraqi television station free of charge the third season of the Captain Tsubasa anime series — a total of 52 shows — dubbed into Arabic”. See The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “A New Look at Cultural Diplomacy: A Call to Japan’s Cultural Practitioners: Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Aso at Digital Hollywood University”, 28 April 2006.
However, there are thoughtful Japanese who have doubts about “soft power” in Tokyo’s diplomacy. See, for example, Ogoura Kazuo, “The Limits of Soft Power”, in Japan Echo, Vol.33, No.5, October 2006.
“Soft power: Strive to be a ‘caring’ nation so as to help others that are less fortunate”, Asahi Shimbun, 23 May 2007.
Ibid.
See Japan Foundation, Annual Report 2005-06.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Establishment of the International Manga Award”, 24 May 2007.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “First International Manga Award”, 29 June 2007.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, Diplomatic Bluebook 2006, p.204.
See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Evaluation study on the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) Program”, 2001.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “Japan’s ODA budget”. <http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/budget/index.html> (Accessed: 4 March 2007). David Arase argues that Tokyo utilizes ODA to “purchase” power. See David Arase, The Political Economy of Japan’s Foreign Aid (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995).
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, Diplomatic Bluebook 2006, p.206.
Ibid., p.208.
The Chinese media noted that negative Japanese public opinion towards China has coincidentally been published “just as anti-Chinese and ROK ‘manga’ have been appearing on comic shelves in Tokyo”. See “Japan divided on neighborly ties”, People’s Daily Online, 9 January 2006. Bianca Bosker notes that some in China “already see Japanese manga as a tool of indoctrination”. She observes: “An article published by the Chinese paper Global Times in June 2006 accused manga of trying to ‘retell history’ to cover up Japan’s war crimes and infect Chinese children with Japanese values”. See Bianca Bosker, “Manga Mania”, Wall Street Journal, 31 August 2007.
“Soft power: Strive to be a ‘caring’ nation so as to help others that are less fortunate”, Asahi Shimbun, 23 May 2007.
The British noted that its Premier League footfall is “shown in 195 countries around the world, to an audience of over 600 million, and it is estimated that 60 percent of Chinese men, with figures highest amongst young professionals, follow the British Premier League regularly. This illustrates not only the impressive reach of sport, but also the potential role and impact of non-Governmental organizations and of informal public diplomacy”. See Lord Carter of Coles, Public Diplomacy: Review, December 2005, p.31.
David Fouse, “Japan’s ‘value-oriented diplomacy’, International Herald Tribune, 22 March 2007.
See David McNeill, “Japan and the Whaling Ban: Siege Mentality Fuels ‘Sustainability’ Claims” in Japan Focus, 13 February 2007. In the 19th century, American whaling hunted the sperm whale, humpback whale and the blue whale close to extinction. However, international norms have changed and the remaining pro-whaling countries are Japan, Norway and Iceland.
Anthony Faiola, “Japan’s animated culture of Cool turns into biggest export: reinvents itself after long slump”, Washington Post, 4 January 2004.
See the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “2006 Image of Japan Study in the US”, August 2006.
According to a March 2005 joint survey conducted by the Asahi Shimbun and the Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 64.1 percent perceived Japan unfavorably; only 7.8 percent felt the opposite. See “Special research on Chinese attitudes toward Japan and other nations” in the Mansfield Asian Opinion Poll Database. <http://www.mansfieldfdn.org/polls/poll-05-3.htm> (Accessed: 4 March 2007). However, in a survey conducted jointly in seven Asian countries (including Japan) by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Korea Times (Hankook Ilbo) and the Gallup group, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam viewed Japan very favorably. South Korea was the exception. See “Nihon no yakuwari takai hyoka” [High evaluation of Japan’s role], Yomiuri Shimbun, 10 September 2006.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, “The Japan-Singapore Summit Meeting (Summary)”, 20 March 2007.
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Appendices
Appendix 1 Annual JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Participants
* The number of JET participants peaked in 2002 and then dipped due to the financial austerity practiced by the Koizumi government.
Appendix 2 Cumulative JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Participants
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, Diplomatic Bluebook 2006, pp.204–205.
Appendix 3 Perception of Japan: 6 Asian Countries Question: Can Japan be Trusted?
Appendix 4 Attraction to Japanese cultural products
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Lam, P.E. Japan’s Quest for “Soft Power”: Attraction and Limitation. East Asia 24, 349–363 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-007-9028-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-007-9028-6