Japanese Popular Culture

Abstract

Abstract Contemporary Japanese culture has become equivalent in meaning with both innovation and tradition. This ostensibly contradictory characterization of Japanese culture has deep roots dating back to Japan's early modern period. Japanese popular culture's most salient features are seen in art forms new and derived and in traditions old and new. For example, in art, manga and anime are two of Japan's most powerful cultural ambassadors, finding avid fans throughout the world and even leading to the rise of inspired media and similar art forms abroad. As cultural ambassadors, this culture came to be considered a new type of diplomatic tool: soft power. Japanese culture from manga and anime to technological gadgets as imagined abroad is a part of the foreign imagination, but locally a voracious reading culture and a highly systematized consumer culture also thrive but are neglected by foreign observers. Before a discussion of modern manifestations of popular culture, this entry outlines historical aspects of cultural development in Japan. In doing so, it briefly covers cultural development and activities during earlier periods of Japanese history, from state unification through the modern period.