Manga World

Abstract

Japan is fast becoming a major node of global cultural production. A host of Japanese cultural products have been created for domestic consumption, including animation, comics, film, music, and television (localization). The increasing export of these Japanese cultural products to Europe and North America underlines globalization is not merely a Western preserve but incorporates Japan (lo-globalization). As Japan has become part of this decentered globalization, it is, in turn, exporting cultural products to Asia (glocalization). However, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are exporting their local cultural products to Japan (localization?). These developments raise a series of issues: how have local Japanese cultural products originated and changed over time; how have Japan's cultural products become popularized and insinuated themselves so effectively into Western culture; why has Japan been a latecomer in the export of cultural products to Asia; and how can the reverse process of exporting cultural products from South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian economies to Japan be theorized? These issues are addressed by examining the origins and transformation of Japanese comics (manga), their export to the global market, the reasons for their delayed export to Asia and the reverse flow of comics from Asia to Japan.