Place branding in rural Japan: Cultural commodities as local brands

Abstract

While branding as a business strategy is well established and well researched, place branding lacks both extensive theorisation and broad-scale application. This paper examines place branding in Japan, considering both national-level policies and local responses. While the Japanese government has promoted place branding as a means of bringing Japanese cultural products to the global market, the exploitation of such cultural commodities at the local level through the practice of place branding is much less organised. The position of this paper is that local cultural commodities provide the ideal product in place branding, but the potential is unrealised. In focusing on the premise of place branding in the context of local economic revitalisation, the paper will contribute to theorisation and practice of place branding built around highly specific cultural commodities as the products of place branding.