Urban transformations in the Liberdade Japanese neighbourhood and the confluence of events in the con struction of Nipponophilic capital in São Paulo

This quantitative study investigates the impact of Japanese Pop Culture (JPC) on the motivation and Japanese language skills of Japanese language study program students in Indonesia. This research is based on theories about the role of pop culture in foreign language learning, especially the role of JPC in students' interest in Japanese. Questionnaires related to interest in learning Japanese, motivation to learn Japanese, activities associated with JPC outside of lectures, and improving Japanese language skills were distributed to 70 Japanese language study program students from several universities in Indonesia. The results of data analysis show that JPC plays a big role in motivating students to study Japanese and improve their Japanese language skills. Based on the questionnaire results, all respondents were interested in and liked JPC. Over half of the respondents were JPC fans before becoming Japanese language study program students. Regarding motivation to study Japanese, as many as 63% of students were motivated to become students in the Japanese language study program because they liked JPC before. More than 80% of respondents carry out JPC activities by watching anime and listening to Japanese music. Half of the respondents stated that they could get to know Japan and understand Japanese people better by consuming JPC. In contrast, more than 80% of respondents felt benefits in increasing their ability and understanding of Japanese after consuming JPC. It is hoped that the results of this research can be used as a basis or reference for further research on using JPC in Japanese language learning.

Japanese pop culture has influenced Italy over the last thirty years. In the ‘70s anime started to fill the airtime of emerging private TV channels, marking the childhood of those Italians who grew up in those years and until the early ‘90s, when manga finally appeared in the Italian market. Globalization and the Internet have made other aspects of Japanese pop culture available to Italians and the rest of the world alike. It has resulted in a very active Italian fandom spanning different generations, and in a strong fascination with Japan. This paper aims to provide insights into the way Italian fans perceive Japanese pop culture and Japan; on the kind of bonds with Japan they develop, and how they socialize. It does so by considering the biggest Italian web-community, AnimeClick.it, as a microcosm of the Italian fandom’s interactions and emotions. Privileging a qualitative method, it focuses on the people who give life to the website. Their images of Japanese pop culture reveal the recognition of a specific cultural odour perceived as pleasant, which translates into an interest in Japan. Those fans associate Japan with images of fantasy and charming mystery that nevertheless co-exist with perceptions of extreme difference, echoing the notion of Japanese uniqueness, so that Orientalist processes are re-enacted. There are intergenerational differences in the way fans have developed an emotional bond, and look at Japanese pop culture. However, these are mediated and transcended through their socialization and collaboration in the web-community, opening up new perspectives for the future evolution of Japanese pop culture’s influence in Italy.

In this chapter, Nemoto examines the relationships between Japanese pop culture and Japanese language learning in Qatar. Analysis of data obtained from interviews with graduates of the Qatar Language Teaching Institute and members of the Qatar University Japan Club reveals that the two groups differ in terms of their contact with Japanese pop culture and the reasons for their interest in learning Japanese. It suggests that attempts to motivate foreigners to study Japanese using Japanese pop culture will be more effective if prospective learners are encouraged to take an in-depth interest in a particular aspect of the culture rather than simply being provided with wide-ranging but superficial information.

Adapting Shakespeare’s literary works for introduction into Japanese popular culture has been an act of intercultural translation. Shakespeare and Japanese popular culture, particularly manga [Japanese graphic novels] could be seen as cultural polarities: the West vs. the East, as represented by Japan, a contrast between high culture and pop culture, the canonical vs. the lowbrow. Yet Shakespeare’s works as adapted in manga format do, as this article argues, problematize such hierarchical distinctions. Shakespeare found in manga can be both a challenge and a tribute to his authority, giving him a global and intercultural after-life. The first group of Japanese manga with Shakespearean motifs dates back to the early 20th century. Similar efforts have since continued through to the early 21st century, making manga with Shakespearean motifs a conspicuous, widespread phenomenon as part of Japanese pop culture. The greatest recent contribution in this regard is Manga Shakespeare Series. Published by a British publishing house, it helped to turn manga into an important vehicle for the intercultural translation of Shakespeare. This article aims at placing into perspective Shakespeare and his presence in Japanese pop culture in general and in Japanese manga in particular. Specifically, efforts will be made to introduce Japanese manga with Shakespearean motifs as a genre and show how it has become a representative intercultural art collaboration form. Western graphic novels with Shakespeare incorporated will be contrasted with Japanese manga, including Classics Illustrated, to see different levels of faithfulness to one of the world’s greatest writers. The findings indicate that while Western graphic novels tend to show a higher levels of faithfulness to the original works, Japanese manga takes greater liberty with Shakespeare. This suggests that manga with Shakespearean motifs should be viewed not as debasement of his literary authority but as creative innovation. Rather than trying to remain strictly faithful to Shakespeare’s original works, efforts should be made to identify previously overlooked aspects of Shakespeare’s works and expand the possibility of making the most of his legacy in enriching the human culture through hybridization and glocalization.

Pokémon is arguably one of the most enduring brands in Japanese pop culture. As of March 2014 the Pokémon video game franchise alone has sold more than 260 million units worldwide (Lien, 2014). The Pokémon series has been the most well known game that the Nintendo Game Boy series has ever produced and marketed internationally. This study looks at Pokémon as a cultural product. Information contained in the Pokédex, an electronic encyclopedia of Pokémon found in the game points to the use of Japanese folklore as inspiration for some of the Pokémon released. There is an intricate give and take in the process of telling and retelling of folktales that is argued to be present even in its currently newer forms. This study explores the digitalization of folklore by looking at the incorporation of Japanese folktales into the Pokémon video game. Looking at how folkloric motifs were integrated in the creation of these pocket monsters inhabiting the world of Pokémon points to the importance of the Japanese folklore in the character designs. These folklore motifs infused in the game characters, and the world itself gives the franchise a Japanese cultural flavor which, as pointed out by other authors like Allison, make the experience more enjoyable (2003, p. 384). As such, this study looks at how the Pokémon franchise fuses socio-cultural elements in the creation Pokémon’s individual and unique pocket monsters. In effect, these new game creatures called Pokémon become new conduits by which old Japanese folktales are revisited, revised, and ultimately renewed. More importantly, it becomes one important avenue in the creation and proliferation of a Japanese cultural identity that is marketed abroad. It is argued that Pokémon is indeed a new medium where Japanese folklore has been appropriated and digitalized. According to Iwabuchi, influence of products of different cultures on everyday life cannot be culturally neutral. Instead, they inevitably carry cultural imprints called “cultural odor.” In terms of cultural odor, this makes Pokémon Japanese in fragrance. The creation of these newly formed folklore is a dynamic interaction between Japanese culture, the technology they are coursed through and gameplay as a form of performance by the consumers. The whole franchise now serves as a digital archive for folkloric beings that influenced directly or indirectly their creation. This resulted in enabling participative interaction between folklore and the individual. For international consumers, they also potentially serve as entryway into picking up an interest and learning more about Japanese culture. More than the ukiyo-e paintings and monster catalogs that proliferated during the Edo Period, Pokémon has fleshed out these folklore motifs and has put them at the front and center through their games, allowing for players to interact with and bond with them in an ever expanding virtual space called the Pokémon world.

This chapter focuses on Japanese pop culture (JPC), represented by manga and anime, and discusses the role of Japanese pop culture events (JPCEs) as a cultural festival towards the social acceptance of JPC in Europe. While the JPC attracts young people worldwide, its social acceptance is not easy because it is an innovation that differs from the European tradition. Over the years, the authors have visited many JPCEs globally, interviewed people involved, and examined the theoretical aspects related to the event from the perspective of marketing. Based on these observations and theoretical considerations, this chapter suggests that JPCEs have a role in legitimising JPC in society and presents a hypothetical model of its social acceptance process. Based on this model, a case study of Japan Expo, which is held annually in Paris, is analysed and a detailed analysis of how Japan Expo has developed from 1999 to 2019 and its contribution to the social acceptance of JPC in France are presented. Finally, according to the findings, the managerial implications for the various actors involved in JPCEs are presented from a marketing perspective.

The otaku tourism trend represents a fusion of tourism dynamics and cultural interaction, fueled by a deep interest in Japanese pop culture, such as anime and manga. This research examines the impact of Japanese pop culture events on the development of otaku tourism. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed data from 364 questionnaires collected at events in four countries, along with semistructured interviews with organizers. These events serve as powerful catalysts for promoting Japanese culture globally, creating immersive and memorable experiences, and inspiring participants to visit Japan. The findings highlight the key role of these events play in shaping tourist behavior, influencing destination choice, and increasing the appeal of otaku tourism. Furthermore, the study underscores the importance of these gatherings in facilitating global cultural exchange and deepening the connection between fans and Japanese culture. This research emphasizes the broader implications of otaku tourism on global tourism and cultural promotion.

This article examines the overlooked phenomenon of how black British grime music artists intentionally and selectively remix Japanese pop cultural artifacts to carve out a hybrid cultural space that gives voice to their urban realities and articulates counterhegemonic black subjectivities. From the early 2000s, at the same time as state-centered discourses of ‘Cool Japan’ emerged to explain the global rise of Japanese pop culture, grime artists were already on their own terms sampling Japanese video games and anime to articulate emergent feelings of ‘coldness’, which reflects their sense of alienation on the margins of British society. The author introduces ‘Cold Japan’ as the other Cool Japan, and a way of understanding this fundamentally intertwined mode of cultural hybridity and being that forms the essence of black Britain’s grime. This article uses the cyborg figure to disclose how grime artists transform Cold Japan into a site of countercultural resistance to subvert their oppression by self-generating and embodying transgressive posthuman identities. Examining how selected ‘cold’ Japanese pop cultural elements and technologies entangle with urban black life and identity formation in 21st century Britain, the article contributes to discussions on the impact of transnational flows of Japanese pop culture and cultural hybridization.

This thesis aims to discuss the importance of using Japanese pop culture in this case, Manga, Anime and Cosplay as part of Japanese public diplomacy in Indonesia. This discussion is divided into the MOFA (Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs) program and the Japan Foundation as one of the actors who also carry out public diplomacy. The research in this thesis uses qualitative research methods with descriptive elaboration through the description of programs implemented such as the International Manga Award, World Cosplay Summit or even the appointment of anime or manga characters as Ambassadors (ambassadors) such as Doraemon as Anime ambassadors, the appointment of Kawaii Ambassadors and also The Cool Japan program is a program carried out to export pop culture and other commodities and content from Japan. This is intended to increase understanding and trust in Japan both in terms of politics between Indonesia and Japan, the economy and even a strategy to increase Japan's domestic tourism. From a political point of view, it can be seen through diplomatic relations with Indonesia which have existed for 60 years, and from an economic point of view between the two countries through the policy of granting broadcasting rights and licenses as well as expansion of investment by Japan which is expected to improve domestic welfare in Japan. tourism, namely increasing tourist visits to Japanese tourism which is now starting to be polished with a touch of pop culture elements such as Tokyo One Piece Tower, a theme park with the theme of the One Piece anime. So it can be said that Japanese pop culture is important for Japanese public diplomacy as a way to increase public trust and understanding outside Japan in general and especially the public in Indonesia regarding the image of Japan and gain prosperity for the Japanese domestic public.

Japan is a country that has a variety of cultures, one of which is its modern culture known as "Japanese Pop Culture" which then gave birth to kawaii culture or kawaii bunka. Kawaii bunka is a Japanese aesthetic culture that was born with the development of popular culture in Japan. Kawaii bunka can be found in popular culture products such as anime, manga, pop music, fashion and characters in Japan. In Japanese popular culture, the global community can experience the latest phenomena. One of them is the VTuber phenomenon. In this study, the application of kawaii bunka to the VTuber phenomenon will be discussed. Using a descriptive method, the author describes the truth that the VTuber phenomenon is part of kawaii bunka. Then the author conducted a case study of one of the most popular VTuber from Japan, Minato Aqua. It is intended to describe examples of the application of kawaii bunka elements in VTuber figures.This study was conducted as a form of contribution to the development of cultural science, especially Japanese popular culture. It was found that VTuber is a part of kawaii bunka. The kawaii bunka element in the figure of VTuber Minato Aqua can be found in physical aspects including appearance and non-physical aspects including voice, facial expressions, and personality.

This article examines Korea-Japan relations from the theoretical perspective of international culture,which holds that cultural factors that cross national borders help shape international relations. Although mainstream international relations theory, particularly in international politics and foreign policies, primarily discusses relations between territorial sovereign nations, international relations can be understood as those formed by a range of internationally mobile agents. Based on this premise,the article will investigate the structure of hostile communication between Koreaand Japan, as well as facts pertaining to the matter. This is a prevalent phenomenon, especially regarding banil, anti-Japanese sentiment among Korean people, and hyeomhan, which is the Japanese aversion to anything Korean. While South Korea’s formal opening to Japanese pop culture in 1998 carried special symbolic significance, the move also precipitated the emergence of publications dealing with various theories on Japan with the aim of attracting a readership and generating revenues. Until then, such works had not been published in Korea due to nationalistic anti-Japanese sentiment. While regulations on the import of Japanese pop culture were still in place, producers of Japan-related books could exploit the unfriendly coexistence of extreme banil and hyeomhan in order to make handsome profits. By 2000, however, anti-Japanese hostilities had lost their power to boost publications to the bestseller list; thus, rent-seeking was no longer viable. In regional studies, the importance of cross-disciplinary studies is recognized, but only as long as related individual disciplines are firmly established. To illustrate, the mission of German Japanologists 200 years ago was to study Japan as a whole and present a general interpretation of the Asian country. In contrast, requirements for 21st-century Korean scholars who study their island neighbor This article examines Korea-Japan relations from the theoretical perspective of international culture,which holds that cultural factors that cross national borders help shape international relations. Although mainstream international relations theory, particularly in international politics and foreign policies, primarily discusses relations between territorial sovereign nations, international relations can be understood as those formed by a range of internationally mobile agents. Based on this premise,the article will investigate the structure of hostile communication between Koreaand Japan, as well as facts pertaining to the matter. This is a prevalent phenomenon, especially regarding banil, anti-Japanese sentiment among Korean people, and hyeomhan, which is the Japanese aversion to anything Korean. While South Korea’s formal opening to Japanese pop culture in 1998 carried special symbolic significance, the move also precipitated the emergence of publications dealing with various theories on Japan with the aim of attracting a readership and generating revenues. Until then, such works had not been published in Korea due to nationalistic anti-Japanese sentiment. While regulations on the import of Japanese pop culture were still in place, producers of Japan-related books could exploit the unfriendly coexistence of extreme banil and hyeomhan in order to make handsome profits. By 2000, however, anti-Japanese hostilities had lost their power to boost publications to the bestseller list; thus, rent-seeking was no longer viable. In regional studies, the importance of cross-disciplinary studies is recognized, but only as long as related individual disciplines are firmly established. To illustrate, the mission of German Japanologists 200 years ago was to study Japan as a whole and present a general interpretation of the Asian country. In contrast, requirements for 21st-century Korean scholars who study their island neighbor are somewhat different.

This article explores the nature of multimodal meaning-making in writing by analyzing the script-switching used in Japanese pop culture. Japanese intermixes multiple script systems in one text. Although official and public documents follow standard orthographic conventions, creative works in pop culture texts freely and regularly break these norms by switching script types to create new meanings. However, while many previous works recognize the semiotic effects of script-switching, to this day, there is no systematic account for how and why such meaning-making operates. Notably, script-switching triggers meanings independent of linguistic meaning. Yet, scripts are a visual manifestation of language, so one cannot say they are independent of language. Accordingly, this work attempts to resolve this dilemma by exploring a social semiotic multimodal approach (see Van Leeuwen ‘Typographic meaning’, 2005, and ‘Towards a semiotics of typography’, 2006, and Stöckl ‘Typography: Body and dress of a text’, 2005), which claims the semiotic independence of typography and its interdependency with language. By recognizing the basic unit of the writing system as graphemes, the author argues that the Japanese script systems are categorized into four types of graphemes depending on the linguistic unit they relate to and she demonstrates how the visual unit of the grapheme and the linguistic unit interact in meaning-making. In this analysis, script-switching occurs when grapheme types are intentionally changed to foreground a visual meaning associated with each script system. This article shows that such a meaning reflects the historical development and discursive social practices of writing with multiple script systems throughout the history of the Japanese writing system.

This study offers a pragmalinguistic analysis of aruyo kotoba (アルヨ 言葉), a stylized and stereotypical speech pattern associated with Chinese-speaking characters in Japanese pop culture. Focusing on Kagura, a central figure in Sorachi Hideaki’s manga Gintama, the paper examines how aruyo speech functions as yakuwarigo – role-specific language that conveys alterity, social positioning, and humour. The research highlights the historical and sociolinguistic roots of aruyo kotoba, tracing its evolution from early 20th-century literary representations to its modern usage in manga. Through detailed linguistic and contextual analysis of selected utterances, the paper demonstrates how the pragmatic marker aru (アル) shapes Kagura’s identity as a foreign and comedic figure. It also explores the challenges of rendering these linguistic and cultural nuances into Romanian, proposing a translation strategy that preserves stylistic tone and character uniqueness via the emphatic phrase ‘chiar este’. The findings underscore how language in manga can perpetuate stereotypes while also functioning as a tool for stylization and character construction. Ultimately, this research contributes to broader discussions on fictional language, intercultural representation, and the translation of pragmalinguistic markers in pop culture narratives.

The popularity of Japanese pop culture in Indonesia has reached the point where it has become part of one’s identity. This phenomenon has catalyzed the emer-gence of Indonesian Vtubers known for its visual representation by the creator. While studies pertaining Vtubers mostly focused on the audience, this study fo-cused more on the creators exploring motivation behind their creative decision. Through in-depth interviews with seven Indonesian Vtubers and questionnaire disseminated through the Vtuber community, we found that Indonesian Vtubers perceive their virtual persona as alter ego. Most of their creative decision is driven by their cultural interest towards Japanese pop culture, this is also based on their cultural background and how they are exposed to Japanese pop culture since childhood to teenager including anime, manga, and games. This study concludes that virtual persona such as Vtuber serves as an extension of one’s self. Vtubing allows the creator to explore identity based on their cultural preferences.

Reviewed by: Regionalizing Culture: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia by Nissim Kadosh Otmazgin Deborah Shamoon (bio) Regionalizing Culture: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia. By Nissim Kadosh Otmazgin. University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, 2013. xxv, 230 pages. $42.00. The academic study of Japanese popular culture has in the last ten years transformed from an underresearched, undertheorized niche into a major force in Japan studies. Publications particularly on anime, such as those by Thomas Lamarre, Marc Steinberg, and Ian Condry, as well as translations of key works by Japanese scholars such as Azuma Hiroko and Saitō Tamaki have propelled this research in serious, theoretically complex directions.1 However, expansion has not spread equally across all disciplines; as William Tsutsui points out, most scholars writing in English have backgrounds in literary studies or anthropology and are situated in cultural studies or media studies.2 Moreover, English-language scholarship on the export of Japanese popular culture tends to focus on the Japan-U.S. nexus; there is little discussion of its export to Asia.3 Regionalizing Culture by Nissim Otmazgin [End Page 456] adds significantly to this discourse by considering political economy, which he defines as “the relationship between economic matters (such as the workings of markets) and political affairs (such as the decisions of government agencies)” (p. 1) and by examining the export of Japanese popular culture to urban East Asia. In particular, his research focuses on Hong Kong, Taiwan, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, and Bangkok. Rather than analyzing individual texts or fan activities, Otmazgin looks at how the animation, pop music, and television industries are organized, the various ways those industries reach international markets, the technology of distribution, and the role of government control. This industry-level approach is a good complement to the cultural studies approach and provides discussion of market forces which is often missing from other studies. Otmazgin argues that the large cities of East Asia have for the last 20 years formed a coherent region, particularly as a market for Japanese popular culture. This wide focus allows readers to see how Japanese pop culture has fared in different countries and how it has been received remarkably well even in places where there is vocal anti-Japanese sentiment (or an outright ban on Japanese imports, such as in Taiwan and South Korea for a time). The wide focus also disrupts the usual academic boundaries, reinforced through graduate education and publication and tenure requirements, which force scholars to specialize in one or two countries or languages. It is unusual in Japan studies to analyze so many diverse regions. However, Otmazgin argues convincingly that young middle-class consumers with disposable income, steeped in transnational pop cultural influences, create what he calls “the regionalization of taste in East Asia’s big cities” (p. 34). Despite significant local differences, trends in these urban centers have favored consumption of U.S. and Japanese popular culture. This regional model also suggests that these patterns of consumption can trump not only national but also ethnic and linguistic boundaries. Japan, which has a limited domestic market and a tiny overseas native speaker market, was able to tap into the desire of young, urban, and affluent East Asian consumers at a time of economic growth, without or in spite of government intervention. Otmazgin starts with a detailed overview of Japan’s domestic market for cultural industries, particularly video games, manga, anime, television, and pop music. He provides hard data from these industries on size, revenue, and imports versus exports, which show how large these industries are domestically. [End Page 457] The data will be an important reference for scholars of Japanese pop culture in all disciplines, as this element is often left out of narrative-based analysis. Otmazgin includes a history of government promotion of cultural exports, what is now called “soft power,” beginning with Pacific War propaganda policies, followed by the resurgence of cultural exports in the 1970s and 1980s. Expanding on this history, he shows how Japan gradually built up political and social goodwill in the decades after the war. This is a timely reminder that the current “Cool Japan” campaign is less new than it seems...