Saturday, October 30, 2010
Soft power--anime
Dose Japanese anime consider soft power? In my opinion it is, for those people who love if, and it isn't for those people who hate it. But it dose have a huge impact on the opinion and attitude towards Japan. When a country's education is emphasizing the bad image of Japan, the war period, the people of that country definitely don't hold a good opinion towards Japan. Anime is a door that when you open the door people start to get to know a little about Japanese culture. People realize that this country is not just about the war in the past. This country is actually very favorable. Of course Japanese culture is far more than just anime. But partly because of anime, people start to become interested in Japanese culture and this country.
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With all due respect, I would disagree. I do think that anime has an effect on how people think about Japan, but not interested in Japan or the Japanese.
ReplyDeleteMany of the people who watch anime are relatively young and did not grow up experiencing Japan as an aggressive wartime power. While they may be influenced by parents, society, etc. in their views on Japan, they have very little actual exposure to the country. Anime only exposes them to a small cultural product, which has largely been de-Japanized, having only an association with the art style or presentation of that animation.
Many of the people I know who have been interested in anime were not people who found out they were interested in Japanese culture. They were only interested in anime, as the "culture" that anime presents is not Japanese culture.
Like Iwabuchi said in an article we read a few weeks ago, people like anime because it's foreign. It doesn't teach Japanese culture, nor has it ever professed to. Rather, it teaches a wholly different culture that is only associated with Japan because that's where it was created.