From Western Gaze to Global Gaze: Japanese Cultural Presence in Asia

Abstract

The overseas exportation of Japanese cultural products is examined, focusing on marketing strategies that have forged a growing Japanese cultural presence in other parts of Asia, particularly Taiwan. It is argued that, until the 1990s, Japan was nearly invisible in Asia due to its "culturally odorless" products, ie, its major cultural industries borrowed from & indigenized Western (particularly American) models rather than creating anything uniquely Japanese. Examples are offered of the culturally odorless quality of three leading Japanese audiovisual exports: consumer technologies, animated comics/cartoons, & computer/video games. Ways that "glocalization" -- the adaptation of a global outlook to local conditions -- has been adopted by Japanese companies to "add fragrance" to these cultural products are described, offering the example of leading Japanese popular musicians & film stars created through a unique blending of West & East. The development of intraregional cultural flows among non-Western countries & the emergence of Japanese cultural industries as key elements in the process of media globalization attest to the success of this strategy. Analysis also reveals the creation of increasingly asymmetrical cultural relations of power between Japan & other Asian countries. 32 References. K. Hyatt Stewart