As an anime and manga fan in the late 80s, 90s and early 00s I was a Japanophile and thought the country a fascinating place, full of the coolest games, best technology and innovations. However, programmes about Japan in the 80s and 90s made the country seem strange, kooky and this was sometimes mixed with a bit of exotic 'otherness' with a smidge of racist undertones. Even recently, a *groan* content creator with multi-million YouTube subscribers went into the country and made fun of Japan, even sharing video footage of a dead suicide victim in a forest known for people ending their life and making fun near a corpse. So I am really pleased that ‘Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World’ by Matt Alt treats the country and culture with respect and examines the land with a more anthropological lens but via the medium of its technological innovations.
I visited Japan in 2013 and visited Tokyo and Kyoto. I fulfilled one of my dream!
Where its economy and technology gained Japan prominence and financial muscle in the 1950, 60 and 70s, much to this chagrin of many Boomers who railed against a Japan that they saw as either producing inferior products or producing good at a much cheaper price due to lower labour costs, it was arguably the video games, anime, manga, fashion and fantasy delivery devices that made it culturally change the world and perhaps has a larger global impact in the 1980s, 90s and 00s,
In an interesting gambit as Alt looks at how each of these fantasy delivery devices saw Japan emerge from its insular nature to take over the world through pop culture rather than just through purely economic or financial means with companies like Toyota or Honda etc. The Gameboy, Sony Walkman and video games were all inessential, inescapable and influential and this meant that they changed the way we saw the world rather than being refined products of what went before.
It also asserts that the late state capitalism, which the Japanese society has been experiencing since the bubble crash in 1989, has been prescient for much that is occurring in the West; adults consuming 'childish' media, digital pets, a love of kawaii (cute things) and hakikomori, where people stay at home as ‘shut-ins’ and avoid society Japan did it first and we are now feeling that wave in the West with 'adulting' meaning playing at 'growing up', shut-ins, a love of geek culture becoming the norm rather than the unique. Heady and profound stuff indeed!
The book's prologue starts with a discussion of how Final Fantasy 7 represented a confident Japan looking outward after the economic bubble burst in 1989 which led to years of political and financial instability.
I like how Alt discusses that even before the devastation wrought by the bombs of WW2, Japan always had a sense of playfulness and fun with a heavy emphasis on toys. In fact Japan was one of the primary supplier of the world's toys, alongside Germany and Britain. It prided itself on artisanal pieces and after the war it used scrap materials to create new toys, starting with Jeep models created from scraps of tin. Alt tackles the misconception that Japan only became playful post-war due to the influence of American military rule. In fact Japan had for many centuries had a child-centric culture where wrapping, boxes and gorgeous presentation were considered as important as the gift itself.
Part I is entitled 'The Fall 1945' and Alt starts with the tin toy market that exploded post war, as toy creator Kosuge et al. recycled used tin cans and metal waste from military compounds to create new tin toys which they sold in Japan and in America.
The next big event was the release of the Osamu Tezuka classic, Mighty Atom or Astro Boy as he's known in the West. This was a landmark affair and forever changed the manga/ comic scene. However, during the 60s there rose a more gritty and violent manga art style - Gekiga- and this was not one beholden to the restrictions of the Comic Code that limited its American counterparts.
The late 60s is where student riots and protest took place as the youth felt disenfranchised and disempowered from an establishment that was complicit in the bombing of Vietnam. After the government tried to pass a law prohibiting large protests, a large protest took place to protest against this. It was a time of financial stagnation for many in the country as too many graduates and not enough jobs affected the prospects of the youth.
The 1970s saw the popularisation of karaoke machines. The idea of karaoke singalongs were not invented by the Japanese but rather had existed in many forms, including singalong Fleischer cartoons where viewers sang along to the bouncing red ball, juke boxes and various 8 track contraptions. What Japan did was popularise the concept by making it easy, portable and intuitive to use by simply adding a microphone to a 8-track player and speaker. It was crude and simple but had appeal for the salaryman (a portmanteau of 'salaried office worker') as these workers had the unenviable task of building Japan back up after the war. They often worked crushing hours in dull offices with no chance for their personality to come through but karaoke was their chance to shine and experience a kind of freedom and camaraderie. Karaoke machines were initially found in 'Love Hotels' but spread across the country as it offered the fantasy of being a singer, primarily in bars and watering holes and then from the privacy of your own home.
The chapter on Hello Kitty is amazing as she is one of the most licenced products in the world and earns revenues of over half a billion dollars, more than the NFL! It started innocently enough with cute and small pocket purses and now extends to kawaii (cute) stationary, toiletries and even onto the notepad of a feared rebel Jihadist leader. You gotta admit, this feline’s got reach! We learn that the minimalist design was created to shift everyday kitchen and homewares but then moved onto more frivolous items such as packs of tissues, erasers and pretty much anything as the young girls from the 70s became independent, financially responsible adults with cash to spare, much like the 00s and 10s fad in the West to repackage nostalgia from the 90s at a premium (remember all those 'Top 100 cartoons/ TV programmes/ 90’s moments etc programmes). This economy of design was influential in Japan as it led to similar economy of design moments across media, such as with the creation of Pacman, Digdug or Mario, which were also hampered with technical limitations that necessitated creativity, the mother of invention.
I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the rise of Sony and its portable electronic goods. It was a fascinating listen as it showed that rather than being inferior, as many in the West claimed out of jealousy and worry, the portable Sony radio used the most innovative technology of the time, including transistors, to create a fantasy device that was coveted by all around the world. In fact, Frank Sinatra was given one alongside a Walkman as he was the first real Sony brand ambassador. Fascinating stuff!
We then get a quick insight into arcade and pachinko machines and specifically how Space Invaders took arcade games to the world, being the first Japanese fantasy device to sweep the world.
It was after riding this wave for so long that we get the Lost Decades, the era when Japan's economy was in freefall after the bubble burst in 1989. I remember this from my childhood as the image of a Japanese banking guy crying and asking for forgiveness was shared across news channels. As a kid I didn't quite get what was going on but seeing an adult crying in the news was seared into my memory. This is a very interesting topic for Alt and he covers this dark time in Japan.
He shares how the film 'Battle Royale' captured the mood of the nation as it showed the youth rebelling against authority and the dystopia consequences. The film isn't obviously based on a real life situation but captured the mood of the country well. As companies went bankrupt and suicide rates spiked the youth looked for an outlet, which led to heightened personalised fashion, a rise in cosplay and fandom in public spaces (esp. Harajuku), a growth in video games but also hakikomori, a process of shut-ins who subsisted with the barest minimum but managed by being plugged into their interests at home.
However, from this darkness rose schoolgirls and young women who helped pick up the pieces of their shattered country. Chapter 6, Empire of the Schoolgirls, looks at how they it was this demographic embraced a chance to be a more active part of economic society and became taste makers in things thought juvenile, Hello Kitty, highly kitsch cheap fashion, cute (kawaii) fashion and expensive but playful jewellery. It was they who embraced new technologies better and more voraciously than anyone else, for example when the iPhone launched it was a huge success across the world, except in Japan where girls didn't like it as it didn't have emojis. Apple learned their lesson and made sure they included emojis from there on out... Lessons about the buying power of this market were learned. Also fashion brands learned from Hello Kitty about ‘Communication Cosmetics’, providing practical or fancy goods with a logo or icon that brought about a collegiate or group atmosphere. I experience this sometimes when I wear my video game themed tops, which have a subtle detail harkening back to video games of my youth and I occasionally have someone chat to me. My clothing is like an affiliation or a collective memory of a tribe.
Chapter 7, The New Anime Century, is all about manga and anime. As an Evangelion fan, the chapter on the release of the much hyped 'End of Evangelion' was interesting as it showed how an emotionally scarred and impotent main character, Shinji Ikari, chimed with many of the youths of 1995. With the economy still in tatters and the prospects looking gloomy, Ikari embodied the emasculation that many in the patriarchal society felt. In fact, when I travelled to Japan in 2013 Evangelion adverts still proliferated, shilling new perfumes. The show has had a looong tail and when it was brought over to Netflix earlier this year after years of legal wrangling about various rights issues it was considered a huge coup. Evangelion stood on the shoulders of giants as a giant robot existential series, Gundam. Gundam came out in the early 80s and was a phenomenon. Similar to Star Wars in style but more akin to Star Trek with its long syndication and iterative series, the original Gundam aired for 39 episodes out of a projected 52 and was considered a failure as it failed to shift toys, the measure of anime success. However, protests, marches and gatherings led to new movies, syndication and the rise of ‘Otaku’, obsessive fans. As usual wider society condemned this and there was plenty of youth bashing but what was not realised was that Gundam has created a new way to celebrate fandom as cosplay became the norm and the ephemera of comics, novelisation, models and other collectables based on an intellectual property became the norm. This was new.
We then get a short discussion about how Akira brought 'mature' animation to the art houses of America and Europe, garnering much respect and awe for its music, attention to detail and creativity. What interested audiences was that the art style Was one many recognised from shows in their youth like
This led to many Western countries buying, editing and dubbing old anime and bringing it to their audiences, we had the likes of Star Blazer (Battleship Yamato), Robotech (Macross) and many others. Being American centric, this chapter misses out on the fact that DIC produced many French-Japanese co-produced shows like Mysterious Cities of Gold, Ulysses 31 and the like and so in Europe the anime art style was a huge part of my and many childhoods. The ascent to Akira wasn't so out of left field as we had been brought up on the art form, even if we didn't necessarily know it. My uncle gave me Akira and Devilman on VHS as an 12 year old and it blew my mind. Alt does have a discussion about VHS and how copies of anime and manga shows were shared and grew from cult to mainstream so he is on point there.
This culminated in the Oscar success of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away which brought anime into the mainstream and Western public consciousness. This was quickly seen in the Animatrix, the Wachowski's sideward tip of the hat at the Matrix's anime and manga forebears. Anime influence also crept into Kill Bill and in series such as Avatar: The Last Airbender the animated series (forget the godawful Shyamalan movie).
Chapter 8 entitled 'Gaming the World' looks at how Nintendo rose to prominence but with the usual American-centric 'Video Game Crash'. It's a compelling if oft told tale which didn't affect Europe which was thriving with its microcomputer scene but in this telling Mario saved the day. As well as the usual retread of the console wars of the 90s with Sega vs. Nintendo duking it out, we get an interesting section on the rise of Pokemon as the unlikely Gameboy system seller in 1998 (a decade after its first release), as well as a look at this multi-media success story which still successfully earns billions every year.
Chapter 9, ‘The Antisocial Network’, looks at the Internet and how it brought different tribes together. 2chan was originally an otaku site where people could share stories, anime and manga but morphed into a more chaotic force, embracing all that is good and the bad. This reached a crescendo with #Gamergate which under the guise of ethics in video game journalism was more like a misogynistic screed against women in the industry. I remember at the time being embarrassed to be a gamer as this became world news as many in the industry were threatened with real world violence whilst also enduring horrific online abuse. This hate hidden under the pretense for 'Freedom of Speech' was tapped into by Steve Bannon, Brietbart and the alt-Right and led to a huge wave of Republican support. However, much good has come out of this forum including Anonymous and its support for Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and support for Hong Kongers against draconian Chinese extradition laws. To be sure 2chan was the progenitor of these online chat spaces and forums but it has had a long tail and its effects are reverberating worldwide.
The Epilogue ends with a look at Haruki Murakami's magical realism and how he taps into the confusing and often surreal situations that exist in the world; there is universality in his works about the human condition that appeals and speaks truth about our existential angst.
Alt says that the world has been led by an attention economy, clicking tapping and swiping away on our phones, but that Covid has created a a state of worldwide hakikomori, but in this case enforced ahut-ins and people have consumed video games, streamed shows via Netflix or Amazon Prime, read and listened to music but more than that, it has led to a spike in creativity.
He ends on a note of optimism that while Japan no longer is at the cutting edge of pop culture and technology, due in part to globalisation and the rise of China and South Korea, there is still much to learn from the country as many conditions in the West were first felt in Japan 2 decades ago, it was the true pioneer. However the success of Animal Crossing during the pandemic, Pokemon Go and hologram concerts (which originated in Japan with Hatsune Miku over a decade ago) shows Japan is still a potent cultural force.
Alt’s book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Japan and the look at the subcultures is fascinating stuff. A worthwhile read and highly recommended by me!
LINK- Japan: My Journey to the East
LINK: Preserving the Spirit of Media Past
LINK- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review
LINK- The Transportive Nature of Objects (And the Power of Mini Consoles)