I think it is extremely interesting that Japan jumped on the bandwagon of using the value of their popular culture as a tool for their foreign policy. They believe that the impact of their culture is shaping their regions cultural markets, but I still question how much of an impact it actually has in their influence over the region and the rest of the world just like Nissim Kadosh Otmazgin in Contesting soft power: Japanese popular culture in East and Southeast Asia.
Even though “the export of Japan’s consumer goods has been swiftly changing the country’s image overseas in the last two decades, manifesting the country’s economic might,” I agree with Otmazgin that soft power does have limitations (78, 77). I think soft power using cultural products has a limit and depends on the audience being targeted.
Im curious if Japans cultural products can ever overcome the old animosities of Japans Wartime conduct in East Asia. For example, China and Japan have had many different historical encounters. One can look at all the issues that arise with the war crimes by the Japanese in Nangin in 1937 which some note as the “Forgotten Holocaust of World War II,” and that the Japanese government continues to deny its part in the massacre. Can cultural products/culture overcome these issues? I think the cultural products can make a difference but they also must be joined by other public diplomacy efforts. I don’t think popular culture alone can help foreign policy/relations between places like Japan and China. It can be a part of it, but it can be the only means.
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