Cool Japan — Advancing into the Global Market

The story up to Episode 7 was largely completed inside the island nation of Japan. Astro Boy, Gundam, and Evangelion were all made first for Japanese viewers and grew up within Japanese culture. But entering the 2000s, that landscape changed greatly. Japanese anime began to cross borders and captivate children across the sea.

One of the triggers came, unexpectedly, from a single yellow creature born of a game. ‘Pocket Monsters’ — known abroad as ‘Pokémon’ — spread across the world in the blink of an eye. It was not merely the hit of a single work; it became the gateway through which ‘anime,’ a form of expression originating in Japan, came to occupy a corner of the world’s entertainment.

Pokémon Begins to Walk the World

The ‘Pocket Monsters’ television anime began airing on the TV Tokyo network in April 1997. Based on software for Nintendo’s handheld game console, it is the story of the boy Satoshi (Ash) traveling while collecting various ‘Pokémon.’ Games, anime, and cards and toys all linked together, showing a great reach that drew children in.

Having established its popularity at home, Pokémon eventually crossed the sea. In North America, television broadcasts began in September 1998. Crossing barriers of language and culture, Pokémon came to be embraced by children in each country. In the summer of 1998, the first theatrical film ‘Mewtwo Strikes Back’ was released in Japan, and it is recorded as having ranked high at that year’s domestic box office. Pokémon was one example that clearly showed Japanese anime could become a hit on a global scale.

In expanding overseas, adjustments were also made to suit local viewers. It is said that the names and lines of characters, and sometimes even details such as food, were altered to fit local cultures. Keeping the charm of the original while delivering it without discomfort to children in different cultural spheres — such careful localization work supported the global spread. The commercial model of generating revenue in tandem with games and toys, which this series has traced since Episode 3, can be said to have been deployed here not within a single country but on a planetary scale.

That said, the journey was not always smooth sailing. In December 1997, intense flashing of light in one broadcast scene caused some viewers to fall ill and be rushed to hospital. In response to this event, known as the ‘Pokémon Shock,’ the program suspended broadcasting for about four months. Behind worldwide popularity, a grave lesson about visual expression and viewer safety was inscribed.

The Phrase ‘Cool Japan’

As Japanese anime, manga, and games grew in presence overseas, a movement emerged to capture it in words. What is regarded as the forerunner was an essay that the American journalist Douglas McGray contributed to a specialist magazine in 2002. He argued that Japan, economically stagnant, still held strong cultural influence — a power that might be called ‘Gross National Cool.’

This viewpoint, that ‘the appeal of culture itself becomes a nation’s power,’ was eventually incorporated into domestic policy in Japan. The phrase ‘Cool Japan’ spread as a way of referring to Japanese products, content, and culture rated as ‘cool’ from an overseas perspective. Anime and manga were positioned as one of its central bearers.

Full-fledged movement as policy advanced around 2010. As part of an intellectual property strategy, a ‘Cool Japan Strategy’ was raised, and in 2013 a public-private investment fund was also established. Culture came to be incorporated into national strategy as a resource that earns foreign currency and supports the economy.

That said, the results of such policies would later be debated in various ways. The attempt to tie the appeal of culture to economic power did not necessarily proceed as intended. For a nation to wave the flag, and for creators on the ground to produce good works, are different undertakings. When culture is bundled under the language of national policy, is its richness being captured correctly — this question has been raised from time to time to this day.

What should be kept in mind is that such assessments did not necessarily begin from the creators’ intentions. The production floor was not making works for the sake of a global strategy. Expression that had been built up purely for domestic viewers came, as a result, to be valued abroad and was bundled afterward under the language of national policy — overlook that order, and one mistakes the true image of culture.

The Battle Against the Shadow of Piracy

With light spreading across the world came shadow. One such shadow was the problem of piracy.

In the 2000s, the means to watch Japanese anime through legitimate channels were not yet sufficiently in place overseas. What spread instead was the practice known as ‘fansub,’ in which overseas fans added their own subtitles and distributed the works. A work just broadcast in Japan would soon appear with subtitles on the internet abroad. Though born of fans’ enthusiasm, it was distribution without the rights holders’ permission, and its illegality came to be viewed as a problem.

It is reported that even for works properly licensed, or works whose overseas editions were on sale, fansubs and illegal copies circulated. By the mid-2000s, some anime production companies issued warnings demanding that such distribution be stopped. Even when anime gained popularity abroad, that popularity was hard to return to the creators as fair compensation — such a structural problem came to light.

It must also be noted that opinions on fansubs were not uniform. It is certain that they were unauthorized distribution and infringed on rights. On the other hand, it is sometimes said that in regions where legitimate distribution was not yet in place, they played a role in spreading interest in Japanese anime at the grassroots level. As overseas markets grew, the activities of ardent fans and the need to protect rights were intricately intertwined — that tangled reality cannot be cleanly divided into simple good and evil.

One answer to the hard problem of piracy lay in preparing an environment where overseas fans could ‘watch legitimately, without waiting.’ Distributing overseas with legitimate subtitles on the same day as the Japanese broadcast — such attempts began at the end of the 2000s and were reported to have become profitable. Not only cracking down on illegal distribution, but offering convenience through legitimate services that surpassed it. That idea would eventually remake the very way anime is delivered, from the ground up. The hundred-year story heads at last toward its final stretch. And then streaming would overturn the very common sense of anime.