Raw Japan

Japan eyes pop art stimulus

Japan’s manga-loving prime minister, Taro Aso, has long touted the importance of pop culture such as comicbooks and anime to boost Japan’s global diplomatic status. Now he’s targeting pop culture’s economic potential.

Included in a $154 billlion stimulus package is a target of raising exports from the “content” sector to about 18 percent of exports from less than 2 percent now, and Aso waved glossy magazines from China and Taiwan featuring Japanese pop stars on their covers to show what he wants to do.

“Japanese content, such as anime and video games, and fashion draw attention from consumers around the world,” he told reporters. “Unfortunately, this ‘soft power’ is not being linked to business overseas.”

The prime minister says he wants to harness Japanese pop art to create a $200 billion to $300 billion market and 500,000 new jobs over the next decade or so.

At least one government agency is already eyeing a cultural project using funds from the stimulus package,  Japan’s biggest ever.

The Cultural Affairs Agency wants nearly 12 billion yen to build a “National Comprehensive Centre for Media Art” that would showcase contemporary Japanese culture such as manga comics, anime films and video games, the Asahi newspaper reported.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao and REUTERS/Issei Kato

Mortician tale an Oscar surprise

Even the lead actor was surprised when his movie “Departures”, about an out-of-work cellist who takes a job as a mortician preparing corpses for cremation, won the Oscar for best foreign language film today.

The film has been a box office hit in Japan but it faced stiff competition and Masahiro Motoki, did not expect to win against the Israeli favourite in the category, “Waltz with Bashir”.

“I saw the Israeli movie which I honestly had thought would win as it was wonderful,” says Motoki, who instigated the Japanese film and worked on it in a 10-year labour of love.

“So I walked the red carpet as a hanger-on who just observes the ceremony. Now I regret that I did not walk with more confidence.”

“Departures” is a beguiling tale that had a theatre of people sniffling with tears when I went to see it.

The cellist, needing work, answers a mysterious job ad for someone to “help with journeys”, which lands him a post as an apprentice mortician, something he feels obliged to hide from his wife. To his surprise, he likes the job, which teaches him about life and death.