Category Archives: Brand Japan

Wim Wenders Speaks about Japanese Film Director Ozu

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What an incredible tribute to Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu by one of the great German directors in film history, Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire, Tokyo-Ga). Watch this video as Wenders reminds us that great storytelling through film can come from others places than America’s Hollywood. American films dominate the global market in quantity and reach, but they do not dominate in quality. I just watched Tokyo Story (東京物語 Tōkyō Monogatari) and was mesmerized by its simplicity, sentimentality and universal messages: life is beautiful, life is too busy, life is disappointing, and life is far too short.

Cool Japan is Green Japan

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We all are quite familiar with the Cool Japan campaign to promote global interest in Japan’s music, fashion, anime, manga and traditional culture (tea ceremony, kimono).  But the coolest part of post-3/11 Japan is an opportunity through recovery to create a future-oriented sustainable society that establishes a balance between humanity and nature.  Humankind’s respect for nature–its glory and its fury–is a longstanding tradition in this earthquake-prone archipelago.  Why not make Japan a model of growth through sustainability for the Asian region as well as the world?  Today’s Japan Times‘ editorial makes exactly that point in its call for the Noda government to “push environment-friendly policies in earnest.”

The Fukushima nuclear catastrophe has made it clear that Japan has no alternative but to push energy savings and green energy to reduce its reliance on nuclear energy and to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions.

The new plan calls for the realization of a sustainable society through efforts to build a low-carbon and recycling society, and to promote harmony between people and nature on the foundation of ensuring safety. Harmonization between people and nature is included from the viewpoint of protecting biodiversity. When looked at closely, though, the plan contains various problems… The plan calls for strengthening measures to recycle and utilize useful resources such as rare metals in electronic appliances. But attention should be paid to the basic issue — drastically changing our current mass-production, mass-waste society.

Brand Japan, Cool Japan, whatever we want to call it, must include a model for sustainability and respect for the natural environment.  We are more than consumers.  We are stewards of this planet.  What suggestions do you have for promoting a “cool, green Japan”?

Tomodachi: US-Japan Partnership

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TOMODACHI US-JAPAN PARTNERSHIP

In the aftermath of 3/11, the United States and Japan have a renewed commitment to their longstanding friendship in the form of the new Tomodachi initiative.  You may have read recently about Lady Gaga’s auctioning of the teacup from which she drank during her visit just ten weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake.  The final bid raised 6 million yen ($75,000) to support Japan’s recovery in educational and cultural programs, especially for young people from the Honshu region.  The tea cup includes LG’s autograph and, of course, a lipstick kiss.  Last month, The Japan Times (April 20, 2012) reported the following:

Five Japanese firms have contributed about ¥320 million to set up a fund for students hit by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011 and promote Japan-U.S. cultural exchanges, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.  The Tomodachi Fund for Exchanges, a U.S.-led initiative to provide aid to quake-hit high school students seeking to study in the United States, is launched at a ceremony Wednesday in Tokyo. The Tomodachi Fund for Exchanges, launched as part of a U.S.-led public-private initiative called Tomodachi (Friends), will provide aid to quake-hit high school students seeking to study in the United States and to support bilateral exchanges through music and sports.  Toyota Motor Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. contributed to the fund.

Pessimistic Optimism in Japan’s Public Diplomacy

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Are the Japanese resilient?

Did Japanese culture really make a difference in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake?

I think so, but that is not the main reason. Love and respect for nature is an important motif and long-lasting tradition in Japanese culture. However, as graceful as nature is, it sometimes brings about merciless disasters such as last year’s earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese culture embraces a sort of paradoxical emotion: pessimistic optimism.

Hojoki, the 13th-century essay written by Japanese poet Kamo no Choumei, documented chaotic situations in Kyoto following earthquakes, fires or famine. Numerous earthquakes and tsunamis have hit Japan since Choumei wrote Hojoki in 1212, exactly 800 years ago. In fact, twice or three times every decade, somewhere in Japan is beset by a serious natural disaster such as an earthquake, volcanic eruption or tsunami. We cannot escape from disasters as long as we live in an archipelago on the Pacific Ring of Fire. So in a sense, the Japanese are pessimistic about destiny.

However, without exception, our ancestors never ran away or called it quits, and they managed to recover and reconstruct their damaged communities. We believe that the wisdom of human beings as well as technology can reduce vulnerability to disasters. So in another sense, the Japanese are optimistic about human capabilities. This “pessimistic optimism” is a cultural characteristic of Japanese society.

Tadashi Ogawa, Director General of the Japan Foundation in Jakarta, Indonesia

Not Having My Baby

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Where is Paul Anka when we need him?

Incredible Shrinking Country

In Japan, birthrates are now so low and life expectancy so great that the nation will soon have a demographic profile that matches that of the American retirement community of Palm Springs. “Gradually but relentlessly,” the demographer Nick Eberstadt writes in the latest issue of The Wilson Quarterly, “Japan is evolving into a type of society whose contours and workings have only been contemplated in science fiction.”

Ross Douthat, Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times (April 28, 2012)