Seiko King Thesis

RE-MADE IN ASIA: TRANSFORMATION ACROSS ASIAN MARKETS AND POPULAR CULTURE

Seiko King AALaw (Meiji, Japan), BA (Pace, US), MA (Columbia, US), MA (Macquarie, Australia)

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology 2012

Keywords

Adaptation

Cultural proximity

Harmony

Hybridity

Popular culture

Regionalisation

Remaking (Remake)

Soft power

Television drama, film, manga, anime, audio visual content

Abstract

The thesis is an examination of how Japanese popular culture products are remade

(rimeiku). Adaptation of manga, anime and television drama, from one format to another, frequently occurs within Japan. The rights to these stories and texts are traded in South Korea and Taiwan. The ‘spin-off’ products form part of the Japanese content industry. When products are distributed and remade across geographical boundaries, they have a multi-dimensional aspect and potentially contribute to an evolving cultural re-engagement between Japan and East Asia.

The case studies are the television dramas Akai Giwaku and Winter Sonata and two manga, Hana yori Dango and Janguru Taitei. Except for the television drama Winter

Sonata these texts originated in Japan. Each study shows how remaking occurs across geographical borders.

The study argues that Japan has been slow to recognise the value of its popular culture through regional and international media trade. Japan is now taking steps to remedy this strategic shortfall to enable the long-term viability of the Japanese content industry. The study includes an examination of how remaking raises legal issues in the appropriation of media content. Unauthorised copying and piracy contributes to loss of financial value.

To place the three Japanese cultural products into a historical context, the thesis includes an overview of Japanese copying culture from its early origins through to

the present day. The thesis also discusses the Meiji restoration and the post-World

War II restructuring that resulted in Japan becoming a regional media powerhouse.

The localisation of Japanese media content in South Korea and Taiwan also brings with it significant cultural influences, which may be regarded as contributing to a better understanding of East Asian society in line with the idea of regional

‘harmony’. The study argues that the commercial success of Japanese products beyond Japan is governed by perceptions of the quality of the story and by the cultural frames of the target audience. The thesis draws on audience research to illustrate the loss or reinforcement of national identity as a consequence of cross- cultural trade. The thesis also examines the contribution to Japanese ‘soft power’

(Nye, 2004, p. x). The study concludes with recommendations for the sustainability of the Japanese media industry.

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Table of Contents

Keywords ...... i Abstract ...... ii Table of Contents ...... iv List of Diagrams ...... vii List of Photographs ...... vii List of Tables ...... viii List of Abbreviations ...... ix Japanese Family Names ...... ix Statement of Original Authorship ...... x Acknowledgements ...... xi

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND THESIS SUMMARY 1.1 Introduction… ...... 1 1.2 Background… ...... 3 1.3 Scope of Research… ...... 10 1.4 Methods… ...... 13 1.5 Summary of Chapters… ...... 22

CHAPTER 2: REMAKING THE KEY INGREDIENTS 2.1 Introduction… ...... 27 2.2 Japanese Popular Culture… ...... 29 2.3 Remaking, Roots and Visual Culture… ...... 36 2.4 Cultural Adaptation, Formats and Remaking… ...... 40 2.5 Fan Culture… ...... 46 2.6 Cultural Proximity… ...... 48 2.7 Conclusion… ...... 50

CHAPTER 3: JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE AND THE GLOBAL DOMAIN 3.1 Introduction … ...... 53 3.2 Japan: Towards Globalisation … ...... 55 3.3 Manga… ...... 63 3.4 Regionalisation or Globalisation?… ...... 68 3.5 Gross National Cool… ...... 70 3.6 Emerging Japanese Soft Power… ...... 74 3.7 Regional Political Engagement: East Asian Cultural Flows… ...... 78 3.8 Conclusion… ...... 84

CHAPTER 4: THE EXPANSION OF JAPANESE MEDIA CONTENT IN EAST ASIA 4.1 Introduction… ...... 87 4.2 Japanese Television Networks… ...... 88 4.3 Japanese Content Industry… ...... 94 4.4 Regionalisation Emerges… ...... 106 4.5 Conclusion…...... 108

CHAPTER 5: THE REMAKING OF THE MANGA HANA YORI DANGO 5.1 Introduction… ...... 111 5.2 Background… ...... 112 5.3 Foregrounding Analysis… ...... 115 5.4 Textual Analysis… ...... 118 5.5 Summary of the Taiwanese and Korean Textual Analysis Compared with the Original Japanese Manga… ...... 132 5.6 Boys over Flowers: The Script Writer’s Perspective… ...... 135 5.7 Conclusion…...... 143

CHAPTER 6: AKAI GIWAKU: THE INSPIRATION FOR WINTER SONATA 6.1 Introduction… ...... 147 6.2 Television Drama Evolves in Japan… ...... 147 6.3 Cultural Relations in East Asia… ...... 149 6.4 The Success of Winter Sonata in Japan, Undertones of Akai Giwaku…...... 151 6.5 Textual Analysis: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku… ...... 156 6.6 Foregrounding Analysis: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku … ...... 158 6.7 Categorisation of Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku … ...... 161 6.8 The Phenomena of Winter Sonata… ...... 166 6.9 Analysis of Six Japanese Trendy Dramas… ...... 174 6.10 Conclusion…...... 178

CHAPTER 7: TEXT, SPACE AND AUDIENCE 7.1 Introduction… ...... 181 7.2 Research Procedure… ...... 182 7.3 Findings… ...... 185 7.4 Discussion… ...... 207 7.5 Conclusion…...... 212

CHAPTER 8: JANGURU TAITEI (JUNGLE EMPEROR): OPPORTUNITY GAINED; OPPORTUNITY LOST 8.1 Introduction… ...... 215 8.2 Background… ...... 216 8.3 Tezuka Osamu: an Artist, Creator and Remaker… ...... 218 8.4 Janguru Taitei… ...... 221 8.5 Is The Lion King a Remade Version of Janguru Taitei?… ...... 231 8.6 Concluding Remarks… ...... 239

CHAPTER 9: MEDIA TRADE IN EAST ASIA: CULTURE AND VALUE 9.1 Introduction… ...... 243 9.2 Media Trade… ...... 243 9.3 Media Value Chains… ...... 254 9.4 Conclusion… ...... 265

CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION Concluding Remarks… ...... 269 APPENDICES Appendix 1… ...... 277 Appendix 2… ...... 281 Appendix 3… ...... 289

BIBLIOGRAPHY… ...... 291

List of Diagrams

Diagram 1 Envelope of research ...... 11 Diagram 2 Triangulation ...... 16 Diagram.3 Primary components of the media value chain ...... 43 Diagram 4 Production and distribution of Japanese media content ...... 98 Diagram 5 Japanese media strategy map...... 99 Diagram 6 The ideal communication process ...... 154 Diagram 7 Communication and interaction process ...... 155 Diagram 8 Foregrounding comparison: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku ...... 161 Diagram 9 Miura’s societal positioning of Japanese females ...... 170 Diagram 10 Research framework for audience analysis ...... 183 Diagram 11 Blogs on Hana yori Dango ...... 185 Diagram 12 Cycle of media content through the remaking process ...... 244 Diagram 13 Broadcast imports and exports−Korea ...... 264

List of Photographs

Photo 1: Yuugemae ...... 90 Photo 2: Basudori Ura ...... 91

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List of Tables

Table 1: Brown’s characteristics of soap opera ...... 18 Table 2: Korea’s four steps ...... 82 Table 3: Media exports Japan to South Korea ...... 83 Table 4: Foregrounding; Identification of distinctive thematic elements in various remade versions of Hana yori Dango ...... 117 Table 5: Textual analyses of Japanese cultural expressions in Hana yori Dango ...... 119 Table 6: Textual analyses of South Korean cultural expressions in Boys over Flowers ...... 121 Table 7: Textual analyses of Taiwanese cultural expressions in Meteor Garden ...... 122 Table 8: Consumer items ...... 124 Table 9: Food ...... 126 Table 10: Study pattern ...... 126 Table 11: Personal prestige by association ...... 127 Table 12: Locations ...... 129 Table 13: Youth culture ...... 130 Table 14: Foreign language inclusions ...... 130 Table 15: Humour ...... 131 Table 16: Japanese television drama 1980−2000 ...... 149 Table 17: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku ...... 157 Table 18: Elements common to Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku ...... 157 Table 19: Foregrounding analysis of Winter Sonata ...... 159 Table 20: Foregrounding analysis of Akai Giwaku ...... 160 Table 21: Selected titles of Japanese media articles on Korea 2004−2006 ...... 173 Table 22: Drama series ...... 175 Table 23: Foregrounding elements: Six television trendy dramas ...... 177 Table 24: Japanese production of Janguru Taitei ...... 223 Table 25: Media value chain ...... 254

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List of Abbreviations

Republic of Korea (Korea)

United States of America (US)

United States of America Dollars ($US)

Peoples Republic of China (China)

Republic of China (Taiwan)

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)

Japanese Family Names .

In this thesis, family names precede given names, in accordance with Japanese convention.

Statement of Original Authorship

The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.

Signature: ______

Date: ______

Acknowledgements

My primary accolades are directed to The Queensland University of Technology

Creative Industries Faculty (QUT) who supported my research with both scholarship and a rich environment for my studies. I particularly acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude my principal supervisor Associate Professor Michael Keane, who has been an outstanding guide and mentor for my research, and Associate Supervisor

Professor Terry Flew. Associate Professor Michael Keane has been a superb supervisor, has given me constant encouragement, imparted knowledge, writing skills, held stimulating workshops and given very thoughtful and valuable written guidance. My associate supervisor, Professor Terry Flew, has provided me with very positive inputs, meaningful suggestions and feedback, and guided me to key reading materials.

I have received so much information from a plethora of people but mention in particular those associated with KKP601 taken by me as a preliminary and necessary requirement to my undertaking the PhD. Dr. Jason Sternberg, who mentored me on research methodology for the audience analysis component within this thesis. He was also my lecturer on Approaches to Enquiry in the Creative Industries, Peter Fell, my lecturer on Advanced Information Retrieval Skills, which opened up new ways for me to access data from the internet and Associate Professor Cheryl Stock who gave me insight into the ethical requirements for my audience analysis and interviews. I would also like to acknowledge the amenities at QUT and the friendliness and competent support of the administration; the library facilities are outstanding.

I also thank Dr. Ki-Sung Kwak; Ms.Yoon Ji-Ryun, in Korea, who has given her precious time and provided me with most useful content and industry information; from Korean Chuang University, Korea, Professors Lim Chan-Soo, Im Ki-Yong, and Park Chong-Yul; James Tien, Deputy Director, Taipei Economic and Cultural

Representative Office in Japan; Shimoji Chiaki, Japan External Trade Organization;

Fujimoto Tokuji, Nagayoshi Miyuki and Yamada Hisashi, Deputy Director General at Trade and Economic Department, Japan and the Taiwan Interchange Association in Japan; Stephen Thompson of Esstee Media; and my friend and colleague Ikuko

Sorensen and my two examiners most sincerely for the time and attention that they have both provided in reviewing my thesis. Many thanks also to the unnamed multitude of researchers and writers who have contributed to my knowledge.

My earnest appreciation goes to my husband John who gave me constant support and encouragement by being patient all the way through my studies; also my heartfelt gratitude goes to my family: Alisa, Barry, Rory, Amelia and Elina.

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Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework and Thesis Summary

1.1 Introduction

The aim of this thesis is to examine remaking in contemporary Japanese popular culture products from historical origins. In Japan the word rimeiku means remake or recreate. Remaking is interpreted in many ways by media scholars. Atkinson refers to the processes of ‘adaptation and appropriation’ and ‘the over-arching practice of intertextuality’ (Atkinson, 2008, p. 17). Moran refers to adaptations ‘of television program formats in the areas of game shows and soap opera’ (Moran, 1998, p. 75). In reference to cross-national adaptation, Moran expresses a concern regarding textual translation and the ‘national colouring’ of the translation (Moran, 1998, p. 76).

Tunstall uses the word ‘versioning’ (Tunstall, 2008, p. 7), where the imported content is realigned to localise the content; for example, in a television mini-series.

Hutcheon theorises adaptation (Hutcheon, 2006). The range of terms used illustrates the difficulty in arriving at a finite description in regard to the practices and complexity of the process of remaking, as it is understood within this thesis, both within and across media content. In the context of this study, the term ‘remaking’ is adopted to include not only a remaking of media content within a genre or format but also of transferring it from one format to another. Remaking can involve changes in content and format, and may draw from two or more remakes to form a composite media product.

The remaking of Japanese media products falls within the content industry. Content, from a Japanese legal perspective, is described in the ‘Act on Promotion of Creation,

Protection and Exploitation of Content (Content Promotion Act promulgated in June

2004)’. Content belongs to the realm of cultural entertainment, or accomplishment, created by human activity. Content includes television, films, music, drama, literature, photographs, manga, animation, computer games, using letters, shapes, colours, sounds, movements or visual images, or the combination of these, or information on them (Nakano, 2008a; Yamaguchi, 2008). In Japan, the Ministry of

Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) categorises the content industry into four groups: 1) films and television programs, 2) music and sound, 3) games, and 4) books, newspapers, images and texts (METI, 2007b). The Japanese Ministry of

Internal Affairs and Communications categorises the content industry into three groups: 1) text, 2) sound, and 3) image (Nakano, 2008a). The content industry is also segmented into content production and content distribution. There is also recognition of the effect of technology on content distribution and the effect on media flows and merchandised products. The content industry in Japan is currently receiving increased attention from the Japanese government in order to better guide, regulate and protect Japanese media products. The national government is engaging with regional governments to provide pro-active support for the content industry through its bureaucracy and consular networks, not only to protect the intrinsic value of

Japanese media content but also to grow the trade and, in turn, to recognise the potential cultural and commercial benefits deriving from it.

Remaking of manga, anime, television drama and film occurs within Japan primarily for Japanese consumption. Media products from Japanese sources may also be remade outside of Japan, where such media products as television dramas are localised for consumption by their respective national audiences. The localised

remaking can contribute positively to evolving cultural relationships in East Asia.

The effects of these cultural transfers are determined using audience analysis to search for regional harmonisation or hybridity. The intent of this study is addressed, in part, by the case-studies of two television dramas, Akai Giwaku (Akai series ‘Red

Doubt’) and Hana yori Dango (Boys over Flowers), and the remaking of the manga

Janguru Taitei (Jungle Emperor). These media cultural products originated in Japan.

To place them into a historical context I have included an overview of the Japanese culture of copying, or remaking, from its early origins through to the present day.

The study identifies Japan to have been slow in recognising the value of its popular culture with regard to regional media transfers. This study also proves that the

Japanese media content industry has failed to capitalise on its popular culture content because of a shortfall in copyright protection and an apparent naivety in the commercial aspects of the remaking process within East Asia and beyond.

1.2 Background

Popular culture has played a significant role in Japan and Asia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and has contributed to globalisation as well as localisation in regional contexts. A number of scholars regard the 1990s as a period of transition in

Japanese popular culture toward being a global culture (Ishii, 2001b; Iwabuchi, 1999,

2002, 2004a; Ogura, 2005a). Characteristics of this transition include regional flows from Japan into adjoining communities in East Asia, and counter flows from East

Asia into Japan, as well as composite global cultural flows.

The roots of contemporary Japanese culture can be traced to the end of the

Tokugawa Shogunate in 1868. A significant transition occurred at this time, when

Japan moved progressively from a policy of sakoku (seclusion) to an outward looking one. This change was initiated due to Japan being subjected to external military forces. These forces brought about the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and heralded the ensuing Meiji period (Fujioka, 2006). Japanese culture was again subjected to significant international influence, principally from the US, post-World

War II. Events since the transition from the Tokugawa Shogunate serve as precursors to the regionalisation and internationalisation of Japanese media and cultural products.

Japan has made a significant contribution as a prime source for media and cultural products that have not only been remade and adapted in Japan but have also been traded outside of Japan and been successful in Asian markets and internationally.

Remaking of popular culture content, such as television drama, film, anime

(animation) and manga (comics), is common in Japan and East Asia, as well as being an international phenomenon. There have been studies of Japanese media cultural products in a variety of content and formats (Hamano, 2005; Johnson-Woods, 2010;

Kelts, 2007), but surprisingly little scholarly attention has been directed towards the specific phenomenon of remaking of Japanese popular culture products.

The ramifications require additional study. After conducting a literature review, I found a lack of any comprehensive analysis of Japanese popular culture content from the perspective of the composition, processes and outcomes of remaking, or the legislative environments within which they were created and distributed. Some of the factors that have contributed to the successful transfer, or impediments to transfer, of

Japanese popular culture products, both within and between Japan, Korea and

Taiwan, have been investigated.

Japan faces intrinsic problems when selling programs for overseas consumption. The strength of the Japanese currency and the ensuing high cost of internal production when compared with Taiwan and Korea, and globally, is one limiting factor against regional and global distribution of media cultural products. Another factor is the

Japanese language, which is not widely spoken compared with English and Chinese languages. Korea faces the same language problem as Japan for overseas sale of popular culture products, but not the disadvantage of production costs.

Notwithstanding the difficulties of Japanese production costs, the sale or licensing of television programs and formats can provide supplementary income beyond domestic revenues. This income can be amplified through the value chain with revenue from merchandised products.

Japan, despite its commercial disadvantage in media sales overseas, does have some success. Exports grew from 1433 programs in 1992 to 1657 in 2001 (Institute for

Information and Communications Policy, 2005). Fifty per cent of the sales were in anime, television drama and film. Revenue from sales and licensing varies depending on the import region; higher prices are achieved with sales to the US compared with sales to East Asia. Sales to the US fell within the range of $US 3000 to $US 60,000

(Institute for Information and Communications Policy, 2005). Documentaries occupied 35 per cent of the sales. Japanese television serial dramas are successful with overseas audiences, primarily in East Asia, when remade and localised. Hana yori Dango, which has been remade in a number of countries, is an example of trade

in this program category. An example of Japanese media products sold overseas is the program Ryori no Tetsujin (Iron Chef). This program ran in Japan from 1993 to

1999, over 309 episodes. This culinary game show series was traded as a format internationally, initially to the US on the Food Network, with a voice-over.

Following this, Iron Chef was remade and localised as Iron Chef US, two episodes were broadcast in 2001 by the United Paramount Network and was then discontinued due to poor audience acceptance of the show. The format was revitalised through

Iron Chef America and broadcast via cable on the Food Network in 2005. This program was enhanced with reinforced audience involvement, and two Japanese chefs gave authenticity to the format source. Iron Chef America was broadcast in

Australia by SBS in 2006, but it was replaced by the original Japanese Iron Chef, utilising voice-over and subtitles, shortly before its planned conclusion in 2007. Iron

Chef America was broadcast in 2007 in Japan by the owners of Iron Chef, Fuji

Television, with voice-over.

The remake of Iron Chef Australia was a composite of the original Iron Chef and

Iron Chef America, and was fully localised. It was broadcast on Channel 7 in 2010 and attracted an audience of 1.129 million viewers (Washbrook, 2010). The UK version was also broadcast in 2010. Another example of the trade in formats is

Tosochu (Run for Money), a suspense variety program licensed to Disney Group’s

Buena Vista. Japanese producers are well aware of the commercial disadvantages they face and are turning to regional partnerships for co-productions. An example of this approach is the partnership between Korea and Japan to produce MBC Sonagi

(Rain Shower) in 2002, Anatani Aitakute (Star’s Echo) in 2004, Rondo (Rondo) and

Pacchigi (Love and Peace) in 2006. Japanese talent for animation also has

international appeal; for example, Star Wars by George Lucas used the Japanese animator Takeuchi Atsushi in 2009 (Mega Pig News, 2009).

The Japanese government emphasise that producers need to be aware that there is no set of international rules or agreements to control program format and remaking

(Institute for Information and Communications Policy, 2005). METI researchers have identified many cases (not quantified) where copy versions of media content have been made without permission being obtained or licences established. Japan also has provided inspiration, and has influenced producers outside of Japan to use

Japanese content within an overseas production. An example of this is the

Hollywood blockbuster Star Wars and Kurosawa’s film Kakushi Toride no San

Akunin (The Last Princess), produced in 1958 (Hamano, 2005) . The similarities in the opening and the last scene are evident. The character of Princess Leia, performed by Carrie Fisher, was modelled on Yuki Hime (Princess Yuki) in Kurosawa’s film.

In another scene, where the captured princess Leia is lying down, has an identical scene in Kurasawa’s film where Princess Yuki is lying down in the rain. The robots

C3PO and R2D2 are modelled on farmers Matashichi and Tahei in Kurosawa’s film.

George Lucas, the director of Star Wars, states that he admires Kurosawa’s work and is very much inspired by him (Joji Rukasu 2010).

The Lion King, known as both a Disney anime and as a stage production, was considered by some media critics to be remade from, or influenced by, the original

Japanese manga Janguru Taitei (Jungle Emperor) (Graeber, 1998; Kyodo, 1994b;

"Lion King is Strikingly Similar to Jungle Emperor," 1994). Janguru Taitei was written from 1950 to 1954 by well-known anime director and cartoonist Tezuka

Osamu (Hamano, 2005; Harada, 2007; Kuwahara, 1997). The original horror story

The Ring was written by Suzuki Koji as The Ring series of four volumes in a book format, and was published in 1993. The US Dream Wax purchased the remaking license for The Ring for $US 1,000,000 (METI, 2003d, 2003e). The content was adapted for a television drama, The Ring in 1995 and, in 1998, a film. A sequel film was produced in 2002 in the US. The television drama shifted to a suspense drama genre, whereas the film kept the original elements of horror. The Ring was also remade into a Korean version called The Ring Virus, as it was in Hong Kong also.

Economic factors are a catalyst for the recent impetus to better regulate the transfer of Japanese media products. Japanese television dramas were very lavish during the bubble economy of the 1980s, which drew to a close in 1990. Japanese media and popular culture was affected by a comprehensive downturn in Japanese fortunes in its property sector and stock market from 1990. The Japanese economy post 1990 is now well deflated, as evidenced by the fall in value of the share market, which is now, in terms of the yen, about a quarter of the value it was in January 1989

(Hutchinson, 1997). This dramatic change has affected the production of television drama, with the contraction of funds available. This is explained below. This change led to a revised approach to production and the subsequent regionalisation and internationalisation of television dramas and the like. The change may also be seen as contributing to the popularity of remaking, from a viewpoint of production costs.

This study also considers the state of the Japanese economy with regard to the dissemination of Japanese media and popular culture. If Japanese international trade in all goods from 2000 to 2009 are considered, it can be seen that the growth from

2000 to 2004 was 17.5 per cent. It stagnated thereafter. Exports in 2009 in yen terms were the same as in 2004 (JETRO, 2009; Nitta, 2004). This decline in Japanese exports in real terms was concurrent with an increase in Japanese government attention to its content industry. The stagnation of Japanese exports post-2004 may explain the emphasis that Japan is now making through expert study and analysis towards regulation and law with respect to its media industry. The government is trying to make up the economic short fall by looking at better ways to capitalise on media exports, which until recently had been transferred, on many occasions, at less than realisable market values. An example of this is the US Broadcast Enterprises, a division of the US NBC, where it was noted that the purchase of the licence for

Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) was picked up very cheaply (Deneroff, 1996b). Fred

Ladd1 used 104 episodes out of Tezuka’s original 193 episodes of Jungle Emperor for the American market (Deneroff, 1996b).

The export of Japanese media products and their remaking is an important part of the influence of Japan in the East Asian region. Technological advances, government media controls and the effects of cultural similarities and differences are all important elements in the remaking process. The technology provides the means for the transformation and trade of media and cultural products. Governments can, through regulation, block or allow the trading of these products. When media cultural products are traded overseas, as in Japan, acceptance is primarily governed by the consumer’s cultural framework and their interest in the content.

Remaking raises issues of legality in trade of media content. Trade may be legitimate but the value may be less than the content is worth. The prevention of unauthorised

1 Fred Ladd was a pioneer director of Japanese anime in the US.

use of content is very difficult to achieve. Loss of financial value through various leakage channels, such as unauthorised copying and distribution of content and unauthorised merchandise products, is an ever present problem, not only for Japan and East Asia, but globally. The changing attitude and actions of the government of

Japan from complacency toward protecting and increasing the cultural and financial potential of its popular media products, including media remaking, is an important element of this thesis. This change in policy represents a belated recognition of the problems facing the viability of remaking for overseas trade by Japan. New and evolving law, regulation and promotional support are designed to enable the

Japanese popular culture industry to have long-term viability. Chapter 7 brings forward the influence of the regionalisation of Japanese media content on the audience in East Asia. The proposition that the overseas trade of Japanese media and cultural content adds to Japanese soft power in the region and its impact on Korean and Taiwanese national identity is also considered.

1.3 Scope of Research

1.3.1 Three strands

This study analyses the process of remaking from three distinct strands, each of which is considered to be a dynamic entity. The first strand comprises the journey of

Japanese media cultural products from local to regional, or global. The second, and most important in the context of this thesis, is the journey of the originating content formats through the diversity of the process of remaking. The third strand, or conduit, is the effect of government regulations and the technology, which has an interrelationship between the first and second strands. These processes take place over time, and are integrated. If the media content has been transmitted to the

intended audience then, quite apart from the commercial imperatives and it being subject to the degree of audience acceptance, it may influence the audience and may lead to a sharing of common cultural elements, or to a degree of hybridity. I would suggest that the composite picture of this multi-stranded process, illustrated in

Diagram 1, is representative of the processes within which the remaking of media cultural products occurs.

Diagram 1 Envelope of research.

Journey of media content Original format Conduits

Local

Remaking Technology texts and and Regional formats government regulations

Global Many and varied Evolving Dynamic

AUDIENCE Cultural issues

The selected media cultural products have moved through this process, in whole or in part, from local to regional to global, and have also moved through an expanding process of content, genre and format. The strands illustrated in Diagram 1 are interlaced with local regional and international cultural issues, which are many and varied. The impact and outcomes of technology and government regulation, which have been moving from inhibiting or blocking the distribution of media cultural products to liberalising their distribution, is significant to this research. Perhaps the most important part of the journey of the strands is that, collectively, they deliver

media cultural products to the audience. The anticipated outcome is their acceptance by the audience.

1.3.2 Research questions and theoretical framework

The key research question is bound by the period of study from the mid-1950s to the early 2000s, with a background in popular culture and copying from earlier times.

How is remaking of Japanese stories contributing to a positive re-evaluation of

Japanese culture in East Asia?

Sub-questions which underpin the study are:

What is the rationale of remaking (industrial, cultural and political)?

What is its history?

Why now, and to what extent?

The rational for remaking takes into account and foregrounds:

Huge demands for content in an expanding world system.

Remaking as a cheap option in many cases.

The paucity of scholarly attention to Japanese remaking of media content is expanded in this thesis. The aim of this study is to unlock the complex process of remaking selected television dramas and manga. The research approach is threefold.

Firstly, it utilises triangulation, which comprises textual analysis, document analysis and audience analysis. The textual analysis is carried out in order to isolate the important elements that are retained, changed or added to in the process of remaking, and to better inform the findings from the audience data inputs. Document analysis is

applied for understanding the influences of technology and government regulations on cultural trade of media content, particularly in Japan and Korea. Audience analysis determines the reasons for the acceptance or rejection of media content within the ambit of the research. The analysis also searches for regional influences on harmonisation, or hybridity of, audiences in Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The study also explores the proposition that hybridity does not necessarily lead to a loss of local identity. A convergent validation is derived from the qualitative and quantitative information gained from the respective analyses. The study has, as a corollary to triangulation, utilised the value chain of Janguru Taitei to evaluate the extent of competitive advantage of these Japanese media and cultural products and the economic potential within Japan for remaking and adapting. The findings illustrate the intricate process within which the selected media products are created, transformed and distributed, and in turn, explain the audience reception.

1.4 Methods

1.4.1 Background analysis: Literature review, document analyses and interviews.

A comprehensive review of the literature on themes selected for their relevance to the process of, and interface with, remaking was conducted to include:

In Chapter Two:

1) Japanese popular culture

2) Remaking roots and visual culture

3) Cultural adaptation, formats and remaking

4) Fan culture

5) Cultural proximity

Chapter Four:

6) Japanese content industry

7) Japanese television networks and regional implications

The review of published literature was conducted. This included books, journal articles, government documents, magazines, library archives and the internet.

Primary sources, where available to me, were used for the collection of authentic data through visits to Japan, Korea and Taiwan, to follow the journey of the media products within the study. Where possible, parties directly involved with government regulation, producers and scriptwriters of media products and consumers of media content were interviewed. These included academics and media industry figures in

Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Professional translation services were used as required in accessing and understanding texts written in Korean or Chinese. The library visits in

Japan were undertaken for gaining access to original texts relating to historical determinations within the scope of the study.

Based on the background analysis, and in parallel to the main research question, the process of remaking, distribution and their target audiences were analysed, as well as other factors for popular culture products. The research entailed audience analysis both within and outside of Japan. The findings have been used as the basis for evaluating the relevance of the audience data to the adaptation and cross-cultural outcomes of the selected media and popular culture texts within the scope of this study.

1.4.2 Selected popular culture products

The research design is a series of case studies of Japanese media products, selected based on two characteristics: firstly, their popularity and, secondly, the method and legitimacy of their export. One Japanese television drama Akai Giwaku (Akai Series

‘Red Doubt’) and two manga, Hana yori Dango (Boys over Flowers) and Janguru

Taitei are considered. This study also considers Winter Sonata, a popular television drama series made in Korea that was exported to Japan, to explore the hypothesis that it is in fact a remaking of, or was influenced by, Akai Giwaku, aired in 1975–

1976 by TBS. Other media products are considered, to a lesser extent, in the supplementary part of the study to further validate the findings of the case study of

Akai Giwaku. These include six television dramas distributed from the 1970s to the early 2000s: Tokyo Love Story, Say You Love Me, Long Vacation, Love Generation,

Over Time, and Beautiful Life. The research design adopted in this study is specific to my intention to analyse the selected media cultural items, all of which have been remade. They represent a small sample of the overall remade texts in the period of the study. The research design is intended to produce data that can reasonably be extrapolated and refined with ongoing research beyond this study.

1.4.3 Data analysis

Triangulation is used to achieve a convergent validation from the research to draw together the data gathered, thus enabling analysis and for conclusions to be drawn from the findings. The method adopted was designed ‘to capitalise on the comparative potential of various data sets rather than establishing a hierarchy of evidence’ (Barbour, 2007, p. 47).

Bryman, citing Denzin (1970), refers to the approach as methodological triangulation

(Bryman, 2011 ). It is a method also used by Morse (Morse, 1991). In adopting this concept, the three data sets forming the points of the triangle are: a) textual analysis b) document analysis and c) audience analysis. The intent was to collect data relevant to the scope of the research. The concept is illustrated in Diagram 2.

Diagram 2 Triangulation

Textual analysis

Data

Document analysis Audience analysis

The research method is a mixed method, and the three chosen segments for data collection and analysis are complementary to the context of the study (Creswell &

Clark, 2011). Textual and audience analysis fall within the ambit of socio-cultural context and document analysis, primarily political. The analysis of audience utilises grounded theory within the scope of qualitative analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

Flick, Kardoff and Steinke refer to ‘the heterogeneity of approaches that may be characterised as qualitative research’ (Flick, Kardorff & Steinke, 2004, p. 6). The study acknowledges the complexity of the research method and that ‘quantitative research is weak in understanding the context of the setting in which people talk’ whereas qualitative research is seen as deficient because of the personal interpretations made by the researcher’ (Creswell & Clark, 2011, p. 12).

Triangulation is designed to address the research questions and to maximise the

information gained from the quantitative and qualitative data gathered and collated, enabling the disparate data to be connected and for conclusions to be drawn in line with the objectives of the thesis. The study also includes an interview with the

Korean script writer of Hana yori Dango, to cross correlate my own findings against her declared content objectives in the remaking of the text

1.4.4 Textual analysis

Textual analysis was conducted on all the ten media products within the ambit of the research. These products, with the exception of Hana yori Dango and Janguru

Taitei, fall within the genre of Japanese trendy television drama. The tools used to measure characteristics of the contents in the media texts, with the exception of Hana yori Dango and Janguru Taitei were taken from methods applicable for research conducted on soap operas due to similarities in the format. The principal difference in format is the length: soap operas are open-ended and sustained while Japanese trendy dramas have a finite length. The tools measure content rather than longevity of the production and I consider them to be valid for part of the analysis.

Gledhill, in reference to soap operas, summarises that form of program, namely its nature, its narrative structure, its organisation of shots, character types, modes of expression and aesthetic and affective experiences, seeing these properties as prerequisites for the soap opera becoming a part of the viewer’s life and, conjointly, being a pleasure producing experience (Gledhill, 1997). Brown predates Gledhill and lists eight characteristics of soap opera. These are shown in Table 1. While giving attention to Gledhill’s summary of soap operas, the characteristics Brown assigned to soap operas were used to analyse nine of the television dramas selected for this

thesis. The first segment of textual analysis used the eight characteristics of Brown’s theory. These, with my interpretations of meaning, are summarised in Table 1

Table 1 Brown’s characteristics of soap opera.

Item Brown’s characteristics Interpretation 1 Serial form which resists narrative The drama is broken up into a number of parts or closure episodes. Narrative persists and the stories continue through the episodes without an end. 2 Multiple characters and plots Create a multiplicity of interests to draw a wider audience. 3 Use of time which parallels actual time The idea that the world of the drama is real and if and implies that the action continues to the viewer does not watch the next episode they take place whether we watch it or not will lose drama continuity and miss out on unfolding events. 4 Abrupt segmentation between parts Usually each episode ends with climactic tension, which is not resolved until the next episode. Viewers are drawn to wait in anticipation for the next episode. 5 Emphasis on dialogue, problem Sustain viewer interest in the multiple plots. solving, and intimate conversation 6 Male characters who are ‘sensitive The macho male stereotype is discounted; by men’ implication the target audience is female. 7 Female characters who are often Recognition of social changes in the post Victorian professional and otherwise powerful in era, female empowerment. the world outside the home 8 The home, or some other place which Establishing an environment of normality within a functions as a home, as the setting for fantasy. the show. Source: (adapted from Brown, 1987; Fiske, 1987, p. 179)

1.4.5 Foregrounding

Foregrounding analysis is a technique used in stylistic analysis, initially developed by linguists of the Prague school. It focuses on sections of text that are emphasised within the body of the textual material. This is achieved by linguistic devices in the

foregrounded text which stand out, are highlighted or are prominent in the body of the text (Halliday, 1985, 2001) . The effect of foregrounding is relative. Halliday uses the term prominence to characterise foregrounded text (Halliday, 1985) .

According to Hassan ( 1985), examples include: ‘the concept basic to foregrounding is that of contrast,’ ‘foregrounding becomes noticeable because of its consistency, and foregrounding would be impossible without the existence of a consistent background’ (Hassan, 1985, pp. 94-95) . A Likert-type scale was used as a research tool to quantify the research findings, with respect to content in the television dramas forming part of this thesis. A Likert-type scale is commonly used in questionnaires and is the most widely used scale in survey research; it is a form of rating scale. The scale enables qualitative data to be ascribed quantitative values. The appearance of up to five predetermined elements in each of the television drama series was measured and an average score for each of them deduced. Cross correlation of the findings provides a measure from which conclusions can be drawn on the content of each of the dramas. (Trochim & Donnelly, 2006). The analysis highlights prospective common features of the texts in their respective formats and is interpreted as a measure to gauge reasons for the degree of popularity of the television dramas among Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese audiences.

1.4.6 Document analysis

A comprehensive database was compiled of Japanese and Korean government policies, government interfaces with their media industries within the scope of the study in whatever formats they have evolved into through to the present day. Primary sources for authentic data were accessed whenever possible. The major source of data was Tokyo, Japan, and included data collected from the Nippon Broadcasting

Corporation (NHK) Cultural Research Centre database, the National Association of

Commercial Broadcasters (NAB) Research Centre, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI), and the Taipei Economic and Cultural

Office in Tokyo, Japan, and the Taipei Interchange Association of Japan. My field work contacts inclusive of audience analysis are shown as Appendix 2.

1.4.7 Audience analysis

The study sought out Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese university undergraduate and post graduate students familiar with Japanese popular culture. As Livingstone notes:

‘Young people are a distinctive and significant cultural grouping in their own right

— a sizeable market segment, a subculture even, and which often “lead the way” in the use of new media’ (Livingstone, 2002, p. 3). My choice of audience was a selection of university students originating from Taiwan, Korea or Japan. I made this selection as they would be a representative audience sample for remade television drama within the geographic region of the study, and also through my network I could readily arrange for them to be available to complete study questionnaires and participate in focus group interviews. The research questionnaire is shown as appendix 2. The intent was to ascertain their knowledge and views about selected

Japanese television dramas, viewing formats, cultural proximity, government policies and representations of Japan.

My analysis is based on qualitative methods, ‘a field of enquiry in its own right’

(Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 2). I designed my approach to collect, collate and analyse data to provide information from which I could draw conclusions. I did not

set out with a preconceived hypothesis although I was cognisant of the research questions informing my study as I conducted focus groups. The responses demonstrated how the respective cultural sub-groups understand the fact that the texts were in fact remade. I used focus groups to verify survey results. As Lunt and

Livingstone point out ‘the method of focus groups interviews involves collecting a group or, more often, a series of groups of people together to discuss an issue in the presence of a moderator’; a focus group is effective for ‘speeding up sampling for one-to-one interviews’(Lunt & Livingstone, 1996, p. 4) .

I have searched for the emotional experience of the fans without which fan cultures would not exist (Hills, 2002). I have referred to Sternberg to consolidate my audience research methodology (Sternberg, 2005). The focus group interviews were structured with reference to the nine steps proposed by Vaughn (Morgan & Krueger,

1998; Vaughn, Schumm & Sinagub, 1996). Finally, I referred to Miura on classification and consumption of society as a useful tool in audience segmentation.

(Miura, 2005).

1.4.8 Value chain

The financial imperatives associated with remaking, and a corollary to the research, will be a determination of the value chain exhibited by the extent of the exploitation of Janguru Taitei. The term value chain is attributed to Porter (Porter, 1985). Porter ascribes the value chain to manufacturing enterprises, where it has been used to ascertain value elements in media. The term ‘value chain’ now has a more generic meaning and is in common usage. The concept has been used to relate to media rather than as a manufacturing tool, to ascertain the competitive advantage of

Japanese texts and the prospects for continued remaking in Japan by Japanese media teams.

1.5 Summary of Chapters

The aim of Chapter 2 is to contextualise remaking within the Japanese and East

Asian media industries. These industries are an extremely complex mixture of government and industry involvement with a plethora of content and formats. Media outputs continue to be a segment of increasing importance in the Japanese economy.

This chapter is also designed to search for the key ingredients of popular culture outpourings. In the scope of research, five themes, or ingredients, that can be considered as significant to the remaking of media content have been selected. The research into the themes was a precursor of my focus on the selected texts from an informed position. This chapter also brings out the structure of the media diaspora within and spreading from Japan, of which remaking forms a small part. It introduces many of the facets that come into the overall composition of the remaking segment of popular culture.

Chapter 3 illustrates the primary influence on Japan in engaging with the international community from the Meiji Restoration. One may conclude that Japan would not have achieved its current international profile, with respect to media, amongst other cultural, academic, research or industrial productions, or made connections with the international community, without this step change. The change brought about a corresponding realignment in Japanese thinking and action. It can be argued that the events played a significant role in steering Japan from a feudal country to being a significant participant in regional and international media. This

analysis places my research within the regional and global community. Manga is an important component of Japanese remaking and has had local, regional and global influence. It has also had significant cultural effects as part of the composite

Japanese popular culture flow. These flows have led to a branding of Japan, namely

‘Cool Japan’ and ‘Gross National Cool’. This has contributed to a form of soft power for Japan in its geographic region. East Asian cultural flows authorised or not, have had profound regional effects, such as the apology of Japan to its neighbours for past military excesses. The vision of Kim Dae-Jung is pivotal in the creation of a strong media industry in East Asia, embracing cross-cultural remaking within the region.

Chapter 4 covers the expansion of media content in East Asia, three aspects of which are complimentary to the process of remaking. The first aspect is the growth of

Japanese television networks from their embryonic beginning through to the present time. This is followed by a study of the Japanese content industry and growing government awareness of its importance. This has led to an emergence of government strategy, which has been influenced by the Hollywood model, with the intent of growing the value of media trade. Japan has taken a leadership role in East

Asia and this has contributed towards regionalisation of content industries in Korea,

Taiwan and Japan. This influence, with Korea and Taiwan progressively deregulating their own content industries, can be observed as a significant constituent part of media trade, enabling cross border production of original and remade content in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Chapter 5 is a case study of the remaking of the manga Hana yori Dango for audiences in Taiwan with Meteor Garden in Korea with Boys over Flowers and in

Japan with Hana yori Dango. Content and cross-cultural values of the respective television dramas are analysed against the original manga.

Chapter 6 is a case study of the Japanese television drama Akai Giwaku, the Korean television drama Winter Sonata, and six Japanese television dramas. The chapter consists of two parts. The first part is a study of the Japanese television drama Akai

Giwaku and the Korean television drama Winter Sonata. Winter Sonata has elements that are also present in Akai Giwaku. These are researched to confirm the commonalities and differences between Akai Giwaku and the Korean television drama Winter Sonata. Winter Sonata was a significant part of the Kanryuu (The

Korean Wave) which brought flows of television dramas from Korea to Japan. The second part of the study is an analysis of six Japanese television dramas that have been exported to East Asia, including Korea. This is to determine if they have commonalities which may have influenced Korean television drama production. The two parts of the study are combined to search for elements of cultural hybridity.

The findings from audience analysis (fan culture) are consolidated in Chapter 7:

Text, Space and Audience. This chapter includes empirical audience research conducted in Australia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The purpose of the research across a spectrum of countries was to deduce interviewees’ interests in popular culture and a number of popular culture titles for isolating content they found appealing or unappealing in content and format. Views on regional political issues and technology were also sought. The findings were used as a guide to determine prospective opportunities for the cross-cultural transfer of television drama and other formats, and to gauge the impact of emerging technologies on audience viewing habits. Most

academic material on audience analysis relates to the formal measurement of audiences in real time and to specific methodologies and productions for data gathering. This study has used a more eclectic approach, as my research intent requires a broader representative sample, beyond a specific audience selected, to view a particular television drama.

Chapter 8 is a case study of the manga Janguru Taitei and its creator Tezuka Osamu.

It then unfolds the remaking process of this manga through to an anime with the same name, and the remaking Kimba the White Lion for the US market. The chapter compares the contents of Janguru Taitei and Kimba the White Lion with the Disney production of The Lion King. The Lion King has many elements in common with

Janguru Taitei and its remaking Kimba the White Lion. There has been no statement by Disney on its copying of plot and character elements within Janguru Taitei and

Kimba the White Lion, therefore commercial and copyright implications are considered in respect of The Lion King.

Chapter 9 draws on the findings from Chapter 7, the audience analyses relating to the regional and global cultural implications derived from the trade and audience reception of media and cultural products. It searches for proof of common cultural values in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, even into cultural hybridity. Findings are deduced from the audience reception of popular culture products answered in the research question: ‘How is remaking of Japanese stories contributing to a positive re- evaluation of Japanese culture in East Asia?’ Regional connectivity in East Asia is increasing and is countering US/Western hegemony, particularly since the 1990s.

The chapter also considers media value and the Japanese government’s appreciation

of, and steps taken by it to mitigate, piracy and to protect intellectual property in the content business, of which remaking forms a part. Value leakage is placed in an international context, as all producers of content have a common interest in reducing losses due to unauthorised copying and plagiarism of content. The chapter concludes with a study of television trade in Korea and Japan. These flows underscore the benefits and opportunities for remaking being enabled by the deregulation and barriers to trade of the media market in East Asia.

The conclusions drawn from the research and a model for the transfer of popular culture products, particularly between Japan, Korea and Taiwan, are summarised in

Chapter 10. The validity of the findings from the small sample of media content studied are qualified to some extent, but they still provide a template for continued research, particularly with respect to cultural hybridity and the emerging concept of soft power and cultural flows. The findings demonstrate that there are implicit factors that contribute to the commercially successful transfer, or impediments to the transfer, of popular culture content. Theory has been derived for the successful distribution and reception of Japanese remaking across cultures.

Chapter 2: Remaking: The Key Ingredients

2.1 Introduction

Few studies exist on the remaking of Japanese popular culture products. The enquiry in this chapter, derived from my theoretical framework, is structured within five themes. The themes selected create a picture of the Japanese media industry and its interfaces. Remaking, on the surface, seems to be a simple process, but it is not, since each remake follows a journey established by the parties to the process. The five themes are: 1) Japanese popular culture; 2) Remaking roots and visual culture; 3)

Cultural adaptation and formats; 4) Fan culture; and 5) Cultural proximity.

These themes will allow us to understand the process of remaking media cultural content. Remakes are ubiquitous ‘on the television and movie screen, on the musical and dramatic stage’ (Hutcheon, 2006, p. 2). In theorising adaptation, Hutcheon remarks that contemporary adaptations ‘are most often put down as secondary, derivative’ (Hutcheon, 2006, p. 2) in reviews by academics and journalists. She refers to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into an opera or ballet as more or less acceptable, whereas, for example, the Luhrmann production of William

Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is tacitly low-brow. This raises two issues: Is remaking, as a derivative art form, acceptable? Or is the format in which it is presented a problem? The Luhrmann film was contextualised in contemporary times, with a significant adaptation in time, place and content to that of Shakespeare’s original text. Is Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet any less diminished in value when converted to the stage during his lifetime? Hutcheon draws attention to hybrid forms of remaking using the example of providing songs for existing films. The extent of

remaking productions across formats lies with the scriptwriters, producers and directors. With remaking the changes in content may be major or minor, depending on how the content aligns with the target audience. The acknowledgement of the remaker(s) can also be an issue. With a book, the author is known, but when the text is remade, for example into a television drama or film, how is originating authorship recognised? In film, it is the director, the producers or the scriptwriter who receives recognition. When presenting the US version of Iron Chef the network credited Fuji

Television.

Indigenisation, or localisation, also creates a challenge for the remaker in placing the content into context. What may be acceptable in one culture may be anathema to another culture, ‘the context of reception, however is just as important as the context of creation’ (Hutcheon, 2006, p. 149). This issue is analysed in Chapter 5, using textual analysis, with the remaking of Hana yori Dango in Taiwan, Japan and Korea from the manga. Another challenge is in defining remaking. Hutcheon defines what an adaptation (or remaking) is: ‘an extended, deliberate, announced revisitation of a particular work of art’ (Hutcheon, 2006, p. 149). I would argue that defining a boundary is problematical. The remaking of Hana yori Dango, the subject of Chapter

5, complies with Hutcheon’s definition, as does the remaking of Janguru Taitei into

Kimba the White Lion, discussed in Chapter 8. The Lion King was only announced as a deliberate revisitation of a work when the stage production was adapted from the animation film of the same name. The originality of the animation film Lion King is questioned in the same chapter.

2.2 Japanese Popular Culture

Commercial media culture has played a significant role in Japan and across Asia in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A number of scholars have written about the

1990s, suggesting that this decade was important in the development and distribution of Japanese texts in a plethora of content and formats. Iwabuchi, in posing the question: ‘Waning affection for Japan?’ (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 122), reflects on the pessimism of Japanese media industries in that period while noting that the pessimism was ill-founded, which is supported by many researchers and commentators. He drew on the Taiwanese-American scholar Leo Ching, who noted

‘throughout Asia, Japan is in vogue’ (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 123). Ching wrote in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as Japan’s popular culture was becoming influential in the East Asia region. This influence can be seen as a precursor to the 1990s decade, the period in which Japanese popular culture expanded in form and content.

Although Iwabuchi writes about a ‘gradual tilt towards Asia’ (Iwabuchi, 2004c, p.

151), the extent of this characterisation is arguable. Hara (2004) brings forward statistics from research carried out by the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research

Institute that illustrates, in the segment of television programs exported from Japan, that television output towards Asia was more dramatic than a tilt. The statistics showed 4,600 hours of television programs exported in 1980, growing to 22,800 in

1992–93 and 42,600 in 2001; almost ten times the 1980 exports, with almost half directed to Asia (Hara, 2004). In 2001, 82 per cent of the output was in animation and drama, with animation predominant at 59 per cent (Hara, 2004).

The emphasis from 1990 on 'Japaneseness’, perhaps as a counterpoint to

‘Americanisation’, was evident in many writings, particularly Iwabuchi (2002).

Iwabuchi refers to Edward Herman and Robert Chesney (1997), who state that

‘Japan does not have a cultural influence on the world’ (Iwabuchi, 2007, p. 68). He questions the validity of this statement in light of the fact that Japanese media was becoming global in the 1990s and appeared to have a cultural influence on the world, particularly in electronic products like the Sony Walkman, as well as Japanese lifestyle requisites such as food. Also popular culture products like manga and anime are among many other Japanese icons to be found in many places around the world (Iwabuchi, 2007). Iwabuchi notes that globalisation in the 1990s resulted in asymmetrical cultural relations between Japan and other Asian nations coming into focus (Iwabuchi, 2002). Japan was aware that its growth rate in commercial media was greater than its East Asian neighbours. The dramatic growth in the export of television programs from Japan at the time was created this asymmetry.

Chua draws our attention to a large and expanding market for popular culture that includes most of East Asia. This market is largely bound by regional cultural proximity. The Japanese content industry has taken the challenge to export its cultural products by subtitling, dubbing or formatting. These activities have often been done in Hong Kong or Taiwan; because there are many different languages in

East Asia, this allows for many adaptations and reversions in addition to subtitling.

The construction of pan-Asian markets allows producers to tap into the expanding market, especially the Chinese market. The Chinese market does not fall within the ambit of this thesis but is becoming progressively more significant for Japanese popular culture trade. Japan has set the media industry standard and is primarily a production and export location: Korea is achieving exports whilst Taiwan and Hong

Kong act as transmission and translation points for East Asian pop culture into

greater China. Japanese and Korean popular culture may be said to be grafted on to the historic core of pop culture China to constitute regional East Asian popular culture. Piracy is significant in the Chinese and regional markets but doesn’t diminish the value of Japanese pop culture (Chua, 2008; Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008).

Japanese television program exports can be compared with imports, where the latter increase was very modest and the ratio of exports to imports rose from 2:1 in 1980 to

14:1 in 2001/2. It is also notable that in Japan about 5 per cent of programs shown are from overseas sources and some 80 per cent of these are from the US. In 2002, there was a clear imbalance in content trade in Japan’s favour. (Hara, 2004).

Notwithstanding this imbalance Japan’s growth in content exports was less than the global average. Japan’s compound growth rate of exports from 1992 to 2001 was, based on Hara’s statistics, about 8 per cent compared to a global average of about 10 per cent (Tunstall, 2008). The expanding market for media content presented an opportunity for Japan to grow its original and remade content for export markets. As noted above, the 1990s were a significant period of transition in Japanese popular culture, in relation to adjoining communities in East Asia. Iwabuchi notes that many

Japanese cultural items, including animation, comics, characters, computer games, fashion, popular music and television dramas, have been well received in East and

South East Asia (Iwabuchi, 2002). He refers to the early part of the 1990s and the international entry of audio visual popular cultural forms as a motivation for his study (Iwabuchi, 1999). Characteristics of this transition include an increasing number of original and remade products being exported across Asia and beyond.

There has been, and continues to be, a broad-based composition of remade media products emanating from Japanese source materials, some remade within Japan and others remade in other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China, and also in the global market beyond the Asian region. Examples of these include the remaking of manga into television drama, television drama into film, and film scores into books, and books into other media forms. The first anime production, in the black and white format created from the original manga Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) by Tezuka Osamu, was published in 1952 and was broadcast in 1956 by Fuji

Television. The original manga has been comprehensively remade and is now a global icon disseminated into many formats and products. Astro Boy is a classic example of remaking and demonstrates that some original creative forms can not only be commercially successful in the short term but also in the long term; this example has achieved an almost 60 year life cycle and is projected to go on for many years into the future. Summit Entertainment and Image Studios, as recently as 2009, released their plans for marketing Astro Boy as a Hollywood film product across a diversity of revenue streams. (Sciretta, 2008).

Japan has considered itself to be more modern and been reluctant to accept popular culture from other countries in Asia, although the Korean Wave has changed this

(Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008). The trelevision drama Winter Sonata was a significant component in the Korean Wave from the Japanese perspective. This very popular

Korean drama is a remake of, or has content very similar to, the Japanese Akai drama series and ‘one of the characters of this production is lifted from the Japanese comic

Candy Candy’ (Ogura, 2005a, p. 91). It was written by Igarashi Yumiko in 1975–

1979. Winter Sonata was introduced to the Japanese television market in 2003 and

gained phenomenal support from a segment of the audience. Shiroi Kyotoo (The

White Tower), produced in 2003 by Fuji Television, was based on the novel published in 1963–1965 by Yamazaki Toyoko, and was made into a film in 1966 and television drama in 1967, and was broadcast by Television Asahi. It was remade by

Fuji Television in 1978 as another television drama using a different cast and producer, and in 1990 by Television Asahi. In 2007 it was again remade, this time as a Korean television drama called The White Tower, produced by a Korean production house and with a local cast. It was also remade into a Taiwanese television drama called The Hospital in 2006, as a local production using a local cast.

Hamano (2005) has examined Japanese popular culture, including films, anime, cuisine, fashion, and has investigated products remade in Hollywood that have their origins in Japan. He has highlighted the high level of appreciation in the US for

Japanese anime and Kurosawa’s films, and has drawn attention to the film titles that do not reflect the content of the film. He lists a number of Japanese films shown in the US and has used title analysis to examine the film titles compared with the content. He notes that at least ten Hollywood film titles in his study include the word

Geisha even though the main storyline does not always relate to a Geisha; for example, A Geisha – Gion Bayashi 1953, A Geisha in the Old City – Dayusan Yori

Jotai wa Kanashiku 1957, World of Geisha – Yojohan Fusuma no Urayaburi 1973,

The Geisha – Yuukiro1983, Tales of a Golden Geisha – Ageman 1990, The Geisha house – Omocha 1999 (Hamano, 2005). The view that this might be due to a lack of appreciation of Japanese culture and a lack of perception of cultural sensitivities with regard to the respective contents of the productions may also be true. A more likely explanation is that it may have been quite deliberate in foregrounding the word

Geisha, driven by the desire for commercial success. Geisha has an air of mystique for audiences not familiar with Japanese culture. The question arises: does remaking for consumption in East Asia use similar approaches and distort the essence of

Japanese culture for commercial purposes? Contemporary Hollywood film may have changed this approach, as evidenced by Memoirs of a Geisha 2005. There was controversy over this production as the author, Arthur Golden, breached the trust placed in him for total anonymity by the heroine of the film, a real life Geisha,

Iwasaki Minako (Golden, 1997). This beautiful and deeply moving story was about an authentic Geisha. The appearance and manners of the heroine in the film was not as elegant as a Geisha, but the story was closely allied to the title.

Japanese cultural and media products have been popular overseas over different periods. Lee states that the phenomenon Cool Japan (McGray, 2002; 2003, pp. 130-

131) has been the third flow of Japonisme (Lee, 2005a) . The first flow of Japonisme was in the late 1800s. The term Japonisme is derived from French and was coined by

Philippe Burty, the French critic in the early 1870s. It describes the enormous support and love for Japanese art and design that swept France, other European countries and the US due to trade with Japan in the 1850s. It was noted that the rediscovery of Japanese art and design had an almost incalculable effect on Western art (Japonisme, 2010; Takashina, 2000) . For example, the Hokusai’s ukiyoe woodblock prints were discovered by an art dealer, Felix Braquemond, in 1856, in

Paris, and inspired the Impressionist movement (Cox, 2003). Thus Japanese art and design influenced the Aesthetic movement in Europe and in the US. This movement is a classical representation of copying and remaking and shows where Japanese influence permeated Western culture. When I refer to the first, second or third waves

in the context of this study I refer to a flow of a substantive component within a culture which results in a significant absorption of that component by another culture. The term has many descriptions and emphases; for instance, Favel refers to four new waves within Japanese art, but this interpretation does not fall within the ambit of its use to describe the three flows of Japonisme (Favel, 2008).

The second flow of Japonisme occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, as Lee remarks,

‘when oriental kitsch mixed with beatnik Zen’(Lee, 2005a). The third flow involved

Japanese literature, manga, anime and television drama, when its remaking moved with technology into the regional and international domain in a substantive way. In determining the essence of the third wave, the outcomes from a survey conducted by

Macromill Inc., a market research company affiliated with Keidanren (Keidanren is an affiliation of Japan Federation of Economic Organization) provides some insight.

Their survey targeted Japanese internet users who had just turned twenty years old and who were about to celebrate the national holiday ‘Becoming Adult Day’. They reported their survey result on 7 January 2009. 516 people responded, with a 50 per cent split between men and women. The survey was conducted between 17−18

December 2008. The results showed that anime, manga and the internet had the highest ratings (Shinseijin ni Kansuru Chosa, 2009). These statistics show the interests of a small group of Japanese people and illustrate the importance of manga, anime and the internet in their lives. The interest in the results is significant from two perspectives: firstly, this is the age group that will form the future and participate in the ongoing direction of Japan in the context of Cool Japan; secondly, manga and anime are, in many cases, the inspirational sources for remaking.

2.3 Remaking, Roots and Visual Culture

Japanese remaking harmoniously intertwines with a variety of art forms. Copying and remaking are a cultural heritage for Japan. Part of Japanese culture is said to be a

Kata culture, which means a model, or copy, culture, in an endless pursuit of visual and procedural excellence. There was virtue in copying, as far back as, and probably earlier than, the seventh century, in the form of Kagura, a Japanese shrine ritual.

Kagura means ‘great copy, a physical reproduction of the original ritual’ (Averbuch,

2008, p. 23). In the traditional arts in the sixteenth century, Kabuki, Bunraku and Noh performers had to reach out faithfully to the master and emulate his performance.

The highest master was the closest manifestation of aesthetics, art and harmony.

Calligraphy, an art form perhaps comparable with early European calligraphy from the church, has to follow and emulate the master. Sumo has followed the traditional

Kata and has rules for winning and losing. In Rakugo (Japanese comedy) a one-man talk show, a comedian uses only a traditional Japanese folding fan and cloth to represent images relating to his spoken content. For example, when he talks about falling leaves he imitates the motion using the fan. This art form is called Mitate.

Mitate is copying. Mitate is a rhetorical simile or metaphor and is used in classical poetry. Karakuri doll, the Yumihiki doji (young archer) doll has to be replicated in its art form (Ishikawa, 2006). There is always a model to follow; one must be guided by the master, follow the way that the master has walked, and copy the master’s work.

Japanese culture has evolved based on copying and trying to enhance the master’s work for manifesting a perceived ideal. These aspects of Japanese culture are evidenced in art, literature, theatre and cinema.

Manga and anime are a rich source for copying and remaking. Copy culture continues to play an important role in Japan. In appreciating the elements of change between an original form and a copy inspired by the original form, it is important to see what is being shared between the original and the copy version. The characters, shape, story, message, form and composition determine authenticity. Does the author of the copy recognise the original source or claim it to be original? Copying and adaptation is manifold in Japan, there is also a great emphasis on aesthetics and harmony using the Japanese term Bi to Wa which originated from Zen culture. This inherent aspect is in the Japanese ethos and it shows itself in many aspects of

Japanese culture and in Japanese texts and media productions. The essence of

Japanese television drama productions are derived in many instances from its longstanding cultural heritage. Japanese people have historically, and through to the present day, put great emphasis on the virtues of visual images and beautiful realities, as is evidenced in many Japanese art forms. One will find beauty and aesthetic elements everywhere in Japan, such as beautifully presented seasonal cuisine, reflecting the Japanese proverb Me de ajiwau (taste with your eyes). The traditional

Japanese garden is another significant part of the heritage, the form of harmony within nature — scientific creations which bathe the soul in peace and tranquillity

(Suzuki, 2007). The culture of beauty is seen as an art form in anime. Roger Ebert

(2000) remarked on Princess Mononoke, a well-known Japanese anime written by

Miyazaki Hayao, ‘Princess Mononoke is a very, very beautiful film in its drawing, and some of the images remind me of Japanese art from 200 years ago. It seems as if these were painted images, drawings that had been rendered in animation, but still had the art of centuries past embodied in them’ (Miyoshi, 2000, p. 31). The

authenticity is also illustrated in Japanese architecture, ancient and modern, and these images are also drawn into television dramas and film.

The other concept of Japanese culture is Motenashi no kokoro, which also has its roots in Zen culture. It means ‘the spirit of Japanese hospitality’. The expression is the fundamental thought; for example, the guests in a tea ceremony, or when appreciating the beauty of a Japanese garden (Tsuchida, 2006). What is the extent of the retention of visual culture? The extension of texts into visual images may be a key ingredient in the commercial success of Japanese television drama within Japan.

Visual cultural elements contribute significantly, either in their original form or the remade form, to Japanese viewing aesthetics.

Iwabuchi has argued that most remade cultural products that are exported are culturally neutral and not a stereotype of Japaneseness; that is to say, they are free from any association with national cultural characteristics. Iwabuchi also argues that

Japan was very much influenced by the US, and it adapted American drama to fit

Japanese socio-cultural contexts (Iwabuchi, 1999, 2003). This is true of regional and international remaking where localisation in many instances displaces Japaneseness.

In Hana yori Dango I would argue that core elements have been retained while the

Japanese flavour has been displaced to create relevance to the respective national audience. Janguru Taitei was similarly treated in the remake for the US market.

In analysing the works it is useful to consider the roots of manga. Japan produced animated expression in picture scroll format, known as Emakimono, some 900 years ago. Japanese creative culture goes back at least as far as the mid-twelfth century. At

this time, an original form of manga called ‘Choju Jinbutsu Giga’ was created using illustrations of anthropomorphism — animals exhibiting human behaviour

(Caricatures of Animals and Humans Scroll 2004; NIPPONIA, 2003). A number of scholars (Miyoshi, 2000; Sugiyama, 2006) have pointed out that manga derives from the Heian period (794–1192), an Onnae (feminine paintings) in the picture scroll form. In the Edo period (1603–1868), with an advance in technology, it was developed into a style of manga called Mokuhanga manga (wood block print manga). The artistic technique of manga was to use simplified pictures, emphatic emotions and movement, and animated techniques to express the story. It was a pure art with a distinct message. This period saw a transition in the format. Well-known

Ukiyoe graphic artist, Katsushika Hokusai, published the Hokusai manga in 1814.

His work is kept in the Yamaguchi prefecture Hagi Arts Gallery. ‘The fifteen volumes of his manga, including 4000 pictures,’ amongst them Suzume odorizu

(sparrow dancing), is well known (NIPPONIA, 2003, pp. 12-13).

The end of the Edo period and moving into the Meiji era (1868–1912) saw further changes in Japan, from a closed culture to a more open one. The British satirical magazine Punch was published from 1841, until its last issue in 2002, and it may be the original source for satire in Japanese manga (Miyaji, Sasaki, Kinoshita &

Suzuki, 2006). During its lifetime Punch had quality graphics and text; those qualities remain evident in the continued success of manga and its offshoot, anime, in Japan. Charles Wagman introduced Punch to Japan at the commencement of the

Meiji era. The name of the magazine, Punch, became known as Ponchi in Japan. The word ponchi was replaced by the word manga by the artist Kitazawa Rakuten in

1888 (Miyaji et al., 2006). The expression and style of manga remains similar to

Ukiyoe, a form of painting on the theme of daily life developed during the Edo period. Ukiyoe literally meant a floating world. The pictures complemented writing in Punch cartoons. The picture dominates the space in Japanese manga, the writing is secondary; the primary message is visual with the writing creating context in a five syllable/seven syllable rhythmic style.

2.4 Cultural Adaptation, Formats and Remaking

The activity and business of original media production, remaking and formats is growing. However, Japan has been slow to appreciate the international value of its media industry and slow in responding to it. A Japanese government agency as recently as 2007 stated ‘Content industries have two aspects, “culture” and

“business”. We have focused solely on the business side and not considered how the culture can be applied to create economic value’ (METI, 2007a, p. 9). In this determination there is the view that the intrinsic cultural elements of Japan have not been effectively utilised in growing the value of the Japanese content industry. It can also be argued that Japan has not given sufficient attention to the business to safeguarding and maximising value from content. Further analysis will show that the industry has had mixed outcomes in protecting its value chain, emphasising the fact that the business side of things did not get the attention that was necessary, irrespective of the benefits of the cultural aspect. The content industry is valuable to

Japan. Japanese exports of anime, television drama, film and documentaries in 2001 were almost 43 billion yen; some 60 per cent was anime and 30 per cent drama and film (METI, 2003e). Fifty per cent of the production time was sold in Asia and 40 per cent in the US. The profits from Pokémon, Pocket Monster, including game

machines, card games, DVD, movies, publications, media mix paraphernalia such as foods, toys, stationery, children clothes, etcetera, was 20 billion yen (METI, 2003c).

Aesthetics and harmony, being essential elements of Japanese culture, together with the culture of copying, also flow into formats, in part or whole. The Iron Chef TV format draws on these aspects of Japanese culture in the dress and the preparation and presentation of food. Moran defines the television program format as ‘a kind of template or recipe whereby particular industry knowledge are packaged to facilitate this process of remaking’ (Moran, 2009, p. 115). He argues that franchising television program formats is now a highly significant component of industry and cultural practice in modern television at both the national and international levels (Moran, 2009) . In this statement, Moran clearly enunciates the importance of the television format and the value of franchising as part of the media value chain. For many newcomers to broadcasting, formats are a ‘panacea’ for those who are lacking ‘inventory and production skills’ (Moran & Keane, 2004a, p. 145). Lim (2004) introduces an aside which is particularly significant. She writes that formatting is primarily a solution to content stagnation. This stagnation may also be reflective of risk aversion or a lack of imagination for new ways in creating media content to audiences across cultural divides.

Remakes need some adjustment to suit local formats, tastes and timeline. Straubhaar points out that ‘audience can be attracted or feel proximities to local culture, regional culture within their nation, national culture, and transnational culture regions and spaces’ (Straubhaar, 2007, p. 26). This point will also be considered in ensuing chapters and is applied specifically to texts which have crossed national borders.

Iwabuchi refers to ‘the efficacy of local adaptations of globally diffused television formats’ using the example of the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and noting that the reporter was unaware that the program was based on the original

UK format, stating that the program was very Indian (Iwabuchi, 2004b, p. 21). This observation underpins the need, despite the closely controlled format, for formats to be adapted and localised to meet the audience’s cultural expectations. Kitley writes about the success of the Indonesian version of the same program, which drew a third of Indonesian television households. The international showing of this format illustrates the core global interest in it, overlaid with local adaptation. Kitley also refers to the illegal copying of foreign programs, including formats acknowledged by

Indonesian television executives (Kitley, 2004). The problem of illegal copying, which diminishes the value chain of television media, is a significant issue, since copying is a historical part in the evolution of Japanese culture (follow the master).

In a pan-Asian study of formats, Keane notes that the ‘bureaucratisation of creativity’ is only one way of seeing formats such as reality TV, whereas others have seen a

‘culture of opportunism and a dumbing down of national cultures’ (Moran & Keane,

2004a, p. 11). But formats also add value and add creative elements. Keane’s opinion that licensed formats create a chain of value is, in my view, quite correct in respect of the legal sales of formats, but unauthorised cloning results in a loss of value. Moran sees the need for an analytical outline of the practice of format trade (Moran, 1998, p. ix).

Some Japanese horror movies are sold under remaking licences. Warners Brothers bought a remaking licence for the anime Akira and remade it into a film. 20th

Century Fox bought the licence for Dragon Ball and remade it into a film (METI,

2003e). The television drama Hero, shown on Fuji Television in 2001 and 2006, was remade as a film in 2008. As I will discuss in Chapter 9, Japanese content business has made progress through regional and international acceptance in the last decade on a platform to comply with the Japanese government’s intent of realising value for

Japan (METI, 2003e).

One of the uncertainties of the creative industries is obtaining appropriate value for remaking as the basis for sustainable production. This is an issue for both the seller and the buyer when original and remade content is traded, which is a complex and approximate process. Arriving at the right price for content will need a change from the Japanese joint production side to not only receive income from a remaking licence or sale but also to share the downstream profits from all identifiable income components in the value chain, and mitigate loss of prospective gross profit from value leakage, typically illustrated in Diagram 3.

Diagram 3 Primary components of the media value chain.

For instance, the remaking licence for The Ring was $US1 million, the ensuing income from the remade product was $US125 million (METI Report, 2003 ). This could be perceived as the US purchaser of the licence being both gamekeeper and poacher. Caves notes that ‘The basic structural characteristics of creative industries

— their technologies of production and consumption — fiercely resist governance by anything approaching a complete contract’ (Caves, 2003, p. 73).This raises the

question: Why is it so? Caves uses the term ‘nobody knows’ referring to the

‘fundamental uncertainty that faces the producer of a creative good’ (Caves, 2003, p.

74). Using The Ring as an example shows the uncertainty; its intrinsic value should have been better known, as the contract was weighted to the benefit of the purchaser.

In the context of net return I am not referring to the downstream complexities of artists and the humdrum costs which fall into production costs, but at the macro level of sale/licensing and distribution contracts. The value of the licence for Japan was well short of reasonable, and a more appropriate contract would have shared the net proceeds in a more equitable manner. Another issue which highlights the problem in arriving at a fair return for the parties with contracts for creative products is strategic accounting. Accounting practices become even more problematical when media content crosses national borders that have differing accounting and legal standards.

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry now aims to increase the profits from media content business to more than 5 billion yen by 2015 (METI,

2008 ). If income from The Ring is replicated with other formats and remakes within equitable contracts then one might predict that this may be the bottom side of actual profit outcomes. Japan held the Co Festa Japan International Contents Festival in

2006, 2007 and 2008 to promote Cool Japan content. This confirms that appropriate value chain revenues from media content had not been gathered. The Ring is an example of what can be achieved in obtaining substantial income and can be used as a benchmark for the future direction of maximising value chain revenues for Japan.

Let me now turn to a rich source for remaking: Trendy television drama, which I see as significant for a better understanding of popular culture on television. More than

twenty prime-time trendy television dramas were broadcast weekly by Japanese television stations in January 1999 (Ishida, 1999). The enjoined words ‘trendy drama’ evolved in the early 1990s. Due to the effects of the ‘bubble economy’ at that time, television productions were lavish and expensive. Producers spent substantial sums of money to produce their respective television dramas, using celebrities, elaborate scene settings with opulent mansions, expensive coffee shops, the wearing of fashionable apparel, fashion accessories and iconic vehicles. Dramas, including the brand consumerism aspects of life in Japan, were grouped and described as trendy. Chua (2004) articulates trendy drama is about ‘romance among urban young professionals’, ‘characters are very well dressed in designer clothes’, eat in expensive-usually western-restaurants in the entertainment districts of the city’, ‘the actors and actresses are beautiful men and women’. (Chua, 2004, p. 205).

The 1990s were a popular time for trendy dramas, and they were broadcast in prime time at the same time of the day, each day of the week for the duration of the drama series. Prime-time drama serials generally commence at 9.00 PM and are called

‘Monday at 9.00’ dramas. The Japanese term Gekku (Monday Nine) is used. Each episode runs for fifty minutes. The complete drama is usually comprised of eleven to twelve consecutive episodes that may run over a three-month period. This three- month cycle of drama programming is relatively short compared to successful

Korean dramas, as well as US or UK drama series. In the case of long running soap formats producers in those markets do not set a time limit on the series; they run as long as audience viewing rates remain high, as illustrated by Dallas (US) and

Coronation Street (UK). This marketing approach, in the extent and dissemination of drama, is different from the Japanese television drama production process. The UK

and the US approach are probably more economically effective in continuing with a proven format while responding to feedback.

Ota Atsushi, a Fuji Television producer who has produced a number of successful trendy dramas, including Tokyo Love Story, highlights the keys to successful production (Ota, 1996). His trendy drama has three important points, each of which appeals to Asian consumers. The first point is location. He chooses a location which is popular and has urban appeal, a place where young people gather, a centre of the city, such as Shibuya and Harajuku in Tokyo, which is known to young people for its shops stocking contemporary youth fashion and for its cafeterias with their modern and stylish interior design. The second point is attention to fashion. The actors and actresses in the production are required to wear stylish and fashionable clothing; brands typically worn by socialites. Ota notes that Fuji Television received a lot of calls from the first day of airing of Tokyo Love Story from viewers making requests regarding where they could buy clothes ‘like the ones worn by the actors’. The third point is music. He notes the importance of musical effects as part of the story. (Ota,

1996). This genre is studied to assist me in my selection of the three texts.

2.5 Fan Culture

Remaking needs an audience and it has to take account of the diversity of its targeted audience. It needs to have certain elements in order to retain the loyalty of the audience, in whatever form that takes. A remake can only take on cult status if it receives enthusiastic audience acceptance. Hana yori Dango and its remakes illustrate how the original manga created a fan base, not only in Japan but in Taiwan, where the first remake of the manga into a television drama occurred, and elsewhere.

This television drama in its remade forms has now been shown in many other countries and exhibits a cult status amongst an international audience. Another example of this is the reception in Japan of the Korean television drama Winter

Sonata.

In defining fans, Hills refers to ‘the role that theories of consumption and the

“consumer” have paid in accounts of fandom’ (Hills, 2002, p. 27). Hills also places fans as a key element of consumer culture. The outputs of remaking need the active participation of fans to boost ratings; the worst scenario is a negative reaction through blogs and minimal or total lack, of business for spin-off products, which allows little opportunity for further remakes. Fans are, therefore, important. They are able to embed themselves in the drama and develop empathic relationships with the content. Television drama that reaches cult status is, to use Hills’ term, a media cult text. It has ‘endlessly deferred narrative’, and ‘the creation of a vast and detailed narrative space that fans regard as real’ (Hills, 2002, p. 134). Remaking has spawned many sub-set products and activities. For example, with Winter Sonata the outcomes in respect to tourism from Japan to Korea are consistent with Hills’ theory of ‘cult geography.’ Cult geographies are ‘spaces associated with cult icons, which cult fans take as the basis for material touristic practices’ (Hills, 2002, p. 144). As defined by

Lewis, ‘Fans are, in fact, the most visible and identifiable of audiences’(Lewis,

1992, p. 1).

Grossberg approaches fandom with affective sensibility, and notes that ‘being a fan entails a very different relationship to culture, a relationship which seems only to exist in the realm of popular culture’ (Grossberg, 1992) . Fans are discerning, ‘they

constitute an elite fraction of the larger audience of passive consumers’ (Grossberg,

1992, p. 52). Iwabuchi groups fans into age group and ethnicity, rather than as an elite group within a larger prospective audience and diversity of cultures. He notes that ‘Asian youth says that they love Japan and Japanese popular culture such as fashion and television dramas deeply penetrate Asia’ (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 1).

Fans of television programs are distinctly different from fans at, say, a rock concert where the euphoria can be instantly contagious. With television, the audience is usually an individual or a small group in a home environment. What can be achieved through television is the ability to move the individual or group audience from their personal space into a much expanded outer space of fantasy or reality, or a combination of both. The rock concert also creates this space, but the interaction is in a real place and in real time. The television broadcast lifts viewers from their living space and posits them into the outside world, thus creating the paradox of travelling while remaining stationary. Interaction occurs beyond the immediate viewing when fans later communicate within each other in person or through the telephone or internet.

2.6 Cultural Proximity

Trade in original and remade television dramas will be more successful across international borders if the content is understandable, meaningful and enjoyable to the audience. East Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan and Korea have some cultural similarities that enable the sharing of communication and mutual understanding, although people use different languages and dialects in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. However, just being in geographical proximity does not mean that they

are culturally proximate. Straubhaar points out that ‘Most audiences seem to prefer television programs that are as close to them as possible in language, ethnic appearance, dress, style, humour, historical reference, and shared topical knowledge’

(Straubhaar, 2007, p. 26). Straubhaar, furthermore, argues that ‘Shareability’ refers to ‘common values, images, archetypes and themes across cultures that permit programs to flow cross-cultural boundaries’ (Straubhaar, 2007, p. 201). These propositions are important for producers of content, particularly if they plan to distribute beyond their national boundaries or even within countries with diverse cultures.

Edward T. Hall in the reissue of the book Silent Language some thirty years after its original publication stated that he had failed to fully appreciate, in his earlier work, the need for cross-cultural insights and observations (Hall, 1990). Hall recognised in his earlier research the importance of formal training in language, history, government and customs, but later determined that of equal importance was knowing the silent (non-verbal) language of the country (Hall, 1990). The relevance of his findings, with respect to television dramas crossing international borders through the process of remaking, is the importance of the producers and scriptwriters in recognising the cultural differences inherent in non-verbal language. Hall’s research findings confirm the uniqueness of cultural patterns in non-verbal language in visual texts, which can be facial expressions, gestures, posture, space and the full ambit of human behaviour. (Hall, 1990). Japan, Korea and Taiwan have cultural differences but they also have many cultural similarities drawn from the influence of China, and non-verbal language does not present a significant problem for the remaking of content in this respect.

A further aspect of cultural proximity and communication is in Hall’s delineation of

‘high context’ or ‘low context’ cultures, ‘the ratio between information clearly shown in the surface of a message and hidden in context’ (Lee, 2001). Within Hall’s classification Japan is a ‘high context culture’ whereas North-Western Europe and the US are classified as ‘low context cultures’. Hall attributes these cultural differences to the composition of family, friends and associates. Japan, as an example of a high context culture, has extensive communication within the composite group due to close personal relationships, whereas low context cultures are more compartmentalised. While these findings may be more blurred over time with growing multiculturalism they are nonetheless useful pointers to the acceptance of texts across cultural divides. Stuart Hall points out that ‘Language is one of the

“media” through which thoughts, ideas and feelings are represented in a culture’

(Hall, 1997, p. 1)

2.7 Conclusion

In this chapter, with the exploration of the five selected themes, I have shown the complexity of remaking from a Japanese historical and contemporary perspective.

The five themes illustrate the point that the 1990s to the early 2000s period was particularly significant in the development and distribution of Japanese texts in a plethora of content and formats. This time span is viewed as the third wave of influence by Japan, beyond Japan, a period in which ‘Japaneseness’, perhaps as a counterpoint to Americanisation, received acceptability in East Asia and beyond.

Characteristic of this decade was an increased number of original and remade products being traded. Japan was the stimulus for the industry in popular culture in

East Asia, exampled by the trade of Korean production Winter Sonata, which was introduced to the Japanese television market in 2003 and gained phenomenal support from a segment of the prospective audience.

Copying and remaking was, and remains, a virtue in Japanese culture. The extension of texts into visual images may be a key ingredient in the commercial success of

Japanese television drama within Japan. In analysing remaking in Japan and East

Asia, the importance of manga cannot be overstated, as it has been the mother lode for remakes into other media formats. Japan has been slow to appreciate the international value of its media industry and slow to respond to it. The Japanese

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry now aims to substantially increase profits from the media content business by 2015, emphasising the importance of remaking within this planned growth. One of the uncertainties of the creative industries is in obtaining appropriate value for remakes to thus lay the basis for sustainable production. Remaking, or copying, has a downside: the problem of illegal copying, which diminishes the value chain. This is an issue expanded in Chapter 9.

Audience acceptance of original and remade media content is a clear measure of the relevance of content to audience needs. Remaking, of media content, needs to take account of the diversity of its targeted audience. Trade in original and remade television dramas will be more successful across international borders if the content is understandable, meaningful and enjoyable from the audience perspective. These propositions are important for producers of popular culture content, particularly if they plan on distributing the product beyond their national boundaries, where they

need an understanding of cultural context, and to evidence that understanding in the content.

The study of the five themes have guided my selection of ten texts: the Japanese television dramas Hana yori Dango (Boys over Flowers), Akai Giwaku (Red series

‘Red Doubt’), Janguru Taitei (Jungle Emperor), Tokyo Love Story, Say You Love

Me!, Long Vacation, Love Generation, Over Time, Beautiful Life, and the Korean television drama Winter Sonata. Their respective remaking processes have taken the texts beyond Japan, enabling the evaluation of common cultural components, regional variations and the role of fan cultures. Hana yori Dango has been remade within and outside of Japan on many occasions, and has been legally distributed.

This production provides an excellent case for the study of cross-cultural exchange.

Investigation of the ten texts will confirm the retained core elements, transformed elements and the introduction of new elements within the different cultural, social and communication contexts in which the texts have been distributed. Other aspects relating to the Japanese content industry and its development, such as Japanese television networks and regional implications, the financial dynamics of popular culture and media bi-lateral transfers

Chapter 3: Japanese Popular Culture and the Global Domain

3.1 Introduction

This chapter explores how globalisation has facilitated the evolution of Japanese popular culture within the domain of original and remade content. I argue that without two significant events, the Meiji restoration and the US influence on Japan post-World War II, Japan would not have gone through the change process from a feudal and inwardly self-sufficient country into a member of the regional media community and the global village.

The first section addresses the Meiji period (1868–1912) and the post-1945 period of

US influence. The Meiji period saw the influence of Japanese art and other cultural items on Europe (Fujioka, 2006; Takashina, 2000). The discussion in this section touches on and questions whether hybridity has arisen from the interchange of culture and media content (this will be discussed in Chapter 9). In particular, post-

1945 saw significant US influence on Japan. The introduction of Western knowledge and values into Japan with the Meiji restoration and the reinforcement of these values post-World War II illustrate the principal influences on Japan’s positioning in the global marketplace. The key point to emphasise in relation to this thesis is the positive influence played by the US media, not only on Japan’s own industry but on perceptions of the US in Japan. Following this historical background, the chapter looks at the significance of manga in the context of Japanese regionalisation through to the present time. It illustrates how media art forms fit into, and is part of, modern

Japan, emphasising, in particular, the influence it has on Japanese youth. This section

also shows how the Japan’s media industry drew on the tradition of manga and how this evolved into the production of contemporary anime, television drama, film and theatre and the performative practice of cosplay. This manga-based tradition enabled

Japanese media to flourish regionally and to achieve some global success.

The burgeoning Japanese media cultural flow trade outside of Japan, predominantly regionally but also internationally, has created the branding of Cool Japan, introduced in Chapter 2, from the early 2000s and which has been described as

‘Gross National Cool’ (GNC), a term coined by Douglas McGray (McGray, 2003, p.

118). The value of GNC has been recognised by the Japanese Government and steps have been made to continue its promotion. The inspiration and primary driver for

GNC is arguably manga. This textual form is a rich source of content for remaking and is an important part of GNC. The case studies forming Chapters 5 and 8 draw out the significance of manga, and the television dramas in Chapter 6 bring forward the importance of remaking within the umbrella of GNC.

The value of Japanese stereotypes is brought into context post-1960s with the emergence of contemporary images driven by Japan’s re-establishment of its manufacturing industries and, more latterly, its popular culture. This has raised the question: ‘Is Japan’s dissemination of its own media in Asia changing or reinforcing perceptions of Japan?’ Media flows have resulted in the evolution of Japanese soft power. The realignment of Japanese thinking, particularly from the 1990s, has led to its reengagement with its neighbours in East Asia. A very important and progressive step change, progressively liberalising media flows in East Asia, was introduced by

Korea in the late 1990s. These changes have had a profound and beneficial influence on regional media soft power

3.2 Japan: Towards Globalisation.

A precise definition of globalisation is difficult as it is interpreted over a plethora of activities and social spaces with sub set names. Sinclair, Jacka and Cunningham refer to, in respect to television systems, the ‘rubric of globalization’ to capture the worldwide ‘sea change’ since the 1970s (Sinclair, Jacka & Cunningham, 1996, p. 1).

Scholte refers to globalisation as internationalisation, liberalisation, universalisation,

Westernisation and deterritorialisation (Scholte, 2000). He argues for deterritorialisation, stating that the other ‘definitions are largely redundant’ and that deterritorialisation gives a new and distinctive meaning. He states that ‘globalization in the first place refers to the advent and spread of what are alternately called ‘global’,

‘supraterritorial’, ‘transworld’ or ‘transborder social spaces’(Scholte, 2000, p. 3).

Higgot and Reich state that:

Globalization is rapidly replacing the ‘Cold War’ as the most overused and

under-specified explanation for a variety of events in international relations.

For some, it represents a natural, indeed inexorable, progression towards

a ’borderless world‘ signalling the end of the modern international state

system as we know it (Higgott & Reich, 1998).

Globalisation is interpreted as a mixture, or hybrid, of local, global, modern colonialist communication (Iwabuchi, 2002, 2004a). In this vein, Iwabuchi argues that transnationalism and hybrid culture are an interactive process (Iwabuchi, 2004a).

I would argue that the Japanese word kokusaika (internationalisation) is a more correct term to define the Japanese understanding of globalisation. China also prefers

the term internationalisation rather than globalisation. ‘In the process of incorporating international standards into Chinese law’ China and its policy makers have used the term internationalisation ‘to avoid domestic perceptions that the

Central Government is simply capitulating to Western demands’ (Montgomery, 2007, pp. 18-19). The subtlety of the difference in China and Japan between the meaning of internationalisation and globalisation from a national perspective points to a differing appreciation of what national to international is in respect to law and trade. On another facet, Keane (2007) poses the question: ‘Do we therefore make a distinction between global strategies of transnational media corporations or and the international aspirations of smaller domestic companies?’ This brings the descriptions into the corporate level of media production drawing size and geographical footprint of the entity as a component in determining the appropriate word to describe the activity

(Keane, Fung & Moran, 2007, p. 5). Keane also refers to the effects arising from the process of globalisation in reference to international (global) conglomerates in respect that their activity of ‘recycling and adaptation of content across different media platforms’ is growing to the point of marginalising other economic and cultural activities’ (Keane et al., 2007, p. 5). In Chapter 8 Janguru Taitei is used to illustrate an example of this process where the opportunity for a global product across a number of media platforms was not fully achieved. Janguru Taitei was contained within Japan and thus marginalised. I have adopted, for the purpose and content of this chapter, the word globalisation to describe the process as it affects media trade.

3.2.1 Japan: Isolation to globalisation

There are many factors contributing to globalisation. Japan has a long history of isolation, where hybridity could not take place, particularly during the Tokugawa

Shogunate (1603 to 1867). This period of relative tranquillity and freedom from foreign influence was dramatically changed with the intent of the US in the mid-

1800s to open trade with Japan, principally for Japan’s coal and for its ships to pursue its primary goal of entering China. In previous, largely diplomatic, attempts, the US had failed to achieve its objectives because of the continued refusal by Japan to accommodate them. The US then resorted to gunboat diplomacy. It resolved to achieve its objectives by commissioning an American naval fleet under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry (Fujioka, 2006). The second visit by Commodore

Perry led to the 1854 Japan-America treaty of peace and amity, signed in Kanagawa

(Fujioka, 2006). This treaty progressively moved Japan from being an inward looking, ostensibly self-sufficient, country to it recognising that it had to take an outward looking view. This became progressively more evident through the Meiji period. In the first phase of modernisation the Meiji government implemented new ideas and brought in foreign experts, known as oyatoi gaijin (Uemura, 2008).

Although oyatoi means ‘hired’, the implication was that the foreign experts were hired with a high salary. They included employees of the government, distinguished foreign scholars, scientists, engineers, doctors, architects and artists, who were brought to Japan between 1825 and 1889 and who contributed to the foundations of

Japanese modernisation. This hiring of foreigners represented a comprehensive change in Japanese thought and philosophy.

During the Meiji period, foreign influence spread over a diversity of activities, as outlined above, and, importantly for the context of this study, had an influence in introducing satire into Japanese manga (Miyaji et al., 2006). Japan facilitated the entry of 2936 foreigners between 1825 and 1889, with expert knowledge deemed relevant to Japanese needs from Europe, America and Asia (Uemura, 2008). Most returned to their native countries and, following their return, contributed aspects of

Japanese society and culture to their countries of origin. Imported knowledge was highly valued by the Meiji government as an aid to Japan’s modernisation, stimulating comprehensive change from the preceding Edo period. The impact of these foreigners on the internal development of Japan was substantial, as is evident in changes to Japanese law, medicine, manufacturing and literature.

The second wave of modernisation in Japan was brought about by the dominance of the US and its occupation of Japan following World War II. There was a progressive influence on fashion, food, television, film, music, sports and lifestyles. Young men copied the American military hair style, called the ‘GI Cut’. The US sailors’ uniform, preceding the US occupation of Japan, was adopted in the 1920s and was remade into school uniforms. Post-World War II, these uniforms became commonplace and represented the status of being a high school student, and they were illustrated in manga and anime and were represented in television dramas and cosplay. This wave moved the country further towards the Western concept of globalisation, and Japan became the world’s second largest economy, only recently deposed from this standing by China. In one account, globalisation is defined as a ‘social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people are becoming increasingly aware that they are receding’ (Marshall,

1998, p. 258). In this sense, a Japanese citizen will go outside of his or her own community and ‘mix and blend’, resulting in a cultural hybridity without being too concerned about identity or place of origin. Globalisation in part denotes an intermingling of cultures, where national identity is not a self-conscious ownership.

While Japanese people do live overseas, the majority return to Japan, and the concept of mix and blend is more difficult to support.

In Japan, globalisation was initially recognised within the context of economics, thus being more related to manufactured products, although it has now spread across a very broad range of goods and services. Iyotani (2004) asserts that globalisation interpreted from the Western viewpoint is rooted in neo-racism and the superiority of the European civilisation (Iyotani, 2004). He criticises Eurocentric globalism and asserts that Western influence on globalisation is declining. Globalism describes the reality of being interconnected, while globalisation captures the speed at which these connections increase — or decrease (Nye, 2002).

What Iyotani does not make clear is whether this decline is in absolute terms, or is part of an enlarging connectivity with new national and regional players contributing to a larger pool of activity. With the transition from regionalisation to globalisation, as well as the growth in the Asian economies, this is a predictable and expected outcome of the evolutionary process. Iyotani concludes that the Western view of globalisation was intrinsically linked to Western values (Iyotani, 2004). In their look at the cultural politics of globalisation, using the examples of McDonald’s hamburgers, Coca Cola and Nike shoes as symbols of globalisation, Morris-Suzuki and Yoshimi (2004) argue that the global becomes local in response to culture,

customs and needs, and that in the process the global in many cases diffuses into the local to become commercially successful. For example, McDonald’s hamburger meat was changed from beef to lamb in India in recognition of the iconic value and respect for cattle in that country (Suzuki & Yoshimi, 2004). Regional identity and localisation is the dominant mode of the international flow of cultural ideas

3.2.2 Japanese media and the arts

The level of confidence within Japan, derived from the well-documented business success that has emanated from its increased engagement with globalisation in the second half of the twentieth century, has flowed through to Japanese contemporary media. There has been a progressively renewed regional and global recognition of

Japanese culture, its original texts and their commercialisation, facilitated by a plethora of media formats and the technological means of delivering them to consumers.

Many products in East Asia are adaptable because they tap into similar traditions and values. Japan has put great emphasis on creative arts, so called monotsukuri (creative thinking and making) as a cultural content (JETRO, 2001a). Creative thinking has

‘shaped Japanese craftsmanship and manufacturing through the ages’ (JETRO,

2001b, p. 2). One example is the ukiyo-e woodblock print genre introduced in

Chapter Two, which subsequently influenced European artists such as Vincent Van

Gogh, Monet and Cezanne, culminating in the development of impressionism and abstract modernism as popular art forms (Fujioka, 2006). The first adapted ukiyo-e print was in Paris. The resulting interest in artistic exoticism under this Japanese influence became known as Japonisme, as I mentioned in the introduction. Art in

Paris was strongly influenced by Japonisme. In the 1878 Paris International

Exhibition, many Japanese arts and crafts were exhibited (Miura, 2010). The contribution by Japonisme to a refashioning of art demonstrates one aspect of globalisation (Fujioka, 2006). It may be argued that cultural flows rarely occur accidentally and independently. It is attributable to a number of dynamic factors that challenge the status quo at any given time and encourage change.

3.2.3 Culture, Economy and Migration

Morris-Suzuki and Yoshimi (2004) assert that cultural globalisation is happening in tandem with economic and marketing globalisation and that it did not occur due to the influence of economic globalisation (Suzuki & Yoshimi, 2004). They state:

We don’t think that globalization initially occurred outside the domain of

culture, for example in economy or finance and this in turn affects culture

externally. Rather, globalization in a variety of cultural fields is entirely

concomitant with globalization in areas such as economy, finance and the

military. The relationship between economy and culture in terms of

globalization is one of segment agglutination in which their relationship

changes continuously in a compounded manner (Suzuki & Yoshimi, 2004, p.

14).

In the second half of the twentieth century, particularly towards the end of the century, there were significant migrations of people, many of them as refugees, for economic or other reasons. This can be compared to the movement of people that occurred during the Meiji Restoration as Japan embraced modernisation. The

movement of temporary migrant workers into Asian countries such as Japan, Korea ,

Taiwan and Singapore, also dramatically increased in this period (Thompson, 2000).

The economic imperatives that brought foreign workers to Japan had a corresponding effect on cultural flows. Many of the foreign workers used their leisure time to watch television for the purpose of learning the Japanese language and its culture and lifestyle, as well as for relaxation and entertainment. When the foreign workers returned to their place of origin or went on to other countries for ongoing employment they took with them some of the infused, or learned, Japanese culture and an appreciation of Japanese media content. This occurrence may be compared with the post-1945 influence of the US on Japan when American popular culture made dramatic inroads into Japan, and Japanese youth of the era considered it to be very modern (Iwabuchi, 2002).

The migration of people can be seen as providing the seeds for the subsequent and complementary expansion of Japanese culture beyond its geographical borders, outside of the normal parameters of globalisation. Not surprisingly, scholars and populist authors have written about how cultural commodities indigenous to Japan, such as authentic Japanese cuisine, anime, manga, J-pop music, fashion, architecture and contemporary arts, have made their way into other cultures (Sugiyama, 2006).

Japan, popularly dubbed as an economic nation in the 1970s, made outstanding progress in internal development and external trade and investment during this epoch.

Japan was the first country in Asia to become modernised, followed later by Korea and Singapore, such that its status as a global culture and trend leader cannot be denied.

3.3 Manga

Manga has been used as an avenue of communication by at least one of Japan’s politicians (Aso, 2006) and is an important component of its GNC. Within the manga genre, shōjo manga (young girl’s manga) has many connotations and interpretations.

Hana yori Dango is an example of Shōjo manga. Shōjo manga was developed in the

1950s and 1960s by well-known male writers such as Tezuka Osamu, Chiba Tetsuya and Akatsuka Fujio. Female writers emerged later. The two decades were significant, both economically and politically, in the post-war recovery. Shōjo manga female characters were portrayed as pretty and adorable in their general manner. The storylines were often linked with social issues. In the 1970s shōjo manga featured career-related stories. In that decade, very few Japanese women were employed and women with careers were portrayed in shōjo manga in an exemplary way. Many stories were located in well-known cities in Japan, or in overseas locations, often in

Western countries.

The 1990s witnessed a change in shōjo manga style. Japanese manga such as Kyandi

Kyandi (Candy Candy), Beruasiyu no Bara (The Rose of Versailles) and Seiraa

Muun (Sailor Moon) crossed national boundaries and were remade into many languages and formats. Female representation in manga was positive and women were portrayed with more independence in the 1990s. Characters were assertive and had personal aspirations. The manga from the 1990s to the early 2000s had storylines more akin to a novel; the text becoming more significant. Hana yori Dango is an outstanding representation of shōjo manga in the current era. The storyline embraces the new urban culture of Japan; it is serious, yet humorous; it includes human relationships, arguments, conflicts, love, kindness, desires, achievements and

aspirations. Boentaram points out that ‘Japanese manga has always been popular for its romantic plots, which have the right mixture of humour, fantasy and tragedy’

(Boentaram, 2002). Such manga embody fantasy elements, and this has provided a source of diversification through remakes and adaptation into many media products for television, films and games. They retain elements from the original source, but are better able to cross-cultural boundaries and attract readers and audiences. The accessibility of anime and manga due to their fusion of reality and fantasy allows them to be readily commoditised. Manga and its derivatives is the perfect vehicle for escapism, allowing ideas to freely flourish. Its accessibility gives it the power to influence the imagination and to stimulate human aspirations and dreams.

Jenkins (2007) makes the observation that Japanese manga provides an important, non-Western case study of the ways media goes global. His observation is also relevant in regard to the television drama content across East Asia. He states that manga has the capacity to communicate across cultural geographical boundaries while retaining cultural idiosyncrasies. He asks, in wry reference of manga’s ability to retain cultural difference while also being global ‘have you ever seen so many giant robots or transforming schoolgirls?’ (Jenkins, 2007). The core value in manga is the unleashed imagination enabled by this textual form. Jenkins observes that the follow-the-money approach often used in business is applicable to the analysis of media production (Jenkins, 2007). He deduces that money follows the creativity of those artists who are able to capture audiences. He also observes that audiences can rescue lost gems in ways that many entertainment companies seem not yet to recognise. Certainly, when comparing audience numbers with the small number of artists in the entertainment industry, one would expect this outcome. This analysis

can readily include the producers of anime and manga. Manga is a significant part of

Japanese cultural appeal. Manga provides an entry to a larger world (Jenkins, 2007).

Because of globalisation and the vehicles available for financial transfers, transportation and communication, manga is consumed globally for its accessibility.

That is to say, it is visually attractive, compellingly simple in its messages, very imaginative in content and readily able to move from reality to the realm of virtual reality. Written content caters to the linguistic variability of the global consumer, but little else is changed. The consumer’s curiosity in the realm of virtual reality and fantasy is aroused, encouraged and sustained. Manga expanded into the world of animation some 50 to 60 years ago and remains influential in the process of remaking across formats.

3.3.1 Culture, cosplay and youth

Overseas visitors to Japan often comment on the impact of culture on Japanese youth.

This process is dynamic, as interests in old, new and emerging cultural elements wax and wane. Tokyo is a haven for youth, drawing them in clusters to a variety of locations in the city. Harajuku is a favoured meeting place for groups of teenagers keen on American hip-hop, Shinjuku attracts university students and young workers,

Shibuya attracts a more sophisticated youth group and Shirogane is for the young managerial class. Each place has its own unique characteristics and is attractive to a youth demographic with similar interests. The young use these places for meeting, chatting and social exchange. They formulate unique groups, sharing a common identity, cultural values and uniformity, giving them comfort through a sense of social belonging. It may seem strange to the outside observer meeting people in such places dressed as characters in manga and television dramas. This phenomenon is

known in Japan as kosupure, a Japanese term for costume role-play, abbreviated as cosplay. (Galbraith, 2009a).

Popular culture texts also have a significant impact on culture. The popularity of

Hana Yori Dango in the 1990s led to identifiable manifestations of fandom. In fashion, there was a proliferation of the Chapatsu (dyed blonde hair) modelled after the hairstyles of characters in the series. J-Pop singers, such as the pop group Arashi

(one of the lead singers was a main character in Hana yori Dango), rose to cult status after significant exposure through the series. Arashi also gained popularity in East

Asia. Purikura (photo stickers)2, kogyaru (girls emulating stars)3, atsuzoko boom

(platform shoes) and cosplay Maid (French maid costumes) in Hana yori Dango all became elements of fan culture. Part of the story of Hana yori Dango employed overseas studies in Paris. Japanese students taking up overseas studies in the US and

Europe had a sense of status conferred upon them by the Japanese population at large.

These manifestations are an element of cultural mobility as seen when participants adopt another identity, generally strongly influenced by media. These gatherings are evidence of the power and connectivity of culture and it would be extraordinary to see a Japanese girl in any of these settings dressed in a formal kimono. Cosplay as a favourite character from anime, manga or computer games, originated in Japan at the 1974 Kyoto Cosplay Convention and has now moved on to other countries

(Galbraith, 2009c). Hong Kong festivals of cosplay and cosplay magazines are

2 Purikura is an abbreviation of Print Club. ‘Photo booths that produce bright, colourful sticker photos that can be personalized with text and various graphics. They are especially popular among Japanese girls who often collect thousands of postage stamp sized sticker pictures taken with friends. Print Club machines appeared in 1995’(Galbraith, 2009b, p. 191) 3 A young gal. A subculture of Japanese teenage girls that was particularly prevalent in Shibuya in the mid-1990s (Galbraith, 2009c, p. 122)

evidence of the contribution by this phenomenon to globalisation (Zhu, 2008).

Cosplay can also be seen in Australia, particularly at anime conventions such as

Manifest Melbourne Anime Festival, where cosplay competitions are held. A cosplay event was held in New York in 2010, where thousands of fans attended the event and experienced cosplay and many other Japanese cultural items. (Gothic Lolita

Subculture of Japan in New York, 2010). Cosplay is one of the themes in the manga

Hana yori Dango and is replicated by fans on the street. These activities play an important role in disseminating popular culture elements in some manga and also in some remade television dramas, such as Hana yori Dango.

Akihabara is a district in Tokyo well known for shops that sell electronic equipment.

However, this identification is changing. More and more shops in the area now sell toy figures inspired by anime, manga and television drama, reflecting the commercial importance of spin off merchandise in forming and expanding the value chain. Cosplay products and anime-inspired clothes and costumes are also on sale. I interviewed the manager of a shop selling cosplay figures and other popular culture items. He stated that ‘Customers come from Japan and overseas and the golden week holiday period in May is a particularly busy time’ (Interview with a shop clerk Shop

Akiba 2009). This statement emphasises overseas engagement of Japanese popular culture. In Tokyo, places like Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya are centres of urban youth culture. Fashionable village centres have gourmet restaurants and coffee shops with fancy decorations, baroque-style furniture and fittings. The Ginza and Azabu areas feature glittering neon lights. These iconic locations appear in anime, manga, television dramas, film and popular song lyrics.

3.4 Regionalisation or Globalisation?

Regionalisation in East Asia with respect to media is changing the landscape previously dominated by the US and is creating opportunities for the global influence of Japanese media and media flows from Japan. Iwabuchi refers to the decentralisation of the forces of globalisation as opening the way to Japanese transnational cultural power (Iwabuchi, 1999). This view is similar to Flew’s, in that the forces of both nationalism and decentralisation are influencing globalisation, or at least diluting the influence of the US on it (Flew, 2007). It draws out a question, namely: what truly are the forces of globalisation and how can they be conveniently placed into a box, or more correctly boxes, as globalisation embraces all facets of the complex process? The term ‘Fordism’ is used by many writers to illustrate globalisation, more from a production and finance perspective, which brings to the forefront the influence of the US in the process. The creation of the printing press by

Gutenberg in the mid-fifteenth century, certainly in respect to media, was a much earlier contributor to the process of globalisation. Books printed in Latin, although having a limited readership, were able to migrate from the local to regional to international, crossing many geographical borders. This moves the discussion to a regional perspective.

If we take regionalisation to be a more powerful force than globalisation it leads to the question ‘why Japan?’ Sinclair draws attention to the ‘sea-change in television systems around the world’. This has caused the west to ‘Confront the cultures of the more peripheral regions of the world’ (Sinclair et al., 1996, p. 1). A statement which underscores the challenge to globalisation from the viewpoint of a Western media perspective and interests discussed in this thesis, particularly in respect to the

hegemony of the US and Europe. The peripheral regions of the world, viewed from a

Western perspective, for example East Asia, including the giant that is China, are reshaping the global media landscape with their increased self-sufficiency and increasing capacity to create media trade exports in excess of imports, illustrated by the case of Japan and Korea in Chapter 9. Japan, with its early introduction of television and related means of content production, was important in developing a self-sufficiency that has been progressively emulated in East Asia. This has contributed to regionalisation.

Regionalisation can be seen as a partial dismantling of globalisation, or at least as creating a new paradigm that reasserts the strength of local (regional) versus global.

The prime challenge for the consolidation of regional strength will be in the ability to create media giants, such as Disney, within the region, or to achieve control of such organisations through the market. Satellite communication is important as it allows for the ready transfer of media trade directly through receiver dishes or through an intermediary, and cable. Even with regional transmission the content still require attention to the cultural frame of the audience discussed in this chapter and in

Chapter 9. Commonality of cultural frames is a driver for regionalisation rather than globalisation, except for international sport, scientific, nature and the like where local voice over suffices. Media in this respect is dividing, and television dramas are very supportive of a re-emerging regionalisation due to them being able to be viewed by the audience through a number of channels that compete with commercial broadcasters, such as downloads through the internet, and are already challenging the

DVD. In East Asia the regional transfers in media content can only serve to progressively reduce Western influence. The interrelationship of cost and revenue is

also is a factor in the regionalisation versus globalisation argument. Regional appeal of content produced locally can be better measured and managed. The concept of

‘regions with their own internal dynamics as well as global ties’ and the definition of region by ‘common cultural, linguistic and historical connections’ (Sinclair et al.,

1996, p. 5) is well supported in the findings in this thesis Television viewing of content in East Asia, as shown in my findings, is still predominantly local, as the various cultures have roots in common although they are not heterogeneous.

Tunstall writes about ‘US Media in Decline’ (Tunstall, 2008, p. 105) from a global perspective and writes about a loss of American moral authority . This reflection on moral authority has some relevance to the position of Japan, particularly in East Asia.

From a Japanese perspective, it may be argued that the concept of globalisation largely rests on the culture of the researcher and interpretations emanating from that culture. Compared to Western perspectives, the Japanese view of globalisation is more focussed and is currently analysed from the perspectives of culture, economics and politics (Furukawa, 2007; Held, 2000; Suzuki & Yoshimi, 2004).

3.5 Gross National Cool

Why has Japanese culture had such a great impact on Asia, particularly Asian youth?

The answer is sometimes described as Japanese GNC. Manga, a rich source of remaking, has proven to be one of the core elements in the popularising of Japanese popular culture and, in turn, the evolution of the distinctive Japanese brand name

Cool Japan, and also GNC. I would argue that GNC continues to have a distinctive influence, primarily regionally but also, to a lesser extent, internationally, or globally, as a result of media trade.

The image of Japan today, viewed from outside Japan, is much more complex than it was in the 1960s. In that decade, Japan was popularly represented by such things as the Imperial Palace, temples, ancient castles, kimono, samurai swords and Mount

Fuji. Japan today still retains these iconic images, but the international perception of

Japan is reinforced by quality products and services such as cameras, computers, electronic devices and the high speed Shinkansen bullet express train. These days,

Japan's already impressive cultural influence is expanding because of a number of factors. One has been the nations flat to recessive economy from the 1990s following an era of buoyancy post-1945. Another is the effort by Japanese firms to increase income by producing new and innovative products to sustain their international competitiveness, and this intent is evident in the process of remaking and the merchandising of products related to, and emanating from, popular acceptance of media content and images.

The popularity of Japanese media cultural products such as manga, anime and television drama in Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere has attracted academic attention.

The export of these types of product illustrates the measurable cultural force of GNC.

While in economics, national power is quantified through national income, and output is expressed in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP), GNC is a measure of the influence of a nation’s products in the domain of popular culture. The significance of these products has been acknowledged as more than simply entertainment or art. This is due to their cultural contribution and to GDP as an economic commodity. Japan is seen by Sugiyama as

GNP number two (now number three), but GNC number one. In his view Japan is

foremost globally in ‘Cool’ culture. This shows the importance of Cool Japan or

GNC in a contemporary context (Sugiyama, 2006).

Koshikawa Kazuhiko, Director of the Japan Information Center, gave a speech on 12

December 2003 at the City University of New York Graduate Center (Koshikawa,

2004). He made reference to journalist Douglas McGray in observing that Japan is reinventing itself as a super power again in respect of popular culture. His references to the older art forms of Noh, Kabuki, Ikebana and other Japanese cultural traditions are well known internationally, but noted that the essence of Cool Japan lies in manga, anime, television programs and Japanese pop music. He stated that Japanese popular culture had not spread thanks to any grand plan, reflecting not on government but on the dynamics of the Japanese media private sector.

The Japan Times reported on 15 August 2010 that it had been eight years since

Douglas McGray first coined the phrase Cool Japan. The concept, embracing

Japanese popular culture, now receives strong Japanese government support and there is interest and commitment to reinforcing it and growing Japanese popular culture. There is no universal support in Japan for the phrase Cool Japan. As the

Japan Times reports, ‘the new head of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Kondo

Seiichi, doesn't favour the phrase Cool Japan, but does feel that Japan can play a role in this area’("Promoting 'Cool Japan'," 2010). This view may be seen as one of the opinions that have contributed to ’‘Japan Next’(New "Cool Japan" Logo:

Japan Next, 2011).

Cool Japan and GNC is currently being revitalised as Japan Next. Cool Japan nation branding focussed on Japanese culture. Anholt declares that brand is a ‘difficult word’ which raises the question of how brand is to be defined and how its significance can be evaluated (Anholt, 2005). The content industry, inclusive of remaking, is very complex and ‘brands in the commercial sphere tend to opt unequivocally for projecting a clear and simple image’. Anholt argues that

‘simplification has a tendency to reduce appeal’ but also draws attention to

‘participants in cultural exchange, must be able to find a ‘promise’ that matches their engagement with the country, irrespective of their own cultural viewpoint and their own sectoral interest’ (Anholt, 2009). I would argue that Cool Japan does describe

Japanese popular culture in a meaningful way and is well understood by the primary audience, which is, for Japanese cool products regionally and internationally, primarily teens and twenties. It remains to be seen whether Japan Next will reinforce

Cool Japan or muddy the message.

Lee notes in respect to a brand for Japan that ‘it suggests that revitalisation of the economy, society and culture is the proactive promotion of Japan’s charm of the brand name’ (Lee, 2005a, p. 5). Japan has embraced GNC, and the Japanese

Parliament, known as the Diet, has even incorporated it into government policy.

Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, in a policy speech to the 166th Session of the Diet in

2007, stated that ‘We will also formulate the Japanese Cultural Industry Strategy, which will enhance the competitiveness of areas that represent the good traits and uniqueness of Japan ... and present them to the world’ (Abe, 2007). This claim to competiveness is illustrated by the fact that 60 per cent of global production of anime and manga is Japanese (METI, 2003e). The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

has reported that over the past ten years there has been a notable increase in the export of Japanese manga to Europe, America and Asia. The Ministry has cited the distribution of pirate copies of manga, particularly in Asian countries, and the trend for large numbers of Japanese manga to be translated and published through formal license agreements with Japanese publishers (Japan Fact Sheet; Popular Culture in

Japan, 2008).

3.6 Emerging Japanese Soft Power

Sugiyama notes that Japan conveys super power influence though popular culture, not only from a commercial viewpoint but also through the impact of the culture itself (Sugiyama, 2006). The concept of Japanese soft power may be viewed from an external vantage point, but it also has a meaning within Japan. Yamazaki points out how soft power connects the urban culture and cities and creates power; iconic places attract citizens and these citizens create soft power through fashion, shops, restaurant, coffee shops, amusement park, cinema complexes, leisure land and convention centres. The drawing together of these facilities and services creates a power that results in economic prosperity (Yamazaki & Tachioka, 2006). This aggregation of media into the hub is significant and creates a focused and interactive media community, for example there are two hundred and thirty-eight corporations producing audio-visual content located in Tokyo and only one in Osaka’. (Yamazaki

& Tachioka, 2006, p. 9) The Shibuya area in Tokyo is a centre for internet business and Roppongi is also a media and popular culture intensive area. Internet business around Shibuya, called ‘Shibuya bit valley’, and Roppongi have contributed to the globalisation of the Japanese media industry (Yamazaki & Tachioka, 2006, p. 9).

GNC has, demonstrably, had significant influence, particularly in East Asia. The

thirst for Japanese manga and its remakes, as outlined above, has, in part, resulted in the growth in value of Japanese popular culture exports and contributed to the evolution of Japanese soft power. GNC exerts significant influence, particularly in

East Asia. It can be argued that the evolution of Japanese soft power has been driven by regional desire for things Japanese rather because of any particular Japanese

Government policy. In fact it can be argued that policy in Japan has trailed the regionalisation of Japanese media outputs and associated value chains. The importance of media content in the development of national strategies has been recognised since 2004 (DCAJ, 2004). Jenkins notes that ‘some Japanese policy makers view overseas interest in anime and manga as a vehicle for soft power’

(Jenkins, 2007) . The transfer, localisation and ensuing regional popularity of

Japanese media and cultural products has had an impact on regional audiences, and this is considered to have contributed to Japanese soft power. Soft power is a term first proposed by Nye and is defined as the ‘ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion’ (Nye, 2004, p. x). He defines soft power as political power that follows from the attractiveness of a nation's culture and ideals (Nye,

2004). The widespread appeal and sales of manga, anime, television drama and other

Japanese cultural media and allied products is consistent with this analysis.

Economic power and military power were grouped by Nye and housed under the umbrella of national power. In the 1990s the falling Japanese economy reduced these powers. However, in the late 1980s and 1990s, Japanese media products became increasingly successful in local and overseas markets. Many Japanese popular culture products have been produced and successfully transferred to many countries with good audience acceptance. Among East Asian countries, these products were

transferred to markets in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China leading to remakes and adaptation.

Japan conveys cultural messages through various media products, not only through anime, manga and television dramas, but also through other mixed media products; for example, Hello Kitty and Totoro have played a significant role in terms of global appeal and cultural mobility. Totoro is an iconic character from the Miyazaki Hayao anime My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), which has received many international awards and has been recognised internationally and globally. Totoro paraphernalia such as stuffed toys, dolls, the anime soundtrack, stationery, and towels portraying Totoro had not only economic appeal but also represented cultural values. Creating a separate new world, Totoro is a fantasy creature with a mixture of familiar and unfamiliar characteristics. Totoro is cute and brave. He can be anything, and lends himself to subjective interpretation. This has been a contributing factor to

Totoro’s success; the ambiguity of fantasy together with his comforting familiarity enables Totoro to be anything, which makes him accessible to all.

Another example is Hello Kitty, a commoditised cat that first made its appearance in the late 1970s and which is still in the global market. The absence of a mouth on

Hello Kitty lends the character ambiguity of facial expression, allowing the viewer to imbue the character with any desired characteristics or personality. Hello Kitty can be anything. Whether viewers are happy, sad or angry they can project their own feelings onto Hello Kitty. These are quintessential examples of the cultural mobility of fantasy. Japan’s manga products produce fantasy, yet are not too far from reality so that fans can easily transfer their feelings onto them and enter into a separate, new

world. Fantasy and partial reality have a significant place in globalisation. Ishii addressed issues about Japanese popular culture and its popularity in East Asia, in particular, toy goods such as Hello Kitty sold at McDonald’s in Hong Kong and

Taiwan in 1999 to grow business profit. The media mix included such things as

Hello Kitty stuffed dolls, bags, clothes, stationary, Hello Kitty lunch box, dinner box, and this resulted in profits increasing by a factor of two. Hello Kitty is preferred in

East Asia to Mickey Mouse and Snoopy (Ishii, 2001b).

Television dramas can also present Japan to the world. Takahashi uses one outstanding example of the internationalisation of television dramas: Oshin. The root of Oshin was a real life story of a Japanese woman, outlined in a letter forwarded to the writer Hashida. Hashida converted the story into a television drama, initially for

Japanese viewing. Oshin burst out of Japan with international appeal; the series was shown in sixty-three countries, including the United States, Canada, Belgium, India,

Paraguay, Sudan and extensively through Asia (Takahashi, 1998). The peak viewing rating in Japan for Oshin of 62.9 per cent illustrates how powerful the story was, and how compulsive audience viewing was (Video Research, 2011). Takahashi reported that the appeal outside of Japan was more evident in developing countries. He attributed the universal appeal to ‘family, work and life transcending national ethnic and cultural values’ (Takahashi, 1998, p. 144). Oshin was a long-running series in

Japan with 297 episodes in asadora (morning drama) format in fifteen minute episodes. Takahashi reported that the intent of Hashida, the scriptwriter of Oshin, was to focus on the themes of preservation of family lineage, working women and the relationship between the bride and her mother-in-law. Hashida was a co-writer of

Akai Giwaku. The core theme of Oshin is endurance and overcoming adversity.

Takahashi drew on international research and summarised the findings into two important factors, which were used to create audience appeal, firstly: the very human nature of the characters, especially the main character, being able to overcoming hardship and secondly the need to draw emotional responses.

3.7 Regional Political Engagement: East Asian Cultural Flows

East Asian cultural flows have been dramatically affected by political changes in the region. Although Japan and Korea are neighbours in the region and share some cultural aspects because of a shared historical contact with China. there are a number of barriers that divide the two countries; they are separated physically by the Japan

Sea, have separate written and spoken languages, and have had frequent periods of political and military hostility, not least being the fact that Korea is on the Asian mainland and was the obvious route for the invasion of Japan by expansionist

Chinese regimes in the past.

During the early part of the second half of the twentieth century Korea actively discouraged friendly relations between itself and Japan. Japan annexed Korea in

1910 and maintained occupation until 1945. At the end of Japanese imperial policies in 1945 and since the partitioning of Korea into two countries in 1948, residual ill feeling between Japan and Korea has kept relations at a distance for four decades. As a result, there was little interaction during this time between Japanese and Korean media. Prior to the 1990s, Korean government legislation restricted the import of television, music and film productions. However, from the 1990s, government legislation has responded to technological changes.

In 1995, the then Japanese Prime Minister Murayama released his statement

‘Apologies to Asian nations who suffered under the Japanese military’; this was a singularly important announcement from Japan and was an important precursor to the thawing of relations between Japan and its regional neighbours. The historical antipathy changed towards the end of the twentieth century when the Korean

Government implemented a program to ease the restrictions on the exchange of

Korean and Japanese popular cultural material.

In 1973, during a visit to Japan, Kim Dae-Jung was seized by the Korean Central

Intelligence Agency (KCIA), taken back to Korea and imprisoned. In his publication

‘Jail Correspondence’, written while he was in prison, he formulated his three ‘hans’:

1. Opposition to adverse feelings towards the Japanese; 2. Opposition to the use of military force and 3. To use a harmonious approach towards Japan (Maeda, 2007).

Later, he became the President of Korea, from 1998–2003, and was instrumental in leading the way to improved relations between Korea and Japan. Kim was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000, confirming the international recognition of the significance of his political leadership. Kim was visionary in his view of the future relationship between Korea and Japan.

Kim instigated four steps to open up the Korean door to Japan, leading to the entry of

Japanese popular culture into Korea for the first time in 1998 and then in 1999, 2000, and 2003/4 (Ishii, 2001a; Maeda, 2007). This initiative was revolutionary in changing the relationship between Japan and Korea, progressively allowing the legal importation of Japanese media and cultural products for the first time.

This first step resulted in an adverse reaction from Korea’s mass media, intellectuals and academia, thus highlighting, with the benefit of hindsight, their short-sightedness.

There was significant resistance to change and hesitation in accepting this new open door policy. However, Kim’s actions progressively enabled cultural flows between

Japan and Korea; he saw this as the way to improve the understanding of Koreans for things Japanese and, conversely, Japanese for things Korean. It was a pragmatic policy as, by 1995, 80 per cent of Japanese television anime had already unofficially penetrated into Korean society.

In 1998 Japan possessed a sophisticated and dynamic media industry. The Korean government had been careful, initially, in preventing the Korean media industry from exposure to open competition from Japan. Notwithstanding that initial reticence, some anime was screened without government approval before 1998 and with government approval after 2004. A greater range of content, except anime, was accepted and screened in Korean theatres post-1998. The four steps of Kim’s vision were progressively implemented by the Korean government (Ishii, 2001b; Maeda,

2007). The Korean Cultural Tourist Bureau and Chosen Nippo (2003) instigated the four steps as outlined in Table 2, and the ban on Japanese media products was lifted progressively, as is shown below.

In 1998, for the first time, Japanese films were officially exported to Korea , and

Japanese pop musicians were permitted to perform there, with audiences restricted to

‘1000 people’ (Ishii, 2001b, p. 79). In 2004, both the Korean and Japanese markets were opened with regard to the importation of popular culture productions. The

Japanese and Korean governments legislated to support co-productions with funding

support. These changes remain fertile grounds for both individual and integrated remaking. The news media in both Korea and Japan continues to portray conflict in the relationship, perhaps displaced to some extent by the recent military actions by

North Korea against Korea towards the close of 2010. Ongoing issues that remain include: the territorial fishing boundaries, the unresolved Takeshima (Japanese name) Dokdo (Korean name) territorial ownership, the portrayal of Japan in Korean history books, the official Japanese presentation of its own history (in particular the portrayal of the Japanese army in Japanese history books) and the issue of comfort women (Hasumi, 2005).

The opening of cultural trade has been diplomatically successful. The Korean

Cultural Promotion Research Center reported on findings from a survey within Japan on the question ‘Do you agree to the Korean Government Open Door Policy towards

Japanese popular culture?’ The result was 50.3 per cent positive, 23.7 per cent generally positive, and 12.2 per cent with no real view. This sample, with 86.2 per cent not opposing the policy, strongly supported Kim’s vision and subsequent action to enable cultural threads between Japan and Korea to strengthen and cultural exchange to grow (Maeda, 2007).

Table 2 Korea’s four steps.

Step I 1998 1.Film and Video Japan and Korean Co-production films were allowed 1.1. Participation of Japanese actors in Korean films became legal 1.2 Only award-winning Japanese films were allowed to be shown, and these awards were restricted only to the following four Film Festivals: Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Academy 2. Manga (Print publications) were allowed

Step 2 1999 1.Film and Video 1.1 All films allowed except anime film 1.2 70 international film festival awards were now acceptable. 1.3 Only General viewing films were allowed. 2. No change 3. Musical performance 3.1 Performers of Japanese music were restricted to selling a maximum of 2000 seats, and only indoor performances were allowed. 3.2 Performances of Japanese music were not allowed to be broadcast or recorded (in any format including videos)

Step 3 2000 1. Film and video 1.1 Only films allowed for the 18+ age group. 1.2 Anime films that had won awards at International film festivals were allowed. 1.3 Videos of already screened films were allowed. 3. Musical performance 3.1 The outdoor performance of Japanese music ban was lifted. 3.2 Recording: No Japanese language lyrics, only songs with Korean translation lyrics were legal 4. Soft games 4.1 All soft games (PC games, online games, video games (using a video game machine) allowed. 4.2 Soft games not to be played using television sets. 5. Broadcast: television Japanese-related sports, documentary, news became allowed. 6. Television Movies on Cable television, satellite broadcast allowed (however only films which met Step II conditions were allowed to be broadcast on television).

Step 4 2004 1. Film and Videos Japanese film/video ban completely lifted and all films were allowed, no restrictions.

The four steps resulted in legal trade of Japanese media products in Korea beyond anime. Japanese anime shown in Korea from 1960–1990 included Astro Boy, Tiger

Bam, Captain Harrock, Witches Sally and Candy Candy. Some examples of legal media exports from Japan to Korea from 1998 are illustrated in Table 3.

Table 3 Media exports Japan to Korea

1998 Film Hanabi, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Colida, Kagemusha 1999 Film Television Narayambushiko, Love letter, Ring, Tetsudoin, Shall we dance? Drama Anime Evangelism, Princess Mononoke 2000 Film Odoru Daisoosa sen, Kaze no Tani no Naushika, Music Chage & Asuka Live Manga Tacchi 2003-2009 Film Hana yori Dango Final and more Television Hana yori Dango, Nodame Kantabile, Shiroi Kyotoo and more drama manga/anime Boys over Flowers, Nodame Cantabile, The White Tower

Source: (Adapted from Ishii, 2001b; Maeda, 2007; Video Research, 2009)

Around the same time Japanese film was legally traded in Korea, Korean dramas began to be shown in Japan. This was an unprecedented change. In the past Japanese viewers had shown a lack of interest in these productions. The impact and success of

Korean television dramas in Japan became known as Kanryuu (Korean Wave) and came as a surprise to the Korean media industry. The now well-known Korean drama

Winter Sonata with its strong love story elements was broadcast on the Nippon Hoso

Kyokai (NHK) network and led to an enormous cult following in Japan. NHK is historically known for its orthodox programs, and concentrates on broadcasting news, cultural and educational programs. Winter Sonata was the forerunner of a number of

Korean productions that were distributed in Japan and received acclaim from

Japanese audiences.

3.8 Conclusion

This chapter has shown that Japan’s entry into the global media village occurred primarily as a result of two comprehensive changes, which collectively brought about a repositioning of Japan in the world scene, namely: the Meiji Restoration and the aftermath of World War II. These changes enabled the Japanese media content industry to join the regional and global media industry in a meaningful way. The result was a substantive impact on regional and, to a lesser extent, global media, evidenced by the growth of Japanese media exports noted in Chapter 9. The evolution of the text form, which is today’s manga, can be seen as one of the prime engines for new texts and remaking in Japan.

Manga, television dramas and the like have evolved through remaking into multimedia formats for local, regional and global consumption, and have provided the opportunity for Japanese media content and formats to become popularised and to create GNC. Cool Japan emanated from Japanese popular culture and became a brand which is viewed as being archetypically Japanese. The move from Cool Japan to Japan Next is a risky strategy and the outcomes of this change present opportunity for ongoing research. A strong brand image, such as that of the Toyota motor company, can be viewed as an essential prerequisite in the planning and production of new and remade Japanese cultural media products in whatever textual form they may take. Japan has been a significant influence in East Asia with respect to popular culture and derivative media flows. This influence has been instrumental in an

evolving regionalisation, which counters or even dismantles some aspects of globalisation. Other countries in the region are emulating Japan and contributing to an integrated regional dynamic which, in turn, is creating new opportunities for remaking.

GNC has led to a form of national power referred to as soft power. Japanese culture is being actively propagated and received across boundaries today and is reinforcing this form of power. Quintessential Japanese art forms continue to evolve into other formats and transmission platforms as well as creating derivative products. This has led them to enjoying a significant role as a contemporary political and cultural commodity of Japan. The regional political engagement, particularly between Japan and Korea and through the vision of Kim Dae-Jung, has been pivotal in the growth of the regional content industry and has become a platform for regional media trade and the joint production of original and remade content in East Asia.

Chapter 4: The Expansion of Japanese Media Content in East Asia

4.1 Introduction

This chapter investigates the evolution of Japanese television networks, which have led to the growth of the nation’s content industry. The content industry has had significant impact both domestically and regionally. The quality of Japanese media content has generated regional fandom which, in turn, has contributed to positive regional political outcomes. The political changes have provided for freer regional media trade, thus enabling multilateral cultural exports and a reduced dependence on

Western and, primarily, US media content. Television production in the region has become increasingly self-sufficient. The political changes in Korea, Taiwan and

Japan have enabled cross-cultural media flows. In addition, sophisticated production capabilities have enabled localised remaking and joint production of Japanese media content.

The first section of this chapter traces the growth of the Japanese television networks from black and white transmission through to recent current post-broadcasting systems. The industry expanded rapidly, particularly in the 1950s when private sector commercial broadcasting was permitted. The discussion in this section shows the pioneering role of Japanese media from the mid-1920s through to the present day.

Japan has been the leader in the incorporation of technology, which has led to a robust content industry. The quality of Japanese media content has contributed to its dissemination and has been a major influence on regional deregulation of the media industry.

The second section discusses how the Japanese content industry evolved as a direct consequence of the growth in television. It is only from the 1990s, and particularly into the first decade of the twenty-first century, that the Japanese government realised the importance of the content business. There is also a new understanding of the importance of culture in the media mix. The Japanese government as is now firmly committed to developing strategies and regulation to enable the content business to grow while also safeguarding its intellectual property. Japan is well aware of historical Western hegemony in media overshadowing local media production, particularly from the US, and is drawing on the Hollywood business model to further grow its own content business with an awareness of the benefits of multi revenue channels within the value chain. The growth in cultural exports has also been a catalyst for a steady improvement in inter-country relationships in East

Asia.

4.2 Japanese Television Networks

Japan was the first country in East Asia to introduce black and white television and, later, colour television (NHK, 2008) . I argue that this medium created a major change in viewing habits and afforded an opportunity to expand production of original content and remaking due to two reasons: firstly, an expanded audience base and the increased leisure time and the greater amount of discretional viewing time; and, secondly, the technology has provided the means by which the content can be readily received in audio-visual format in one’s home. At the first stage of development, Japan was inward looking and focussed on producing content for domestic consumption. The later introduction of colour television in Taiwan and

Korea, both using the NTSC system, as did Japan, provided Japan with the

opportunity to move from an introspective media production and remaking capability towards producing content for the evolving regional market. This was enabled as

Taiwan and Korea lagged Japan in production capability due to their later entry into television broadcasting.

Japan has also been at the forefront in the region, with terrestrial transmission utilising satellites to expand the footprint for its media industries. The collective television network capability in Japan has been, and remains, the primary means by which content is transmitted to an audience. Emerging technologies will progressively change the composition of the industry. Transmission of content and the means of reception continue to change and diversify. The advent of video streaming through the internet has become an important future direction for popular culture, whether viewing in real time or delayed. This gives television broadcasting the flexibility, for example, of that afforded by VCDs and DVDs. In appreciating the opportunities for remaking within and beyond Japan, the infrastructure and technology that disseminates the texts is an important consideration.

Straubhaar proposes an analytical structure. His first idea is that ‘television creation, flow, and reception is bounded by but not determined by political, economic, and institutional structures’ (Straubhaar, 2007, p. 8). This proposition is confirmed, at least in part, when viewing the relationship between Japan and Korea. In these two countries, flow and reception were historically bound. I argue that post-1948, and for a number of decades following, media trade between Korea and Japan was determined, with the exception of unauthorised trade in both countries, by their respective governments.

Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, started as a radio broadcaster in 1925. A Japanese image of the character「イ」 (i) was transmitted and received by Takayanagi Kenjiro in 1926 (JETRO, 2001a; Kato, 1995; NHK,

2005). Further testing was successfully completed in1939. The NHK Technology

Research Center was established in 1950, and in the following year, on 1 February

1951, the first NHK television network was established. NHK commenced regular television broadcasting in February 1953. The continuation of testing resulted in the transmission of a television drama that lasted for twelve minutes. It was broadcast by

NHK on 13 April 1940 and was called Yuugemae (illustration Photograph 1). The script was written by Ima Uhei (JETRO, 2001a; NHK, 2005, p. 70). The theme centred on everyday life, and portrayed the ryosai kenbo. Ryosai kenbo translates as

‘a good wife and wise mother’, an ideal for women in those days.

Photograph 1 Yuugemae

In the early days of transmission within Japan the public broadcaster was not as responsive to audience feedback as is commonplace today. Popular culture was not given the kind of exposure in commercial broadcasting that we see these days. In

1953, the major television programs were aired for four hours, and featured sports genres such as sumo, professional wrestling and pro baseball. NHK broadcast to 866 television receivers in 1953, and in the following year the numbers increased more than tenfold to 10,000 (BS Online, 2008; NHK, 2005, pp. 72-76). NHK broadcast a colour television test in 1956, using UHF. Five colour television broadcasters commenced transmission in 1960 — NHK, Nippon Television, Radio Tokyo (now

TBS), Asahi Hoso (Asahi Broadcast) and Yomiuri Television (NHK, 2005, p. 160).

The program Basudori Ura, (illustration at Photograph 2), was broadcast by NHK for over 1395 episodes, during prime time, from 1958 to 1963. Basudori Ura (Alley

Behind the Bus Lane) is a sitcom, a comical portrayal of everyday life of typical urban middle class family in Japan (Kato, 1995; NHK, 2005, p. 77). The trend with increasing household ownership of colour television sets continued and accelerated with the eagerness of people to watch the marriage of Crown Prince Akihito and the commoner Shoda Michiko in 1959. By 1964 almost every household in Japan was able to watch the Tokyo Olympics (NHK, 2002; Penn, 2003).

Photograph 2 Basudori Ura

When considering the establishment of Television stations, we cannot ignore the importance of Tokyo Tower. In 1958, three leading Tokyo Tower figures, President

Maeda Kyukichi, Vice president Shikanai Takeshi and Managing Director Shimada

Tomonosuke, made a trip to Paris to model the development of Tokyo Tower on the

Eiffel Tower (personal communication with Shimada, 1990). The landmark Tokyo

Tower, completed in 1958, was established as the initial major television broadcasting station in Japan, while also being a tourist attraction. Television broadcasting started from the Tokyo Tower on 23 December 1958. The establishment and development of the Tokyo Tower made a significant contribution to the broadcasting footprint in Tokyo for ‘line of sight’ television reception. In that year there were 1,000,000 receivers, some hundredfold increase from 1953 (NHK,

2005, p. 76), and an ensuing rapid expansion of receivers continued, complimented by increased production of content to meet viewer needs.

The private sector of Japanese television broadcasting, known as the National

Association of Commercial Broadcasters (NAB), consists of commercial broadcasting industries, networks and committees. All commercial broadcasters have to apply to, and become a member of, the NAB before they are authorised to broadcast. The primary function of the NAB is to make regulations and policy to control the content of television and radio programs of commercial broadcasters. The

NAB audits the credibility of audience data and makes recommendations regarding programs for specific age groups. The NAB is a self-regulatory authority (Katayama,

1999). My interview with an executive committee member of the Broadcasting

Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO), Professor Hashimoto

Yoshiaki , confirmed the role of the organisation as an interface providing auditing between the transmission and reception of media content (Hashimoto, 2009). BPO also plays an important role in Japanese broadcast media, acting as a mediator

between the audience and NHK and NAB. Before 1969, NHK and NAB controlled regulation and policy. However, as the association was formed within the internal members, there was a need to add a third party. BPO has to report audience opinion to NHK and NAB as well as ensuring that the rights and ethics of content fall within government policy (Shimizu, 2007).

4.2.1 Technology and content value.

The impact of technological advances on the value of content needs to be evaluated and new business models developed in order to maximise financial and cultural benefits. By 2005, the internet was inextricably linked with daily life activities

(Ohashi, 2008). Since then, the continued development of transmission systems has enabled increased speed and volume of content, and has provided for the distribution and reception of live pictures and sound in almost real time. The content received via fixed television screens, portable personal computers and allied devices as technologies converged created an expanding market for reception. The Ministry of

Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) drew on expert opinion from outside of its study group. Shigenobu Hiroshi, Chairman of TV MAN UNION is forward thinking in his appreciation of where technology will lead the industry.

Television sets in homes will inevitably be used both for broadcasting and

telecommunication. The technology of digital terrestrial broadcasting will

surely diversify value for the audience. Segmentation of content, for example

on the internet, cannot be avoided. The broadcasting and telecommunication

industries will consider together how they can use new networks in creative

ways while making use of effective use of merits of the terrestrial

broadcasting media for growth of their business (METI, 2007a, p. 6).

As well as the METI, The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, called

Soumusho, promotes Media Content Industry in Japan. They have prepared special discussion papers as Joho Tsushin Shingikai (Information and Communications

Council), and their function is to review, revise and promote overseas broadcasting

(Soumusho, 2008). They examined issues in overseas television broadcasting over eight meetings between 4 September 2006 and 30 March 2007 (Soumusho, 2008).

Tanaka pointed out that regionalised broadcasting in East Asia, noting Japan, Korea

Taiwan and China, emphasised the significance and benefits of government support, which is particularly illustrated by the growth of the Korean television industry

(Tanaka, 2008). One could infer that Korea saw the strength of Japanese broadcasting and, as is evident from the progress of manufacturing in the country, wanted to have a strong and resourceful media capacity. This point is made by

Tanaka when he asserts that Korea always competes with foreign media, and they have been working at a national level with a national policy to achieve their goals

(Tanaka, 2008).

4.3 Japanese Content Industry

METI examined, as recently as in 2007, the media industry, stating ‘Content industries have two aspects, “culture” and “business”. We have focused solely on the business side and not considered how the culture can be applied to create economic value’ (METI, 2007a, p. 9). The research group realised that focussing solely on the side of business limits commercial potential, and that consideration of cultural aspects and cultural flows can also be considered to be creating economic value (METI, 2007a; The National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in

Japan, 2008). The METI statement indicates a significant shift in focus on cultural exports. Accordingly, several factors that have led to the expansion of Japanese media exports to East Asia, and adaptations and remakes of Japanese programs in particular needs to be examined. Further analysis in the case study of Janguru Taitei in Chapter 8 will show that the industry has had mixed outcomes in protecting the value chain, illustrating that the business side of things did not receive the necessary attention, irrespective of the benefits of the cultural aspect.

The Japanese television broadcasting industry, as part of the Japanese content industry, is diverse and is the second largest in the world in terms of revenue

(Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 4). Myers Industries Inc., in their Research and Markets report in

2001, states that Japan also had the second largest advertising expenditure. That income underpinned the production of domestic content for both domestic consumption and export (Myers Group, 2001). The content industry is valuable to

Japan. Japanese exports of anime, television drama, film and documentaries in 2001 were almost 43 billion yen. Exports were predominately in two segments: 60 per cent was anime and 30 per cent drama and film. Fifty per cent of the overall production time was sold in Asia and 40 per cent in the US, with the balance elsewhere. (METI,

2003e). The profits from Pokémon, Pocket Monster including game machines, card games, VCDs, movies, publications, media mix paraphernalia such as foods, toys, stationery, children’s clothes, et cetera, was 20 billion yen (METI, 2003c). The

Japanese content industry has expanded beyond that required for domestic consumption. Fuji Television started selling their programs to foreign countries in the early 1990s. The number of programs sold in the early 2000s, reported by

Murukami, a member of The Japanese Content International Development Research

Group, was between 150 and 200 each year, with distribution across Asia. Some 80 per cent of that was comprised of television dramas and the remaining 20 per cent was a mixture of variety programs, documentaries, formats and the rights for remaking (Murakami, 2006).

The overseas sales are significant in numbers when compared, for example, with the overall production of trendy television dramas. Production of trendy dramas increased during the 1990s with an average of twenty new productions per week reported in January 1999 (Ishida, 1999). Ninety per cent of the programs were distributed in Asia and the balance went to Europe and the US. The major sales for

Europe and the US were for format and remake rights. The profits were disproportionate to sales, where 70 per cent of revenue was earned from Asia and 30 per cent from Europe and the US (Murakami, 2006). The sales to Asia were influenced by cultural proximity and were, primarily, program content. The activity and business of original media production, remaking and formats is growing. These sales have been achieved with little or no support from the Japanese government. It can be argued that the value achieved from these overseas sales was less than optimal.

The prospect for better regulated trade with increased profit margins has now improved as the Japanese government, slow in recognising the value of its media industry, is progressively recognising the intrinsic and unrealised value of media content from both a commercial and cultural context, and the loss of value in unregulated segments of the regional market.

Koshikawa Kazuhiko, Director of the Japan Information Center, has made a number of statements suggesting that the Japanese government was slow to recognise the

value of its culture in the 1980s. He refers to the ‘lost decade’ in the 1990s where many Japanese, including Koshikawa, were unaware of the transformations in media that were taking place (Koshikawa, 2004). The Diet, the Japanese parliament, now recognises the importance of cultural exports. To quote from the policy speech made by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to the 166th Session of the Diet on 26 January 2007,

As part of the Asia Gateway initiative, we will also formulate “The Japanese

Cultural Industry Strategy”, which will enhance the competitiveness of areas

that represent the good traits and uniqueness of Japan, such as animated film,

music and Japanese food, and present them to the world (Abe, 2007).

Japan’s competitive advantage in a segment of its content industry is illustrated by the fact that ‘sixty per cent of the global production of anime and manga’ is Japanese

(METI, 2003b, p. 8; 2003e). Manga is a rich source for Japanese remaking. METI and its Property Strategy Unit and Specialist Content Investigation Unit’s content business international strategists confirm the strength of these Japanese products.

(METI, 2003c). JETRO reports sales in excess of 43.6 billion yen ($US 330 million) in 2002. This is 3.5 per cent of all Japanese exports to the US at that time, and draws attention to the need to protect and increase the media business, a great stimulus for not only developing new texts and formats but also for the business of remaking

(METI, 2003d). Media plays an important role not only in promoting content for the national benefit, but also in benefiting cultural flows across Asia. Diagram 4 illustrates the breadth, diversity and value of the Japanese media content industry

(METI, 2004, p. 50).

Diagram 4 Production and distribution of Japanese media content

Source : Digital Content White Paper (translated from METI, 2004, p. 50)

4.3.1 Emerging strategy for the Japanese content industry

According to the Japanese government, Japan is not reaping the financial benefits from content that it deserves; it has to realise the benefits of multi channels, and to

recognise and properly value content, particularly content remade from Japanese source materials. The Japanese government, in 2003, determined to establish an

Intellectual Property Strategy Group (Chiteki Zaisan Senryaku Honbu) to support and promote the Japanese media content business. The government, in the following year, established the Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2004 (Chiteki Zaisan

Suishin Keikaku). Diagram 5 illustrates the strategy map created in 2003.

Diagram 5 Japanese media strategy map

Japanese media Target markets companies International development US, Europe and Pan- Asia

TOOLS Government support Exhibitions Expo Festival Exchange human resources (artists, producers) Collect data, Provide Japanese Agreements sharing content to Overseas between Japan and knowledge. Buyers the target countries, sharing knowledge.

Source: Japanese media strategy map (adapted from METI, 2003c, p. 10)

The Japanese government continues to take firm action to protect the intellectual property rights of the media industry, as discussed in detail in Chapter 9, and is creating new regulations intended to protect Japanese cultural products. To meet the

requirements of the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan, the Content

Business International Strategy group has established objectives to:

 Develop and expand domestic media content business market.

 Develop and expand the market for licensed Japanese media content business.

 Prevent unlicensed DVD production.

The need for a successful implementation of the limitation of unlicensed DVD production is illustrated by the potential fiscal shortfall in 2004, due to the impact of the unlicensed DVD market, estimated to be worth about 980 billion yen ($US 9 billion) (Digital Content Association of Digital Content Association of Japan, 2004, p. 25).

The Japanese Government, through its bureaucracy, continues to place great emphasis on strategies and policies for the export of media content. These play an important role not only in promoting domestic content but also in reinforcing the growth of media exports. Flew makes the point that:

Media Policy has been central to the development of media in all of its

forms. Government policy institutions regulate the ownership, production

and distribution of media, and seek to manage and shape cultural practices

in order to direct media institutions towards particular policy goals. (Flew,

2007, p. 171).

Korea preceded Japan in recognising the benefits that can accrue from nurturing its media industry. The continuance of the Korean Wave, of which Winter Sonata is an outstanding example, confirms the importance of media exports. METI has a global content strategy study group, and this group examines content industries

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from the viewpoint that Japanese products within a broad-based entertainment genre can and do play a significant role in the regionalisation and globalisation of uniquely Japanese content. METI highlights the commercial advantage that Japan currently holds across this diversity of content.

METI now aims to increase the profits from the content business by 2015 to more than 5 trillion yen ($US 40 billion) (METI, 2008 p. 6). The Content Industry

Promotion and Strategy Research report subsequently formulated the budget plan until 2020 (METI, 2010a) . If income from the remaking of The Ring, introduced in

Chapter 1, had been shared within a more equitable contract, and if this approach was replicated with other remade programs and formats, then one might predict that this may be a conservative estimate of the actual profit.

During the planned, and now implemented, change from analogue transmission to digitisation and advanced technologies in Japan, the prospective export markets of

Korea, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China were targeted for Japanese original and remade content and formats. The Japanese government introduced the

Content Promotion Law in 2004 to promote export business (Asari, 2005). The

METI group examined the content industries from the viewpoint that Japanese products within the broad-based entertainment genre could, and does, play significant roles in the regionalisation and globalisation of uniquely Japanese content.

METI highlighted the commercial advantage that Japan currently holds across its diversity of media content.

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4.3.2 Hollywood and Japan

The careers of many overseas directors have been enriched by Japanese media content. The Hollywood film director Sam Raimi appreciated that when he made

Spider Man 3, while not a remake, it was inspired by Japanese manga comics and animation films. (METI, 2007a). To put Spider Man into a financial context, its box office receipts in the US were $US 404 million (All-Time Box Office: USA, 2010).

Raimi has said that ‘he would like to make a film based on Super Mario Brothers’

(METI Report, 2003 p. 9). The unrealised value of remaking as a part of the content business is in the Japanese spotlight. It is one of the integrating factors within globalisation, and innovation and finance are drivers of it. Sam Raimi’s inspiration for Spider Man 3 is supportive of a recent opinion expressed by Tunstall, and suggests that the imagination for new media is being repositioned. Tunstall sees the

US mass media as being in decline, which he had not anticipated in his earlier book,

The Media are American. (Tunstall, 2008). Tunstall sees a loss of ‘moral authority and credibility’ for the American media (Tunstall, 2008, p. 96). If this decline proves to be the case then there is a clear and emerging opportunity for Japan and

East Asia to grow their regional media output, particularly with the current thirst for content being driven by increasingly higher speed cable networks enabling multi channels.

METI’s experts in content business and global strategy, Ozuka and Ishikawa, drew attention to the change of strategy in Hollywood, from local Hollywood sourcing and global exploitation to global sourcing and global exploitation. (METI, 2007a)

Ishikawa further highlights that in the days of Kurosawa Akira some films were produced with a budget of 2 billion yen ($US 17 million). This kind of figure is

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unrealistic in contemporary Japan. Hollywood studios sometimes spend as much as

30 billion yen ($US 250 million) on a production. He states that Japanese film- makers have fallen behind the globalisation of the industry. The Japanese government initiatives in the early 2000s demonstrated that Japan has not been active in globalising its film industry or, from a broader perspective, its popular culture industry. However, it is awakening to the need to do so. The respective business models support investment commensurate with projected income from multiple sources beyond revenue from the cinema alone. Ozuka sees theatre showings as a mere tool for publicity, and suggests that the real profits are from home video and television licence fees. Here he is drawing attention to a multi-channel business model that has many more elements to it for lateral and vertical income, as illustrated in Chapter 9.

Hollywood has used low cost production techniques, such as dubbing for foreign consumption, for global exploitation of their content and continues to do so, but, additionally, they are purchasing content from outside of the US (METI, 2007a).

This change in policy is a tacit appreciation by Hollywood that the old ways have to be changed to accommodate changing geo-politics and international consumerism. It also recognises, by inference, that media talent and ideas are not the sole domain of

Hollywood, a view that Hollywood would never have acceded to in the period up to the 1950s. The Hollywood business model in the 1950s was robust, in that the structure adopted was sustainable from a global as well as local perspective and recognised the potential of the world market. Hollywood has moved its business model forward, recognising that screenings in cinemas alone does not provide sufficient revenue to offset costs, but provides publicity for ongoing after-sales of

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home videos, licence fees from television stations and cable network providers and peripheral merchandising products. (METI, 2007a; The National Association of

Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, 2008).

The US film producer Alan Ladd Junior, in a television interview, stated that Star

Wars was the first blockbuster movie to recognise the value of merchandising (Ladd,

2010). This is arguable, Disney, through Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck amongst others, certainly had merchandised products. I suggest Alan Ladd Junior was talking about the scale of the merchandising income from Star Wars, which reached into billions of dollars. The example in Chapter 8 of Janguru Taitei and the revenues achieved with The Lion King confirms just how important a multi-channel approach is to maximising value. In the days of Kurosawa Akira, some films were produced with a budget of 2 billion yen ($US 80 million). Japanese investments in films are currently more conservative from the viewpoint of production costs; this can be compared with the Hollywood approach.

4.3.3 Growing the value of media exports

Japanese government policy is directed at the organic growth of its content business.

The extent of illegally uploaded television programs indicates regional viewer interests. Despite the revenue leakage, the value of Japanese content business, including films, anime, game, manga, television and music, was estimated to be 14 trillion yen ($US 120 billion) in 2006. The Japanese government expects this to grow, aiming for 19 trillion yen ($US 160 billion) by 2015 (METI, 2008). Television is one aspect of the growing awareness in Japan of the value of its media output. As illustrated above, the television industry is very important to Japan. The importance

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of this medium has been noted by media scholars in Australia. ‘Television policy is important because television is both a vastly popular entertainment medium as well as being perceived as a key to influence and commercial success in the information age’ (Cunningham & Flew, 2005, pp. 50-53). With television dramas, the current

Japanese sales focus is on Taiwan, then into other parts of Asia, including Hong

Kong, China and Korea. Co-production is seen as the most beneficial way forward.

The Japanese government continues to be proactive in sustaining its emphasis on growing content business. As recently as 8 June 2010, METI established a Creative

Industries Promotions Office under the Manufacturing Industries Bureau. This office was formed to plan and implement inter-ministerial measures to promote cultural industries, or creative industries such as design, animation, fashion and movies as a strategic sector for Japan. The office will implement measures to facilitate these industries’ overseas expansion, disseminate relevant information in Japan and abroad, and develop human resources.

The resolution is as follows: (METI, 2010b).

1. The government’s ‘New Growth Strategy’ and ‘Industrial Structure Vision

2010’ expect that Japan’s cultural industries, such as design, animation,

fashion and movies will become a strategic sector that drives the nation’s

future economic growth.

2. Under the single, long-term concept of Cool Japan, the Creative Industries

Promotion Office will promote these cultural industries in cooperation with

the private sector by facilitating their overseas expansion and human resource

development.

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3. More specifically, as a section within METI dedicated to measures to

promote cultural industries, the Creative Industries Promotion Office will

work with related ministries and Japanese/foreign private organizations to

plan and implement inter-ministerial measures, such as helping these

industries cultivate overseas markets, disseminating relevant information in

Japan and abroad by hosting domestic and international events, and

developing creative human resources through collaboration with universities

and human resource matching programs.

This latest resolution reaffirms the continued commitment to the content business as a strategic part of Japan’s economic growth.

4.4 Regionalisation Emerges

Japan has taken a leadership role in East Asia with the implementation and development of its content industry. This has not gone unnoticed in the Asian region and it has created an environment where regionalisation can take root. Regional issues in Asia discussed in this thesis confirm this opinion. Korean government legislation restricted the exportation and importation of Japanese television, music and film productions; however, from 1998 government legislation and conjoint technological changes were dynamic. Taking the case of Korea and Japan as an example shows how the progressive lifting of restrictions on media trade by Korea after 1998 enabled cross-cultural media flows to increase. Japanese films were officially exported to Korea for the first time in 1998. Japanese pop musicians were allowed to perform in Korea, with audiences restricted to 2000 people (Ishii, 2001b;

Maeda, 2007). In 2004, both the Korean and Japanese markets were further opened

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with regard to importation of popular culture productions, and both governments began to support co-productions with funding and legislation (Ishii, 2001b; Maeda,

2007). Before implementing the progressive four-step Korean Government policies detailed in Chapter 3, Korea did not import Japanese media products, although they produced ‘unofficial’ video compact discs, with some productions being based on

Japanese television drama stories (Hamano, 2005).

There were also changes in the relationship between Taiwan and Japan through the

1990s. Martial law in Taiwan was lifted in 1987 and NHK was broadcast into

Taiwan (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2011). The restriction on Japanese

Television programs was lifted in 1994 and that allowed the viewing of Japanese drama, variety programs, quiz shows, anime, etc. (Yano, 1997). In 1998, there were five TV stations for Japanese programs. Many trendy dramas were exported to

Taiwan in the 1990s. The changes in the triangular relationship between Japan,

Korea and Taiwan have had a significant influence on regional remaking and countering Western historical hegemony in television. Lee states that Korean popular culture ‘has been contextualised by American media culture’ (Moran & Keane,

2004b, p. 37). Lee also draws attention to a more complete picture of the media market production and content dynamics. The West is now not the only influence in

Asia, since Korea has developed its media industry progressively both internally and externally drawing upon Japan as well as the US in evolving narrative forms and content that have created a Korean cultural flavour, as distinct from the Japanese

‘cultural odour’ discussed by Iwabuchi (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 120).

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The licensed remaking of Hana yori Dango in Taiwan and Korea is a prime example of this process of localisation. Not all remaking is licensed. Lee draws attention to unlicensed adaptation and cloning with frequent copying of Japanese quiz genres in part and with replication to a substantive extent. Content is also remade from a collage of elements. These practices of regional copying of Japanese content rather than formal trade in formats is not only prevalent in Korea but also in China and

Taiwan (Iwabuchi, 2004b). Korea has, in the past, approached Japan with licensing requests to use formats, but they have, in a number of instances, been rejected, resulting in programs being cancelled. Much of this can be put down to growing pains, where structure, ideas and content are in an evolutionary process. The

Japanese industry has significantly contributed to regional media trade and, in my view, the Korean media industry has intentionally adopted the Japanese model to accelerate its internal development while progressively becoming more localised.

4.5 Conclusion

I have argued in this chapter that Japan, due to its early entry into television transmission and reception, has a unique position in East Asia in the media industry.

It was the first country in the region to introduce black and white and, subsequently, colour television, which demonstrates technological leadership. Its creation, adoption and early implementation of local and overseas technologies in broadcasting and reception reinforced its capability to maximise local content and to trade in media exports. Arguably the most important outcome from this media growth and change process is its influence in East Asia. Japan has provided a model for the content business that has been replicated in the region. As countries in East Asia have become more outward looking they have reduced their dependence on Western and

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US media content. These changes have, in turn, established a mutuality of interest.

The opportunity for formalised remaking within the region has improved; content can flow from one country and be remade in another country. This is particularly so between Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Japan was initially inward looking and focussed on producing content for domestic consumption. Later a major change occurred in the Japanese government’s involvement with the content business. The Japanese government has placed greater emphasis on strategies and policies for the export of media content. METI informs the government and highlights the commercial advantage that Japan currently holds across a diversity of content. Japan has not been at all active in the regionalising and globalising of its content or its popular culture industry, but it has awakened to the need to do so and is now showing some leadership, and is taking an active role in ensuring that the content industry, inclusive of remaking, prospers. The process is ongoing and profit targets have been set for 2015.

To conclude, Japan, in its development of a structure for its content business, is aware of historical and emerging Hollywood business models, and the changes that are occurring to the model, and is mindful of this in its own policy development.

Television policy, since television is still the prime means of media reception, is an important element of the content industry. The production of original content and remaking remains dynamic, and the sustainability of its production is being continually reviewed, inclusive of risk sharing and joint production. Government commitment and support for the Japanese media, together with the benefits of regional cooperation, is a continuing commitment through Soumusho and METI.

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Chapter 5: The Remaking of the Manga Hana yori Dango

5.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses Hana yori Dango as a case illustrating wider debate surrounding cultural trade in television drama. The core element of this chapter is the analysis of what is arguably one of the strongest examples of the remaking of a

Japanese popular culture text, the manga comic series Hana yori Dango (Boys over

Flowers) written by Kamio Yoko from 1992 to 2004. The analysis focuses on the content of the remakes of the manga Hana yori Dango: the Taiwanese Meteor

Garden (流星花園); the Japanese Hana yori Dango (花より男子); and the Korean

Boys over Flowers (꽃보다 남자). The intent is to isolate specific themes and motifs that have resulted in successful production, distribution and reception in Japan,

Korea and Taiwan. Each production is therefore a catalyst for an ongoing pattern of trade in remakes and merchandised products. Such remaking of Japanese popular culture texts into sequels and prequels across Asia is a creative, dynamic and powerful force, arguably part of the Japanese soft power phenomenon. These remakes have contributed to sustaining Tokyo as a Japanese ‘media capital’ (Curtin,

2003, pp. 202-228) and lifted the financial value of Japanese media exports.

There has been much international scholarly research in the field of remade and remaking texts (Curtin, 2005; Keane et al., 2007; Mazdon, 2000; Moran, 1998) but, as Japanese scholarship in this area is comparatively rare, few sources are available.

However, Japan has been a significant contributor of primary media texts that have

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been a source for remaking overseas, texts that have not only been transformed and successful in Japan but have migrated outside of Japan and been successful in pan–

Asian markets and also globally (Ishii, 2001b; Kelts, 2007; Nakamura & Onouchi,

2006; Sugiyama, 2006).

5.2 Background

From its manga origin, Hana yori Dango was remade not only in manga format but also into several other media formats in Japan. It was remade outside Japan for overseas audiences. The remaking of Hana yori Dango is an ongoing process, as illustrated by the 2008 Toho/TBS film Hana yori Dango: Final by Toei Film. This film ranked second out of twenty-eight Japanese films released in 2008, earning a minimum profit of one billion yen, with box office receipts totalling 7.75 billion yen

($US 70 million) (MPAJ, 2011). This can be compared with the top imported film in the same year, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which netted

5.71 billion yen ($US 50 million); it was ranked second out of twenty-four foreign films released in 2008, each of which earned a minimum of one billion yen. To place this figure in context, in 2008 the gross income of the top twenty-eight Japanese productions was 141 billion yen ($US 1.3 billion), or 60 per cent of the total market, while the gross income of foreign films was 56 billion yen ($US 530 million). The income from Hana yori Dango was a little above 9 per cent of the total income derived from Japanese films in 2008; it exceeded that of Pokémon Giratina and the

Sky Warrior (ranked fourth) and Doraemon Nobita to Midori no Kyojinden

(Doraemon Nobita and the Green Giant Legend) (ranked eighth) (MPAJ, 2011).

These findings were also confirmed in the Digital Content White Paper (DCAJ,

2009). In fact, the demographics of film versus television viewers have changed

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dramatically in Japan, heralding the 1980s as a rich source for broadcasting of original and remade drama. The changes in collective audience numbers for film from 1955–1960 totalled about one billion in 1960, diminishing to 180 million in

1978, and stabilising since then (DCAJ, 2009).

The television drama format of Meteor Garden established a fan base in Taiwan well before this format was tried in Japan in 2005. Meteor Garden even achieved popularity beyond Taiwan. The Jakarta Post on 12 February 2011 drew to its readership attention that ‘Indonesia was not the first to catch the meteor (Meteor

Garden) bug’ (Boentaram, 2002). In fact, the television series that launched the previously unknown and randomly picked Jerry Yan, Vanessa Wu, Vic Zhou and

Ken Zhu to international stardom has gained enormous popularity throughout Asia.

In Taiwan, Meteor Garden drew an audience of 1.4 million viewers each week, and became the top show in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia (Boentaram,

2002). The Philippines multi-media conglomerate ABS-CBN purchased the broadcast rights for Hana yori Dango and produced a remake named Brat Boys

Beyond, the fifth remake of Hana yori Dango. (Philippine To Remake Boys Over

Flowers, 2009). Following the release of the television drama, the Philippines ABS-

CBN network , reported a nationwide audience share of 48 per cent, mirroring the production’s success in Taiwan, Japan and Korea (Quintos, 2009). The production was also multi-channelled through Cinema 1, part of ABS-CBN, together with the

GMA network and their affiliate QIV.

The Korean television drama Boys over Flowers was released in 2009, and, as with

Meteor Garden in Taiwan, it immediately established a national fan base. The

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production was localised and used a Korean cast. A spin-off from the production was a Japanese pictorial book Story of Four Flowers (SOFF) in Korea, based on the

Korean production of Boys over Flowers. By 13 August 2009, book orders had topped the best seller list in Korea and online sales in Japan. The publication included an incentive bundle of a DVD and a poster for orders made prior to the official release date of 4 September 2009. This was an example of multi-format value generation from the initiating text.

In Mainland China Hunan Satellite Television (HSTV) made a contract with

Shuesha, a major publishing company in Japan, to produce New Meteor Garden, a

Chinese version of Hana yori Dango in 2009. This remake was influenced by a second remake in Taiwan called Meteor Rain (流星雨). As evidenced by the uptake of the originating manga into other formats and the respective market acceptances of the content, the underlying appeal of the story clearly flows across diverse cultures.

TTV media reported that the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) had announced the release of four Korean telenovelos in Spanish, including Boys over

Flowers, at ‘Rendezvous Korea 2010’, a trade show they had sponsored and held in

Mexico (Rendez-Vous Korea 2010 in Latin America, 2010). Further trade shows took place in Peru and Brazil.

The geographical spread of the Hana yori Dango story continues through remaking, adaptation and spin-offs well beyond its originating Japanese format and name. The cross-cultural interest in the content suggests a degree of regional hybridity between

Japan and Korea (Im, 2009); this will be analysed in Chapters 7 and 9.

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5.3 Foregrounding Analysis

The following is a synopsis of the manga Hana yori Dango: The protagonist is

Makino Tsukushi, a heroine who is from a poor family who is forced by her parents to attend the well-known and eminent private high school Eitoku Gakuen. The school children generally make an ostentatious display of wealth, characterised in several ways; for example, there are kindergarten children who commute to school via chauffeur-driven luxury cars such as Mercedes Benz, BMW, AUDI and Rolls Royce.

Makino Tsukushi is an active and fair-minded girl. The high school is dominated by a gang of handsome but arrogant students called ‘F4’ (flowers four); their names are

Domyoji Tsukasa, Hanazawa Rui, Nishikado Sojiro, and Mimasaka Akira. The four boys are heirs of the most influential families in Tokyo. In the beginning, Domyoji, the school gang leader, whose mother owns shares worth billions of dollars and runs an international venture business in New York, hates Tsukushi for no reason and takes every opportunity to bully and play tricks on her. Over the course of many incidents, Tsukushi comes to understand the reason behind Domyoji’s arrogance and violence. Eventually Tsukushi gains Domyoji’s respect and he subsequently falls in love with her. Domyoji and Tsukushi eventually begin a romantic relationship.

In examining remakes of Hana yori Dango across Japan, Korea and Taiwan, my aim was to confirm whether the foregrounding in the original manga text had been used in the television drama content. The analysis established whether specific content characteristics could be seen to account for its popularity in Japan and subsequently across Asia. Three questions derived from the constituent elements of the original manga Hana yori Dango:

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 Were original elements retained in the remade versions of the original

manga?

 What elements were discarded?

 What new elements were introduced?

These questions identified salient features of the original and remade versions, reflecting the presence of subtle, culturally specific modifications that are aimed to suit the audience and can help make the remake more accessible. In addressing the above questions, I applied the linguistic technique of foregrounding (introduced in

Chapter 1). In summary, it is a process of determining the linguistic devices in the text that stand out, are highlighted or are prominent in the body of the text within a consistent background.

The study includes an analysis of thirty-seven volumes of the original Japanese manga, twenty episodes of Japanese television drama, twenty-five episodes of the

Korean television drama and twenty-eight episodes of the Taiwanese television drama. Table 4 identifies the salient, distinctive thematic elements within this analysis of Hana yori Dango considered in the three foregrounding questions. These foreground elements are: friendship, courage, overcoming adversity, romance, kindness, aspiration and vitality. There are many shared elements across the selected remakes of the manga, and the fact that these particular thematic elements of the storyline have been retained across the range of television drama presentations reflects cultural proximity.

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Table 4 Foregrounding analysis: Identification of distinctive thematic elements of various remade versions in the manga Hana yori Dango.

Original manga : Original manga: Thematic Thematic Thematic Romanisation of Japanese English translation elements elements elements script of Japanese idiomatic of expressions Japanese idiomatic Television Television Television expressions Drama Drama Drama Japan Taiwan Korea Hana yori Meteor Boys over Dango Garden Flowers 勇気 Yuuki Courage Courage Retained Retained 友情・勇気 Friendship Friendship Yuujo Stand up Stand up Yuuki o motte tachimukau

ロマンス Romansu Romance Romance Retained Retained and emphasised いろいろ皆頑張っていき Everybody has their Overcome Retained Retained struggles and lives adversity in ているんだな Iroiro minna their life. life ganbatte ikite irunda na

恋愛表現 Expression of love Moderate Retained Retained ren’ai Assertive Assertive kanjo

雑草パワーにあこがれ To admire their Strong Partially Retained る。 weed-like vitality vitality retained Zassou pawaa ni akogareru (strong vitality) Positive Aspiration

後ろ盾がなにもなくても An ideal woman Girl from Retained Retained 前向きに生きている理想 who lives with a humble の女 positive attitude, beginnings Ushirodate ga nakutemo even though she has with positive maemuki no connections. aspirations ni ikiteiru risou no onna

いじめ Bullying Retained Retained Retained Ijime 私は道明寺の気持ちを踏 I trampled on Cruelty Partially Partially みにじった,謝らなければ Domyoji’s feelings. countered by retained retained Watashi wa Domyoji I must apologise. compassion no kimochi o fuminijitta, Ayamaranakereba

人を傷つけたくない I don’t want to hurt Be kind. Partially Retained Hito o kizutsuketakunai someone’s feelings. Consider the retained other person’s feelings.

人間て言うものは弱い People are weak Inherent Partially Partially Ningen te iu mono wa yowai (by nature). vulnerability retained retained Superficially Superficially strong strong

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何かあったとき誰かが傍 Unless someone is Supportive Retained Retained らにいないとだめになる there to support Friendship Nanika ga atta toki them, they break Dareka ga soba ni inai to down when dame ni naru something happens.

5.4 Textual Analysis

Six headings were isolated for textual analysis: 1) Cultural expressions; 2) Societal positioning and lifestyle; 3) Locations; 4) Youth culture; 5) Foreign language inclusions; and 6) Humour.

5.4.1 Cultural expressions

Words have different meanings and emphases within definable cultural grouping.

When texts move into different cultures and different languages, the task of making meaning can be very subjective. Consensus of meaning, even within the closest family group, may not be assured. I identified eighty-one cultural elements that contained Japanese cultural nuances and expressions, from which sixteen representations were selected; these Japanese words and phrases are illustrated in

Table 5. The words and phrases are translated into English and the cultural implications of the selected phrases are documented in the third column. Perceived humour or pathos in one culture may have a very different interpretation in another culture. Some cultural expressions have not been used in Boys over Flowers and

Meteor Garden illustrated in Tables 6 and 7 respectively. Iwabuchi refers to

‘Japanese odour’ (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 120), referring to ‘the textual and symbolic appeal embodied in Japanese popular culture’; this odour has been diluted in the

Korean and Taiwanese dramas.

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The cultural expressions within the Japanese manga are invariably specific to Japan.

These include references, idioms and metaphors. This highlights one of the issues of remaking for different cultural audiences, which is that the remaking of original cultural texts, modified to suit the audience, necessitates translation: cultural meanings may be lost or hybridised; they may take on new forms.

Table 5 Textual analyses of Japanese cultural expressions in Hana yori dango

Japanese manga text Translation to English Implication in cultural context 名門校入学は鯛の群れに鰯が泳 Going to an exclusive school Bream versus Sardine いでいるよ is (like) a sardine swimming (mackerel). Cultural pecking Meimonko nyuugaku wa tai no in a school of sea bream. order. Bream perceived as mure ni iwashi ga oyoide iru yo being superior to sardine.

F4 見かけはいいが中味は肥溜め F4 (The Group of Koedame is a form of より汚い Four/Flowers Four) looks sewage suggesting that F4 Mikake wa ii ga good on the surface, but inside superiority is only on the Nakami wa koedame yori kitanai they’re dirtier than a cesspool. surface level.

ザまあ味噌くそ沢庵ポリポリ Look at your bloody self. That Just because you think you Zama misokuso takuwan poripori serves you right! A wordplay are superior does not mean with miro (Look!) and miso that you do not have normal (fermented beans) with the human characteristics that addition of the noise of eating are not generally appreciated pickled radish. in a ‘polite’ society. 私は無印良女 I am an anonymous good girl. Because I do not have a Watashi wa mujirushi Mujirushi (no-name) ryohin brand name does not mean I ryojo (good product) is a chain of am low quality. shops that offer a range of low cost but good products. 雲泥の差 As different as chalk and Idiomatic expression. Undei no sa cheese. (Literally, the difference between clouds and mire) ビー玉みたいな目 Eyes like glass marbles. Biidama is a glass marble Biidama mita na me used by children for play. Beautiful eyes. 皇太子と雅子様に次ぐニュース Big news that is second only In the hierarchical society Kotaishi to Masako-sama ni tsugu to that about Princess Masako any news, irrespective of the nyuusu and Prince Naruhito. importance, is secondary to the Japanese royal family. 落ち着きのねえ女め You, a twitchy/fidgety Ending ‘me’ denotes putting Ochitsuki no nee woman! women down. Onan me

火事とけんかは江戸の花で Fire and fight are the The Edo Period (1603-1867)

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Kaji to kenka wa souls/essence of Edo. was an era in Japanese Edo no hana de history when the culture was aggressive. 義理と人情で生きてる男おひか I am a man living for duty and Language used in the Edo えなすって love/for social obligations and period. Being polite and Giri to ninjo de ikiteru otoko human feelings. Let me extending courtesy. ohikae nasatte introduce myself. (In short, ‘Please hold back.’) おい司ぶっちょうずらしてない Hey, Tsukasa, stop that sulky In the current vernacular, で来い face and come (with me). ‘lighten up.’ Oi, buccho zura shitenaide koi! 天草家は江戸時代からつづく名 Amakusa family is a As if they are superior in 門家水戸黄門みたい prestigious family during the every way just because the Amakusake wa Edo jidai kara Edo Period. family has station. tsuzuku meimonke Mitokomon It’s as if they are Mito Komon mitai da (a retired vice-Shogun whose stories have been popularised by a television series). 良妻賢母 A good wife and wise mother. Terminology came about 華道 Flower arrangement. during the Meiji period 茶道 Tea ceremony. (1868–1912). The ideal 行儀作法 Manners and etiquette. image of women’s status.

Ryosaikenbo Kado Chado Gyogi saho 潮干狩り Gathering of clams at the Shellfish gathering is a Shohigari beach. popular activity in resort beaches in the summertime in Japan. Shared activity without station. 義理と人情の江戸っ子金さん Kin-san, an Edokko (born and Special expressions for Giri to ninjo no bred in Edo), who values duty Japanese loyalties used Edokko Kin-san and love/social obligations among people in the Edo and human feelings. period. 茶道の社会は The world of tea ceremony is It was just “a once in a 一期一会 … lifetime opportunity.” Seize にじり口 ‘meeting only once in a the moment. 武士が刀を持って入れないよう lifetime.’ (Treasure every encounter, for it will never にしてある recur.) Chodo no shakai wa ichigo ichie Entrance to a teahouse. Nijiriguchi It is made so (small) that a Bushi ga katana o Samurai cannot bring his Motte hairenai you ni shitearu. sword into it.

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Table 6 Textual analyses of Korean cultural expressions in Boys over Flowers

Korean text Translation to English Implication in cultural context “넌 내가 무슨 고질라로 Do you think I am Godzilla? Extremely large 보이냐?”

넌 맨날 이상한 벌레 같은 것만 You always eat strange food that Poor food; poor 먹으니 다리가 풀리는 거 아냐? looks like a worm, so your legs are outcome. not strong. 구준표! 오늘 부로 너를 Hey! Ku, Junpyo! We (other Generally, players are 선수명단에 넣어주마. Flower boys) are going to put your sports Players- name on the list of players from Casanova type. today.

역시 싸구려가 딱 어울리네. 너 A cheap accessory is absolutely Value depends on the 싸구려라도 잃어버리면 죽는다. suitable for you; however, if you receiver lose it, you are close to death.

그 녀석이 좀 더 인간다워질 수 You let the door open to be close to Beneficial influence of 있는 문을 열어줬잖아. being a nice man. one person on another

우정이 충분조건이면 사랑은 A friendship is definitely a Love is more important 필요조건 sufficient condition; love is a than friendship. necessary condition for happiness. 오지랖이 백만 평 The front of an outer garment is Inquisitive nature large. 그거 너 불치병이잖아 That’s your remediless disease. Behavioural pattern 개꿈이지 뭐 I dreamed about dogs Not important 먼지 나게 두들겨 맞다 He was beaten till there was dust in Physically beaten very the air (on a rainy day). hard 태능 선수촌인 줄 알았다. I misunderstand, this is Taeneung Elite accommodation squad accommodation. 선배는 나의 비상벨 같아요. How is it that you always turn up Always available when 누르면 달려오는 소방수처럼요. whenever someone lets me down? needed You are my emergency buzzer. Once I press it, you come to me like a fire fighter.

살아있는 조각상 같군! What a walking sculpture! Handsome person

바늘 가는데 실 가야지 Needles go first, and then the Procedure thread follows. 너는 달, 나는 별, 너는 You are a moon; I am the stars. Closeness. 구준표라는 별을 벗어날 수 없는 You are always close to a starry 거리에 있는 달이라는 뜻이지. frame. You can’t get out of the moon. (That is an explanation of necklace design) 여자들은 수학문제 같아. 처음엔 Girls are like the mathematics test. Time overcomes a 저걸 어떻게 풀까 하다가도 At first, I am worried about the problem 조금만 더 연구 관찰하면 다 method for solving the problem, but as time goes by I look into the 해답이 있거든. 단순하지만 question; I am able to find an 쾌감이 있거든 . answer without any difficulty. It is

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quite simple and I feel pleasure. 나한테 넌 풀리지 않는 고등수학 For me, you are the high-grade Understanding is 같아. 처음부터 단단히 꼬인 잘못 mathematics quiz. It can’t be impossible 출제된 문제 working out for good because this quiz is impossible to solve. 공기처럼 언제나 내 곁에 머물고 You are always with me like air Closeness 있는 존재 (Oxygen). 난 공기가 아니라 바람이었어 I am not oxygen. I am the wind. Nothing is permanent. 바람은 한번 떠난 곳은 다신 You know the wind never returns 되돌아 갈 순 없어. to where it started from. 무소식이 희소식 No news is good news. Bad news travels fast

Table 7 Textual analyses of Taiwanese cultural expressions in Meteor Garden

Chinese Text Translation to English Implication in cultural context

良知，孔子的中心思想 (论语)：己欲立而 Confucius’s main Confucius is regarded 立人，己欲达而达人 conception is: Put as one of the greatest ourselves into other philosopher in Chinese Liang zhi, Kong zi de zhong xin si xiang (lun person’s shoes, and treat history. His idea has yu): ji yu li er li ren, ji yu da er da ren others the way we would been widely studied in like others to treat us. all levels of institutions nationwide. 猪头 4 ‘Pig 4’ or ‘4 pig’s head’ In Chinese, ‘pig’ is a – referring to F4 simile or expression for Zhu tou si idiot, or stupid. Episode 1, 35:30 害群之马 Black sheep This phrase originates Lit.: an evil member of from Tzu (Zhuangzi), a Hai qun zhi ma the herd/pest of society philosopher of the Episode 1, 03:16 Warring States Period. 飞上枝头做凤凰 Similar to the fairy tale Phoenix symbolises about the ugly duckling ‘queen’ or a female of Fei shang zhi tou zuo feng huang which turns into a high power. beautiful swan” Literally, to fly onto the branch and become a phoenix 钓到金龟婿 To marry a rich man 金 literally means gold and symbolises riches. Diao dao jin gui xu

四个垒，三垒 Home run and third base Metaphorical expression for different Si ge lei, san lei stages in the relationship, i.e., third base = kiss 当时朱元璋为了要号召群雄起义，在月饼 Here the teacher refers to The moon cake is a 里做了一点小花样 how the Emperor Taizu Chinese traditional (Zhu Yuanzhang) of the food made for Dang shi zhu yuan zhang wei le yao hao zhao Ming Dynasty celebration of the qun xiong qi yi, zai yue bing li zuo le yi dian successfully initiated the autumn festival. xiao hua yang uprising by putting

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secret messages inside the moon cakes. 如坐针毡 On pins and needles; to This idiom is from the be on the anxious bench Western Jin Dynasty. Ru zuo zhen zhan

小两口为了芝麻绿豆的小事也能炒啊 The couple is fighting 芝麻 (sesame) and 绿 over trivial matters. 豆 (green beans) are Xiao liang kou wei le zhi ma lv dou de xiao very small, so they shi ye neng chao a refer to the little things.

癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉 To reach for what is The juxtaposition of beyond one's grasp toad, representing the Lai ha ma xiang chi tian e rou Lit.: a toad lusting after a beast and the swan, swan’s flesh representing beauty originates from a Chinese legend. 好男不跟女斗 Good men do not fight A common phrase used with women by men, when they do Hao nan bu gen nv dou not want to fight with women. 长舌妇 Big mouth, gossip One of the seven monger grounds required for a Chang she fu man to divorce his wife during feudal times. 脑袋变成豆腐渣 Becomes uncommonly The word soybean curd stupid residue commonly Nao dai bian cheng dou fu zha Literally the brain refers to stupid people becomes soybean curd or poor constructions. residue (tofukasu) 狗眼看人低 To act like a snob It is a folk adage from Literally to see humans feudal era, where Gou yan kan ren di from the dog’s people perceived the perspective dog as an ignoble animal. 苦瓜脸 A distressful face Refers to the distressful Literally a face looks facial expression of the Ku gua lian like the balsam pear person who eats the balsam pear. 狗咬吕洞宾 To bite the hand that Lv Dongbin is one of feeds you; to mistake a the eight immortals in Gou yao lv dong bin good man for a bad. Chinese legend.

太阳打西边出来 Till pigs fly As likely to occur as Literally, as if the sun the sun rising from the Tai yang da xi bian chu lai rises from the west west—implies it is impossible

5.4.2 Societal positioning and lifestyle

I have analysed expressions, words and descriptions of items which appear frequently and which represent an affluent lifestyle. Japanese culture places a high societal value on a so-called ‘high status’ lifestyle. The achievement in life of the

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individual and his family can be measured in terms of their income and lifestyle.

High personal income and the ownership of expensive items accords with high standards and status. The Japanese Hana yori Dango television drama is played out in such an environment, as illustrated in Tables 8–11; I compare the environment of the manga text with the Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean remade television versions.

Consumer items

The Japanese television drama closely follows the manga. The manga can be construed to have been significantly influenced by aspirations deriving from the heady days of Japan’s bubble economy, as well as by the dreams of the audience about the acquisition of expensive consumer items. Perhaps influenced by budgetary constraints, the Taiwanese version moved away from the dream quality, whereas the

Korean version fell between the Japanese and Taiwanese productions with respect to the use of expensive consumer items. These variances are illustrated in Table 8.

Table 8 Consumer items

Japanese manga text Translation of Television Television Televisio Japanese manga Drama Drama n Drama text Values Values Japan Taiwan Korea

ベンツ Mercedes Benz Franck Less Partially BMW BMW Muller costly retained アウディー Audi Channel items used 運転手つきの送迎 Chauffeur driven car Dior $1000 Louis Vuitton Omega Not １０万円のビトン merchandise Luis retained $800 pocket money Vuitton ８万こずかい $5000 tweed dress Diamond ドレスツイードドレス 42 万 made in Italy ring シャネルスーツ Chanel suits Brand アルマーニ Giorgio Armani Benz BMW Audi with chauffeur

豪華なドレス Gorgeous dress Retained Not Retained ドレスコード Dress code retained

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ドレス室 Extensive wardrobe 類のタキシード Tuxedo ロングドレス Formal evening ラクロア gown Lacroix ディオール Dior ルビーとダイヤの土星のブローチ A Saturn-shaped ウエディングドレスはシャネルカ brooch studded with プラだ ruby and diamond The wedding dress is either by Chanel or Prada.

シャネル一流デザイナー着こなす Dressed chic in Chanel designed by their first-class designer.

プラダの財布 A Prada wallet Louis Vuitton, ビトングッチローレックス Gucci, Rolex ハイソサイエティービトンシャネ High society, Louis ル Vuitton, Chanel Buying an enormous ヘルメス買い捲り amount of Hermes goods. カティエ Cartier

A pendant with a 十字架 cross のネックレス A cameo brooch カメオのブローチ

自家用ジェット Private jet Retained Not Retained retained フランス王朝をあらわす高貴な髪 Noble hair style Retained Not Not 型 representing the retained retained French Royalty. ベルサイユ調の家具 Versailles style furniture. 大理石のお風呂 Marble bathroom シャンデリア Chandeliers

Food

The high status lifestyle depicted in the manga also includes food. Traditional

Japanese food items such as sushi, tempura and sake are displaced by foreign food items. Foreign food is perceived as superior and is used as an important element in depicting high status lifestyle. Young people seem to be particularly influenced by

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such high status lifestyles, which even flows into status surrounding McDonald’s restaurants. As illustrated in Table 9, these values have migrated to Japanese television production and are partially adopted in the Korean production while absent in Taiwan.

Table 9 Food

Japanese manga text Translation of Television Television Television Japanese manga Drama Drama Drama text Japan Taiwan Korea ジントニック Gin and Tonic Retained Not retained Partially シャンパン Champagne Replaced ドライマッティーニ Dry martini ピニャコララ piña colada Perrier mineral water ペリエ foie gras フォアグラ

Study patterns

Lifestyle considerations extend to overseas education for children of wealthy families. Table 10 illustrates the Japanese value set with regard to the education of these children; this however is not shared in the Taiwanese or Korean productions.

With the number of Taiwanese and Korean students in Australia and in other global locations, I had anticipated that some of these Japanese values would be retained in the remade versions in those two countries; this was not the case.

Table 10 Study pattern

Japanese manga text Translation of Television Drama Television Television Japanese manga text Japan Drama Drama Taiwan Korea 現在英徳大学休学ソルボ Currently stepping Study overseas at Not Not ンヌ大学に留学中 out from Eitoku Sorbonne Paris retained retained University and studying at Sorbonne.

Special education for Special education 英才教育を受けている students with wealthy for students with parents. wealthy parents

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Personal prestige by association

The manga also uses association through family connections with people of high standing in the community to add reflected glory to individuals. Table 11 lists the transfer of these values from manga into Japanese television productions. This aspect of the manga is not carried through into Taiwanese or Korean productions.

Table 11 Personal prestige by association

Japanese manga text Translation of Japanese Television Television Television manga text Drama Drama Drama Japan Taiwan Korea 時期大統領候補のジャ Marriage proposal by Jean Values Not Not ン・マイヨール求婚 P. Maillol, who has been retained retained retained nominated as a presidential candidate.

祖父総理大臣 Having a grandfather who was a Prime Minister.

A member of the Tooyama 政治家の遠山家系 family that has produced many politicians.

Appearance of the daughter 国連大使の娘出場 of a UN Ambassador.

The daughter of a family アメリカの石油王と提携 that owns Japan’s top 結んだ日本で一位・二位 companies, which have を争う同属企業の娘 formed a partnership with an American oil tycoon.

A young politician with a 政界の Jr promising future and excellent connections.

Ｍ物産の社長の息子 The son of the President of ‘M’ Trading Company.

Ｓ商事のあととり The heir to the ‘S’ Trading Company.

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5.4.3 Locations

The manga is set in Japan and overseas. Locations include real and fantasy, and local and overseas elements. The Taiwanese television production did include some overseas elements, but mainly featured indigenous locations with references to overseas locations; the Korean production used some overseas locations but not to the same extent as in the Japanese manga and television production. The manga text links with locations and iconic names in the Japanese television drama, such as

Shibuya, Omote Sando, Azabu, and Roppongi: these have become synonymous with

Japanese youth culture and express the message of vitality, fashion and trendy culture. Shinjuku, Harajuku and Shibuya are centres of urban youth culture. In the text, many foreign locations are used; cities and countries that appeal to young people, the audience target for the manga. Table 12 illustrates some of the locations.

From the 1980s to the 1990s many postmodern buildings have been designed to symbolise space. In the manga and television drama texts, iconic building like Mori

Hanae building and Roppongi Hills link text and space where the heroine and the leading male character meet and date. The leading male character lives in Tawaa

Manshon (prestigious tower condominium). Lifestyles of the wealthy players are portrayed in baroque-style furniture and fittings. Ginza, Akasaka and Azabu feature glittering neon lights. These iconic locations appear in anime, manga, television drama, film and popular song lyrics. The Shibuya Koen Dori and Harajuku Takeshita

Dori represent 1980s space.

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Table 12 Locations

Japanese manga text Translation of Japanese Television Television Television manga text Drama Drama Drama Japan Taiwan Korea 渋谷表参道 Shibuya Shibuya Times Retained 表参道 Omote Sando Omote Square New but not to モリハナエビル Mori Hanae Building Sando York the extent of 青山 Aoyama Azabu Hua Dong the Setagaya Roppongi Fishing Japanese 世田谷 An apartment in Azabu village production 麻布のマンション Roppongi 六本木 Azabu 麻布 Akasaka Prince Hotel 赤坂プリンスホテルニューヨーク New York New York Hokkaido ティファニーで買い物して I will go shopping in くるから待ってて Tiffany’s, so just wait.

バルセローナ Barcelona NY France/ France パリ Paris France Paris Paris ドイツ Germany Germany NY Alaska ハワイ Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii South Pole NY NY Switzerland Germany ニューヨーク France France Okinawa New フランス Milan Milan Europe Caledonia ミラノ Italy Italy Japan Los イタリア Australia Australia London Angeles オーストラリア Los Angeles Los Canada Barcelona ロスアンジェルス Hawaii Angeles Barcelona Las Vegas ハワイ Monaco Hawaii Macao Tahiti Monaco Singapore モナコ Tahiti Venice タヒチ Italy

沖縄 Okinawa Hokkaido 軽井沢 Karuizawa Sapporo

5.4.4 Youth culture

Urban youth readily adopts new technology. They also consume Western inspired fast food and takeaway coffee. These youth values are seen as ubiquitous, as they transfer across all of the productions, as illustrated in Table 13

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Table 13 Youth Culture

Japanese manga text Translation of Television Television Television Japanese Drama Drama Drama manga text Japan Taiwan Korea ケータイ Mobile phone Mobile phone All retained All retained, ポケベル Pager Takeaway frequent use of テイクアウトのコーヒー Takeaway coffee mobile phone. coffee

ファーストフッド Fast food Fast food

5.4.5 Foreign language inclusion

The manga used occasional foreign language interspersed with Japanese text (see

Table 14). Knowledge of foreign languages is considered to be prestigious in

Japanese society. Foreign languages were not used in the Japanese, Taiwanese and

Korean television productions, with one exception: the French ‘Je m’appelle

Tsukasa’ from the manga was translated and spoken in English as ‘My name is

Tsukasa’ in the Japanese television production.

Table 14 Foreign language inclusions

Japanese manga text manga Television Television Television Drama Drama Drama Japan Taiwan Korea Not used Molto lieto (tr. Nice Not retained Not retained Not retained to meet you.)

Je m’appelle Shared in Tsukasa. (tr. My English name is Tsukasa.)

Ich nach dem Weg Not shared gefragt Wirklich? (tr. Did I really ask you the way?

All of the above Japanese values are designed to represent a possible new world for

Japanese audiences. Anything is possible and dreams of having a high standard

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lifestyle can be shared or realised. However, most of these elements are not transferred beyond Japan.

5.4.6 Humour

Humour can be very subjective, and what may be amusing in one culture, or even to a group within that culture, does not necessarily mean that it will be appreciated by others, and may, in some instances, even be construed as offensive. Like-minded groupings, regions or countries have characteristic expressions of humour. Humour in the Japanese manga was related, in many instances, to food and was used in a metaphorical sense to convey an underlying message. As Table 15 illustrates, this

Japanese humour did not transfer well to the Taiwanese and Korean productions.

Table 15 Humour

Japanese manga text Translation of Japanese Television Television Television manga text Drama Drama Drama Japan Taiwan Korea そんなうまい話はアル Such a sweet deal can’t Retained Not Not マイニー happen. [wordplay of arumai retained retained (there can’t be) with Armani]

Look at your bloody self. That ザまあ味噌くそ沢庵ポ serves you right! [A wordplay リポリ with miro (Look!) and miso (fermented beans) with an addition of the noise of eating pickled radish]

私は無印良女 I am a no-name good girl. [Mujirushi (no-name) (good

product) is a chain of shops

that offer a cheap but good product range.]

求婚って、あのヒヤシ Proposing You mean, bulbs ンスとかチューリップ (kyukon) of hyacinths and とかの球根 tulips?

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5.5 Summary of the Taiwanese and Korean Textual Analysis Compared with the Original Japanese Manga.

The Taiwanese production retained the overall structure and the skeleton of the storyline of the original manga. Portions of the original storyline were not used in the episodes. The original manga was set in a high school environment, whereas for the

Taiwanese version, the age group was older and in a University setting. This change came about because of sensitivities in Taiwan about the association of the love story with a high school setting. (Interview with Ming Chen, April 29, 2011). Interestingly, one of the defining characteristics of the Japanese production is its setting in an exaggerated, upper-class fantasy environment, including well-known and iconic local and international locations. In the Taiwanese version the setting was closer to a normal urban landscape. In this sense, the Taiwanese television drama appears to displace the main message in the Japanese version, which is the aspiration for a better life. The iconic luxury elements of the story were missing and the fantasy element of the original manga were thus discarded. The repositioning of the drama from a fantasy to a completely different and more mundane or realistic perspective was a somewhat surprising contrast to the initiating text and counter intuitive to my preconceptions.

Lim’s case study of Meteor Garden is primarily focussed on production and financing (Lim, 2005). However, she notes that magazine interviews and newspaper sources indicate that Hana yori Dango and Meteor Garden portray contemporary social issues and provide an avenue for young viewers to express themselves in terms of friendship, love and family conflict. She also draws on an interview with the

Taiwanese producer Angie Chai, who says that Meteor Garden creates a new mode of expressing real-life, youth-centric issues in similar terms, with the addition of

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rivalry and failure. These points are significant in an appreciation of the essence of

Hana yori Dango manga and its subsequent remakes. The substitution of the fantasy, in many elements of the Taiwanese production by a local reality is an interesting point of differentiation. It can be deduced from Lim’s findings that this would have been primarily due to budget constraints, where the commissioning budget was $NT

700,000 ($US 20,000) per episode. Recognising the limitation of the budget, Chai was innovative in obtaining advertiser funding and achieving a budget of $NT

1,000,000 ($US 29,000) per episode and in turn creating a new dynamic in

Taiwanese television drama production. Lim draws attention to the deals made, for instance with the musical content, to get the production completed within budget limitations and into the market place. Chai’s was the first production of Hana yori

Dango in a television drama format.

As can be anticipated, the pace of the television drama develops more quickly in comparison to the manga, which was spread over twenty-nine volumes. Japanese cultural settings and expressions were replaced. For example, an authentic Japanese

Dango (sticky rice sweets) shop is replaced by a cake shop. The bullying scenes were more overt in the Taiwanese drama than those depicted in the Japanese manga, and the body language and expressions were more severe. However, with the counterpoise of greater focus on the love story in the Taiwanese version there was almost a replication of yin and yang; the bad was counterbalanced by the good, to achieve a collective harmonious message.

The Korean version places emphasis on the love story, relationships, fashion and parties. The scriptwriter, Yoon Ji-Ryun, details shown on Appendix 3, emphasised

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that there were not many television dramas targeted at youth, and she wanted to write about relationships among Korean youth and to give a message to the audience about what they think and how they deal with relationships (Interview with Yoon Ji-

Ryun, 18 November 2009). Settings are extraordinarily luxurious. The music foregrounds and romanticises the scenes: in the Japanese television drama production, only a solo violin is featured; in the Korean version, violin, guitar, piano, harp, orchestra and love songs are featured. The emphasis on bullying, as in the Taiwanese production, is more overt than the original manga and is portrayed in a Korean context. Japanese cultural implications and expressions were discarded. Localisation was clearly in evidence throughout the production. The main female character,

Shoojo, is portrayed as more strong-willed and assertive than her Japanese counterpart. Overall, producers changed many Japanese cultural elements to Korean elements. For example, the Japanese tea ceremony house was replaced by a Korean pottery shop.

In terms of the luxury setting, the Korean drama is close to the original manga, retaining and even reinforcing the fantasy content. The productions, broadly speaking, were similar. Hana yori Dango has certainly added to the fan culture in

East Asia, and its acceptance, even with substantial repositioning in some cases, illustrates elements of commonality of values. I would argue that not only the story but also other factors are seen to represent ‘Japaneseness’, even when processed through multiple remakes, and this is attractive to youth across Asia. If the essence of what is attractive to youth across Asia and beyond can be distilled, it is the Japanese imagination that makes the superficially impossible possible and realises dreams often buried in the human psyche, converting them to conscious realities. The

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international appeal of Japanese manga and its remaking perhaps confirms this opinion. Boentaram (2002) remarks: ‘Japanese manga has always been popular for its romantic plots, which have the right mixture of humour, fantasy and tragedy’

(Boentaram, 2002).

I was significantly informed about the production of the Korean remake of Hana yori

Dango, named Boys over Flowers, by an interview with its scriptwriter, Yoon Ji-

Ryun, held in Korea in November 2009. I wanted to test my research findings regarding this television drama, but, most importantly, to obtain information from her in person about the production journey and the reasons for changes, including the incorporation of new elements, to the originating manga and her view on the level of success of the drama in Korea.

5.6 Boys over Flowers: The Scriptwriter’s Perspective.

Interview

I asked Yoon Ji-Ryun what her main interest or concern was when she wrote the story and her reason for writing the Korean remake of Hana yori Dango. She explained that Korea does not have many school dramas on television, as they are risky for a television drama production team due to their perceived narrow audience

(teenagers); she noted that at the planning and production stage of Boys over Flowers, the production team didn’t anticipate its success. Yoon Ji-Ryun was interested in

Japanese television dramas and had watched many of them with Korean subtitles.

She did not previously know either the Taiwanese or Japanese remakes of Hana yori

Dango, and confessed this was due to the drama being ‘not to my taste at all’.

However, she went on to say, ‘I have been longing to make school dramas for a

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while; I wanted to convey the emotion, feeling and friendship through school dramas… I could do that if I continued to work with Boys over Flowers. I was confident of reaching the public’. Therefore, when she rewrote the drama and put her own style and ideas into the episodes, I saw this as an important aspect of the Korean version, in that she was doing this not only from a Korean perspective but was also heavily influenced by her own ideas of what form it should take.

Yoon Ji-Ryun said, ‘At first, Hana yori Dango, a tremendously Japanese flavoured drama, gave me a horrible headache.’ Ji-Ryun went on to identify various cultural differences:

There are some aspects (in the Japanese drama) that Koreans would never

understand. First of all, there are no elite schools within the Korean education

system. In the Japanese television manga and drama of Hana yori Dango,

(Boys over Flowers), the students belong to an elite school which consists of

kindergarten, primary school, high school and university as well. All students

are from extremely rich backgrounds. How could Korean viewers accept this

kind of school (elite school)? Different social classes and high (low) social

standing still exist in Japanese society. For that reason, Japanese people can

naturally accept them but Koreans can’t. Also, too much of bullying (ijime)

behaviours seemed to exist in this drama. It seems that it is not possible for

Korean people to understand them.

(Interview with Yoon Ji-Ryun, 18 November 2009)

At the time of release of Boys over Flowers, the production team wondered how the first and second episodes of the television drama were going to be received by

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viewers. ‘Fortunately however it worked.’ The bullying threw the production into question, despite Yoon Ji-Ryun’s sincere efforts to localise bullying within a Korean context. Her intent was for the content to be believable, not far from real life situations and not treated with disdain. Both the Japanese and Taiwanese dramas start from the scene in which the main characters, a girl and four boys, are already studying in the elite school. On the other hand, the Korean drama had to show viewers how and why this girl goes into the elite school and when she was transferred to that school. It required some describing and explaining to bridge a cultural divide.

Yoon Ji-Ryun commented on another problem: ‘As the original manga and the

Japanese drama came out a long time ago… both were behind present times.’

She had to upgrade much of Boys over Flowers. Also, Japan and Taiwan had produced remakes of Hana yori Dango manga ahead of Korea. Many Koreans had watched Japanese and Taiwanese versions on cable television. The writer wanted the script to be fresh and not include the same scenes as those in the dramas from the other two nations; she drew a big picture composed of the framework of the story and then eliminated some scenes from the manga and the Japanese and Taiwanese dramas. Every time she worked with Boys over Flowers she took into account the need to develop the content in a new way.

I asked Yoon Ji-Ryun if she had some direction for the script ending when she commenced writing, or whether this evolved through the writing process. She informed me that the first stage of the production was to establish the ending. Yoon

Ji-Ryun said:

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In my view, the Korean adaptation of Boys over Flowers is the only one that

completely followed the original story. We promised to abide by the

originality to the end and obey the rule of maintaining the original.

Yoon Ji-Ryun observed that in Korea, when production units make a television drama from a foreign original, they create about 80 per cent of the entire story; some works only use the title. She explained that they are relatively free to rewrite after buying the copyright. However, in producing Boys over Flowers the licence conditions were quite strict regarding rewriting. This required flexibility on Yoon Ji-

Ryun’s part. She explained:

‘In the production of Boys over Flowers, Kamio Yoko, the Japanese writer of

the original manga, wanted to know [everything] from A to Z while I was

working with her work. Boys over Flowers is a famous product all over the

Asian region and, needless to say, the Japanese management company wanted

us to confirm every single bit of the work with them.

Reverting to discussion of the final episode, Yoon Ji-Ryun had already outlined in advance what her ending scene was going to look like, but had not decided ‘how deep the feeling would be in which the drama was to be concluded and what the exact ending of the story would be.’ She also listened progressively to the audience feedback. It was important for her to know viewers’ thoughts on the relationships between the characters. This reflected that the production process was interactive, with clear emphasis on the audience reception and feedback.

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When I asked Yoon Ji-Ryun which episode she liked the most, she responded:

I needed to rewrite almost the whole drama, because I had to avoid the

Japanese cultural flavour. The triangular love affair, a broken relationship,

meeting again these keynote ingredients of Hana yori Dango can be seen in

the Korean Boys over Flowers as well. However, aside from these basic

points, many parts of drama scenes are reformed by the writer.

In the latter half of Boys over Flowers, Yoon Ji-Ryun added a scene where Tsukasa was supposed to be married in church to a rich girl, but he withdrew from the planned marriage. This story is not in the original manga and it was not included in the Japanese and Taiwanese dramas. The reason she inserted this episode was to show some reasonable expressions of the main characters’ complicated emotions during the triangular love affair. This departure from the original manga is illustrative of Yoon Ji-Ryun’s emotional involvement with the story, and she received licensor approval for the change. As she stated ‘It gushed up in just the right time of the narrative.’

We discussed the original storyline and the changes made to suit Korean audiences.

A perception of what is ‘Korean’ emerged when we discussed some of the drama’s content. The heroine in the Japanese drama is a daughter of a middle-class family.

Her father is a salary man working at an ordinary company. Yoon Ji-Ryun wanted to change this to a low-income family in Korea, so she made up her mind to change the role of the father from salary man to laundry shop owner. She also considered how she would need to transform a female character to accommodate Korean cultural tastes and therefore appeal to a Korean audience.

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She explained the reason behind the change as follows:

In Japan, it is not strange for people to understand a teenage girl saying that

she wants to have a handsome rich boyfriend and marry him in the future. It

seems to be a natural way of thinking for a teenage girl in Japan, and even in

a drama a girl can talk like this in Japan. A Japanese girl might announce that

‘My only wish is to marry a guy from a rich family’ and people could accept

this without awkward feelings. However, Korean viewers detest that kind of

female character.

Yoon Ji-Ryun was also negative about such a character, maintaining that a Korean female character should have a very strong mind and be filled with pride. Even though she is from a poor family, she needs to be always bright and self-confident.

She has to respect herself in front of a rich boyfriend. She identified this character as having lots of possibilities and potential. She described Tsukushi as a swimmer with a sound mind and insight in a physically strong body. The sporting woman is considered as an active and dynamic person.

Another difference was that Korea does not have an equivalent to the noble and highly regarded Japanese tea ceremony. A tea master is not recognised as a high- class profession in Korea. Yoon Ji-Ryun decided to change this occupation, to find something similar in standing to the Japanese tea master. She needed a well-regarded equivalent: the appropriate F4 boy was recast as the son of a pottery master.

I asked Yoon Ji-Ryun what messages she wanted to convey to her Korean audiences through her writing. In presenting the drama to the audience she wanted to talk about

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friendship with boys. The love story of Tsukasa and Tsukushi was important to her, but she wanted to explain how ‘love and friendship’ affected the lives of teenagers while they were growing up. In her view one has to go through mental trauma to become an adult, and commonly most of a teenager’s mental trauma comes from family relationships. Family affairs are a matter of strong interest for Korean viewers, and therefore she concentrated on this, saying ‘Family issues are extremely essential to the Korean drama. That is absolutely the best way to achieve the goal of high audience share.’ Yoon Ji-Ryun also expressed her view on appropriate themes for

Korean drama, for instance, that a drama should include a love story or family matters, spanning many episodes. The drama needs to be ‘big’, and episodes should move at high speed. This is contrary to Japanese drama which usually moves at a calm and peaceful tempo and where the story is small, gentle and quiet. It isn’t possible to find major happenings and strong messages in a Japanese drama. Korean viewers love to see controversial, fast and exciting incidents.

The Japanese Hana yori Dango consisted of twenty episodes divided into two groups, with every single episode taking forty minutes. While recognising the increased time she would require, Yoon Ji-Ryun resisted the introduction of a large number of flashbacks. She said that the audience would see this process as just filling in. The original manga content enabled her to avoid this approach and maintain the pace of the series.

Korean drama is subject to heavy censorship compared to its counterpart in Japan.

For example, love scenes have to be defined within a permissible range; scriptwriters must always be careful not to exceed the regulatory standards. A scene must not

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depict a boy and a girl staying in the same room, even though both are adults. If they are not married, it is not allowable to show a love scene in a family drama. Yoon Ji-

Ryun was thus challenged by the problem of being able to express the love between the main characters. The challenge was considered at the production stage, and Yoon

Ji-Ryun considered increasing their age to adult status. In the Taiwanese version, the ages of the main characters were lifted to university students. However, the Korean production stayed with the manga and retained the original material recognising that there was immense merit in a school drama.

In considering my question about the secret of the popularity of Boys over Flowers,

Yoon Ji-Ryun said she regarded the success of the drama as ‘a very rare case’, and that nobody predicted it. She believes one of the reasons might be the actors themselves, none of whom had previously featured in full-length dramas, including

Lee Minho, who performed the leading role of Tsukasa. The average age of the actors was twenty-three, although the ages they represented were from eighteen to twenty. Following up on my question, I asked her if she had any further plans to write a Korean version of a Japanese TV drama or other media product. She reverted to discussing Boys over Flowers and informed me that at the time they were working on the production, a rival drama appeared on another channel. Since this popular drama was running in the middle of its season and the ratings were really high, Yoon

Ji-Ryun’s friends said to her, ‘You can’t beat it. Your drama Boys over Flowers is going to be dead.’ The rival drama was called East of Eden, and Seunghun Song, a famous actor was performing in it. However, much to everyone’s astonishment, the result was a ratings victory for Boys over Flowers. The reception was seen as an unbelievable phenomenon. East of Eden had lost a number of viewers who didn’t

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want to see that sort of drama story anymore. Previously, most Korean dramas were gloomy, sad, serious, and heavy, full of strong, angst-ridden themes and issues. Boys over Flowers, however, is full of fantasy and features often-unrealistic representations, and the cute, pretty, cheerful tone and bright pictures, including handsome boys and fresh-faced actors appealed to the public. This brought about a change of fashion for Korean drama, as viewers began to like watching light, funny stories.

5.7 Conclusion

Remaking of popular cultural texts into sequels and prequels across Asia confirms a dynamic creative force in the region. With Hana yori Dango and other iconic texts, what is apparent is the potential for them to cross defined cultural forms, technologies and geographical boundaries. These trades emanating from Japanese created core texts which in turn raises the profile of Japan, and correspondingly adds to Japanese soft power.

This chapter has drawn attention to the intrinsic value of the core narrative of the manga Hana yori Dango. This value has been confirmed by the successful regional and progressively international transfer through the process of remaking of it. The manga has been successfully remade into television serial dramas in Taiwan, Korea,

Japan and elsewhere receiving very high audience numbers and becoming, at a point in time, the top show of its genre in many countries in the region. The Korean producer of Boys over Flowers Yoon Ji-Ryun drew attention to remaking in Korea where ‘when production units make a television drama from a foreign original, they create about 80 per cent of the entire story; some works only use the title’. This

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illustrates the difficulty in determining what is or is not a remake. In the case where only the title foregrounds the production it is clearly not a remake. My findings confirm that Meteor Garden, Hana yori Dango and Boys over Flowers are substantive remakes of the Japanese source manga.

I have confirmed using foregrounding analysis that variations in content are minimal and close to the original manga. I also used textual analysis to show how the productions move closer to local values. Cultural expressions are country specific, and societal positioning and lifestyles similarly so. Locations in the Japanese manga and television drama feature national and international icons. The Korean television drama uses cross-national themes, whereas the Taiwanese version uses mainly local locations. Certain contemporary youth culture items feature in all productions, but foreign language inserts, with one exception in the Japanese television drama, do not extend beyond the manga.

The interview with the Korean producer of Boys over Flowers Yoon Ji-Ryun proved to be particularly enlightening for me. She repositioned and differentiated the remake to make it relevant to Korean norms, for example in the schooling system, aspiration and assertiveness of the female lead and censorship issues was pragmatic and understandable. In some of these respects she was seeking to eliminate the ‘Japanese odour’ brought forward from Iwabuchi’s research. The difference in time of the original manga to her production in Korea also guided her to seek contemporary relevance with her prospective youth audience. The preconception of this audience being a narrow segment proved to be conservative and the television drama had greater audience appeal. She admitted to watching many Japanese television dramas

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with Korean sub-titles but unfamiliar with Hana yori Dango or its Taiwanese predecessor Meteor Garden in this format. Importantly it was her wish to write about the relationships with Korean youth in respect to emotion feelings and friendship.

This view can be compared with that of Angie Chai, the producer of Meteor Garden.

I was not able, despite my best endeavours, to interview Angie Chai but drawing on

Lim’s research the issues of friendship, love and family conflict were important mast heads in her production. These two views crystallise the essence of the youth-centric components of the Hana yori Dango story and go some considerable way to explain its appeal well beyond Japan.

Hana yori Dango has added to its fan culture in East Asia. Its acceptance, even in some cases with minor repositioning of theme and content, illustrates a commonality of regional core values. Not only the story, but also other factors, including societal and the selection of actors, represent a ‘Japaneseness’ that captures the interest of youth across Asia. If the essence of what is attractive to them across Asia and beyond can be distilled, it is in the Japanese imagination, which makes possible the superficially impossible and realises dreams that are often buried in the human psyche, converting them to conscious realities. The international appeal of Japanese manga in the case of Hana yori Dango and its remaking confirms this opinion.

As an important corollary to the storyline of the original manga the selection of young and fresh faced actors contributed to the appeal of the drama. For example in

Taiwan despite elevating the age group from high school to university the emphasis was on the young and arguably the introduction of new and randomly selected faces would have allowed empathy between audience and actors since none of the actors at

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the time of production had achieved celebrity status. They subsequently achieved this as a result of their performances in Meteor Garden. In the case of Korea it was the intent of the producer to take this approach since none of the actors had been involved with full length dramas and Yoon Ji-Ryun’s opinion is that this was a significant reason for its success in Korea. The Japanese production used a different approach whilst keeping young actors they followed the more conventional approach of using celebrities to fulfil the key roles. I was unable to interview the Japanese producer but arguably this decision may have been made against the criteria of budget cost compared with anticipated revenue gain. The foregrounding analysis in particular drawing on the values of friendship, courage, overcoming adversity, romance, kindness, aspiration and vitality was well confirmed by all productions and the textual analysis the localisation components that conjointly enabled the cross border appeal. The textual analysis confirmed that the producers in Taiwan and

Korea had achieved the right mix in localising cultural aspects but not at the expense of the core narrative.

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Chapter 6: Akai Giwaku: The Inspiration for Winter Sonata?

6.1 Introduction

This chapter explores the commonality between the Japanese television drama Akai

Giwaku and the Korean television drama Winter Sonata, which was a significant part of the Kanryuu (The Korean Wave). The primary thematic concern of this chapter is to examine the significance of the Korean Wave in the context of the evolution of television drama in Japan and changing cultural relationships in East Asia. The chapter shows how the phenomenal success of Winter Sonata in Japan has contributed to a greater understanding of Korean culture and society in Japan.

Analysis of Akai Giwaku and Winter Sonata includes textual and foreground analysis, categorisation of content and some basic audience reception data. My analysis considers ancillary merchandising and influence in the print media. I also note six Japanese television dramas that have been exported to East Asia, including

Korea, in order to determine if they may have influenced Korean television drama production and contributed to regional hybridity.

6.2 Television Drama Evolves in Japan.

Japanese television drama has evolved through a number of genres over a twenty- year period. In the mid-1980s, ‘Idol’ dramas became popular, and flourished in the

1990s. In Japanese pop culture, idols are young, cute and cool. The main actors in

Idol dramas fit this profile, and often have an audience profile beyond television

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serial dramas (Ishida, 1999). The foregrounding theme in this period of time was cuteness, which was converted into Japanese ‘Cute’ culture and represented a part of

Japanese youth culture. The emphasis on kawaii (cute) was a significant component of serial dramas. Kinsella remarks that kawaii style dominated Japanese popular culture in the 1980s. Characteristics of cute are sweet, adorable, innocent, pure and inexperienced (Kinsella, 1995). Towards the end of the 1980s, this drama category evolved into trendy drama, particularly featuring film stars and pop-music singers, with the prime foreground element being modernity.

The early to mid-1990s saw many love stories being produced; this was the most popular period for trendy drama and, in particular, those written by Kitagawa Eriko.

The main television drama genre in the 1990s was prime-time trendy drama series

(Iwabuchi, 2003). There were typically more than twenty dramas at that time in any one week during the 1990s. Evolution continued, and towards the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Iyashi-kei (healing) dramas became popular (Komatsu,

1999) . Their plots involve disability, with elements of kind and gentle love. These dramas were typified by the theme, moving from the initial element of love towards a search for identity, position in the society and healing (Komatsu, 1999).

Using the Japanese definition, Winter Sonata can be categorised as a trendy drama, despite this genre having given way to the healing dramas at its time of broadcasting.

It reached legendary status in Japan, confirmed by its overwhelming reception by a particular audience segment and its subsequent assimilation into Japanese culture in

2004. The impact of the drama’s popularity accelerated when broadcast through the terrestrial channel and saw the overnight celebrity of Bae Yong-Joon, and a 3 billion

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yen (US27 million) revenue gain for NHK, inclusive of sales of books, videos and

DVDs (Echo, 2004). There was a mass cloning of themed fashion and other revenue channels. Table 16 illustrates the evolution of Japanese television drama genres from the mid-1980s.

Table 16 Japanese television drama 1980–2000

Years Genre Features Foreground

Mid 1980s Idol drama Singers, Television Cuteness

Stars

End 1980s Trendy drama Film Stars Modernity

Beginning 1990s Trendy drama Film Stars Modernity/Love Story

Mid 1990s Trendy drama Trained actors Love Story

End 1990s / 2000 Pure drama Trained actors Maturity/ Healing

Source: (adapted from Komatsu, 1999)

6.3 Cultural Relations in East Asia

Before the analysis of the eight dramas, and in particular the success of Winter

Sonata and other Korean dramas in Japan, one needs to consider the cultural barriers toward trade of media cultural products between the two countries. Of central significance is the underlying shift of the age-old Japanese perception of Korean culture and society, which has always been tacitly derogatory. Relationships in East

Asia, and particularly between Japan and Korea, are improving, thus enhancing media flows and raising the question: ‘Will the immense popularity of the regional media flows prove to be just a passing fad, or will this be the beginning of the transformation of cultural and political perception in East Asia?’

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The National Cabinet Ministry (Naikakufu) has conducted surveys that show that the

Japanese people have access to many sources of information within Japan (The

National Cabinet Ministry, 2005). However, the channels through which Japanese people learn about Korea demonstrate the importance of television. The answers to the multiple choice survey questions illustrate where the principal information comes from: television, 80 per cent; newspapers, close to 70 per cent; magazines, just under

20 per cent; verbal communication, internet and books, in the 10 to 15 per cent range

(The National Cabinet Ministry, 2005). These outcomes illustrate the information channels at the time of the survey and a more recent survey would probably significantly increase the knowledge gained from the internet. Particularly important is the significance of television as the prime communication channel in Japan about all things Korean.

The Japanese National Cabinet Ministry has been conducting surveys among

Japanese nationals over twenty years-old since 1978. According to the 2005 survey, only 32.4 per cent answered that they feel friendliness towards China. This response was the lowest since 1978. 63.4 per cent answered that they did not feel friendliness towards China. 71.2 per cent answered that relations between Japan and China were not promising. Only 19.7 per cent agreed that relations between Japan and China are promising (The National Cabinet Ministry, 2005). It can be deduced that these adverse findings result from political issues between Japan and China. This position is much more positive for relations between Korea and Japan. With regard to Korea, the survey reports that 51.1 per cent of respondents feel friendliness toward Korea.

This was a lower percentage than in the 2004 survey, at which time the Korean Wave phenomenon entered Japan. 61 per cent of the twenties age group feel friendliness

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toward Korea, compared to 59 per cent of the thirties age group. This indicates that the younger generation is more positive towards Korea. Regarding Japan and Korea relations, 59 per cent answered that they are not promising, while 36.9 per cent answered that they are promising.

The breaking down of barriers in the East Asian region has also been assisted by events of mutual interest, for example the 1988 Seoul Olympics; the elimination in

1994 of the requirement of visas for Japanese visiting Korea; the 1996 FIFA Japan–

Korea World Cup soccer agreement; the impact of the 1997 recession in Korea on cultural industries; commencement in 2000 of the production of Friends, the first joint Japanese and Korean television drama; and the implementation of the 1996

FIFA agreement in the 2002 World Cup games in Korea and Japan.

6.4 The Success of Winter Sonata in Japan: Undertones of Akai

Giwaku.

Two questions are posed: Why was the Korean television drama Winter Sonata so successful in Japan, notwithstanding the historical tension and current outstanding issues between the Japanese and Korean governments, and was its content influenced by Akai Giwaku, which was screened in 1975, well before the definition ‘trendy drama’ was introduced? Winter Sonata was first broadcast in Korea on the KBS network from January to March of 2002. Winter Sonata, while initially produced for a Korean audience, was traded to Japan and broadcast on Japanese television a year after it was shown in Korea. It initially captured 9 per cent of the total viewing audience numbers, but this figure rapidly increased with exposure. In 2003, the series was broadcast in Japan on the NHK satellite cable network from April to July, at 10

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pm, and rebroadcast in December of that year. Despite this late hour, Winter Sonata received progressively larger audience ratings. In 2004, NHK rebroadcast Winter

Sonata at 11.10 pm. This led to audience ratings of 20.6 per cent in the Kanto district and 23.8 per cent in the Kansai district (Moori, 2004). Moori reports that at this golden time, an audience rating of 10 per cent in this competitive market represents a success. Subsequently, Winter Sonata has been broadcast on Japanese local networks.

I believe that we must consider four factors underlying the success of Winter Sonata in Japan. The first factor is the development in the last fifty years of global television markets. Television programs are not dependent on a single language community for their market. Subject to government regulations, they may be imported and exported.

Television dramas are designed for mass audiences, and, when successful, are major revenue earners. Modern broadcast technology, including satellite transmission, is expensive, and program makers and broadcasters seek the widest possible audience to recover production costs. In summary, the development of the global television industry in the last 50 years has established a platform for transnational communication and communication genres, for example television drama, that were not previously possible.

The second factor underlying the success of Winter Sonata in East Asia is that it is a product of a local television industry that has evolved to meet local and regional needs through three definable phases.

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Phase 1: The cloning of American programs.

Phase 2: The development of local genres by the Japanese television industry,

starting, for example, in the 1990s with the Idol drama genre (Komatsu, 1999).

These were also popular with viewers in Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

However, Korea banned the import of Japanese popular culture products from

1945 until the 1990s. During this time, the emerging and protected Korean

television industry was developing through productions similar to Japanese

programs, such as the Idol drama genre (Iwabuchi, 2003). However, the Korean

government did permit co-productions with Japanese production companies.

Phase 3: The removal by the Korean government in 2004 of all restraints on the

import and export of Japanese television signalled the coming of age of the

dynamic Korean television program industry, reinforcing the Korean Wave.

The third factor is the evolution of the serial television dramas such as Winter Sonata and other popular culture programs that cross national borders. Jacobson (1995) explains: ‘Then, as now, the nature of television drama is in the use of conflict, which is expressed through characters, dialogue and plots. Television drama functions for some viewers as a means for diversion or escape, and for others it is a fictional representation of realistic human relationships and social behaviour…’

(Jacobson, 1995, p. 34)

The fourth factor is cultural proximity. Cultural proximity, with the impact of global migration, is not necessarily regionally based. However, it may be appreciated that in

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East Asia cultural proximity has a significant regional aspect to it. The languages in the region have common elements from historical Chinese influences, and there are significant cultural similarities.

Communication and reception of information is more difficult than may be assumed.

Hall proposed that the most basic goal of communication was ‘transmitting meaning as closely as possible to the way it was conceived’ (Walker, Walker & Schmitz, 2003, p. 204). He proposed an ideal communication process where messages travel without distortion between a sender and a receiver. Referring to the cultural communication model of Walker et.al, the ideal communication process can be said to be simple, as

Diagram 6 shows.

Diagram 6 The ideal communication process

Message

Sender Receiver

Feedback

Source: adapted from Walker et.al. 2003, p 205

Communication in real life situations is very complex. One often has to consider the impact of the cultural frames of both the sender and the receiver, especially if these are different. Diagram 7 illustrates a simplification of the real communication and interaction process.

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Diagram 7 Communication and interaction process

Sender’s Message Receiver’s Cultural Cultural frame frame

Sender Popular culture product Receiver

Feedback

Source: (adapted from Walker et al., 2003, p. 207)

Walker et al (2003) argue that our cultural frames act as the perceptual window or filter through which an individual defines one’s own self, others and the world. An individual’s cultural frame is informed by such variables as ethnocentrism, false attributions, stereotypes, etiquette and non-verbal behaviour, to name but a few, and these influence audience reception of television dramas across, and even within, cultural boundaries, as illustrated by audience numbers and demographics. When senders and receivers have mismatched cultural frames, this results in messages contaminated by mismatched expectations, misinterpreted messages, feedback, etc. and ‘noise’ — meaningless or distorted signals which place a burden on communication. (Walker et al., 2003, p. 206).

Viewers view television programs both actively and subliminally using the same process. If the viewer perceives that the program’s cultural frame is incongruent with their personal frame, they will be aware of the ‘noise’ and find the program less satisfactory and it will be more difficult for them to appreciate and empathise with

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the characters. If a segment of the Japanese viewing audience readily accepts Winter

Sonata, it will be primarily because its content communicates culturally common values.

In a different vein, Keane et al point out: ‘Foreign forms, ideas and styles are not so much absorbed as window-shopped like new commodities’. (Keane et al., 2007, p.

48). By inference, the consumer sees and may be influenced by their perception of what they see. The window-shopping may well lead in time to a degree of absorption or cultural hybridity. In times of unprecedented change, processes of translation are applied to commercial culture with, sometimes, unusual results.

6.5 Textual Analysis: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku

There are similarities in content of the Japanese television drama Akai Giwaku, part of the Akai series, and Winter Sonata. Winter Sonata was produced some twenty- eight years later than Akai Giwaku. In endeavouring to isolate the reasons for the success of Winter Sonata in Japan, an investigation was conducted into the content of both Akai Giwaku and Winter Sonata. The investigation searched for a commonality of elements between the two dramas. The audience share for both dramas was high.

Content would be a factor in the enthusiastic acceptance of Winter Sonata in Japan.

Table 17 contains the year of broadcasting, audience reception and Idol characters of the two series. The term ‘Idol characters’ was introduced after the production of Akai

Giwaku, but the principal actors can be retrospectively classified as such since they comply with the profile.

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Table 17 Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku (Video Research, 2009)

Series Television Broadcast Year Audience Share Idol characters Network Film star

Winter Sonata NHK 2003–2004 24% Bae Yong-Joon Choi Ji-Woo

Akai Giwaku TBS 1975–1976 30.9% Yamaguchi Momoe Miura Tomokazu

Comparison of the two television dramas, as illustrated in Table 18, shows the striking concurrence of content, including categorisation, locations, and plot components, one of the key acting roles, tensions, outcomes and foreground elements.

Table 18 Elements common to Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku

Winter Sonata Akai Giwaku

Drama category Trendy drama Content of Trendy drama

Locations City/urban life City/urban life

Beautiful exterior backgrounds Beautiful exterior backgrounds

Plot components Study abroad in Paris Study abroad in Paris

Motor accident / memory Radioactive accident, loss, blindness Leukaemia, blindness Love triangle Love triangle

Secret of birth Secret of birth

Is the heroine’s love for her half- Is the heroine’s love for her half- brother? brother? Father’s job Professor of Medicine Professor of Mathematics

Tension High High Conflict Ending Harmony Harmony

Foreground theme Love/human kindness/purity Love/human kindness/purity

Foreground music Love Song Love Song

Culture component Korean Morals Japanese Morals

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6.6 Foregrounding Analysis: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku

My analysis also looked at common features of the two television dramas, features that may account for their popularity amongst the Japanese viewing audience.

Following my initial viewing of the two dramas, and in ensuing research, I have observed common features amongst them, including: Idol characters, modernity, romance, music, human relations, tension and conflict, morals, occupations of the hero or heroine and selective and iconic exterior locations. I have selected five of these features and applied content foregrounding analysis to each episode of the respective productions. These features may or may not be used in each episode of the television dramas. I see the content, particularly in the first episode of the series, as being designed to draw the viewer into the series and retain their interest and, hence, encourage them to continue to view the series. The elements chosen for the analysis were:

 Idol characters

 Modernity

 Romance

 Music

 Embedded ‘good’ moral thoughts

Other content within the series has, for the purpose of this analysis, been treated as background to the key elements of the overall series content.

Modernity may be seen subjective when considering the difference in timing of the release of the two television dramas, but may still be taken as a relevant measure in terms of appreciating the respective contents of the two productions. The findings with respect to the two television dramas have been tabulated utilising the Likert

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scale. The measure for each of the episodes in the respective productions, with respect to foregrounding, was rather coarse in that some elements, for example the attribute ‘Idol character’, may or may not have appeared in a particular episode in a significant way. A minor inclusion not seen by me as relevant in the overall balance of the episode was accorded a zero score and, if somewhat significant, accorded a score of one. I have applied a weighting number to each of the attributes in each of the episodes, with a maximum score of five. In deducing the importance of each of the five attributes, I have calculated an average sum for all of the episodes in the television drama series. The outcome, on a per attribute basis, is listed under the

‘Weighting’ row. I have also summarised the entry of each of the attributes in the

‘Total per episode’ column, which does not necessarily reflect the multiplicity of attributes in each episode, and deduced an average for all of the episodes, listed in the ‘Weighting’ row. Table 19 illustrates the findings for Winter Sonata and Table 20 for Akai Giwaku.

Table 19 Foregrounding analysis of Winter Sonata

Winter Sonata attributes Episode Idol Modernity Romance Music Moral Total per Number character thought episode 1 2 0 1 2 0 3 2 2 0 4 3 0 3 3 2 0 3 3 1 4 4 2 2 4 3 0 4 5 3 4 4 3 0 4 6 2 0 4 4 4 4 7 3 0 4 3 4 4 8 0 2 4 4 3 4 9 2 4 4 4 3 5 10 2 2 4 4 3 5 11 0 0 4 3 2 3

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12 2 0 4 3 2 4 13 0 0 5 4 2 3 14 2 0 5 4 4 4 15 2 1 5 4 0 4 16 3 4 5 3 3 5 17 4 2 4 3 4 5 18 4 0 5 4 5 4 19 4 3 5 3 4 5 20 5 5 5 4 4 5 Weighting 2.3 1.45 4.15 3.4 2.4 4.1

Table 20 Foregrounding analysis of Akai Giwaku

Attributes Akai Giwaku Idol Modernity Romance Music Moral Total per Episode character thought episode Number 1 2 0 0 3 2 3 2 2 0 0 3 2 3 3 2 0 1 1 3 4 4 3 0 2 2 3 4 5 3 0 2 2 3 4 6 2 3 5 4 5 5 7 2 0 4 4 4 4 8 1 2 3 4 4 5 9 2 4 3 4 4 5 10 2 5 1 3 3 5 11 2 5 1 3 3 3 12 2 0 3 4 3 4 13 3 2 3 4 4 5 14 4 0 5 5 3 4 15 2 0 3 3 3 4 16 2 0 3 3 3 4 17 2 0 3 4 4 4 18 4 0 5 5 4 4 19 4 0 5 5 4 4 20 3 1 4 4 4 5

21 0 0 3 4 3 3 22 2 2 4 3 4 5 23 3 3 4 4 4 5

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24 3 2 5 4 3 5 25 4 0 5 5 2 4 26 4 1 4 4 3 5 27 4 0 4 4 4 4 28 4 3 5 4 4 5 29 5 4 5 5 5 5 Weighting 2.69 1.28 3.28 3.69 3.45 4.28

From this analysis I have created a bar chart Diagram 8 which is a cross comparison or the five selected attributes occurring in Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku.

Diagram 8 Foregrounding comparison: Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku

6.7 Categorisation of Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku

Does Winter Sonata contain conflict as identified by Jacobson? Can the content of

Winter Sonata, as expressed through character, dialogue and plot, and the final production, be characterised as falling within the format of soap opera? The eight characteristics of soap opera discussed in Chapter 1 did not specifically include the element of conflict prescribed by Jacobson. Does Winter Sonata falls within the scope of Brown’s eight characteristics of soap opera? I have used these

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characteristics to determine if there is commonality between the soap opera characteristics and those in the respective Japanese and Korean television dramas,

Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku. While I use the term soap opera throughout this chapter, the two dramas are better described as serial dramas.

Winter Sonata

1. Serial form which resists narrative closure (Partially true)

Serial form in the soap opera is open-ended, but Winter Sonata has twenty

episodes. This is slightly longer than the weekly serial drama format in Japan,

which is three months in duration. The story goes on and you feel during the

middle that it will continue beyond twenty episodes.

2. Multiple characters and plots (True)

There are five main characters. The central plot is about Kang Joon-Sang who

suffers from memory loss caused by a car accident, followed by blindness.

There are multiple relationships within the drama. Conflict is evident with

friction between two families, romance between close family members and

triangular relationships.

3. Use of time which parallels actual time and implies that the action continues

to take place whether we watch it or not (Partially true).

Each episode after episode one commences with a small bridging scene to

create continuity. The series, when not interrupted by flashbacks to earlier

times, appears to be happening in real time.

4. Abrupt segmentation between parts (Partially true)

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The story suddenly changes from high school days to ten years later, then

another step to three years later.

5. Emphasis on dialogue, problem-solving, and intimate conversation (True).

The story line involves love between four main characters, friendship, caring,

and so on. To solve problems between the main characters, at times parents

get involved.

6. Male characters who are ‘sensitive men’ (True)

For example, in the early episodes, the main character, Kang Joon-sang, is

searching for his father, and the story presents his concerns sensitively, in

terms of expressions, manners, dialogue, and this continues throughout the

later episodes.

7. Female characters who are often professional and otherwise powerful in the

world outside of the home (True)

Jung Yu-Jin plays a positive and active career woman’s role in this drama.

8. The home, or some other place, which functions as a home, as the setting for

the show.

(Partially true)

Some scenes are home-based; however, crucial scenes are always outdoors in

beautiful locations.

Akai Giwaku

Akai Giwaku was broadcast by TBS from 3 October 1975 to 16 April 1976. The viewer ratings, not to be confused with audience share, were high. The average viewer ratings was 23.4 per cent; the highest rating was 30.9 per cent in the Kanto district (Video Research, 2009).

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1. Serial form which resists narrative closure. (Partially True)

The serial consists of twenty-nine episodes each of which usually ends in a

climax, which is resolved in the following episode. This drama is similar to

Winter Sonata in its format.

2. Multiple characters and plots. (True)

There are seven main characters. The central plot is about Sachiko, who

suffers from leukaemia caused by a nuclear accident. Conflict is evident, with

friction between two families, romance between close family members and

triangular relationships.

3. Use of time which parallels actual time and implies that the action continues

to take place whether we watch it or not. (Partially true)

The series, when not interrupted by flashbacks to earlier times, appears to be

happening in real time.

4. Abrupt segmentation between parts (Partially true)

For example, the story suddenly changes from the present location to Paris,

then back to Tokyo, then to the Paris, and so on.

5. Emphasis on dialogue, problem-solving and intimate conversations. (True)

The storyline involves the themes of love between two main characters

(Sachiko and Mitsuo), past forbidden love (Sahara and Rie), friendship and

caring.

6. Male characters who are sensitive men (Partially true)

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The main character, Mitsuo, is an empathetic intern doctor who is studying

medicine.

7. Female characters are often professional and otherwise powerful in the world

outside the home. (Partially true)

Sachiko aims to become a doctor. Rie is a well-known theatre producer.

8. The home, or some other place that functions as a home, as the setting for the

show. (Partially true)

Most of the scenes are in a home or hospital location; however, crucial scenes

are always outdoors in beautiful locations and sometimes overseas.

Fiske refers to the soap opera as having an infinitely extended middle and that never being in equilibrium (Fiske, 1987). Winter Sonata has a finite middle; it contains other soap opera elements, including conflict, but does have a finite and happy ending. Akai Giwaku is similar to Winter Sonata with the exception that the ending is not a happy one. Flashbacks are used in both serial dramas to create another element of the soap opera: ‘deferment’ (Fiske, 1987, p. 182). The flashbacks have the effect of creating a new beginning within the drama and an extended middle. Abrupt segmentation between parts occurs with the flashbacks. Winter Sonata is positioned as a female narrative with empowerment of women and sensitive men. The sensitive or feminised man with good looks is seen positively by the predominately female audience (Fiske, 1987). Akai Giwaku was an earlier production, and the main male character, Mitsuo, while having empathetic qualities, is a strong person, whereas

Sachiko, despite her career objectives, is perceived as weak and is plagued by illness.

The home environment (as used, for example, in East Enders) is not a major feature in Winter Sonata, which uses beautiful exterior locations for crucial scenes in the

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plot. This beauty is particularly attractive to Japanese audiences. There are a number of similarities between the foreground values, content, themes and characters of the two productions under consideration.

6.8 The Phenomena of Winter Sonata

I will now review the phenomenon of Winter Sonata and the roots of its commercial success. Winter Sonata was part of the coming of the Korean Wave to Japan. The term Korean Wave first appeared in Taiwan in 1999, and in Asahi Shimbun, the mainstream Japanese newspaper, in 2001 (AERA, 2004; Ogura, 2005b). The Korean

Wave includes the entry of Korean television drama, films and pop music into the

East Asian market. The Korean Wave may be seen as complementary to the Japanese

Wave that preceded it. The impact of the Korean television drama series Winter

Sonata on Japanese viewing audiences was unexpected by the Japanese media.

6.8.1Winter Sonata: The audience

It can be noted from the following information that the Japanese viewing audience of

Winter Sonata is very specific and that this television drama did not have broad based appeal. Notwithstanding this fact its success is significant, as it illustrates an improvement in regional relationships and understanding. A questionnaire was put to people who logged on to the Goo social media website and who identified themselves as fans of Winter Sonata. It was reported that 97 per cent of the respondents identified themselves as women. The Goo (2004) questionnaire also reported that 80 per cent of the respondents were women in their thirties and forties with some 7 per cent in their twenties and 9 per cent in their fifties. The evidence for a female fan base for Winter Sonata is further supported by reports in AERA

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magazine, a weekly magazine published by Asahi Shimbun publications (AERA,

2004) . Between the production of Akai Giwaku and Winter Sonata there has been a change in the value placed on women in Japanese society, with a definite move towards female empowerment, and this may in some way explain the ready acceptance of Winter Sonata by a significant segment of the Japanese viewing audience. The audience demographics notwithstanding, female empowerment in percentage terms between 1975 and 2002 did not change much, and neither did the age profiles. At the time Akai Giwaku was broadcast, 27 per cent of the workforce was female; by 2002, this had only risen slightly to 29 per cent. The workforce participation rate for women was highest amongst those between the ages of forty and fifty. Between 1975 and 2002, the total workforce increased by 28 per cent to 94 million ("Labour Force and Labour Force Participation Rate by Age Group and Sex

(1948-2002)," 2006).

The relative absence of the teenager demographic from the Winter Sonata viewing audience is significant because it suggests that this type of drama does not appeal to them. It can be construed from the female audience demographic that the targeting of the drama was to that audience demographic. One important finding from the AERA sample was that nearly 30 per cent of the 326 women who responded had not felt attached to any particular celebrity before Winter Sonata’s Bae Yong-Joon (AERA,

2004). Of the twelve most popular celebrities who were identified by others in the sample, only seven were Japanese. The rest were international sportsmen and film stars, such as David Beckham and Brad Pitt.

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Japanese viewers would observe in Winter Sonata the culturally proximate ways the characters portray emotion and interact, that is: their etiquette and non-verbal behaviours; the display of tears, and sentimental and delicate emotional expressions; communication through eye contact; and gentle love, which means the absence of emphasis on kissing, nudity, lovemaking, Western verbosity, overt conflict and disagreement. The stressing values such as kindness, love, family, respect for elders, harmony and tranquillity is also relevant.

6.8.2 Winter Sonata: The female demographic

As outlined above, the principal audience for Winter Sonata comprised women.

Hayashi, drawing on surveys of the Japanese Winter Sonata viewing audience, described the typical viewer as female and aged between forty and fifty, with an average age of 47.3. (Hayashi, 2005). Another approach to identifying the Japanese audience for Winter Sonata is reception group analysis. From the above information it is known that the core audience is women between thirty and fifty years of age.

The prospective female audience has been segregated into socioeconomic types using Miura’s categories: ‘Oyome-kei (house wife type); Mirioneze-kei (Millionaire working type); Kamayatsuonna-kei (Artistic personality type); Gyaru-kei (Girl type);

OL-kei (Office Lady)’ (Miura, 2005, pp. 41-67). I have done this to determine if

Miura’s segmentation has any relevance to the predominantly female viewing audience of Winter Sonata. Miura’s definition of these socio-economic types is as follows.

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Oyome-kei

Women in this group have married men with an annual income exceeding 7 million yen ($US 29,000). These women expect to maintain a high standard of life. They aspire to the lifestyle ‘Kotobuki Taisha’.4 They are generally from the upper middle- class, have graduated from a good university or college, obtained a job through parental connections and have had a comfortable life. Miura notes in his studies that they have a strong taste for the high-class lifestyle, such as buying luxury cars, living in a high quality environment, purchasing brand name fashion, learning foreign languages and enjoying overseas holidays.

Mirioneze-kei

After 1986, this word came to apply to women with specialised qualifications who were career oriented and aspiring to management positions. These women are in the thirty to forty age group and comprise professional people, for example doctors, lawyers, accountants, consultants. Their annual incomes are currently more than 10 million yen ($US 42,000). Their consumption pattern is similar to the Oyome–kei group. Some of the women in this group are married.

Kamayatsuonna-kei

This term refers to women who are generally educated at technical schools and their careers typically include hairdressers, musicians, fashion designers and the artistic personality type.

Gyaru-kei

4 Kotobuki means ‘celebration’, taisha means ‘to quit and leave a company’; kotobuki taisha is used for young women who quit the job to marry. It also implies they do not intend to stay long in the company, and their reason for working there is to find a husband.

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This term refers to the Shibuya5 girl type, high school graduates who are married and aged in the early twenties. The term includes women who are generally working in a service industry and may be working part-time. Of those who are married, the husband is usually a blue collar worker.

OL-kei (office lady)

These women fall into a general category.

Miura's positioning of Japanese women who are fans of Winter Sonata is illustrated in Diagram 9 below.

Diagram 9. Miura’s societal positioning of Japanese females

High aspiration Oyome-kei Mirionez e-kei

OL-kei

Housewife Career oriented oriented Gyaru-kei Kamayats uonna-kei

Maintain status quo

Source: (adapted from Miura, 2005, p. 42)

Winter Sonata’s Korean director, Yoon Suk-Ho, reported that he created a fantasy world, a reality to meet the needs of modern day people. He saw that what they were missing in their busy, changing everyday world was the age-old, core certainties of

5 Gyaru (Gals) Young Japanese women known for outrageous fashions and hanging out in Tokyo’s club districts. They have fake tans, wear short skirts and favour accessories big on bling. Most of them hang out around Center-gei Street and 109 building in Shibuya. Gyaru characters tend to pop up in anime(Galbraith, 2009c, p. 93)

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life: Respect for parents and elders, love for family and friends as well as romantic love; a pure mind; trust; belief in self; and caring and kindness for others. Yoon sought to create a new space for the audience that rolled up all these elements in it.

These values, like Polaris, the pole star, are a recurrent theme in the Winter Sonata series and provide a framework in which all the characters and plots interact. In other words, he deliberately designed Winter Sonata as a cult text to provide viewers with an idealist view of reality (Maruyama, 2004).

While Winter Sonata was a very important part of the Korean Wave into Japan, the story of its introduction to Japan shows it was not accepted passively; some viewers became dedicated fans. Winter Sonata proved to be particularly attractive to and captured an audience in the Oyome-kei category. The audience figures for Winter

Sonata indicate that it is not just another television drama; there is much more to it.

Many viewers have become fans, and the program has achieved cult status, with lead actor, the Korean, Bae Yong-Joon, attaining celebrity status in Japan virtually overnight. There were 50 websites devoted to Bae, and he is popularly called ‘Yon sama’.6 In terms of the media cult model described by Hills (2002), Winter Sonata is a cult text and the Japanese fans are an extra-textual manifestation of this text.

6.8.3 Winter Sonata ancillary merchandising

The value of Winter Sonata has been increased by the introduction of multiple revenue streams. The DVD of the series was released in Japan at the end of 2003, and the initial run of ten thousand copies sold out in four hours. In 2005, Winter

Sonata had created an economic effect in Japan for NHK (excluding the Korean

6 Sama is an honorific suffix, used for higher ranking such as assigned to Japanese royalty.

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revenues) worth 3 billion yen (US 27 million). Other merchandised products amplified the financial returns, including themed fashion clothing; calendars; spectacle frames as worn by Bae Yong-Joon’s character, Kang Jun-Sang and Lee

Min-Hyung; pendants as worn by the heroine, Jung Yu-Jin; automobiles as driven by the hero, Lee Min-Hyung; magazines and books. Fifty thousand copies of a book of photographs of the main characters sold out on the first day. A strong fan industry followed. Attendance at a fan club meeting cost 35,000 yen (US 320). A tour industry was set up to cater for Japanese who wished to visit the drama’s locations in

Korea. This is consistent with Hills’s theory of ‘cult geography’: ‘Cult geographies are… spaces associated with cult icons, which cult fans take as the basis for material touristic practices’ (Hills, 2002, p. 144).

Major book stores established a ‘Korean corner’, while the Kanji Proficiency Society reported that the kanji character Kan (as in kankoku, the Japanese word for Korea) ranked sixth in its annual popularity ranking scale (Hayashi, 2005). In 2004, Japan was the source of half of Korea’s overseas visitors. In 2005, significant reaction to the Korean Wave was represented on shelves of bookstores. This reaction was the basis for publications on the popular Korean Wave: for and against genre, and manga portraying explicit anti-Korean sentiment. In 2005, Korean Air announced special film flights from Japan so that Japanese tourists could visit the Winter Sonata location sites. In 2005, NHK television media publishers announced an increase in annual sales of its Korean language textbook to 20, 000 copies.

The Korean Wave continues in Japan with television drama. From 2002 to 2006 at least twenty-seven Korean drama series including Rondo, a joint Korea-Japan

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production, were broadcast in Japan; the three most successful were Winter Sonata in 2003–2004, with an audience share growing from 9 per cent to 22 per cent and ultimately 24 per cent; Jewel in the Palace in 2005, with an audience share of 16 per cent; and Rondo in 2006, with an audience share of 15 per cent (Video Research,

2009).

6.8.4 Winter Sonata: Stimulating print media content

An examination of print media articles from 2004 to 2006 was carried out to ascertain trends in Korean and Japanese issues. In Table 21 I have listed some article titles from thirty or so articles studied from each year, illustrating the flavour of the

Korean wave. The selected titles of articles were chosen for their significance and are illustrative of media reporting during the selected period.

Table 21 Selected titles of Japanese media articles on Korea 2004–2006

2004 2005 2006 Yon-Sama Boom in Japan Korean Celebrity, 30,000 Takeshima/Dokto/and the Japanese Fandom roots of Japan-Korea Conflict

Korean Air to Operate Special Japanese visits to Korea Channel J (Japan) Flights for Winter Sonata Increase Despite Diplomatic Reported in April that the Japanese Fans Differences theme park Korean Wave would be opened Economic Effects of Winter Bae Young Joon Goods: DVD, Comics stoke Japan-Korea Sonata Worth $US2.3 billion Calenders, Joon Bear etc. tension Knowing Korea through Winter Korean Boom in Cultural Korean Government Invested Sonata star Bae Yong-Joon Exchange 200 Million Won for ‘Hangle’ Promotion Winter Sonata Improves Korean Wave Contributes to Exported Korean television Japanese Views of Korea Korea’s Exports dramas improving Nation’s Image in Asia.

A change is evident in the print media between 2004 and 2006. In 2004, the media supported the Korean Wave and the success in Japan of Winter Sonata. However, in

Korea, political issues masked pro-Japanese sentiment. This became even more evident in 2006. However, in 2006 the Korean government undertook to maintain

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and broaden the positive aspects of the Korean Wave. Currently, there is a further evolution, with the Korean Wave progressing into Japanese academia, manifesting in the continued Japanese-Korean co-productions of drama, and is evident in the promotion of the image of Korea in East Asia and internationally, extending even to

Australia.

The Korean Wave is clearly continuing, and can be expected to evolve further in new directions. When I visited Japan in 2006, I noticed an advertisement for chocolate in the arrivals hall at Narita International Airport. To my absolute surprise, this advertisement, made for the well-known Japanese department store chain ‘Lotte’, portrayed Korean actors. This reflects in part the powerful trends in communication that cut across national borders, and the political, cultural, demographic and media domains.

6.9 Analysis of Six Japanese Trendy Dramas

As a secondary study, I have analysed six Japanese television dramas that are not only shown in Japan but are also exported to countries of the East Asia region, including Korea. This part of the research is to determine if they have influenced

Korean television drama production. The television dramas are: Tokyo Love Story

(1991); Say You Love Me! (1995); Long Vacation (1996); Love Generation (1997);

Overtime (1999); and Beautiful Life (2000). Many of them are written by the well- known scriptwriter of trendy dramas, Kitagawa Eriko. These dramas were analysed using the same criteria as for Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku. The dramas were popular, as defined by surveyed Japanese viewing rates during the period, and were also broadcast in East Asian countries to their respective television audiences. To put an element of commercial broadcasting into a fiscal context, Watanabe (1996) notes

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that if a sponsor wants to advertise a product or service during a prime time drama they would have to pay at least 100 million yen. (Watanabe, 1996).

A summary of the selected television dramas is illustrated in Table 22.

Table 22 Drama series

Name of Television Broadcast Highest Overseas Main actors and story television network year, audience distribution theme drama series (months) share in and and time Japan scriptwriter 1.Tokyo Love Fuji 1991 32.3% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Story television (1–3) Hong Kong story of Rika, born in the Scriptwriter Monday Singapore, USA and Kanchi. Sakamoto 9pm Korea (2006 NY ) 2. Say You TBS 1995 30.4% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Love Me! (7–9) Hong Kong story of Koji, afflicted Scriptwriter 10am Singapore, with deafness and Kitagawa Korea Hiroko, an aspiring actress. 3.Long Fuji 1996 36.7% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Vacation television (4–6) Hong Kong story of the strong willed Scriptwriter Monday Singapore, Serina with the pianist Kitagawa 9pm Korea Minami.

4.Love Fuji 1997 32.3% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Generation television (10–12) Hong Kong story of Teppei and Riko, 1997 Monday Singapore, both working at an Scriptwriter 9pm Korea advertising agency Asano 5.Overtime Fuji 1999 20.7% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Scriptwriter television (1–3) Hong Kong story of Soichiro, Kitagawa Monday Singapore, cameraman and Natsuki, 9pm Korea hairdresser 6. Beautiful TBS 2000 (1–3) 41.3% Taiwan, Trendy drama: Love Life Sun 9pm Hong Kong story of Okishima, a Scriptwriter Singapore hairdresser, and Kyoko, a Kitagawa wheel chair bound librarian.

6.9.1 Textual analysis of six Japanese trendy dramas

All six dramas conform to Brown’s eight characteristics. I will illustrate my findings with just one of the six dramas analysed. Taking as the example the television drama

Aishite kure to ittekure (Say You Love Me!), I have used, as with previous

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foregrounding analyses, the coarse criteria of true, partially true or untrue in answer to statements one to eight inclusive.

This drama has all of the elements as below:

1. Serial form which resists narrative closure. (partially true)

The drama has an extended middle but then comes to a conclusion.

The serial consists of twelve episodes, each of which usually ends in a

climax, which is resolved in the following episode.

2. Multiple characters and plots. (Partially true)

There are seven major characters. As for plots, the central plot line concerns

an artist, Koji, who had lost his hearing in childhood, and his girlfriend,

Hiroko, who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Some episodes relate to

triangular relationships.

3. Use of time which parallels actual time and implies that the action continues

to take place whether we watch it or not. (Partially true)

The series, when not interrupted by flashbacks to an earlier time, or flash-

forwards to three years later, appears to be happening in real time.

4. Abrupt segmentation between parts (True)

The story suddenly changes from the present to three years later, then back to

childhood, then to the present, and so on.

5. Emphasis on dialogue, problem-solving and intimate conversations. (True)

The storyline involves love between four main characters, friendship, caring,

and so on.

6. Male characters who are sensitive men (True)

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The main character, Koji, a deaf artist, is searching for his identity and

confidence.

7. Female characters are often professional and otherwise powerful in the world

outside the home. (Partially true)

In her role, Hiroko became an actress.

8. The home, or some other place that functions as a home, as the setting for the

show. (Partially true)

Some scenes are home-based; however crucial scenes are always in beautiful

outdoor locations.

6.9.2 Foregrounding analysis

My analysis also looked at common features of these particular dramas, features that appeared to account for their popularity amongst the Japanese viewing audience.

I have observed common features within the six trendy television drama series, as with Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku. I have used the same five features adopted for the analysis of Winter Sonata and Akai Giwaku for comparative evaluation. My findings using the Likert scale and evaluation method are as follows in Table 23.

Table 23 Foregrounding elements: six television trendy dramas

Name of television No of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 1 1 Average drama series episodes 0 1 2 Tokyo Love Story 11 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 5 5 4 5 4.6 Say You Love Me! 12 3 4 4 3 3 5 4 3 4 5 5 5 4 Long Vacation 11 5 4 4 5 3 4 5 4 5 3 4 4.2 Love Generation 11 4 4 5 4 4 4 5 5 4 5 4 4.4 Overtime 12 4 3 5 4 4 4 4 5 5 4 4 4 4.2 Beautiful Life 11 3 3 4 3 4 4 5 3 4 2 3 3.5

It is noted that the average for Winter Sonata was 4.1 and with Akai Giwaku 4.28.

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6.10 Conclusion

This chapter has confirmed four factors leading to the acceptance of Korean Wave dramas in Japan and across the Asian region. The first factor was the existence of the cross-border telecommunication industry, an industry that continues to evolve. The second factor was the existence of a growing programming industry in Korea, looking to expand out of its domestic market and into the region to add value to its domestic market revenues. The third factor was the realisation by the Korean government that a relaxation of controls on the trade in television drama may be beneficial to the regional and global emergence of Korea in the entertainment and communications industries. The fourth factor is the willingness of the receptor country audience to watch popular culture content from overseas, as was the case in

Japan with the Korean drama Winter Sonata. These factors collectively established the climate for the creation of the Korean Wave. The success of the Korean Wave, in particular, Winter Sonata in Japan, was due in part to the attempt of the Korean producers to appeal to common factors in the target market. They were without doubt very familiar with the content and format of Japanese television dramas. As prefaced in Chapter 5, the scriptwriter of Boys over Flowers, Yoon Ji-Ryun, informed me that she was interested in Japanese television dramas and had watched many of them with

Korean subtitles.

Analysis demonstrates that Winter Sonata embodies elements found to characterise successful television trendy serial dramas produced in Japan. In particular, many local features in Akai Giwaku are mirrored in Winter Sonata. The commonality of content in these two television dramas, as identified by my analysis, includes emphasis on family values, and social development. There is conflict in both

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productions, but one striking difference is in the empowerment of the heroine, a

‘modern’ woman, in Winter Sonata, whereas the heroine in Akai Giwaku is afflicted with illness and is not forceful. This difference illustrates the societal changes that have occurred between the timing of the two television dramas and illustrates an emerging positive regard for female status. In addition, as with Winter Sonata, the

Japanese dramas were also popular with audiences from Japan’s East Asian neighbours, suggesting not only a cultural transfer, but also a sharing of values and interests among Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean audiences.

The popularity in Japan of the Korean produced Winter Sonata, which also foregrounded the same elements as the six Japanese trendy dramas within this study, confirms the sharing of values, and that cultural flows are multi-directional.

Television is a powerful communicative medium and is bringing about greater cross- cultural awareness and interest; this is evident in the trade of television dramas across geographical borders and cross-cultural fandom. The positive response of Japanese women in the forty to fifty-year-old demographic to Winter Sonata was of prime importance in establishing the popularity of the television drama, with these women comprising its major audience.

The commercial success of Winter Sonata and the concurrent emergence of ancillary product sales and tourism proved to be very significant in the value chain of the production. The Korean Wave has prospered due to a significant change in regional political thinking and perceptive Korean producers. Korea has also broadened the

Korean Wave even into academia. The changes in the region over time can only aid the mutuality of understanding and regional empathy.

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Chapter 7: Text, Space and Audience

7.1 Introduction

This chapter advances the idea that pan-Asian exports of TV, drama and anime have allowed Japan’s image to become ‘attractive’, echoing the notion of ‘cool’ soft power; in effect, constituting a shift away from the negative image of an aggressor nation. In taking advantage of East Asian cultural proximity, Japanese pop culture has become a resource for interaction that can be shared among people from these countries (Nakano, 2008b).

This chapter examines information from selected audience groups. Participants were enlisted from two cohorts: the first, university students from Korea, Taiwan and

Japan studying in Australia; and the second, university students domiciled in Korea,

Taiwan and Japan. The audience analysis was administered by survey questionnaire and focus group interviews were conducted shortly after completion of the questionnaires. The fieldwork in Australia preceded the overseas data collection. All participants remained anonymous. These students had a common interest in Japan and Japanese culture and only partially representative of the overall composition of their respective societies.

The chapter identifies shared cultural elements, those aspects of Japanese culture that are retained in content production, and the impression of Japan that is ultimately conveyed to regional audiences. My purpose is to ascertain if remaking of Japanese popular culture content contributes to a positive re-evaluation of Japanese culture in

Taiwan and Korea and in doing so, does it contribute to regional harmony? The

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participants and research methods, which were introduced in Chapter 1, are further detailed in this chapter.

7.2 Research Procedure

7.2.1 Method

The research includes information from completed survey questionnaires and focus group interviews. The structure of each focus sub-group was informed by Morgan,

Krueger and Vaughn et al who suggest that the ideal number of participants in a focus group should be no fewer than six and no more than ten. (Morgan & Krueger,

1998; Vaughn et al., 1996). Sternberg notes that it is better if participants know each other before the interviews so that they feel relaxed and can talk freely during the limited time of the interviews (Sternberg, 2005). I used the natural social setting of my study for the interviews, enabling a relaxed and intimate environment in order to solicit a natural response.

It is important to use focus groups if only to ascertain how people make sense of programming. Livingstone and Lunt note:

A common assumption is that people are not critical of television

programmes in any informed or informative sense. They may be either

accepting or rejecting, but not critical. However listening to ordinary people

watch television programs shows that they routinely make a wide range of

critical comments about what they see. (Livingstone & Lunt, 1994, p. 71).

Replies to the survey questionnaires and focus group interviews were analysed in the light of Livingstone and Lunt’s perspective.

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7.2.2 Data collection and analysis

The analysis of data derived comprised three distinct stages within the framework illustrated in Diagram 10:

 Stage 1: a blog analysis of Hana yori Dango audience.

 Stage 2: summaries of findings from the research questionnaires completed

by six participant sub-group and focus group interviews conducted with five

participant sub-groups.

 Stage 3: analysis of the collective findings, from which conclusions are

drawn.

Diagram 10 Research framework for audience analysis.

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7.2.3 Participants

Participation in my audience comprised two groups, one in Australia and one overseas. The groups in Australia comprised three sub-groups of Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese ethnicity. My overseas sub-groups were in Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

All participants joined surveys and discussions voluntarily. The age of group of participants for surveys and focus group discussions ranged from 18 to 30 years.

They were drawn from the University of Sydney, in Australia; Tamkang University, in Taiwan; Chung Ang University, in Korea; and Kobe Shinwa University, in Japan.

7.2.4 Data collection and focus group interviews

I was moderator for all data collection and focus groups. Since participants within each sub-group shared a common ethnicity, I only coded male and female participants. The questionnaires were handed to the participants in the respective sub-groups at the commencement of the data collection. The participants were given forty-five minutes to complete the questionnaires; they were allowed to make notes if they so wished, as an aid for the subsequent focus group. The focus group discussions were conducted immediately following the collection of the questionnaires. The participants were encouraged to talk freely during the focus groups and were asked questions from time to time to maintain continuity. The questions were focussed on Hana yori Dango (Boys over Flowers).

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7.3 Findings

7.3.1 Blog analysis Hana yori Dango

One of the target Japanese television dramas for my research was Hana yori Dango.

Various Japanese blogs relating to Hana yori Dango were collated and segmented into age groups. Findings are shown in Diagram 11.

Diagram 11 Blogs on Hana yori Dango

Source: Japanese Reception: Data collected from TBS Blog: 31 August 2008 to 1 September 2008

The data was collected by accessing the TBS Blog from 3 August 2008 to 1

September 2008. The predominant age group to express their thoughts and views on

Hana yori Dango via the internet constituted those in the age range of 10 to 14 years.

The number of samples as a trend diminished from this age group to the group with older contributors. Those in the age range of 20 to 24 years were slightly under represented. Overall, the 20–29 age groups were significant, comprising some 25 per cent of the total. This age group is used in my audience analysis. Gender was heavily weighted in favour of females; of the 429 blogs only three were from males. From this data one can assume that Hana yori Dango appeals to a largely female audience

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between the ages of 10−39 years old. The involvement of the 10–19 year age group is illustrative of the influence of the World Wide Web and is a field for continuing research into media trade.

7.3.2 Sub-group one in Australia: Taiwanese 9 June 2009

The surveys elicited views towards Japan and Japanese pop culture. Eight (5F +3M) of the twelve participants (5F + 7M) at the University of Sydney were fans of

Japanese television dramas and were regular viewers of it; the other four male participants were not fans but had seen Japanese television dramas. One of the female respondents claimed to be an avid fan: ‘I watch heaps of shows such as

Nodame Cantabile, Hana yori Dango, Hanakimi, Gokusen, Nobuta, etc.’ Another female respondent had watched Hana yori Dango, Meteor Garden, and Nobuta.

What was striking about the television drama series watched by the participants was that they mostly derived from manga which were remade into the television drama.

Some examples were Nodame Cantabile, Hana yori Dango, Hanakimi, Meteor

Garden, Gokusen and Team Medical Dragon.

Dramas such as Hana yori Dango are produced through remaking in a number of formats. The Taiwanese participants had access to the Japanese manga as well as the first remake, Meteor Garden, and subsequent remakes, the Japanese Hana yori

Dango and the Korean Boys over Flowers. Seven of the participants had seen remakes of the manga Hana yori Dango closely followed by Nodame Cantabile. Six participants said they had seen this. One male was not interested in Japanese television dramas and had only seen the Korean television drama Winter Sonata. All participants, with one exception, declared that they watched dramas on television.

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Two of the participants had seen Hana yori Dango on film, computer and video/DVD.

In determining elements of fandom for Japanese popular culture a number of core elements emerged. All participants were attracted to the story; humour and characters were also deemed important. There was clear overall enthusiasm for the dramas.

Some negative opinions were expressed, such as the dislike of particular actors, predictability of story, unpersuasive plots and fake dialogue, exaggerated storylines, and rushed endings. Another response, illustrating the transfer and sharing of feelings from Japan to Taiwan, was how the audience became emotionally involved with the content and that they discussed it with their friends. All participants who had watched Hana yori Dango confirmed their emotional involvement with the story.

One respondent said that she regularly talked about dramas with her friends.

Discussion between friends was reported by other participants, which supports

Livingstone and Lunt’s finding that audiences are critically engaged with the content of television dramas (Livingstone & Lunt, 1994, p. 71).

In considering the opportunities for remaking across geographical and cultural divides I was keen to ascertain the extent of cultural proximity between Taiwan,

Korea and Japan. There were a range of opinions on many things, with fashion, music and food emerging as the most common themes. The female participants were fairly uniform in their opinions on cultural proximity, whereas male participants barely expressed an opinion.

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When questioned about representations of Japan, both regionally and globally, a wider appreciation of the relationships between Taiwan and Japan emerged. Female participants, in particular, noted the positive effects of pop culture, current social issues, the influence of television programs and anime, and how these contributed to multiculturalism. Other comments included: ‘Japanese pop culture has been influential for a long time, not only in Asia’: ‘Japanese culture is in every culture’.

Male views were less focussed on popular culture and identified Japan’s electronic products, its cinema, and even a perception of a ‘positive strong country playing a significant role’. The ensuing focus group interview reaffirmed findings from the questionnaires.

7.3.3 Sub-group two in Australia: Korean 9 June 2009

Four of the five female Koreans of the seven participants (5F + 2M) at Sydney

University were fans of Japanese television drama. The surveys found there was overall positive opinions of dramas; for example, in response to Hana yori Dango one of the respondents nominated the ‘luxurious lifestyles that all audiences admire.

In addition, their age is from 16–18 High School which enhances fresh young concepts.’ Another respondent said: ‘it wasn’t another love story but contained academic struggle and classical music. Cinderella emerged in the context of Hana yori Dango’; another called it ‘a modified version of Cinderella in modern times.’

One respondent stopped watching Hana yori Dango towards the end of the drama because ‘it strayed too far from the manga’. Another was somewhat critical of the

Korean remake Boys over Flowers saying, ‘They put too much scenes on the love story, a lot of boring parts’. The responses point towards emotion as an important element of their drawing power. One respondent commented, ‘The humour

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contributes to comical relief but also is a true reflection of our lives, in that there are always moments of relief between periods of tension.’ Another replied: ‘I did get emotional. I cried when the heroin, Tsukasa, was bullied and assaulted by people’.

Television was the participants’ prime viewing source, and showed a mixed audience preference for the Japanese and Korean versions of Hana yori Dango.

Cultural proximity was evident; for instance, in the portrayal of romance in Japan and Korea, and respect for the elderly. I detected a softening attitude towards Japan from the focus group participants, though there were still unresolved issues between

Japan and Korea, which participants saw as important.

There are many cultural flows, but I am aware that Japanese history text book

issues exclude many issues that have left Koreans hurt and frustrated. I

believe forgiveness and a hope in the future is the only attitude that can

change this.

It can be changed; political relationship is based on cultural history. Unless

there is an official announcement about history, political relationship cannot

improve.

I am in favour of the cultural exchange. Korea has been known to be the prey

of Japanisation, but with Winter Sonata and pop idols like Toho Shinki the

cultural exchange is becoming bi-lateral and it is good to see as a Korean.

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Representations of Japan and Japan’s standing in the regional/global arena from a

Korean viewpoint were very clear and positive.

Japan’s impressive display of technologies and popular culture, such as anime,

manga, sends a very clear message that, though, such advances the country, is

becoming more confident and more embraced by others. They represent

themselves as stronger, enthusiastic and confident, and an active interest in

entertainment. Some cultural displays involve the integration of technologies

in normal day-to-day lives and their views on romance that have dramatically

transformed.

Other comments were:

It is amazing that Japan focuses on media to show their beauty and culture to

other nationalities. Their oriental tea, manga, traditional cultures all came

towards us with extremely fresh, new thing. In Korea, despite the fact of

awkwardness in terms of political issues, the teenagers love the Japanese

culture.

I think Japanese popular culture plays a big role in both globalisation and

regionalisation, but in different ways manga and anime are major exports in

the global stage, but these are texts that have been diluted of Japanese culture

and values to appeal to a wider audience. On the other hand, dramas, TV

formats and movies have been popular in the Asian region predominantly, as

they portray Japanese values and ways of thinking, customs, etc. that are

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similar to those of the Asian countries, thereby strengthening the regional

culture and relationship through consumption of same similar products.

The focus group interviews confirmed interest in Japanese television drama. Further discussion covered differences in Japanese and Korean stories, such as those that portrayed homosexuality and bullying; Korean dramas tended to steer clear of such issues. These aspects were subject to editing through the remaking process to contextualise the issues in accordance with current Korean standards. As one participant said ‘I was supportive of Japanese popular culture content as it is more detailed’. However when commenting on Korea media censorship ‘Every time it’s remade, they always water down or cut down something. It takes away a lot of things that I appreciate in the original’.

Japanese cultural values also excited discussion and drew out the significant role of

Japanese culture in global and regional markets.

Manga and anime are not specifically culturally Japanese, like… all the hair

is blond. They don’t depict Japanese values… They appeal to the global

audience, whereas dramas and movies are more culturally specific.

Even though anime and manga don’t specifically talk about culture, they

imply the interest in culture. I know a lot of fans of anime and manga and

they want to know where all this is coming from. It means that as they are

more interested they will end up liking Japanese culture.

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7.3.4 Sub-group three in Australia: Japanese 4 June 2009

The six Japanese participants (3F + 3M) at Sydney University in the survey were all consumers of Japanese original and remade television drama. From the surveys, I found that all had seen Hana yori Dango, while Nodame Cantabile and White Tower were also popular. The male respondent had viewed Meteor Garden, the Korean remake of Hana yori Dango, and Winter Sonata. The primary appeal of the dramas was the interesting stories, with characters also noted. Factors considered unappealing to the female respondents were: ‘Too structured, can guess how the story ends’; ‘When I can guess the story development’ and ‘More focus on the celebrities than the story’. The male respondent did not like vague endings to television drama. Despite the negative views, audience engagement with the dramas was significant. The two female respondents reported emotional involvement with television dramas. One female noted: ‘Interesting stories makes me feel close to the characters’. They all looked forward to ensuing episodes, with the end of an episode drawing them in to watch the next episode. The male respondent commented on

Hana yori Dango that he had become obsessed and emotionally engaged with the drama, always awaiting the next episode. Interestingly, he was not concurrently interested in other dramas.

The focus groups brought out more findings about cultural proximity. Participants were engaged with the East Asian region. One female responded: ‘Yes, I feel friendliness towards Taiwanese because they watch Japanese dramas and know

Japanese celebrities and we can share conversation’. Another said: ‘I think an ideal character of a heroine is culturally proximate. The dedicated gentle women’s type is likable in Japan and other Asia countries’. The male respondent drew attention to a

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global perspective in a regional context: ‘Compared to American and European dramas I feel much closer to Korean and Taiwanese dramas’. One of the female respondents noted a lag in Korea compared to Japan in respect to television drama content, from a cultural perspective, perhaps reflective of media regulation in Korea compared with contemporary Japan. She stated ‘Parents often interfere with sons’ and daughters’ love relations in Korean drama, family lineage is important. Same thing has happened a long time ago in Japan’.

In respect to regional de-regulation of popular culture trade the survey comments recognised that Korean government policy had accepted a regional reality with unauthorised media flows already occurring. Cultural exchange was viewed positively in improving regional relationships. A female respondent noted: ‘Cultural exchange brings mutual benefits. I think it is playing an important role in improving the historical negative image of Japan, from a Korean perspective’ She also drew attention to the importance of Japanese drama in creating regional harmony, noting the audience that it is created to serve ‘There is a generational gap between audiences for Japanese popular culture’.

The surveys mentioned representations of Japan viewed from outside of Japan in media content and production quality. A female respondent commented on ‘cute culture’ such as Sanrio character and anime and how production uses high quality technique for the creation of media content. The male noted how Japan has diversity in entertainment media production. Views were expressed in respect of Japanese popular culture impacting on the regional and global markets, how Japanese culture is maintaining its identity among Japanese overseas through anime and manga and

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how Japanese media products portray Japanese society and social issues. The male respondent raised a significant issue in respect to the potential for television drama to contribute to the reshaping of a society: ‘Japanese society is too formed, structured, and is a group society. With television drama, people can use their imagination and express their dreams. Scriptwriters and producers can create a world of utopia in their stories’.

The focus group commenced as soon as the questionnaires had been completed. The focus group, despite the non-attendance of the male participant, was reinforced by latecomers including one female and two males. The focus group confirmed the range of interest in Japanese original television drama as well as manga remade into television drama. An illustration of media trade from Korea to Japan was mentioned by one female respondent, ‘The Korean Winter Sonata, it’s my mother’s influence, I got tired after a while and I didn’t think it was as good as people say’. This comment was not surprising; my analysis has confirmed that Winter Sonata appeals to the female demographic Oyame–kei, women generally from the Japanese upper middle class who have graduated from a good university or college, obtained a job through parental connections and have had a comfortable life. One male respondent illustrated the influence of Winter Sonata in Japan by saying, ‘… it’s very much talked about and my mum liked it very much’. When participants watched television dramas they can become emotionally involved. A male respondent said, ‘Yes, I get totally gripped; I cannot stop watching’. A female respondent agreed:

I start watching a drama because it is a topic of conversation with my friends

or it’s because of the actors and entertainers who appear in it. Along the way

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I start getting emotionally involved if I feel empathy with relationship

problems and the way they view love.

An emotional response to television drama was evident in both female and male participants. Reactions to One Litre of Tears by a female respondent: ‘I couldn’t stop crying’, and by one of the males who had joined in, ‘It’s embarrassing to admit, but I cried’. Humour is also an important ingredient of television drama. One female respondent said: ‘Many of the dramas I watch are comedy; they all have something in them that makes me laugh’.

The discussion then turned to representations of Japan through popular culture. The female responses included: ‘My American friend said that because Japan excels in robot culture and robotic technology there are many animation movies with a robot, such as Doraemon and Astro Boy’: ’I think it is wonderful that Japanese culture, such as animation movies, go to other countries for exchange of different cultures and international mutual understanding’. Finally from the female viewpoint:

I also feel very happy about the way people outside of Japan accept Japanese

culture.

Now that we have these cultural exchanges the young people (outside of

Japan) hold a very good image about Japan. Countries like Korea, especially

among the older people, have a bad image about Japan, so I think there is a

gap there. When we have cultural exchanges we can have a good image

towards each other’s country.

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The male participants were less forthcoming but one male respondent said, ‘I feel very happy when a non-Japanese friend knows about Japanese productions’.

7.3.5 Sub-group four in Taiwan 2 September 2011

All five participants (F5) at Tamkang University were active viewers of Japanese television drama. Survey responses included from a female respondent who introduced another program genre into the discussion ‘Marumono no Okite (The

Commandments of Marumo) and other historical dramas because I love them, for example, Atsu-hime (Princess Atsu), Tenchijin (The man of heaven and earth), the legend of Ryoma-den (The legend of Roma) and others.’ When searching for the appeal of the Japanese content, it was clear that familial love, seriousness of production, interrelationships within the dramas and, even with other Japanese television content, was important, for instance the following comments were listed: ‘I can watch them with a light heart’; ‘I think it is good for switching mood. I like the warm feelings, such as love among family members’. Insight was gained from a viewer who enjoyed the emotional aspects of interrelationships between actors. For one respondent, ‘The personal contacts between people, such as house renovations.

The attraction is in fact that the emotions are moving for me and the experiences transmitted'.

The negative aspect of Japanese television drama was explored. Quite often replies consolidated what they liked rather than what they disliked. Two respondents did not like the lecture content implicit in some dramas, drawn out eye-to-eye shots were not liked. ‘There are many instances when they are preaching, many scenes with eye to

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eye contact’, ‘Sometimes the lines give too much preaching’. Interpretations of history were also of some concern to two respondents.

The preferred genre of television programs showed a range of likes: the overriding element being the appeal of love stories and family drama; for example: ‘Love stories, family dramas and school dramas’; ‘Historical dramas, love stories and family dramas’.

The participants were asked about their viewing preferences. All five had watched a version of Hana yori Dango on television; four had read the manga, two had seen a film version and four had seen the anime. In searching for cross-cultural appeal of content and format, one respondent noted that Japanese dramas mostly conclude by the 11th episode, and without too much unnecessary talk and digression; another respondent on Meteor Garden did not like the low production cost and the small difference between the rich and the poor. Another respondent had a negative view with respect to content which was ‘far removed from reality’. Of note with one respondent who commented on Boys over Flower ‘Korean culture was added’.

In considering the opportunities for remaking across geographical and cultural divides I wanted to learn about the extent of cultural proximity. As with the

Taiwanese participants in Australia there was a range of opinions. ‘Taiwan often copies Japan, I am not sure that they are culturally close, but they are similar.’ One respondent commented on her perception of the relationship between Korea and

Japan as a measure of relative cultural proximity: ‘Japan and Korea are close, a little different from Taiwan’ whilst she also noted that proximity existed with ‘Languages,

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the sense for honorific expressions’. Another respondent reaffirmed cultural proximity between Taiwan and Japan:

I am not sure about Korea, but I think Japan and Taiwan cultures are close.

Perhaps with the influence of the colonial era, things like housing style, food,

sweets like a bun with sweetened red bean jam, etc. Ways of thinking,

manners and the like are permeated.

When remaking is contemplated, I argue that the consideration of positive cultural reception is a vital ingredient for audience acceptance of content. In determining the propensity for values to be shared or not I questioned the views held by Taiwanese participants regarding Korea and Japan. One respondent was ambivalent: ‘I am not sure about Korea. There is a sense of intimacy but I can’t say as what are the shared points’. Another respondent saw a ‘high level of tolerance’ within Taiwanese culture,

Japanese in ‘belonging to a group’ and Koreans as ‘Very proud strong characters’ with respect to age. A further respondent was more reflective on television drama.

‘Korean and Taiwanese are similar in the drama storylines’. She also noted the influence of Japan on Taiwan: ‘Taiwan’s manga culture and otaku7 culture are mostly introduced from Japan’. Two respondents also commented on commonalities in respect to food: ‘we grow rice’, and moral attitudes, ‘Confucian thought’, while another drew attention to ‘Chinese characters, Confucian thought and Buddhism’

In searching for representations of Japan in Taiwan I wanted to know what was conveyed by Japanese media products such as TV, film, anime; what does Japan

7 Since the 1980s it’s been used, much like the term ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’ a hard-core or cult fan, to refer people who are really into anime, manga, video games, and technology (Galbraith, 2009b, p. 171).

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represent and what messages does it convey beyond Japan. There was a consensus that Japan was certainly representing itself beyond Japan in ‘comedy, otaku culture and idols’. Four respondents referred to ethnicity, the way of Japanese thinking, business development and fashion were seen to be influential in Taiwan. There was an almost unanimously positive reception of Japanese television drama; only one participant did not make a comment.

When the surveys were completed, I moved on to a focus group interview with the participants. The discussion covered aspects of the questionnaire, but I was searching for information within the focus group environment that could draw out additional views, particularly with respect to remade dramas. The focus group confirmed the popularity of Japanese dramas. One respondent informed the group that she watched

Oshin when she was at primary school, before she had studied Japanese. This television drama was broadcast in Taiwan and dubbed for local consumption.

Elements of the value chain were applied in Taiwan to increase the value of the remade production: ‘Oshin was endorsed on things like stationary with writing of morals and wisdom in life’. The appeal of Japanese television drama was reinforced by all of the participants. One respondent said: ‘I like real family heart-warming drama each person tells a story, do not look at the darker side, and let us look straight forward at good things. It gives me courage’.

The emotional content resurfaced with another respondent. ‘I like very much the earnest serious way they produce drama. Also they conveyed the pure emotion.

Other countries do not give such an in-depth depiction on a theme of work’. A third respondent said, ‘Because my favourite actors appeal, also the production is done in

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a serious manner’. One fan of historically based television dramas was drawn in by

‘complex events and people become more interesting’. Negative aspects raised in replies to the questionnaires were also reaffirmed by two of the respondents in the focus group interview: ‘The propensity for preaching and prolonged glancing one to another in scenes.’

I then guided the discussion to Hana yori Dango and its remakes. One respondent had only seen the Japanese television drama. Another respondent, while liking

Japanese manga, thought the manga Hana yori Dango was too long. She liked the dramatized version in the television drama format. Other respondents comments included: ‘I liked both the manga and anime versions’; ‘I had not seen the television drama but I have read the remake of the Japanese manga with Chinese characters’; ‘I have seen Meteor Garden; I did not like the bullying or the introspectiveness of the heroine’.

7.3.6 Sub-group five in Korea 18 November 2009

The nine participants at Chung Ang University (5F + 4M), were all consumers of

Japanese original and remade television drama; all the females were self-confessed fans. One respondent had seen One Litre of Tears, Nodame Cantobile and Boys over

Flower: others had Boys over Flowers, Meteor Garden and Hana yori Dango. One

Litre of Tears is a Japanese real life story in a diary form. It was remade into a novel and then remade into a television drama.

Characters and certain actors featured highly in participant enjoyment of television dramas. Emotional involvement with the television dramas was widespread. One

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male respondent said, ‘I try to think in the shoes of the characters in the drama, just as if I were the main character’. Female audience engagement was varied. All respondents, when interested in viewing a particular drama, keenly awaited ensuing episodes: ‘I look forward to a new character or event in each episode,’ The range of television dramas enjoyed was extensive, with themes featuring love, suspense thrillers, doctors, police, families, etc. Television was the prime viewing medium, and music also provided a measure of enjoyment. The two male participants liked manga and novels, but not television dramas that had female appeal. A view on the quality of remade television dramas was varied. One female respondent commented,

‘Sometimes the original is better and in other times the remade version is better’.

Negative opinions on television dramas were minimal. Respondents commented that they noticed poor directing and, at times, the inclusion of moral lessons in drama content. One respondent did not like television dramas that ‘did not sustain the initial freshness, becoming a commonplace story’. A male respondent did not like ‘settings that are impossible in real life’.

I wanted to know participants views in respect to changes in government policy in

Korea. These changes, discussed in Chapter 3, were pivotal, particularly in respect to media trade and relationships between Korea and Japan. The changes underpinned the opportunity for cross-cultural remaking. The respondents’ views were quite pragmatic and brought forward some opinions on why Korea opened itself to formal

Japanese influence. Female opinions noted the improving relationships among countries in North East Asia: ‘It is because the flow of culture cannot be stopped, even though they (some) did not want to open the door’. A male respondent said,

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‘Perhaps because Koreans will be isolated if they avoid exchanges without accepting anything’. The respondents were as one in their positive support for the improved ties between Korea and Japan. On balance, males were somewhat more guarded than females, but, notwithstanding that, supported improved ties between Japan and

Korea. A female respondent commented that ‘It was good for Koreans, as the range of cultures that can be enjoyed was extended’ and two male respondents said it was

‘A positive (move)’ and another said, ‘I think it was good for the moment’.

We turned then to views expressed by the participants on cultural proximity and representations of Japan from a Korean viewpoint.

It doesn’t look as if they are sending special messages as they are initially

made for consumption in Japan. However, I think various media permeate

among the people in the world and they familiarise us with the Japanese

sentiment, atmosphere and culture, and create the sense of presence of Japan

and make us long for Japan.

Participants expressed their views on Japan and the effectiveness of communication through media trade for Japan to present itself to the region and beyond. Comments included:

They show that Japan is a great power in media and superior in the industry

of storytelling

They want to convey the image of the country that represents the East.

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The attitude of females is distinctly more open and embracing of cultural interchange than males, but criticality remains. A female respondent said, ‘Many people used to dislike the Japanese people, perhaps because of their maniac aspects. More people like them now after drama and manga became popular’. A male respondent commented that ‘Usually Koreans give normal responses, as do other countries, but they severely condemn Japan when it shows the imperialistic side or does not show remorse from the past’, and another said, ‘I am wary of becoming too dependent on the Japanese content but I am enjoying it’.

One statement by a female respondent succinctly summarised the way forward in the context of cultural relations between Korea and Japan: ‘Young people’s attitudes are much more open than in the past’.

Following the completion of the questionnaires I proceeded with the focus group interview. Two males who did not complete the questionnaires joined the focus group. The interview reaffirmed the popularity of Japanese manga and television drama in Korea. The respondents also reaffirmed the extensive range of television dramas viewed by them, many from Japanese manga, some remade in Japan and some remade in Korea. The participants were aware of format differences between

Japanese and Korean television drama. With the longer Korean dramas, typically fifty to one hundred episodes, audience feedback influences the unfolding of the story; changes are made during the production to align with audience expectations.

One female said that in Korea most stories were about grownups. University students read manga and enjoy Japanese school drama. Boys over Flowers introduced a

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change in context for a remade drama. Some found the ‘tone’ of Japanese drama lighter: ‘Korean drama is heavy and drawn out’. The consensus was that Japanese dramas may have heavy material but they move on at a fast pace and finish quickly.

I then guided the discussion towards cultural aspects.

There is proximity within the East Asian culture compared to the West. Food

and kanji characters, at the subconscious level we share something in

common. When Korea opened its door to Japanese media, one male

respondent thought that Japanese culture would replace Korea’s culture.

Korean views on the image of Japan were similar among the males and females in the group. One of the females was clear in respect to the image of Japan represented through television drama: ‘The dramas represent the daily life of people so we get it naturally’. A male respondent said, ‘When I watch Japanese drama, we still have friendship and a dream in this world. I think they (Japanese) want to express that’.

One female respondent had a differing opinion between the message conveyed by television dramas and her experiences when visiting Japan.

When I watched Japanese dramas, they are light-hearted and so I thought

Japanese people would be light-hearted and they enjoy friendship and the

like. But when I went to Japan it was not the case. They are serious; they do

not open their mind easily. What I found different was that they were

individualistic and did not want to be ‘touched’. There is a notion of

discourtesy.

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In the context of interpersonal relationships practised in Japanese society, compared with relationships portrayed in Japanese dramas, one female respondent, isolating a cultural difference in drama and real life in Japan, reinforced the above opinion,

‘Even among friends they think it is discourteous, but in the drama they do not mind saying discourteous things’.

7.3.7 Sub-group six in Japan 8 October 2009

The largest group in this study was in Japan. The thirty-nine participants at Kobe

Shinwa University (39F), with three exceptions, were regular consumers of Japanese original and remade television drama and some Korean and Taiwanese dramas. This sub-group was larger than I had originally planned for, but it gave me a broader range of views from answers provided in the questionnaires than I would otherwise have had. I did not conduct a focus group interview because of limited access time to the group. Eleven of the group had seen Hana yori Dango and five Nodame

Cantabile, they had viewed a wide range of other dramas, including White Tower,

Buzzer Beat and Stairway to Heaven. Winter Sonata had been watched by six participants and was, though a Korean production, the second most popular drama viewed. The Korean remake of Hana yori Dango, Boys over Flowers, had been seen by two respondents and the Taiwanese remake, Meteor Garden, by four respondents.

The appeal of the various genres was varied, whereas the appeal of content was important to all.

A number of unappealing aspects were raised, some of which others found appealing. Some female respondents said, ‘what is inconceivable in reality happens, I

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don’t like an invented story that is far removed from reality’, another ‘Too much drama content seems unnatural’. A drama ‘using the same old pattern’ was a criticism raised by four of the participants. One stand out finding from the questionnaires was that 60 per cent of respondents reported that they became emotionally involved when watching a drama, while 15 per cent became involved to some extent and 10 per cent not at all. This emotional engagement was characterised by a range of answers: ‘Because I feel as the characters do’; ‘I cry and laugh’;

‘human relationships’; ‘I get drawn in’; ‘I get moved and cry’.

More than half looked forward to the next episode of a drama, a common answer being, ‘I wait for it as I want to know what’s coming next’. Clearly the retention of interest and anticipation created in an episode is a key component to sustained viewing. Most appealing dramas nominated were: Suspense 45 per cent, love stories

35 per cent, police 30 per cent and, collectively, family, school and medical 50 per cent. The percentages are illustrative of the extent of interest amongst particular genres. Only two participants selected comedy as appealing to them.

The views of the group were surveyed to gauge their opinions on cultural proximity between Japan, Taiwan and Korea. While there was some difference of opinion, some 50 per cent confirmed the view that there is cultural proximity, while 20 per cent indicated there was proximity to some extent. The participants gave a variety of opinions: ‘Because the three countries share the culture’; ‘They are close because

Japan influences Asia’; ‘The attitude towards one’s seniors and a senses of moral correctness’; ‘There is proximity in the oriental culture and decorum’; ‘I think so, food, facial features and so on’;

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Positive threads were evident from the answers given by 20 per cent of the respondents. ‘Beautiful is the friendship, we are neighbours’. ‘I hope that the cultural exchanges get more vibrant’. ’It’s good, as I think it is important to take in cultures from other countries’, ’ It’s good, knowing each other will lead to understanding’.

Fifty per cent of the participants were positive to the benefits of cultural exchange.

Importantly, one participant said, ‘I don’t think it is good that political problems prevent exchange of cultures’.

Negative views, though in the minority, were also expressed. ‘Korea and Taiwan are better than Japan’; in this context the respondent was positioning Japan as an alpha country and Korea and Taiwan as beta countries. Other respondents: ‘They look similar but they are not’ ‘nothing is shared’. Most had not given much thought to changes in Korean government media policy

In searching for participant views on what Japan conveys through its media trade the majority nominated culture as the foremost export: ‘The greatness of the unique

Japanese culture’; ‘Permeation of unique Japanese culture’; ‘Japanese way of thinking and Japanese life’; ‘Exquisiteness and high quality’; ‘Technology, popular culture, anime, manga, aesthetics, traditional culture and making things cute’.

7.4 Discussion

7.4.1 The female demographic

The information gathered from my focus groups provided extensive insight into many aspects of pan-Asian media. Information from the internet was taken from

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blogs. Blogs relating to Hana yori Dango were in almost all instances created by females; of these 45 per cent were in the 10–19 year age group.

7.4.2 Reception and influence of television serial drama

The study confirmed the popularity of Japanese popular culture in East Asia, exemplified by the manga Hana yori Dango in its remade versions, which are, chronologically, Meteor Garden in Taiwan, Hana yori Dango in Japan and Boys over Flowers in Korea. Hana yori Dango and its contemporaries have added to the fan culture in East Asia and beyond, and its acceptance in the region illustrates a commonality of regional core values. ‘Japaneseness’ is represented in the story and in other details of the production, and this is attractive to youth across Asia.

In the focus group interviews which further explored issues arising from the questionnaires, it was apparent that the participants from Korea, in both Australia and Korea, and, similarly, the Taiwanese in Australia and Taiwan, wanted to know more about Japanese culture and were very interested in what was happening among

Japanese youth. In a supplementary interview that I conducted with the President of the Taiwanese Youth Society of Australia, the interviewee observed that Taiwan has adapted much Japanese popular culture. Moreover, the Korean group confirmed that young Koreans, particularly in high school, copy Japanese culture, whether it is good or bad, such as ijime (bullying). This may reflect the influence of Japanese culture on the youth of East Asia through media products. The Korean government mediates this issue by suppressing violence portrayed in Japanese television dramas. This watering down of content did not have the total support of Korean participants.

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This study found that the opinions of the participants in Australia are remarkably similar to the opinions of participants in their respective countries. This supports the idea of ‘coevalness’ (Chua, 2004, p. 203; Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 122), that people in these countries share a sense of modernity which is linked to ‘cultural proximity’.

With television dramas there was positive commonality of interest in story lines and actors among all students interviewed. Predictability of outcome was seen as a negative with some viewers. Koreans liked Japanese humour, which was not so evident in Korean drama productions. Emotional involvement in the popular television dramas was commonplace in the region. However, the Taiwanese appeared to be more circumspect, as their involvement depended on the story.

Some of the Korean respondents expressed concern about the extent of product insertions in their dramas, such as ready links for purchasing featured lifestyle products. Fandom was strongly evident in all groups; viewers eagerly awaited the next episode in a drama and sustained a common interest in peer conversation. The

Koreans particularly liked the freshness of Japanese television dramas, fewer episodes and faster moving stories. The influence of popular culture on participants was more significant and was evenly distributed across ethnicity. This, in part, confirms the point made by Chua: ‘This empirically highly visible cultural traffic allows for the discursive construction of an East Asian Popular Culture’ (Chua, 2004, p. 202).

The viewing habits of the Japanese and Koreans were influenced by advertising, usually on the internet, and in one Korean example blogs were a prime source of information. Television was the preferred means of viewing dramas. There was a

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consensus with the respondents on cultural proximity arguably a commonality of cultural aspects in everyday life. The change in government policy in Korea was seen as beneficial in regard to pop cultural products. The Koreans saw it as a positive for cultural exchange and as confirmation of illegal and unauthorised access to Japanese media products. Later in the interview process, one of the Taiwanese respondents volunteered the view that Korean dramas were popular in Taiwan and that they had been placed in a later time slot to protect Taiwanese dramas. This may be seen as an adverse decision from a regional perspective given the progressive elimination of restriction on media culture flowing into Korea. As one Korean respondent commented, ‘leave politics to the politicians’. The Japanese text books issue was a concern for both Korean and Taiwanese respondents, both pointing to the need for

Japan to review this matter for the sake of regional harmony. The word ‘forgiveness’ was even used. The acceptance of Winter Sonata by Japanese respondents was seen as a very positive outcome for improved relations between Korea and Japan.

Impressions of Japan by the Korean and Taiwanese respondents included such concepts of cute culture, pop culture, technology, electronic products, beauty and cultural traditions, politeness and respect for senior from junior societal positioning.

The Japanese were perceived as strong, enthusiastic and confident. There was a common opinion that Asian pop culture had piqued global interest. The responses suggest that the youth of three cultures willing and open to embrace change and move on from historical prejudices.

Ang states ‘popularity is an extremely complex phenomenon.’(Ang, 1985, p. 5). In the case of Hana yori Dango the drama broke the typical pattern of a school drama;

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this was the only school drama at the time in which each episode of the story did not include a classroom teacher or students studying a subject in a classroom.

The respondents demonstrated commonalities of opinion. In this regard, popular culture is having beneficial outcomes in harmony, cultural exchange and mutual goodwill in the region. Youth acceptance of East Asian pop culture, remade across cultures, has brought a new awakening in Japan. The Japanese government has slowly appreciated the prospects for Japanese culture, not only in East Asia but globally. They have much to thank popular culture for, for its contribution to regional harmony and understanding and for progressively eroding historical regional antipathy towards Japan.

7.4.3 Research qualifications

There is a caveat in respect to my research findings, in that participants were not chosen based on gender but the overall segmentation turned out to be four to one with more females than males. The gender balance was significantly biased to females due to thirty-nine female participants from Kobe Shinwa University in Japan.

There was also another prospective bias since the majority of participants, if not of

Japanese origin, were studying Japanese language and/or culture. Notwithstanding these factors, television dramas are mainly of interest to the female audience illustrated by the blog analysis and validate my discussion. Another factor in respect to focus group interviews is that it would have been beneficial, in spite of recording the interviews, if I had used an assistant to write supplementary notes. Maintaining fluidity in the interview process required my full attention.

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7.5 Conclusion

The findings are results of the respondent cohorts are not necessarily representative of the overall composition of the Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese societies. The respondents are nevertheless young and educated members of their respective societies and give a view on the influences that may prevail on the upcoming generations. It is acknowledged that in both Japan and Korea there are ‘anti-Korean and anti-Japanese activists and the future will bring forward the reinforcement or dilution of these sentiments which are prospectively destructive to regional harmony.

The focus groups and surveys found there is still some residual stigmatism against

Japan for its colonial history, more so in Korea than in Taiwan, but that media trade is having a positive effect in bringing historical stereotypes into a modern and more forgiving context. The combination of replies to questionnaires, allied with subsequent focus group interviews, was a valuable method to use in researching the influence of Japanese original and remade media in East Asia. The questionnaires elicited individual views, and the focus group interviews allowed for free flowing discussion which, while confirming the survey findings, drew out additional insights for me both in what was discussed and also in non-verbal communication (Hall,

1990). These findings were not only popular culture related but also touched on regional issues.

The main finding of the project is the similarity of critical comments from across the ethnic spectrum of Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese participants. The findings confirmed Livingstone’s view (2005) that audiences are not trivial and passive.

Shared cultural elements far outweigh contrasting ones while exhibiting no diminution of national identity. There was a commonality of enthusiasm for Japanese

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original and remade television serial drama and cultural interchange, particularly with female participants, although less so with the males. This enthusiasm accords with Nye’s view (2004) that Japan is creating soft power through its media trade.

There is a definitive reinforcement of Japan’s identity in East Asia. This reinforcement is primarily driven by women, moving forward from adverse stereotypes strongly evident in the second half of the twentieth century.

The male participants in the research were found to be more conservative in their views on the social value of media interchange with regional cultures and, in respect to Japan, more conscious and less forgiving of adverse Japanese history.

Notwithstanding the gender differences, overall positive feedback on representations of Japan in Taiwan and Korea far outweigh the negative ones. Popular culture has an innate capacity for healing and cross cultural empathy. There was a clear distinction, confirmed by the audience findings, in attitudes prevailing in Taiwanese and Korean participants with respect to their attitudes towards Japan. The males were bound by stereotypes of past Japanese military excesses whereas female participants, while not disregarding history, put past Japanese militarism into a holistic perspective, including all that is good about Japan into a contemporary context. Females, more so than males, were positively influenced by Japanese popular culture. I argue that the female demographic will be more influential in reshaping Asia in the future as they exhibit a more embracing and forgiving regional view. They have a strong desire to move forward into the future rather than dwelling in the past, which is particularly important for Japan. The Japanese need to revaluate their East Asian neighbours, as my audience survey shows that a minority of Japanese participants consider Japan to be culturally superior to Taiwan and Korea.

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There was recognition among my participants of Japan’s standing in East Asia and that enthusiasm for Japanese popular culture is evident in both Taiwan and Korea.

Japanese popular culture is an important component of the Asian century, and television drama can serve as an important component of regional harmony, particularly when reinforced by regional media trade counter flows into Japan.

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Chapter 8: Janguru Taitei (Jungle Emperor): Opportunity Gained, Opportunity Lost

8.1 Introduction

This chapter draws attention to opportunities associated with the international flow of and trade in media texts. The journey of Janguru Taitei is representative of Japanese popular cultural outputs and global cultural trade. Historically, media trade has been dominated by the US and Europe. The creation of original content in popular culture requires particularly talented and imaginative people. In animation and anime, outstanding early contributors were America’s Walt Disney and Japan’s Tezuka

Osamu.

This chapter introduces Tezuka Osamu and investigates Janguru Taitei as a case study of adaptation and remaking. It will become clear how his creative abilities were insufficient to maximise profit by his company, Mushi Productions.

.Janguru Taitei was written and illustrated by Tezuka Osamu (Sugiyama, 2006). The remake in the format of anime was made for the Japanese market and retained the name Janguru Taitei. This anime was very popular in Japan, as was the original manga. The story was also considered appealing to the US market, and was eventually produced and released as the animated film Kimba the White Lion. This production was made for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and was a very important step in the journey of Janguru Taitei into the international domain.

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The chapter concludes by addressing the question: Is The Lion King a remade version of Janguru Taitei? The Lion King, widely known as a Walt Disney Company animation production, was reportedly inspired by, or remade from, the original manga, Janguru Taitei. According to several sources it is strikingly similar to Jungle

Emperor (Kyodo, 1994a; "Lion King is Strikingly Similar to Jungle Emperor," 1994;

Schodt, 1998a).

8.2 Background

Will the emerging twenty-first century be viewed from a media perspective as the

Asian Century? Popular culture remakes from Japanese sources are a vital aspect of regional media. This contributes to Japanese soft power and has already played a significant role in Japan’s regional status. Concurrent with East Asian acceptance of

Japanese media cultural products, we observe the growing international significance of its trade in creative content. The sale and licensing of creative content such as TV drama, film, manga, anime and video games can have unexpected consequences.

Janguru Taitei is an example of opportunity gained and opportunity lost in the popular culture jungle.

The chapter presents evidence to argue that the Disney animation film and subsequent stage production of The Lion King is an adaptation of Janguru Taitei and the remake of Janguru Taitei for the US market is Kimba the White Lion. Moreover, the stage version that followed the Disney animation is a natural extension of the theme and content, particularly of Kimba the White Lion. In reference to formats,

Keane, refers to the ‘wilful breaches of copyright’ in reference to Asia (Moran &

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Keane, 2004a, p. 10). The aspect of value retention in respect to copyright is expanded in Chapter 9. The real value of the manga was realised by NBC.

The intent in this chapter is not to delve deeply into copyright issues. Copyright is a very difficult area for media producers. Moran asks the question with respect to formats, ‘What exactly is a program format?’ (Moran, 1998, p. x). The problem of defining copying is difficult enough with formats. The problem becomes much more complex when companies endeavour to apply protection to content such as Janguru

Taitei. Another prospective problem with copyright is, even if the protection is very strong, does the owner have the desire or economic power to pursue it?

The value of copyright is affected by the passage of time. Until 1976, copyright protection in the US lasted for twenty-eight years and could be extended for a further twenty-eight years (Stim, 2011). The copyright relating to Janguru Taitei would have been complicated by the bankruptcy of Mushi Productions8. The remake of Janguru

Taitei into Kimba the White Lion for NBC, and the subsequent enforced sale of the property by NBC to comply with US antitrust law within the twelve-year licence period granted by Mushi Productions, also introduced another problem with respect to copyright. These factors, plus the length of time between the productions introduced the difficulties of challenging Disney for their apparent copying or plagiarism. The Lion King was produced some forty years after the original manga of

Janguru Taitei and twenty-eight years after Kimba the White Lion was released.

8 Tezuka Productions, anime studio, was the company founded by Tezuka Osamu in 1961and the following year the company name was changed to Mushi Productions, and then the name was changed again to Tezuka Productions in 1968 and bankrupted in 1973. He passed away in 1989 (Productions, 2007).

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8.3 Tezuka Osamu: an Artist, Creator and Remaker

Tezuka Osamu was born in 1928, some five years after the establishment of the

Disney Company in 1923. As a child he was an avid consumer of early Disney animation. His ‘cinematic-style stories’ in the immediate post-war years completely changed the concept of children’s comics in Japan (Power, 2009; Tezuka

Productions, 2007; Schodt, 1998b, p. 200). Tezuka was very well known in Japan and has enjoyed an international reputation as an artistic creator of manga and anime.

He initially qualified as a medical doctor, and with his production of manga and anime demonstrated a fusion of proven intellect with artistic talent. His father was a major influence on him, developing a love for Gento Shashin manga, which is a very early form of anime and uses projection onto a screen (Tezuka Productions, 2007).

Gento Shashin is a black and white presentation, and may explain Tezuka Osamu’s preference for this form of presentation in his original work. He chose a career as a manga and later anime artist rather than a career in medicine, creating over 500 different titles of manga (Tezuka Productions, 2007; Yonezawa, 2007).

The early Chinese animation film Princess Iron Fan was a major influence, in 1943, on Tezuka Osamu (Clements, 2011). In 1947, while he was a university student, he made his debut in as a cartoonist and created the manga Shintakarajima (New

Treasure Island), a book of 200 pages, selling 400,000 copies (Tezuka Productions,

2007; Yonezawa, 2007, p. 96). In this he illustrated his willingness to absorb and be influenced by overseas ideas while remaining firm to his own convictions about manga production. By 1950, he had firmly established his position as a leading manga artist. He serialised his work Janguru Taitei, in a monthly magazine called

Manga Shonen from1950–1954. Tezuka Osamu created a revolution in manga, and

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subsequently in anime, through his extremely productive and inspirational working life. Mushi Productions had four hundred employees at the peak of its success, compared with Disney at a similar period in time of its growth, when the latter had one hundred and fifty employees (Primrose, 2005).

The growth in employee numbers of Mushi Productions is a testament to Tezuka

Osamu as a major figure in the production of manga and anime. He created Tetsuwan

Atomu, known to audiences outside of Japan as Astro Boy. Initially produced in

1952, Astro Boy was viewed in forty different countries (Tezuka Osamu, 2011). In particular, Tezuka Osamu received phenomenal praise from audiences in the US. He serialised Janguru Taitei and subsequently Ribon no Kishi (Princess Knight)

(Nikaido, 2006; Yonezawa, 2007), these have become iconic productions. The remaking of manga into anime is a much more expensive process than the production of the original comic form. Perhaps this fact was not fully appreciated by Tezuka

Osamu and, along with other reasons that will be discussed later in this chapter, played a role in the ultimate commercial failure of his Mushi Productions.

Tezuka Osamu’s contribution to manga is well recognised in Japan. Sato admired

Tezuka Osamu’s contribution in an article in the Asahi newspaper ("Tezuka Osamu- san Shikyo," 1989, p. 19) . Manga had a very minor position in Japanese popular culture before World War II, but Tezuka Osamu lifted its status to be equivalent to film and radio. In particular, he established an underlying story, and in doing so, increased the genre’s diversity. Manga before Tezuka Osamu was treated as a subculture in Japan and for the entertainment of children. He created more sophisticated manga ("Tezuka Osamu-san Shikyo," 1989, p. 19). Tezuka Osamu

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initiated the richness of manga and has established an intellectual culture through manga and television anime (Yamada, 1989).

Tezuka Osamu expressed many aspects of life through manga, even tragic themes.

Tanaka (1994) pointed out that she was brought up with Tezuka Osamu’s manga

("Kotoba," 1994, p. 3). Manga has been accepted as a part of mainstream culture for a long time in Japan. Amano remarks in an article in the Asahi Evening Newspaper that Tezuka Osamu’s works Black Jack and Hi no Tori (Phoenix) were beautifully and powerfully remade into a theatrical play presented at the Takarazuka Theatre in

Japan (Amano, 1994, p. 8).

Tezuka’s works are characterised by their humanism and respect for life. Many of his works deal with the meaning of life, heroic survival and the ultimate personal sacrifice. Steinberg notes that the global success of Japanese animation lies in its visual style and strong narrative emphasis (Steinberg, 2006b). Contemporary media culture products reflect Tezuka Osamu’s early artistic work with manga and ‘he helped pioneer the “story comic” — the long (often thousands of pages), intricate novelistic format that is the mainstay of Japanese manga today and he relied heavily on so called cinematic techniques’ (Schodt, 1998a, p. 234) influencing many manga writers to establish a manga genre. Tezuka Osamu’s artwork, with its curvilinear lines and modern style of drawing, was attractive to readers (Yonezawa, 2007). His work was popular with many children and adults and was influential in the works of many other manga writers. His manga and subsequent anime also, over time, created a universal appeal, as the content was not limited to simple Japanese stories, but

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involved a more global context and complex understanding of humanity, perhaps as a result of his medical training.

However, my research suggests that Tezuka’s rigidity of ideas with respect to content and his lack of appreciation of cultural differences when addressing the US market, compounded by the different regulatory requirements, may have been a major factor leading to the bankruptcy of Mushi Productions. Tezuka Osamu may also have had a naivety with business transactions, as the US anime producer Fred Ladd noted,

‘business people stealing him blind’("Interview with Fred Ladd," 1966).

8.4 Janguru Taitei

The theme of the manga covers the life of a royal lion from his birth to his death, and his lineage to the ensuing generation. A young lion prince named Leo is born in

Africa, thus making his uncle Babu the second in line to the throne. Babu plots with a group of hyenas to kill Leo’s father, Panja, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Leo is led to believe by Babu that it was his fault, and so he flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile, he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own, thus completing the circle of life. The story is a very complex one, a parable of civilisation and representative of the humanity very evident in Tezuka Osamu’s life work. From a readership perspective,

Janguru Taitei, was successful in Japan and was viewed by Tezuka Osamu’s contemporaries as an artistic masterpiece. The number of volumes published in Japan between 1951 and 1999 is testament to its value to customers in the Japanese market.

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8.4.1 Remaking manga into anime

Mushi Productions remade Tezuka Osamu’s serial format manga into Janguru

Taitei. Janguru Taitei was the first Japanese anime produced in colour, sponsored, and initially broadcast in Japan, by Fuji Television Network. It commenced on 6

October 1965. The Japanese anime was remade, with voice over and English text, into an anime production in 1965–1966 for trade to the US. Tezuka Osamu originally planned for a black-and-white anime format, but colour television was available in

Japan at the time and Fuji Television Network wanted it to be in colour. Mushi

Productions had no experience with colour production and the Fuji Television

Network requirement created both a technical and cost problem (Tezuka Productions,

2007). The NBC association also influenced the decision, as they too required colour for the remake of Janguru Taitei which was named Kimba the White Lion. The wishes of Fuji Television Network and NBC prevailed, and colour was used for both the Japanese and US markets.

The Japanese anime, directed by Yamamoto Eiichi, was quite faithful to the original.

Tezuka Osamu oversaw the production for the US market of its remake as Kimba the

White Lion. The US version was very similar to the Japanese anime but repositioned for children’s viewing (as explained later in this chapter). The Japanese production retained the name of the manga Janguru Taitei and comprised 52 episodes (Nikaido,

2006, p. 65). Each episode was thirty minutes long and screened on Wednesdays, commencing with the release of episode one. The transformation for Leo from boyhood to adulthood is common in both the anime and the manga. The anthropomorphisation of animals is evident in the production, and the pervading messages and themes are comprised of the battle to establish an animal civilisation,

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friendship, love and the environmental protection of the jungle. The narrative focus is evocative, and emotions are embedded in the communication style. The Japanese readership of the manga and the viewing audience of the anime included both children and adults.

Japanese production, inclusive of the originating manga and remakes through a number of production channels and formats, was sustained from 1950 through to

2009, as summarised in Table 24.

Table 24 Japanese production of Janguru Taitei

Year(s) Title Format Content Broadcaster Production 1950–1954 Janguru Manga 43 episodes Tezuka Osamu Taitei(Jungle Emperor) 1965–1966 Janguru Taitei TV Anime 52 episodes Fuji Television Mushi Productions (Jungle Emperor=Kimba The White Lion) 1966 Janguru Taitei Anime Film episodes 1– Toho Film Mushi (Jungle Emperor) 41 Productions/Toho 75 minutes 1966–1967 Shin Janguru Taitei TVAnime 26 episodes Fuji Mushi Productions/ Susume Leo (New Television Yamamoto Eiichi Jungle Emperor – Go!Leo) 1989–1990 Janguru Taitei TV Anime 52 episodes Television Tezuka (Jungle Emperor) Tokyo Productions 1997 Janguru Taitei Anime Film 99 minutes Shochiku Film Tezuka (Jungle Emperor) Productions 2000 Janguru Taitei Anime Film Media Visions Tezuka Honoji- hen (Jungle Productions Emperor-Honoji) 2009 Janguru Taitei-Yuki TV Anime Fuji television Tezuka ga Mirai o Kaeru Productions (Jungle Emperor- Courage changes Future)

8.4.2 Janguru Taitei: from local to international

In explaining how Janguru Taitei became remade into Kimba the White Lion I will reintroduce Tetsuwan Atomu, discussed in Chapter 1, an earlier anime production

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from Mushi Productions. This anime has been the subject of extensive remaking and was a precursor to Janguru Taitei. Fred Ladd was a producer who was central to the introduction of anime into the US. Ladd wrote that Astro Boy, the 1963 remake of the

Japanese production Tetsuwan Atomu, was the first anime shown in the West (Fred

Ladd's Biography Page, 2005). This is further confirmed when Fred Ladd was interviewed by Harvey Deneroff. Ladd recalls ‘NBC’s representative in Tokyo saw a very, very limited action, adventure show on television about a little boy called

Tetsuwan Atomu which means Iron Fisted Atom Boy.9 NBC Enterprises, a division of the broadcast network, ‘picked it up very cheap’ (Deneroff, 1996a). He also noted that the NBC personnel had no real idea of what they were purchasing. The NBC representative saw Tetsuwan Atomu on Fuji Television Network; this network was still very young, having been founded on 18 November 1957. At the time Tetsuwan

Atomu was broadcast, Fuji Television Network did not have the capability for colour transmission, and the presentation for Tetsuwan Atomu was in Tezuka Osamu’s preferred black and white format.

The cheap purchase of Tetsuwan Atomu by NBC from Mushi Productions had two impacts of note. Firstly, this additional income for Mushi Productions beyond that secured in Japan had an effect on the production in Japan of Tetsuwan Atomu. Craig stated that the first episodes had a cel count of about 4000 (Craig, 2000)10. With the additional funds from NBC flowing into Mushi Productions from the US remake of

Tetsuwan Atomu, Tezuka Osamu was able to increase the cel count for the second

9 Iron Fisted Atom Boy is a literal translation, the implication of Japanese term ‘Tetsuwan’ means ‘mighty’. 10 A cel is one frame of a celluloid film where movement is achieved with progressive change from cell to cell to create visual continuity. The greater the number of cells projected per second improves the fluidity of movement as perceived by the viewer.

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year of the Japanese series, resulting in a better technical product with smoother animation. The increase in cel count, whilst improving the production quality would nevertheless have caused a corresponding increase in production cost, since the creation of each cel was by hand and this is labour intensive.

According to Craig (Craig, 2000), in the 1960s, the Japanese anime industry faced many more problems than their US counterparts. He explains that animation is an extremely labour intensive industry: a thirty minute cartoon in the 1960s required

1800 person days of labour, not to mention the increased material and overhead costs. Successful American cartoons, where production costs were readily covered by domestic market revenues, could be sold to Japan for about 100,000 yen per thirty-minute episode. Sales overseas provided an additional revenue stream for US producers with only minimal additional cost. The dilemma facing the Japanese domestic anime producers at that time was that their revenue was limited to the domestic market, which was less than half the size of the US market. They did make some overseas sales, but treated this revenue (as did the US producers) as a bonus. It will be seen that Mushi Productions established a relationship with NBC, not as a bonus, but to provide funds for the continued production of anime and the improvement of product quality. The cost factor is illustrated in the case presented by

Craig where the Meiji Confectionary Company initially sponsored Tetsuwan Atomu

550,000 yen per episode, against a production cost of more than a million yen per episode (Craig, 2000).

Mushi Productions had created two manga, Janguru Taitei and Ribon no Kishi

(Princess Knight). Tezuka Osamu thought these might be of interest to NBC. He was

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obliged to do this following his contractual arrangements with NBC for Tetsuwan

Atomu. He forwarded a proposal to NBC and NBC expressed interest in Janguru

Taitei but not in Ribon no Kishi. Ribon no Kishi was, in NBC’s opinion, ahead of public acceptance at the time it was offered to NBC because of the interplay of gender within the lead role. It was later successfully released through another distribution channel. As with his original Tetsuwan Atomu, Tezuka Osamu wanted the production to be in black and white. As previously outlined, NBC were very firm in their view that US stations would not accept animation in black and white. Mushi

Productions had a technology gap, as they had not worked with colour at the time.

NBC recognised Tezuka Osamu’s problem and informed him that they would provide the finance to enable him to convert his studio facilities to colour production.

Tezuka Osamu acknowledged NBC’s standing and put forward a proposal that included Janguru Taitei as a colour anime, but he did not fully appreciate what would be required to overcome the technology divide between black and white and colour production.

Ladd, following his association with NBC for the remaking of Mushi Productions’

Tetsuwan Atomu and its distribution into the US market as Astro Boy, was approached by NBC, which was aware of the capabilities of his team in animation and voice over. Tezuka Osamu’s relationship with Ladd proved to be extremely beneficial for Mushi Productions from a production viewpoint. In a meeting with

Fred Ladd, Tezuka Osamu pointed out that producing a black and white anime needed seven bottles of paint ranging from black to white and shades between for painting the cels. He then asked how many bottles of colour would be needed, prospectively thousands.

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Ladd arranged a meeting for four of Mushi Productions’ animators with the world- renowned animation artist Preston Blair. This meeting resulted in Mushi

Productions’ animators knowing what they had to do to produce colour anime within a practical colour range and understanding the importance of the concept ‘stylise and simplify’ emphasised by Preston Blair ("Interview with Fred Ladd," 1966). The resulting pilot for Janguru Taitei, created in colour by Mushi Productions, led to the production of 52 episodes, reduced from the original Tezuka Osamu plan of 78 episodes. The end product was commercially successful, syndicated and sold to 50 stations around the US (Deneroff, 1996a). The remake of Janguru Taitei further cemented the relationship between Tezuka Osamu and Fred Ladd.

The contractual arrangement between Mushi Productions and NBC was very favourable to NBC: they were accorded a first right of refusal stipulation on any future ideas of Mushi Productions for a television anime series. Moreover, the tie between Mushi Productions and NBC was seen as beneficial for Tezuka Osamu’s anime production, as outlined above, as he was able to obtain some up-front revenue, which would enable him to produce higher quality content. This approach was in contrast to his local Japanese competitors in the production of anime who perceived foreign sales to be a bonus over sales to the Japanese domestic market (50 Years of

Kimba 2009).

The commercial outcomes from Kimba the White Lion and Ribon no Kishi draw attention to the benefits and risks associated with remaking. With Kimba the White

Lion, Mushi Productions were committed through their agreement with Fuji

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Television Network to upgrade their production to colour. The arrangement with

NBC would only have resulted in a marginal increase in cost to present a colour version for the US market. This is illustrative of a low cost approach to remaking for overseas trade. With Ribon no Kishi there was no sharing of costs for the US trade, and Mushi Productions would not have achieved even the small return that Kimba the White Lion realised for them.

Following Janguru Taitei, Mushi Productions invested in a number of production proposals for NBC, all of which were rejected. These rejections draw forward another risk for both original content and remaking. When Mushi Productions content fell out of alignment with what NBC wanted, they did not have the flexibility of a ‘plan B’ or additional plans for cost sharing and distribution, and had failed to carry out market research. It can be postulated that this lack of flexibility may have been due to the strong standing of Tezuka Osamu within Mushi Productions. Tezuka was out of step with the evolving popular culture market, particularly in the US.

Another problem for Mushi Productions was in their loss of human resources, resources in which they had invested a massive amount of money in training anime artists, particularly for colour production. With the success of Janguru Taitei many production units were set up in Japan, enticing away Mushi Productions’ anime artists ("Interview with Fred Ladd," 1966).

There were more obstacles to be overcome. The reshaping of Janguru Taitei into

Kimba the White Lion fell to Ladd and his team. Ladd made no claim on the production, but did acknowledge in his interview with Harvey Deneroff that in bringing Japanese anime into the US, the creation of the US personae came out of

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his shop, although he had nothing to do with their creation. Ladd spoke strongly of his involvement in the early days of making Japanese manga accessible to US audiences and of his friendship with Tezuka Osamu. NBC liked the basic idea of

Janguru Taitei but saw it as suitable for children and wanted a number of changes made to suit its prospective audience. These included keeping Kimba forever young and not dying in the final episode. They were of the view that allowing Kimba to age and die in the final episode would progressively alienate the intended audience and they would see Kimba becoming a father figure and lose interest in the animation series. The focus was to be on Kimba’s boyhood adventures.

Fred Ladd drew Tezuka Osamu’s attention to the need to ensure that the production met the US Federal Communications Commission’s guidelines. Since NBC were targeting a young audience, death and violence were to be removed from the production, unless mandated by the plot and, in this case, hidden11 guidelines for content distribution in the US. Despite the changes to Janguru Taitei for US distribution, Fred Ladd stated that the production was very pleasing to Tezuka

Osamu and that the addition of humour delighted him.

I viewed both the anime Janguru Taitei and the animation Kimba the White Lion. In my analysis, I found the following similarities and the differences between the original version of Janguru Taitei and Kimba the White Lion:

11 The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and US territories. It was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and operates as an independent US government agency overseen by Congress.

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 The Japanese hero dies, while there is no death scene in the US production.

The majority of violence in the Janguru Taitei anime was removed for the

remake Kimba the White Lion. Changes to a gentler content are particularly

noticeable in episodes 18, 22, 34, 35 and 38 and particularly in the final

episode. Fred Ladd’s requirement was that any violence necessary for the

plot was to be hidden or off screen.

 The Japanese hero ages while the US version's hero is forever young. Fred

Ladd wanted Kimba to be forever young and reflect the attractiveness of

Disney’s Bambi. These are examples of remaking taking account of cultural

differences and target audiences.

 The message in the originating manga was that Leo (Kimba) would spend his

life after his return to the kingdom fighting to establish his animal kingdom.

The US animation did not include long drawn out animal battles.

 The US version was directed to a young audience, whereas the manga and

anime versions of Janguru Taitei were targeted at a broader based audience,

including adults. The narrative focus was also repositioned; in the original

manga, emotions were embedded in an evocative communication style.

Kimba the White Lion appealed to the perceived interests of US children in

superheroes: expressive presentation, more humour and each episode to be

almost a story in itself.

 There was a climactic point in the manga and anime atop Mount Moon that

was discarded in the US version (but subsequently used in The Lion King).

Music is and remains an important element of television drama within the scope of popular culture. In 1965, Tomita Isao, a well-known Japanese composer, composed

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the theme song and incidental music for both Janguru Taitei and the Kimba the

White Lion animation. Steinberg has argued that manga remade into television anime is particularly successful due to a mix of media (Steinberg, 2006a).

8.5 Is The Lion King a Remade Version of Janguru Taitei?

Is The Lion King a remade version of Janguru Taitei? In asking this question, I will touch on some facts and opinions already expressed, but which, more importantly, to lead to moral rights issues arising from the perceived copying or adaptation of the anime Janguru Taitei and the animation Kimba the White Lion. I have drawn a comparison above between Janguru Taitei and Kimba the White Lion, and will now compare Kimba the White Lion with the Disney animation The Lion King. The original title of The Lion King was King of the Jungle (Welkos, 1994, July 13). The translation of Janguru Taitei is Jungle Emperor, and Disney used the name The Lion

King for their animation and stage productions. Both titles represent a similar standing in their cultures. The film The Lion King was released some twenty-eight years after Kimba the White Lion: the two productions are only a little more than one generation apart. Both productions utilised animation, but Kimba the White Lion was targeted at a young television audience, whereas Disney used the content for an animation film of eighty-eight minutes duration intended for a broadly based audience in terms of both age and gender.

I will now focus specifically on common characters, albeit with different names, between Kimba the White Lion and The Lion King. The names used for the main characters in Kimba the White Lion were created by Fred Ladd and his team. Fred

Ladd wanted to rename the lion cub known as Leo in Janguru Taitei as Simba in

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Kimba the White Lion. NBC legal advice was that Simba was the generic Swahili name for lion and it could not be protected by copyright and therefore Kimba was chosen (Ladd, 2003). In Kimba the White Lion, the lion cub was called Kimba, his father was Panja, his mother was Eriza and the parrot was Koko. In the Disney version, the cub is Simba, the father Mufasa, the mother Sarabi and the parrot Zazu.

These are the main characters, clearly with name changes to differentiate the product.

Disney carries Tezuka Osamu’s message to protect the jungle in friendship, love and environment.

Disney asserted that The Lion King was their original work. This position is understandable when considering the huge financial windfall accruing to Disney from the film, which was released in July 1994 in the US. Within four weeks, sales were $US 143,000.000 (Kyodo, 1994b). Total box office receipts grew to $US

328,423,001 (All-Time Box Office: USA, 2011). The collective gross revenues, which are well be in excess of a billion $US from the anime film and the stage musical.

DVD sales and other merchandised items for The Lion King continue.

There have been many comments made questioning the source of Disney’s The Lion

King. Some scholars (Otsuka & Osawa, 2005) have stated that The Lion King must be a copy of Tezuka Osamu’s original manga, Janguru Taitei. Ladd and his team asked Tezuka Osamu to change some of the content of Janguru Taitei for Kimba the

White Lion. These changes are significant when drawing comparisons between

Janguru Taitei and The Lion King. The popular press in both Japan and in the US was equally critical of Disney. The Japanese Asahi newspaper stated that Disney’s

The Lion King, the greatest hit in the US is very similar in many ways to Tezuka’s

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work Jungle Emperor (Janguru Taitei)("Tezuka Anime ni Sokkuri Rongi (Lion King and Tezuka Animation are almost identical)," 1994, July 16, p. 11). They cited the

San Francisco Chronicle of 11 July 1994, which said: ‘… anime related workers were appalled … Both The Lion King and Jungle Emperor share the same story line…’ The Los Angeles Times of 13 July 1994 commented that ‘… the original title of The Lion King was King of the Jungle, almost identical to Jungle Emperor, with a name change prior to release’ (Kyodo, 1994a, p. 11).

However, Buena Vista International Japan (Disney), a company that dealt with royalty fees in theatres in Japan, commented that The Lion King is an original story based on Hamlet and the Disney anime, Bambi. At an interview in Japan, Disney’s

Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, directors of The Lion King, answered that while they had heard of Janguru Taitei, they had never seen Tezuka’s original work. In an article in the Mainichi Daily News on 13 July 1994, Trent Smith who is a specialist in royalty licencing of Japanese manga in the US wrote that he was appalled at

Disney’s attitude. Robin Leyden, who was co-writer with Fred Patten of the NBC’s

Kimba the White Lion, commented that he had to deal with ‘many complaints and telephone calls from Tezuka Osamu’s fans in the USA’ ("Lion King is Strikingly

Similar to Jungle Emperor," 1994, p. 26) . The commonality in these reports is they were all particularly angry about Disney’s statement that The Lion King was the creation of Disney and there was no plagiarism.

Disney produced The Lion King in the US in 1994 with no reference to or acknowledgement of Tezuka Osamu, Janguru Taitei or Kimba the White Lion. If one sees Janguru Taitei or the remade version, Kimba the White Lion, one will see

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commonality in the storylines, characters and camera angles, which show the marked similarities between these two productions and The Lion King. Kelts supported

‘Kimba is part human, part animal, whereas The Lion King is just an animal’ (Kelts,

2007, p. 45); moreover he asserts that Tezuka Osamu uses Disney’s technique of drawing and illustration. Tezuka Osamu was certainly heavily influenced by Disney and his drawing techniques, and this is well known and acknowledged by Tezuka

Osamu, but this is not the issue, since Disney was not the only producer of comic materials. It is all about the content, not the format. From a legal viewpoint, the matter may never be resolved. The moral implications in my view are much clearer; in all of my research into The Lion King I was not able to find a single acknowledgement by Disney of Janguru Taitei, Kimba the White Lion or Tezuka

Osamu as having contributed in any way to the Disney production of The Lion King.

Jon Rock articulates the ownership theory: ‘I own my body, so that body which is owned by me was produced through my labour and that belongs to me’ (Yamada,

2003, p. 2). However, his opinion becomes questionable when related to Janguru

Taitei and The Lion King and perceived as idealistic as the technological, legal and economic power of global companies, such as Disney, continue to evolve. In this context we accept Janguru Taitei, metaphorically as the body.

There is no denying that the stage musical The Lion King is an adaptation of the animated film The Lion King. The issue remains that both can be considered to be an adaptation or remake of Janguru Taitei and Kimba the White Lion. The stage musical

The Lion King has had an extensive and sustained international showing and great audience support. It is interesting to reflect on the fact that this production used

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humans with costumes to emulate animals; this endeavours to retain the essence of the originating animation and makes no attempt to convert the story into a wholly human setting. A Shiki12 media release confirms that the stage musical Lion King was based on the Disney animated film Lion King and has had outstanding international circulation and audience support over very many years, and up to the present time (Lion King, 2011). The sustained success of the stage production in

Japan is testament to the appeal of the story and its presentation. In Japan, there have been thousands of performances of The Lion King and audiences measured in the millions. Tezuka Osamu may well have felt that it was an honour if his work was influential to Disney.

Remaking is an activity that requires better legal protection for the creators and/or owners of the original content. Large corporations such as Disney have the benefit of human, media, financial and legal resources, as well as access to the US Government through lobbying that is not available to the same extent to smaller organisations and individuals. The balance of power is skewed to the large corporations with legal trade let alone with unauthorised copying activities. The Japanese government, as discussed in Chapters 4 and 9, is aware of the problem and they are now taking steps to safeguard Japan’s media industry, including a search for regional cooperation.

Sparks draws attention to the process whereby a ‘cultural artefact produced entirely for a local market in a developed country becomes a genuine global commodity’(Sparks, 2007, p. 181).

12 Shiki is one of the largest Japanese theater companies which was established by Asari Keita in 1953. Shiki Theatre Company has 8 home theatres throughout Japan and have over 3000 performances per year (Shiki Theatre Company Introduction)

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In the case of Janguru Taitei, the process was not so simple. The cultural artefact

(manga) was produced by Tezuka Osamu entirely for Japanese consumption as with the Japanese anime remake from the manga; almost concurrently, the Kimba the

White Lion animation was created by Tezuka Osamu remaking the original cultural artefact for a regional (US) market. The Lion King, in both animation and stage formats, was produced as a global commodity. Sparks goes even further in reference to ‘historically-oppressed people being mined and exploited by a global media giant located in an oppressor country’ (Sparks, 2007, p. 181). I would argue that people do not need to be historically oppressed for this process to eventuate.

Sparks illustrates his point with the example of Winnie-the-Pooh, created as a work of fiction by the writer Alan Alexander Milne and the illustrator Ernest Howard

Shephard. Their publications became global, and additional value was generated through exploiting the value chain. Sparks noted that at the time, ‘authenticity’ or

‘exploitation’ were not issues; this position was to change. He noted that in the

1960s, Disney acquired most of the rights to the two books by Milne and Shephard,

Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. He drew attention to a recent major legal battle (Sparks, 2007, p. 182). The legal battle, which actually took place over a number of years, was lost by Disney as noted in an ABC news report (ABC,

2007). In the same news report, it was also noted that ‘Milne's granddaughter, Claire, has sought to claim back the rights to the honey-guzzling bear with Disney's support’, suggesting a complicated or fragmented copyright. Disney’s commitment to continuing the extensive legal process beyond this judgement and the apparent legal ambiguities is illustrative of the problem in protecting copyright. Despite the earlier ruling, Disney continued with litigation and won the war as Stephen Slesinger

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Inc., the owners of the US copyright, could not maintain the continuing costs in defending its position. ‘Stephen Slesinger Inc. transferred all of its rights in the Pooh works to Disney, and may not now claim infringement of any retained rights’ (Clark,

2009). The judgement must have had elements of compromise since ‘Disney declared itself pleased with the outcome. Stephen Slesinger's daughter, Patricia

Slesinger, told the Los Angeles Times: ‘Judge Florence Cooper provided a potential and an elegant middle-ground solution that will allow us to go forward with our business relationship – hopefully without more litigation’. (Clark, 2009).

Another issue in respect to copyright owners obtaining appropriate returns for their property is ‘Hollywood accounting’. The structure of contracts and, probably more importantly, the opportunity to have arm’s length professional audits on sales and profits, is often uneven. In respect to film, ‘the studio distributing the film is both bookkeeper and residual profit claimant, subject to real moral hazard’ (Caves, 2003, p. 81). Disney, as a publically listed company, has the imperative to declare ever- increasing sales and profits to maintain and improve its net worth in the market.

Creative accounting may well be the outcome of the moral hazard, to the detriment of copyright owners. Winnie-the-Pooh was a very valuable property for Disney, with numerous remakes and a plethora of formats and merchandised products, as was the case with The Lion King: the respective net worth is protected, irrespective of moral imperatives.

Wasko touches on a complementary issue: the aspect of recognition of moral rights with respect to creative outcomes within a business entity. Credits were given in

Disney feature films but never with Disney cartoons: ‘Walt Disney’ was the only

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credit (Wasko, 2001, p. 16). Wasko sketches the transition in Walt Disney’s philosophy when faced with labour problems within Disney, where he moved from a view that ‘distrusted bankers and the monopolistic practice of big business’ to his involvement in the ‘formation of the Motion Pictures Alliance for the Preservation of

American Ideals’ (Wasko, 2001, p. 17). In dealing with conflict, his views were aligned with jingoism or self-interest. He sought to demonise dissent, preferring to lead a harmonious enterprise. This change from his early years may represent a tactic used to grow a large enterprise, one which was completely alien to the philosophy and life of Tezuka Osamu.

With respect to the position taken by Disney regarding The Lion King and the intellectual property rights pertaining to Janguru Taitei and Kimba the White Lion,

Schodt regards Disney’s approach as being in alignment with contemporary US corporate culture ‘where denial of wrongdoing, when faced with comment or the prospect of litigation, is the automatic response’ (Schodt, 1998a, p. 274). Intellectual property rights, as Wasko explains, are ‘a vital issue for media and entertainment companies’ (Wasko, 2001, p. 83). One moves to a view of Fortress US where lawyers, the FBI, The State Department and Interpol are all drawn into protecting property rights, real or assumed (Wasko, 2001). The multi-pronged approach used by media in the US may well in some way explain the Japanese government’s current commitment to its own media industries.

Disney utilised resources, including political campaign contributions to both houses.

The outcome was that Congress passed legislation extending copyright. The

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significance for Disney was that this extended copyright for Disney’s core icons created by Walt Disney, including Mickey Mouse. Disney’s investment clearly paid off as they are still obtaining revenue that would otherwise have been lost. Schodt has noted that ‘T-shirts were still being sold at American comic conventions that showed Tezuka’s Kimba in front of a mirror seeing the reflection of the face of

Disney’s Simba. Underneath, the caption reads, “The Lyin’ King: Mirror mirror, on the wall, who created me after all?’ (Schodt, 1998a, p. 274). The reference to the mirror derived from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was heavily influenced by the European fairy tale popularised by the Brothers Grimm.

8.6 Concluding Remarks

In this chapter, I have illustrated the complexities associated with the creation and protection of media content through the remaking journey of the Japanese manga

Janguru Taitei. The creative industries will always be subject to controversy with respect to the authorship of an original text. This position, particularly in current times, is greatly exacerbated by the plethora of information available from multimedia and the explosion of information on the internet. Simple confirmation of authorship, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century, has been irreversibly challenged, and original authorship may not be resolved where commercial exploitation of a creative idea takes place.

As the industry of remaking of original texts evolves, we can see the potential for conflict being compounded by commercial imperatives. The works of Tezuka

Osamu, and in particular his original manga, Janguru Taitei, have proven to be an example of the apparent loss of protection and value. For Mushi Productions,

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following their bankruptcy in 1973, determining the ownership of Janguru Taitei became difficult. NBC’s position with regard to Kimba the White Lion was affected by the forced expiration of the rights they could have held for a total of twelve years to September 1978. They were forced to divest themselves of assets as a result of a federal antitrust ruling requiring them to exit the syndicated television market, with the properties being sold to National Telefilm Associates.

The core of the issue lies in the answer to the question: Where did Tezuka Osamu draw his inspiration from in producing Janguru Taitei? We know that his childhood was influenced by the work of Walt Disney; this would have influenced his drawing style. Where did the artistic richness of Janguru Taitei and the sustained production of the original manga come from? We can conclude that Janguru Taitei is an original manga from an extremely gifted artist with a vivid imagination who was able to create stories that could transcend Japan and become internationally significant. The production of Kimba the White Lion, a remake of Janguru Taitei, and the commercial arrangements enabling its production effectively illustrate the acceptance of the authenticity of Tezuka Osamu’s original work. The remake for the US market was subject to such changes as the producers considered necessary to meet the demands of the respective audiences and their anticipated acceptance or rejection of elements within these texts. The corresponding expansion and commercial exploitation peripheral to the core production was also important in the overall success of the production.

My study has shown that there is a commonality between essential elements of the

Disney production of The Lion King, the manga Janguru Taitei remade into the

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anime Janguru Taitei for Japanese audiences and Kimba the White Lion, produced for US audiences. Notwithstanding the basic theme and the comparably vast range of animals used, focussing on the lion cub Kimba in Kimba the White Lion and Simba in the Disney production would seem to suggest that if we accept that The Lion King was an adaptation of Kimba the White Lion with changes, but retaining the essence of the original remakes, then we must acknowledge the original work and creative spirit of Tezuka Osamu. The ensuing success of the stage production shows what anybody who has attended the production would know: that additional creative talent has been unleashed through inspiration from Japanese manga. Tezuka Osamu is the iconic

Japanese artist that started the process as evidenced by the story of Kimba the White

Lion. Hamano points out that The Lion King is a copy of Janguru Taitei. I share this opinion with the added acknowledgement of the creativity of Yamamoto Eiichi and

Fred Ladd’s creative team in the production of Kimba the White Lion. I argue that goodwill and integrity between interested parties in the process of adaptation and remaking may prove to provide better protection than that afforded by the law. This position is representative of the NBC arrangements with Mushi Productions but clearly not with Disney.

On reflection, it illustrates the pragmatism in Japan with respect to copying, from historical roots, the difficulty of adequately prescribing the content to be protected and the inherent weakness in the scale of Japanese production that affects the ability to protect original content against a corporation the size of Disney.

At Disney, we believe that being a good corporate citizen is not just the right

thing to do; it also benefits our guests, our employees and our businesses. It

makes the company a desirable place to work, reinforces the attractiveness of

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our brands and products and strengthens our bonds with consumers and

neighbours in communities around the world’ (Disney, 2010).

My research demonstrates that when the content of Janguru Taitei and Kimba the

White Lion is compared with that of the Disney animated production, The Lion King, we can observe significant copying by Disney. The Lion King was subsequently remade into a very successful musical. Disney showed flair and employed extremely high quality musical and theatrical elements to exploit an opportunity that was not taken up by Mushi Productions or NBC.

I conclude this chapter with a simple message from Tezuka Osamu: ‘What I try to appeal to through my works is simple. The idea is just a simple message that follows.

Love all creatures! Love is everything that has life! I have been trying to express this message in every one of my works’ (Tezuka Productions, 2007, p. 26). Tezuka

Osamu certainly has made a significant contribution to both Japanese and global culture, but was not able to provide a sustainable future for his Mushi Productions.

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Chapter 9: Media Trade in East Asia: Culture and Value

9.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses issues relating to the cultural and economic value of media trade. The interest in media exports illustrates a trend towards a Pan-Asian regional trading zone countering the paradigm of (Western) cultural imperialism. The first section of the chapter investigates how media exports contribute to regional cultural integration. The second section draws attention to the importance of the sustainability of popular culture trade, inclusive of remaking, within and across geographical borders. The financial implications, through the concept of the value chain, are discussed and its negative aspects are considered, which relate to the issue of value leakage. To put Japanese loss of media trade value into context I draw a comparison using international perspectives. This section concludes with a mini case study on the financial dynamics of media trade in Korea and Japan, which is illustrative of the growth in regional popular culture.

9.2 Media Trade

9.2.1 Remaking and cultural frames

As discussed in this thesis, Hana yori Dango is an example of regional media trade.

When media products are traded from one culture to another they need to negotiate cultural differences. Diagram 12 represents a cycle of remaking. It illustrates the concept of composite remaking, where the end product is created from more than one originating text and moves through a complex of cultures.

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Diagram 12 Cycle of media content through the remaking process

Lee draws attention to regional connectivity and cultural trade in East Asia: ‘The popularity of Japanese media products in Asia in the 1990s has challenged the hegemony of US/Western media culture. During this period, Japanese popular culture served as a leading resource for the trans-cultural phenomenon among Asian countries’ (Lee, 2004). Lee acknowledges that the US retains its importance as a global player but also recognises the changes in regional media trade. The US remains the most important global player directing media products into Asia; however, the growing interpenetration of local media markets and products in proximate Asian countries is changing the balance in the region (Lee, 2004). In countries like Korea prior to 2000, fears of Japanese culture were stronger than fears of Westernisation. The question therefore is: Can Japanese pop culture shift perceptions in the region about Japan as a good neighbour?

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My audience analysis in Japan confirmed some residual entrenched notions of superiority in Japan. As Chua has noted from the perspective of Japan: ‘It has a tendency to place the rest of Asia at a culturally-historically “backward” position’

(Chua & Iwabuchi, 2008, p. 80). This view is reflective of a historical reality fuelled by the benefits derived from the Meiji Restoration ‘being in Asia but not part of

Asia’ (Chua, 2008, p. 80). Looking to the future, from my findings in the present, the majority view of the Japanese research participants was more pragmatic and regionally embracing, discounting the notion of superiority. Chua’s observation is that ‘a cultural-historical temporality defined by the level of development in capitalist modernity’ (Chua, 2008, p. 80) is becoming evident in Japan. Japanese female university students within my research parameters confirm that the temporality is now finite and Japan is re-engaging with Asia, and this is being recognised and supported by a significant segment of Japanese youth. The spectacular modernisation of Taiwan, Korea and, more importantly from an Asian perspective, China, has contributed to respectful perceptions of each other and the development of capital into a regional commonality.

9.2.2 Cultural influence

The television dramas Hana yori Dango and Winter Sonata have shown how mediation can occur across independent high context cultures. Chapter 7 showed there was enthusiasm for Japanese stories, humour, actors and characters and this was generally associated with shared values. Familial love, respect for honorifics and the elderly, food and fashion were found across the surveyed research participants from Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The shared values have the capacity to expand the proximity of the viewer of television dramas and provide a space beyond the

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immediate audience space and move the viewer from a formal to an informal level of culture. This informality, which overrides national conservatism or prejudices, enables a greater empathy for external inputs and, in turn, may contribute to regional cultural harmony. This process is illustrated by the success of Hana yori Dango and

Winter Sonata in East Asia. Janguru Taitei, albeit with changes to content, demonstrates that this process can also occur between the high context culture of

Japan and the low context culture of the US.

The cultural impact of media trade in East Asia has been described in the past using the terms cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism is generally associated with cultural homogenisation and globalisation. This process is seen to be primarily West to East, or North to South.

Media trade is important for cultural diplomacy, not only for Japan but also in Asia.

Japan is often categorised as a monoculture and a homogenous society, which suggests that it is impervious to cultural trade and incapable of change. This view is not universally shared (Denoon, Hudson, McCormack & Morris-Suzuki, 2001).

Rather than being a loss, or dilution, of identity my audience research presents it as an enriching process, evidenced through the matrix of media trade in East Asia. This trade is creating islands of commonality across cultures. These islands, for example the Japanese female fan base segment for Winter Sonata, enable the transfer of ideas and feelings that are supportive to the remaking of texts and their expanded appeal beyond the country of origin. The islands may be transient or they may be refuelled by new television dramas in original or remade formats having appeal across geographical divides.

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Straubhaar defines hybridisation as ‘new elements from outside a culture, whether from slow gradual contact or major threshold change, tend to be adapted to local culture over time’(Straubhaar, 2007, p. 12). However, hybridisation is rarely used to describe cultural products. Cultural hybridity (Burke 2010) or ‘hybrid culture’ are more useful concepts to describe the outcome of cultural mixing. Alongside hybridity we need to account for indigenisation. Appadurai recognises the process of indigenisation ‘at least as rapidly as forces from the metropolises are brought into new societies they tend to become indigenized in one way or another’ (Appadurai,

2003, p. 30). Both Strauhbaar and Appadurai refer to ‘hybridity’ more as a tendency that entails a degree of acceptance in the new culture. The process creates a hybrid culture, possibly diluting to a greater or lesser extent the original culture. Appadurai draws attention to cultural homogenisation linking this to Americanisation. He notes that Americanisation might be of less concern than ‘Japanization may be for

Koreans’ (Appadurai, 2003, p. 30). He also refers to the tensions between cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation. I argue that these concepts are primarily viewed from a Western perspective. An illustration of the difficulty in applying terminology to events is illustrated by Ratanen’s observation regarding similar events viewed from the perception of two researchers. He points out the conundrum arising from research observations when Hamelink and Lull drew opposing findings when observing similar events. Hamelink defined the event as representative of homogenisation, whereas Lull noted it as hetereogenisation.

(Rantanen, 2005, p. 93). My audience findings tend towards Lull’s opinion on cultural transfers in the context of East Asia. ‘We have not, and will not, become one people’ (Lull, 2000, p. 233). This does not detract in any way from the prospects of

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mutual enjoyment of each other’s media. Hybridity, if it occurs, does not detract from what is quintessentially Japanese culture, nor does it detract from its identity.

My audience research found, in respect to Korea, no significant adverse views about the effect of Japanisation on Korea. This concern, where expressed, was predominantly a male one. While popular culture has prevailed, ‘the legacy of

Japanese imperialism in Asia’ remains (Iwabuchi, 2002, p. 27). In considering residual ‘ideoscapes’ of Japan from a mainland Asia perspective ‘concatenations of images-directly political’ (Appadurai, 2003, p. 34) derived from the twentieth century military excesses by Japan still exist . Political implications, discussed in

Chapter 3 with respect to Korea, also include the residual memories of Japanese military invasions of mainland Asia. All the horrors of war, paralleled in Europe, remain, including unsustained colonialism in China, Taiwan and Manchuria. As further examples the issue of comfort women in Korea and territorial claims between

Japan and Korea continues to simmer. The issue of historical representations of

Japanese military occupation in Japanese text books also remains a contentious and abiding cause for concern. Japan has reinvented itself in the second half of the twentieth century and has made positive contributions to world humanitarian issues.

It has also invented its own ‘pop culture’

Bhabha states that ‘all forms of culture are in the process of hybridity’ (Rutherford,

1990, p. 208). This raises the question of what is hybridity and how is it adequately defined? Burke notes of books: ‘Translations are the most obvious case of hybrid texts’ (Burke, 2009, p. 17). Further, in respect to the ‘equivalent effect’, he states,

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‘the introduction of words and ideas that are familiar to the new readers but might not be intelligible in the culture in which the book was written’ (Burke, 2009, p. 17).

What is the boundary between the commonality of enjoyment of a television drama in original or remade format across cultures, and what is its propensity for variation?

In his seminal study of popular media, Kraidy introduces many examples of hybridity, quoting Nicholas Thomas, ‘Hybridity is almost a good idea, but not quite’

(Kraidy, 2005, p. vi). He presents his view in respect to the juxtaposition of globalisation and hybridity:

The sheer repetition of the word ‘hybridity’ in hundreds of media outlets and

dozens of academic disciplines gives hybridity an aura of legitimacy and

hides its inherent contradictions as it mystifies globalizations material effects

(Kraidy, 2005, p. 148).

While not entering into a discourse on ‘the complex and active links between hybridity and power’ (Kraidy, 2005, p. 149), I argue that it is not an exact term to classify the acceptance of Japanese popular culture in East Asia. When Japanese popular culture is translated or remade, as illustrated by findings on Hana yori

Dango, the form and context of the text remains important and relevant throughout the process of remaking. It is necessary to be very cognisant, therefore, of the ‘give and take’ effect. Appropriate changes to content overcome prospective rejection of the text in whatever form it may be presented. For instance when a television drama is remade from an original manga or in any form of translation, it is important to align the text to the cultural frame of the intended audience.

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The audience analysis in this thesis gave some insights into hybridity in East Asia.

Shim notes that the intrinsic attribute of cultural flow is hybridity (Dooboo, 2005).

The term ‘cultural flow’ suggests a one-way movement of culture; however, in this thesis evidence is presented of a more complex counter flow of popular culture. In respect to the inherent complexity of the audience for cultural flows or trade, Hills says, ‘neither constructivist or cognitive theories can account for the formation of fan cultures through the expression of “personal significance”’(Hills, 2002, p. 93), this draws the discussion about hybridity back to the personal or the fan group. The transfer of texts in original and remade forms from my findings is closer to the position expressed by King and Craig, who argue that local cultures are resilient

(King & Craig, 2002). King and Craig say ‘popular culture is constantly being rediscovered and reconfigured by its audiences and performers’ (King & Craig,

2002, pp. 5-7).

9.2.3 Hybridity or harmony?

A third way of examining the impact of pan-regional media trade comes with the introduction of the concept of harmony. Harmony within Japan is exemplified by

Zen concept as illustrated in Tea ceremony. Harmony (和―wa), Respect (敬-kei),

Purity (清-sei), Tranquility (寂―jaku) values in evidence through the process of making and sharing tea. Harmony is not necessarily a universal value in Asia but evident in China and forming the essential concept of Taoism. Korea has been reborn as a result of the Korean War and harmony does not exist between North and South

Korea. Notwithstanding this the influences of China and Japan are a component of

Korean society today. Regional openness to media, whether finished programs, formats or remade stories, has the effect of consolidating genres. The sharing of

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values through popular culture, rather than focussing on cultural differences, can bring people closer together. Regional identity and localisation is the dominant mode of the regional flow of cultural ideas.

The popular culture content analysed in previous chapters was acceptable to audience segments within my surveys across cultural and geographical divides. The aspect of localisation was a very important component in enjoyment of the content but not at the expense of the original story. Themes which override conflict and disadvantage resulted in audience acceptance of television dramas and further reinforce the idea of social harmony. An example of this is Winter Sonata, which was traded from Korea to Japan. Winter Sonata contained elements that were attractive to audiences in both

Korea and Japan.

Japan, as witnessed by its direct and indirect media outpouring, now has a sustained connectivity in the Asian region following regional colonisation of Manchuria,

Taiwan and Korea. The success of the Japanese manga Hana yori Dango and the counter flow of the drama Winter Sonata into Japan illustrate connectivity and regional integration at least on the level of consumption of popular culture.

Iwabuchi refers to a ‘recent shift in Japan’s hitherto introverted cultural orientation towards an exaltation of its transnational influence, particularly in Asia’ (Iwabuchi,

1999, p. 44) . This view is supported by the spread of Japanese popular culture products in the region. This is an important point and worthy of continuing research, since historically this was not the case. Iwabuchi further notes that Japanese intellectuals often refer to the spread of Japanese popular culture as being evidence

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of the cultural commonality between Japan and other parts of Asia, while simultaneously articulating Japanese superiority. Iwabuchi refers to the external influences on a Japan ‘that absorbs foreign cultures without changing its national

/cultural core’ (Iwabuchi, 1999, p. 51). I have deduced from my findings in Chapter

7 that while Japan retains its national and cultural core, Korea and Taiwan retain their respective ‘Korean-ness’ and ‘Taiwanese-ness’.

Kato notes that Japanese culture is known for its unique hybridity, a mix of

Western and Japanese culture, described as Wa Yo Secchu (Kato, 1974). Wakon

Yosai, Japanese spirit and Western knowledge were fully integrated during the

Meiji restoration. It can be concluded from the historical evolution of Japanese culture that Japanese traditions continue to comfortably coexist with Western culture rather than be subjected to cultural globalisation. Examples are: Japanese medicines modelled on Dutch medicines; the Japanese Constitution modelled on the German Constitution; Japanese NHK broadcasting modelled on the BBC; the

Tokyo Tower modelled on the Eiffel Tower; modernised Japanese lifestyle and youth culture, post-World War II, modelled on the US lifestyle and culture, with popular culture icons juxtaposed with shrines and temples. Japan, unlike the US, is not a cultural melting pot, it still retains its essential monoculture and adapts to

Western culture. Japan assimilated foreign cultural elements and created a unique hybrid culture (Tadokoro, 2003).

In the manga Hana yori Dango the story and characters, with minor repositioning, are reproduced in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese television dramas. These dramas received enthusiastic reception in each of the three countries. Confirmation of this,

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quite apart from information available in the public domain, was reasserted in my findings from the audience analysis that confirmed the best known television drama in each of the three countries was the remake of the manga Hana yori Dango.

The use of cultural expressions differed in these remakes and was generally specific to each country. The Japanese cultural expressions, for example, drew on Japanese history from the Edo and Meiji period; the hierarchy of Japanese society; Japanese food, manners and etiquette. In the Korean remake of Boys over flowers the expressions related to present times, were reflective of modern times, with no evidence of historical associations, although one expression ‘needles go first and the thread follows’ may well have drawn on earlier times and a reference to Godzilla illustrated cultural transfer from Japan. The Taiwanese version used expressions that drew from the Min and Western Jin dynasties, feudal times, Confucius, food and more contemporary references. Some of the Taiwanese expressions used would be well known in the West, such as ‘pig head’, ‘put ourselves into other person’s shoes’ and ‘black sheep’, pointing to cultural exchange between East and West but not between Taiwan and Japan or Korea. There was similarity between Japan and

Taiwan in drawing on their respective histories and culture, whereas Korean expressions were very contemporary. This difference in the localising of television drama’s cultural expressions is reflective of the script writers reaching out to their respective audiences rather than using the cultural expressions of the original

Japanese manga.

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9.3 Media Value Chains

9.3.1 Maximising financial returns

Media has cultural impacts, but to be sustainable it needs to have its revenue exceeding its costs. One measure for maximising financial returns is thorough exploitation of the value chain. The value chain is one of the tools available for appreciating the value of and taking full advantage of the good standing of Japanese media cultural products. Aspects that may be attributable to a value chain are illustrated in Table 25. There are three key headings in the value chain of media content, be it original or remaking: production costs, gross income and value leakage.

Table 25 Media value chain

A B C B-(A+C) Costs Income Value leakage Net return Financing Subsidies Copying Copyright Sale and content distribution Hacking Directors Licence fees/royalties Plagiarism Actors Remaking Piracy Screenwriters Franchising Staff Formats Locations Theatres Assets Branding Logistics Video tapes Technology CD’s and DVD's Distribution Apparel Toys Life style Locations Theme parks

Production costs are within a particular production budget and are controllable; gross income depends on the business approach to maximising revenue that is dependent on the production entity’s imagination, skill, knowledge and resources, to create multiple revenue streams; it also depends on audience and market acceptance of the content and merchandised products. The selling value of media content also has to be

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considered. There are cost thresholds which if exceeded could inhibit the sales value of exported programs. Hwang draws attention to this in the Korean sales of television dramas to Taiwan. Sales had declined during the Korean Wave but rose again in late

2008/09. In 2008 the sales value per episode was $US 5000 falling in the same year to $US 2643. (Hwang, 2010). The aspect of value leakage is, to a great extent, out of the production entity’s control. Value leakage, in the form of illegal copying from the initiating product or associated merchandised items or hacking, diminishes the prospective value of the product to the production and distribution entities. The journey of Janguru Taitei is used to bring out the importance of the value chain in being able to recognise the inherent competitive advantage in its originating manga.

Lim illustrates as an example the value chain of Meteor Garden, the Taiwanese remake of Hana yori Dango. She states that Comic Ritz secured a six-year licence from Shueisha, which was to safeguard and maximise the benefits of their initial investment (Lim, 2005). Lim’s value chain encompassed pre-production, production, distribution and circulation, representations-marketing and promotions, regulation, consumption and identity (Lim, 2005, p. 181). Her findings illustrate the complexity of remaking within the prime components of the media value chain. Comic Ritz took spatial advantage of the initiating Japanese manga and differentiated it by converting the manga into a television drama. Merchandising added value to the television drama, and included a music video and album, VCDs and then DVDs, with some loss of prospective revenue ‘with many pirated copies floating in East and South-

East Asian cities’ (Lim, 2005, p. 180). They also engaged in marketing and promotions, a deal with Pepsi and merchandised items such as ‘puzzles, cups, flags, fashion accessories, et cetera’ to establish a brand that appealed to Asian youth (Lim,

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2005, p. 180). The Taiwanese exploitation of the original Japanese manga can be seen as an outstanding example of how to gain value from a media cultural product beyond the revenue derived from the television drama distribution. The value was further increased by the additional revenue stream of overseas distribution and sub- licensing.

Japanese popular culture in all of its forms is attractive not only to Japan but also to its geographic region, and in certain segments like anime and video games, globally.

With the expanding world population, increasing wealth, particularly in Asia, and the apparent insatiable appetite for media content globally, market potential is very clear.

The issue for Japan is how it can maximise and obtain full value from, and also protect, its media cultural products. The challenge in moving anime from national

(Japan) to international (US) on a sustainable basis is a very important component of the value chain: the bargaining power of the buyer NBC. Mushi Productions had to make a technology shift, increasing significantly the cost of production of the anime.

Mushi Productions, to meet US market needs, had to upgrade from black and white to colour production and also to increase the cel count and colour range to achieve picture quality and fluidity of movement in the anime in line with US market expectations. Tezuka Osamu, as mentioned in Chapter 7, was delighted with Kimba the White Lion, but he and Mushi Productions may not have paid attention to cost implications of the production.

Disney’s The Lion King is an example of what the Japanese popular culture industry needs to consider if it is to become sustainable. Disney is a large and powerful company. Its roots are in the work of an extremely talented and imaginative comic

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artist, Walt Disney. Disney continues to this day to grow in economic value while

Tezuka Productions has not. Disney was the pioneer of the art of animation. Any examination of Walt Disney will illustrate that apart from his artistic genius he was also an entrepreneur who saw the value in horizontally and vertically expanding his core animation business to take advantage of the iconic characters that he and his team produced. Walt Disney was aware of animation’s importance and demonstrated this by establishing Disneyland as a concept in 1954, opening 1955. To place Disney in a financial context, their annual turnover in the fiscal year 2010, confirmed in the

Annual Financial report, was close to $US 40 billion, inclusive of almost 44 per cent media network, 30 per cent theme parks, 18 per cent studio entertainment and 7 per cent third party consumer products (merchandise products) (Annual Reports, 2010, p.

70). The Disney website illustrates the integration of products and services, inclusive of games, activities, characters, travel, live events, movies, television, music, mobile and members, and Mickey Mouse is ubiquitous (Disney, 2011).

Product differentiation is a component of competitive advantage. Disney’s The Lion

King differentiated the product when it was made into a stage musical. The Japanese production of The Lion King continues to play in Japan, and has done since 1998, and is presented by the Shiki Theatre Group. There is an extensive range of revenue streams for global distribution and merchandising. The product still has life in it, with DVDs for sale, albeit at discounted prices.

9.3.2 Loss of value

Japan is using the content business as a mechanism to link culture and economics.

However, the global distribution of media content introduces problems, resulting in

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large leakages of financial value. Piracy, unauthorised copying, and downloading of media content has significantly devalued licensees, ownership, remaking, and formatting (METI, 2003a).

The Japanese government’s response to loss of value from piracy was to implement, in 2003, an intellectual property strategy group ‘Chiteki Zaisan Senryaku Honbu’

(METI, 2003c). Through this, the government acknowledged that by creating high quality music, film and manga, Japan was promoting high quality culture, and this needed to be protected. The Japanese government, its embassies and foundations, have integrated their aims with media companies to grow international media business. METI puts great emphasis on strategies for the export of Japanese anime and media content business, including anime, for export to overseas, and collaborates with the Intellectual Property Strategy Unit and specialist content investigation units.

Content business international strategists report that Japanese anime occupies 65 per cent of the international market (METI, 2003c). JTB reports profits in excess of $US

4 billion in 2002 (JETRO, 2009). This is 3.5 per cent of the Japanese exports to the

US, and draws attention to the need to protect and increase media business, a great stimulus for not only developing new texts and formats but also for the business of remaking (METI, 2003d, pp. 8-11).

The safeguarding of the value of intellectual property and ensuring that the value is retained by Japan is important. The Japanese development plan for the creation and protection of intellectual property of media content is a holistic one and recognises that growing human resources, promoting content and internationalising the content

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business are also important in the value chain, of which intellectual property forms a part.

Ever since the establishment of the intellectual property strategy group, strategy committee meetings have been held annually. On 4 April 2009, a key strategy was announced by the group to strengthen and consolidate soft power industries called

‘brand industries’, which include media content, music, food, and fashion (METI,

2009b). The strategy aims to promote the industry to Japanese fans, media creators and Asian audiences, as well as to European and American audiences. As a result, soft power brand industries have been promoted through various events; for example, the Japan Media Arts Festival, Japan International Contents Festival, the Japan Expo in Paris and the Asia Content Business Summit were all held in 2009 (METI,

2009b). Together with these promotions and government attention, anime and manga increasingly feature as themes at academic conferences, attracting more scholarly attention. The extent of illegally uploaded television programs indicates regional viewer interests. The value of Japanese content business, including films, anime, game, manga, television and music, was estimated at 14 trillion yen in 2006. The

Japanese government expects the growth of the content business as a national process, aiming for 19 trillion yen by 2015 (METI, 2008). Matsubara Sho of METI, by telephone interview on 18 May 2011, observed ‘It is quite difficult to ascertain absolute figures of import and export rates as we have to get information from overseas. Japanese media products such as video games, anime, television drama, film and music exports were seven billion yen’(Matsubara, 2011). This highlights the problem in validating the ‘real’ value of the Japanese content business while not underscoring its importance.

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Makers of Japanese anime, as with other parts of the Japanese content industry, enter into co-productions, grant licences to local agencies and outsource operations in the region to grow and protect value. There are some content issues, in that Japanese anime is now being produced in increasing numbers for older consumers, while children constitute the principle anime television for the overseas market.

Differential codes of ethics are also an issue for makers. Japanese anime makers are reducing risk through their use of presales, and not necessarily producing for the domestic market. In these instances, from the earliest planning stage, they seek partners in the target market to finance the anime production process. This approach is yielding better financial returns for Japanese anime makers than those evident in the local market. This practice may well have longer term impacts on the sustainability of anime sales in Japan, where counter flows may become more commonplace, taking a greater part of total shares. Notwithstanding the overall trend, the sales of anime to the US from 2003 to 2007 declined from approximately $US

4.5 billion to $US 2.5 billion, which, in part, is attributable to bilateral agreements, but it raises additional questions. The promotion of anime and comic content, though supported by the Japanese government, JETRO and the Japan Foundation, has to have the quality to obtain the business (METI, 2006).

9.3.4 Regional engagement

The Japanese Government hosted an Asia Content Business Summit in Tokyo on 15-

16 October 2009. As noted in the report key, public and private sector representatives in content industries from China, Hong Kong S.R.R, Japan, Korea, Malaysia,

Singapore and Thailand attended, with the intent of strengthening cooperation in the

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Asian content industry (METI, 2009a). Key points were the need to review legal systems to better protect intellectual property with respect to licensing and merchandising, and also to promote international co-production (METI, 2009a).

The Japanese government continues to be proactive, and sustains its emphasis on growing the content business. As recently as 8 June 2010, METI established a

Creative Industries Promotions Office under the Manufacturing Industries Bureau to plan and implement inter-ministerial measures to promote cultural industries, or creative industries such as design, animation, fashion and movies, as a strategic sector for Japan. The office is charged with implementing measures that facilitate overseas expansion to disseminate relevant information in Japan and abroad, and to develop human resources.

The resolution is as follows: (METI, 2010b).

1. The government’s ‘New Growth Strategy’ and ‘Industrial Structure Vision

2010’ expect that Japan’s cultural industries, such as design, animation, fashion

and movies will become a strategic sector that drives the nation’s future

economic growth.

2. Under the single, long-term concept of Cool Japan, the Creative Industries

Promotion Office will promote these cultural industries in cooperation with the

private sector by facilitating their overseas expansion and human resource

development.

3. More specifically, as a section within METI dedicated to measures to promote

cultural industries, the Creative Industries Promotion Office will work with

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related ministries and Japanese/foreign private organizations to plan and

implement inter-ministerial measures, such as helping these industries cultivate

overseas markets, disseminating relevant information in Japan and abroad by

hosting domestic and international events, and developing creative human

resources through collaboration with universities and human resource matching

programs.

9.3.5 Economic value of media trade. Korea and Japan

The trade of television dramas between Korea and Japan, and also into Southeast

Asia, through legitimate channels have created economic value and reinforced Tokyo and Seoul as regional media centres. There has been value leakage through illegal copying, but this activity in itself has assisted in generating interest in television drama content and has contributed to the growing footprint of the industry. Japan moved into television when the medium was in its infancy, and content, including television drama, was produced primarily for internal consumption. It had a large and prosperous internal market, particularly through the bubble economy, the zenith of expensive television drama production. The focus was internal, but exports, largely driven by anime, were achieved, and there was a significant interest in the region for

Japanese media products. Korea, in the aftermath of the Korean War, followed a very different profile. It was a late starter in the transmission of television. It was restricted in channels and, therefore, in the variety of content available to the viewer.

It was a government controlled industry, but the relaxation in regulations progressively moved the industry into an open market and in this created a new financial dynamic for Korean television production for both internal and overseas consumption. Winter Sonata is an outstanding example of the benefits of an open

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economy. It only forms a minuscule portion of the regional economies, but from both sociological and audience viewpoints its impact is much greater.

Japan imported about 3000 programs in 2001, with exports growing from less than

5000 programs in 1980 to 42,000 in 2002; the program figures creates some distortion in that a television drama series is counted as one program. Program hours throughout the same period were reasonably aligned with program exports. Anime is predominant, with drama and films accounting for 23 per cent of the total and Asia, the prime recipient, with 46 per cent of broadcast hours (Hara, 2004). Japan benefitted from the European and US networks as well as East Asian demand for content and ideas arising from digital technology that provided for the creation of many more channels (Japan Information Japan Information Network, 2001). Anyone consuming cable television will well appreciate this development, with its endless repeats and fill-in materials.

The gradual integration of Japanese content into Korea and the progressive lifting of bans have led to Korea creating original productions and to remaking of Japanese cultural media content for domestic and overseas consumption, leading to substantial growth in the Korean media industry. The trends in Korea reflect a similar picture to that in Japan, one that can be traced back to changes in regulations. The Korean data illustrated in Diagram 13 is in $US and does not give a clear picture of number of programs and program hours for comparison with the Japanese statistics.

Notwithstanding this, the trends are meaningful. Japanese exports grew eightfold from 1980–2002, whereas, as the graph shows, the Korean growth only exploded around 2002, but then rose dramatically.

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Diagram 13 Broadcast imports and exports — Korea.

200000 Exports $US,000 Imports $US,000

150000

100000

50000

0 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 YEAR

Source: adapted from Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea

2009

The trend for exports is now flattening, and imports have been reasonably stable since 1998, with the trade balance moving from a negative $US36 million in 1995 to a positive $US158 million in 2008. This chart illustrates the impact of progressive deregulation in Korea, the ensuing Korean Wave and the success of Korean television drama producers, since the bulk of these exports are television dramas, in creating a strong media industry. The Communication Commission Report notes that television drama exports, as part of total exports, fell 6.3 per cent from 2006 to 2007.

Of singular importance when considering the region embraced by this study is the significance of Korean television dramas, which accounted for 89.5 per cent of cultural exports (Kim, 2009). Japan, China and Taiwan were the principal beneficiaries of their exports, with Japan foremost, taking 57.4 per cent of shows exported (Kim, 2009).

Hwang points out that:

Korean dramas are competitive in pricing (roughly half the price for Japanese

dramas), are sold in contract schemes that allow bulk handling of copyrights

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which is very convenient for the buyers, and also rarely violate standards on

sexual expression and violence in export markets, due to rigorous regulations

on broadcasting inside Korea. It must be noted, however, that the differences

between Japanese and Korean productions has become minimal, with such

expressions becoming subdued in Japanese TV dramas compared to ten years

earlier. Another advantage of Korean productions is that each series is long

and very often broadcast twice a week, making it easier for the importer to

schedule broadcasts. Furthermore, the Korean productions are more favoured

by specialized channels of satellite broadcast and cable TV operators because

of the need to satisfy strong or niche needs. (Hwang, 2010).

He does not quantify when this price differential between Korean and Japanese drama existed, or even if the pricing was parity, or whether the flow of Korean television drama into Japan was adversely affected. A 2005 article in the Seoul

Shinmun referred to an increased sales value per episode of Korean drama, rising from $US 2198 in 2003 to $US 4046 in 2004. Over the same period, the share of exports to Japan rose from 19 per cent in 2003 to 57.4 per cent (Lee, 2005b).

Winter Sonata was an important component of, and stimulant for, Korean television drama sales into Japan. This article also referred to warnings that the

Korean pop culture fad has already passed its peak.

9.4 Conclusion

In this chapter I have argued that while the concept of hybridity is a useful tool for describing flows of popular culture, the process of remaking entails closer attention to cultural nuances and values which reinforce traditional concepts of social

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harmony. In regard to youth culture, these notions of social harmony may be less conscious, but the research on remaking programs shows that traditional cultural values retain their hold. In addition, the chapter has shown that the idea of harmony can be linked to regional integration; that is, shared values bring East Asian people closer together, thus both enhancing and renewing the image of Japan.

Media flows, with content from Japan, have a distinct influence on audiences in East

Asia. The counter flows into Japan from East Asia, as well as elsewhere, similarly influences Japanese audiences. Media trade, as Iwabuchi and others have pointed out, are changing the media trade dynamics and countering Western hegemony, primarily that of the US. My findings, with respect to this cultural impact, reveal signs of regional harmonisation rather than of hybridity. The concept of harmony, while having its own cultural legacy in the sense of orientalism, is descriptive of the sociological outcomes of popular culture trade from the 1990s. Hybridity describes audience acceptance, or the cultural absorption, of foreign popular culture content, but this is prescriptive and is not sufficiently refined to describe what is truly happening at the audience level.

The chapter has shown how Japanese media products have significantly influenced

Asian media markets and created economic and cultural value chains. The Japanese government has progressively appreciated the intrinsic value of media content from both a commercial and cultural context and the loss of value in unregulated segments of the regional market. They are now taking firm action to protect the intellectual property rights of media content and are creating new regulations in an attempt to protect the value of Japanese media cultural products. They are also working with

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regional countries towards a unification of commercial interests with respect to copyright and joint production. It is the very underlying value of the content business, dramatically expanded by cable networks that make remaking an integral and essential part of the content business.

Remaking can significantly increase the value of the original content, particularly where the original content has demonstrated audience appeal. Remaking can also be seen to mitigate risk where a new production has to prove itself in the market place.

The importance of these aspects, from a Japanese perspective, is that positive financial returns will ensure the future of media content using Japanese talent and ideas. A negative return will result in a severe reduction in local context, with the probability of strong media counter-flows into Japan. Developments in the media industry are fuelled not only by government regulations, the imagination of talented artists and writers, and the growing regionalisation and internationalisation of the industry, but by the net profit that emerges from the value chain. The recognition of the need for sustainable profit growth to continue the viability of original and remaking content in Japan is paramount for Japan as well as for the content industry in the region.

Inspection of the media trade data illustrates that Korea and Japan have made advances in their respective exports of popular culture; both countries’ exports significantly exceed imports, Japan from many years ago and Korea progressively from 2002. The evolution of the Japanese media industry and the ensuing growth of regional media industries, as well as a growing triangular relationships between

Japan, Korea and Taiwan have had a significant influence on regional remaking

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while also countering historical US and Western hegemony in media trade. This process has as a corollary: the benefit of legal copying of Japanese and regional content and formats as financial interests merge. The benefits of reducing copyright infringement have become regional rather than local.

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Chapter 10: Concluding Remarks

This study shows that remakes of Japanese stories are contributing to a positive re- evaluation of Japanese culture in East Asia. It draws parallels with Japan’s cultural history of copying as a precursor to contemporary processes of remaking. Remaking of Japanese popular culture in a variety of text formats is ongoing in East Asia and is a constituent part of the burgeoning field of content production in a rapidly expanding media market.

The study examined remakes of three popular culture products and canvassed views on the issues of reception, theories of cultural adaptation, cultural proximity, popular culture, and an emerging Cool Japan, together with the prospects for Japanese soft power. In doing this the thesis has made a contribution to the fields of media and popular culture studies in East Asia. The thesis utilised triangulation: document analysis, textual analysis and audience analysis. This has proved to be a valuable tool in understanding the relationship between popular culture, industry and policy in

East Asia.

The information gathered can provide guidance for any future analysis of Japanese creative industries. The study shows that Japan needs to reassess its cultural diplomacy in East Asia, to approach its neighbours as equal partners rather than from a position of perceived superiority. The thesis found some residual antagonism towards Japan due to its colonial excesses in East Asia. Japan therefore needs to improve internal and cross-cultural education. The audience analysis, notwithstanding negative influences, found an overriding enthusiasm in East Asia for

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Japanese popular culture in its many forms and formats. This enthusiasm can be translated into a significant opportunity for Japan to grow its media industries in a regional market. The thesis found that the use of popular culture to enhance Japan’s image regionally has the added advantage of providing economic benefits.

Chapter 2 confirmed the importance of the last decade of the twentieth century as the take off point for the regional growth of Japanese media. This period, and the following decade, also reinforced the importance of manga, confirmed through other findings in the thesis, as a resource for content to be remade. During this time there was a growing awareness at government level of the importance of the Japanese culture and content industry in a regional and international context.

Chapter 3 showed global influences on Japan, primarily from the US, and how these influences contributed to the modernisation of Japan and enabled the establishment and growth of its media industry. This development has been the vanguard of the

Asian region. The chapter also affirmed the significance of Korea, from a regional perspective, in taking steps, through the vision of Kim Dae-Jung, to progressively remove barriers to Japanese media trade into Korea, leading to regional trade and cultural benefits.

Chapter 4 illustrated the benefits that accrued to Japan when it adopted an outward- looking view to replace its previous introspective view following the imposition of the 1854 Japan–America treaty of peace and amity by the US discussed in Chapter 3.

Japan reacted positively to US influence and moved quickly to modernise its industry, science and technology. These actions were sustained in Japan and in 1940; it was

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the first country in Asia to adopt television broadcasting. There was a rapid expansion of broadcasting facilities in the 1950s, enabling Japan to progressively expand its content industry to a paramount position in Asia. The industry has been instrumental in bringing to governmental attention just how important it is in a regional and international political context and also from a business and cultural viewpoint. This recognition has brought forward strategic involvement in value maximisation between the content industry and government. These steps are being progressively emulated in the Asia region, creating a mutuality of commercial interest, illustrated by the growth in pan-Asian media trade. These changes are reinforcing the region from both cultural and trade viewpoints and are countering, while not displacing, Western media hegemony. The Hollywood influence and benchmarks are shown to be valuable to the content industry in Japan; however, counter flow is now evident, with Hollywood mindful of the quality of the Japanese imagination embedded in its popular culture content.

Chapter 5, a study of Hana yori Dango, confirmed the importance of core narratives in the process of remaking across geographical borders. The elements explored in the text were substantiated in audience analysis findings in Chapter 7. Of particular importance is the finding that ‘Japaneseness’ can be an important component in cross-cultural appeal.

Chapter 6 investigated Winter Sonata as an important component of the Korean

Wave. Analysis of the Japanese television drama Akai Giwaku, which preceded

Winter Sonata by some twenty-five years, suggests reasons why this drama appeals to a particular female demographic in Japan. The foregrounding analysis between the

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two productions confirmed that idol characters, modernity, romance, music and moral thought were qualities that were almost equally appealing to audiences in

Japan and Korea. The supplementary analysis of six television dramas within the genre of trendy drama, which were popular as remakes in Korea, confirmed the reasons for cross-cultural appeal.

Chapter 7 utilised questionnaires and focus groups in a composite research approach.

These confirmed that Japanese popular culture was influential and attractive to audiences in Taiwan and Korea within the participant age profile. Audience analysis also confirmed the attractiveness of the shorter and snappier Japanese television dramas when compared to longer and slower moving Korean counterparts. This differentiation provides a continuing avenue for Japan in making media trade and joint productions in Korea.

The Taiwanese and Korean participants had a ‘good’ view of Japan. They saw some disassociation between their own attitudes and those of their parents, particularly the

Koreans. Interestingly, Taiwanese respondents reported that their parents had a positive opinion about Japan. The acceptance of Winter Sonata in Japan was very influential for creating positive opinions about Japan. Media trade has softened regional stereotypes of Japan and in turn, has contributed to Japanese soft power.

Regional national identities remain, but shared values far outweigh the differences.

Japan’s image in the two countries investigated is progressively more positive and it is women that are exhibiting more openness to regional harmony. Males in the sample were under-represented, but they showed less of an inclination to re-evaluate

Japan in a positive way, although they were still enthusiastic about Japanese culture.

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Forgiveness of contemporary Japan, while not forgetting the past, will assist the psychological healing in East Asia and ensure that harmony and mutually positive feelings will become a regional norm.

Chapter 8 moved the study from the region to the interplay between Japan and the

US. This chapter was about Tezuka Osamu and the remaking of his manga Janguru

Taitei. The findings confirm how important Tezuka Osamu is in the context of the consumption of manga beyond Japan, in both original and remade formats. The chapter consolidates the challenges facing artists such as Tezuka Osamu in evaluating, commercialising, protecting and maximising the inherent cultural and commercial value of their media product.

Chapter 9 confirmed that media trade in East Asia has substantially contributed to change in attitudes towards Japan in Taiwan and Korea from a negative stereotype towards a more positive image. I have determined that this process has created a regional harmonisation and evolved a hybrid stance that has an expanded scope for cultural acceptance and enjoyment of content in the region. The chapter also consolidates the importance, for the overall media industry, in obtaining positive returns from media value chains. The East Asian region has made vast strides in countering Western hegemony since the 1990s and is becoming more confident and self-sufficient. The move in copyright protection from local to regional, if properly implemented, can also have positive overtones for the business of remaking.

The overall findings confirm that the rationale for remaking programs is their low production costs, which creates additional value from an existing item of popular

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culture. In so doing, the products reach a wider audience because the remade program already has an audience from its original incarnation. As can be observed in this thesis, there are particular challenges involved in moving a popular culture text such as Hana yori Dango through a variety of formats and localisations for audiences across geographical and cultural borders.

I would argue that the financial returns, from a Japanese perspective, even with an international transfer success, have been paltry compared to prospective revenues from a better orchestrated production and marketing approach within Japan. The

Japanese government and the industry are showing initiatives in enhancing and protecting value. Maximising revenue, minimising value leakage, and marketing are the essence of a viable regional and international future for Japanese popular culture and in turn, remaking.

The study discussed issues relevant to policy, such as ways to protect content from predatory copying. As outlined in this thesis, it is difficult to achieve protection through copyright. One way is to accept the benefits of joint production when popular culture contents are planned for overseas distribution. In taking this path, it is important to ensure that all aspects of the prospective value chain are considered, including global rather than regional, or unilateral, distribution, and that benefits are proportionally shared. Unauthorised copying and plagiarism of content is a universal problem and Japan is engaging in a multilateral way with the Asian region towards enhancing mutual interests and stopping, or at least mitigating, piracy. This problem is very complex and the legalities are fraught with difficulties. The simple solution would be to close down the internet, but this is obviously not a viable option.

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Education and enforcement would seem to be the logical way forward for protecting media industry revenues. The industry has also had to combat its own naivety when moving from domestic bargaining into the regional and international media market.

The Japanese government is showing a willingness to participate in regional and international groupings to evolve a means of protecting and growing its popular culture by promoting media content, harmonising copyright and encouraging joint production. In doing so, it is expressing soft power. The progressive regional relaxation of media control has resulted in an emerging regional cooperation, with some joint productions offering a substantial indication of the benefits of moving to a more open market model, particularly in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. With these changes, the value of regulating intellectual property ensures that the financial benefits of users paying for media content provides the revenue for new and remade media products. As production and the creation of new content become more global, the importance of valuing and legally distributing media content will become an imperative. Stepping back from a purely media perspective, the benefits of regional harmony becomes more evident and it is hoped that the vision of Kim Dae-Jung will be sustained, and changes in the East Asian market will become all embracing.

My findings have formed distinctive directions for ongoing research in the field of

Japanese popular culture. The thesis has shown that remaking, and its cultural influence, are important and will become even more important in the emergence of

East Asia. This emerging regionalisation is providing a positive re-evaluation of

Japanese culture, a trend shown in my research of Korean and Taiwanese audiences, and is further illustrated in current research by others on China.

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Appendix 1

Field work, Sydney June 2009 Japanese participants Questionnaire Three Japanese female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Three Japanese male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney

Focus group Interview Three Japanese female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Three Japanese male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney

Taiwanese participants Questionnaire Five female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Five male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney President, male in the 20’s The Taiwan Society of Sydney University Vice President, male in the 20’s The Taiwan Society of Sydney University

Focus group Interview Five female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Five male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney President, male in the 20’s The Taiwan Society of Sydney University Vice president, male in the 20’s The Taiwan Society of Sydney University

Korean participants Questionnaire Five female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Two male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Focus group Interview Five female students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney Two male students in the 20’s, The University of Sydney

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Field work, Korea Pilot study November 2008 Student group Thirty female students, in the 20’s, Chung Ang University Thirty male students, in the 20’s, Chung Ang University Parent group Twenty female parents, in the 40’s-50’, Chung Ang University Twenty male parents, in the 40’s-50’, Chung Ang University

Questionnaire September 2009 Five female students in the 20s, The Chung Ang University, Korea Four male students in the 20s, The Chung Ang University, Korea Focus group Interview: Five female students in the 20s, The Chung Ang University, Korea Four male students in the 20s, The Chung Ang University, Korea

Second interview Five female students in the 20s and four male students in the 20s, The Chung Ang University, Korea, November 2009

Script writer Yoon Ji-Ryun, 18 November 2009

Dean, Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science Multimedia & Film, Chung Ang University, 13 October 2009

Professor of Japanese Literature, Chung Ang University, 13 October 2009

Associate Professor of Japanese Literature, Chung Ang University, 12 October 2009 Postgraduate Student, Chung Ang University, 12 and 13 October 2009 and 17 November 2009

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Field work, Taiwan Questionnaire April 2011 Five female students in the 20s, Tamkang University, Taiwan Focus group Interview Five female students in the 20s, Tamkang University, Taiwan

Interviews Deputy Director-general, Japan -Taipei Interchange Association Japan, Tokyo, Japan 16 November 2009

Section Chief, Japan -Taipei Interchange Association Japan, Tokyo Japan 16 November 2009

Investigation officer, Japan -Taipei Interchange Association Japan, Tokyo Japan 16 November 2009

Interview with Chen, Ming-Tzu 陳明姿, 29 April 2011

Field work Japan Questionnaire November 2009 Thirty nine female students in the 20s, Kobe Shinwa Women’s University, Japan

Interviews Former journalist Asahi Newspaper, Professor of Media Studies, Otsuma Women’s University, 5 December 2010

Former journalist of Yomiuri Newspaper, Professor of Media Studies, Otsuma Women’s University, 5 December 2010

Manager, Japan External Trade organization (JETRO), Intellectual Property Division, Overseas Business Support and Intellectual Property Department. 21 October 2009

Public relations officer, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). 19 October 2009

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Librarian, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) 21 October 2009

METI Telephone Interview Matsubara Sho, Research and Statistic Department, 18 May 2011

Deputy Director, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, Tokyo Japan 6 October 2009

Hana yori Dango Symposium 19 December 2009, Convener Professor Eto Shigeharu, Nishogakusha University 27 April 2011

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Appendix 2

1. Data collection (Human Contacts) データ収集（当事者とのコンタクト）

The purpose of this questionnaire is to study cultural awareness, as a PhD candidate, of media issues in Japan, Korea and Taiwan All information provided will be included in a research project where individual answers will be entirely confidential. このインタビューの目的は、日本、韓国、台湾を研究対象として、メディア問題について調査することです（博士課程）。収集した資料はすべて研究プロジェクトの中に含まれますが、個々の回答についてはその秘密が厳守されます。

Any questions will be given before the meetings, translated as necessary or translators used. すべての質問は面接の前に手渡され、必要に応じて翻訳を用いるか、または通訳者を使うなどします。 If you have any inquiries, please contact me: ご質問があれば、私までご連絡ください。

Seiko.Yasumoto [email protected] Faculty of Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia

2. Participant Questionnaire: Sydney (Japanese, Korean Taiwanese), Japan, Korea and Taiwan

Section 2.1: about your background

Gender 性別 (Circle one ○で囲んでください): Male 男 Female 女

Age 年齢(Circle one): 15-19 years 才, 20-24 years 才, 24-29 years 才, 30-39 years 才, over 40-49 years 才, 50-59 years 才, over 60 years 才.

Nationality 国籍 (Circle one): (1) Korean 韓国, (2) Japanese 日本 (3) Taiwanese 台湾 (5) other その他(specify) 記す______

Language other than Japanese 日本語以外に話す言語 (Circle your level of language knowledge for each language) 該当するレベルを○デ囲む。

I speak Koreans 韓国語を話します:

Fluently Quite well A little Not at all 流暢良く話せる少し話せる話せない

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I speak Chinese:

Fluently Quite well A little Not at all 流暢良く話せる少し話せる話せない

Section 2.2: Television dramas non-specific. テレビドラマについて。

Program related questions 番組に関する質問 1) What Japanese Korean, Chinese TV drama programme have you seen? 日本、韓国、中国のテレビドラマ番組では何を見ましたか。

2) What appeals to you? Why do you like these programs? それらの番組が好きなのはどうしてですか。何が魅力なのでしょうか。

3) What does not appeal to you? What do you dislike about these programs? それらのドラマの嫌いな点は何ですか。どんな点には惹かれないですか。

4) When you watch these programs, do you get emotionally involved in the story? ドラマを見るときには、話に引き込まれ熱中しますか。

5) How do you engage with the story? 話の筋にどのように引き込まれるのでしょうか。

6) Do you wait for the next episode, if so why? 次の回が待たれると思いますか。それはどうしてですか。

7) Does media comment in advertisements, magazines, newspapers and on the internet affect your interest in the text?

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広告、雑誌、新聞、ネットなどでのメディアのコメントは、あなたがテキストにどういった関心を持つかということに影響しますか。

8) What genre of TV programme do you watch? (Love story, suspense, family drama, specific program like doctors, teachers, police, actors and etc.?) テレビ番組ではどんなジャンルのものを見ますか。（恋愛物、サスペンス、家族ドラマ、または医者、先生、警察、俳優などを特にテーマにしたもの。）

Section 2.3: Television dramas specific 四つのテレビドラマについて

A. Four texts 四つのテキスト 1) Have you seen/read any of the four titles in the table below? 下表の四つのタイトルのうちのどれかを見たか、読んだかしたことがありますか。 Circle if yes 答えが「はい」の場合は、当てはまるものを丸でかこんでください。

Title: Japanese Title Title Title 日本語のタイトル English 英語 Chinese 中国語 Korean 韓国語 1. Hana yori Dango Boys over Meteor Garden 花より男子 Flowers 流星花園 1992-2004(manga) 漫画 1996(Anime)アニメ 2001( CTSTaiwan) 2005(TBS) 2007(II) 2008(film)映画 2009(Korea)韓国 2. Shiroi Kyoto White Tower 白い巨塔 1965( novel)小説 1967TV Asahi テレビ朝日 1978 Fuji TV フジテレビ 1990 TV Asahi テレビ朝日 2003 Fuji TV フジテレビ 2007(Korea)韓国 3. Nodame Cantabile Nodame 交響情人夢のだめカンタービレ Cantabile 2001(manga)漫画 2006(Fuji TV) フジテレビ 2007(Anime)アニメ

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2008(Europe) ヨーロッパ 2009(film)映画 4. Akai Giwaku/Winter Sonata 赤い疑惑／冬のソナタ

1975 TBS 2005

If yes, what formats have you seen/read for one or more of the four titles? 答えが「はい」の場合、四つのうちどのタイトルをどのような形で見た／読んだのですか。

Title: Title Title Title TV Film Mang Anime Novel Japanese English Chinese Korean テレ映 a アニ小説日本語タイ英語中国語韓国語ビ画漫画メトル 1. Boys over Meteor flowers Garden 花より男子流星花園 T-5 2. Shiroi White Kyoto Tower 白い巨塔 3. Nodame Nodame 交響情 Kantabire Cantabile 人夢のだめカンタービレ 4. Akai Giwaku/ Winter Sonata 赤い疑惑／冬のソナタ

2) Have you seen /read these titles in any other format? If so which title and in what format? これらのタイトルを上記以外の形で見たり読んだりしたことがありますか。それはどのタイトルで、どんな形で見た／読んだのでしょうか。

3) If you have seen or read the titles in one or more formats, which format(s) did you like the best for each of the titles that you have seen or read? あるタイトルを二つ以上の形で見たり、読んだりした場合、その見た／読んだタイトルではどの形が一番好きでしたか。

4) What is your view on the original and the remade version(s) if you have seen more than one version? 同じタイトルで二つ以上のバージョンを見て

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いる場合、オリジナルやリメイク・バージョンを比べてどう思いますか。

B. Cultural viewpoint questions (original/remade) 文化的観点についての質問(オリジナル／リメイク) 1) What did you find pleasing with the texts? そのテキストの何が楽しめたのでしょうか。

2) What did you find in the texts that you disliked? テキストで、嫌いな点は何ですか。

3) Do you find any cultural proximity between Japan and Korea and Taiwan? Which and why? 日本、韓国、台湾は、文化的に近い(文化類似性がある)と考えますか。それはどんな点で、その理由は何ですか。

4) What do you think you share and not share with Japan and Korea and Taiwan? 日本、韓国、台湾はどんな点を共有し、どんな点を共有しないと思いますか。

C. Viewing format 見た形態 With what form did you view the texts? テキストをどのような形で見ましたか。

Title: TV Film Manga Anime Novel Compu Video DVD Cell Other Japanese テレ映画漫画アニ小説 ter コビデ phone その携帯日本語タイビメンピオ他ュートルタ Hana yori Dango 花より男子

Shiroi Kyoto 白い巨塔

Nodame Kantabile のだめカンタービレ Akai Giwaku 赤い疑惑

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D. Government Policy 政府の政策

In 1998 the President of Korea changed the policy to open the door for Japanese cultural exchange. 1998 年、韓国大統領はそれまでの政策を変更し、日本との文化交流の門戸開放を行いました。 1) Are you aware of this change in policy from 1998-2004? 1998 年から 2004 年にかけて韓国の政策が変更したことを知っていますか。

2) How did you learn about these changes? 政策が変更したことをどのようにして知りましたか。

3) Why do you think the Korean government implemented this policy? 韓国政府がこの政策変更を行った理由は何だと思いますか。

4) What is your view regarding Korean government cultural policy? 韓国政府が文化政策を変更したことについてどう思いますか。

5) Japan and Korea had a cold relationship politically, what is your view of cultural exchange? 日本と韓国は政治的に冷えた関係にありましたが、文化交流についてどう思いますか。

D1: Which TV stations do you watch in Korea? (Koreans only) 韓国ではどのテレビ局を見ていますか。(韓国の方のみ)

( ) KBS ( ) MBC ( ) SBS ( ) other – name Cable MBC (everyone on You Tube) その他－ケーブル MBC の名前をあげてください。(ユーチューブすべて）

D2: Which TV stations do you watch in Japan? (Japanese only) 日本ではどのテレビ局を見ていますか。(日本の方のみ)

( ) NHK Channel 1 NHK 1 チャンネル ( ) Nippon TV Channel 4 日本テレビ 4 チャンネル ( ) TBS Channel 6 TBS 6 チャンネル ( ) Fuji TV Channel 8 フジテレビ 8 チャンネル ( ) TV Asahi Channel 10 テレビ朝日 10 チャンネル ( ) TV Tokyo Channel 12 テレビ東京 12 チャンネル

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( ) Other – name その他、局名をあげてください。

E: Government Policy 政府の政策 (Taiwanese only) 政府の政策（台湾の方のみ）

Cable TV is free to air commercial TV stations in Taiwan. Taiwan has developed TV networks. 台湾のケーブルテレビは無料の民放テレビ局です。台湾ではテレビ放送網が発達しています。 1) Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) 1962 1962 年 TTV 台湾テレビジョン・エンタープライズ

2) China Television Company (CTV) 1969 by Kuomintang (KMT) 1969 年 KMT クオミンタングによる CTV チャイナ・テレビジョン・カンパニー

3) China Television Service (CTS) 1971 by Ministry of Defence 1971 年国防省による CTS チャイナ・テレビジョン・サービス

4) Formosa Television (FTV) 1997 by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 1997 年 DPP 民主進歩党による FTV フォーモーサ・テレビジョン

Restriction 規制 Foreign programme restriction, 30% or less, 50% of programs must be non- entertainment offerings, late 1970 however entertainment program became popular to satisfy the audience, 1972-Taiwanese government banned Japanese language programme. 海外番組は 30％以下に規制。番組の 50％は娯楽ではないもの。しかし 1970 年代後半、娯楽番組は視聴者の要請に答え人気が高まる。1972 年、台湾政府は日本語による番組を禁止。

E1: What is your view of this government policy? この政府の政策についてどう思いますか。

Then, 1993 new policy, New Cable TV law removed the ban. その後、1993 年の新政策により新ケーブルテレビ法はこの禁止を解除。

Were you aware of this new policy? この新しい政策を知っていましたか。

E2: Which TV channel do you watch the most? (Taiwanese only) Put numbers 1, 2, 3 etc. (1 is most frequent) （台湾の方のみ）どのテレビチャンネルを一番よく見ますか。一番よく見るものを 1 として、 1、2、3 等の番号を打ってください。

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Japanese programme 日本の番組( ) NHK Asia (satellite) NHK アジア(衛星) ( ) Video Land Japanese ( ) Gold Sun ( ) Pro shin Japanese ( ) Local TV ( ) Super-TV ( ) TVBS ( ) Sanli ( ) Global transnational channels ( ) HBO ( ) SEPN ( ) STAR TV Chinese

F: Representation of Japan (Japanese group/ Taiwanese group/ Korean group) 日本が表すもの（日本グループ／台湾グループ／韓国グループ）

What aspects of Japan does Japan conveys through media products, TV, film, Anime and others? What does Japan represent? What message does Japan send to the global societies? テレビ、映画、アニメ、その他のメディアの作品を通して、日本は、日本のどんな部分を伝えているでしょうか。日本は何表象していますか。海外の社会に向かって、日本はどんなメッセージを送っているでしょうか。

What was the reaction in your country to the Japanese content? 日本のコンテンツに対して、あなたの国ではどのような反応がありましたか。

G: Globalization/Regionalization グローバリゼーション／リージョナリゼーション

How does Japanese popular culture take a place in the context of Globalization/Regionalization of media content? Significant role, onetime thing? 日本のポップカルチャーは、メディアのコンテンツのグローバリゼーション／リージョナリゼーションの背景の中で、どのような位置を占めるでしょうか。重要な役割でしょうか、または一時的なものでしょうか。

3. Focus group interviews (45-60 minutes) 視聴者インタビュー（45－60 分）

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Appendix 3

Data collection (Human Contacts)

Dear Yoon Ji-Ryun 윤지련

The purpose of this interview is to study cultural awareness, as a PhD candidate, of media issues in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The interview questions are about one of my favourite TV dramas 꽃보다 남자 (Boys over Flowers. All information provided will be used for academic purpose.

The questions will be given before the meetings, translated as necessary. I would be grateful if you would be able to help me with a short interview. I would greatly appreciate your time.

Thank you and kind regards,

If you have any inquiries, please contact me: Seiko.Yasumoto [email protected] Faculty of Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, Australia

------

Interview Script writer (30 minutes)

꽃보다 남자 ( Boys over Flowers)

1) What was your main interest or concern when you wrote the story?

2) What was your main reason to decide to write a Korean version?

3) When you commenced writing, did you have some direction for the script ending or did this evolve as you wrote?

4) Which episode did you like the most?

5) Which Japanese original format (Hana yori Dango) did you see first, the Manga or TV drama?

6) What parts of the original story line did you keep and which part of the story was created to suit Korean audience?

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7) What messages would you like to pass on to the audience through your writings?

8) In remaking this drama, did you consider specific aspects to suit a Korean audience and if so, what were they?

9) What is the secret of your success?

10) Do you have any further plans to write a Korean version of Japanese TV drama or other media products?

290

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