Japan's Pop Power, an American Radioworks Documentary
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Japan’s Pop Power TRANSCRIPT Broadcast Date: October 1, 2006 Ray Suarez : From American Public Media, this is Japan's Pop Power, an American RadioWorks documentary. I'm Ray Suarez. To many people, global youth culture means rock and roll and other Western fas hions . But for more and more young people across to world, the capital of pop culture is Tokyo. John Biewen : E lectronics, dvds , anime. Chris Farrell : I t's Times Square times ten as far as the level of neon goes , don't you think? Over the past decade, Japanese video games , animation and comic books have caught fire in muc h of the world, including the U.S.. Jesse Petersen : T here's Yats uba. Naruto is a really good one, by the same person who did Azumunga Dai-oh. Anne Allison : Japan is enticing to kids . It's signifies cool, and that's a huge change. Japan's rise as a cultural power offers insights into the direction of world culture and the global ec onomy. In the coming hour, Japan's Pop Power from American RadioWorks . First, this news update. Segment A Ah, Japan. That anc ient Buddhist country. Home to the kimono, the tea ceremony, and kabuki. Westerners have long been fascinated by Japan's rich and very old cultural traditions . But in the 21st century, Japan is cool. From American Public Media, this is Japan's Pop Power, an American RadioWorks documentary. I'm Ray Suarez. From Sydney to Seoul to San Francisco, children and young adults are gobbling up Japanese pop exports : anime, or animated movies and TV shows; manga comic books and video games . Sales of these pop culture produc ts now match those of Japanese cars and make up the nation's few fast- growing export industry. Japan somehow has a knack for speaking to the dreams of today's young people. Japanese leaders are hoping that in the new "creative economy" their country can build its future on the export of fantasy. This hour, Japanese cool. Chris Farrell and John Biewen went exploring, among other places , in Tokyo. Copyright ©2007 American Public Media ®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to American Public Media. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information, please contact [email protected] . [store s ounds ] John Biewen : So we're in this shop called Animate. Chris Farrell : We have posters. We have - Biewen : Action figures . Farrell : Ac tion figures, dolls . Biewen : Towels . All stuff with anime charac ters on them. Farrell : John, we must've looked a little out of place in that store. Biewen : [laughs ] You think so? A couple of middle-aged Americans , walking around this shop in Shibuya, this trendy district of Tokyo. Farrell : A store was just jammed with stuff for fans of anime and manga. Biewen : And every 15 feet or so there's another small flat sc reen that's showing another anime. Farrell : N ow this one's actually quite nic e. Biewen : N ow, Chris Farrell, you are a business and economics reporter. Why could you possibly be interes ted in Japanese youth culture? Farrell : Well, Japan is the world's sec ond largest ec onomy. I've followed it with interest for years. But I think I'm more intrigued by a story about the global economy. Where wealth is coming from in a world where entertainment becomes more important. But, truth be told, my real interes t in this story was sparked by watching my son. I was driving the c ar and he's reading a book from back to front. Biewen : From right to left, reading a Japanese manga in the Japanese fas hion. Well, my kids are elementary schoolers, but they like to watc h Cartoon Nework. And these days , a whole lot of what's on Cartoon Network, comes from Japan. Farrell : N ow you lived in Japan before. Biewen : T wenty years ago for a couple of years. Farrell : So were you a big fan of anime and manga? Biewen : U h, no. I went to Japan, I was enc hanted by old Japan. Rock gardens and sus hi. Not whatever was cool for young people. But that was a long time ago. Copyright ©2007 American Public Media ®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to American Public Media. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information, please contact [email protected] . Farrell : Well times have certainly changed, and we teamed up to explore Japanese youth culture. Global youth culture. Especially through the lens of anime and manga. Biewen : And we'll get back to Tokyo in a little while, but we'll start in Anytown, U.S.A.. Well, Durham, North Carolina. It's the town I live in. Meet Jesse. Jesse Petersen : [mall s ounds ] My name is Jesse Petersen and we're at Northgate Mall, right outside of Waldenbooks . I'm 14 years old. Us ually about once or twice a month, usually on the weekends , my mom just drops me off. I go in there, just sit down, start reading. Biewen : So Chris , picture this . It's a quiet weekday afternoon at the mall. Jesse has just finis hed eighth grade at a Durham middle school, and she is heading into this bookstore but has no plans to buy anything. Petersen : My budget does not allow me to spend about $8 a volume on manga. Biewen : Manga are Japanese comic books . They're us ually much thicker than the American type. Jesse uses this store as , really, her reading room and library. But she was a little nervous of drawing the attention of the clerks by having a big microphone, so I clipped a wireless mic to her tank top. Petersen : Most of it is right here. A multitude of different series of manga. This is basically heaven for me. Biewen : You know, in big chain bookstores by now, the manga sec tions are pretty big. You have hundreds and hundreds of books . This is a little Waldenbooks shop, so none of the sections in the store are very big. The manga section was maybe only 12 feet of shelf spac e. But then I looked around and realized that makes it a pretty subs tantial one. You've got sports , religion, self-help, manga was twice the size of any of those sections . Petersen : There's the series that got me all started on manga, which is Inuyasha, because one of my friends brought one to sc hool. I have read so many different series that have so many different books . Cowboy Bebop is really good. ... It would be probably in the hundreds . It's like futuris tic , lots of s pace travel and stuff. Tokyo Mew Mew is really funny too. ... T here's Yats uba. Naruto is a really good one, by the same person who did Azumanga Dai-oh. Chris: She rattles off those Japanese words really well. Biewen : [laughs ] To people like Jesse and her friends , these words , the titles of anime and manga, they're everyday household words . It's like you and me talking about Toyota and Sony. Farrell : Y ou know, that's a good analogy in another way. Japanese pop culture is a major export indus try for Japan, like cars and stereos were for a previous generation. It's big bus iness and a cultural phenomenon. Copyright ©2007 American Public Media ®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to American Public Media. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission. For further information, please contact [email protected] . [convention sounds ] Biewen : Here we are at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, Richmond, Virginia. Farrell : I guess you'd call it the great hall at the convention center. Biewen : At the Mid-Atlantic Anime Convention. Farrell : A nd we have all kinds of people dressed up in costumes , looking like characters out of an anime movie or a manga comic book. Biewen : We went to this convention in June. Now, I've never been to a Trekkie convention, but that's how I imagined it. It seemed like that kind of scene. Farrell : A nd these kids were really into their roles . Melissa : We're nerdy kids in real life and we're Final Fantasy charac ters right now. Ariel : Indeed. Corey : I ndeed. Melissa : Final Fantasy 8. Biewen : N ow, Final Fantasy, that's a video game? Melissa : Yes . Derek Rich : M y name is Derek. I am from Manassas , Virginia. Biewen : And tell us who your character is . Rich : I am Son Goku from Dragon Ball Z. Farrell : T here were lots of elaborate, wild get-ups , but this guy really stood out. O range ninja outfit. But on his head was just this incredible thing. Rich : What I'm wearing currently is my stage three hair, whic h is close to five feet long, stands about a foot and a half off my head, comes out in all directions . Biewen : And it's yellow and it's made of styrofoam, I guess. Rich : Foam rubber, yes . It's bright yellow. It's made of foam rubber. Weighs about 15 to 20 pounds . Copyright ©2007 American Public Media ®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to American Public Media.