Forum - View topicNEWS: Nikkei: 'Cool Japan' Initiatives Fail to Meet Expectations
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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It wasn't a maid cafe', seemed to be just a standard imported-tea cafe'. (Although, if they'd tried to import a popular maid-cafe' chain because "that's what fans do", it would have been even more doomed from the start in a US where you don't ask girls to call you "Master" unless they know they're being cute and ironic. Maybe UK fans have a maid fantasy from their Victorian-mythology past, but in the US, the Japanese maid-act is seen as "playing at" a bit of somebody else's culture for the quaint act of imagined fan solidarity--But it's all an act, as we don't have that essential kink in our culture that makes maid cafe's so crucial to the Japanese otaku mindset.) And as Compelled says, we have no shortage of import-food stores and upscale cafe's to sell and serve imported green tea already, just as Whole Foods has already started selling mochi ice cream without the need for a separate stand franchise. The "distraction" from anime and games to tea pretty much sums up the problems with any Japanese government initiative, in that 80's tradition says that corporate business runs the country, and any new government plan must sell itself with that big corporate-handshake photo. Sort of the equivalent of our politicians going over to Japan to make big photo-opportunity meetings of selling car deals, in a country where they already have their own grasp of the industry, and it's too much more culturally difficult to buy one to make the idea catch fire. Last edited by EricJ2 on Fri Nov 10, 2017 2:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fenrin
 Posts: 702 Location: SoCal |
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Well I think authentic tea places are a great idea, I'd love to try fresh Japanese tea. I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to the different types and the brewing process so it would be a good introduction. There are a surplus of boba tea places but still not many of this type of tea place here, and only a few of them use high quality tea.
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SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
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This is true. They are clearly missing the mark. We see them investing in tea and tea shops? Dunno about the rest of the world, but this doe not really get out the word. If I was them, I would take advantage of the American celebrities that admitted the love anime and create an advertisement campaign online and on TV. Heck, they could've advertised on Youtube. Youtube gamer celebrities would've loved to promote Cool Japan on the cheap. |
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noblesse oblige
 Posts: 280 Location: Florida |
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The failure has nothing to do with the projects being things you're personally uninterested in. Anyone who was expecting the investments to go significantly into anime wasn't paying attention. The CEO of the fund has said in the past he has no experience with anime. The Cool Japan initiative failed because the Fund has essentially been utilized as a slush account for business executives with connections to officials in the Japanese government and Ota, the CEO of the fund. Tons of sketchy expenditures claimed using investments from the fund: non-existent marketing campaigns, renovations costing far and above anything market comparisons would justify. If I was a Japanese tax payer I'd be pissed. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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This makes a really big assumption about what they were trying to do. If you actually look at the list of Cool Japan initiatives MOST of them are targeted to east asia (China, Singapore, Vietnam, etc). Weirdly, there are/were more projects EXPLICITLY targeting the middle east (2) than the number explicitly targeting the US (1). (There were several that are broadly defined as either targeting "the west" or "worldwide", in both cases the US is probably a primary target) |
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jdnation
Posts: 2056 |
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Should've invested in some 'Cool Japan' hotels.
Build them single floor and make the rooms like Traditional Japanese homes. Access to garden, and all sliding doors. Have traditional kimono-wearing female staff. Japanese food menu. Also your own private outdoor hot-spring. Westerners don't go for the sharing one. Any anime component need only be a digital service provided by the hotel straight to your room TV. All you can watch during the duration of your stay. Also customers can order a variety of video game consoles and localized Japanese or straight up imported titles as an additional service. Or just strike some kind of deal with Nintendo for Nintendo-only devices and software. Or build an indoor arcade/recreational area modelled after outdoor Shinjuku/Akihabara. That's really it. Have hosting spaces for conventions/businesses/politics so people make use of it and there you go, Cool Japan in every country. Catering to both anime nerds and normies. Tell Abe to send me a cheque for all dat yen and I'll put a presentation together for him. |
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Well, aren't Japanese maid cafes supposed to be "cute and ironic" with girls calling customers "Master" in wasei-eigo and wearing maid outfits, which could be decried cultural appropriation to us Westerners? Meh, you have illogical social justice warriors in the United States, United Kingdom, and other Western countries who are ridiculous to believe wearing a kimono and maid cafes are cultural appropriation, especially with the irony I mentioned regarding the latter. Japan has some crazies as well, but because their culture is so Westernized, boundaries are far more arbitrary. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 615 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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I actually went to Waku Waku NYC, which was funded by Cool Japan, and it was probably the worst con I've ever been to. There was hardly anything to do there but buy stuff. Staff was incompetent and I ended up waiting for half an hour in the blistering heat while cosplaying Lucia FOR THE WRONG EVENT... The people running it were so clueless about what anime Americans like that they were making a huge deal about Chibi Maruko-chan and presenting Dragon Ball Z as if it were this new cool thing, the only game related thing was Mighty No. 9.... What a disastershow. At least the Mike Toole panel was good, even if I had to take a bus to get there and wait in the wrong line cosplaying an oven.
Toonami in the 90's and early 2000's alone did more to make Japan look cool than Cool Japan ever has. |
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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Unfortunate to hear this. Maybe they can try different ideas next time.
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