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NEWS: "Cool Japan" Initiative Gets Government Investment Fund

Well, I certainly can't see why anyone wouldn't want to sleep in a hotel that had more in common with a Morgue than any other kind of accommodation.

VORTIA wrote:

There are a number of problems with Cool Japan, starting with the fact that the government ministers involved in promoting it aside from Aso are a bunch of old curmudgeons who wouldn't know cool if it bit them. Most of them are tangentially aware that foreigners enjoy anime and such, and are keen to tap that interest economically, but they don't understand the first thing about the subject. Fortunately, they're smart enough to realize this and go looking for experts. Unfortunately, the council they've selected is made up of similarly crusty old executives and traditional cultural representatives who are more interested in improving the bottom line of their own companies than helping budding artists and entrepreneurs get ahead on the international market, and are themselves largely removed from the aspects of Japanese pop culture that resonate overseas.

Yep and most of them don't have a lot of knowledge about globalization. That's why Japan is different from Korea and Taiwan when it comes to globalization and the internet. That's why Wi-fi is hard to find in Japan (although I heard free wifi in Japan has increased a bit, for tourist only), when in South Korea and Taiwan, free wi-fi is easy to find. It doesn't help that Japan doesn't embraced digital music market as Answerman talked about it. I'll quote the important part:

Justin "Answerman" Servakis wrote:

Chris asks: You can find anime cover songs on iTunes pretty easily (and even some theme songs, albeit completely divorced from their anime of origin), but why are so few actual anime soundtracks on there? They're not even on the Japanese iTunes store, I checked. If there's one place where Japanese and American media are completely divergent, it's music. Japan's music industry is a bizarre, frustrating collection of old-school publishers, talent agencies, yakuza, talent agencies that act like yakuza, and all sorts of other characters that often don't play nice with each other, let alone foreign companies. They move slowly, don't adapt to internet culture well (or at all), and attach themselves onto inane rules that seem to have no basis in reality, and won't bend for anyone. It's one of many reasons why so few Japanese musical acts have ever hit outside of Asia. That little consumer revolution didn't really happen in Japan the same way it did here. Japan has had its issues with piracy, but it never completely took over the market like it did here. Japanese publishers relied more on collectors than casual music consumers, and simply didn't need a savior. And so, things haven't changed over there nearly as much. People still buy a LOT of CDs, and as evidence, there are still quite a few CD stores, including chains like Tower Records and HMV that have long since died out on this side of the Pacific. Japanese record labels and talent agencies still hold tightly onto business practices and rules that seem to ignore the very existence of the internet.

You remember that law Japan passed that restrict music downloading? This has a negative effect on music sales in Japan which ANN reported on.

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Where are the representatives of J-rock labels? Sci-fi authors? Cutting-edge manga-ka? Software engineers? AKB48 and tea ceremony are about as interesting to most Westerners as Ukiyo-e. The closest thing they have to someone who has knowledge of material that would appeal to a sizeable foreign audience is the head of Kadokawa, but he's many steps removed from their publishing division and I'm not sure he has the background to really know what is and isn't marketable overseas. It's great that the Japanese government wants to invest in their cultural capital, but if they want that money put to good use, they need it to be directed by a larger body with a better understanding of what is truly popular, both in Japan and in the wider world, that can see to it that the money benefits the Japanese tourism and entertainment industry as a whole, rather than just to prop up the poorly planned attempts by council members to market their own company's products.

Well a few months ago (in April), there was a committee conference set up to talk about internationalize and globalize Japanese pop culture. I can't say what comes out of this will work, but I'll agreed with you that many companies in Japan need young people and young people that understand globalization and has interact people around the world so they'll know how to market that product for people outside of Japan. That's how "Cool Japan" can be pull off effectively.

They put Danny Choo on a government panel?! Man, get in there and fight, Danny! You may be Cool Japan's only hope!

That's a half misconception. Korea is doing now what Japan did in the 70-80's, where they successfully spread their entertainment around East Asia. Korea has been spreading its entertainment around East Asia now, too, for the past 10 years. Recent waves in the West have been those little bumps of interest that hit the internet, but don't really translate much beyond one or two songs. It's not that much bigger than anime and manga and such yet.

Juno016 wrote:

That's a half misconception. Korea is doing now what Japan did in the 70-80's, where they successfully spread their entertainment around East Asia. Korea has been spreading its entertainment around East Asia now, too, for the past 10 years. Recent waves in the West have been those little bumps of interest that hit the internet, but don't really translate much beyond one or two songs. It's not that much bigger than anime and manga and such yet.

I think you may want to read this, you'll be surprised and please don't underestimate.

mdo7 wrote:

Juno016 wrote: That's a half misconception. Korea is doing now what Japan did in the 70-80's, where they successfully spread their entertainment around East Asia. Korea has been spreading its entertainment around East Asia now, too, for the past 10 years. Recent waves in the West have been those little bumps of interest that hit the internet, but don't really translate much beyond one or two songs. It's not that much bigger than anime and manga and such yet. I think you may want to read this, you'll be surprised and please don't underestimate.

It's rising in popularity in the West and no one is saying otherwise, but it's not enough to garner real mainstream interest like it (and J-pop) has in other parts of East Asia. We've had Girls' Generation and PSY on a few radio stations for a very brief time, but as much as they spread their influence on the internet, the success of the songs and releases here was quite underwhelming. K-pop IS garnering interest, but it has not yet overshadowed J-pop outside of East Asia, and J-pop is already as niche as it is. And I apologize for the generalization, but by J-pop, I'm also including J-rock and bands that use the visual kei style, who often have concerts over here in the West every year, in the major cities.

To be fair, Hello Project tried to branch out when they drafted two Chinese girls into Morning Musume several years ago. They even put out a few songs in Chinese, but the whole thing bombed, and Morning Musume was wandering around in the pop idol wilderness for years afterward.

Japanese companies are exceptionally risk averse, and quite frankly, I think J-rock groups performing songs in Korean is too limiting. If you're going to bother singing in another language, songs in English would hit a wider audience than anything.

If SCANDAL and Flumpool can sign with FNC Entertainment (the same label/agency that FT Island, CNBlue, and AOA are under)...

I don't see anything wrong with our J-pop artists singing in Korean, it'll attract people attention if they sing in Korean. Korean music market is small but it doesn't mean a foreign artists can enter and sing in Korean. Case in example, the UK girl group, Little Mix, did a Korean-language version of one of their song. It didn't stop Little Mix from becoming the first western/foreign artist from doing a Korean-language version. When Little Mix recorded and release the Korean version. It got a lot of attention from music fans in Europe, and it got a lot of attention from K-pop fans too. After I saw what Little Mix did, I thought of an idea: "that's how J-pop artists can get attention outside of Japan and Asia, have J-pop artists crossover to K-pop!!!"

If K-pop artists/groups can sing in Japanese and Chinese, why can't J-pop artists sing in Korean and Chinese.

Having J-pop artists singing in Korean and Chinese makes them more talented and show them they're dedicated to their international fanbases if they sing multiple languages.

Singing in English is not enough, I want J-pop to reach out to other Asian countries, so having J-pop artists sing in Korean and Chinese will help reach out to those Asian countries.

mdo7 wrote:

If SCANDAL and Flumpool can sign with FNC Entertainment (the same label/agency that FT Island, CNBlue, and AOA are under)...

It'll never happen. Japanese companies aren't about to sign their artists over to foreign companies, and quite frankly, I can't imagine why they would. It'd mean splitting the profits with another company in a way that likely wouldn't do anything long-term to benefit them.

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I don't see anything wrong with our J-pop artists singing in Korean, it'll attract people attention if they sing in Korean. Korean music market is small but it doesn't mean a foreign artists can enter and sing in Korean. Case in example, the UK girl group, Little Mix, did a Korean-language version of one of their song. It didn't stop Little Mix from becoming the first western/foreign artist from doing a Korean-language version. When Little Mix recorded and release the Korean version. It got a lot of attention from music fans in Europe, and it got a lot of attention from K-pop fans too. After I saw what Little Mix did, I thought of an idea: "that's how J-pop artists can get attention outside of Japan and Asia, have J-pop artists crossover to K-pop!!!"

How successful is this "Little Mix" in Korea? A musical act pulling a brief performance in a second language is a publicity stunt, not a sustainable market strategy. I'd doubt it'd have lasting economic impact, and if you wanted to do it often and professionally, it'd require a lot of effort, the kind of effort numerous K-Pop bands have put into breaking into the Japanese music industry. Japan has the 2nd largest music market on the planet. South Korea has the 11th. China is 20th. It's in the economic interests of Korean artists to try to break into the Japanese market. It doesn't make the same kind of sense in reverse.

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If K-pop artists/groups can sing in Japanese and Chinese, why can't J-pop artists sing in Korean and Chinese.

Because there's little economic incentive for them to do so.

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Having J-pop artists singing in Korean and Chinese makes them more talented and show them they're dedicated to their international fanbases if they sing multiple languages.

It also requires significant more time and money to train them to do so for questionable economic gains. English, on the other hand, is the primary international language, and the essential language in the #1 and #3 music markets in the world (US & UK). People the world over study English as a second language for practical purposes. Performances in English, ergo, would target the widest possible audience with the minimum amount of investment.

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Singing in English is not enough, I want J-pop to reach out to other Asian countries, so having J-pop artists sing in Korean and Chinese will help reach out to those Asian countries.

While that's nice sentiment, it simply doesn't make business sense. Going outside the home market to fight for the scraps of the Chinese and Korean music industry isn't worth the return, and it's not that the model hasn't been tested - as I said, Hello Project attempted to do so years ago and it failed horribly. Trying to break into already small local markets in Asia simply isn't worth it.

When asked what he thinks K-pop can gain with a launch into the European market, Kim Youngmin proudly said that the European market is estimated to be worth 7 trillion Won. This basically means it's larger than the US (6 trillion), Japan (4 trillion), and China (1 trillion).

I think the whole PSY ordeal was more "lol look at the funny chubby Asian do stuff, aren't those Asiatics so weird" than it is any kind of legitimate acceptance or spread of Korean pop culture into the mainstream.

About Little Mix, it got warm reception from Korean netizens from what I heard. But so what, M2M the Norwegians duo (the one that sang Don't say you love me for the 1st Pokemon movie) sang in Chinese for the Taiwanese market and yet Taiwan's music market is smaller then Japan and Korea, that didn't stop them from singing in Chinese.

China and Taiwan music market are smaller then Korea yet K-pop artists like Super Junior, Miss A, Wonder Girls, EXO (as in EXO-M) and now recently Nu'Est still enter the Chinese market and sing in Chinese.

See K-pop artists take the Chinese market seriously, see it's not only business

That's what Japan should learn from Korea, being able to target multiple market regardless if it's bigger or smaller then Japan, it doesn't matter if China and Taiwan are smaller market then Japan and Korea, got to tap into that market, you can still get money from those countries, Korea did. I've seen K-pop artists can sing in Spanish, French, and other languages also. I want to see J-pop being able to sing in not only Japanese and English, but also Korean, and Chinese.

Also I did some research and found out Europe has more money for K-pop (and possibly J-pop) artists then US and Japan combined:

DKpopnews wrote:

When asked what he thinks K-pop can gain with a launch into the European market, Kim Youngmin proudly said that the European market is estimated to be worth 7 trillion Won. This basically means it's larger than the US (6 trillion), Japan (4 trillion), and China (1 trillion).

I don't know how much 7 trillion Won is in Yen, but if there is more money in Europe for J-pop artists, then I suggest J-pop artists should sing in multiple languages.

But still, I want Japan to tap into both the Korean music market, and Chinese music market. They can get more money from Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, etc... Those music market maybe small but you can still make profit from those countries.

Also Japan's music market maybe #2, but the population decline and sale decline is kinda hurting the industry (it doesn't help Japan's CDs are ridiculously expensive, I mean 40-60 dollars!!!).

Also if I was a J-pop artist, I would be jealous that my Korean counterpart are getting more famous worldwide then I am.

I would not accept being kept in Japan, no I would sing in Korean and Chinese to enter those music market regardless if it smaller then Japan.

Also some of the J-pop group that broke up because of low sales/decline in popularity, they could've survive if they had focus on international market. One example, The J-pop girl group, Bright they broke up in April of this year because of the decline in popularity in Japan. I think if they had focus on the international market (as in if Bright had done a Korean-language and Chinese-language albums), then Bright wouldn't have been disbanded, they probably would've been together today if they had focus on the international market not their local market. Bright may had not a lot of fans in Japan, but they could've gotten more fans outside of Japan if they had focus international not depend on local market.

Also I think Kylee would do well for the international market. I don't mind if Kylee enter Korea and crossover to K-pop, people around the world would love and appreciate her talent. Kylee would get a lot of fans in Taiwan, China, and Singapore if she can sing in Chinese.

Speaking of Japanese artists singing in their non-native, the members of Perfume specifically requested their producer-songwriter Yasutaka Nakata to add some Japanese lyrics to mostly English language Spending All My Time. I've also read from interviews that Perfume want to be accepted as a Japanese language group and don't want to change their style to suit foreign audiences.

You will here the members saying some foreign language greetings when they perform abroad, but that's what even American and British artists do in Finland and other non-English language countries.

All of this goes against everything mdo7 is preaching.