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Forum - View topicNEWS: Nikkei: 'Cool Japan' Initiatives Fail to Meet Expectations
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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This is truly shocking news.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24125 |
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Typical business corruption. You just gotta love human greed.
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2899 Location: California |
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That's unfortunate.
I would be interested in hearing what some of the successful ventures were. |
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Twage
Posts: 363 Location: North Bergen, NJ |
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I found the tea place in question!
https://shuharicafe.com/ I wonder if it's any good. Sources: http://www.reuters.com/article/japan-tea/cool-japan-fund-to-invest-in-green-tea-cafes-in-u-s-idUSL3N0X31XF20150406 https://www.cj-fund.co.jp/files/press_160719-1.pdf |
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#854626
Posts: 171 |
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I'd because foreigners don't really get into the whole idols and maid cafe and tea stuff. They just want anime. Good anime without idols and maid cafe and tea. They wasted alot of money trying to spread japanese otaku culture, and foriengers. just sees it as a meme. They dont really invest in it or take it seriously. Samurai are pretty cool though...
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5498 |
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https://www.facebook.com/mashumaronoyume/ https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseMaidsCafeLondon/ |
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Melicans
Posts: 627 Location: Canada |
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Not surprised this is the result if all that money was co-opted for personal businesses. If they invested smartly, and researched things that would actually return a net positive...
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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So....they had expectations, then? Huh.
Maybe they should've told us what the heck they were, and we could've helped. 
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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So when i go to an idol concert in the US and it is stuffed full and sold out, I can with evidence say that the have their place. Now marketing such a venture is another story. |
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ninjamitsuki
 Posts: 633 Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology) |
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Cool Japan didn't really understand the reasons why anime and manga became popular abroad in the first place.
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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The first thing they teach a salesman is, if you don't believe in your product, you won't be able to sell it with any sincere conviction. Abe's government wanted to tell the outside world how "cool" anime was, but pin them down and ask them what anime they watched? What self-respecting working mainstream Japanese adult, let alone a politician, would dare confess to such a career-crushing shame in public? (Except that you could say that you used to watch Doraemon as a kid, no harm in that, everyone did...Or, wait, didn't we have one politician a while back who said he liked Sgt. Frog?) So the government just pretty much parroted the sales and exposure from the fact that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY liked Attack on Titan and Studio Ghibli....Laaame.
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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A combination of minimal advertising, mismanagement, and misguided marketing may have contributed to Cool Japan's downfall. Plus, I think their stake in the tea business might have diverted their focus from the main objective of the project.
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omiya
 Posts: 1849 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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I would think that it would be more constructive/productive to provide assistance to companies and tourism organisations to provide clear information on their web sites in at least Japanese text (which Google translate could make a decent translation of) and have basic information in other target languages that was checked for accuracy by experts in those languages.
It's a bit difficult when a web site offers a graphic of kanji text and you don't read kanji. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Who could have guessed that throwing tax dollars at businesses with little to no oversight could result in *gasp* those tax dollars being a losing investment. Certainly there's nothing that the United States would know about that, right? Like the billions upon billions of tax dollars paid to telecom companies to improve the backbone and overall broadband performance that simply got pocketed while the businesses drove up rates as well.
Is there ever going to be a political force that will reason that accountability with tax payer money is paramount to the citizens' trust in the government? Probably not, but I guess it doesn't hurt to hope that someday it may happen. |
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Tea? Really? If I wanted some authentic Japanese tea, I'd buy ITO EN tea from Whole Foods Market. I know the government is supposed to give preference to smaller businesses, but frankly it would be better if the consortium plays as a mediator between all sorts of domestic companies and foreign distributors to major retailers. For an otaku example, the result could be like how you see imported figurines sold at Barnes & Noble.
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