The Rationale for Pop Culture Policy

 It has almost been 20 years since content has become one particular policy genre. The government has turned up the gear and launched Cool Japan and pop culture with top priority.
 However, should one talk about pop culture policy, without hearing the content, there will often be arguments like “I don’t think this country does this!” Although manga, anime and games can be said to be popular overseas, it has reached at most to the level of “sub” culture yet and hence one will be replied with a cold gaze if it is used as a subject for discussion. 
 The Cool Japan concept was conceived when Mr. Douglas Maggurei first wrote it in his book, ‘Japan’s Gross National Cool’. Havard University Professor Joseph Nye, advocator of soft power, then suggested that Japan should make use of its strength in pop culture. Hence, rather than being a concept conceived out of Japan’s self-evaluation, Cool Japan is actually a discovery made from outside the country. Domestic sentiments were indecisive.  

 But why is a pop culture policy necessary in the first place? We need to organize the circumstances behind this. 
First, it is adopted as an economic policy. Whether it is anime or music, popular content can be made into a business. We can leave it alone if that is the case. It should have completed its targeting policy. However, the ripple effects that are felt by Japan due to this, such as favorability and a sense of longing, which economics would term as ‘external effects’ cannot be counted in business. The socio-economic benefits that should be obtained from content production are too miniscule. I will enhance this policy. 
 As a consequence, rather than being an economic policy that aims to boost sales of the content industry itself, content is seen as the catalyst that aim to improve industries as a whole, such as appliances, food products, tourism etc. 

 Secondly, it is adopted as cultural diplomacy. The soft power which Professor Nye is suggests, is the ability to attract other countries with culture in an international relations context. I recently held a lecture to dozens of PhD students in Peking University on media policies in the midst of a shaky Japan-China relation. 
 At that time, I received a number of questions regarding pop culture trend from the audience. I am sure everyone will like pop culture. Pop culture subjects like Naruto and One Piece is an effective subject to stop quarrels. 

 However, it still remains a challenge as an evaluation index is still not available. Stanford University was once planning a project in Japan Centre to develop a GDPP (Pop Power Index) but as there were insufficient sponsors, the project was not completed successfully. This is something I would like to try to do again.