The dissemination of Japan’s pop culture by companies

4.3 The dissemination of Japan’s pop culture by companies

The acceptance and the popularity of Japanese cultural products did not take place in each country at the same time. The timing and the range of cultural products consumed vary according to countries (Toyoshima, 2011: 6). For example, Japanese dramas have been much more watched in East Asia than in Europe or the US. In East Asia, the popularity of Japan’s pop culture goods can be trace back to the late 1970s, in both legal and pirated versions (Ching, 1994; Ishii, 2001). Doraemon, a manga adapted as an anime, achieved an enormous success among young East Asian audiences in the 1980s. It is in the 1990s that Japan’s cultural industries managed to export their products on a massive scale and could reach new consumers (Otmazgin, 2013). In the Asian region, the massive consumption of Japanese pop culture has been concomitant with the emergence of a middle class, a result of economic growth (Shiraishi, 1997: 268).

4.3.1 East Asia

In Taiwan and South Korea, respectively until 1993 and 1998, the Japanese cultural industries could not export their products because of a complete ban.⁶⁴ In other words, until the lifting of the ban, Japanese companies could not disseminate their products. In South Korea, the ban was lifted in a process of four stages between 1998 and 2006. In the first stage of liberalization in 1998, the imports of manga were allowed. Only Japanese movies awarded at one of the three major films festivals (Cannes, Venice, Berlin) or having been granted an Academy award were permitted. Joint Japan-South Korea productions were included as well. Japanese movies imported could only be screened in theaters, not on television (Embassy of Japan in South Korea, 2003; Suzuki, 2004, King, 2012: 82).

In the second stage of liberalization, in 1999, all Japanese films awarded in any of the seventy film festivals could be screened. In the case of films not having been granted an award, they could be screened if they had no censorship rating. After this second stage, their broadcastings were still limited to cinemas. The interdiction of animated films continued. With the third stage of liberalization in 2000, screenings of all Japanese movies were authorized. Indeed, Japanese movies with no film festival award but with censorship rating could be screened in cinemas. Yet, adult movies were still prohibited. Japanese films on cable and satellite televisions were liberalized but limited to those allowed in the second step. Also part of the third stage, feature anime were finally liberalized. Yet, the lift on this ban was limited to those having received an award at an international film festivals. In addition, they could only be screened in cinemas. The commercialization of game software for computer, online and game centers was allowed. Nevertheless, the ban on game software for consoles persisted (Embassy of Japan in South Korea, 2003; Suzuki, 2004; King, 2012: 82).

After the fourth stage of liberalization in 2004, all restrictions on the screenings of films in cinemas were removed. It was also the case for feature animations in 2006. Japanese movies and feature anime screened in theaters were authorized to be broadcasted on cable and satellite television. In a similar way, the airing of Japanese films on terrestrial television was also allowed, but not for feature animations. Therefore, despite this process of liberalization, some restrictions remain. In addition to feature anime, programmes such as variety and talk shows are still prohibited on terrestrial television (Embassy of Japan in South Korea, 2003; Suzuki, 2004). The liberalization process is detailed in the table below.

South Korea did not lift the interdiction of animated films in the two first stages of liberalization because it wanted to protect its own nascent sector of animation from the concurrence of Japanese anime (Suzuki, 2014). Despite the complete ban on Japanese popular culture in Taiwan and South Korea, people of these countries had access to it by piracy before the lifting of the ban, as the next section of this chapter shows.
Table 4. South Korea’s lifting of the ban on Japanese culture
First step (1998)

1. Films and videos

Japan and Korean co-production films and award-winning (Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Award) Japanese films were permitted in cinema. Video sales of these movies also allowed.

2. Manga

Manga books and magazines authorized.

Second step (1999)

1. Films and videos

Films allowed to be screened in theater enlarged to those having won an award at any of the seventy international film festivals, and those with no age limit.

Videos of films screened in theater permitted.

Ban on feature anime continued.

2. Musical performance

Performers of Japanese music restricted to selling a maximum of 2,000 seats. Only indoor performances allowed.

No broadcasting or recording (in any format including videos) of the performances allowed.

Third step (2000)

1. Films and videos

Except adult movies, screening of movies in theaters liberalized.

International film festival awarded feature anime authorized in cinemas.

Videos of screened films allowed.

2. Music performance

End of the ban on the performance of Japanese music.

Recording: no Japanese lyrics, only songs with Korean translation lyrics allowed.

3. Game Software

Games software for computer, online and game centers authorized. Continuation of the ban on game software for consoles.

4. Television

Sport, documentary and news programmes became legal.

Films on cable and satellite televisions authorized but limited to those allowed in the second step.

Fourth step (2004)

1. Films and videos

End of the restrictions on films in theaters and videos. Ban on feature animations in cinema stopped in 2006.

2. Music and games

All records (CDs, tapes etc.) permitted. End of the ban on game software for consoles.

3. Television

Cable and satellite television: Ban completely lifted on lifestyle information, educational and Japanese music programmes, Japanese films and feature anime screened in theaters. For TV dramas, joint Japan-Korean production, including those with 12+.

Terrestrial television: Ban lifted in a similar way as cable and satellite television. Yet, feature animations still prohibited. For Japanese music programme, only live screenings of Japanese singers in South Korea and Japanese singers broadcast in Korean programmes were liberalized. Ban lifted only on joint production TV dramas.

Sources: Embassy of Japan in South Korea, 2003; Suzuki, 2004; King, 2012: 82.

Two reasons can explain this policy. First, the Chinese state wants to protect its own animation industry. In 2009, it created the China Animation Group Co. to boost its national animation industry. Nevertheless, the Chinese anime industry has a long way to go. It can only produce 80,000 minutes of animation whereas the annual demand amounts to 263,000 minutes (Cooper-Chen, 2010: 90). Secondly, in 1990, one year after the Tiananmen student protest, the Chinese president Jiang Zemin stressed that the Chinese cultural industries and TV channels have to deliver good “food for the minds” to children so that they love their country (Nakano, 2002: 232).

In 2000, China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) decided to demand local TV channels to obtain approval to broadcast imported TV cartoons. Furthermore, quotas of airing such cartoons were established. In 2004, the SARFT required TV channels to broadcast at least 60 per cent of domestic anime in prime time. And in September 2006, the SARFT prohibited the airing of foreign cartoons on TV from 5pm until 8pm. Furthermore, cartoon programs coproduced by Chinese and foreign producers are required to obtain approval to be aired during that time slot. In addition to broadcasting restrictions, official imports of foreign cartoons often have to undergo censorship. For instance, Neon Genesis Evangelion was released to the Chinese market with considerable cuts and revisions in comparison with the original version (Cooper-Chen, 2010: 88-9). In East Asia, censorship is not limited to China. Some manga, anime and video games have been censored in Indonesia, in the Philippines and in Malaysia because their content was too violent and/or too sexually explicit. Censorship also takes place outside of East Asia. In the US, anime are often categorized as cartoons for small children. Consequently, they undergo censorship under the broadcasting Code (Shiraishi, 1997: 267). In France as well, several anime have been censored due to their violence.

4.3.2 Europe

In Europe and in the US, anime came first, followed by manga. The broadcasting of anime paved the way for the boom of manga because anime created an audience for manga (Malone, 2010: 315) and the entrepreneurs who fulfilled the demand (Bouissou, 2006: 5). The history of the imports of manga and anime in Europe can be summarized in two phases: the first being the phase of the dragon; the second the phase of the dazzle (Pellitteri, 2010). The first phase consisted of the unexpected encounter between Western TV industries seeking new and cheap programmes for young audience in the 1970s and Japanese studios producing anime that Western viewers were not very familiar with (Pellitteri, 2010).

A range of reasons can explain the success of anime in Europe when they were aired for the first time. First, the liberalization of European TV markets in the 1980s facilitated the airing of anime. Indeed, in a very competitive market, anime could be broadcasted at regular intervals (Beldi, 2013: 130). Secondly, although manga and anime have Japanese origin, mangaka and animators have always incorporated in their plots some elements of Western popular culture (Beldi, 2013: 126). Finally, Japanese anime companies benefited from the very low rate of yen and a cheap labour force. They could sell their products at a price that nobody could compete with (Pellitteri, 2010: 301-2), making easy the diffusion of anime. Nevertheless, at the beginning, American broadcasters wanted to hide the Japanese origin of anime by Americanizing names and dialogues, changing the scenario, and redrawing some scenes. They even sometimes redrew entire episodes. In France, the process of localization was not so pronounced, whereas in Italy it was light (Pellitteri, 2010: 394-5).

In Europe, Italy pioneered the airing of anime on public and private TV channels in 1976. Anime achieved such high levels of popularity that, in 1979, be it on private or public TV stations, seven hours of anime were daily broadcasted. France followed Italy and started to show anime on TV from the beginning of the 1980s. In Germany, at that time, only two public TV stations existed: ARD and ZDF⁶⁵. Between 1971 and 1974, they aired some episodes of Speed Racer. However, facing the backlash of parents, they decided to stop the broadcasting of this anime soon afterwards. Even co-productions between Germany and Japan tailored for young children gave rise to controversies. ARD and ZDF aired a few anime aimed at children, such as Kimba the White Lion or Heidi. It was necessary to wait until the end of the 1980s for the broadcasting of a larger array of anime targeting teenagers by new German TV channels (Beldi, 2013: 130).

The European case demonstrates the importance of local importers (local publishers, TV broadcasters and distributors of anime) for the diffusion of Japan’s pop culture. They acted as gatekeepers (Hirsch, 1972; Peterson, 1994) by localizing (Levitt, 1983; Ryans et al., 2003) the content of Japan’s pop culture. Localization means modifying “the contents of foreign cultural products, educate customers how to appreciate them, and deal with pre-existing stereotype, in order to fill the cultural gap” (Matsui, 2009: 25).

Most of the time, anime had to go through censorship of some scenes deemed as too violent for children. Characters and dialogues were localized as well (Beldi, 2013: 131). In France, for instance, names of characters and places were Frenchified. Moreover, some scenes judged as unsuitable for children were censored. The French TV broadcasting Le Club Dorothée, one of the most popular children’s programmes showing anime in the late 1980s and beginning 1990s, undertook a strong localization of dialogues (Faviez and Rui, 2003: 27-9).

The huge audience ratings of anime sparked the interest of other industries, in particular the publishers. Italy pioneered the dissemination of anime-related products in Europe, particularly manga. In 1983, two Italian editors of the monthly comic magazine Eureka, Alfredo Castelli and Gianni Bono, got in touch with Mori Koki and Andō Yuka, two employees of Kōdansha, one of the biggest Japanese publishers, to understand how to edit manga in Italy. The result of this collaboration was the Kōdansha Comics Catalogue, a manual released in 1985 describing the editing of manga. Even for titles not belonging to Kōdansha, it became a reference not only in Europe, but also in the US (Pellitteri, 2010: 73).

In France, again later than in Italy, the success of anime programmes was followed by the commercialization of spin-off products. For example, VHS (Video Home System) cassettes of anime were commercialized. Yet, they were relatively expensive. In addition, when they were launched into the market at the beginning of the 1980s, few French households were equipped with VCR (Videocassette Recorder) (Fallaix, 2003: 37). At that time, editing manga did not represent a promising opportunity. French people, and more generally Europeans, were not accustomed to reading comics in black and white. It was also necessary to flip the way of reading to suit the readers’ habits, as well as negotiate the rights for reproduction and dissemination. Therefore, French publishers decided to launch publications inspired by anime without any reference to the original manga. Despite some defects in these publications, they achieved a commercial success (Ferrand, 2003: 203-4).

The huge flow of anime and their related products sparked off a backlash by parent associations, teacher unions, or educationalists. Even some politicians sharply criticized the so-called hold of Japan on children. Critics stressed not only the ugly aesthetics of anime, but also the violence contained in some scenes. The bashing of anime was also nurtured by the fear of Japan and its economic power (Beldi, 2013: 133-4).

The 1990s, the phase of dazzle (Pellitteri, 2010), marked the rise in the popularity of manga. In 1990, Akira became the first manga to be a success. It was edited at the same time in France, Italy and Spain by the French publisher Glénat and its subsidiaries. One year later, it was commercialized in Germany by Carlsen. The right of publishing this manga was obtained from an American publisher, VIZ Communications. Akira was edited in a colorized version with the way of reading from left to right to suit European taste (Beldi, 2013: 136). In Italy, the success of Akira served to counter the declining interest in Japanese popular culture. Founded in 1989 by Luigi Bernardi, a former head of Glénat Italia, Granata Press launched the magazine Zero. In contrast to Akira, manga published in this magazine were in black and white. However, manga were still flipped left to right as they were acquired from the American versions of VIZ Communications (Malone, 2010: 321).

At the beginning, Granata Press did not face any competitor. In 1991, the situation changed with the arrival of Play Press. One year later, another young publisher, Star Comics, began the commercialization of Kappa, a magazine headed by former Granata Press employees and publishing some Kōdansha titles. In 1995, Star Comics bought the rights of Dragon Ball, a best-seller in Italy with record sales. This manga was printed from right to left, the way of reading in Japan. It was at the request of the Japanese rights holder, Shūeisha (Malone, 2010: 322). In a similar development that took place throughout Europe and in the US, Star Comics opted for publication similar to Japanese tankōbon.⁶⁶ The same year, Marvel Italia, a branch of American Marvel, entered into the Italian manga market. The year after, in 1996, Granata Press went into bankruptcy. Its incomplete edited series were taking over by Star Comics and Panini/Planet Manga (Malone, 2010: 322).

Nowadays, in Italy, the manga market is divided between ten editors: Dinyt, D/Visual and Shin Vision (exclusively manga); Coconino Press, Panini, Kappa and Play Press (manga and other kinds of comics). Einaudi, Mondadori and Rizzoli sometimes edit some titles (Bouissou et al., 2010: 254).

In France, against the background of a fierce debate on the violence of anime and manga, the major French comic publishers boycotted manga (Bouissou, 2006: 5). Whilst it is true that Glénat introduced manga in France with Akira, it waited until 1993 to publish Dragon Ball, followed by Ranman ½ in 1994 and Sailor Moon in 1995. In 1994, the first specialized manga publisher, Tonkam, was set up by four manga fans. Tonkam was the first to print manga unflipped (Malone, 2010: 323). In 1996, two long-established comics editors, J’ai lu and Dargaud, created their manga subsidiaries, respectively J’ai lu Manga and Kana. Both focused on shōnen titles popular after their airing on TV. At that time, 90 per cent of manga readers were boys. As another proof of the close relationship between anime and manga, J’ai lu Manga kept the French anime titles as subtitles for its manga. Nevertheless, the end of Le Club Dorothée in 1997 did not cause the decline of the sales of manga, showing that manga had become an independent market (Malone, 2010: 323-4).

The landscape of French manga publishers is unique. From 1988 until 2004, thirty-seven publishing houses entered into this business field.⁶⁷ But 20 per cent either shut down or left the manga business. A majority of them was run by manga fans, some of them having business school diplomas, some experience in bookstores and/or fanzines. The first generation of manga houses was represented by Glénat, Tonkam, Delcourt and Soleil. When long-established comic houses such as Hachette, Dargaud, Casterman, Flammarion, Le Seuil and Philippe Picquier realized the commercial potential of manga, they could no longer ignore this market (Bouissou et al., 2010: 254). Nowadays, France has the largest concentration of manga publishers in Europe. However, consolidation is taking place. For instance, in 2006, J’ai lu Manga closed down; Tonkam now belongs to Delcourt; and Pika was taken over by Hachette (Malone, 2010: 324).

4.3.3 The US

After creating VIZ Communications in 1986 as a subsidiary of Shōgakukan, Horibuchi Seiji sought advice from Frederik L. Schodt, the author of the first book on manga for Western audience (Schodt, 1983). This American translator was sceptical about the business success of manga in the US after having seen too many failed attempts (Schodt, 1996: 309). He suggested Horibuchi to adapt manga to the comic layout (Horibuchi, 2006: 45).

When VIZ Communications began the commercialization of manga in the US in 1987, it had to face several issues concerning localization. The most important issue was flipping. To adapt to the American way of reading, this publisher decided to reverse pages horizontally. Shōgakukan suggested this idea to this company. Yet, some mangaka protested against the flipping of their works (Horibuchi, 2006: 66-7). It was the case of Hōjō Tsukasa, the mangaka of City Hunter. In Japan, mangaka have a part of the copyright of their creations. This differs from the comic industry in the US (Matsui, 2009: 13).

Another issue was the translation. Americans were not familiar with the abundance of sound effects in manga. Horibuchi and Fujii Satoru acknowledged that it was quite difficult to explain the importance of sound effects to their American partner, Eclipse, a comic publisher. This situation provoked cultural conflicts (Horibuchi, 2006: 67-9). VIZ Communications also had to tackle the issue of colorization. At first, some manga were colorized but this publisher quickly decided to sell manga in their original format, black and white (Schodt, 1996: 316-7). Moreover, the explicit violence and sexual contents found in some manga were problematic in the American context. For instance, this company had to delete a four-page rape scene in The Legend of Kamui (Matsui, 2009: 15).

VIZ Communications had to manage, on the one hand, the pressure of the feminist editor-in-chief of Eclipse, and on the other hand, the pressure of its parent company, Shōgakukan, who claimed that changing the content was an offence to mangaka and to their works even if the content was explicit (Horibuchi, 2006: 72-4). The censorship of the series can provoke backlash of fans as well, furious to realize that their favourite series have been modified. In 2005, fans expressed their anger after the release of the first volume of Tenjho Tenge because they found out that CMX, an American manga publisher, had covered nudity and panties, and censored a rape scene. CMX had carried out such modifications to target younger teens, the majority of American manga readers (Harris, 2005).

In a similar vein, when American publisher Del Rey was preparing the release of its first manga titles in 2004, the censorship of Negima (the removal of some casual nudity) was leaked out. Facing the outrage of fans, Del Rey had to release the first volume of Negima uncensored (Harris, 2005). Furthermore, in 2007, Seven Seas Entertainment, another American manga publisher, decided not to commercialize its edition of Nymphet because of a controversy over its story, a depiction of a student’s attraction to her teacher (ICv2, 2007).

Matsui argues that the growth of the American manga market can be explained by two factors. First, it is through stigma management that American publishers could develop the manga market in the US. They wanted to avoid the stigma attached to comics in this country by establishing manga as an acceptable form of entertainment. It is why early manga publishing houses had to choose titles carefully and sometimes modified their content. Nevertheless, the practice of censorship complicated the acquisition of the license of popular titles from Japanese publishers because for them it was inconceivable to modify the content of manga. To avoid censorship, American manga publishers were forced to create some age rating systems (Matsui, 2009: 4).

Secondly, the competition between the two main American manga publishers, VIZ Communications and Tokyopop⁶⁸, sparked off the growth of the market, an example of path dependency. In other words, if VIZ Communications in the 1980s had not been the first to localize manga, the strategy of standardization of Tokyopop would have not led to the growth of the sales in the 2000s. And if Tokyopop had not conducted its strategy of standardization, the efforts of VIZ Communications to localize manga would not have boosted the sales (Matsui, 2009: 4). Tokyopop was founded in 1997 by Stuart Levy, an American lawyer, a former student and businessman in Japan. The strategy of standardization of this American manga publisher consisted in commercializing manga in the original way of reading, not translating sound effects and releasing the same format than the Japanese one. Therefore, Tokyopop, the leader in shōjo market (Sailor Moon for example), could publish titles at a cheap price (Matsui, 2009: 17-8). To remain competitive, VIZ Communications had no other choice but to release manga in their original way of reading and to discount them. The price of most titles was reduced to $US9.95 (¥1204.5) and shōnen manga of Shūeisha were sold at $US7.75 (¥938.2⁶⁹) (Horibuchi, 2006: 189-92).

Despite being one of the most important manga publishers in the American market, Tokyopop shut down its American branch in May 2011, its German branch pursuing its business operations separately. The bankruptcy of the American branch of Tokyopop was the result of the decision of Kōdansha to end its collaboration in 2009 (Anime News Network, 2011b). Previously, in 2008, Kōdansha had set up its own subsidiary, Kodansha Comics, to publish directly in the American market. And, in October 2010, it announced that it would gradually take over the publication of manga of the American editor Del Rey (Anime News Network, 2010). If Kōdansha is present in the American market via its subsidiary Kodansha Comics, Shūeisha and Shōgakukan have also their common subsidiary VIZ Media.⁷⁰ Shūeisha and Shōgakukan are also present in the European market via VIZ Media Europe, the sister company of VIZ Media. In 2009, VIZ Media Europe acquired German distributor Anime Virtual and French distributor Kazé to reinforce its position in the European market of anime and manga (Rice, 2009).