Cool Japan: the relationships between the state and the cultural industries

0.1 Structure of the thesis

This work is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 consists of a literature review on state-business relations and the developmental state in Japan. The aim of this chapter is to examine what various researchers have written on such topics in order to identify potential gaps. It demonstrates that the relationships between the Japanese state and the Japanese cultural industries have been under-investigated. At the beginning of the 2000s, the Japanese authorities began to pay attention to the sector of cultural industries. Beforehand, they deemed them as unprofitable, thereby unworthy of their attention. This certainly explains why few scholars have embraced the topic of research of this thesis, as the government’s interest in such industrial sector has been quite recent. This situation has also resulted in another gap found in this literature review. Indeed, the concept of the developmental state has not been used to investigate the relationships between the Japanese state and the Japanese cultural industries. It goes without saying that our reliance on such concept implies that Cool Japan is considered as an industrial policy in this study. This chapter also considers the terms “content”, “creative” and “cultural” industries.

Chapter 2 explains the theoretical framework and the methodology employed in this thesis. It is divided into three main parts. The first part reviews the main theories used to investigate state-business relations, that is to say corporatism, pluralism, Marxism and elitism. The first three theories suffer from several shortcomings that make them unsuitable to serve as an analytical framework. The last one, elitism, in particular within it statism, is very interesting because statism asserts the notion of state capacity and autonomy, two main characteristics of the developmental state.

In the second part, the concept of the developmental state is detailed. This chapter argues that, contrary to the claims of some authors, the Japanese developmental state has not become obsolete, but has rather evolved, adapted and survived in the process of neoliberal globalization. Therefore, the Japanese state continues to conduct industrial policy, Cool Japan being one instance of the policy.

The third part focuses on building a coherent methodology for this doctoral research. The methodology adopted relies on qualitative methods because the study of the relationships between the state and the cultural industries in Japan requires in-depth information. The case studies method and some practical considerations on the collection of information such as the access to the interviewees and the use of mentors to get interviews are also explained, as well as the theoretical and practical limitations to the methodology of this thesis.

Chapter 3 addresses the current situation of the Japanese cultural industries and examines the evolution of the domestic market. The emphasis is placed on anime, manga and video games companies as they are the focus of this research. The characteristics of these three sectors are detailed with the help of figures and tables. It is important to consider the domestic market of these industries because it represents their industrial basis.

Whilst Chapter 3 tackles the domestic situation of the anime, manga and video games companies, Chapter 4 analyzes how their products have been massively disseminated abroad since the 1980s, with a stress on East and Southeast Asia, Europe and the US (United States). The goal of this chapter is not to explain the reasons for their popularity, but deals with the process of such massive dissemination. In particular, it shows that the Japanese state did not initiate this global flow. Whereas it is obvious that the private sector has been a driver of the exports of anime, manga and video games, piracy must be noted as having contributed the most to the international outreach of Japanese pop culture. Chapters 3 and 4 set the context for the analysis of the government’s Cool Japan policy.

Chapter 5 is therefore devoted to an examination of the state policy Cool Japan which has two goals: on the one hand, the increase of the cultural industries’ sales in the foreign markets to stimulate the domestic economy; and, on the other hand, the spread of a friendly image of Japan overseas in order to promote Japan’s soft power. This chapter attests that Cool Japan represents an industrial policy because the developmental state wants a better business environment for the cultural, and more generally, the creatives industries.

Cool Japan is a complex policy due to the very large array of state actors involved in its framing and implementation. Evidence is provided to demonstrate that this policy is another example of the sectionalism of the Japanese bureaucracy. Cooperation and coordination are complicated as the bureaucrats of each ministry want to protect their own jurisdiction. This chapter demonstrates that these bureaucrats view Cool Japan according to their own jurisdictional competences. Beneath the image of unity, the bureaucrats of the ministries struggle to protect their power and to increase it.

This chapter also proves that two features of the developmental state are present in Cool Japan. Indeed, the METI has institutional links with the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) and the Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA). This ministry has also contacts with two informal associations representing the manga publishers: the Association of Manga Publishers⁷ (AMP) and the Digital Comic Association (DCA). Moreover, evidence is offered that bureaucrats are dissatisfied by the current situation of the cultural industries. In other words, they continue to consider that it is their responsibility to maintain the competitiveness of the Japanese economy.

Chapter 6 consists of the three case studies. It is divided into three parts, one for each sector considered in this research. This chapter illuminates the relevance of employing the concept of the developmental state, in particular the relative degree of autonomy of the state and the institutional links between the government and the cultural industries, to examine Cool Japan. The relationships between the state and these industries emerged quite recently as the CESA was created in 1996 and the AJA in 2002. In contrast to the CESA and the AJA, the two business associations (the AMP and the DCA) representing the manga industry are informal. Despite their lack of corporate status, the METI has contact with them.

This chapter analyzes the reactions of the anime, manga and video games industries to this policy and shows that the main gap between this state initiative and these sectors is the timing of Cool Japan. Many interviewees consider this policy as too late and would like the state to embrace more actively the issue of piracy. The beginning of the Manga-Anime Guardians (MAG) Project to combat online piracy in July 2014 shows that the government does not remain passive. However, the MAG Project does not include the eradication of illegal copies of video games. Chapter 6 also points out that the Japanese cultural industries reject any state intervention in their contents if they receive financial support and their heterogeneity, notably between big companies and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Finally, Chapter 7, the final chapter, recapitulates the main findings of this doctoral dissertation and discusses its theoretical contributions to the existent literature, emphasizing the persistence of developmentalism in Japan. The empirical contributions are also detailed. The chapter concludes by suggesting avenues for future research.