Pop-culture diplomacy in Japan: soft power, nation branding and the question of ‘international cultural exchange’
@article{Iwabuchi2015PopcultureDI, title={Pop-culture diplomacy in Japan: soft power, nation branding and the question of ‘international cultural exchange’}, author={Koichi Iwabuchi}, journal={International Journal of Cultural Policy}, year={2015}, volume={21}, pages={419 - 432} }
This paper critically examines the development of what is known as ‘pop-culture diplomacy’ in Japan. In the postwar era, the country’s cultural diplomacy was propelled by the necessity to soften anti-Japan perceptions, notably in Southeast Asia. In the late 1980s, the popularity of Japanese media culture in Asia began to attract the attention of policy makers, while subsequent globalized practices of soft power and nation branding gave greater emphasis to the use of media culture to…
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