| Abstract: | During the last two decades, Japanese popular culture industrieshave massively penetrated East Asia's markets and their productshave been widely disseminated and consumed. In this region,Japan has recently emerged as a cultural power, in additionto representing an industrial forerunner and model. The aimof this article is to explore the connection between popularculture and soft power by analyzing the activities of the Japanesepopular culture industries in East Asia, and by examining theimages their products disseminates. This study is based on exportdata, market surveys, and interviews with media industry personneland consumers in five cities in East Asia, arguing that theimpact of the Japanese popular culture lies in shaping thisregion's cultural markets and in disseminating new images ofJapan, but not in exerting local influence or in creating Japanese-dominated‘spheres of influence’. Received for publication December 18, 2006. Accepted for publication May 10, 2007. |
