The same can be said in reverse for Japanese people on how they see the Western world: Do they assume the USA is like Hollywood or the UK being like British Television? They perhaps assume that all Americans live in a large home with a white picket fence depicting a nuclear family as if its 1950.
All they talk about US is California or New York since most movies and TV shows use either as their main setting. Is the US in real life similar to Hollywood (everyone having a nice car, big home & white picket fence)? That’s the kind of response from non-Japanese assuming Japan is like anime.
Not sure what you mean with the Anime part. Who thinks Japan is like Anime? All girls have huge boobs, everybody has colorful hair, people get reborn in Fantasy worlds, everybody is shouting and fighting with superpowers? Japan is NOTHING like Anime and I dont believe people think it is. But Japan is awesome and easily the best experience you can have as a tourist, no other country I have ever been to even comes close. Its like Japan is S tier and everything else is C and below. Living in Japan is different though, immense social pressure and horrible working conditions are apparently the price for a clean country with well-behaved people.
To answer what I think youre actually asking: Japan has a lot of very distinct culture, based on highly regarded principles like discipline and order. Thats easily romanticized. I think there are many ways people learn about parts of Japanese culture and lifestyle (mainly because of how distinct it is. There are hundreds of books and movies about Samurai, how many do you know about, i dont know, some part of Vietnams history?) and Anime is one of those.
White Americans do this with Scotland. They come expecting it to be like Outlander and are horrified that there are black/brown Scots. Even to the point of telling them they are more Scottish cos their white. Strut about in ill-fitting ‘kilts’ like they own the place cos their great great great grandads dog laid a turd in Cumbernauld.
But they are often big spenders so they’re tolerated.
This is barely related but I just remembered one day in Amsterdam when I turned round and saw the waiter we’d just ordered pancakes from out the front of the restaurant sobbing into the phone. The image stuck with me and I wondered quite a bit about what that conversation could have been about.
Trying desperately to make this relevant… I guess that would be enough to shatter any romantic image about a place, not that I really had any about Amsterdam…
Exoticism.
Having been to Asia (Japan, Korea, and the Philippines) they do it with us too.
If you only have contact with a culture by its media, it’s easy to think of them as something exotic when the truth is people are people no matter where you go.
You can see it for Japan with all the European mountain villages sometimes featured on anime and manga. E.g.: on Frieren, Heidi, etc.
they see it as a “utopia” that isnt the west. but in reality asia has pretty repressive laws, and restrictions, like with immigration unless your a rich foreigner. alot of westerners goes there and assume the “western customs apply there too” westerners, white ones do alot. i think alot of them live there, but the strange thing is asians love to have foreigners(white/westerners) as part of the propaganda for internal audiences. its a wierd thing amongst asian countries.
they romantacize India alot too, but most people will tell you its a underdeveloped and dirty in most places outside the capitals. other than the megadiversity areas(naitonal parks) where its beautiful, its usually on accessible to plants, animals,etc researchers.
A lot of US cities are like actual Hollywood (the city). Trashy.
As a frequent anime watcher, manga reader and article-on-foreign-countries-reader, Japan has a lot of cool shit. Easy to romantisize if you’re the uncritical type, though personally I think Japanese society is pretty fucked up in a lot of ways.
For what it’s worth when I went to Japan I did think “man, people who are really into anime would love this”. Especially Tokyo and Kyoto.
There was anime stuff everywhere in Tokyo and I saw some really interesting temples and stuff in Kyoto.
The same can be said in reverse for Japanese people on how they see the Western world
I mean we can’t help it. The samurai and karate black belts everywhere, outdoor sushi chefs on every street corner, probably ninjas too but of course there’s no way to know. It’s great, just like in the movies.
probably ninjas too but of course there’s no way to know
Every country has ninjas. It’s just that Japanese ninjas are (comparatively) really shitty at remaining hidden and secret, so that’s why you know about them. Every other country’s ninjas are so good at hiding that you’ll never see or hear about one.
It could also be this anti-ninja spray i bought. I used some in the US and it worked so well that I’ve never seen one here.
Because they don’t have passports and think the “middle east” is ohio.
Do they assume the USA is like Hollywood […]? They perhaps assume that all Americans live in a large home with a white picket fence depicting a nuclear family as if its 1950.
Yes.
I keep an album on my phone of photos of “daily life” things for when I travel internationally. Some external and internal shots of my home. My city’s downtown area. The crowd at a college football game. House party guests playing floppy cup with red Solo cups. Grocery store staples w prices showing Always a good conversation starter.
I mean, the first time I went to Japan (and again after I moved there) I was surprised how much it looked like it did in anime. Unlike most American cartoons, anime draws heavy inspiration from real-life settings, either generally or by literally copying real places almost exactly (there were places in Tokyo I stumbled across and went “wait this actually exists?!”). Furthermore a lot of the daily minutia commonly depicted in anime is true to life: late-night walks to the convenience store, kids biking to school, exhausted salarymen taking the last train, housewives gossiping on the streetcorner, strangely perky cashiers… Also anime usually shows families living in pretty standard housing, and many are set in cheap studio apartments that are quite accurate. They often show how over-worked and despairing both students and working adults are. They often incorporate hot-button issues, like bullying, the high suicide rate, and rural depopulation, that are usually at least generally accurate.
I guess I’m not sure what you’re getting at specifically. Yes anime is disproportionately set in Tokyo, but Japan as a whole is disproportionately focused around Tokyo (culturally, economically, and physically, since the Kanto plain is one of the only flat areas large enough to handle urban sprawl), and it’s not like other places are never featured (often the non-Tokyo setting is a major element of the story). Compared to American TV/movies/cartoons, I’ve found Japanese media to be quite true to life.
there were places in Tokyo I stumbled across and went “wait this actually exists?!”
I had that after playing Far Cry 6 and then looking at pictures of Cuba. lol – places I had thought were purely fictional suddenly showed up in real photos, just how I remembered them looking in the game.
Because the Japanese government has invested in spreading that image of Japan specifically:
Kawaii: Anime, Propaganda, and Soft Power Politics
A nation’s government is involved in its exports, including media. Conscious, intentional choices are made about which media is exported, some media are subsidized by the government to help them spread further, and some are produced directly at the government’s direction for the sake of export. This is often done under the guise of an arts program, but by putting their finger on the scale the government adjusts the image which they present to the rest of the world.
The projection of Japan being like anime is a choice that has been made fairly consistently for the past 30 years, or rather a whole laundry list of choices, a policy of crafted international presentation.
Some anime also seem to be sponsored by some tourist board (probably mostly aimed at a domestic audience), e.g. all the slice of life hiking animes.
And Zombieland Saga. Iirc they got money from Saga prefecture
Escapism, probably. We also get some people are are not well-adjusted adults who come over here in search of some fantasy. They tend to get a wake-up call and leave or
After a decade here, I’ve seen plenty of good and bad. However, given the black company bullshit employers like to pull, and increasing blame and requirements on foreign residents, I’m actively looking to get out.
