Mulboyne wrote:[floatr][/floatr]AFP: Japan's new ambassador
Japan's newest ambassador might be among the most listened to in the diplomatic corps, even if he has no ears himself. The foreign ministry announced Friday it was appointing the cartoon cat Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador," in Japan's latest effort to promote its soft power through its animation industry. Doraemon -- or at least a person dressed as the earless, blue-and-white cat -- will receive his official assignment letter from Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura in a ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, officials said. The character will appear in films to be shown in Japanese missions overseas, talking about the country's lifestyle and customs. "By appointing Doraemon, we hope people in other countries will understand Japanese anime better and deepen their interest in Japanese culture," said Yuko Hotta, a foreign ministry official...more...

Oradea wrote:And what is SOFT POWER anyway?

I awoke last week in a San Francisco hotel to the news that the Walt Disney Company had just announced a partnership with three Japan-based anime studios to coproduce, finance and distribute projects for the international market...When I mentioned the deal during my talk at a San Francisco college, some in the audience fairly gasped. But later that day, over dinner with a friend, I was reminded of the view from inside Japan. My dining companion had spent the day interpreting for Japanese attendees of the annual policy summit hosted by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He told me that the head of one of Japan's largest electronics corporations had started his speech thusly: "Ladies and gentlemen, Japan is finished. It's over." The executive proceeded to recite the usual laundry list of miseries: the declining birthrate and aging society, inflating yen rates, policy stagnation in government, lack of innovation, China, India and so on.

According to my interpreter friend, the Americans in the audience protested: Please don't say that. We love Japan! But the Japanese executive was having none of it. The deepening chasm between outsiders' rosy image of contemporary Japan and the far dimmer view from within has become a frequent topic of conversation among colleagues and friends...At the end of February, I gave a talk at Kinokuniya's new Manhattan outlet in New York...The discussion was lively and the crowd was enormous and varied, featuring teens and twentysomethings in full costume, and others old enough to be their grandparents. Regardless of age or ethnicity, however, feelings toward Japan and its pop culture phenomena ranged from hyper-enthusiastic to deeply respectful. All seemed to want more of it, or at least to know more about it. Yet when I meet with Japanese government officials and diplomats in the very same American cities hosting my events and those ever expanding manga, anime and cosplay conventions and festivals, their brows furrow and their hands clasp, and eventually the word "crisis" is uttered to characterize Japan's current state, followed by a polite plea for help. Whose Japan is it? Typically, the truth probably lies somewhere in the mundane middle ground. And in this case, the deeper crisis within Japan may be one of confidence.

ttjereth wrote:So... is Doraemon gonna start demanding to see my gaijin card now?

The resources from which soft power behavior is derived are culture (when it is attractive to others), values (when there is no hypocrisy in their application) and foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others). Unless these conditions are present, culture and ideas do not necessarily produce the attraction that is essential for soft power behavior.

hundefar wrote:I am not surprised that they appointed a robot to do the job.

hundefar wrote:I am not surprised that they appointed a robot to do the job.

Mulboyne wrote:Somebody was playing with a Doraemon stuffed toy last night and I suddenly thought of a question which had never occurred to me before. "If he's a robot cat why doesn't he have any ears?" I might just as well have stuck a couple of chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice. "How can you possibly not know that?" said the bartender. "It was the mouse. You must have heard about the mouse," said the guy next to me. Apparently, I ought to have known that a robot mouse gnawed off Doraemon's ears in the future, before he was sent back in time. This explains why he is afraid of mice - "Surely you know even that!" - and is also the reason he is blue. His original colour was yellow but the shock of having his ears bitten off turned him blue. Which is why his sister Dorami looks like this:



I pass this on to help any other ignorant FGs avoid a similar humiliating scene.