媒介全球化與文化 現象分析 陳詩惠 (0445014)

The strategies behind Pokémania and its role in

‘Cool Japan’
Although Pokémon’s success reached many areas of the world, its success in the United

States (U.S.) was most surprising both because it was widely viewed to deviate from the

success formula of a children’s franchise [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ], and because the

U.S. is considered to be an insular market [CITATION Hos88 \m Dou09 \t \l 18441 ]. In this

essay, I analyze the reasons for Pokémon’s American success, and its role in the ‘Cool

Japan’ campaign.

Pokémon was originally a Game Boy game designed by Tajiri Satoshi in an effort to recreate

the joy he experienced when bug-collecting as a child [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. The

original design hence focused on inter-player Pokémon trading through the Game Boy’s

communication cable [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. However, after Nintendo acquired

Satoshi’s company, Game Freak, it insisted that battles were included to better appeal to

children [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. When the first Pokémon games, Red and Green,

were released in 1996, they were a major hit in Japan [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. While

they were intended to be a role-playing action game for young boys, the cuteness of the

characters appealed to girls as well [CITATION All04 \t \l 18441 ]. Pokémon’s Japanese

marketing campaign thus focused on Pikachu [CITATION All04 \t \l 18441 ], because it was

cute and lacked yellow competitors in the market [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. The

Pokémon evolutions and levels also simulated pet-raising to create a sense of nurturing and

attachment.

After Pokémon’s unexpected success in Japan, it was exported to the U.S. As a product that

was not originally designed for the U.S. market [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ], Pokémon’s

success in the U.S. was made possible through strategic promotional tactics orchestrated by

Nintendo of America (NOA), Nintendo’s American subsidiary. By adopting American

distribution methods and the mechanisms of glocalization and merchandizing, NOA created

1
a transmedia narrative that led to the Pokémon franchise’s long-lasting popularity. Its

selection as a ‘Cool Japan’ icon, among other cute characters, above other popular culture

products, is reflective of Japan’s strategy for the long-term accumulation of soft power in the

light of Japan’s imperialist past.

Pokémon’s entrance to the American market

Pokémon was not originally designed for the global market [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ] .

As it was expected to appeal to only Japanese boys, it was not planned for export by

Nintendo, especially outside of Asia [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. It was the CEO and

chairman of NOA, Makoto Arakawa, who first suggested marketing Pokémon to Americans

in 1996 [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. This occurred in a period when Japan was reflecting

on its export strategies due to its desire to have its cultural influence match its economic

power [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. However, the most important factor that triggered the

massive export of Japanese digital products was the collapse of the bubble economy in the

1980s [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. By the 1990s, Japanese animation and videogames

were successfully being exported, in contrast to the bleak state of the Japanese economy

[CITATION Dal09 \m Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. This resulted in the shift in Japanese export trends

towards digital media.

Use of American distribution systems

Pokémon’s collaboration with NOA is an example of Iwabuchi’s (2004) concept of the

“Americanization of Japanization” [CITATION Iwa04 \p 66 \n \y \t \l 18441 ]. While

Japanese cultural industries benefitted from capable production technologies and skills, they

lacked international distribution channels [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. Hence, the spread

of Japanese pop culture was largely facilitated by the U.S.’s global distribution network

[CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. While one may argue that the international marketing of the

2
Pokémon franchise was done by NOA, a Japanese company, and cannot be considered part

of this trend, by the time Pokémon’s American launch was proposed, Nintendo had begun to

transform itself into a transnational business power that adopted American business

practices. Through these practices, NOA had a solidified presence in the U.S.

In order for transnational companies to penetrate foreign markets on a large scale, they must

control at least two of these three processes: production, distribution and hardware delivery

[CITATION Mor95 \l 18441 ]. With the founding of NOA in 1980 [CITATION Bla14 \m Ninnd \l

18441 ], Nintendo effectively controlled all three of these processes in the U.S. The opening

of Nintendo’s first foreign division thus laid the groundwork for Nintendo’s resilience and

leadership in the video game industry as part of the “transnational corporate business order”

[CITATION Sch91 \p 20 \l 18441 ]. As NOA was to spearhead Nintendo’s American

advancement, it employed mostly American staff and was allowed to choose which products

to market [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ] with the capitalist objective of profit-making.

Through the efforts of American marketing experts like Sam Borofsky and Peter Main,

Nintendo survived the 1983 North American video game crash, and owned 90 percent of the

videogame industry by 1990 [CITATION Bla14 \l 18441 ]. Evidently, by the time of the

American Pokémon launch, NOA was an expert American videogame distributor that could

take advantage of vast industry networks including toy stores, merchandizers and

advertisers and operate in the fashion of American capitalist organizations.

Glocalization

While NOA agreed Pokémon had potential, it felt that extensive localization was necessary

for success in an American marketplace. This was because the market trend was skewed

towards action games while Pokémon was a role-playing game [CITATION All06 \t \l

18441 ]. Furthermore, Pokémon was designed to be interesting only after at least ten hours

of gameplay [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. Next, as Kubo (2000) stated, it was uncertain if

the cute characters in Pokémon would be appealing enough to compete with the dominating

3
cool elements of American pop culture (as cited in Allison, 2006). Lastly, and crucially,

Pokémon’s focus was not its storyline, and consequently lacked a clear-cut theme of good

versus evil [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. It thus deviated from the success formula

American toy and game manufacturers had perfected over years in the industry. NOA thus

attempted to make strategic adjustments to Pokémon’s content and marketing strategy.

They first suggested adjusting the characters to suit American tastes, but the Japanese team

was adamant that the Pokémon characters must remain the same and accused NOA of

seeing Pokémon as pure business instead of a child they had raised [CITATION All06 \t \l

18441 ].

Nevertheless, NOA attempted to rid Pokémon of Japanese elements as much as it could.

For example, NOA consciously made efforts to make Pokémon seem American in the 1998

official American Pokémon launch by choosing the American heartland Kansas for the

launch, using VW bugs as promotional vehicles, and editing the promo clip in the fast-paced

style of American commercials [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. Furthermore, unlike Nintendo

Japan, NOA focused on the cartoon’s storyline and Pikachu’s aerodynamics, even choosing

to launch the cartoon via Warner Brothers three weeks before the game [CITATION All06

\t \l 18441 ] as is often done in America, instead of after the game. In addition, the Pokémon

software games were packaged in the U.S. colors of red and blue instead of red and green

[CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. Similarly, localization adjustments to the Pokémon cartoon

involved not just translation, but also the removal of all Japanese signage and even dialogic

references to Japanese lifestyles, culture and food [CITATION Kat04 \l 18441 ]. The

American Pokémon campaign also shifted its focus from Pikachu to Ash (a male character

who trains Pikachu in the series) and played up Ash’s heroic characteristics as it was

believed human characters would be more appealing, and children preferred stories with

clearly defined heroes [CITATION All06 \t \m Kat04 \l 18441 ]. Hasbro, Pokémon’s licensed

toy manufacturer, also designed new toys that were more interactive than the Japanese

4
collectibles, such as a set that included a blaster, to cater to the American taste for action

[CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ].

All of these attempts represent efforts to remove Pokémon’s “cultural odor”, or its culturally

identifiable features and contexts [CITATION Iwa04 \p 73 \t \l 18441 ]. In doing so,

Pokémon became mukokuseki or culturally-neutral [CITATION Iwa02 \t \l 18441 ]. This

process is a factor in the mass appeal of Japanese popular culture [CITATION Iwa02 \t \l

18441 ] and related cultural products [CITATION Koi14 \t \l 18441 ]. For example, Yuko

Yamaguchi’s culturally ambiguous Hello Kitty succeeded in both Japanese and Western

markets [CITATION Dou09 \t \l 18441 ]. Similarly, in an interview, Gail Tilden, NOA’s brand

manager, said Pokémon’s goal was to “go beyond culture” so children would “buy into the

mythology as their own” [CITATION All06 \p 245-246 \t \l 18441 ]. Today, children no longer

see Pokémon as a Japanese franchise [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ] because of NOA’s

cultural neutralization strategies. Instead, the Pokémon world, grounded in the simple

mythotype of a journey to become the best, has aspects that are familiar to every child

regardless of his cultural background. This narrative transparency [CITATION Ols99 \l 18441

] aided the spread of Pokémon across geographical boundaries and, more importantly,

made Pokémon an immersive fantasy that children could participate in as if it originated from

their own culture.

Transmedia storytelling

Nevertheless, without being allowed to make major changes to Pokémon’s characters, NOA

felt Pokémon’s chances in America were weak [CITATION All06 \t \m Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ].

This pushed it to plan a massive coordinated promotional effort [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441

] involving the Pokémon videogame, cartoon and merchandize. NOA applied this concept to

its marketing of Pokémon by releasing the cartoon, Red and Blue game, toy merchandize

and a tie-in with Kentucky Fried Chicken in the same month and followed that up with the

release of the trading card game and the spin-off game Pokémon Snap [CITATION All06

5
\t \l 18441 ]. The multiple tie-ins with companies like Kentucky Fried Chicken, All Nippon

Airways and Burger King generated sustained buzz in the market, while the integrated

marketing campaign strategy ensured that every American child would at least hear about

Pokémon.

This campaign in some ways surpassed Disney’s infamous synergistic campaigns due to the

effects of transmedia storytelling, which refers to the cross-platform appearance of branded

content [CITATION Edw12 \l 18441 ]. This marketing strategy profits from fan culture, by

encouraging monetizable fan behaviors for profit [CITATION Edw12 \l 18441 ]. The

immersive and interactive nature of the Pokémon video and card games ensures that the

Pokémon franchise is completely ingrained in its fans’ lives [CITATION All04 \t \l 18441 ].

Motivated by the franchise’s slogan “Gotta catch ‘em all”, fans attempt to collect all the

Pokémon across the different media platforms. These behaviors even carry over to their real

lives as they trade and battle with Pokémon offline, be it in the video game or the card

version. The competitions held in America such as the Challenge Road 99 Summer Tropical

Mega-Battle held in 1999 [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ] encourage this mindset.

Furthermore, while the Disney franchise has fixed boundaries set by their movies, the

Pokémon franchise is virtually limitless, with new Pokémon always being created, and the

environment (which is not defined as any existing country) always expanding. This means

that as much as fans want to complete their collection, they never can. Moreover, fans can

imagine themselves on an adventure in a never-ending world.

‘Cute Japan’

Through the above marketing strategies, Pokémon quickly gained mainstream popularity in

the West. Today, Pokémon is now one of the most popular franchises in the world, and

Pikachu is one of the most profitable video game characters in the world today [CITATION

Cuc15 \l 18441 ]. More than 5000 Pokémon items are licensed from 150 companies, and the

6
series is aired in 93 countries and regions [CITATION The151 \l 18441 ]. In addition, 55% of

Pokémon’s market size is now overseas [CITATION The151 \l 18441 ]. Pokémon’s

marketing strategies remain similar, with The Pokémon Company International now being

responsible for marketing in America and Europe, The Pokémon Communications Company

handling Asian markets and Pokémon Korea specifically targeting the Korean market

[CITATION The151 \l 18441 ].

Pokémon’s success in America was met with huge excitement in Japan. When the first

Pokémon movie received a mainstream release in America and earned the second-highest

opening day profits of all time (below only Star Wars), it made headlines in Japan as this

was a significant milestone for the creative industries [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ].

Pokémon hence became one of the symbols of Japanese creativity alongside other cute, or

kawaii, products that became mainstream in the American media in the 1990s, such as Hello

Kitty and Doraemon [ CITATION Kat06 \l 18441 ].

The Japanese government has been eager to capitalise on Pokémon’s global success. Even

before the Intellectual Property Strategic Program, or the official Japanese policy created to

support the promotion of ‘Cool Japan’, was introduced in 2002 [CITATION Dal09 \l 18441 ],

Pokémon was used to promote Japanese popular culture. For example, in 2002, Japan’s

Foreign Ministry organized an official Pokémon lecture tour in the U.S. that promoted

Pokémon’s remarkable history and success [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ]. More recently,

Pikachu was announced as Japan’s 2014 World Cup mascot [ CITATION Eur14 \l 18441 ],

and featured in Macy’s annual Thanksgiving parade for the 15th time [CITATION Cuc15 \l

18441 ]. All these efforts publicise the success of Japan’s cultural industries and promote the

Japanese national brand. In doing so, Japan hopes to present an attractive image of itself to

the world and gain soft power [CITATION Dal09 \l 18441 ].

Pokémon’s success was not the only reason it was thrust to the front of the Cool Japan

movement. While Pokémon was undoubtedly an international hit, it was not the only

7
Japanese cultural product to succeed abroad. Godzilla was remade in the U.S. as early as

1956 [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ] and continues to be remade, while Akira was a hugely

popular and widely acclaimed animated film in the U.S. [CITATION Iwa04 \t \l 18441 ]. Yet,

the characters in these films are rarely promoted as part of the ‘Cool Japan’ campaign. This

is undoubtedly because violence is incompatible with Japan’s “institutional imagery”

[CITATION Dal09 \p 16 \l 18441 ].

Besides promoting Japan’s cultural products, ‘Cool Japan’ is also a political tool for the

restoration of Japan’s image. Using Japanese popular culture, Japan hopes to project the

image of itself as a compassionate and loving nation to facilitate its potential role as the

Asian politico-economic leader [CITATION Dal09 \l 18441 ]. This is necessary due to

Japan’s association with imperialism and war cruelty, particularly in Asia [CITATION Dal09 \l

18441 ]. The success of cute icons like Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Pikachu gave Japan the

opportunity to shed the burden of its own war history by presenting cute, harmless images

that could not possibly be associated with violence [CITATION Dal09 \m Kat06 \l 18441 ].

Furthermore, at least in the U.S., these kawaii icons are perceived as a “safe”, friendly

product despite being from Asia, a region that is threatening U.S. cultural, economic and

political dominance [ CITATION New02 \l 18441 ]. In this regard, kawaii has become Japan’s

officially sanctioned “cultural fragrance” [CITATION Iwa04 \p 59 \t \l 18441 ].

Furthermore, through these kawaii icons, ‘Cool Japan’ is able to target a younger audience

which is free from the memories of Japan’s imperialist past, and hence more easily

persuaded. Today’s children see Japan as a cool country that produces attractive youth-

centric products like the Sony Playstation and Pokémon [CITATION All06 \t \l 18441 ], and

not as the country that had attacked other Asian countries and the U.S. during the Second

World War. Therefore, while the sanitization of ‘Cool Japan’ has been criticized for stripping

Japanese popular culture of its essence[CITATION Dal09 \l 18441 ], by focusing on family-

8
friendly entertainment through the promotion of kawaii, Japan is in fact nurturing new

generations of fans that support its ideology, and a long-term base of soft power.

Conclusion

Pokémon’s U.S. launch is one of the most successful examples of transnational marketing. It

testifies to the effectiveness of glocalization and transmedia storytelling, and the importance

of expertise in American distribution. Its long-term success (new Pokémon games are still

being created) proved that cute products can succeed outside of Japan. As a result,

Japanese content producers and policymakers are now changing their attitudes. Instead of

removing all traces of cultural odor, kawaii is now the catchphrase for Japanese popular

culture. New anime and videogames are being designed with kawaii in mind, and even pop

idols are given kawaii songs and dances to perform in order to capitalize on its positive

affect. As kawaii is now the preferred way to market Japanese products and the Japanese

national brand, generations of young audiences around the world will link Japan to the notion

of kawaii. While the concept of soft power suggests that the desirability of kawaii may

translate to political power [CITATION Nye901 \l 18441 ], the effect of kawaii culture is

presently unclear because today’s political leaders still link Japan with war, especially in

Asia. Yet, if children today associate Japan foremost with their favorite videogames, the

efforts of ‘Cool Japan’ may already be beginning to bear fruit.

9
References

Allison, A. (2004). Cuteness as Japan's Millennial Product. In J. Tobin, Pikachu's Global

Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon (pp. 34-50). Durham and London,

England: Duke University Press.

Allison, A. (2006). Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley

and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Cuccinello, H. C. (2015, November 25). Snoopy Vs. Spongebob: The Numbers Behind

Macy's Thankgiving Day Parade Balloon Characters. Retrieved January 3, 2016,

from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2015/11/25/snoopy-vs-

spongebob-the-numbers-behind-macys-thankgiving-day-parade-characters/

Daliot-bul, M. (2009). Japan Brand Strategy: The Taming of 'Cool Japan' and the Challenges

of Cultural Planning in the Digital Age. Social Science Japan, 1-20.

doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyp037

Edwards, L. H. (2012). Transmedia Storytelling, Corporate Synergy, and Audience

Expression. Global Media Journal, 12(20), 1-12.

Eurosport. (2014, March 15). Japan to take Pokémon star Pikachu to World Cup. Retrieved

January 3, 2016, from Yahoo! Sport UK & Ireland:

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-rio-report/japan-pok%C3%A9mon-star-

pikachu-world-cup-211225538.html

Harris, B. J. (2014, May 14). The Rise of Nintendo: A Story in 8 Bits. Retrieved December

30, 2015, from Grantland: http://grantland.com/features/the-rise-of-nintendo-video-

games-history/

10
Hoskins, C., & Mirus, R. (1988). Reasons for the US dominance of the international trade in

television programmes. Media, Culture and Society, 10, 499-515.

doi:10.1177/016344388010004006

Iwabuchi, K. (2002). Taking "Japanization" seriously: Cultural globalization revisited. In K.

Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese

Transnationalism (pp. 23-50). Durham and London, England: Duke University Press.

Iwabuchi, K. (2004). How "Japanese" is Pokémon? In J. Tobin, Pikachu's Global Adventure:

The Rise and Fall of Pokémon (pp. 53-79). Durham and London, England: Duke

University Press.

Iwabuchi, K. (2014). De-westernisation, Inter-Asian referencing and beyond. European

Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(1), 44-57. doi:10.1177/1367549413501483

Kato, N. (2006, September 1). Goodbye Godzilla, Hello Kitty. Retrieved January 3, 2016,

from The American Interest: http://www.the-american-

interest.com/2006/09/01/goodbye-godzilla-hello-kitty/

Katsuno, H., & Maret, J. (2004). Localizing the Pokémon TV Series for the American Market.

In J. Tobin, Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon (pp. 80-107).

Durham and London, England: Duke University Press.

McGray, D. (2009, November 11). Japan's Gross National Cool. Retrieved December 30,

2015, from Foreign Policy: http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/11/11/japans-gross-national-

cool/

Morley, D., & Robins, K. (1995). Globalisation as identity crisis. In D. Morley, & K. Robins,

Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries

(pp. 11-26). New York, NY: Routledge.

11
Newitz, A. (2002, January 4). The apotheosis of cute. Retrieved January 4, 2016, from San

Francisco Bay Guardian: http://www.sfbg.com/36/17/news_cute.html

Nintendo UK. (n.d.). Nintendo History. Retrieved December 30, 2015, from Nintendo UK:

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Corporate/Nintendo-History/Nintendo-History-

625945.html

Nye, J. S. (1990). Soft Power. Foreign Policy, 80, 153-171. doi:10.2307/1148580

Olson, S. R. (1999). Seeing Transparency. In S. R. Olson, Hollywood Planet: Global Media

and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency (pp. 1-29). Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum.

Schiller, H. I. (1991). Not Yet the Post-Imperialist Era. Critical Studies in Mass

Communication, 8, 13-28. doi:10.1080/15295039109366777

The Pokémon Company. (2015). Pokémon in Figures. Retrieved January 3, 2016, from The

Pokémon Company: https://www.pokemon.co.jp/corporate/en/data/

12