CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 1

EXERCISING POWER THROUGH CULTURAL PRODUCTION

Student Name

Department

Course Code

Professor’s Name

Date
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 2

Soft power entails shaping the behaviors and culture of other people through the power
of attraction rather than coercing them. The soft power does not involve coercive when alluring
people to its form of power. This, method of power involves attraction of cultural practices,
political values and policies. In the contemporary world; many states use the cultural production
in exercising its powers. One of the states that exercise power through cultural production is
Japanese. The Japanese cultural practices have been disseminated all over the world and their
practices have led to the country exercising power through cultural production. The cultural
dissemination leads to diversity of a culture and practices all over the world. Diversity is a
method of involving people from different cultures in common practices. The aim of this paper is
to use examples to show the way in which soft power has been achieved through cultural
production all over the world and in Hong Kong.

According to the soft power, it is claimed that the spreading of the culture, values and
norms of one country to another offers the capability for political power. Leheny, (2018p.211),
argues that soft power lies in the capability of a country to allure, persuade and attract other
states, societies and people for it to acquire the results its yearning for in the world’s politics.
This is because other countries copy their examples and they aspire to get to their pros popular
culture. Soft power was once used in America and it later spread to countries like Japan. In the
contemporary world the export of Japan’s popular culture to Hong Kong has been so common.
The cultural innovation and lifestyle of Japan has been considered as the most publicized
example of japan in exercising its power. Agyeiwaah, Suntikul and Carmen, (2019p.127),
argues that Japan needs to emphasize on its cultural production for it to enhance its economy
and improve its influence in the world. In most cases, it has been noted that Japan’s popular
culture has been working in shaping the cultural markets of various regions in Hong Kong but
have a limitation in exerting local influence. The studies indicate that the dissemination of
Japanese culture is a market and consumer driven process.

The idea of Cool Japan was founded in 2002 and it was adopted by the government of
Japan and the trading bodies who were trying to seek commercial capitalism of the culture of
the state in the industry. When a survey was done in Hong Kong, it was realized that, the video
games, films electronics exported to the country was one of the ways of diversity and soft power
by the Japanese (Hashimoto, 2018p.10). The Japanese reinvented superpower when its
cultural influence was spreading globally. This led to the country becoming in the fifth position
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 3

when considering the diplomatic network worldwide. Currently, the Japanese culture
considered to be the most influential culture worldwide due to the dissemination of its culture all
over the globe.

Pop culture has been found to be one of driving forces of soft power and a view of
competition in cultural diplomacy between Japan, China and Hong Kong. The capability of
Japan to exercise cultural influence has been restricted by the possible push back from
memories of colonization of nations like Korea and China (Nakano & Zhu, 2020p.869). With the
current media industry, Hong Kong is at a disadvantage presently since it is a net importer of
pop culture. The vast consumption of power has forced foreign consumers in Hong Kong to
seek coproduction chances with some companies in the company to avoid being left out by the
import restrictions. The coproduction offers the opportunities to the Hong Kong counterparts the
freedom of controlling the content of the programs than having just an ideological advantage. In
the viewpoint of soft power competition, the concept of pan-East Asian cinema looks like a
project deferred instead of it being eminent.

The Japanese popular culture has acquired a lot of following for it to be concluded to be
a cultural product to the audience. The rising of the otaku fan culture and mass
commercialization of anime and manga are the great contributors of the popularity of the
culture. These fans have come up with internet forums and prepare for conventions that have a
dedication for their favorite shows (Otmazgin, 2018p.55). The development and growth of the
groups has happened at a very high rate. The subculture of the otaku fans is also made up of
the cosplay which is an activity in which the fans have the freedom of dressing with their favorite
characters. Therefore, the spread of these cultural practices all over the world has been a way
of promoting the Japanese soft power.

The Japanese cultural export becoming popular can be easily comprehended via
commerce and mass commercialization of the culture of japan to attract the popular culture of
the country. The rise in the capitalistic marketing in the last decade shows the expansion
market for the cultural materials of the Japanese amongst the Eastern and western people. The
selling of the anime videos in the US and Hong Kong is a demonstration that the culture was
becoming popular and it made millions of money for Japan. The Japanese exports their
products such as TVs, vehicles and DVD’s to the Hong Kong people so as to attract them to
their culture. When massive people purchase these Japanese products, it leads to greater
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 4

attraction to their culture According to (Groot, 2018p.15), the Japanese popular culture has led
to alluring of many people into the culture.

The dissemination of Japanese videos, computer games, fashions, and anime has led to
the country being the visual arbitration of diversity soft power in Hong Kong. When consumers
purchase these products, they are interested to know more about the culture and also about the
roots of the culture. The curiosity to know more about the cultural origin of the Japanese
products is expressed by the students who are learning the Japanese language. Statistics show
that, many foreign students in Japan are yearning to know the language as well as the cultural
practices of the Japanese (Rojas, 2021). This gives the authority for the Japanese to exercise
the soft power in the world. The Japanese aspect is currently a key factor that allures the
audience to its culture and soft power.

Therefore, the Japanese government has been able to achieve soft power though its
cultural practices all over the world. Pop culture has been found to be one of driving forces of
soft power and a view of competition in cultural diplomacy between Japan, China and Hong
Kong. The capability of Japan to exercise cultural influence has been restricted by the possible
push back from memories of colonization of nations like Korea and China. With the current
media industry, Hong Kong is at a disadvantage presently since it is a net importer of pop
culture. The vast consumption of power has forced foreign consumers in Hong Kong to seek
coproduction chances with some companies in the company to avoid being left out by the import
restrictions. The rising of the otaku fan culture and mass commercialization of anime and manga
are the great contributors of the popularity of the culture. These fans have come up with
internet forums and prepare for conventions that have a dedication for their favorite shows. The
development and growth of the groups has happened at a very high rate. The subculture of the
otaku fans is also made up of the Coplay which is an activity in which the fans have the freedom
of dressing with their favorite characters.
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 5

References

Agyeiwaah, E., Suntikul, W. and Carmen, L.Y.S., 2019. ‘Cool Japan’: Anime, soft power and
Hong Kong generation Y travel to Japan. Journal of China Tourism Research, 15(2),
pp.127-148.

Groot, G., 2018. Cool Japan Versus the China Threat: Does Japan’s Popular Culture Success
Mean More Soft Power?. In Japanese Language and Soft Power in Asia (pp. 15-41).
Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

Hashimoto, K., 2018. Introduction: Why language matters in soft power. In Japanese language
and soft power in Asia (pp. 1-12). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

Leheny, D., 2018. 9. A Narrow Place to Cross Swords: Soft Power and the Politics of Japanese
Popular Culture in East Asia. In Beyond Japan (pp. 211-234). Cornell University Press.
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES 6

Nakano, R. and Zhu, Y., 2020. Heritage as soft power: Japan and China in international
politics. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 26(7), pp.869-881.

Otmazgin, N.K., 2018. The chrysanthemum and the cool: cultural diplomacy and soft power in
Japan’s foreign policy. In Routledge handbook of Japanese foreign policy (pp. 55-70).
Routledge.

Rojas, I.C., 2021. Rethinking the discursive relevance of pop culture in Japan’s soft power in
Chile: a perspective from Japanese language education. electronic journal of
contemporary japanese studies.