【教養/聞き流し】なぜ日本のサブカルチャーは世界中で愛されているのか？その理由と歴史的背景を深掘る

Well, uh it's true that nowadays uh Japanese subculture has is uh globally successful, but uh you know, you can't

afford to think that Japanese culture, Japanese subculture is great, so it will work abroad. In fact, this criticism

work abroad. In fact, this criticism towards Japanese animation grew even stronger during the 80s, 1980s because

Japan bashing became a worldwide thing. So, it was really the first uh

thing. So, it was really the first uh boom, the first explosion of the influence of Japanese subculture in France. Japanese subculture have been uh

France. Japanese subculture have been uh have had a deep impact on my life since now I'm living in Japan after all. Well

uh it's true that nowadays uh Japanese subculture has is uh globally successful. It is it is popular in a lot

successful. It is it is popular in a lot of countries and uh it has been now for

uh quite a long time. But um you know you can't afford to think that Japanese

culture, Japanese subculture is great, so it will work abroad. Uh that's not as simple as that. What I'm trying to say,

what I'm trying to show is how there is a an historical background to the reception of Japanese subculture which

actually uh laid the ground for uh nowadays success. And for example, in

nowadays success. And for example, in the case that I know the best, which is France, uh France is now one of the most

avid market for Japanese subculture. In

France, Japanese manga has been consistently expanding since 2016. In

2020, it saw a particularly sharp increase of 18%, selling 22.6 million copies and accounting for 42% of the market. Furthermore, by 2022, the sales

market. Furthermore, by 2022, the sales volume reached 85 million copies with revenues hitting 921 million.

This demonstrates that while being the third largest in the world after Japan and the United States, the market continues to maintain its growth.

So, uh why did it come to this? It's not

only about the inner quality of Japanese manga. Of course, that's an important

manga. Of course, that's an important part of the thing, but the one who really ignited the explosion of Japanese

animation in France was a Japanese anime called EU Granda. Since they had bought the right to broadcast the anime,

they had to do it by contract. And

though they had regrets about buying those rights, so they they tried to broadcast it during a period of year when most children don't watch

television. You know, the holidays in

television. You know, the holidays in the during the holidays, especially during the summer holidays, children are are playing outside. they are uh making holiday trips with a family or whatever

you think you know they they don't it's not uh the best time for watching television you know for children

programs but it happened that uh this very summer it was the summer of 1978 the weather was awful was raining

every day so children couldn't play outside the most children were at home watching television. They had no other

watching television. They had no other ch other choice than watching television. So in fact this you follower

television. So in fact this you follower this anime uh was ended up being seen by most children in France and it just

worked you know something happened. It

sparked well uh in fact uh from the first broadcasting of Japanese animation

uh on French television on there was a lot of criticism towards Japanese animation since most people in French

which were designing content of children programs most of them thought that Japanese animation was not adequate for

French children. In fact, this criticism

French children. In fact, this criticism towards Japanese animation grew even stronger during the 80s 1980s because

Japan bashing had became worldwide thing. most especially Americans were uh

thing. most especially Americans were uh doing Japan dashing. You know, it seems Japanese economic growth was felt as

threatful. You know, it was like, oh,

threatful. You know, it was like, oh, but wait a minute, will Japan become number one? You know, the phenomenon of

number one? You know, the phenomenon of Japan bashing that began in the 1980s in America eventually spread to Europe.

While there were accolades like those found in Ezra Vogel's book, Japan as number one, Japan's economic rise was also viewed as a threat in many Western countries. This contributed to negative

countries. This contributed to negative images and misunderstandings about Japan.

And in fact, one uh of the main stupid thing that was told during the early success of Japanese animation in France

was that Japanese were specifically aiming European accidental French children when they b

when they created animation. You know

it's like they created animation to make our French children stupid. You know

that was this kind of you know tinfall hat theory. you know it was completely

hat theory. you know it was completely irrational and in fact during this Japan bashing uh from the beginning there were

a lot of stereotypes about Japan which surf during in those uh discourses about Japanese animation especially a lot of

critics you know say that Japanese animation was indeed fascist you know so there was always this reference to second world

to the second world war to the Japanese militaristic past which is not that well known in France in fact which of course

when you see when you look most of most people who didn't look at the anime themselves you know they obviously they

didn't know what they were thinking about there was kind of a sociologic gap uh in the recession of Japanese

animation for children Since there were families uh which uh refused you know which uh forbid their

children for uh seeing Japanese animation uh saying it was a bad influence on them.

Uh and one strange thing uh within those criticism is that there were both uh very

conservative persons. Even among

conservative persons. Even among liberals, there were political concerns regarding Japanese anime. This was due to the belief that

anime. This was due to the belief that anime served as a fascist method of misleading children. under the banner of

misleading children. under the banner of protecting children, conservative Christians and liberals formed an unusual united front.

In fact, just at the same period at the end of the 80s when the Japan bashing became the strongest and when the

criticis in fact it was also the time where Japanese animation was broadcasted the most heavily. But the very concrete

uh the very uh consequence of this Japan bashing it became really huge uh at the end of the 1980s and during

the first half of the 1990s uh is that Japanese animation more or less disappeared from French television. you know, the last

French television. you know, the last nail in the coffin of uh Japanese animation of on French television uh was

uh when uh the most successful Japanese anime of the time which was Dragon Ball Z was criticized

criticized as Nazi of course fascist and Nazi especially especially since the Super Saiyan were turning you know they

when They turned into super saiyan. They

became blonde with blue eyes just as an aran, you know, just as an ideal, you know, German Nazi German. What a

coincidence, you know. Yes, it was a coincidence, but you know, for them it was a proof of the deep Japanese fascism.

It was due to the influence of television at this time. You know, since uh most uh families, most houses uh

were had the television at their center and that the television being turned on.

And since it was turned on, most of the time you could see Japanese animation.

As long as there were children in the house, uh it meant that you would be seeing Japanese animation.

So and in fact so that state of thing was severed it stopped as a result of

Japanese bashing. So when it became

Japanese bashing. So when it became harder to broadcast Japanese animation on television as a

replacement French publishers, either big publishers or

uh small publishers created by fans began translating manga as a replacement for the lost Japanese

animation. That's one one of the reason

animation. That's one one of the reason why uh it the the Japanese animation

being uh faded out led to an explosion of uh the manga market in France. Uh and

the in fact the the explosion reached its uh really began it began during the 1990s.

So the very years during which Japan Bing succeeded succeeded to uh ban Japanese animation from French television.

And in the uh uh 2000 uh from 2000 on the the sales of Japanese mangas

uh really exploded and uh from then from then on uh it became really great a very successful uh business in France uh importation of

Japanese manga.

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Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat.

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