STUDENT VIEW 2Manga as a Cultural National
Brand
Author Sierra Hermenau

By Sierra Hermenau
A good story seduces readers into it, making them forget about
their daily stresses, and entrances them. When thinking about astory, do you think of a novel, a play, or a movie? Where else do
great stories lie? Japanese comics, or manga, offer a wealth ofexcellent stories. Maybe you’ve heard of One Piece, Astro Boy, orFull Metal Alchemist. Manga are diverse and cover material by age
groups, gender, and interests, in addition to genres. Not only do
manga tell great stories, but also for those avid about anthropology,
literature, or learning about Japanese culture they offer a vast
amount of information. Manga already have a global audience, butthere is room for expansion.
The upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics present
Japan with an opportunity to showcase the country and culture to theworld while gaining extra revenue from national brands. While there
are many brands to choose from, such as traditional culture or hightech robotics, the brand that will garner a rather large profit whileproviding education and entertainment is manga. It is a part of the“Cool Japan” movement, but manga deserve to be given a separate
national branding from Cool Japan. Manga have already proven to bevery successful and are so varied that unorthodox varieties, such as

fan-created manga (doujinshi ) and manga from political parties, canalso be successful. There is still more potential for a great national
brand; it only needs to be marketed to a broader audience.

Brief History of Manga
The word manga means whimsical or curious pictures, and wascoined by Katsushika Hokusai, a famous painter from the Edo Period(1603-1868), though the origins lie in the Chō jū -jinbutsu-giga(Animal Caricatures) scrolls from the 12th century. Known for his
famous “Great Wave of Kanagawa” painting, featuring a large wave
with Mt. Fuji in the background, and even for his great influence on
French Impressionism, Hokusai’s contribution to manga can be seen
in his manga sketches. There are 17 books of Hokusai’s sketches.
According to the Harvard University Library, they all depict scenes ofeveryday life, nature, or supernatural themes. They are done in the
Ukiyo-e style, different from the wide eyes and eccentric hairstyles ofcharacters in modern manga, but their realistic style was familiar in
the Edo Period. These books influenced other artists in depicting
Japanese daily life and culture (Images).

IMAGES

Hokusai monk sketches from Vol. 2
Source: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Libraries

62 Japan SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2018

Hokusai sketch of shamisen player from Vol. 12
Source: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Libraries

https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

STUDENT VIEW 2
The next movement in manga came after World War II, with the
influence of American cartoons. During this time, modern-day
manga’s shape and style became recognizable. As Frank Fuller cites
in his dissertation The Atomic Bomb: Reflections in Japanese Mangaand Anime (2012), manga were influenced during the American
occupation by characters such as Betty Boop and Mickey Mouse.
New Treasure Island by Osamu Tezuka, known for creating Astro
Boy, was one of the first manga to gain postwar popularity. Tezuka
was greatly influenced by Disney films and cartoons and has beencalled the “God of Manga” for popularizing the modern layout andcreating several manga genres.

Uncovering Japanese Culture & Customs
Through Manga
While both Tezuka’s and Hokusai’s art differ in many aspects,
these artists and the many that came after have an importantsimilarity, displaying and discussing important themes and attitudes
in Japanese society during their lifetimes. The most common
method for doing so was devoting the stories’ major and recurring
plot points to the theme they wished to display.
For example, in Astro Boy, Astro and many other characters are
struggling to find a home after their first is taken. Astro was invented
as a replacement for the scientist’s son who died in a car crash.
When Astro never grew, the scientist sold him and afterward
Professor Ochanomizu found the robot and provided Astro with ahome. In a later chapter, an alien robot comes to warn Astro about
an incoming invasion and to find a home after his planet wasdestroyed. These are just some examples of Astro Boy ’s recurring
theme, and it helps readers understand that Tezuka is commenting
on 1950s’ Japan. While Astro Boy was being drawn, Japan was
rebuilding itself after World War II and a large problem during thattime was rebuilding homes and returning to a more peaceful life.
Tezuka’s goal was to inspire hope for his readers by giving his
characters a similar search and leading them to a happy ending.
Looking at a work’s main subject matter is another way to interpretculture. In Hokusai’s manga, there isn’t necessarily a plot or story,
but along with sketches of nature and buildings there are numerous
sketches of daily life. From creating and working on wares toenjoying entertainment, Hokusai represented the daily life in Edo.
Monks, deities, and temples are central in his collection and becauseof this viewers can interpret that the Shinto deities and Buddhism
were a large part of Japanese culture during the Edo Period. Anotheraspect that is heavily drawn is entertainment. There are shamisen
players and dancers, people enjoying a swim, poets, and people
playing a ball game, just to name a few. The variety of entertainment
revealed in these sketches shows how prevalent it was in Edo
culture. Even without a cohesive story, Hokusai was able to highlight
Edo’s culture.
A person with more experience in interpretation and life experiencecan find more themes and cultural aspects to interpret in manga, but
this is a skill that anyone can use to make reading manga moreenjoyable. Reading the story itself is entertaining, but questioning
the work or finding a deeper meaning transforms the story into an

amusing puzzle. This isn’t limited to Tezuka’s or Hokusai’s work but
can be found in almost any manga during any time period. It is avaluable idea, as it can track the changes in Japanese culture as wellas help people understand the cultural aspects that have remained
over time.

Advertising Japanese Culture:
Cool Japan Movement
Besides finding it in manga, how does one learn about Japaneseculture? Fans of Japanese culture will have heard of the Cool Japan
movement, implemented in 2012, with its goal “to commercialize
and capture overseas demand for businesses derived from Japaneseculture and lifestyle”, according to the Cool Japan Fund site’s
mission statement. Because culture and lifestyle are broad topics,
there are many cultural objects and activities that fall into thiscampaign. Opportunities and strategies for products and advertisingare extremely varied as a result, which has been said to weaken theoverall message of the campaign.
An interesting strategy from Cool Japan is Kyoto’s kimono
passport. Certain shops and temples will give discounts and special
services to patrons wearing kimono. During the 2018 cherryblossom festival at the Kyoto Imperial Palace, people wearing
kimono were allowed in for free and skipped the long lines. There
were quite a few people dressed in kimono and walking down theGion district in Kyoto as a result. There are many visitors interested
in wearing kimono but who are afraid of being culturally insensitive,
and this passport usually helps these tourists get over their fear andpersuades them to wear a kimono. As the sheer amount of kimono
rental shops and their packed schedules will attest, the kimono
revival is doing well in Kyoto.
However, many facets of culture don’t get this much special
attention and are only given translations in order to be enjoyed byforeign visitors. Some temples post English directions for how to
pray, while tea ceremonies have hosts fluent in English who explain
how to participate in the tea ceremony as well as its nuances andhistory. Tourist sites such as Osaka Castle and Hiroshima Peace Park
have historical information displayed in several languages as well.
These places also hold events as another method of advertisement.
Manga are a larger part of the movement and have been given more
advertising than just translations, like the kimono revival in Kyoto.
With a variety of ads on trains, in convenience stores and malls, andon television, they offer the most readily available and predominantcultural method of advertising.

The New, Creative Cool Japan
Most understand Cool Japan to be a plan to boost international
interest in Japanese culture, but this is only a portion of the current
operation. In preparation for the Olympics, the message behind CoolJapan was revisited and in 2014 the Cool Japan Promotion Council
created a proposal addressing concerns about the movement andenforcing lesser-known aspects. From the proposal:
The broad concept of Cool Japan covers all aspects of JapaneseJapan SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2018

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STUDENT VIEW 2
culture from subcultural products…to traditional cultural heritage.
This diversity makes it very difficult to understand the current
concept of Cool Japan…Cool Japan is a national movement
encouraging the Japanese people to fully exercise their voluntary
creativity in the international community. The term “creative” inthis proposal not only means the production of artwork and design
work, but also the creativity of anyone that helps develop abusiness and new schemes, makes innovative attempts, andforms relationships that result in interaction.
In other words, its goal is to boost creativity in both the artistic
and the business sectors. It’s a movement focused on finding
solutions to Japan’s current problems through creativity andcommunication. In the proposal, there were three recurring themes:
becoming confident in English in order to communicate on a global
scale, promoting a community with ample communication and where
young people can creatively thrive, and finding creative solutions tocurrent problems and then sharing those solutions with national
businesses.
The Cool Japan movement, as most know it, is almost
unrecognizable in this proposal. Few actions in this proposal deal
with Japanese culture and only use it as a springboard to encourage
creativity in Japanese society. For instance, creating classes inJapanese schools where students discuss the aspects of Japaneseculture that they enjoy in English with other students from different
countries. The action discussed in the proposal that deals withadvertisement was to create a website where various experts cancreate educational articles and presentations on Japanese culture invarious languages, making a “one-stop shop” for Japanese culture.

Signs of Popularity in Modern Japan
Even with the addition to the creativity aspect of Cool Japan,
advertising Japanese culture is the main facet of the movement.
Manga advertisements have gone extremely well and have influenced
other types of advertisement in Japanese life. Many companies now
have character mascots and many advertisements are done in amanga fashion due to the success and popularity of manga.
Manga have greatly contributed to Japan’s gross domestic product(GDP). The All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher’s and Editor’s
Association released a report on the 2016 sales of manga. Anime
News Network has translated the report’s highlights. Manga sales, on
the whole, are rising, with a 0.4% growth from 2015. Without
factoring in revenue from advertising, the manga industry brought in
445.4 billion yen ($3.91 billion) in 2016. Japan’s total publishingrevenue in 2016 was 1.66 trillion yen ($14.60 billion), meaning thatmanga made up 26.8% of Japan’s publishing revenue. According to
the Cabinet Office, Japan’s GDP in 2016 was 539.25 trillion yen($4.94 trillion), making manga account for 0.08% of GDP. This is alarge number from one subsection of an industry, which indicatesjust how influential manga are in Japan.
Another indicator of manga’s popularity is in other advertisements.
Many companies now sport cartoonish characters in an attempt togain a bigger market share, such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
with Mitotsuke the Otter and Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. Ads are done in a
64 Japan SPOTLIGHT • September / October 2018

Photo: Author

Advertisement to report molesters at Mita train station

manga style as well. Railway companies are a notable example.
Many of the notices and warnings, such as reminding people to besilent on the trains or to report molesters, are also in manga form
(Photo). Even the Liberal Democratic Party created a manga to try tosway younger voters to amend the Japanese constitution. Manga
have reached beyond the page to be a constant presence in thebusiness, transportation, and even political sector of modern
Japanese culture. This isn’t an accomplishment that many culturalarts can boast and is an indicator of how popular manga havebecome and the potential for growth.
Manga have gone beyond bookstores and libraries and into cafes
and museums. Manga cafes provide patrons with bookshelves ofmanga, computers, and some refreshments. Some cafes even allow
patrons to stay overnight. According to Google maps, there arearound 40 in the Tokyo area alone. There are also at least four
museums dedicated to manga. Three memorialize Osamu Tezuka,
Shōtarō Ishinomori, and Studio Ghibli, and there is an international
manga museum in Kyoto. The most apparent examples, however, areurban areas that are huge proponents of manga. Tokyo’s Akihabara
and Osaka’s Nipponbashi Denden Town are famous examples. In
these cities, there are more than a few manga cafes as well as storesthat sell manga, anime, and character goods. Cosplay is a common
sight along with building-sized advertisements of manga characters.
Manga have become a large component of Japanese life and havegreatly influenced Japan’s modern culture.

Branching Out
Manga’s success in Japan has created a substantial opportunity inglobal advertising and a transcontinental cultural interest. Most
readers read manga exclusively for entertainment. Because manga
already contain aspects of Japanese culture, both modern andSTUDENT VIEW 2
historical, they are a natural conduit for further cultural introductions
and enjoyment.
Interpreting the themes and cultural aspects of creative works is askill that most people have and use regularly in other forms of art.
Sometimes these themes and questions are in the foreground of thework; for example, Full Metal Alchemist questions the value of family
through Edward and Alphonse Elric’s attempts to bring their motherback to life and through their quest for the philosopher’s stone. At
other times, values and cultural factors are in the background, suchas in My Hero Academia. The reliance on others is not a main themeof manga, but it is a constant one. Japan has a community-centeredculture where people help others in order to benefit the group as awhole and this culture is featured in many manga including My Hero
Academia. Most Japanese manga contain aspects of Japaneseculture within them for readers to find. This is how manga should be
advertised to attract a new audience.
While current manga sales are already high, there is always apossibility to attract more revenue. Current strategies are working,but advertising manga as a gateway to Japanese culture will gather alarger audience for those who are interested in learning about Japanin a more natural way than reading travel books or textbooks. If thecultural aspects of manga are advertised along with the current
advertising methods, sales have a great potential to grow.

Possible Guide for Foreigners
One potential idea for the use of manga is a guide for tourists.
Before traveling to a foreign country, research on sightseeing spots
and hotels to stay in are normal, but the culture and manners of thecountry are often neglected. Japan does have an official tourism
guide at https://www.japan.travel/en/ where the Japan National
Tourist Organization (JNTO) has detailed everything from tourist
sites to etiquette for traveling in Japan. Despite having this, there arestill valid complaints about foreign tourists not following customs.
One problem with this website is that it isn’t advertised well. It
doesn’t show up in the first few pages of a Google search, and whenadvertising tourism in Japan the website doesn’t appear unless it’san ad from the JNTO. Another problem is that this guide isn’t asappealing as it could be. The articles are well written and informative
but the format is very plain and does not hold readers’ attention as
well as it could. For these reasons, many tourists don’t visit thiswebsite or research Japanese customs, which leads to mannerlacking tourists in Japan.
A recent survey by the JNTO has cited that there was an 18%
increase in inbound tourism from January-March 2017 to JanuaryMarch 2018. Due to the 2020 Olympics, this number is anticipated todramatically surge. Complaints about tourists and foreigners usuallystem from a cultural difference, a difference that can be easily
understood and respected with a bit of research. For example,
transportation manners or how to sort out the garbage can becomplicated and unnecessary to foreigners. Using entertaining andeasy to understand manga could potentially help Japan solve thisproblem.
One of the larger complaints is the language barrier. Tourists

complain of the lack of multilingual options in Japan and theJapanese complain about those who don’t make an effort to learn
Japanese. While foreigners aren’t expected to be fluent in Japanese,an effort to understand simple phrases is appreciated. Apps,
YouTube Japanese lessons, blogs, and easy-to-use textbooks are all
created to combat this one complaint. One of these textbooks,
Konnichiwa Nihongo! created by The Japan Times, is a small, 143page book filled with illustrations, and simple and useful Japanesephrases. It’s written in Chinese, Korean, English, and Japanese (bothin Japanese characters and the Roman alphabet) to cater to a broad
audience. This book isn’t a traditional manga, but it is heavily
illustrated, with all but one phrase being aided with a picture. Manyother concerns could possibly be addressed through a similar book.
An official manga aimed at tourists or those wanting to learn more
about Japanese culture will help increase interest and offer anaffordable solution to these problems. Just as the manga created by
the LDP was to discuss the Japanese constitution, a manga as a
guide could be very helpful for tourists wanting to learn about theculture and manners, and to acquire easy-to-use phrases. Eachchapter could be dedicated to a different topic. Train stations, as an
example, could be an interesting area to cover. Buying a ticket,
silence on the trains, and the phrases commonly announced can be
jarringly different for tourists. Reading a chapter or two in a manga
about train etiquette could be useful for them and make riding thetrains a more enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Anotherchapter could review shopping at a mall, where foreigners can learn
the polite way to ride the escalators, or why they shouldn’t directly
hand the cashier their money, and illustrate the differences in paying
for a meal at a restaurant. A manga for tourists could be a potentiallyhelpful tool, especially if advertised in the right way.
In order to avoid the same mistake as the JNTO’s website, themanga should have wider and more appealing advertising andpromotion. Having people share it through travel blogs and social
media, and selling it at airports, travel agencies, hotels, andbookstores would be a good start.

Final Thoughts
Manga have come a long way from their origins as cartoon
animals frolicking on scrolls. They have gained a place at the heart ofmodern Japanese culture and have seeped into many aspects ofdaily life. Manga deserve to be a separate national brand. The CoolJapan movement is partially to thank for this popularity, but there is
still unused potential in manga advertising. Tourist-oriented
advertising and promotion of Japanese historical customs andculture would bring more revenue into the industry and the nation.
There are many brands on which Japan can spend its resources
and time advertising, and manga constitute a worthy brand to
showcase both during and after the Olympics. Doing so would
strengthen the message of a “Creative and Cultural Japan”.
Sierra Hermenau is a student at the University of Washington working
towards Japanese and English degrees and aspiring to become an English
professor.

Japan SPOTLIGHT • September / October 201865