As part of 15 trillion yen in stimulus measures announced last week, Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged to increase the Japanese contents market.
For the most part, he is talking about spreading the popularity of manga, anime, and video games overseas. I would say that these genres have been popular for years now and are growing of their own accord. It will be more interesting to see what happens with Japanese music, which is only recently starting to pop its head up in foreign markets.
With shrinking domestic demand, Japanese artists have no choice but to look overseas. But there are many obstacles, in my mind. The majority of western listeners will reject Japanese music either because it is sung in Japanese, or because the English is poor (bad pronunciation or lyrics). Utada Hikaru recently released her second album for the western market, but despite her fluent English I think she lacks a lyrical sense of what sounds right in western pop. She misses widely in her lyrics, and that is the reason for her mediocre success there.
There is a need for improved understanding of the western market if Japanese artists have any hope of gaining success there. Much in the same way that Japanese baseball players made a splash in the major leagues, I think it is possible (as incredible as it seems now) that some day you could have an "Ichiro" come out of Japan. Or would that be "Ichiro Lennon?"
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