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November 14, 2011

[SSJ: 6950] Re: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture announcement (Nov.29)

From: Sven Saaler
Date: 2011/11/14

Earl,
I have to admit I never noticed something like a "shift", but "Cool Japan"
seems to be official policy, as far as METI is
concerned:
"Creative Industries (Cool Japan!): The Mission of the Creative Industries Promotion Office"
http://www.meti.go.jp/english/policy/mono_info_service/
creative_industries/c
reative_industries.html.
Since this is a METI policy, I doubt that the usage of the term "Cool Japan"
has any deeper meaning, in terms of questions of identity etc.; it probably is rather a consequence of the economic crisis and the attempt to define areas of potential economic growth. I cannot imagine that economic planners in the METI controversially debated the usage of "Cool Japan" vs. "Japan Cool" and noticed the "subtle but [truly] different" meanings of the terms.

Sven Saaler

Approved by ssjmod at 03:13 PM