Cultural Flows: Japan and East Asia
Question 1
The advent of globalization has led to the witnessed changes in cultural flows. The rapid development of communication technologies and international media institutions have fueled the circulation of images, information, texts on a global level. Thus, the changes have led to the spread of cultural products due to the ease of partnerships in the media culture markets and joint production ventures. For example, cultural flows in East Asia remain multidirectional, and Japan’s cultural influence of the world remain significant due to the spread of media cultures.
Question 2
Yes. Because the cultural similarity between Japan and East Asian countries make the products feel familiar to the audience in the region. Cultural closeness attracts empathy from the audience of a different region because they reflect the realities of viewers’ lives.
Question 3
The Korean Wave depicts the ambivalence towards the cultural neighbors of Japan. Thus, the phenomenon shows the letdown and rejection to modernize culture by sharing the developments. Equally, the audiences’ nostalgia shows their gratitude for varying modes of modernity that exceed Japan in line with the cooperation with the West, along with the complexity of cultural hybridization. Indeed, this occurrence serves as a double sword for proving to the Japanese to become conscious of historical prejudices towards their Asian neighbors.
Question 4
The “Cool Japan” strategy is an approach formalized to gain foreign markets of culture. This strategy promotes cultural relations with advanced economies, which leads to the challenge of Japanese cultural imagery. Also, the major limitation of soft power policy relates to its failure to tackle Japanese most pressing issues, such as problems in counterbalancing demography.
Question 5
Going forward, the relationship between Japan and East Asia will deteriorate due to the cultural approach of Japan that has concentrated on controlling the region. As the Japanese continue to consume social media from advanced economies, the likely scenario is that the cultural ties with its neighbors will lessen. Contrary to this, the future relations of Western and non-Western countries would increase because of the continued acceptance of cultural marriage between the two regions.