Japanese Entertainment

Japanese Entertainment: Emily Petrini

Japanese entertainment, once reliant on the products of western society, has begun to define them self and create an internal identity within the industry. After conducting research on Japanese entertainment, some general trends became exposed. Among the most popular trends in their mainstream entertainment are anime and manga, video games and their Japanese consuls, traditional performances like kabuki, and Japanese popular music called “J-Pop.”

Anime (Japanese for “animated film) and manga (Japanese for “printed cartoon”) are a style of art specific to Japanese culture. A major difference between manga and anime and typical American cartoons is that they are designed for all age groups, not just kids. Also, the characters are usually the vision of a particular cartoonist, not the stereotypical super hero figures commonly seen in American cartons. This makes each cartoon’s story line inherently unique.

Video games are a huge part of Japan’s mainstream entertainment because two of the gaming industry’s biggest producers, Nintendo and Sony, are native to Japan. These two companies alone, producing items like the Wii and the Playstation, have generated worldwide success for the county’s gaming industry and entertainment industry as a whole.

Kabuki, while not modern in its origins, is a Japanese drama characterized by elaborate costuming, rhythmic dialogue, stylized acting and the performance of both male and female roles by male actors . Although kabuki is said to have started in the early 17^th Century, it is still a popular and well-enjoyed art form in mainstream Japanese entertainment.

Jpop is a term referring to Japanese pop music. Unlike the others, Jpop is heavily influenced by western pop music. Jpop is used to describe many genres of music, including dance, pop, jazz, rock and soul. This style of music is defined by its exemption from traditional Japanese music that only used instruments to perform classical music and military marches.

The Japanese entertainment industry, like that of the United States, is a commercial entity that operates on the principle of open public access. The majority of the facilities in this sector are privately owned and operated, with minimal interaction with the Federal government and other regulatory entities. Having an entertainment industry with limited government regulation creates the perfect environment for maximizing creativity, and expressing messages in a tactful and intellectual manner. Like the United States, Japan has many artists that depict war, government and other social issues through an artistic outlet. For example, Japanese artists such as Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) were part of the “Feudal Era” of Japanese art. The “Feudal Era” depicted many incidents of the Sino-Japanese war of 1895. Many topics depicted in American art have similarly been expressed in the Japanese culture.

Apparent differences between the entertainment industry of Japan and the United States are the ages of their mainstream identities. Although Japan’s ancient history exceeds that of the United States, their identity as a commercial, pop entertainment industry is fairly new. Japanese entertainment was once heavily reliant on Western influences. American entertainment, however, has steadily been defined and redefined since its founding. Perhaps this phenomenon can be attributed to the vast array of cultures that make up what is now “American.” The conglomerate of music, dance and art from all of America’s people laid the groundwork for the combination of styles that make up our finalized and unique identity. While Japan has more recently begun to define themselves within the entertainment industry, a lot of their most popular entities still have their foundations in western ideals.

Another considerable difference between the entertainment industries of Japan and the United States is the current stability of each country’s markets. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Japan’s entertainment industry is finally on the up-swing after its one-year anniversary of natural disasters.  According to the article, “The domino disasters of the magnitude 9 earthquake, the devastating tsunami and nuclear accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant hit the whole entertainments industry in the months after March 11.” TV stations lost millions of dollars in revenue during this time when regular programming and advertising was pulled for weeks and replaced by public service announcements. The box office also took a reported $325 million hit during this time period due to the lack of resources available for residents to spend money on entertainment. Japan’s entertainment business is attempting to recover from this disaster by expanding its market overseas. The United States has been fortunate enough to not have suffered severely from natural disaster in the recent years, so our entertainment business is arguably more stable then that of Japan.