In a way, this might be the book I would have been recommended the least. A book on Japan pop culture.

I have barely read any manga in my whole life. I profundly despise J-Pop. As opposed to many of my friends, I didnt’t grow up with a Famicom or Super Famicom and barely played any video games (to this day, the total number of video games I have played should amount to less than 20).

So a book on Japan pop culture? Me?

The thing is, I love to understand how things work. Not in the sense, things that surround me and I want to understand better. The more alien a thing is to me, the more I want to understand it.

And this is how i bought and read a book on Japanese pop culture.

And I do not regret it.

This book is good.

Beyond just the usual Japanese culture is the summum of everything, this book is more a story of how the country rebuilt itself after WWII as seen through pop culture. How events shaped pop culture. And in the end, how pop culture shaped events.

And more than just Hello Kitty, Karaoke or the Tamagotchi, the people who built these icons, their own story, how, in many cases, they stumbled upon such a success. More than things themselves, the persons or personnages who made them.

As a downside, I would say that the section on the 2010s is way too short and should have a proper section instead of just being the epilogue and be merge with the conclusion and summary of the whole book. I can’t say for sure when the book was written, but it was released in June 2020 and in many ways, 2010 feels like a lifetime ago and there should be more to say about that decade.

Final word: I do recommend this book.