One of these books I couldn’t let pass as it deals with a topic I have discussed a lot on my blog.

Overview

The author is an official Cool Japan Ambassador and as such explains explains what Cool Japan is, where is comes short and what can be done for (better) success.

Starting on a positive note

I find it great that the author took the time and effort to write and prepare a book, in Japanese to educate Japanese decision makers or sales executive on the topic.

And he is pretty frank on the situation of the different initiatives, projects and so on so far.

On the not so positive sides

Let’s start on the Japanese aspect of the book. It is highly unequal. And that’s coming from someone whose japanese sucks. There are pages with filled with “私は” which is a definite NOGO from the 2nd semester of any language course. But there are pages with fairly good keigo, content that would not seem out of place in non fiction books. So my question is: did an editor actually checked and harmonised the copy before sending it to the printing press ?

The main thing that made me put the book aside for almost 6 months is that the first 180 pages can be summarised as “Japan(ese companies) has no idea what marketing is.” Though it is a position I do second, the way it is addressed was tedious for me to read. Marketing is split across its usual dimensions (Product, price, promotion, publicity etc), but without “marketing” being mentionned even once. I can’t say if that’s a conscious decision by the author but I would have appreciated him to be frank about this and what he was selling. I have no issue about marketing per se. I just didn’t think I was buying a marketing manual.

Focusing more on the Cool Japan and tourism aspect of the book, I found it extremely myopic that the book is extremely US focused. The author is US-born but has lived for a long time in Japan and has been Cool Japan Ambassador for a few years too but he barely mentions Asian tourists or countries. I’ll let it slip that he barely registers European tourists though they represent the same volume as the US ones…

Furthermore, I think he tries to position himself as a younger David Kerr or David Atkinson, both renown inbound tourism experts in Japan but from an older generation. Born in 1983, he himself is from what would be classified in France as Generation Club Do and it shows. Both in the way he was introduced to Japan (he was a fan of video games, especially from the NES) and how his interest grew. That said, he has a blind spot on what different generations find attractive in Japan. The generation before his was deep into martial arts thanks to Karate Kid. But that doesn’t register and he tends to consider all foreign tourists from every generation in the same “my generation US-citizen” homogenous block.

Finally, I think there is a slight misconception in his approach. He comes out as wanting to do the right thing: improve Japan soft power, share knowledge or content about Japan. The main issue here is that this is not Cool Japan’s goal. Cool Japan’s goal is and always has been money. Making sure more foreigners come to Japan and buy stuff or hotel nights. Enjoying culture is tolerated only if there is a price affixed to it.

Final word

Meh.