JapanizationNow and YesterdayAn Overview by www.schnellinterkulturell.de

JapanizationNow and YesterdayAn Overview by www.schnellinterkulturell.de

JapanizationNow and YesterdayAn Overview by www.schnellinterkulturell.de

So what is it we are talkingabout today?

A word

More precisely a concept

And how this concept…

…shifted within 60

years time

„Well what is a

concept then?“

Hi there! I am thefamous linguist

Ferdinand de Saussure. Let me explain the

concept of a… concept.

Language is made up of signs and every sign has two sides. Like a coin!

A sign looks like this…

Concept (Signified)

Sound-Image (Signifier)

Here is an example…

horse

The funny thing is that signs can change.

Letters or sounds are arbitrary, and not

connected to the concept.

The only requirement is that the difference in the

symbols is understood by the collective

consciousness.

Here is a word for you

Japanization, nounThe act or process of making s.th.

Japanese.

Speaking in terms of today’s topic. We could have

something like…

Japanization

??

??

But enough linguistics for now,

let‘s take a look at this…

Japan‘s GDP 1952 - 2009

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

Nominal GDP (billions of yen)

Real GDP (year 2000 yen)

1991: The Japaneseasset bubble bursts

Golden 60s: Japan risesfrom the ashes of WWII

2000s: The lost decade(s)

A Little Bit of History1950s• After WWII Japan created an economic miracle

A Little Bit of History1960s• Japan enters a Golden Age

A Little Bit of History1960s to 1970s• As result of Vietnam War grassroots movements

spread around the world (Hippies) not so in Japan

A Little Bit of History1980s to 1990s• 1980s to 1990s making of the Japanese bubble

A Little Bit of History1990s• 1991 the bubble bursts

A Little Bit of History1991 to 2000• Result of the real estate bubble…

SONYTOYOTA

A Little Bit of History1991 to 2000• Result of the real estate bubble…

LOSTDECADE

A Little Bit of History2001 to 2011• Lehman shock

• Big earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima crisis

So what‘s the

connection to

„Japanization“?

The shift of the concept of

„Japanization“ over half a centuryis closely tied to Japan‘s economy

Japanization Yesterday

•Stage I aka The Golden Years

•Stage II aka Cool Japan

•Stage III aka The 2nd lost decade

Stage I

The Golden Years

The Toyota Way“Doing it the Japanese way”

In the West many people were

impressed by Japan’s

rise after WWII

They wrote books about

how to…

…do it the Japanese way (economically)…

…and how to JapanizeWestern management and

economy

Those were theGolden Years

(Stage I)

The Golden Yearslasted…

…into the late 1980s

Stage II

The bubble, economic stagnation

and cultural Japanization

After the real estate bubble burst...

…Japan dipped into a recession

Life-long employment was replaced

with

temporary jobs

Need a job!

Companies like S and

Toyota began facing stiff competition from other

Asian nations

Already high household

savings rosefurther, consumption

sank

…Japan’s economy began to stagnate

During the after bubble era

another shift of conceptoccured

Japanization through

Manga

…and Video Games

…from companies like

…became major exports of

J-Pop-culture

The term Japanizationshifts from…

…Japanese work ethos, production methods, etc., to…

…being and making something Japanese through

Pop-Culture

A fact also Japanese

scholars and even

politicians realized…

…and eventually built upon

COOLJapanis born

The concept of cool Japan was

coined in 2002 as an expression of Japan's emergent status as a

cultural superpower

Adopted by media, academia by

the Japanese government as

well as trade bodies

Japanization 2.0 is a shift towards

culture and soft power

Those were thepost-bubble years

(Stage II)

The most recent shift in

the concept of Japanizationoccured…

Stage III

Post-Lehman and Fukushima and

into Lost Decade II

The economic outlook…

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

Nominal GDP (billions of yen)

Real GDP (year 2000 yen)

1991: The Japaneseasset bubble bursts

Golden 60s: Japan risesfrom the ashes of WWII

2000s: The lost decade(s)

…has not changed very

much since the burst of the 1990s bubble

Japan’s GDP is still stagnating

Politically Japan is getting more

and more introverted and

caught in a never-ending stalemate

Financially Japanese

institutions have not been able to deal with a strengthening ￥

Most recently foreign mediainitiated a new shift in the

concept of Japanization

The Fear of Japanization!

Within a little more than half a century the meaning of

Japanization shifted from…

Stage I

Rising from the Ashes

“lets copy that!”

Stage II

Cultural Japanization

“It’s-a me! Super Mario!”

Stage III

The Fear of Japanization

“What can we do to avoid becoming like

Japan”

That’s it!

Thank you very much!

Need more info? Contact me!

Schnell InterkulturellConsulting | Training| Market Research

Marco Michael Damm

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