Is "Pokemon Go" a game changer for the Japanese economy? Within days of its release in early July, a record 21 million people were playing at once, tracking down and capturing the cute little monsters on their smartphones. Creator Nintendo's shares soared. But the phenomenal popularity of the game raises important questions, beyond just "where's the nearest Pokegym?"
Is it a sign that Silicon Valley-style innovation is reinvigorating corporate Japan's notoriously insular management? Might this be the first big success story for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cool Japan initiative, a key element in the structural reforms promised but so far undelivered by Abenomics? Unfortunately, while the story is certainly good news for Nintendo and Pokemon, it is unlikely that "Pokemon Go" is the harbinger of any broader shift in Japan's creative economy.
For one thing, while Nintendo deserves its plaudits, "Pokemon Go" is as much an American creation as a Japanese one. The lovable critters, which first appeared on the Game Boy in 1996, were spliced onto an existing augmented reality game, "Ingress," which was developed by Niantic Inc., formerly a research team at Google and now an independent company.