Soft power and Japan's role in a complex world

With the continuing drama in the U.S. House of Representative paired with the upcoming presidential elections in America and continued speculation of a snap election bubbling under the surface in Japan, politics will continue to capture the headlines through at least 2024.

But let’s not take the bait, at least not all the time. In the midst of domestic and global politics, there is something that’s even more important to keep in mind in U.S.-Japan relations — the enduring resiliency and value of Japan’s unique soft power and as a cultural superpower that is often underappreciated in America.

In 1983, then-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was interviewed for a special issue of Time Magazine in August of 1983 titled, "Japan: A Nation in Search of Itself," that stated: "Japan may be a bit like sugar or salt: unless one tries to taste it, one may never be able to understand Japan. In the past, we have been lacking in our efforts to publicize Japan culturally. We have done quite well in exporting products. But from now on, we must make greater efforts in exporting cultural information."

It’s been 40 years since, but some are saying that this moment feels like 1980s Japan, part of a recurring 20-year boom and bust cycle. However, we are in the 21st century now and as U.S.-Japan relations have strengthened, they have also grown beyond the bilateral to the truly global as we have seen from the start of the war in Ukraine and Israel. U.S. President Joe Biden defines this moment as a global “inflection point.”

As the first and third largest economies in the world, the U.S. and Japan set the stage for major economic and financial decisions along with being leading democracies that define the rules based international system. With the 2024 U.S. presidential election on the horizon that will shape America’s global role and ongoing domestic political challenges in Japan, how each of today’s leading democracies formulate their foreign policies and shape the global agenda is critical for the future world order.

But that’s not all. I’ve been thinking a lot about Japan’s soft power — the economic and political value of Japanese culture and how it is integral to the nation’s position in the world. “Soft power” as conceptualized by Joseph Nye focused on the nonmilitary and intangible elements of a country’s appeal, but very similar in capturing the appeal and influence of Japan’s culture throughout the world.

There is something truly uplifting about the world that Japanese artists and creators have made for us — whether in movies, anime or games — that has universal appeal. They have merged high culture and pop culture in a way that is uniquely relevant for us all. In the same way that Captain America, Mickey Mouse or Superman captures the American sense of grandeur and greatness on the global stage, there is an enduring appeal to superheroes from Japan that speaks to the character and creativity of Japanese society.

They may come in the smaller form of kawaii (cute) culture's Hello Kitty or the kaijū monsters like Godzilla or of the supernatural varieties like those of the "Dragon Ball" anime characters, but they all hold unique appeal across the world.

Japan shouldn’t shy away from or discount the enormous value of its creative power even as others including neighbors South Korea and Taiwan are catching up. Japan’s soft power is a global economic force that entertains and informs multiple generations, and because of that, it’s also political.

The nation's creative power is not only filled with the spirit of Japan, it’s actually about what the country means to the world — and its importance in maintaining a stable future for a free and open global society.

Japan should take note of how South Korea and Taiwan are actively promoting themselves through their own soft power on global stages, including New York, Tokyo and Dubai. There’s a lesson to be learned here and an opportunity.

The country isn’t just sugar or salt, Japan is now mainstream — it’s a multicourse meal. But the point that Nakasone made in 1983 is still valid. Until you experience Japan, you don’t really know it. Even now where you can basically experience almost anything virtually or in the metaverse, there’s something refreshingly analog about Japan whether in its art or bathhouses.

It’s ironic that the title of that special 1983 edition of Time was “Japan: A Nation in Search of Itself,” because in 21st-century America, we also don’t know quite what America is anymore. We have a founding myth and we have a certain set of ideals, including freedom and inclusion, that we can choose to rally around or not.

Japan, I believe, doesn’t have one thing that people rally around — except for the sensibility of being Japanese — the aesthetics of its art, architecture, minimalism, food and so on. If you’re from Japan or spent any time there, you know that right away.

But for most Americans, what they associate with Japan is generally Eastern, Oriental or Asian.

Yet there’s so much more. That’s where Japan’s soft power comes into play. While hard power zeroes in on what can be physically controlled such as an empire by force, soft power is an empire by invitation — an invitation and escape that feeds the soul. Art lets you go beyond yourself. There’s no beginning and no end; it's a way of understanding and feeling. That’s what our world needs now — a little less hardness and more kindness, less preaching and more mindfulness.

We need answers, but we need to ask the right questions before we can find those answers. What is true freedom? How can democracy coexist with security in a dangerous world? How can nearly 8 billion humans live in harmony with nature that defines our experience on this planet with the reality of climate change? How can technology complement our humanity? And the list goes on.

There’s something amazingly resilient about the human spirit and there’s something about U.S.-Japan relations that emphasizes that point even more than any other two nations. Starting with our very first national encounters from Commodore Matthew Perry’s black ships to the Meiji Revolution, from World War II to the Tokyo Olympics, from 9/11 to 3/11, there has been a deep spiritual bond or kizuna that has defined the American and Japanese peoples, their cultures and their societies.

Japan opens the door to exploring different perspectives and viewing ourselves through a different lens than just the Western lifestyle. The nation’s soft power is an amplifier and a catalyst, so that even as its population decreases and its military increases amid numerous global challenges, Japan remains America’s anchor in Asia, the most dynamic and interesting region of the world at this critical global inflection point.