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Eight years have passed since American journalist Douglas McGray first coined the phrase, but now the Japanese government is getting behind "Cool Japan" in a big way. A new Creative Industries Promotion Office was established in June within the Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to coordinate the promotion of "cultural industries" by various arms of government such as the Agency for Cultural Affairs, METI, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Kondo believes that the free market was originally a tool for increased prosperity and a richer nonmaterial life, but that it somehow became an end in itself. A task for the 21st century is to move toward a richer spiritual life, and he thinks Japan is in a unique position for that as a non-Western economic power. While a bureaucratic-led push for creativity has its problems, any soft power contribution Japan can make to the world will surely be welcomed, especially if it can also stimulate renewed self-confidence and vitality within Japan itself.