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Y1.ys("dy"); Subscribe Y1.ys2("dy"); AD2.init({ site: 'DY', area: 'BANNER', width: 728, height: 90, admax: 1, banid: 'dy-banner' }); AD2.cAds(); AD2.dBanner();   JAPANESE Home National Sports Business World Features Columns Editorial Top Essay Culture Arts Weekend Book Review The Language Connection Scene Science & Nature Home>Features>DY Weekend Weather DY Weekend  Top THROUGH OTAKU EYES / Journalist tracks lost pop culture treasures Makoto Fukuda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer For one reason or another, t

y these works slip out of circulation and fade from view, as if they are cut off from the world, in a series of reports in which he calls them fuin sakuhin, or sealed works.

The role of the Internet in cultivating communities without generating profits has been amply addressed. On top of that, producers of Japanese pop media are struggling with outdated and self-destructive business models.

In a recent interview for pop culture news site ICv2.com, TokyoPop founder and CEO Stuart Levy describes his company's initial strategy in 1998 to harness what he calls "the three C's: content, community and commerce." A decade later, he and others in Japan's U.S.-targeted pop industries have been wildly successful at mastering the first two--content and community--but are struggling mightily to complete the triangle.

Japan is reinventing superpower—again. Instead of collapsing beneath its widely reported political and economic misfortunes, Japan’s global cultural influence has quietly grown. From pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and animation to cuisine, Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic one. But can Japan build on its mastery of medium to project an equally powerful national message?

But cultural accuracy is not the point. Less important than authentic American origin is the whiff of American cool.

Yet Japan is reinventing superpower again. Instead of collapsing beneath its political and economic misfortunes, Japan’s global cultural influence has only grown. In fact, from pop music to consumer electronics, architecture to fashion, and food to art, Japan has far greater cultural influence now than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic superpower.

In Boston recently, a journalist asked me: Is Japan really doing anything with its "soft power," or is it just a lot of talk

With a few notable exceptions, the explosion of interest in Japan's pop cultural exports has been ignited by foreigners' passions and sustained by Internet accessibility. The phenomenon is largely demand-driven, a product of quality content being sought and consumed by overseas fans, academics and artists. Japanese pop culture is being pulled into foreign markets far more than it is being pushed.

(www.animemasterpieces.com), a venture that combines anime screenings with lectures, seminars and study guides.

From video games to pop art, the government reportedly plans to establish a major collection of modern Japanese media arts to showcase and promote internationally at the new centre.The government plans to collaborate with regional museums, galleries and institutions such as the Kyoto International Manga Museum and the NTT InterCommunication Centre in Tokyo in the establishment of the new centre.

Japanese pop culture, such as fashion, manga and anime, has been considered "cool" overseas for a while, but the government and domestic business community are not making the most of such popularity.

It has been 10 years since Japan cool became popular, but Japanese industry is not doing a good job of making the most of it, as it is often mocked: The biggest gainer from Japanese anime is Hollywood.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Minister' Industrial Structure Council recently released a report that devoted a great deal of space to the Japan cool issue. Following is an extract from the report.