As I reported last year, the actions of a number of companies involved in the manga/anime industry briefly shot up when Mr. Taro Aso, an afficionado of Japanese popular culture and former Foreign Minister, was approached to run for the Prime Minister position, then held by resigning Mr. Shinzo Abe. However, the race was won by Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, who is now also resigning amidst an abyssmal drop in popularity, resulting from some tough reforms of the social system that have caused the insurrance fees of older people to dramatically increase. Now seems to be Mr. Aso’s time after three previous attempts to reach the Prime Minister position.

According to various media (Wall Street Journal, Dominion Post, Le Temps, etc.), Rozen Aso, so nicknamed because he is a publicly acknowldged fan of the manga series Rozen Maiden, is considered a confident outspoken right-wing politician, a pragmatic man and a tough nationalist who claims to be able to say no to the USA, China and North Korea, when Japan’s interest is at stake. His open appreciation of Japanese popular entertainment has contributed to make him popular among the younger generations and his party hopes that the support of this share of voters, which had deserted the PLD for years now, will help it escape a complete rout in the next national elections. However, in a country that boasts more than 30′000 centenarians and close to 20% of the population over 60 years old, I’m not sure that focusing on the younger generations is the best way to rescue a drifting party. Then, we also know that most Japanese read manga, not matter how old they are, and Aso’s well-known fandom of Rozen Maiden or Hitman might actually help portray him as closer to laypeople than his predecessors. Grand-son of Shigeru Yoshida, the first Prime Minister of Japan after the end of the WWII, he carries the weight of a heavy familial historical heritage, enmeshed with some of the dark sides of the larger Japanese History of the 1940’s. In his family coal mines were working thousands of military degraded Koreans as well as war prisoners from Australia, Great-Britain and Holland. The main problem is that they never acknowledged these wrongdoings and this is could very well spoil some of the talks with Korea and concerned Western countries. So, we’ll see what kind of Prime Minister he’ll turn out to be.

But, returning to Mr. Aso’s seemingly out of place passion for mangas, considering the milieu he stems from and the social-political circles he’s been evolving in, I wonder if his nomination as Prime Minister could help Japanese abroad acknowledge the importance of their national entertainment industry in the success of their country around the world. As I have several times, you’ve probably noticed the reactions they have when you proudly tell them that, yes, you do know TV (or manga) series titles such as Saint Seiya, Sailor Moon, Captain Harlock, or more recent stuff like Full Metal Alchemist, Card Captor Sakura, etc. They either look appalled or try to dodge the subject by saying that they used to read or watch these series as little kids, but since then have completely given up on this sort of entertainment, which they often qualify as marginal culture just good enough for childish otakus. They might agree to acknowledge their appreciation for such movie makers as Hayao Myazaki , Mamoru Oshii, Rin Taro or Satoshi Kon, but that’s only because they have been praised, both at home and abroad, by authoritative cinema critics. Basically, they have internalized the Western classification of cultural practices, which puts animation and television pretty much at the bottom of the ladder, at least when they are abroad. They will go to any length to convince you that they do meet the standards of “High Culture”, meaning that, of course, they despise everything that is mass culture and audiovisual entertainment, among them mangas and animes. Just once was I able to witness a travelling Japanese business man acknowledging, totally unofficially (he even said jokingly that it was top-state secret), that yes he does read mangas and watch animes on a regular basis and loves it. However, before I could hear this, he needed the intervention of a well-established Poli-sci professor, specialized in Japanese political history and interested in the study of mangas, to tell him that these products can actually represent an initial door for many Westerners to become interested in modern Japan and come to appreciate it.

And here is Mr. Aso’s nomination as Prime Minister seen “Through Otaku Eyes” (or so says the article).