Putting Koichi Iwabuchi's illuminating article "Marketing 'Japan': Japanese Cultural Presence under a Global Gaze"(Japanese Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2, 1998, pp. 165-180) on my work desk in the office and in my briefcase travelling between home and office, I finished this interesting piece of pleasure, which reminded of so many days and nights playing Super Mario Brothers of Nintendo with my friends and sister in my childhood. I never realized why Mario do not look Japanese until now. Mario, an Italian plumber, together with many more "non-Japanese" characters, are culturally odourless products intentionally (I reject the idea of "unconsciously") made in and exported from Japan to Asia and the world. The following are some excerpts from the article.
The long-held perception of Japan's role in the world stage: "Japan has money and technologies but cannot diffuse its culture" (p. 165)
Japan has been consistently exported its "culturally odourless" products overseas, particularly to Asia. (p. 165-6)
Iwabuchi's use of the term "cultural odour" to refer to "the cultural presence of a country of origin and image or ideas of its way of life are positively associated with a particular product in the consumption process." (p. 166)
The major audio-visual products are three Cs: consumer technologies, such as karaoke; comics; and computer/video games, which "present an imagery in which the bodily, racial and ethnic characteristics are erased or softened." Look at the majority of the characters in Japanese animation. They do not look "Japanese". "Such non-Japanese-ness is called mu-kokuseki." (p. 166-7)
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