[Insider] How “Cool Japan” Ruined Japan’s Cool

When I was in middle school, I saw Robotech. It changed my life.

I didn’t know when I started watching it that I was watching “anime.” This was the 1980s. We didn’t have Crunchyroll. Hell, we didn’t have Internet. This was the era when the Atari 2600 was considered state-of-the-art gaming.

The animated series Robotech is a monstrosity. Its three seasons were Frankensteined together from three completely unrelated Japanese anime: Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA. (Finding out later that, actually, there was no logical way for Admiral Rick Hunter to return to fight the Invid was like finding an unreachable chapter in a Choose Your Own Adventure book.)

Despite its shortcomings, Robotech was what got me hooked on anime, and thus Japan. It was a “cartoon,” yes, but one that touched on serious themes. Characters even died, something that never happened in the other Saturday morning fare I watched.

At a time when animation in the US was considered unserious slop for kids, Japan was creating stories that both kids and adults could enjoy. It came at a time in my childhood when I was grateful not to be treated as a child.

Watching Robotech changed the trajectory of my life. It’s why I’m in Japan today. That anime planted a solid, unshakeable tenet in my impressionable young brain: Japan is cool.

I’m not alone. Years later, I would watch American cartoons with my own kids and see something quite familiar. I’d sit riveted to the TV alongside them to titles like Teen Titans, Ben 10, Justice League, and Batman: The Animated Series. All series with deep roots in the animation style and storytelling I’d first seen in anime.

Clearly, a generation of Western animators and storytellers had squandered their childhoods exactly as I had.

Japan’s unique culture – anime, its fascinating language, its complex religious beliefs, its elegant aesthetic – has captivated millions worldwide. It’s a major reason it’s at the top of everyone’s travel bucket list. Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards have named Japan the number 1 travel destination for three years running. In 2023, Japan also topped the Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index, ending Germany’s six-year reign.

In other words, Japan is mad cool. “Selling Japan” is the easiest job in the world.

So how did a bunch of bureaucrats manage to waste tens of billions of yen screwing it up?

What was Cool Japan? Everyone in Japan wants to know, actually

Last month, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, 経済産業省) announced it was aiming to end one of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s pet projects, the Cool Japan Fund. Known officially as the Overseas Demand Development Support Organization, the group announced that cumulative losses have swelled to ¥54 billion (about $333 million USD).

Founded in 2013, it was capitalized with ¥151.3 billion, the majority of which (¥140.6 billion, or ~$868M) was public money. Abe originally pitched the Cool Japan Fund, not as a cultural project, but as an economic growth strategy, part of the “third arrow” of his so-called “Abenomics” plan. The goal was to stimulate international demand for Japanese content, food, fashion, services, technology, and tourism.

On social media, the key sentiment was confusion over what the Fund actually was. Japanese experts are still debating what sank the Fund in the long run: its crippling overhead or its terrible investments. What’s certain is that one investment in particular paved the path to closure.