The Ministry’s strategy targets other parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. Currently, only 2% of these Japanese pop culture sales are actually made outside of the country. However, the “Cool Japan” industries employ over 2 million people in Japan and total about ¥45 trillion (about US$480 million) in sales annually, so adding to this total by focusing on foreign markets can boost employment and commerce in Japan considerably.

The proposal asks the Japan External Trade Organization and private Japanese consulting firms to provide assistance to companies that want to export their properties overseas, particularly small to midsize businesses that are struggling to get a foothold. Companies like Nintendo, for example, certainly won’t need the assistance, but they could still benefit from some of the proposed changes.

Japan’s largest book publisher, Kodansha, might have been ahead of the game. Long since one of the biggest manga publishers in Japan, multiple American manga publishers have licensed their work for North American publication over the past decade or so. Kodansha got a cut of the sales, but they largely left creative control over translation, presentation, and marketing to the American companies. This has led to a wide range of quality from title to title and publisher to publisher. Not so anymore, as Kodansha has stopped licensing its manga titles to American companies and let most of its licenses with American publishers expire in preparation for starting its own American division. This will employ more Japanese citizens, give Kodansha full profit over North American sales, and allow Kodansha better control over how their part of pop culture is presented outside of Japan. (However, they will still be distributed by an American company—Random House—and so are allowing some of their titles to continue publication with Del Rey, one of the top American publishers of manga.)

Another part of the Ministry’s strategy actually involves asking foreign creators to come to Japan to help create the “cool Japan” image that’s going to be exported. The Ministry hopes to accomplish this through a reform on the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law that will make issuing and keeping work visas easier for companies and immigrants.

Are you a fan of “Cool Japan”? What’s your favorite part of Japanese pop culture? Do you think it’s counterintuitive for the Ministry to want foreign creators to help them export the “Cool Japan” image? Why or why not?

In Japan, many novels, particularly those aimed at young adults, are sold in a similar fashion. “Light novels,” as these novels are called (the Japanese even say the English words “light novel”: “raito noberu”), are actually closer to what we consider novellas (short novels) in the West. At an average of around 40,000 to 50,000 words each, these novels are miniature versions of what we consider novels for young adults in the West. To give you an idea, the Harry Potter books range from 76,000 to 257,000 words each.

Light novels are easy to read because they don’t require a long period of time to commit to reading, so they appeal to busy, technical-savvy modern young adults in Japan. However, you’re unlikely to find stand-alone works published as light novels—that would defeat the purpose of the light novel. The publishers really want to hook their readers on the first book and make them come back for the next, which is often published mere months after the previous installment. Light novels are usually series that can last 5, 10 or even 20 books. The average length of a series is around 12 to 13 light novels. However, add up 12 light novels and you still only get about two Harry Potter books!

Light novels are rarely considered modern Japanese classics, although some frequent light novel authors have been praised for their skills. The language used in light novels is very minimalist and to-the-point. This also helps make them more appealing for the busy Japanese teenager who wants a quick and easy way to escape the pressures of school and daily life.

Another feature of light novels is that, although they are aimed at young adults, they often feature black and white illustrations, most often in the Japanese manga (“comic book”) style. This appeals to a culture where even adults enjoy reading manga. Light novels are also printed in smaller dimensions than we’re used to in the West, so they’re easier to carry around. Typical light novels are printed in dimensions of only about 4 inches by 5 inches.

Even some Western books that make it into translation in Japanese are published in light novel format. Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight series is one example. Four rather bulky books in the West were turned into one light novel series in Japan consisting of 13 volumes (complete with manga-style illustrations). None of the books are considered “sequels.” They’re all part of one large series. If you’ve been paying attention to Twilight in the West, you may have noticed that it’s incredibly popular with young adults (mostly young women) while critics have panned the books for simple language, uncomplicated plots and an idealized, simplified depiction of romance. Well, that’s exactly what the light novel market in Japan looks for, so the books fit right in with the competition.

Would you rather have long books broken up into smaller chapters so they’re easier to carry around (and you wind up paying more in the end)? Do you like your novels to provide escapism or do you prefer something that engages your mind a bit more? Do you have any favorite Japanese light novels? (Some light novels have been published in English.)

Or not. Maybe Disney was onto something when they moved from Beauty and the Beast to Valiant (a 2005 CG movie about British homing pigeons fighting an evil German hawk during World War II if you, like most of the world, never saw it). The Princess and the Frog has earned a respectable $100 million domestically after over two months in release, but it took only a couple of weeks for 20^th Century Fox’s “stellar” CG children’s film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, released shortly thereafter, to earn double that.

The children of America may have been raised to believe that kids’ movies should be CG, crude and generally forgettable, but in Japan, CG has yet to appear in more than a handful of animated films and when it does, it rarely plays more of a role than it does in live action special effects flicks here: to paint the background of a world and make action sequences stand out.

Japan gets and loves Disney films (as the two Disney theme parks in Tokyo can attest), but they also have their own answer to Disney: Studio Ghibli and, when one of the studio heads himself chooses to direct, Miyazaki Hayao. Miyazaki and his co-heads, director Takahata Isao and producer Suzuki Toshio, have animation careers that date back to the 1960s. Miyazaki in particularly made his mark at Toei Animation, another essential staple in the folds of Japanese animation that still produces work today. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the founders of Ghibli worked on two animated films together, one of which, Kaze no Tani no Nausicäa (US title: Nausicäa of the Valley of the Wind), remains a veritable classic of Japanese animation today.

After Nausicäa, Miyazaki, Takahata, and Suzuki formed Studio Ghibli and released their first film under the studio’s official title, 1986’s Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa (US: Castle in the Sky). Fifteen award-winning films have followed this award-winning start to the Studio Ghibli tradition: break box office records in Japan and entertain and delight adults as much as children.

A little longer and perhaps slightly less action-oriented than their American animated film counterparts, the Studio Ghibli offerings usually follow the story of a young girl or boy (girls tend to appear more often than boys) who face spiritual, fantastical and compelling adventures as they learn to understand the importance of their friends, their family, and even the planet. There are definitely exceptions to the magic and fantastical—1988’s Hotaru no Haka (US: Grave of the Fireflies) comes to mind, as it deals with a young boy and his even younger sister who must deal with tragedy and survival after they lose the rest of their family to bombings in World War II—and exceptions to the young boy and girl protagonists—how about 1992’s Kurenai no Buta (US: Porco Rosso), which followed a Humphrey Bogart-esque Italian humanoid pig’s career as a World War I fighter pilot?—but the films always deliver on epic, thought-provoking themes that encourage children to dream and think about the world around them.

The folks at Disney know that Studio Ghibli films are something special, as current head of the animation department at Disney John Lasseter made it his mission to bring as many of the Studio Ghibli films to an English-speaking audience as possible—and uncut, at that. It was thanks to Disney’s international release of 2001’s Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (US: Spirited Away) that the film got enough exposure to win an Academy Award for best animated film, a first for Japanese animation.

While Disney has been going the way of CG, never has it been easier to get your hands on Studio Ghibli films in America. If you’ve grown up from jokes about passing gas and fish with cell phones in your animated films, try a Studio Ghibli film and take a peek at the kind of quality animation that’s been around in Japan for decades—the kind that won’t buck to current trends and yet, makes a huge impact on the nation regardless.

What are some of your favorite Studio Ghibli films? Do you find Studio Ghibli films more or less entertaining than Disney films?