japanamerica

Join USJETAA and Dr. Jolyon Thomas, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for what promises to be an in depth look at anime. We will explore the cultural and emotional forces behind anime’s appeal, with a discussion that will be enthralling for both devoted fans and those who are curious or even puzzled by its widespread popularity. It will also shed light on the intense passion that anime inspires, sometimes described as a kind of “religious” following. *Register online here . Panelists include: Dr. Jolyon Thomas is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania who explores how anime, manga, and pop culture connect with spirituality and everyday life in Japan. He’s the author of Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan and has a new book on the way, Animating Action: Changing the World with Anime, Rituals, and Robots. Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-1999) is an award-winning Japanese Americ...

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Please join me this December 11th at Town Hall New York City with author Haruki Murakami, jazz artist Jason Moran and friends, and scholar/translator Motoyuki Shibata for a very special one-night celebration hosted by Japan Society, The Town Hall, The Center for Fiction, All Nippon Airways and McNally Jackson Books. Tix on sale September 26.  https://japansociety.org/events/haruki-murakami/

Culture Rules: Japan Found its Cool in the 21st Century, But Can It Keep It?  In-Person / Online Register here. The branding of "Cool Japan" in the early aughts kickstarted Japan's 21st Century pop culture juggernaut. Global demand for Japan-produced anime, manga, games, fashion and food skyrocketed, and Japanese creatives scrambled to feed it through a rapid succession of media platforms--DVDs, Torrents, Cinemas and Streaming sites--as post-Covid inbound tourism stats exploded. Fiscal analysts now forecast a rosy CGR of 9.8% for Japan's pop culture products and a global market more than doubling to $72 billion in less than 10 years. But spotty government support, a shrinking labor and consumer pool, and rising costs amid a retreat from globalization mean that the sustained business of Cool Japan is hardly a sure bet. Where do we go from here? Pokemon's lucrative lightning might not strike twice. Speaker:  Roland Nozomu Kelts is an award-winning Japanese American ...

Join legendary British guitarist, photographer and author Andy Summers and acclaimed Japanese American author and scholar Roland Kelts for this uniquely intimate onstage dialogue and performance for Asia Society Japan. Please register online here.   Summers will unveil his powerful photographs of Tokyo—some dating back to 1980, when The Police first toured Japan and filmed their hit video “So Lonely” on the Tokyo metro —and give a public reading from two of his seven published books: his award-winning memoir “One Train Later” and short story collection “Fretted and Moaning." As a bonus. Summers will also perform live on guitar, creating a dialogue between photography, prose, and sound that reveals his lifelong fascination with Japanese aesthetics. That fascination with Japan began in his youth, when he discovered Akira Kurosawa’s films “Stray Dog” and “Drunken Angel” at an art-house cinema in Bournemouth, UK. Since the 1980s Summers has visited Japan several times to take and exh...

<<1:54 AI can help maintain the anime boom, says Roland Kelts, Professor and 1:58 Japanese culture expert. 1:59 He has written a book about anime. 2:02 "They call it 'in-betweener work,' when you draw frames in 2:07 between the keyframes. 2:09 And that kind of work can be done by AI very effectively and save the 2:13 studios money and time. 2:16 A lot of people think of anime as these big hits, etc. 2:20 But there are thousands of anime produced every year. 2:23 And many of them are just for late-night TV. 2:25 They are pretty cheap, so those can probably easily be produced by AI." 2:33 Technology isn’t seen as a threat in Japan, says Kelts. 2:37 This openness is rooted in the country’s indigenous 2:40 religion, Shinto. 2:41 Shinto is centered on worshipping kami, or spiritual entities. 2:45 They inhabit all kinds of objects, manmade or not, and everything is 2:49 accepted to be part of nature. 2:52 "Japanese creativity is quite fluid. 2:54 The very first a...

Shot live at International House of Japan , here's the live event video from Asia Society Japan of my presentation with veteran anime industry pros Geoffrey Wexler, formerly of Studio Ghibli and now with Studio Ponoc, and Shuzo Shiota of Polygon Pictures.  The Financial Times says that the export value of Japan's content industry now exceeds its steel, petrochemicals and semiconductor sectors . Leading the content industry is Anime, Japanese-created animation that is both unique and outrageously popular. Overseas sales tripled during the last decade and are beginning to dwarf the domestic market. Financial analysts predict that its market size will grow at 9.8% CGR and surpass $30 billion by 2033. But what exactly is Anime, creatively and culturally? And why are its series and features booming abroad while the Anime industry in Japan is weathering a series of severe crises, including labor shortages, overworked and underpaid staffers, and antiquated technologies? Join us at A...

 

 Like Haruki Murakami? Love Jazz? I'm thrilled to be part of this special one-off event at the Haruki Murakami Library at Waseda University on Wednesday, July 30th, with award-winning jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran and genius literary translator/scholar/author Motoyuki Shibata (MONKEY magazine). Amazing music and bilingual readings in Murakamiland: https://www.waseda.jp/culture/wihl/other/10033 Tix are via lottery only so please toss your name in our hat ASAP if you'll be in Tokyo and want to join us for a unique and brilliant evening.

  Anime is now booming everywhere, driving streaming platform profits, filling cinemas. Yet Japanese animators remain underpaid, overworked, and harder and harder to find and keep.  We'll talk about the answers on JULY 7th at this very special event Live in Tokyo . I'll be joined by executives from Studio Ghibli, Polygon Pictures and Studio Ponoc for this unique presentation for Asia Society Japan at International House of Japan.  This will be in-person only and exclusive, confidential material will be edited out of the video to be posted later.   So: Who's making the money? And how should you and your partners invest? Featuring Geoffrey Wexler, Shuzo John Shiota and hosted by Japan economics expert Jesper Koll. Register to join us here .

In my interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) I explain why and how Japan’s Anime industry is embracing AI . Miyazaki and many fans may not like it but the industry needs AI—especially if it hopes to retain the aesthetic properties that are essential to its appeal: the “hand drawn” 2D look, stylized key frames, and cool choreography requiring hours of hard labor by so-called “in-betweeners,” many of whom are already working outside Japan for long hours and low wages. Even more important: Japan’s relatively loose copyright laws make AI a realistic legal option. <<The use of AI in anime can therefore be seen as a solution to fill in the gap, points out Roland Kelts, an anime expert and visiting professor at Japan's Waseda University School of Culture, Media and Society. "The population is shrinking, so there are not many young artists, and they are paid very poorly to do a lot of hard labor," he told DW.>> *video forthcoming. Thanks to Chermaine Lee.

I was interviewed by the Financial Times about the global Anime Boom and domestic Anime Bust, and how the Trump tariffs could kill the golden goose: https://archive.ph/NA572 <The global market for anime is now expected to almost double from $31.2bn in 2023 to $60.1bn by 2030, the investment bank Jefferies wrote in a 2024 report.  But as the popularity of anime and manga — the comic books from which many anime characters and stories are derived — grow, Japanese studios and the country’s government are increasingly concerned that financial value is disappearing overseas. “What we are starting to see from the anime companies is an awareness that the production and distribution side of the industry is inefficient,” says Roland Kelts, the author of JAPANAMERICA: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US . “The middle men are making a lot of money, but that isn’t trickling down.”> *My thanks to ace reporter Leo Lewis. Again.

What an honor to be on "60 Minutes," a show I've watched since my teens. Talking depopulation in Japan and the rest of the world with veteran host and writer Jon Wertheim in a segment beautifully produced by Jacqueline Williams. The CBS crew really takes care of you.

Speaking Live at World Expo 2025 Japan in Osaka this Thursday April 24, 6pm.  Space limited so please preregister here and join us! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRn4SV9ovqjCqG-vMaMxvEtGwGslysVGT0yGecVUx2cvhE_g/viewform?pli=1 See you in my old hometown!

I wrote about the Kurosawa/Star Wars/Gatchaman/Gundam continuum in the first few pages of JAPANAMERICA. Hosting this panel with some of the most brilliant minds in anime and dear friends of mine feels like full circle.  This Friday, April 18th, 2:30pm at Makuhari Messe for the Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 .

I've given a number of talks and interviews on Japanese pop culture over the years but this one will be different: a look at the industry from the inside, via the artists and producers I now know well. Things have changed and are changing fast, my friends. Register for great convo and catering here: https://hcjapan.clubs.harvard.edu/article.html?aid=599   photo: Timothy Scott Ralston I'm honored to be joining Harvard Club of Japan on behalf of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard for this special evening Wednesday March 26th with some of those industry professionals on hand. From my book, JAPANAMERICA. "The value of Japan's pop culture exports anime and manga now rivals that of Japan's steel and semiconductor industries, making it the centerpiece of recent government meetings. Overseas sales of anime have grown exponentially, its market size more than doubling over the past decade. Major funds like Blackstone and Mizuho are now investing in ...

I was interviewed by National Public Radio for their excellent segment on extreme social withdrawal in Japan (called "Hikikomori") now airing across the US and online here .  Extreme social withdrawal was first diagnosed in Japan in the late 1990s and I wrote about it most recently in this Op-Ed essay for The New York Times . The pathology is now spreading worldwide, with Hikikomori cases spiking in other regions of Asia, the Americas and Europe.    Digital dependency is identified as both a symptom and cause of self-isolation. I shudder to imagine the coming impact of AI distractions like ChatGPT as they become increasingly advanced and accessible--especially to those whose IRL interactions have already been diminished by the pandemic years.  In 1985, Neil Postman wrote a groundbreaking book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death." And all he was talking about was television.