japanamerica

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.