Pure Invention How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World

Matt Alt — 2020

The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured--and transformed--the world's imagination. "A masterful book driven by deep research, new insights, and powerful storytelling."--W. David Marx, author of Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-kawaii. But as Japanese media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know the half of it. Japan's toys, gadgets, and imaginary worlds didn't merely entertain. They profoundly transformed the way we live. In the 1970s and '80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, gliding on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota while the West struggled to catch up. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the "lost decades" of deep recession and social dysfunction. The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared--when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them--connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution. Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. It's Japan's world; we're just gaming, texting, singing, and dreaming in it.

Reviews

Nicholas Hanemann@nick_h

Dec 20, 2021

It's alright, but is essentially a book written for outsiders by an insider (albeit a very well-done version of this format). I'd like an even deeper dive, but this is a good step.

Gianfranco Chicco@Gchicco

Jul 26, 2021

As a Japanophile, I get my hands on a variety of books related to Japan and Japanese culture. Many of them are simply descriptive or derivative from other work, but Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World offered a refreshing and original read. Matt Alt combines some well known stories (Hello Kitty, Nintendo) with seemingly smaller ones to build a strong narrative on the direct and indirect influence that Japanese pop culture has had all over the world. Even for the better known brands and products, the author unearthed facts and stories that connected the dots in a robust way. The first few chapters had me buzzing with the vibes that a good thriller offers, and by the end of the book I didn't want it to end. The afterword, written in early 2020, offers insight into how these pop cultural moments will likely influence the world at large for the coming years.