WSJ and Renegade on anime diplomacy

A fellow AB member Renegade linked a yet another article about Japanese government supposedly waking up to the popularity of anime. There is nothing new to it for anyone who was following the events. Supposedly more Americans are studying Japanese now than in any time in history (This observation comes from Gilles Poitras, I don't know if he meant per-capita numbers; the population growth devalues the statement otherwise. But I know that Japanese classes are overflowing in many local colleges.).

However, Renegade's lede for the article was: "Honestly, I think this is one of the boldest and most important moves they’ve made in years." Is it really? This is what WSJ says:

Tokyo anticipates spending at least 20 million yen ($175,000) a year on this new "manga diplomacy campaign."

No, seriously. I have to wonder if the WSJ author confused millions, billions and trillions. The sum is too triffle.

In passing, Renegade makes a semi-related argument which I could not let by. It is a tired and weary cliche:

Finally, the article makes one point in the end which really bothers me. It states that a group of young men say “We love Japan!” Then it goes on to ask “But will their parents?” Every half-witted moron out there who worries about what our parents think is too far off the track to matter in this day and age. The youth vote is the vote. If you’ve got people under 35 or 30 on your side, you have the parts of the country that matter. Sure, it doesn’t look that good on paper, and it won’t always win elections, but the older parts of the country are increasingly out of touch. Plus, in a few years, people of our generation will be parents, and we’ll be the majority of the country, able to make decisions on behalf of others.

It is undoubtedly important to corrupt them young. However, the effect is mitigated by human capability to learn from their experiences. There's even a proverb: "That who weren't a communist at 20 has no heart. That who is a communist at 40 has no brain." I see anime bloggers burning out of it every day. Some are declared like Karoshi, some undeclared like Astro and Pilgrimage (both continue to blog elsewhere, football and movies respectively). A few attempt a comeback, like Sama Zama, but not all succeed. It is natural for people to move on. The mistake here is to assume that they move on between 20 and 40, but do not move on between 40 and 60.

In regards to anime, we can also point at dubious relation between anime and age, and that the link between anime and general attitudes is unproven. In fact, trying to get it proven can harm fans by association (the WSJ article makes that point). But this is besides the point. All I am saying is, perhaps I am "increasingly out of touch", but it seems to me that this argument is not as powerful as Renegade thinks.

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