http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/16/news/japan.php
Cuddly characters front Japan's military aspirations The Associated Press Published: February 16, 2007 TOKYO: Prince Pickles, a perky cartoon character with saucer-round eyes, big dimples and tiny, boot-clad feet, poses in front of tanks, rappels from helicopters and shakes hands with smiling Iraqis. The cutesy icon hardly calls to mind the Japanese military that conquered and pillaged its way across Asia during World War II, and that is just the way the country's leaders want it. As Japan sheds its postwar pacifism and gears up to take a higher military profile in the world, it is enlisting cadres of cute characters and adorable mascots to put a gentle, harmless sheen on its deployments. "Prince Pickles is our image character because he's very endearing, which is what Japan's military stands for," said Shotaro Yanagi, a Defense Agency official. "He's our mascot and appears in our pamphlets and stationery." Such characters have long been used in Japan to win hearts and minds and to soften the image of authority. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police tries to lighten its stern image with Peopo, which looks like a cross between a rabbit and a space trooper. The cellphone company NTT DoCoMo has a smiley mushroom, while rival KDDI sports a squirrel with headphones. The Japanese government hopes the same tactic can work overseas. Foreign Minister Taro Aso has proposed sending animation or cartoon artists abroad as cultural ambassadors, and the government has named a panel of executives to advise ways to market Japanese animation and culture to foreign audiences. Aso argues that warm feelings for Japanese animation can translate into warm feelings for Japanese foreign policy. "The more positive images pop into a person's mind, the easier it becomes for Japan to get its views across," Aso said in a speech last year to budding artists at Tokyo's Digital Hollywood University, whom he called the "people involved with bringing Japanese culture to the world." The strategy faces considerable hurdles. Many people in neighboring China and South Korea are still bitter over Japan's wartime atrocities in the 1930s and '40s, and moves to raise Tokyo's military stature, like changing the pacifist Constitution to allow more overseas missions, are met with suspicion in the region. Some critics also doubt that cartoon characters will work outside Japanese culture, which exhibits an enduring fascination with childlike innocence — even in adults. "This could only happen in a country that is so open to immaturity," said Rika Kayama, a psychiatrist and author. "Authorities here feel it's easier and less threatening to use characters to get the public to accept them, rather than explain the facts." The animated images mask real moves by Japan's leaders to bolster nationalist sentiment and flex military muscles abroad. The Defense Agency was upgraded to a full ministry in January. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to expand military operations with Japan's top ally, the United States. Japan staged its first post-World War II military mission in a country at war in 2004, when it sent 600 noncombat troops to Iraq. The troops withdrew last year, but the government is eager to find another venue for a dispatch. Officials in Tokyo say their cute offensive is working. During Japan's mission to Iraq, the military decorated water trucks with a figure from a globally popular Japanese soccer cartoon, variably known as Captain Tsubasa in Japanese, Flash Kicker in the United States and Captain Majed in Arab countries. "Everybody loved it," said Aki Tsuda of the Foreign Ministry's aid department. "Cultural diplomacy could be one of the most effective tools of Japanese diplomacy," said Hiro Katsumata, a research fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore. "In a decade or two, younger generations in many countries who love Japanese cartoons will start to fill leadership roles," he said. "Japan can benefit from that." +++ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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