For three decades, Americans looked across the Atlantic for the latest in youth-culture hip.
Back in the '60s, there were the Beatles and the Stones, Carnaby Street chic and the breathless allure of swinging London. With the '70s, it moved from Bowie-style glam to Sex Pistols punk, as those in the know traded their platforms and eye shadow for torn T-shirts and safety pins. The '80s brought ska, goths and the new romantics, as such bands as Madness, the Cure and Duran Duran moved to the fore.
Here in the '90s, however, hip young America's gaze has shifted. Instead of looking to London, the truly trend-conscious have turned to Tokyo, trolling the depths of Japanese pop culture for tips on the latest looks, sounds and fads.
There's evidence all over, from graphic designers who make layouts look futuristic by plastering them with Japanese typography, to Tamagotchi-toting preteens pestering their parents for another "Sailor Moon" video. Japanese cartoon characters can be found everywhere from video stores (where ** anime, or Japanese animation, is a growth market) to T-shirts and advertising, while such musical groups as Pizzicato Five, Shonen Knife and the Boredoms represent the cutting edge of alternarock cool.
Forget Godzilla. Today's Japanophiles are more interested in mecha (robots and cybersuits) than in monsters and spend their time building "garage kits" (snap-together plastic models) of robots from the anime series "Gundam" or "Neon Genesis Evangelion." In fact, the old American notion of Japanese pop culture being tacky, low-budget and slavishly imitative is as outdated as a gas-guzzling Detroit muscle car. Modern Japanese pop culture is slick, attuned to technology and way ahead of the curve.
"Japanese pop culture is the beta version of 21st-century American pop culture," says film critic Roger Ebert. "In the area of young people's lifestyles, they seem to move a little faster and go a little further." Moreover, he says, they're much more accepting of the latest advances in technology. "They were right on top of laserdiscs, HDTV, DVD, computer games. You don't hear them moaning, 'Does this mean I have to give up my VHS deck?' "
Technology influences
Americans have been imagining a technology-intense, Japanized future since at least 1982, when director Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" conjured a vision of 21st-century Los Angeles littered with video screens and Japanese product names. Since then, novelist William Gibson has reinforced that view in the cyberpunk thrillers "Neuromancer" and "Idoru," while animation fans got an eyeful from Katsuhiro Otomo's apocalyptic fantasy "Akira."
In truth, Japan isn't quite as high-tech as these writers and directors imagine it. "The fact is that Disney uses much more advanced technology in making their animated features," says Mark Schilling, author of "The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture." He points out that even Studio Ghibli, whose animated films often outperform Disney at the box office in Japan, uses very little computer animation in its productions.
"I don't even think they're trying to catch up. They know it's impossible," he adds. "Ghibli spent 2 billion yen on their latest movie, 'Princess Mononoke' -- that translates into about $19 million -- which is about twice the budget of an ordinary Japanese big-budget picture. But it's impossible for Japanese animators to get the same kind of money for their movies that Disney has. They just don't have the same kind of market."
Americans may have better equipment, but the Japanese have taken it more to heart. Computer-driven music has been popular in Japan since the late '70s, when the synth band Yellow Magic Orchestra was all the rage, and that fascination with technology carries over to the music of Tetsuya Komuro, or TK.
A prodigiously popular producer and songwriter, TK specializes in synth-spiked dance music. He's good at it, too. Over the last 13 years, his projects -- which include work with idol singers Namie Amuro and Tomomi Kahala, as well as his own band, Globe -- have sold more than 150 million copies in Japan. Recently, he moved to Los Angeles, and thanks to a pumping instrumental number on the "Speed II" soundtrack, he's beginning to apply his technological savvy to the American market.
"Since 1984, I've been doing the same type of music, with computer and synthesizer," he says. "And Hollywood, lately, hires people who make that kind of techno music. Their direction is close to me right now.
"Technology is a good influence for entertainment now."
