Is Japanese Style Taking Over The World?

Justin Zelada and Steven Hausdorfer are 17-year-olds from suburban Los Angeles. Over the recent July 4th weekend they ventured south to Anaheim, not to visit Disneyland but to attend Anime Expo 2004 at the convention center next door. Fans of anime, the distinctive Japanese-style cartoons, the pair even dressed like two of their favorite characters, one in a samurai-style headband and sword, the other in a fur cape with one hand disguised as a giant gold hook. Says Hausdorfer: "Some of my friends think everything Japanese is cool."

Indeed, anime is just the most visible sign of a growing trend. In the last few years, Japan has become a rising force in a wide swath of fashion-focused industries, from kids' toys to entertainment, cell phones, and car racing. In an April report, Tsutomu Sugiura, director of the Marubeni Research Institute, figured Japan's cultural exports, including music, books, magazines, films, handicrafts, collectibles, patent royalties, and performances at $15 billion in 2002, up from $5 billion in 1992. That, of course, doesn't include Japan's influence on products made elsewhere. As evidence that this is just the start, Sugiura estimates that almost 3 million people outside Japan are now studying the Japanese language, up from 1 million in 1990.