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5 min readWhy Is Everyone Going to Japan?
In November 2022, Lisa, who lives in Tokyo, started keeping a spreadsheet. By the time she wrote to the podcast, she had logged 119 visitors—96 of them personal guests staying in her home. That works out to one person every five days for more than two years. "This was taking over my life," she said. "I was spending all of my free time either planning what I would do with people that are visiting or helping them figure out their itineraries." Her question, which became the episode's central investigation: "Why is every single person I know going to Japan or talking about going to Japan?"
The Soft Power That Built Over Decades
Professor Roland Kelts, who has lived in Tokyo for 26 years, explained that Western fascination with Japan has come in waves. The first arrived in the late 19th century, when European artists like Van Gogh and Monet discovered Japanese woodblock prints used as packing material for ceramics. The second came in the 1950s and 60s, when Beatniks and hippies were drawn to loose interpretations of Japanese Buddhism. What's different now, Kelts said, is that the current wave is driven by pop culture—specifically commercial hits that began in the late 1990s.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:40) **Listener Lisa's Green Calendar** - Lisa, a Tokyo native, introduces her meticulously tracked spreadsheet showing 119 visitors since November 2022, averaging one guest every five days
- 2 (06:58) **The Two-Part Investigation** - The host frames the episode as a favorite dinner-party question, then announces a patented method: expert interviews cross-checked against a listener survey
- 3 (12:46) **Expert Roland Kelts on Soft Power** - Japanese-American scholar Roland Kelts introduces the first major reason: Japan's extraordinary culture of storytelling, transmitted via pop culture
- 4 (17:43) **Pokemon, Dragon Ball, and the Internet Explosion** - Kelts pinpoints the late 1990s as the inflection point when Japanese pop culture entered American homes
- 5 (20:46) **Expert David Marks on America's Japanophobia** - David Marks, author of "Amatora," explains that for seven decades after WWII, America was deeply Japanophobic, not Japanophilic
- 6 (24:55) **The Pre-Cool Era** - Marks describes living in Japan when only 6 million foreign visitors came annually (2011), versus over 40 million today
- 7 (29:10) **Reason Three: The Government Plan** - The host reveals that tourism took off partly because of deliberate Japanese government policy, starting in 2003
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
A Japanese listener gets so many houseguests she starts a spreadsheet to try to figure out what's going on. Why has American tourism to Japan gotten so out of control? The story of a government plot.
Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland Kelts
Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style by W. David Marx
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