Today, it is difficult to find a more fashionable and controversial topic than globalization. Discussions have reached a point where it is not a general discussion of the underlying causes of globalization or its consequences that is particularly valuable, but an unbiased study of its specific manifestations in different countries. Such an approach inevitably generates many particular "images" of this phenomenon. Of great interest in this regard is the cultural practice of Japan, which in recent years has begun to play an active role in the globalization processes in the field of mass culture, most successfully promoting it to Asian countries.

In Japan, as in other countries, globalization phenomena are understood and evaluated in different ways: both as creative, raising great hopes, and as destructive, instilling a large share of concern. Globalization is interpreted both as an increase in the interdependence of humanity, leading to the formation of a new global community, and as an unchangeable and irreversible process that eliminates all economic, political and cultural differences. Moreover, in some cases, globalization is identified exclusively with the "Westernization" or" Americanization " of Japanese society. Some scientists see an alternative to these phenomena in the form of increasing trends towards the establishment of national identity and the growing differentiation of culture.

FROM ECONOMY TO CULTURE - A NEW VECTOR OF GLOBALIZATION

In accordance with different views of what is happening, different forecasts of the development of this phenomenon are given. Some analysts of Japanese global studies put forward a theory about the long-term nature and lack of alternatives to this process. Others insist on the idea of so-called exhausted and dying globalization, which is sometimes interpreted as post-globalization. In particular, the Japanese analyst Terumasa Nakanishi, in his article "Japan's Challenges in the second post-war period", predicts the end of the global globalization process by 2020, linking this primarily to economic reasons.¹

However, most Japanese scientists still proceed from the understanding that globalization has already become an inevitable reality, and that the idea that globalization processes have developed mainly in the economic sphere, which is widespread everywhere, and above all in the mass consciousness, is not sufficiently reasoned. They were no less intense, but more conflicted, in the cultural sphere.

Moreover, in recent years, Japanese researchers have become more confident and open about the powerful cultural flows from Japan to other countries, and first of all, to Asian countries, which indicates the active inclusion of the country in the general processes of" cultural globalization " as one of its main participants.

Japanese analysts are increasingly putting culture after the economy in terms of importance and significance, and only then politics. In reality, culture has now become an important component of foreign policy, giving rise to the concept of "cultural diplomacy", in which Japan in recent years loudly began to declare itself in the world, especially in the field of mass culture.

Moreover, the struggle for spheres of influence in the field of mass culture turned out to be no less intense and acute than for territories and sales markets within the industry.-

social culture. When it comes to getting access to 50 - 60 million viewers and listeners, notes the president of Sony Corporation in the USA, G. Stinger, "every house becomes a battlefield" ².

Quite common ideas about the peculiarities of globalization in the sphere of culture have always assumed a scenario based primarily on the complete hegemony of American culture and the gradual homogenization of the world. The world was faced with an unprecedented cultural expansion of the United States: after the Second World War, it affected the countries of Western Europe, in the 60s-Japan, in the 70s-Latin America, in the 90s-Russia.

Today, the world is talking about a powerful Japanese cultural offensive - a massive introduction to other countries, including even the United States, products of the Japanese cultural industry-comics-manga, animated films-anime, fashion, cuisine, etc. The influence of anime, for example, can be found almost everywhere, starting with Hollywood blockbusters. The creators of The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers, are big fans of Japanese comic culture and have repeatedly admitted that they set themselves the task of reproducing the style of Japanese cyberpunk anime "live".

Do not forget to pay tribute to the fashion in Japan and another famous American director K. Tarantino, who artfully incorporated characters in the style of Japanese animation into the narrative of the acclaimed film "Kill Bill". Even the Disney cartoon "Mulan" in many ways resembles Japanese drawn characters, which literally became a byword.

American musicians are not far behind the filmmakers. It is no accident that in recent years such a rather capacious phrase "Japan-America" has appeared, which indicates the great influence of Japanese mass culture on American reality.

But still, the main vector of Japanese cultural flows today is aimed at the Asia-Pacific region (APR). It was here that Japanese popular culture almost immediately blended harmoniously into the local cultural landscape, having a decisive influence on the course of those rapid socio-cultural changes that have been so clearly marked in this area of the world in recent decades. It all started with the fact that Asian kids met the favorites of their Japanese peers-the robot cat Doraemon, who came to almost every family in the form of funny comics and soon came to life in the Japanese animated film of the same name on TV screens. And their parents, along with the main character of the Japanese soap opera Osin, literally shed tears over her sad fate and rejoiced at her victories in everyday trials against the backdrop of the dramatic events of the beginning of the XX century. "Osin" is a truly iconic melodrama, which was first shown in 1983-1984, and was shown with great success in more than 50 countries, including the Middle East and Latin America. Still, the biggest success of Japanese products of this kind is in Asia.

Today, the Asian cultural market is simply unthinkable without the products of the Japanese cultural industry-movies, TV dramas, TV shows, fashion, modern pop and rock music, etc., but in terms of popularity, the absolute leadership still belongs to Japanese comics and animation. At the same time, almost all Japanese comics are traditionally translated into local languages everywhere, be it South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia or Taiwan. Anime is probably the most popular cultural commodity in all of East Asia right now. Especially popular here are such films as "Mighty Atom", "Beautiful Warrior Sailor Moon", "Lupin", "Dragon Ball", which have already become classics of the genre, but even now, many years after their creation, these anime can be found in almost any store in Hong Kong or Singapore. And, of course, computer games are an indispensable form of leisure for almost every Asian schoolchild.

Another stable source of revenue for both Japanese manufacturers and their Asian distributors in Asia, as well as in many other countries, is "animated" toys, so named because of their similarity to anime characters such as "Pokemon".

Summing up the above, here is a rather succinct quote from Time magazine: "Japan may be losing out as an industrial giant, but the country's role as a global trendsetter in many areas of modern music, art, fashion, design and other areas of mass culture is just beginning... Pokemon has implanted the Mighty Atom in the hearts of schoolchildren for more than a decade. more than 65 countries, and 60% of all animation production is produced in Japan... Japanese cultural exports have tripled in the last ten years... while industrial exports have only increased by 20%. " ³

JAPAN AS A NEW SUBJECT OF GLOBALIZATION

Until recently, there was a perception of the so-called unipolar or Atlantic globalization, which was expressed primarily in the spread of American mass culture and the corresponding system of priorities, values, lifestyle and spiritual ideals, which was determined both by objective reasons, primarily by the economic and political leadership of the United States in the world, and by subjective factors., namely, the purposefulness of this process. This suggests to some researchers that globalization is taking the form of " Americanization." Or even vice versa, that "Americanization" is globalization.

America still retains all of its former levers of global influence, including its undeniable "cultural superiority", which, according to Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew Zbigniew It is an " underappreciated aspect of American global power." After all, he explains, "no matter what some people think about their aesthetic values, American mass culture radiates a magnetic attraction, especially for young people around the world ..." ⁴

These are indisputable facts, but modern reality does not refute them, but suggests a new alignment of forces and a new configuration of" global cultural globalization " associated with software development.-

the presence of other, smaller specialized, regional, and other types of centers on the world map. And it is in this plane that Japan is still forced to realize its cultural potential.

Leading Japanese scientists, such as cultural anthropologist Harumi Befu, insist on the need for a conceptual separation of the concepts of "general" and "local" or "specific" globalization. By general globalization, it means processes originating from the center, which means the West. But, as the scientist emphasizes, currently the centers can move to other regions, including the East, which gives rise to its own "specific" globalization, which can be observed in the example of Japan.⁵

In an effort to emphasize the disparity between "general" and "specific" globalization in terms of their impact on the world around them, Befu draws on American and Japanese mass production for comparison. In the first case, we are talking about the drink "Coca-Cola", which has become the most widespread in the world, in the second - about Japanese cartoons-anime, which also flew around literally all countries. However, if" Coca-Cola", according to Befu, has never lost its American identity anywhere and has become a symbol of American life, then Japanese animated films have practically lost any national coloring, having acquired the property of universality,and this is what opened up limitless opportunities for them to go around the world. ⁶

Befu emphasizes the importance of identifying the concepts of "center" and "periphery"in the concept of globalization. At the same time, he focuses on the need for a certain cultural proximity between the center and the periphery, since the information flow in the course of its distribution, as a rule, passes through a kind of cultural adaptation, the result of which is difficult to predict.

Another well-known researcher of transnational cultural processes, Koichi Iwabuchi, in his book "Reoriented Globalization" examines in detail the features of Japanese "cultural globalization" in the Asia-Pacific region. In his opinion, "Japanese media companies exported to Asia, in fact, the Japanese version of Western culture adapted to themselves." ⁷ And, thus, the Asian population is already consuming not Western products in their pure form, but their adapted or, in other words, "hybridized" version. The main idea of this paper is that the expansion of Japanese cultural influence in the Asia-Pacific region in the 1990s has a close connection with the decentralization of forces within the framework of global-local relations.

These statements of Japanese researchers are a kind of rehash of the ideas of one of the major developers of globalization problems, Ulf Gunners. The scientist put forward his well-known theory of the "global ecumene", by which he understands the region of constant cultural interaction, exchange and translation of the phenomena of one culture into the language of another.⁸ If you follow it, it turns out that Japan today serves as one of the main regional centers through which the products of Western civilization enter the Asian ecumene.

Cultural flows within the global ecumene are not symmetrical or two-sided. Most of them are unidirectional, with a clear division of the center, where cultural messages are formed, and the periphery, where they are perceived. Cultural movements from the periphery to the center are limited. A rare example is the "Asian boom" that has emerged in Japan in recent years.

Among the Japanese, it has become fashionable to travel to Southeast Asian countries, buy Asian crafts, go to Chinese and Korean restaurants, etc. However, their attraction to Asian cultures cannot be compared to the huge interest that Japan has in general and in its products, in particular, a multi-million-strong army of Asian consumers.

Gunners believes that such an asymmetric center-periphery structure is not a single system that covers all dimensions of culture and geographical regions. It is a multiple conglomerate with various specialized and regional centers that change and shift over time. Currently, such specialized centers include the United States (in the field of science, the latest technologies and mass culture), France (in the field of fashion and cuisine) and Japan (in the field of corporate culture). For example, Mexico in Latin America, Egypt in the Arab world, etc.

In recent years, Japan has been trying to destroy this configuration of globalizing forces and its centers, increasingly striving for leadership not so much in the field of management as in mass culture. Japan has proved to be much more effective in the framework of mass culture. So, we have already mentioned that in recent years, the products of American Hollywood and Disney are increasingly being replaced by Japanese films, and above all, animated ones. Parisian haute couture has long been challenged by Japanese designers Yoji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and others, who opposed the principles of Japanese aesthetics to the European design school. Today, literally the whole world is obsessed with Japanese cuisine, appreciating it not only exotic and elegant, but also natural ingredients.-

reproductions and their health benefits.

One gets the impression that, inspired by these successes, Japan in the future will strive to firmly establish itself in the field of mass culture at the world level. However, taking into account the real state of affairs and the long-standing US monopoly in this area, official Tokyo is still ready to limit its ambitions to the Asia-Pacific region. In general, Asia is part of the strategic plans of Japan, which believes that it is here that the untapped development potential of the world community is located and therefore claims to be a regional leader. This is not only about the growing "Asian factor" in Japan's trade, economic and foreign policy ties, but also the country's desire to build strong and diverse cultural bridges with Asian countries.

The concept of Japanese cultural diplomacy is based on the idea of regional integration. Researcher Koichi Iwabuchi defines this phenomenon as "cultural regionalism", interpreting it as "a peculiar phenomenon in which representatives of Southeast Asian countries seek to develop mutually acceptable foundations for uniting their national cultures, just as it is the case in the West"⁹. A clear example of " cultural regionalism "is the project of the 1990s, which received the symbolic name"Back to Asia". The initiators of this project and its participants, together with Japan, were several Asian countries-industrial "tigers" and "tiger cubs", which joined forces primarily in the economic sphere, but the cultural vector of interaction in this project is also quite widely represented.

You can recall the legendary production of "King Lear" in 1999 - the result of the collaboration of theater figures from Japan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The project was funded by a Japanese foundation. Based on the original, the play was not a simple reenactment of Shakespeare's famous play. The creators of the play transformed it into a completely different action from the original source. Representatives of the multinational acting team used their national languages, stage techniques of various national theater schools, including the Noo Theater, and the Beijing Opera.

European classics in the modern Asian interpretation are a rather rare example of cultural interaction between Asian countries, while the main cultural product of modern transnational processes is precisely mass culture, which today manages both elite, folk, and traditional culture in its own way, adapting them through its own system of values and turning them into mass consumption products.

"GLOCALIZATION" AND "CREOLIZATION"

In recent years, many Asian countries, and especially the Asia-Pacific region, recognizing the strong Western influence, have shown a fairly definite resistance to its absolute hegemony and are making efforts to create a new Asia, even if not completely free from Western dictates, but striving to assert its own national identity. This desire to protect local autonomy gave rise to the concept of "glocalization", which is now supported by many Japanese researchers who do not recognize the dominance of globalization processes and see a certain dichotomy in modern world cultural flows: globalization + localization.

In fact, "glocalization" is a ubiquitous variant of globalization, an organic combination of the processes of globalization and localization. In practice, this means a combination of the processes of modernization of local cultures with the achievements of the emerging global multicultural civilization, which occurs as a result of "hybridization", i.e. constructive cooperation and mutual enrichment of (national) cultures within the borders of cultural regions. ¹⁰

Within the framework of this approach, the concept of "globolocalism" or "glocalism"was established ¹¹. This lexical formation was proposed by the head of the Japanese corporation Sony Akio Morita and finally formed and gained supporters at the XXII World Sociological Congress in Madrid (1990). Sociologists using this term, American analysts R. Robertson, M. Archer, etc., when considering global processes, emphasize the most important changes taking place in local, i.e. global, regions. e. local communities, small cultures and subcultures, which are manifested in the ability of the main trends in the production and consumption of universal goods to transform into regional forms, i.e. adapt to the specifics of the local market.

In the context of globalization, the process of adapting a cultural product to local conditions - its peculiar localization, which is now commonly referred to as" creolization", takes place more or less simultaneously in different parts of the world.

Take, for example, the most popular manga and anime in the world today, whose promotion to other countries is often associated with a number of objective difficulties, and above all, related to the specifics of Japanese national imaginative thinking.

In most cases, the widespread distribution of Japanese manga and anime in other countries requires a lot of adaptation work, they undergo serious editing and adaptation to local realities and tastes. For example, researchers Makazu Kubo and Anna Ellison point out that popular Japanese anime such as "Princess Momonoke" and "Sailor Moon" were not successful in America because they were not sufficiently adapted to the artistic tastes of the American audience.¹²

The process of "creolization" is almost unavoidable in any situation, and in one case the strategy for the success of a product in the foreign market may be to preserve its national identity to the maximum extent, while in the other, its cardinal transformation is necessary.

This can be demonstrated quite clearly by the example of Japanese cuisine. In particular, we are talking about the indispensable preservation in any national environment of the name of the most popular dish of Japanese cuisine - "sushi", which is not subject to translation into local languages, as it is the main national identification of this culinary product. The same usually applies to the names of restaurants, which should have a purely national origin, and therefore are denoted by Japanese words that are quite well-known abroad-tatami, samurai, etc.

To convey the national flavor in Japanese restaurants, they often resort to recreating a purely Japanese atmosphere -the appropriate interior, lighting, rooms with tatami mats, etc. All service personnel are dressed in national clothes and speak Japanese. In small cozy halls in the spirit of Japanese traditional aesthetics, national instruments are usually played-koto and Japanese national music, etc.

As Japanese cuisine began to gain popularity around the world, the task of democratizing it almost everywhere was to increase the number of visitors by reducing the prices of the menu offered as much as possible. How is this achieved? First of all, by eliminating external attributes that carry national symbols, or reducing them to a minimum. As a result: the interior changes to the standard for this kind of public catering places, cooks and waiters are recruited from among local residents, and the Japanese national costume is replaced with the usual clothes for these places, etc.

Another way to "creolize" a product is to create a kind of"variation on a given theme". Case in point: A Japanese restaurant in Palo Alto, California, has become very popular across the country, primarily because of its unconventional and highly original menu. Here they offer rolls under literally unimaginable names for Japanese people, such as "apple" or even more amazing - "IBM", "Hewlett Packard", etc., which reflects the local specifics of this area - the well-known "Silicon Valley". Moreover, when the daughter of former US President Chelsea Clinton, who studied nearby at one of the universities, visited this institution, a new type of sushi "Chelsea Roll"immediately appeared on the menu. This advertising move was designed primarily to attract new visitors from among the "advanced" youth.

In Mexico City, one of the major supermarkets "Superama" sushi is made to order, and the menu includes more than 30 varieties, most of which can hardly be found in Japan. Sushi with a large amount of pepper and spices is popular here, which corresponds to the usual taste standards for these places. The chef is Mexican, and everything is arranged in such a way that the national Japanese specifics of the institution have almost completely lost their significance. It is this type of Japanese restaurant that advertises Japanese food at low prices that is now widespread in many countries around the world.

A typical phenomenon in the process of " local localization "is a war between traditionalists and local adherents of Japanese products in a dispute about the permissible limits in the" creolization " of the product. The role of traditionalists is usually played by the Japanese, whose duties include the promotion of national culture. So, for example, the first attempts to spread judo wrestling in other countries of the world assumed strict observance of not only the rules of wrestling and all Japanese rituals, but also dressing in very heavy colorful, almost theatrical costumes, completely unacceptable in the understanding of Europeans for playing sports. The result of the struggle: the victory of Western sports functionaries, who quickly introduced the local population to this new sport for them. In the end, Japanese traditionalists achieved their goal by making judo an international sport, but at the same time sacrificing some elements of national attributes.

The same situation has developed in

This is a case of introducing Americans to the traditional Japanese art of drumming "dojo". Seiichi Tanaka was one of the first to organize concerts of Japanese drummers in America and, impressed by the huge success, decided to teach this art to Americans. However, despite the rather large number of people who wanted to master his rare skill, very soon the ranks of his students noticeably thinned out due to the exorbitant, in their opinion, requirements of the teacher, who insisted on strict observance of all national canons and strict rules for playing this instrument. As a result, an American school of dojo playing was formed, which allows for greater individual freedom in performing practice.

IMAGE OF A COUNTRY WITH A " + " SIGN AND A "-"SIGN

Why are "creolized" versions of Japanese manga, anime, TV dramas, and various programs, including music shows featuring Japanese pop idols, so popular in Asia, more than anywhere else? And at the same time, why are McDonald's restaurants and their essential attribute - "hamburgers" -so popular in Asia without any Japanese arrangement?

According to K. Iwabuchi, in the case of American goods ."..the point here is a thoroughly thought-out and beautifully created image of the country that produces these products, in this case - in association with an attractive image of the American lifestyle"¹³. America has become for the Japanese a symbol of progress, wealth and prosperity, and in this sense - a model for imitation. But there was also a reason for a certain irritation towards it, since the assimilation of America pushed Japanese national values and identity into the background.

In the case of Japan, the situation is much more complicated, although it would seem that the Japanese cultural presence in Asia is more organic and natural than the activities of Western cultural businesses. Japan and many Asian countries have been linked for centuries by common ethnocultural features, common religious and ideological foundations, and a historical past that sharply contradicts the principles of Western civilization.

Japanese scientists write a lot about the "Asian essence", the "national flavor" of Japanese culture, which supposedly resonates easily in the soul of the local consumer precisely because of these features. Studying this phenomenon, Japanese scientist Sumiko Iwao puts forward the concept of "general mental attitude", while another scientist, Akio Igarashi, prefers the term "general cultural experiences", and sociologist Shino Honda, in turn, suggests discussing the peculiarity of the "Far Eastern psyche", etc. ¹⁴

In fact, we are talking about a national and cultural community that is rooted in the historical past of peoples, as well as religious beliefs, folk traditions, hieroglyphic writing, etc., which greatly facilitates the understanding of cultures within a single region. By the way, even such a factor as the biological proximity of the Japanese and residents of neighboring countries also plays a special role. Isn't it one of the main reasons for the high popularity of Japanese cosmetics - "Shisaido" or "Pola" and Japanese fashion in Korea, China and other Asian countries?

But here a different kind of question arises: why, despite the cultural and biological commonality with the Japanese, do the peoples of these countries, with their ancient and very diverse national culture, original folklore, and rich spiritual traditions, still strive to join modern Japanese cultural samples? Is it only because of a once-existing cultural community?

If the concept of cultural community works almost flawlessly for countries that are close to Japan in their civilizational (ethno-cultural, religious, etc.) characteristics, such as China, Korea, Taiwan, and most of Singapore, then how can this Japanese phenomenon be explained in relation to, for example, predominantly Muslim Malaysia or Indonesia? After all, even there, in recent years, they have been increasingly insisting on their independence from the West, putting forward the slogan "Asianization of Asia" or "Back to Asia". Is this peculiar "Asiacentrism" sufficient reason to speak of a new cultural community of residents of all Asian countries? This rhetorical assumption raises doubts and many questions.

It is difficult not to fall into quite common erroneous judgments when attaching special importance to these facts. First, it is a myth that Japan itself has largely created about itself in the world, forming common cultural metaphors of beauty, perfection, and refined spirituality. Secondly, it is a stereotypical interpretation of Chinese and Japanese civilization by European researchers. It stems, in particular, from the fundamental incompatibility of Western psychology and Eastern religions. And yet this inadequacy of perception of Eastern civilizations is characteristic of European thought, because if we talk, for example, about the ability of the Japanese to perceive and copy someone else's culture, then they almost do not know their equal.

Medieval Japanese culture was largely based on the imitation of Chinese models, certain typical canonical forms as repetitions of the true tradition. But gradually there was a distortion of standard forms, the formation of its own Japanese culture was going on. In many ways, this receptivity allowed the Japanese not only to learn and adopt Western technologies and culture, but also to make these borrowings a specifically Japanese phenomenon.

Secondly, such a seemingly unifying factor of Asian peoples as a common historical past, again, does not work for this concept. Often, the image of Japan causes a greater rejection of its cultural products, as it is associated with the hard memories of Asian peoples about the colonialist and militaristic past of this country, or with its recent negative image of an "economic animal", which was the result of Japanese economic expansion in Asian countries.

The most striking example of this is South Korea. On the one hand,

Japanese mass culture is perhaps the most popular in the Asia-Pacific region, but the ban on admitting Japanese pop products to the Korean market has not yet been completely lifted. The reasons for this rather contradictory phenomenon should be sought in the complex history of relations between the two states, which was repeatedly overshadowed by armed conflicts and decades of the Japanese colonial regime.

So should we look for the main reason for the Japanese cultural boom in Korea and other countries in this region only in the common cultural origins? I don't think so. Rather, it lies in the huge attraction of these peoples to Western culture, which they are introduced to through Japan, which not only took on the role of a bridge between the West and the East, but also quite successfully adapting Western culture to Asian specifics. At the same time, for some peoples, the laconic postscript "made in Japan" immediately makes the product extremely attractive and is associated with centuries-old culture, modern technological and economic achievements. For others-with the West.

Scientists K. Manabe and S. Holst conducted research on how Japan is positioned in advertising in German magazines ¹⁵. In the mass of examples they gave of the use of Japanese specifics in advertising, the advertised product had nothing to do with Japan, but the Japanese flavor made it particularly attractive due to the fashion for Japan that prevailed in the 1990s in Europe.

According to the same researchers, when Japanese companies advertised their products in China, they emphasized their Japanese origin, counting on the admiration of the Chinese for the highest quality of Japanese goods. The calculation was made that the negative image of Japan during the war years was a thing of the past and completely replaced by the post-war image of this country as a global industrial and technological giant.

It often happens that the very fact of belonging to Japan makes a particular cultural product unattractive to the consumer, and sometimes even there are state bans on its import into the country. Again, South Korea is a prime example. How is this ideological or psychological problem resolved, and in some cases a cultural conflict?

Korean researcher Han Sun Mi, for example, wonders about the attitude of South Korean schoolchildren who create numerous websites dedicated to Japanese pop culture, remember the family tree of all Japanese film stars and directors, and at the same time write rather emotional nationalistic essays on final exams on the problems of disputed islands with Japan.¹⁶

She sees the solution to this psychological problem in the implementation of the principle of "separation of spiritual values". In this case, this means that, on the one hand, representatives of the younger generation are able to put on the scale their hostile feelings towards Japan - a product of the work of intelligence and ideological influence, and their natural emotions - a fascination with Japanese pop culture, on the other. In this way, a young person is able to write a school essay denouncing Japan, and at the same time enjoy looking at Japanese manga.

"This division," writes Han Sun Mi, " is made possible by the existing differences between the media sphere, the technosphere, and the financial sphere, on the one hand, and the ideosphere, on the other." This division is created by "a deliberate attempt to separate the ideological reality of official nationalist identity from the technological, financial reality of modern production." ¹⁷

Japanese people have the right to choose any word for the name of their product, including not Japanese, but English origin, for example, "Sony", "Panasonic", "Nikon", since the Japanese name can create additional barriers in the foreign market. Note that the same company "Panasonic" has a different name on the Japanese Islands - "Matsushita Denki". Yasuo Kuroki, the inventor of the Sony Walkman, explicitly states that "Sony's corporate strategy is to minimize or neutralize the Japanese identity in the product in order to avoid all possible consumer associations with the products of Japan's military past." ¹⁸

The product itself may be subject to so-called "anonymization" - from the word anonymity. Thus, animated films sent for export may be subject to serious editing, which completely deprives them of national features, in order to protect themselves in advance from any potential questions that may arise from a foreign audience.

This is what happened with the famous "Pokemon" film in preparation for its screening in the United States. The names of the characters were changed, even the plot, the cost was about 700 thousand dollars. American kids watched the exciting fights not Musashi and Kojiro, but Jesse and James. Instead of chopsticks in the hands of the characters of the film were glasses of lemonade. Almost all Japanese realities, hieroglyphic inscriptions and other details of the national color were removed from the film.Moreover, the musical accompaniment was completely changed. The result was a completely different artistic interpretation of the film, essentially an American animation for American children.

Nevertheless, as quite extensive practice shows, an Asian buyer is quite capable of accurately recognizing Japanese products. Inte-

A similar experiment was conducted at universities in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Seoul: students were asked to distinguish Japanese music, anime, and comics translated into local languages from other samples. And almost everyone easily and without much difficulty was able to identify goods of Japanese or other foreign production and local fakes. In this case, apparently, we can talk about a specific Japanese flavor, genre style, not able to get lost in the general Asian flow.

FACTORS INFLUENCING CULTURAL FLOWS

Considering the peculiarities of Japanese cultural globalization, we unwittingly approach the question of the mechanisms of its implementation, among which one of the most powerful is the increasing migration flows. Businessmen, cultural figures, students, immigrants, etc., who leave their country for a long time or for a short period of time and disperse around the world, become carriers and propagandists of Japanese culture, creating a global Japanese ethno-environment.

The second way of Japanese cultural globalization is associated with the flow of cultural products that are distributed in the world without the participation of representatives of the Japanese diaspora abroad. At the same time, you should clearly distinguish between two levels: public and private. And while the second way provides unofficial, but at the same time broad opportunities for using various channels for the penetration of Japanese cultural products into other countries, the first option in the case of Japan is often blocked by all sorts of official restrictions, largely related to the state of interstate relations (South Korea was mentioned above). An example of another kind is the strict control of Americans over the import of Japanese anime products into the country, which do not always correspond to the puritanical mores in the United States. There is a rather serious contradiction to the general theoretical provisions of the globalist doctrine of blurring borders and the disappearance of any kind of regulation. In reality, the process of globalization is often hindered by such problems.

The next important factor, or rather, a necessary condition that influences the course of globalization, is the high level of economic development and living standards of the countries that are markets for Japanese cultural products. The presence of a fairly mass middle class in them and its stable income allow us not to limit our desires in purchasing imported goods for a pleasant pastime. Of course, we should also take into account the development of mass media in Asian countries - radio, television, cable and space communications.

Japan's implementation of its globalist mission in Asia is fraught with a number of its own problems. Thus, the huge opportunities that the global information network conceals cannot be effectively realized by the Japanese due mainly to their linguistic nature. The Japanese language, due to its insufficient distribution in Asia, not to mention other regions, is still poorly adapted for widespread use in the communicative and discursive space. Today, about 1.5 billion rubles. people use English as a means of communication. 90% of all information and most computer programs are written in English, which in fact has already become the language of the world's technical and scientific periodicals, the language of electronics, medicine and space technologies.

The Japanese national mentality is a significant obstacle to Japan's role as a regional cultural leader. Japan's attitude to the outside world has always been ambivalent. For many years, there has traditionally been a sense of national inferiority in relation to non-Asian foreigners as a result of the country's centuries-old linguistic, geographical and cultural isolation and a sense of lagging behind and the need for foreign borrowing. At the same time, the Japanese never lost their sense of the uniqueness and superiority of Japanese culture and Japanese spirit over foreign ones, especially in relation to their Asian neighbors, which more than once in the history of Japan took the form of pronounced nationalist demonstrations. Moreover, in their contacts with the outside world, the Japanese are focused not on the desire to refute the myth of their own uniqueness, but on the search for arguments in favor of its confirmation.

* * *

Today, it is probably too early to talk about the final formation of the principles of the new globalized world. It is more accurate to say that the world is now at the stage of global changes that have engulfed all countries, but are still far from final completion. In this regard, Japanese society, having made great progress on the path of globalization in the economic, information and other spheres, in the cultural sphere, despite huge successes, still harbors ideas about its defining and leading role in this process, rather than fully realizing them in reality.

¹ Cit. by: Japan and the Modern World Order, Moscow, 2002, p. 165.

² http:// www.knogg.net

³ Time. 04.08.2003.

<sup>4

5</sup> Japan in Comparative Perspective. Kyoto, 1998, p. 198.

⁶ The Japan Foundation Newsletter. December 1995, vol. XXIII, p. 3.

^{Iwabuchi Koichi.} 7 Recentering Globalization. Tokyo, 2002, p. 20.

⁸ For more information, see: Hannerz Ulf. Notes on the Global Ecumene. N.Y., 1989, p. 65 - 75.

^{Iwabuchi Koichi.} 9 Op. cit.

¹⁰ www.orenburg.ru/culture/credo

¹¹ Global Culture Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity. L., 1990.

^{Masakazu Kubo.} 12 Why Pokemon Was Successful in America? // Japan Echo. Vol. 27, 2000 N 2, p. 78 - 87.

¹³ Cit. by: Harumi Befu. Globalization from Bottom Up: Japan's Contribution // Japanese Studies. 2003, Vol. 23, N 1, p. 11.

¹⁴ http:// cc.msnscache.com

^{Kazufumi Manabe.} 15 Gurobaru komyuni-keshon toshite no kokoku - Nihon no kokoku to sekai no kokoku. In: Sachio Tsuda and Hisao Sekine. Gurobaru komyunikeshon-ron. Kyoto, 2002 p. 101 - 114.

^{Han Seung-Mi.} 16 Consuming the Modern: Globalization, Japanese Things and the Politics of Cultural Identity. In: Korea // Globaliza-ting Japan (Eds. Harumi Befu and Sylvie Guichard-Anguis). London, 2001, p. 194 - 208.

¹⁷ Ibidem.

¹⁸ Cit. by: Harumi Befu. Op. cit., p. 17.

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