Douglas Montgomery is CEO of Global Connects Media and an adjunct professor at Temple University Japan.
In the world of pop culture, few stories are as remarkable -- or instructive -- as the rise of the "Korean wave," or hallyu. Over the past two decades, South Korea has transformed itself from a modest exporter of niche media into a cultural superpower with global household names in music, film, television and fashion. Japan, by comparison, remains rich in cultural capital but underleveraged in global influence -- soft power.
This isn't because Japan lacks talent, content or global recognition. Quite the opposite. Japanese anime, games, fashion and food are beloved around the world. Conde Nast has ranked Japan as its "best travel destination" two years in a row. Yet this soft power has often succeeded in spite of national policy, not because of it. The question isn't whether Japan has the creative goods, it's whether it has the strategy to deliver them to the world on its own terms, at scale and with sustainability.
The contrast with South Korea's approach is telling. Conversations about South Korea's remarkable success sometimes meet with reserved responses in Japan -- a natural reaction perhaps, given the latter's historical role as a regional leader and cultural innovator.
Yet in today's interconnected world, the most successful nations are those that remain curious and adaptive. Japan's own entertainment industry is already demonstrating this wisdom: Groups like XG, while proudly Japanese, have embraced K-pop training methods and global strategies to achieve worldwide success. Learning from neighbors isn't about copying, it's about recognizing excellence wherever it emerges and thoughtfully integrating those insights with your own unique strengths.
What South Korea did right was not simply fund its media sector. It treated culture as a core strategic asset. Through coordinated investments, export promotion and talent development, South Korea built an ecosystem that encouraged risk-taking, long-term planning and global partnerships. The South Korean government did not dictate content -- but it did support infrastructure, training and marketing in a way that signaled seriousness and confidence. In the five years from 2020 to 2024, Parrot Analytics calculates that Korean TV series have been responsible for $8 billion in streaming revenue for Netflix globally.
Japan, by contrast, has largely taken a sporadic approach to cultural strategy, leaving media and content policy fragmented across agencies and dominated by legacy stakeholders. Meanwhile, the next generation of Japanese creatives face low pay, long hours and few scalable career paths. Left unaddressed, this is a slow bleed, not just of talent but more importantly of Japan's global potential.
South Korea's rise as a cultural powerhouse demonstrates the concrete benefits of such policies -- not just increased revenue, but the cultivation of a sustainable creative ecosystem where the next generation of talent sees viable career paths rather than exploitation and burnout. The then-Minister for Digital Transformation Taro Kono noted in September 2024 that "Japan needs to show them (Japanese people) that they (creative people) are successful, that they are making money, and that they have social status so young people want to go into that field." The South Korean government has legitimized their own talent through investment in talent development, in university programs that offer specialized programs that treat cultural content as seriously as medicine or science.
Cultural conservatism and risk aversion have also hindered Japan's ability to evolve globally, with major media institutions often prioritizing domestic safe bets over the bold international experiments that South Korean companies and government agencies have backed -- including "Parasite," BTS and "Squid Game." This approach has slowed Japan's ability to shape trends and narratives on the global stage, while the country has yet to consistently treat content as a pillar of economic diplomacy the way South Korea has made cultural exports a core part of its national brand and foreign policy toolkit. Japan's global reputation remains strong, but it is often anchored in nostalgia -- think Studio Ghibli, Pokemon and Kurosawa -- rather than forward-facing creative diplomacy.
Japan does not need to copy South Korea's aesthetics or media formulas. But it would be wise to adopt its seriousness about culture as national strategy. That means crafting a coordinated policy agenda that integrates soft power with economic development; reforming labor conditions in creative fields; modernizing export and rights infrastructures; and promoting new talent alongside legacy ones. There is no shame in learning from a neighbor who has done something remarkable. In fact, there's power in it. Japan has the cultural capital. What it needs now is the strategy to match.
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