Years ago, business was the main motivation for young foreigners to learn the Japanese language. But nowadays, people learn Japanese because they want to read Japanese manga, play Japanese games and read books on games before they are translated.

Friday 01st August, 06:55 AM JST

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera, saying that manga and animation are tools to win over foreigners, particularly young people. (AFP)

9 Comments

ExPrinceska at 09:05 AM JST - 1st August

So foreigners study Japanese either for business, or for manga. Great, foreigners are not interested in Japanese culture or interaction with Japanese people. So Japan is proud of their games and manga and they have nothing else to offer to foreigners? Sad way of thiking.
FairandBalanced at 09:09 AM JST - 1st August

ExPrincesKa- I don`t see Japan offering much for foreigners, unless Japanese business can profit from it.

The only concern Japan has for foreigners is how it can profit from them; J Pop, Manga etc. It doesn`t want their advice or participation in society.

Promoting manga and anime shows how low the govt will sink to try to make money.
Betzee at 01:14 PM JST - 1st August

The only concern Japan has for foreigners is how it can profit from them;

While it's true proficiency in Japanese (in the absence of other skills) would enable a non-native speaker to land work other than teaching a foreign language during the 1980s, that ceased to be the case a while ago.
sallysky at 03:55 PM JST - 1st August

I know the motivation has been changing to learn Japanese lately because my friends told me about that....and they often asks me about the animation and songs...those things are one of our cultures, so I am delighted to hear that and read this article.
ca1ic0cat at 09:46 PM JST - 1st August

um, I thought manga was one part of Japanese culture. How many kids are heading for orchestra concerts? But I have to agree, this is why my kids are interested in Japanese. It's not a bad thing either.
Crimsonsil at 02:17 AM JST - 2nd August

I fall under the second category. If learning allows me to read, watch, and play what I like without having to wait for it to be translated, then I don't see a problem with it.
Saicook at 10:09 AM JST - 2nd August

i'm not thinking the same way they described.yeah,i've got to "discover" the real existence of Japan and japanese through anime,manga..etc.but,my objective was not learning the language to just easily understand/read anime and manga,it was to learn "Japan" (Japan=> Language,Culture,Philosophy ,"Reasonings",morals..).so, i was like missing something. after,i got to like Jpop...,unusual excellent lyrics, was the thing that interested me the most. so my idea about Japan changed.now i'm looking to japan as a Behaviour-Developped country,not just as a Technology-Developped one. you only feel the importance of a thing afer loosing it.
USAPatriot at 10:10 AM JST - 2nd August

Saicook- Great post!

looks like you study well, keep going buddy.
doerrier at 10:09 PM JST - 2nd August

The impact of television, manga, anime, music etc is great.

I first came to Japan as an exchange student in 1980. I was an Art/Philosophy student and excited to study the "Culture" as I imagined it was. When I arrived and saw manga and television I embraced these as language learning tools. My intention was to learn to speak Japanese so that I could have much more deeper conversations with my Japanese friends.

In the mid -80's I drew a comic strip called Happy Bob in the Japan Times. For over 20 years I have helped produce Japanese television shows about the US for all of the major TV networks in Japan. The impact of my work on the understanding by the Japanese public, about the US, is great.

All of this started from wanting to read manga and watch Japanese television.