● Historical keywords as an introductory argument

 As the conclusion of this forum was to be linked to the Japanese identity, I tried my best to organize the overall picture. Modeling it as an examination from the viewpoint of the manga culture of Japanese, I thought about how the Japanese meme, or the cultural gene, has developed.

 When considering the mechanism behind the origins of Japanese cultural gene and memetic strength of the manga culture, it'd be impossible to do it without factoring in the historical aspects of Japan.

 The first point is national isolation, a singularly interesting system made possible by the fact that Japan is an island nation. The policy to allow no foreign culture, some exceptions aside, resulted in a culture that is unique to Japan, which was nurtured within the closed environment. At the same time, with the minimal influence from abroad, probably various cultures within Japan developed over this 300-year period of national isolation.

 The second point is the peaceful stability that lasted for about 300 years and brought about by the 264-year reign of Tokugawa Shogunate. During this period, though the latter half was a bit bumpy, all in all it was very peaceful with no major wars. Under such circumstances, culture prospered during the Bunka, Bunsei and Genroku eras. Japan was having peaceful stability for about 60 years during this period. Culture and art are more or less the offspring of peace and luxury and won't be born in a place which is very poor or where wars occur frequently. There are rare examples such as Mexico, where revolution was linked to culture and arts, but the Bunka, Bunsei and Genroku eras of the Edo period was a very good period for the creation of arts.

 Kabuki and Ukiyoe woodblock prints emerged during that period. Ukiyoe had many erotic paintings that pointed to the sexual culture of the times. In addition to Ukiyoe, the satirical mangas drawn by Hokusai, an art form similar to modern day one-panel mangas, also emerged during that period.

 The third point is the alternate-year residence system. This brought in the regional cultures from across the nation to Edo where it accumulated. At the same time, daimyos returning to their regions spread Edo culture to the outlying regions. I believe the unification of values in this very narrow strip of land took place as a result of the continuous repetition of influx and outflow of culture (human, goods, money and information).

 The fourth point is the arrival of the black ships. The black ships led by Commodore Perry that arrived at Uraga sent big shockwaves across Japan and caused panic. With this, there was a sudden rush of foreign culture flowing into Japan. Japanese possess very acute perception - they have interest in the stimulus offered by something new and are influenced by such stimuli. As the binding of religion is weak, they have a flexible mind that allows adoption of the best in everything. This could be termed as a quality that is in-built in Japanese. Then it goes into Meiji Restoration after this.

　

● The cultural genes of Japanese

 Japan stands out among Asian countries for its economic development. A few cultural genes can be considered as the reasons for the success.

 The cultural gene of flexible mind is one. Or, to phrase it an unflattering way, Japan could be considered as having no principles. Other countries with strong religious bindings couldn't accept new cultures whereas Japan incessantly adopted everything that they thought as new and good. The French-style uniform of the Edo-era imperial forces, Kaishu Katsu's visit to America, Genpaku Suguita's Kaitai Shinsho, etc. to cite a few. This led to Meiji Restoration. The meme became further active, leading to French-style legislature, Weimar-style laws and British-style industry as well as cropped hair in place of the topknot, eating beef stew and polishing of shoes. Diplomacy with various countries began as if a dam had burst and the good parts of foreign culture were adopted one after another and they were integrated into the Japanese culture.

 The second factor is that after the 300 year Edo period Japan had probably slipped into a kind of peace stupor and I think a meme that dislikes war probably got imprinted inside Japanese during this period. In other words, everyone get along well, without any discrimination, and something akin to communism emerged. A sheep-like gene that dislikes being assertive was probably born at the same time. This is close to the tendency seen in youth nowadays where the best option is to be the same as everyone else. Doing something different would lead to conflicts, so they act like everyone else and this causes a boom. The Japanese strength in going forward at full steam when a boom catches fire is probably related to this.

 When relating the development of manga culture and meme, what we get are a set of more or less unified values and a "together with everyone" meme.

 In children's conversation you often hear "Do you know that character?", "Are you reading it?" or "Isn't it fun?" "Let's play Akado Susunosuke!" Children talked and played like that in the late 1940s, and this would create popular characters. This, I believe, would lead to a boom and since everyone wants to be part of the conversation, the Japanese meme, which considers similar values as good, kicks into action pointing all vectors in the same direction and leading to a bigger boom.

 Then we have the mentality portion, in the sense that Japanese are not practical-minded like Europeans and Americans or Chinese nor are they individualists. This is the third reason and apparently if there existed a meme in Edo period that led people to sacrifice self for the nation, it has probably continued to the modern Japanese who manage companies along the same vector and with the same motivation. In other words, it's our generation, which discards self and even the family to slog for the company. As a result, an international competitiveness developed from the "sacrifice self for nation" meme and in a sense probably led to the economic giant that is Japan.

 Based on the above, I made the observation that the cultural gene might have sprouted within the Japanese from the historical shifts starting from the Edo period, and resulted in gaining international competitiveness, which in turn led to the economic and cultural powerhouse of today.

 Now, I'll answer the questions put forward by Mr. Takekawa and Mr. Nozaki respectively.

　

● Answer to Yukihide Takekawa's question

 Mr. Takekawa holds a view that is basically similar to my position. That is, the level of things created by Japanese, who have high educational and cultural standards, went up as a result of their moving in the same direction and pursuing the same objective. The high educational standard that built up the base was made possible by the education system started in the Meiji era, while it was the folk culture that blossomed during the Edo period that built the high cultural standard of all its citizens and the egalitarian, middle-class consciousness of Japanese has its roots in TV that spread to all households immediately after the war. The Japanese-style manga exploded on this foundation. We could even call it a nation-wide hysterical state. That hysterical state is being sustained even now, after 60 years, including adults.

 In addition to this Mr. Takekawa gave a few more questions for which I'd like to offer my views.

　

(1) "Base of Japanese-style boom," "critical point where the boom begins"

 There is something known as the critical point where a boom starts but I have never sensed that critical point when my works were on the verge of boom. What happened after it passed the critical point was that the number of interviews increased significantly. In my case, it was from outside manga magazines and from the like of Nihon Keizai Shimbun and business magazines. Perhaps their interest was in meeting with a person who seemed to be a little different from the conventional manga cartoonists.

　

(2) "About being a Japanese"

 Another question was, whether I would become conscious of the fact that my readers are Japanese or that I'm Japanese when drawing, and, if I do, when I would sense it. I think it's probably when I see the person in me who works even neglecting the family. Being a person with such a gene makes me aware of the Japaneseness in me. I feel that the worker-ant trait is something which was ingrained in everyone during the period of high growth after the war. I think it is there in me too.

　

(3) "Boom is what nurtured Japanese culture"

 It's easy to know that something is a saleable product or something is a good product. Good works need not necessarily be saleable and it's more likely that a good work wouldn't sell much. For example, works such as Inu wo Kau or Soseki no Jidai by Mr. Taniguchi are culturally highly acclaimed but they are unlikely to be a commercial success. Same is the case with Mr. Tsuge's works, which are excellent but haven't sold much. Therefore I have no definite feeling that boom is what nurtured Japanese culture.

 Still, in terms of whether Japanese have the ability to judge the quality of a work, I feel the critical ability is rather weak in the sense that a majority of Japanese have a herd mentality as described earlier wherein the Japanese have a gene that dislikes things not liked by others and likes what everyone else likes. It's the same everywhere including the world of politics, international diplomacy or the United Nations. On the other hand, we could also say that this herd mentality as such is what created Japan's strength. Nevertheless, though it's true with an individual and false in politics, this power of herd mentality is behind the Japanese industrial and cultural strength and is not something coming from each individual.