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In October 2005 UNESCO produced its Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. This was largely a response to the worries of countries, especially in Europe and not least of which France, which feared the damaging effects to their cultures if trade in entertainment products remained too one-sided. Generally the argument of this paper is that while initial tensions between the United States and Europe were motivated by the usual commercial concerns, Europeans were increasingly worried about the cultural impact of this commerce. The Japanese, however, have not been nearly so concerned as the Europeans about becoming 'Americanized'. This lack of tension between the United States and Japan in the area of film and television is due to several factors. First, there is a complementarity between American entertainment and the Japanese electronics industry. Second, the Japanese are major players in some aspects of the entertainment industry, most especially in the area of animation, and they are especially influential in Asia. Finally, issues of cultural conflict between the United States and Japan are simply less salient to Tokyo than those which characterize Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administration draws its legitimacy from neutrality in cultural contexts where power relations are shaped by gendered norms. Neutrality bestows legitimacy where power is vested in the male generative force and is heritable. In the public sphere, neutrality renders administration nonthreatening to politicians and justifies administrators' use of discretion despite their lack of democratic accountability and oversight. We examine historical and cultural roots of administrative neutrality as embodied by the physiologically transformed man and the resulting genderedness of public administration. We highlight two examples of power and sexuality in anime and different implications of neutered maleness. We also discuss enforced administrative neutrality in practice—the Hatch Act in the United States—which prevents administrators from engaging in political activity, rendering them "political eunuchs." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and digitization have increased both the occurrence and the ease of copyrighted property piracy, as well as the difficulty of enforcement. However, compared to instances of outright counterfeiting, the cost of this type of piracy is not clear and the consequences may not be all bad. It is possible that legal markets may arise from "grey" ones. The purpose of this paper is to show when and how grey markets have a positive effect on legitimate markets, by focusing on the development of the Japanese anime and manga market in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese animation (i.e. anime) boom on US television, which caused a great sensation in the early 2000s, is over. This article explores the business mechanisms that created this boom, the cultural innovations it stimulated, and some of the reasons for its decline. Methodologically, I argue that instead of analyzing the anime boom as an epochal break, it should be analyzed within the context of postwar animation as a global creative industry since the 1960s. By thus reframing it, I can delineate new distribution channels of anime since the 1990s. I also demonstrate that, beyond more series and new genres, the anime boom helped push the envelope of US animation towards adult-oriented productions and that ‘anime’ became a source of inspiration for US animators for formulations of cultural otherness. I argue that the end of the boom was unavoidable because in global creative industries cultural innovations soon become the industry’s mainstay. Finally, I consider the possible futures of the ‘local–global’ nexus in the animation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distinctive quality of Japanese animation (anime) in its descriptions of religious and spiritual realms – integrating symbols, themes, doctrines, and mythologies from various religious traditions – is a cultural manifestation of the Japanese integrative spirituality. This article demonstrates how important the religious aspect of anime is in explaining why some younger generations in the USA, who are characterized as spiritual seekers, become a loyal fan of the cultural artifacts. Anime seems to provide them with a cultural resource out of which they create their own cultural and spiritual practice, which is, they claim, not provided by the US mainstream popular culture. This article argues that since the religious aspect of anime is one of the most distinctive qualities in distinguishing itself from US pop culture, it would contribute to the more generally accepted ‘cultural difference’ account in explaining the cross-cultural popularity of anime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]