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If you thought America\u2019s love of Japan was only about Hibachi restaurants, Anime teens, and The Karate Kid<\/i> reboots, you haven\u2019t spent enough time on X. Last weekend, the admiration entered a new phase as the social media platform boosted an AI-enabled translation tool, making exchanging and sharing posts easier between Japanese and American users.<\/p>\n
What resulted was a pleasant and outright wholesome font of positive vibes that seemed out of place in the notoriously cynical virtual world of hot takes, hate bots, and culture wars. The website Pirate Wires<\/i> noticed and published an essay<\/span><\/a> doubling down on the niche community, heaping praise on the newfound old love between Japan and America. In it, the authors point to President Trump\u2019s bromance with the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, love of American BBQ, and shared technological and military goals, all of which are true and good, but that\u2019s only part of the story.<\/p>\n While it appears the Japanese people are living their best lives cosplaying Americana at Honky Tonk bars<\/span><\/a> and showing off their classic cruisers<\/span><\/a>, the Pirate Wires<\/i> take is a little deceiving. What\u2019s missing is the 1980s working-class anxiety and animosity toward our now Eastern besties \u2014 a sentiment not felt since the Greatest Generation came back from raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi and refused to buy Toyotas.<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s rapid post-WWII industrialization and investment in technology paid off economically and sparked a transpacific rivalry, trade war, and manufacturing insecurity on par with a Rocky-versus-Drago fight of the century, if not a little less\u2026violent. The Cold War rightly absorbs much of the attention when recalling the era, but as the Soviet Union was showing signs of losing its grip, Japan was becoming a real threat to the United States\u2019 industrial domination \u2014 and the repercussions were being felt in homes, boardrooms, and factories across the country. Toyota and Honda exploded onto the automotive scene, helping usher in Detroit\u2019s demise. Japanese technology, such as portable radios, video games, and televisions, was grabbing more market share from American companies like RCA. Even America\u2019s trophy landmarks were being taken over. In 1989, Mitsubishi Estate took control of Rockefeller Center, a capstone acquisition following the Japanese corporation\u2019s acquisitions of Firestone Tire & Rubber and Columbia Pictures.<\/p>\n This tension was reflected in pop culture entertainment \u2014 think Ron Howard\u2019s 1986 film Gung Ho<\/i>, where Michael Keaton plays a foreman at an American auto manufacturing plant taken over by a Japanese corporation. The film is a comedy, but it mirrors the zeitgeist of the time. There was also Rising Sun<\/em>, Kinjite<\/em>, and imagined futures that look strikingly Japanese, such as Blade Runner<\/em> and Robocop 3<\/em>; Die Hard<\/em> takes place in Nakatomi Plaza. Tom Clancy even explores this theme in his novel \u201cDebt of Honor,\u201d in which the protagonist, Jack Ryan, fights a \u201csecret cabal of Japanese industrialists.\u201d<\/p>\n But enough with nuance. The biggest takeaway from the situation is the display of understated power and the magnitude of influence and reach American culture has had from the mid-20th<\/sup><\/span> century forward. And even though there have been some notable outside foreign influences permeating these liberty-laden shores, it\u2019s far from an even exchange.<\/p>\n We gave the world jazz and rock and roll, fast food and blue jeans, baseball and John Wayne Westerns. Sure, we got the British Invasion and Crocodile Dundee, but what would France do without Jerry Lewis and Germany without David Hasselhoff? I\u2019m only half-kidding. American cultural influence was instrumental in winning the Cold War \u2014 there was even an underground pipeline of Chuck Norris films<\/span><\/a> to undermine the communists \u2014 and who could deny Roger Goodell\u2019s not-so-secret plan<\/span><\/a> for the NFL to take over the world?<\/p>\n So while our \u201cspecial\u201d relationship with Japan is great, it\u2019s not exactly novel. America\u2019s cultural influence is a force for good in the world, and it\u2019s a shame the mainstream media has ignored it in favor of authoritarian worship, evidenced by the rise of stories<\/span><\/a> about \u201cChinamaxxing.\u201d<\/p>\n Good for Pirate Wires<\/em> to report a feel-good story that most of the media ignored, even if it wasn\u2019t a complete picture. It\u2019s important to remember that for all the reports of America\u2019s demise, we\u2019re still going strong \u2014 and in unexpected corners of the world and in unexpected ways. Far from the evil empire that snobby Europeans or elitist media personalities would have you believe, we just want to spread some good old-fashioned American fun. Because in the long run, that makes better friends than enemies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n