Wednesday, October 06, 2010

"Foreigners support AKB48": Akimoto Yasushi



Akimoto Yasushi talks about AKB48's experiences in Los Angeles (USA) and Paris (France), in the context of the Japanese contents' globalization, and shares his true surprise and joy because the foreigners' support to his groups, products and artists.

I think that Akimoto's speech evades the discussion of the global media ownership, specially, the chase of the international music industry controlled and managed by the United States of America's corporations. -__-



The fact is that the Idol genre will never be marketed outside Japan successfully without the American media corporations' support, specially, MTV Networks (owned by the Viacom corporation) and Sony Music Entertainment (the one and only Japanese based music corporation). -__-

AKB48 had gain a lot of support between the foreign anime related fan base, but is far away of become a real Japanese music icon, as Hamasaki Ayumi, X-Japan or Utada Hikaru are. That's so sad, specially when you remember the treat that the American media gave to the AKB48 girls. -__-

Could Akimoto Yasushi be able to find a true business partnership with the American media and the American music corporations? Could the Idol genre become a true entertainment industry outside Japan?


Greetings.
Hello! Wota is written by Christian Hernandez. Licentiate in Latin American Literature and Master in Psychology by the Autonomous University of The State of Mexico. Graduate student from the Master of Asian and African Studies, specialty Japan, by El Colegio de México A.C. Former scholarship holder from The Japan Foundation in Mexico and the Japan Student Services Organization. Check out my blog. Follow me in FaceBook or add me to your friends in mixi.