Japan's Special Aura

What has fostered the growth and development of art in Japan?

I have this feeling that there’s more to Japan than it meets the eye when it comes to the culture that has exploded from there. Notably, all of the amazing stories from the anime/manga I enjoy. I understand that every culture around the world has its own major art works and communities, but to me there seems to be something special with the stuff that comes from Japan.

The most direct way I can attempt to describe this feeling is with J-pop. From my time listening to different types of music, I enjoyed J-pop and J-rock the most. Could it just be the underlying roots of the genre? Perhaps I am more attuned to that sort of music, but I immediately didn’t like K-pop when I tried listening to some of their songs. This isn’t a very apt comparison and I understand how incredibly short sighted my perspective is, but the thing to describe the feeling I got was J-pop was often more unique than K-pop (which felt overproduced).

A bigger paradoxical idea that extends from my thoughts was my impression that Japan is a collectivist society, but allows for individuals to shine. They seem to prioritize the needs of society and the group more often over an individual. While that is certainly true, a better way to put it is this idea that Japan’s culture seems to promote harmony in relation to the systems, nature, and people around you.

What’s interesting is that I feel this harmony can only be established with the negative costs to uphold it. Obviously, Japan’s work culture is famous to be extremely strict and oftenguarantees burn out, but more so it heavily relies on you fulfilling your role in society (at least in any given situation like worker, friend, family, etc). This sort of pressure seems to be very suffocating and I can’t really imagine how it feels currently.

However, people still create amazing works of art in spite of this… and ones that are so impactful and beautiful I constantly wonder about the steps it took to get there. I believe that this sort of struggle with societal pressure kind of filters people from trying out art and actually committing to their art. It’s so weird as it seems artistry is taken a bit more seriously there.

Honestly, this sort of question is one I want to experience for myself rather than solving it intellectually. My experience is that I never really took art seriously, like writing a story or drawing as a way to make money. I shouldn’t be thinking like that as it is sort of treating it like a business, but I realize that line of thinking is the issue to begin with. I am worried of trying to make money to make a living rather than thinking of what’s stopping me from doing it right now. Maybe it’s an American mindset I’ve latched onto that causes this… which is why I want to challenge my entire being with an entirely different environment.