[Obsnold]

Does the Japanese government pay for or in some way support articles like this? Do people in Japan get articles about how amazing coppicing is in the UK?

Articles like this about Japan make me feel a bit weird but I kind of wish we were better at fetishising our own produce and practices like we do with the Japanese.

[cthalupa]

>Do people in Japan get articles about how amazing coppicing is in the UK?

Yes. If not coppicing, than a million other things. It's also not any different than seeing romanticized articles about distilleries in Scotland or Iberico ham or a million other things that we see targeting Americans. The US being so relatively young doesn't get romanticized passed-down-through-history articles written in Europe, but they get plenty about modern American exports like Hollywood, etc.

People like learning about things that are different and it's easy to draw eyes if you add a bit of mystique around a subject that people won't be particularly familiar with.

[qwery]

I'm not sure which other "articles like this" you are referring to, but I don't think you need to be too worried.

Was this article was paid for by the Japanese government? I doubt it. The website appears to be that of a business that would like to sell you things, which seems a likely enough motive for them to post articles on just about anything.

You might be interested in Cool Japan[0], which is part of Japan's "overall brand strategy". This sort of national marketing is not unique to Japan, but their various campaigns are a noteworthy successful example.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan

[Lio]

I see a lot of programme's about Japanese trades and crafts on NHK and that's owned by the Japanese government, so I would guess the answer is yes.

I would also imagine our government, the UK, promote our culture via the BBC too. I believe it's called "soft power".

I'm OK with it. I actually seek out these sorts of programmes on both NHK and the BBC 'cause I like seeing master craftsmen at work. Anytime I see some guy in London making clocks by hand with a Cowells lathe or a bloke and his son working a hammer in an Osaka forge I'm happy.

[icelancer]

Oh, indeed - and sometimes worse:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

[dimator]

> is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by some individuals when visiting Paris, who feel that the city was not what they had expected

> The syndrome is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution ... derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and others, such as vomiting

uhhh, what?? just from being disappointed in a place you're visiting? I had to double check the link to make sure it wasn't some satirical site.

[Danieru]

What you need to understand is how Paris is horrible in the exact ways Japanese cities are nice.

Paris is dirt, aggressive, expensive, with horrible customer service. All things Japanese city has and would never think to include in a tourism pitch.

Japanese Tourists expect Paris to be a Regular (Japanese) City + Romanticism. What they get has no romance, and a city even regular French people consider rude.

[fredestine]

well its relative. for instance japanese parks are horrible. paris parks are a thing of beauty. the mayor is indeed contributing to make it a dirty agressive and expensive city by not fighting crime, mass tourism (she loves it. somehow she hates french people having cars but she is fine with rich tourists riding cabs in paris) and all the theft that is related to mass tourism... customer service is not at the level of japan but at least its not at the level of usa where everything is a transaction and every word is fake.

[Laaas]

Since when are Japanese parks horrible? There are a several good parks in/around Tokyo.

[Foobar8568]

She? Come on, Paris has always been like that.

[fredestine]

between her and her mentor its been a single power in place since 2001 so I don't know what you define by "always" but it definitly got worse from 2001 and so on with a sharp acceleration when she got into power. paris debt too.

[enneff]

I think it’s just extreme culture shock. Some Japanese people, and likely the kind to follow a romanticised dream of visiting Paris, are very sheltered. If your first experience of a country other than Japan (a very ordered place with powerful social norms) is the actual Paris (where the environment is comparably a lot more chaotic and people are not exactly friendly) then I can see how you might lose your mind a bit with shock.

[chooma]

fyi. Paris syndrome is heavily disputed among scientist, because the causality was never proven and the original author has 'vanished' from the scene.

i.e. do mental people visit Paris or does Paris cause mental illness?

[checkyoursudo]

> "But some of them end up in tears, swearing they’ll never come back."

How I feel when my favorite bakery in Paris is out of pain au chocolat.

I don't see it in the wiki article, but I wonder if this happens with other cities/locales? And surely this can't be something that only people from east asia feel?

[lobochrome]

Solingen Kitchen Knifes are highly valued. Go into any department store, and you will find the finest selection of german knives. Of course - it is the other way around in Germany.

[black_puppydog]

Huh? Solingen knives are quite popular here in Germany as well :P

[macrolime]

Many popular Japanese things are actually Norwegian. Like salmon sushi and Kirin beer. I wonder how well known that's in Japan.

Norway was looking for new salmon markets in the 90s and came up with the idea of salmon sushi

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501693/how-norwegian-sal...

Kirin beer was started by a Norwegian brewer in 1869.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Copeland_(brewer)

[creakingstairs]

> Do people in Japan get articles about how amazing coppicing is in the UK?

Not quite but there is a fair bit of interest in UK culture to a point where there are “England fairs” in department stores and malls time to time.

That being said I’m also kinda sick of people using Japanese words instead of direct translation for some reason. Kaizen and Ikigai comes to mind.

[b800h]

> Kaizen and Ikigai comes to mind.

I can understand that though - without the translation, the terms become more specific in English usage. Take Kaizen, or Continuous Improvement. Specifically using the Japanese term shows what sort of continuous improvement you're doing. I notice, however, that it's also apparently a trademark....

[creakingstairs]

> Specifically using the Japanese term shows what sort of continuous improvement you're doing.

Yeah but I find it weird that the meaning of kaizen is now different in that specific lean or whatever context when kaizen just means improvement in Japanese.

Come to think of it, There are many English words that Japanese people use that now mean something different, so I guess it’s just how things are :p

I think I’m just annoyed at these types of articles that puts Japanese words everywhere they can.

[Obsnold]

I’d love to see some more information about these fairs if you have a link.

My wife likes watching a lot of British YouTubers in Japan and it’s made me want to see more about how the Japanese view British culture.

[creakingstairs]

I’ve just googled the department store near me and looks like they had a “Great British fair” last year.

https://www.ukft.org/hankyu-great-british-fair-2021/

Another fair ran by department store this year:

https://www.mistore.jp/shopping/event/nihombashi_e/british_5...

I’ve never been to one so maybe looking up Japanese YouTubers might be your best shot for this topic.

[thriftwy]

The answers are most likely "yes" and "yes".

Except thay Japanese most likely read about London with its exchanges and culture and not about coppicing. Maybe some Scotland pastoral images, since it also sells hard liquor.

[shusaku]

I think this is actually search engine optimization by a jewelry company. Of course if the end result of gaming the system is interesting content like this, I can’t complain.

[rbanffy]

Not saying this is not true, but… the rewards being on “interesting” rather than a faithful depiction of reality has given us things like the the Murdochs, Sinclair, and Fox News.

[astrange]

> Do people in Japan get articles about how amazing coppicing is in the UK?

They might get confused since Copic is a popular brand of art marker there.

I had to check but apparently the name is because they're designed to work with copier machines, not from this. (https://copic.jp/en/about/history/)

[boomboomsubban]

For a start, take better pictures. Compare the linked article with the Wikipedia article for coppicing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing

In the Japanese photo, it looks like there are trees growing out of trees. In the UK, a dying bush is growing out of a stump.

[tjpnz]

We get articles about all facets of western culture and practices in the Japanese press. As someone who was born in the UK I've often learned things about European culture which I didn't know before.

Japan like the UK and US is a cultural superpower. When you're able to wield that much soft power no money ever needs to change hands.

[b800h]

GK Chesterton made similar points to you, but about religious orientalism, in "The Everlasting Man".