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If you love Japanese culture or are just curious to know more I can't recommend this book highly enough' Jonathan Ross    'A nerd- and generalist-friendly look at how Japan shaped the post-World War II world, from toys to Trump . . . A non-native's savvy study of Japan's wide influence in ways both subtle and profound' Kirkus    The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-kawaii. But as Japanese-media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know the half of it.    Japan's toys, gadgets, and fantasy worlds didn't merely entertain. They profoundly transformed the way we live. In the 1970s and '80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, soaring on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota while the West struggled to catch up. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the 'lost decades' of deep recession and social dysfunction.    The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared - when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them - connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution.    Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. 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Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. \u003ci\u003eAkira\u003c\/i\u003e. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-\u003ci\u003ekawaii\u003c\/i\u003e. But as Japanese media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know the half of it. Japan's toys, gadgets, and fantasy worlds didn't merely entertain. They profoundly transformed the way we live. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the 1970s and '80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, soaring on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota while the West struggled to catch up. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the lost decades of deep recession and social dysfunction. The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared--when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and entertainment empires like \u003ci\u003ePok mon\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDragon Ball Z\u003c\/i\u003e were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them--connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution. Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, \u003ci\u003ePure Invention\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. 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Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the 'lost decades' of deep recession and social dysfunction.  The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared - when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them - connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution.   Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. 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But it wasn't always this way. The first Japanese products that trickled into the global marketplace after the Second World War inspired derision, not admiration. The three words 'Made in Japan' were a punchline, a synonym for cheap trinkets from a defeated nation.  But when a steady drip of cheap novelties turned into a flood of high-quality consumer electronics and cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s, condescension turned into fury as Japan toppled cherished Western industries one after another. The nation then turned its attention to creating novel inessentials that we desperately coveted. From irresistible gadgets like the Walkman to Nintendo video games to adorable mascots, it produced products that possessed a unique, uncanny ability to grab our attention and nourish our dreams. Japan made itself rich after the Second World War by selling us the things we needed. But it conquered hearts by creating the things we wanted.   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