Two months ago I visited Tokyo, Japan. It was my 6th time but the first in 5 years and the first since living in Seoul, South Korea.
For most of my life I had been planning to move to Tokyo at some point but when the chance finally arose around 2020/2021, I found myself wanting to move to Seoul instead, and so I did. Given Seoul and Tokyo are only a 2-hour flight away from each other though, I knew I would visit Tokyo as soon as possible. It ended up taking a while because Japan did not reopen borders till October 2022, and my new freelance life really took a hit on my finances, but in July 2023 I finally boarded a flight to Narita.
Throughout these two years in Seoul I had been wondering a lot about how I would feel once back in Tokyo. I wondered if I would regret choosing Seoul and what kind of impression the Japanese capital would leave on me this time round. Tokyo is a place I have loved for half of my life, a place - as weird or cringe as it might sound - I felt a physical connection to, which led me to go back every time I could, and left me on the verge of tears every time I would land on Japanese soil. Why did I choose Seoul then?
A few reasons. First of all, Tokyo felt too familiar and in the middle of a global pandemic that brought me back to temporarily living in my hometown, sleeping in my teenage bedroom and hanging out with my high-school friends as if everything I had done after turning 18 years old had never happened, I craved something utterly new. I have a tendency to make my life more complicated then it could be, so why choose a place I had been to already, I had some friends in, I could even speak the language of a bit? Instead, I had been to South Korea only once, back in 2015; I had just started studying Korean seriously; and there were only 2 people I (barely) knew in Seoul. Yes, I was pretty familiar with the culture already but that’s about it. Second, I figured it would be more beneficial work-wise. I already had a network in Tokyo, therefore I thought it would make more sense to go build one in Seoul and find ways to work across the two cities.
But above all, it was because Japanese contemporary culture felt stagnant whereas Korea’s looked fresh and dynamic. And I am not saying this just because I am into K-pop - although looking at the state of the respective music scenes illustrates that perfectly. As someone who got interested in Japanese culture almost two decades ago and first discovered Korean culture through K-pop via J-pop, I have witnessed the whole process of the former gradually falling behind and the latter increasingly prospering.
My recent trip to Tokyo confirmed my impressions.
Tokyo felt stuck in the past. At first I wondered if I had that feeling because it was ‘my past’ but I soon realised it was the result of an objective observation, not a subjective one. Despite Japan being often depicted as this hyper-technological, almost robotic land, it is in reality the country where fax machines are still in use, 1-yen coins which amount almost to nothing (=€0.006) are still handed out - as paying by cash is also very common -, and CD rental shops are still a thing. Japan has an analog, retro feeling, not a futuristic one. Magazines are still made and sold; puddings are still served with that maraschino cherry on top reminiscent of the 80s bubble era days; and I struggled quite a lot in my quest for free wi-fi (South Korea has definitely spoiled me in this regard. Wi-fi is even available on the bus).
That magazines and CDs are still appreciated and circulating is not a bad thing at all, don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t leave Tokyo without a couple of Popeye’s issues. But I remember the days when J-pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki would release her album in USB stick form and how innovative that was and futuristic it looked back in 2009. On the contrary, at Tower Records in Shibuya I saw Blue-ray DVD versions of newly released music albums. Who even owns a DVD player these days you might wonder? And not even use it to watch films but to listen to music? I would confidently guess no one except the Japanese.
We are talking about the country that gave the world the walkman and the CD player, the Game Boy and the Playstation, where mobile phones with cameras and 3G technology were circulating way before it happened in the rest of the globe. It was indeed that hyper-technological futuristic place back in the day, but it really is no longer. All those Japanese products of the late 80s and 90s which felt avant-garde at the time and left teenager me in awe when I first visited Japan in 2008, are actually still there, and unchanged 15 years later.
Japan has always been its own world following its own pace and rules though. Don’t forget this is the country that for two centuries (from 1603 to 1868) closed itself from any foreign influence. In recent history, the success of their cultural outputs abroad was most of the times more of a happy by-product than the goal in the first place. Being such a populated country, their own market has always been big enough, plus Japanese people used to be wealthy enough to actively consume. This is very true for the music industry: Japan is still to this day the second biggest recording industry in the whole world after the United States, so why change their ways and adapt to the rest of the world if it works locally?
Yes, Japan still has internationally renowned music festivals, specialist record shops, and a catalogue of great musicians who have had a huge influence beyond its borders, but it’s the older generation, it’s nothing new or established recently. The same goes with fashion: Where is the new generation of designers making waves like Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo did? Or what about animation? A new successful anime comes out every now and then, sure, but who’s the next Hayao Miyazaki? Is it Makoto Shinkai? I don’t think the latter can actually be considered “new generation” given he is 50 and has been around already for a while. Many have agreed with me: Both Japanese people and foreigners who have been living there for a long time I had the chance to chat with, as well as academics and journalists I have read the works of. If you read Italian, I recommend this article published in February 2023 written by journalist Pio D’Emilia who has lived in Japan for over 40 years until his passing earlier this year. His analysis is very on point. I will translate one crucial passage; he states:
“Certo, il Giappone continua a essere la terza potenza economica del mondo: un paese politicamente stabile, direi immobile (che in questo caso forse costituisce un problema, non un valore aggiunto), “sicuro”, con il tasso di criminalità più basso del mondo industrializzato. Ma è fermo, immobile. Niente e nessuno sembra in grado di farlo ripartire. Altro che riarmo. Il Giappone che conoscevamo, che ammiravamo e in un certo senso temevamo, è scomparso. Non c’è più. E nel frattempo i giapponesi stanno sempre peggio.”
“Japan is still the third largest economy in the world, sure: A politically stable country, so stable it is still (which is probably an issue, not a bonus); “safe”, with the lowest crime rate in the industrialised world. But it is at a standstill. Nobody and nothing seems able to restart its engine. Forget rearmament. The Japan we knew, we admired, and we also feared to some extent, is gone. It is no longer. Meanwhile, Japanese people are doing worse and worse.”
I second that. It really felt at a standstill while I was there last July. Being in South Korea, on the contrary, feels like riding a car on the highway. Everything moves incredibly fast. Everything changes constantly. New buildings, new places, new venues, new exhibitions pop up every day, and disappear twice as fast. The feeling that everything is possible and success is within reach is palpable. Of course all of this comes with several issues, but to me at least, it also makes life here exciting. It is like Seoul is a teenager, full of dreams, eager to experiment, a bit reckless too for sure, whereas Tokyo is an old uncle, stubborn - and afraid, although not willing to admit it - to change their ways because it worked in the past.
Look how the tables have turned. Back in the day K-pop stars would strive to be successful in Japan in order to be considered established. Nowadays, a huge Japanese label like AVEX TRAX has launched a group of Japanese people, XG, who make K-pop, are based in and promote primarily in South Korea. Shibuya in Tokyo is plastered with ads of K-pop stars and Korean actors. Korean street food is found on Takeshita Dōri as if it was Seoul’s Myeongdeong; classic Korean banchan like japchae are easily found in the bentō corner of a residential area supermarket. Chanel is one of the few luxury brands which has also a Japanese star, Nana Komatsu, as global ambassador, but every other luxury brand, including Chanel, regards of utmost importance to have today a Korean celebrity in their roster. The 2023 edition of the MAMA awards, one of the biggest music awards shows of the K-pop industry, are being held this upcoming November for the first time ever at Tokyo Dome. Not the first time MAMAs are held in Japan but the first time not just MAMA but a Korean award ceremony is held in such legendary venue. And then of course, there is the influential Japanese magazine Popeye dedicating an entire issue to Seoul and even making a special edition cover featuring K-pop stars NewJeans.
The point of saying all this is not to draw a comparison between the two countries and declare which one is better. I have no interest in doing that and it is actually an endeavour I look down on. I am very aware of the history these two share (Japan having been South Korea’s coloniser for around three decades at the beginning of the past century) and I do not want to fuel any hatred. I only wanted to share my thoughts and impressions: The ones of someone born in the early 90s, in neither of those countries, who has spent a decent amount of time in both Tokyo and Seoul, love both cities, and has witnessed how the two and their pop cultures have been changing over time. There is a lot more to say for sure; so much more I felt, thought and noticed during my latest trip to Tokyo. I hope I’ll be able to be back in Japan soon though; perhaps I’ll write more after that. But, in case you are wondering, I am happy to be living in Seoul now. I do not regret my choice.
Very well-written Paola! Looking forward to read more about your observations during your travels to Japan and more
xxx