Japanese CNC?

[Aaron Gerow]

The end of my message got cut off for some reason, so here's the end 
again:

One thing to remember is that this is not merely an issue of why Japanese 
watch more American films than Japanese films. It is also a question of 
how the American industry has succeeded in dominating markets worldwide. 
Some may argue its because they offer better films (or bang) for the buck 
than anyone else, but it also has to do a lot with "free trade" 
agreements and Hollywood's long-standing unfair manipulation of foreign 
markets (in some cases dumping films, in some cases forcing block 
booking, etc.). There are a lot of domestic reasons as well: the end of 
government restrictions on foreign films in the 1960s, the incompetence 
of some sectors of the Japanese industry, patterns of intellectual 
thought that locate "cinema" outside Japan, shifts in youth culture, 
changing demographics, etc. One can also connect this to the 
"Americanization" of youth culture, but one big question has always been 
how Japanese TV and pop music can dominate the domestic market (this is 
rather rare worldwide) while films cannot. Any answers to that?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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