J-pop culture
One more opportunity
Singapore needs new economic activities, should follow up big on Japan's booming pop culture. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Oct 3, 2004

MORE by force of circumstances than by design, Singapore's economy may be creeping towards emulating Japan's successful pop culture to take advantage of a changing generation.

With conservative leaders in power still suspicious of its permissive connotation, there won't be any big-bang jump despite its huge economic potential.

But with its industrial base in decline, the city-state urgently needs new economic activities.

Pop culture has worked for Japan. In 2002, royalties from Japanese pop cultural exports grew three times to US$12.5bil in 10 years. The impact to the national psyche is even bigger.

What their troops failed to achieve in World War Two, Japanese pop culture is succeeding in gaining global influence.

What is Japanese pop culture? It's so extensive it has a dictionary on it - and it's totally different from the American kind.

It includes Japanese pop music, animated films, soft toys, teenage fashion, video games, manga comics, TV soap operas, and so on, that have millions of followers worldwide.

All these have not been lost to a trend-conscious Singapore, which wants to become a hub that can attract global talent - so much so that it even talks of setting up a Bohemian section.

At any rate, while the leaders are largely traditionalists, the youths who are exposed to new lifestyles from abroad are not. Watch Singapore Idol on TV and you'll see them.

The government has announced plans to become a major player in culture that includes designing computer games, making animated films, and exporting TV shows.

All these are but a minuscule part of Japan's power. Any talk of serious comparison with Singgapore is laughable, at least for now.

Japan is the world's second economic giant. More important, Singapore doesn't have its free environment, a home market of 128 million and, above all, millions of innovative teenagers - once known for their rote learning - who dare to experiment and be different.

They are the vanguard of Japan's new economic achievement. Pop culture cannot be created by government edict - although in Singapore's case, an official nod and encouragement will be a great start.

(Unlike America, Japanese youths and pop culture don't include drugs or alcolhol, but some sexual permissiveness is part of it, and this explains the Singapore government's caution.)

In recent years, Singapore's prosperity has come from electronics and from students and workers who were renowned for efficiency rather than creativity and design.

There's a change of direction now but it will take decades. Meanwhile, the shortfall is being filled by imported talent.

Electronic games
A start is the establishment of a network to become a player. It will be based at Nanyang Polytechnic to develop and market 20 locally-produced games in the first two years.
It comprises 12 start-up companies including Japan's HI Corp, and 12 partners including SingTel and Starhub.

Animated films.
George Lucas, the man behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones, has teamed up with Singapore to set up his first animation studio and production house outside the United States.
"By having a base in Singapore, we can create something new in animation, a style that will blend East and West and offer something not seen before," Lucas said in a recorded message at the launch.
"The venture could run into hundreds of millions of dollars, eventually," said a spokesman. Up to 300 people could be involved in the venture, working on movies, video games and TV programmes, she added.
A second big name, BKN Int, known for its cartoon series Legend of the Dragon and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, announced it would set up an office here to target China and other Asian countries.

Singapore is also offering up to 50% of production cost of any film shot here up to S$10mil.
A long-term aim is to develop Singaporean expertise.

It has already wooed back Nickson Fong, a nine-year specialist in computer imaging and animation work in Hollywood. His recent work included The Matrix: Reloaded/ Revolutions.

Big as they are, these developments will not turn up a Japan-type winner. Difference in population aside, social and political restraints here stand in the way.

But in 10 to 15 years, a thriving pop culture may be possible for the following reasons:

1. With the current changes likely to gather speed as the citizens become more mature, Singapore will be a very different place and will allow more personal space.

2. The education system, one of the best reforms here, will throw up a society that rewards talent - from science research to creating and marketing of pop culture - more than academic records.

Ranking of schools, a cornerstone of an outdated exam-oriented, rote-learning system, has been replaced by one that will assess them on all-round achievements, including arts and sports. Emphasis will be on creativity and entrepreneurship.

3. The changing young, who are better educated and more talented. A minority is beginning to live like Japanese teens, which gave rise to their pop culture.

According to a Straits Times reporter, these youths wear outlandish, seemingly mismatched clothing, stalking a small part of Orchard Road, turning it into a Harajuku, a Tokyo district for trend-setters.

It has gone beyond concocting Harajuku's weirdness, like contact lenses of different colours. Some adopt a blend of fashions, like punk and baby-doll look, or masquerade as anime characters.

Whether or not Singapore will have a pop culture industry will depend largely on the kids now in primary school. If it comes, it will be tied to the economy, like in Japan.

This place needs to expand its economic activities - like the proposed casino.

New Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong knows the people. He seems impressed even with students from lower graded schools, saying they are idealistic, have high ambitions, and are able to think broadly and speak with confidence.

"We are distinguishing ourselves internationally. The young people are willing to try different paths," he said.

"We have a sports school and we are building an arts school. We even have Singaporeans winning fashion design prizes."

Once the lid is lifted, there's no reason why they cannot achieve what their Japanese peers have done.
(Updated from article written specially for, and first published in, The Sunday Star.)