Dec 24, 2020
Japan rang in 2020 with dreams of Olympic glory. Not so much the athletic kind, though there was that too, but more in terms of branding. It was a chance to reaffirm the country’s position as a player on the global pop culture stage.
Looking at the mainstream successes won by South Korea pop group BTS, the film “Parasite” surely there would be room for another player from Asia on the global pop culture stage.
By late February, though, Japan’s entertainment-industrial complex found itself disrupted or shut down completely as the novel coronavirus spread across the country. However, what grew into a once-in-a-century event also presented a period of transformation for a country often viewed as being behind the times.