Nation branding: The essence of Japan

Vincent Rousselet

Vincent Rousselet responds to Christopher Graves's article in a previous issue of Market Leader ('Branding Japan: Cool is not enough') on Japan's search for a national brand identity.

Nation branding: The essence of Japan

Vincent Rousselet

In his excellent article 'Branding Japan: cool is not enough' (Market Leader, September 2012) Christopher Graves provides a tour d'horizon of nation branding and superb insight into how this relates to Japan and its multi-millennial culture.

I agree wholeheartedly with him that 'Cool Japan' is shallow. I concur that a much deeper and resonating characteristic of Japanese culture is mastering the way of doing things. In many disciplines, as I have observed in Tokyo – from a training course in marketing to a judo lesson at...

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