Brand Strategy and Japan's Soft Power

Xing YAN

School of Political Science and Public Administration，China University of Political Science and Law，Beijing 100010，China

1 The relationship between brand strategy and soft power

1.1 Overview of the brand strategyBrand strategy is the result of competition in market economy.It is a long-term operation strategy of enterprises for obtaining market profit and value.According to Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index（NBI），a stable national brand needs endurance to a considerable extent.This is not only a progressive change，but also an inclination.To change national brand，the cost is particularly high.Firstly，interest-related parties have specific purpose，but anticipated benefit of unified act might not satisfy common purpose.Besides，authorities of central government are distributed in all provinces，so it is difficult to centralize power from top to bottom.In addition，in unstable external environment，it is unrealistic to setup national brand.On the contrary，it is highly possible to establish diversified harmonious national brand.In the national brand index survey of 2008，Anholt stated that the world had high comments of national brands of the UK，Germany，F(xiàn)rance，and Japan.In this sense，the cognition of the public to brands is determined by quality of exported products.

1.2 The relationship between brand strategy and soft powerAs essential part of overall national strength，the soft power is intangible influence power of a country released relying on appeal，influence of cultural value and affinity of national image.It deeply influences ideas of people about international relations.Once this concept was put forward，it received positive response in world wide area，and all countries started to carefully raise their soft power.Joseph Nye firstly defined the soft power as the ability to attract and co-opt rather than coerce，use force or give money as a means of persuasion.Recently，the term has also been used in changing and influencing social and public opinion through relatively less transparent channels and lobbying through powerful political and non-political organizations.It should be noted that，the soft power also includes cultural policy，political concept and legitimacy of value concept［2］.At present，many countries have realized the importance of soft power.In diplomacy，hard power is deemed as factors promoting policy changes，such as economic strength and military force.Now，countries attach great importance to soft power.Such idea influences all countries.All countries launched the campaign of improving national image.Diplomatic force plays a great role in improving traditional safety value concept and cultural charm.The Former Prime Minister of Japan，Keizo Obuchi stated that Japan is more confident in culture and domestic lifestyle than other safety level factors from threatening of hard power to charm appeal and soft power of stimulating competition.Certainly，for any country，the recognition of domestic culture is important source and method of soft power，and how to keep or develop soft power is a key problem［3］.

2 Current situations of imp lementation of Japan's brand strategy

Brand competitiveness of Japanese enterprises is only second to the United States.Before World War II，products made by Japan were inferior commodities.After World War II，American-European countries thought Japanese products are basically kimono and toys.Till the 1950s，with support of government，Japanese enterprises started introducing advanced production technologies from American-European countries，implemented acts of revitalizing mechanical and electrical equipment and electronic products，and gradually set up representative brand products.

2.1 Policy support of government for development of brand strategyIn March of2009，Committee of Experts of Japan's Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters issued the Brand Strategy of Japan，incorporating animation，game，food，and fashion into scope of the soft power，and planned to realize brand value with unique creativity.The Brand Strategy of Japan takes＂national brand＂as subject，to attract attention of the whole world.Large national brand is helpful for building national image，including construction of national，city and regional brands.

On July 3，2009，the Brand Strategy Action Plan determined by Kansai Province Network Committee stated that the soft power of Japan includes catering，fashion，design，movie，TV play，music，and game，etc［4］.In a speech，the Prime Minister of Japan，Taro Aso stressed that Japanese popular culture and working system are both soft power of Japan.Public relation and cultural exchange increase channel for the media and foreign citizens to find out Japan and favorable for setting up national brands［5］.Japanese brands bring great competitive edge，but there is still no common understanding about how to set up soft power of Japanese national brands.

Domestic citizens of Japan think that a big problem of Japanese national brands is lack of propaganda，which is the reality to be faced in the reform.Thus，Japan is devoted to strengthening international communication and it has formulated effective coordination mechanism for developing brand strategy.For example，a report made in June 2007 stated that foreign minister of International Exchange Association asked to strengthen propaganda of Japan in public diplomacy.On June30，2007，at the meeting presided over by Japanese and world senior vice foreign prime minister，it proposed transforming Japan's brand strategy.From the perspective of national brand，it can effectively distribute and balance resources.Besides，during the tenure of office of Shinz Abe，the Asia Gateway specified brand project in national construction project and was determined national strategy by the cabinet.On September 1，2009，PHP Policy Inspection Center evaluated the brand strategy.

2.2 Existing problems in Japan's brand strategy

2.2.1 In creation，the creation source and quality materials are gradually reducing.An industry with powerful creativity can attract excellent creators.In soft power industries，small and medium-sized enterprises and those entrepreneurs just founding enterprises not long have insufficient experience and funds，which seriously affect their creation.Besides，the scale of core sectors of the soft power industry is still not large（only accounting for 2.2%of Japan's GDP，3.2%of the world，and 5.1%of the United States），and the growth rate is low in recent years（in 2006，the growth rate was only 0.3%，and it was0.6%in 2007）［6］.

2.2.2 In talent fostering，higher education institutions are fully ready for enriching high quality talents.However，it is still necessary to improve the talent fostering mechanism in soft power related industries.The culture extends private fund flow，promotes cultural exchange，and also promotes people's communication.The improvement in system，such as taxation，forms open entry and exit procedures.The Report of UN Security Council mentioned＂Japan's 21st Century＂plan and measure，which energetically supports arts，culture and academic development，and proposed increasing donation of individuals and companies，to promote development of public culture.

2.2.3 From the perspective of region，Japan has soft power advantages in tourist resources，catering culture and traditional handicraft in some regions.Thus，the economic development of these regions should be fostered.The source culture of soft power should be used to promote development of cultural exchange，which is not limited to promotion of government in culture.Government function becomes an essential factor for promoting increasingly diversification of colorful culture and cultural exchange.Government function is source of soft power through supporting culture.In other words，it is required to firstly attach great importance to national and non-governmental exchange with potential strength，rather than relying excessively on cultural exchange of government.

3 Implications of Japan's brand strategy for China

3.1 Foundation and experience of Japan's brand strategy

3.1.1 Valuing the culture and education.Creation of present and future Japanese cultural creators is based on resource-sharing society，and its importance should be evaluated again.People's demands for cultural products are more and more，while the large scale production of cultural products forms cultural industry［7］.For this reason，promoting traditional animation to be included into the cultural heritage field is attracting world-wide attention.Besides，human resource development in arts and culture should be based on growth of development of new media，arts and human resources.In addition，it is not necessary for leaders of Japanese brands to confine the human resource development in Japan，but it is feasible to extend to the whole world，including Asia.For this reason，Japan accepts foreign human resources and actively cultivates them.Further，Japan constantly consolidates intellectual property right system，to support the brand strategy.

Firstly，Japan constantly enriches education procedures of colleges and universities.Secondly，Japan supports cultivation of young designers.In movie and animation fields，exploring ability of young designers and making comments of their works are useful for development of cultural industry.Through their outstanding ability，it is expected to cultivate numerous talents in these fields.Besides，it is recommended to support making of short movies.At the same time of training movie writers，it is recommended to cultivate young scholars and set price awarding mechanism.Thirdly，Japan makes effort to realize cultural resource sharing.Japan seeks foundation building of new creation activities.It is required to energetically promote traditional cultural heritage，including animation，caricature，movie，TV program，music，fashion，design，photo，and relevant data collection，storage，research，public，digital and network.

3.1.2 Improving talent and management system.Firstly，Japan values cultivation of talents who make great contribution to overseas extension of Japan's brands.Japan increases the popularization of its dish，traditional culture，caricature，animation and oth-er brands，to promote population of its brands in overseas，and actively admits contribution of foreigners，and learns knowledge point technology.Besides，Japan accepts suggestions of other countries and promotes purchase of foreign brands.Secondly，Japan expands the system of commending foreigners who make great contribution to Japanese cultural publicity.Thirdly，Japan promotes survey and research of craftsman system through designing creation activities and making diversified design and creation activities.

3.1.3 Strengthening international communication and enhancing role of soft power in foreign countries.Firstly，Japan promotes sales of products in foreign countries，sets up＂seeking overseas extension fund＂with cooperation of citizens，increases varieties of products sold abroad，open up new sales channel，and takes advantage of exposure opportunity of local media，to ensure implementation of comprehensive support policies.Secondly，Japan strengthens support policy for sales in popularity source region，such as New York and Paris，increases professional talents in Japan，and surveys local department stores.Thirdly，Japan sets government-citizen cooperation platform for service industry.Propaganda activities of Japan's brands of retail and catering industries constantly increase sales volume of Japan's service industry.Thus，it has established a government-citizen cooperation platform and set up a trans-platform transfer.Fourthly，Japan supports overseas extension undertaking of medium and small sized enterprises.At the same time of strengthening extension of information through Japan External Trade Organization and other organizations.Fifthly，Japan strengthens function of its brand propaganda mechanism，for example，through Japan International Culture Festival and Japan Fashion Week.It enhances propaganda in various fields，enriches media art festivals and international TV play programs，and forms popularization of Japanese dish and food，and other related activities.It promotes implementation of brand strategy in foreign countries，including cooperation with Expo 2010 Shanghai， and strengthening drama festival and international media art festival to disseminate culture［8］.

In addition，Japan is a metropolis of centralization of world fashion information，like New York and Paris.However，as a brand，the sense of existence of Japan is still very low.From the perspective of world trend，sales scale of Japanese products has not reached the expected level.Therefore，on the basis of characteristics and situations of respective countries and regions，strengthening propaganda of Japan's brands is more important than market development.

3.1.4 Strengthening external functions of related departments.Firstly，Japan strengthens overseas embassies support function，information survey function of Japan's brands in local areas，and sets up＂Japan Brand Support Center＂through Japan External Trade Organization.Secondly，Japan implements joint propaganda of Japan's brands with the aid of multi-media，jointly makes programs with Japan's high fame translators，and increases propaganda using cooperation of international broadcasting and media.Thirdly，Japan enhances Asia-wide propaganda and cooperation，including five key areas，to ensure exposure opportunities of various local media.Japan actively participates in cooperation summits，like Asian Business Summit.Fourthly，Japan increases popularity of its products，to let people feel effect of Japanese products and culture.Finally，apart from increasing propaganda of Japanese culture，Japan reinforces its education and abroad study support service，to increase recognition of Japanese culture.Learning Japanese will also stimulate students to study abroad.Through those students learning in Japan，it could increase propaganda of Japanese culture and cooperation of Japanese education and abroad learning support service institutions.

3.2 Implications of Japan's brand strategy for China

3.2.1 Giving impetus to creativity education of childhood.It is recommended to carry out childhood creativity education from respecting creativity interest and originality.We should provide social conditions for bringing into play functions of originality and creativity，for example，cultivate interest in creativity and originality，to promote creativity of early childhood education.

3.2.2 Dispatching workers engaged in international exchange of brands.To obtain foreign customer fashion design creators，Japan increased the scale of dispatching workers to overseas，for example，＂creator overseas delegation＂.Through dispatching overseas delegation，it increased sales channel and obtained more overseas customers.China can learn from this experience to propagandize brands and win more customers.

3.2.3 Implementing low-cost，differentiated and focus brand strategy.Through reducing cost，Japan supports price competition force.This has been always a competition method of many enterprises.Now，it is necessary to seek approaches of saving cost，for example，increase production scale to reduce marginal cost and average cost of unit product，reduce consumption through technological transformation and improving workers'skill，and removing hidden cost items through structural adjustment.However，merely reducing cost is not the whole meaning of low-cost competition strategy，but a means for establishing initial competitive edge.In present market condition of higher and higher homogenous level of commodities，consumers have increasingly diversified and individualized consumption demands.To seek satisfactory consumption，diversification is an effective competition strategy.Diversification is to look for and develop popular but unique marketing tool and attract new customers with new characteristics，to satisfy new demands of consumers.The focus strategy is a marketing strategy in which a company concentrates its resources on entering or expanding in a narrow market or industry segment［9］.

3.2.4 Setting up brand crisis management awareness.Brand crisis management is full of courage，wisdom and insight.Any brand may have unexpected crisis.Once there is an emergency，improper management may lead to decline of well-selling commodities.Therefore，enterprises should take full advantage of media and the public to disseminate，always put benefits of consumers at the first place，and implement a series of responsible actions，to strengthen trust of the society and public in the brand［10］.

3.2.5 Improving convenience of applying trade market system.It is recommended to prevent overflow of counterfeits of Japanese brands in foreign countries，increase participating countries ofAnti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement（ACTA），improve international rules，promote bilateral and multilateral countries，push forward the outlawing system，and strengthen supervision of overseas brand market application and site survey of counterfeits.Besides，it is recommended to improve convenience of flexible use of trade marks，strengthen use of trade marks，protection of famous trade marks，and take necessary measures for registration application system.To facilitate users，including system operators improving brand use trade mark system，strengthening trade mark system，review system，we should strengthen researches and take necessary measures.

3.2.6 Effectively combining strong and weak brands to launch joint attack.Using influence power of strong brands to extend brands and increase scope of brands is a basic objective of brand combination strategy and also an essential strategy of many enterprises to raise their influence power.However，it should be noted that any brand extension is limited，excessive extension will lead to loss of diversified advantage.Even，extension of some brands may weaken or destroy the brand image due to some imagination.Of course，the role of a brand in brand combination is not fixed but can be mutually converted，and it is different in different market environment.Therefore，it is required to take full advantage of strong brands to obtain reputation，develop and strengthen weak brands，and realize win-win objective［11］.

In the context of cultural difference，trade friction and dispute are issues to be considered.In the globalization context，we should expand cultural exchange and promote brand development.International cultural exchange is of great significance and should be developed further.In this sense，we should enhance mutual understanding，promote establishment of mutual trust，reduce trade frictions，stabilize mutual existence，establish friendly international relations，and develop domestic economy in peaceful and safe international context，to promote brand building and boos tour soft power.Besides，it is recommended to know different culture，convey domestic culture to other countries，redefine ourselves，activate self society，and realize significance of cultural exchange.Although different regions and nations have different characteristics，they also have common features which are favorable for overcoming unstable factors in international relations and ensuring rich and colorful international culture.

After the World War II，rapid growth of Japan's economy shocks the whole world.In this process，Japan's brand strategy plays a great role.Through optimally combining software of oriental clan and hardware of western countries，Japanese enterprises have established the unique culture of justice tempered with mercy and soft outside but hard inside.These bring Japan's soft power with vitality，forming community of survival and existence together and promoting tremendous development of Japan's national economy.With more than one century of hardships，Japan's brand strategy provides great reference for other countries.China also needs learning experience of Japan，to provide valuable reference for better construction of China's economy and better cooperation with world economy，as well as for boosting our national strength.

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