Japan is the land of the boom, and you never know what will be popular next. Right now the country is experiencing a “Tae Bo Boom” as Billy Blanks makes a visit to the country to promote his line of “tae kwon-do + boxing” workout videos. There’s something about Japan that makes them go especially ga-ga when foreign celebrities visit, and Billy was getting star treatment as he made an appearance on a TBS morning “wide show” that’s roughly a local version of Good Morning America. Showing off for the camera, he modified his training workout so that instead of lifting weights, he was lifting the tiny body of the female Japanese announcer who was interviewing him.
The Japanese like to quantify things with numbers, and you often hear about things like the “three most beautiful views of Japan” or “the three famous tea gardens of Japan.” Similarly, when you study Japanese history you come across the “three unifiers” of the country. During the Sengoku (Warring States) Period of the 16th Century, Japan was a patchwork of separate domains of feudal lords fighting against each other for power, with the ultimate goal of forcing the Emperor to name them Shogun or “supreme military general” over the whole nation. The first unifier was Nobunaga Oda, who conquered the provinces starting with the Nagoya area until a third of the country was controlled by him; he also supported the arts, and was a fan of sumo wrestling tournaments. Then came Hideyoshi Toyotomi, unique in Japanese history because he started out as a peasant, rising in Nobunaga’s army to become the most powerful man in Japan, although his reign ended with just one generation. Finally there was Ieyasu Tokugawa, who founded a 15-generation dynasty of shoguns that brought 250 years of peace and unique cultural growth known as the Edo Period.
Just as you can buy books that tell you how to manage your company using the Captain Piccard “Make It So” Method or live your life by the Tao of Pooh, these three unifiers of Japanese history have inspired many ideas on business and personal philosophy over the years. Nobunaga was famous for being calculating in everything he did, and if you manage yourself using the Nobunaga Method you divorce yourself from emotion and calmly do what needs to be done in any situation. Hideyoshi was a very social person, able to “grind the sesame seeds of” (i.e., flatter) anyone, so if you live your life by the Hideyoshi Principle you maintain close relationships with those around you for everyone’s mutual benefit. Hideyoshi was pragmatic, too: although he managed to climb to the top of Japan’s ruling class from poverty, he established the four-class social system (samurai, farmers, artisans, merchants) that effectively kept anyone from the lower classes from following in his footsteps. Finally, if you subscribe to the Ieyasu Way, you probably balance boldness with caution, and work to build a big tent, as Ieyasu did when he allowed his former enemies to keep their fiefs after he defeated them at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600). You probably stress long-term planning for the future, too. Soon after Ieyasu was named Shogun, he abdicated to his son in order to help him lay the groundwork for the future success of the family. When he established his city in Edo (Tokyo), he supposedly did so because it lied in a “lucky” direction in relation to the capital of Kyoto according to a feng shui-like belief system popular in Japan. Some believe that Tokyo’s circular Yama-no-te train line and the Chuo line that curves through it (both based on old road systems dating back several centuries) crate a yin-yang symbol, with Tokyo’s administrative offices and the Imperial Castle forming the dots, to increase the fortunes of the nation..
Every year J-List is fortunate to be able to participate in some of the best anime conventions in the U.S., and we’ll be at the upcoming Anime Expo (June 29-July 2), greeting our customers and showing our many fun and wacky products from Japan. This show is really the seminal annual event for fans of animation and Japanese pop culture, and this year is going to be a blast, with dozens of guests from Japan including Gackt, the Haruhi voice actresses and many more. If you’ll be at the show, please come by booths 852, 854 and 856 and say hello! (And don’t forget our dating-sim game panel on the first evening of the show, we’ll have some great news for you there.)
