[ThirdSight]

If everyone's quite finished applying their biased, self preserving point of views on a country they know nothing about, I'd like to add two cents to this whole debacle.

My credentials:
- I know nothing about Japan. Few things here, a few things there; it still amounts to nothing.
- I watch anime and read manga, reasons being because I'm a fan of comics and I can rarely find anything good to watch on American television. Just not my thing.

First thing to realize is that the people obsessing over Japan (apply any derogetory term here, there's quite a few) would obsess over something else if given the chance. These kinds of people don't have very high self esteem in the first place, and need to latch onto something psychologically in order to remain sane, even if it comes at the cost of their social life and skills. If it wasn't Japan, it'd be Mudkips. Is that what you want? And if we're truly going to compare people who are a fan of Japanese Pop culture, to some degree or form, we can't leave out those that subscribe to the Pop culture of the country you're living in. They're the same people, the only difference between the two is which country's "culture" they decide to latch onto.

MMM made a marvelous point about sex, because that's what it comes down to, once you remove practically everything else. But think: are these weirdos and Japan-lovers so different from anyone driven by sex in your own country? Turn on the television, and sex is everywhere, in your native language. Playboy and Hustler; ettchi and hentai comics. Different of course, but with striking similarities.

Furthermore, we can't ignore the era that we live in. We live in an age where information is at our fingertips, should we require it (this post is testament to that fact). To Westerners (pretty much Americans, Eurpoeans, and anyone else in a few select countries), Japanese "cuture" is more widely spread than any other. China makes nearly everything, and Germany can crank out a few amazing gadgets every now and again that make it to a Western television set. But Japanese "cuture" is still more widely spread. It's associated with video games. It's associated with comics. It's associated with certain digital effects. And it's associated with things that are foreign and mysterious. All this doesn't mean that Japan and it's "culture" is mysterious and amazing, it just means it's associated with the notions. I'm not sure how it started, but with a little research, you'll find the source.

Therefore, because it's associated with being mysterious and amazing, it's seen as such, regardless if it's the truth or not. The reasons for this aren't too farfetched. Of course, Japan isn't any more different than any other foreign country, but compared to England? London? Russia? These all have some sililarities with Western "culture", therefore the culture shock is much lower. There are a great many things within the daily lives of Japanese people that Westerners consider radical, making the culture shock much higher, therefore making the culture appear so much more different than any other culture around the world.

It boils down to subliminal advertising. Every country is guilty of it, and every country does it. Americans are known to be fat, lazy, hamburger eaters, violent, and Baseball fans. England and London are known for their good manners and accents. Europe in general is known for its embrace in sexual culture and "lack of rules" (if we're to ask our fellow college graduate). Russia's known to be cold as hell. Every last country has assumptions made about it, steming from the ideas that get into people's heads due to that country's "culture" leaking out into the global field. Ignorance does the rest for us, and we make wild assumptions about the whole thing.

Japan attracts the weirdos because they find themselves in lack of social skills that they willingly gave up in order to latch onto Japanese "culture". This creates assumptions that Japanese "culture" is based around what these weirdos obsess over and the cons they attend. Because most people don't understand the obsession itself or the items being obsessed over, many Westerners attribute Japan to being myseterious itself.