Pure Invention cover art

Pure Invention

How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.
More purchase options

Pure Invention

By: Matt Alt
Narrated by: Matt Alt
Get this deal

$8.99/month after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends on 29 July 2026 at 11:59 AEST.

Buy Now for $24.40

Buy Now for $24.40

'Amazingly well researched, fabulously informative and an awful lot of fun. If you love Japanese culture or are just curious to know more I can't recommend this book highly enough' Jonathan Ross

'A nerd- and generalist-friendly look at how Japan shaped the post-World War II world, from toys to Trump . . . A non-native's savvy study of Japan's wide influence in ways both subtle and profound' Kirkus

The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-kawaii. But as Japanese-media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know the half of it.

Japan's toys, gadgets, and fantasy worlds didn't merely entertain. They profoundly transformed the way we live. In the 1970s and '80s, Japan seemed to exist in some near future, soaring on the superior technology of Sony and Toyota while the West struggled to catch up. Then a catastrophic 1990 stock-market crash ushered in the 'lost decades' of deep recession and social dysfunction.

The end of the boom times should have plunged Japan into irrelevance, but that's precisely when its cultural clout soared - when, once again, Japan got to the future a little ahead of the rest of us. Hello Kitty, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and multimedia empires like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were more than marketing hits. Artfully packaged, dangerously cute, and dizzyingly fun, these products made Japan the forge of the world's fantasies, and gave us new tools for coping with trying times. They also transformed us as we consumed them - connecting as well as isolating us in new ways, opening vistas of imagination and pathways to revolution.

Through the stories of an indelible group of artists, geniuses, and oddballs, Pure Invention reveals how Japanese ingenuity remade global culture and may have created modern life as we know it. It's Japan's world; we're just gaming, texting, singing, and dreaming in it.©2020 Matt Alt Asia History History & Culture Japan Social Sciences Technology Imperial Japan
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic Reviews

A nerd- and generalist-friendly look at how Japan shaped the post-World War II world, from toys to Trump . . . A non-native's savvy study of Japan's wide influence in ways both subtle and profound
Amazingly well researched, fabulously informative and an awful lot of fun. If you love Japanese culture or are just curious to know more I can't recommend this book highly enough
A work of startling originality . . . This is a wonderful book, exuberant and joyful, full of love for Japan but a deep appreciation of the sorts of links that get left out of popular accounts - political economies, human-interest stories and technological determinism (Jonathan Clements)
A classic in the making
All stars
Most relevant
A great journey about Japan pop culture, and how we got from the post war period to Cool Japan in the 2010s. I’d thought I was well versed in all things Japan, but I learned a lot with this book.

Well researched and enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A well-narrated modern history describing the way Japanese post-war pop culture grew to influence the entire world. It does a good job of tracing the roots of modern pop culture back to its Japanese origins, particularly in its more socially-relevant aspects.

Well-conceived

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I felt this book looked to much from an Americans point of view a few good chapters here and there but many area I found under explore to lacking in depth about the topic,

far too much time was talking about a Japanese thing then relating it straight to some sh*t about America.

Concurred the world more like just America a one sided view point that in my option just takes the name Japan and abuses it.

DO NOT RECOMEND

an Americans view of Japans influence on America

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.