There's an interesting article in Conde Nast Traveler singing the praises of Tokyo as the new art/design capital of the world. Any other challengers? Here's what they say:
Over the past few years, I've been watching the sensibilities of some of the more interesting creative types I know (graphic designers and architects, artists and filmmakers) slowly turn Japanese. Not that they necessarily realize it themselves—Japanese contemporary culture has been folded so thoroughly into our own that it's often difficult to perceive key elements of it as particularly foreign anymore. Even the most unassuming middle-American suburban and exurban areas have adopted rudimentary Japanese-isms (sushi and karaoke bars, hair-straightening salons, and video stores stocked with anime DVDs), and Japanese chefs continue to reinvent fine dining in upscale cities around the world (Masa in New York, for instance, has catapulted the culinary upper end pioneered by Nobu to truly stratospheric levels), eclipsing the French restaurants that once dictated our notions of haute cuisine. Directors such as Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers have permanently transformed the blockbuster vernacular by appropriating a distinctly Japanese cinematic aesthetic, while Tokyo itself upstaged the neurasthenic cast of Lost in Translation, director Sofia Coppola's sweet-and-sour tribute to the city. Pop star Gwen Stefani, whose hit solo album offers an extended paean to Japanese style, recently launched a new fashion label called Harajuku Lovers, inspired by the strikingly stylish young women who haunt the Harajuku shopping district. House of Chanel design czar Karl Lagerfeld paid tribute to Tokyo's artistic elite last year by spending weeks photographing the city's creative all-stars for a special issue of Interview, the trend-spotting magazine founded by Andy Warhol. And speaking of Warhol, it may be that his true heirs are a couple of artful, commerce-minded Tokyoites: Takashi Murakami (the omnipresent, internationally acclaimed artist who has collaborated with Louis Vuitton) and Nigo, the mono-monikered artist/entrepreneur whose pop streetwear label has made his Bathing Ape mascot ubiquitous, and who counts a number of American hip-hop artists as fans.The current global reality is that Japan is the new Italy, and Tokyo the new Milan. Beginning in the '60s, Italian style ruled—from Fellini to Fendi—and the insouciant romance of la dolce vita not only came to define the lifestyle aspirations of generations of young jet-setters around the world but also somehow made a dusty tourist destination seem "new"—an ancient culture magically, almost effortlessly reinvented through the alchemy of pop culture.
But here's the difference: While Japan's rising reputation as the new new place, a sort of real-world Tomorrowland, has prompted a similar surge—in 2005, the country saw a twenty-nine percent leap in visitors compared to two years earlier—the Japanese tourism industry remains comparatively tiny. In fact, last year, all of Japan received only 6.7 million overseas visitors. (By contrast, an estimated 6.6 million international travelers visited New York City alone in 2005.)
This relative seclusion is not entirely accidental: Tokyo has remained one of the most surprisingly insular international cities by virtue of tight immigration policies and traditional lack of emphasis on tourism. But the country is learning to accept its new status as an exporter and shaper of culture. Indeed, gross national cool—a phrase coined by Foreign Policy writer Douglas McGray to describe the economic impact of Japan's rising global cultural influence—has been discreetly gaining currency among its political leaders.
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