This year Japan’s top football player HONDA Keisuke caused quite a buzz by joining the prestigious Italian team, AC Milan. Furthermore, in baseball – a sport that is as popular as football in Japan – TANAKA Masahiro, who is the Japanese number one player and affectionately nicknamed “Ma-kun,” joined the long-established major league team New York Yankees. Now, instead of its manufacturing industry, the Japanese government is trying to promote attractive products and services under the slogan of “Cool Japan.” Honda and Ma-kun could be considered to be a kind of outstanding Cool Japan product. I had an opportunity to talk with a young editor of a woman’s magazine about this topic. She explained, “Honda, who sports fashions like a model and gives interviews in English, is popular with women, so we are going to introduce him frequently.” I asked her, “What about Ma-kun?” “Well, he’s friendly and cute…” Her words were evasive and I got the feeling that she wasn’t particularly motivated to feature him. When I discussed this with my wife, she said, “Ma-kun will definitely be thought of by Americans as being cool.” It is certainly true that non-Japanese seem to find charm in things that Japanese, especially young women, have distanced themselves from. Young Japanese women have begun to eat more western food than washoku (Japanese food). However, washoku is now popular all over the world for being healthy delicious cuisine. In addition, things like bento (lunch boxes), kyuushoku (school lunches) and sento (public baths) and services provided at places like barbershops where there is a huge attention to detail, which young Japanese have been apt to avoid, are now renowned worldwide. Saying, “In the near future, I believe the sensibility of older Japanese women will be considered cool,” my wife began to listen to an enka – traditional Japanese song – CD. Now, young Japanese rarely listen to enka. So I thought that the day will surely come when enka is considered cool by the people of the world. (From April issue, 2014 / 2014年4月号より）