Major western cultural influences?

[digz]

Just curious if anyone had any insight into major cultural influences/fads in Japan that mirror how westerners view Japanese. For example, many westerners like to watch Anime... is there a big fansub underground in Japan that are huge Western (Cowboy and Indian) films (purley speculating). Or would they get "culture shocked" over how we prefer non community baths (I think most Americans would get shocked over community baths in Japan).

Didn't find a discussion like this in a search, so what say you?

[etane]

Engrish fansubs...

[f1rst children]

Whatever Japanophilia exists in the US right now is probably 1/10th the Ameri-philia in Japan. Japan's love of the West isn't underground - it bashes you over the head, severely and repeatedly. Go hang out at a corner in Shibuya for an hour - you'll see as many iPods, basketball jerseys, and baseball hats as any mall in America. Look how many Japanese went to see Pearl Harbor just to look at Ben Affleck's terrible acting. I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese loved American culture more than Americans do.

[A-R@D]

Fandom of American movies and sports isnt something unique though, I would think. American corperate strength has such a widespread economic influence, that I would imagine there are very few parts of the world that don't have a significant percentage of the population that spends time enjoying american movies or sports.

[ant]

I will second what first children and A-R@D have said. You won't have to look for over an hour in Shibuya you can go in any train station in Japan to find the influence. McDonalds more commonly known as MacDonalds is everywhere. Hip hop is huge here even though young Japanese yankees don't have a clue as to who Run DMC are (speaking in general). More people have bought something Harry Potter than anything else, this includes the books, dvds....more Hollywood movies run in the theaters than Japanese movies, and you can always watch the Super Bowl 12 hours after it is over. SMAP singing with the Back Street Boys was one of the ROLFest moments I have seen on TV here, and not to mention ALL Japanese students are required to study English from jr. high school up till high school. Its more 1/50. However now there is more of an Asian boom with Japanese youngsters into Korean singers, dramas and such the western influence though is still big.

Funny tangents when someone asked Madonna what her name was she said Madonna san, and if she liked Japanese food she said she eats more Japanese food than Japanese people do. I think her head is getting bigger than Bobobobobobobo's afro.
Brad Pitt's Japanese name is Brado Pitto
Japanese people didn't start to eat meat (from cows) until westerns came into Japan, which means little under 150 years ago.