Asian and Global? Japan and Tokyo’s Cultural Branding Beyond the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games

The chapter examines the rationale and imbrication of Japan and Tokyo’s cultural branding for—and beyond—the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In doing so, it analyses Tokyo’s cultural branding through the lens of the “Tokyo Vision for Arts and Culture” (2015–2025), the most recent agenda unveiled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Notwithstanding Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s cultural and urban branding is an ongoing endeavor, the analysis of its rationale, dynamics, and scope in early phases aims to contribute to the empirical debate in both academic and policy circles. The chapter uses the mobility/asemblage approach in policy knowledge to assess the urban and cultural branding of Tokyo from a regional (East Asia) and global perspective. Rather than solely focusing on the transfer of ‘best practices’, the chapter seeks to balance the specificity and generality aspects of contemporary policy knowledge by paying attention to ‘embedded institutional legacies and imperatives’ and in-situ politically feasible policy assemblage (McCann. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 2011:109; Flyvbjerg. Rationality and power. The Chicago University Press, Chicago, 1998). Lastly, the primary data for this study overwhelmingly suggest Japan/Tokyo’s cultural policy and cultural diplomacy to be unidirectional, particularly vis-à-vis their Asian neighbors.