Kangaroos and koalas are among the symbols Japanese pop culture has, for many and various reasons, adopted at times (the latter with particular relish), and singer Misato Watanabe‘s choice of subject topic for her 1988 hit Sentimental Kangaroo proved a marsupial masterpiece. Watanabe made her debut in 1986 with My Revolution, a huge hit that earned her a gold prize at the 28th Annual Japan Record Awards and would be the biggest-selling song of her career. Watanabe, whose heyday stemmed from the late ’80s to early ’90s, continues performing regularly today. Sentimental Kangaroo was one of the attempts she made…
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Japan was trending in Australia long before it became flavor of the month in the way it has in recent years courtesy of Cool Japan. 近年の「クール・ジャパン」現象はオーストラリアでは、かなり昔から現れていた。 During the late 1980s through to the mid-1990s, a time when trade friction between a seemingly unstoppable Japan and the struggling United States resulted in such incidents as American autoworkers using sledgehammers to demolish a Japanese car, Australia was slowly moving out of its self-imposed isolation to embrace the Asia-Pacific region and building the firm relationship it now has with Japan. Australia was a pioneer in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) and Working…
