Japanese Popular Culture and Digimodernism

The article addresses the socio-philosophical interpretations of Japanese popular culture. Pointing out the unique position of the latter, the author believes that the experience of a number of successful Japanese projects that have become global phenomena can be used by social and cultural theorists to analyze modernity. The article refers to the genesis of Japanese popular culture in the mid-90s of the XX century, when the most popular part of Japanese pop culture in the West — anime — embodied the postmodern canon. However, a closer look reveals that the optics of postmodernism, which by the end of the XX century had already ceased to be advanced research optics, may not be enough for analysis. A number of phenomena, among which the author highlights the Pokémon media franchise, require a different research approach. As a relevant methodological optics, the article refers to the concept of «digimodernism» by the British theorist Alan Kirby. With the help of its main provisions, it is shown that Japanese popular culture was at the forefront of the cultural process, offering several interesting finds to modernity. After analyzing the socio-philosophical reasons for the success of Pokémon, the author points out that the concept of digimodernism has some applicability for the analysis of modern cultural phenomena, аnd a number of ideas of Alan Kirby about the autistic nature of modern digital civilization could be found as reflected in the culture