“Brand Japan” has long benefited from the strength of Japanese companies in industries as diverse as automotives and music, or “J-pop.” The recent situation in China shows how that close association can also hurt businesses when nationalist sentiments go against them.
As big businesses — fairly or unfairly — become the short-term targets of populist politicians running for election or nationalist crowds driven by sensational media reports, policymakers from Tokyo to Washington should not lose sight of the long-term reality that companies and their products and employees are very much a part of a nation’s brand and “soft power.”
looking beyond borders 