Matt Alt

2015: The White House thanks Japan for inventing anime.

2026: The White House co-opts Japanese anime for propaganda.

From a 1967 magazine feature on Japan’s society-wide “Kaiju boom”: footprints of Varan, Ebira, King Ghidra, Angilas, King Kong, Rodan, Godzilla, Mothra (larva), Mothra (adult)

Pure TokyoScope Podcast 162: The A.I. in Japan Episode! Patrick Macias and Matt Alt bring you pop culture direct from Japan!

How is AI faring in Japan as compared to the US? Differently - in ways good and bad. Join @patrickmacias.bsky.social and I on the latest Pure Tokyoscope podcast: www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...

Episode 162 of the PURE TOKYOSCOPE Podcast is live! This time, Matt Alt (mattalt.bsky.social) and I grapple with the rise of generative AI in #Japan and what it might mean for piracy, politics, and dead wrestlers. Listen now at: www.tokyoscope.blog/p/pure-tokyo...

Agreed (and not just because @hirokoyoda.bsky.social and I translated Dorohedoro!)

I do my best work when I’m supposed to be working on something else

I know I brought this upon myself by writing a sprawling book, but I feel like 75% of the debates about BLANK SPACE are people arguing against a summary of a summary of what I actually wrote

Left out of today’s rosy NYT story on Hokkaido ski resorts is the fact Niseko is increasingly viewed as a worst-case scenario by many local tourist boards. Literally. They call the overwhelming of local services and pushing out of local residents by tourists “Niseko-ka,” or “Niseko-ization.”

マット・アルト「早苗 vs. アニメ」（2026年2月13日） 高市首相の大勝利で，日本のポップカルチャーはどうなるだろう？

高市首相の大勝利で，日本のポップカルチャーはどうなるだろう？ econ101.jp/matt-alt_san...

Point taken on this mainly applying to America, but these examples really prove my point. The environmental/ethical issues are linked to the political angle. Japan is not experiencing a culture war, so there's less political polarization, and less interest in taking stands on these topics.

Or an innate aversion to having their lives enshittified by tech oligarchs.

マット・アルト「早苗 vs. アニメ」（2026年2月13日） 高市首相の大勝利で，日本のポップカルチャーはどうなるだろう？

高市首相の大勝利で，日本のポップカルチャーはどうなるだろう？ econ101.jp/matt-alt_san...

Another good point.

The lowest-paid foreigners that they want to eliminate are ironically the ones doing the least-automatable jobs. But this isn't really about technology. It's about racism.

Sometimes I think we're all living in Megazone 23!

Japan's AI Affinity The reasons many Westerners despise AI explain why Japanese don't

I've been noticing that Japanese seem more inclined to see AI tools positively than Westerners, and wanted to figure out why. The answers have less to do with the tech than they do with Japan still having a functioning society. blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/japans-ai-...

日本のポップカルチャーに造詣の深いMatt Alt氏による「サナ活」解説記事！(ちょっと違う)

日本での報道すらきちんと分析できていない日本のソフトパワー「アニメ」の真の魅力が「善きもの≒政治的正しさ」にあることを指摘しているのも興味深い。

早苗 vs. アニメ
高市首相の圧勝は日本のポップカルチャーにとって何を意味するのか？
マット・アルト
2026年2月13日
blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/sanae-vs-a...

Happy 40th, Legend of Zelda~ (and Famicom Disk System!)

Watch How Anime and Manga Have Resurrected Japan's Soft Power - Bloomberg Matt Alt, author of "Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World" discusses why the popularity of Japanese IP and products have surged as the country's pop-culture economy has become i...

Join me and Hello Kitty on Bloomberg! Can Japan's fantasy-industrial complex survive a wave of foreign AI slop? And can it survive America's abdication of global leadership, which is compelling Japanese leaders to take a more aggressive role in regional geopolitics? www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/...

💽 so close!

BUCKAROO BANZAI deserves to be in the Criterion Collection

And don’t forget 📛

Thanks for sharing! Maybe the first confirmed use in the wild!? 🤣

A history of dead technology is written into the emoji:
📼videotape
💽optical discs
💾floppy discs
📹camcorders
📟pocket pagers
☎️analog phones
📇Rolodexes
🧮abaci
📽film projectors
🎞film (except auteurs)
📠fax machines
🪤(has anyone EVER used this emoji?)

“Ethnic” doing a lot of lifting here. And so is the Buddha.

The toys in this video are amazing!

Pure Tokyoscope in 4D: Matt & Pat go to the Great Bullmark Expo! YouTube video by Matt Alt's Japan

Join @patrickmacias.bsky.social and I on a Very Special Video Episode of Pure Tokyoscope! We visited the Bullmark Expo to see some of Japan’s greatest and most important kaiju toys. youtu.be/6hHtBUM7AGE?...

I wasn’t involved in the Gundam series, other than very peripherally as the localization producer of the first three Dynasty Warriors Gundam games. But that might have even been after this.

Sanae vs. Anime What does Prime Minister Takaichi’s landslide mean for Japan's pop culture?

Sanae Takaichi won her snap election by a landslide. What does this mean for pop culture in Japan? blog.pureinventionbook.com/p/sanae-vs-a...

Politics officially getting weird in Japan (this AI video was prompted by a critic of the Takaichi administration) www.instagram.com/reel/DUmiyeD...