This is a really interesting article about Uniqlo shuttering its flagship store in Seoul. Putting aside the socio-political issues surrounding Korea's boycott of Japanese products, it is very telling which products are NOT being boycotted. (1/8) https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-South-Korea-rift/Uniqlo-s-Seoul-flagship-to-close-as-Japan-boycotts-smolder

Sales of things that have Korean alternatives, like clothing, beer, and cars, have suffered. Big exception? Fantasy-delivery devices: Nintendo's Animal Crossing. Sony’s PS5. Bandai’s Tamagotchi “"broke the all-time record for toy orders in South Korea.” What’s going on? (2/8

Nikkei Asia calls it “selective boycotting,” but this isn’t anything new. In fact precisely the same thing happened in US during similar time of turmoil: Japan bashing of Eighties. (3/8

As (ostensible) grown-ups smashed Honda cars and Toshiba radios with sledgehammers to protest Japanese businesses, so too did they feed literally millions of quarters into Japanese games like Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man. (4/8

Among kids, who didn’t care about politics to begin with, it was even more pronounced. They flocked to Hello Kitty, the NES and Game Boy, Voltron and other made-in-Japan fantasies that had no counterparts in Western culture. (5/8

The fad might have faded if not for an unlikely champion: Ronald Reagan, whose 1981 deregulation of the FCC opened the airwaves to the corporatization of kids’ programming. First came Pac-Man, then GI Joe, Transformers, and a flood of other commercial cartoons. (6/8

Most of these shows and merchandise were animated in Japan. In essence, while policing American markets from Japanese invaders, the authorities handed them the keys to the kingdom: the hearts and minds of young people. (7/8

That’s the power of fantasy-delivery devices. Appealing to deep-seated hunger to dream, play, and escape, they work their way into our hearts and lives. This isn’t something necessarily limited to any one nation, but Japan's lived experience gives its creators an edge. (end)

Put simply: You can regulate markets, but never dreams.