In Japanese, the word "subculture" does not have the same connotation of oppositional culture as it does in English, so it is frequently used in situations where "fandom" might be preferred by Westerners instead. In Japan, most works start out as manga, with the most successful titles receiving an anime adaptation. However, for overseas fans their first encounter with the subculture is typically through broadcast anime. It is common for a work to be distributed overseas via fansubs and scanlations, or unauthorized fanmade translations of anime and manga, respectively, before official translations become available. Typically, overseas fans will first translate the work into English, French, and Chinese, and then into other languages using those as an intermediary. The legality of ethics of these fanmade translations has been hotly debated. Many of those involved refuse to profit from their translations out of principle, and destroy the copies once officially licensed versions become available. Some industry participants in both Japan and the United States have expressed tacit acceptance of fanmade translations, seeing them as a trial run for the American market. Other types of media such as light novels and video games are frequently associated with and considered part of the anime and manga subculture.
History
The explosive growth in Japan's soft power began in the 1970s, when it changed from a net importer to a net exporter of information. Prior to the late 1990s, the primary export of Japan's content industry was video games. However, beginning in 2000, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognized anime and manga as part of "traditional" Japanese culture, and the government began to promote them as part of its Cool Japan strategy, passing the in June 2004. The value of the anime and manga industry is estimated at US$5 billion as of 2008. Anime and manga were not widely marketed in the United States before the mid-1990s, with only a few titles available on network television. The rapid growth of the genre in the United States has led some commentators to deem it an American import rather than a Japanese export. Despite the popularity of anime and manga overseas, publishers and producers continue to target primarily the domestic market with little thought towards catering to an increasingly international audience.
In other languages
In China, dongman is a portmanteau of donghua and manhua, used as an umbrella term for animation and comics. The term "dongman" is often mistakenly used to exclusively refer to the animation, while in fact it should include both the donghua and the manhua. When video games are included, the term used is ACG, short for "anime, comics, and games". A further extension which includes light novels is ACGN, or "anime, comics, games, and novels". Another term for the genre as a whole is erciyuan, meaning "two-dimensional space". One of the most popular websites for ACGN content is bilibili.
