askchapo

No, that's just an orientalist brainworm derived from Western paranoia about Japan's economic development in the 2nd half of the 20th century. It also doesn't follow Lenin's definition of imperialism afaik.

The real imperialist action was the use of the Plaza Accords to crash the Japanese economy which the country has not recovered from to eliminate any threat to American capital, or the fact that the incumbent ruling party of Japan is a CIA shoe-in. That and the heavily financialized structure of Japanese anime production (dependent on the severe exploitation of workers domestically and abroad) should reveal more about Japan than "is anime corrupting the youth"

If we're going by the definition of "cultural imperialism" being the cultural aspect of imperialism, then in my opinion no. Japan isn't an empire. It's a vassal of the US.

Hayao "Japan needs to apologize" Miyazaki reading this

I saw an interesting video from Moon Channel recently about this. Tl;dw the Japanese government subsidizes a lot of anime as soft power moves.

My impression is that within East or SE Asia, anime could be considered a form of Japanese cultural imperialism, however outside of that region I really wouldn't say so. I'd like to hear what people from East/SE Asia have to say about things like Chinese "ACG" culture and attitudes towards it, though, since I'd prefer not to talk out my ass. Japanese music -- on the subject of Japanese cultural exports -- I know was actually banned in South Korea until the 1990s, with the supremely based Soul Flower Union being the first Japanese band to perform in South Korea (and North Korea!) after the ban was lifted, for whatever that's worth.

In Norway my own line is that anime is actually a form of US cultural imperialism which also comprises a form of Japanese soft power.