Impact of Cultural Intermediaries - The Spread of Japanese Movies to Hong Kong

Aug 22, 2026

The paper examines how cultural intermediaries enabled Japanese popular culture to take root in Hong Kong, focusing on the importation and localization of Japanese film. It traces developments from the 1980s, when media networks relied on magazines, newspapers, and radio to circulate foreign entertainment. Through qualitative interviews with contributors and industry agents, the study analyzes how publishers, music and film producers, directors, and managers selected, adapted, and marketed Japanese products for local audiences. The discussion links processes of mediation to wider social change, globalization, and business cooperation while sustaining Japanese cinema’s influence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Cultural interaction and media mediation

Interviews and contributing sectors

Japanese entertainment adaptation and business cooperation

Japanese film in Hong Kong

Storyboards, themes, and audience reception

Globalization and localization dynamics

Japanese cartoon

Comic rentals, media environments, and audience trends

Impact of Cultural IntermediariesThe spread of Japanese movie to HongKong Ha Miu Yin Serina, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong The Asian Conference on Cultural Studies 2016 Official Conference Proceedings iafor The International Academic Forum [www.iafor.org](www.iafor.org) INTRODUCTION Speaking of Japanese culture, the first thing that popped out will be the cosplay costumes that teenagers wear, the comic books like Doremon, Japanese songs broadcasted on the radio or the horror Japanese movie “Ring”. Japanese culture was deeply rooted into Hong Kong society in the 80s. The emergence of Japanese television program and movie was developed from the significant cultural interaction with Hong Kong and Japan. Many people learned a lot of Japanese culture by watching the Japanese drama and would often have a better knowledge of the Japanese way of life. They started to learn Japanese language, travel to Japan or look for opportunities to work with the Japanese. This can be traced back to the 1980s, where a group of people had performed their talentsand brought the best of this culture to Hong Kong. The mass media was not that well developed by that time, and people rely on newspapers, magazines and the radio to get updated information of the world. These cultural intermediates served as mediators to digest, translate, modify and localize the foreign popular culture for integration into the local entertainment industry. Among them, magazine publishers allowed people to know more about the foreign culture through their articles. This raised the author’s interest in finding out why this had happened by investigating the processes and methods of different contributors in importing Japanese music to Hong Kong. The contributors came from different sectors, ranging from businessmen to music producers, movie directors and artists. Qualitative researches were made in the form of interviews to facilitate the study. Through interviews, researches on magazines ; songs and movies, we would be able to understand how and why they can successfully globalize and localize Japanese products from Japan to Hong Kong. With the use of magazines, publishers collect and present the latest Japanese entertainment news to the society, allowing people to get to know Japanese music. With the profession in music or movie, producers select and transform suitable Japanese version to local version. Many Japanese songs were adapted for Cantonese use. Japanese singers started to travel to Hong Kong as their first overseas location. Their production in cultural products include manga, CD, fashion, drama, or movies which were highly appraised in the youth world. Agents such as editors of magazines, music producers, film directors or managers of film companies took the chance to go to Japan and look for co-operation with Japanese. This paper focuses on the emergence of Japanese film - which was a distinctive and valuable creative product in the business development of movie industry in Hong Kong. Japanese film is one of the most distinctive cultural products of Japan. It is well known for its storyboard, production, and reflects the cultural superiority of Japan. Most of the famous directors in Hong Kong were impressed by the Japan film in the 80s and transformed the concept of scenery, character or theme of local film production. Those films received good responses and maintained good sales records. According to Koichi Iwabuchi, “What the fast-developing Hong Kong symbolizes for the Japanese is the “energy”and “dream” that Japan has already lost”.1 What are the major changes that had taken place behind the scene? How is this related to social development, globalization and localization? This paper will attempt to foster an understanding for the conditions with the aim to account the role of agents for emerging of Japanese movie within Hong Kong in relation to both culture and business and how it was sustained and developed in the 80s and aft

FAQs

What role do cultural intermediaries play in spreading Japanese popular culture to Hong Kong?

They mediate by digesting, translating, modifying, and localizing foreign entertainment for integration into Hong Kong’s local industry, helping audiences access Japanese culture through articles and media circulation.

How does the paper link Japanese film emergence to both culture and business?

It argues that Japanese cinema’s arrival involved business cooperation and creative exchange, with local directors and agents transforming local production concepts while maintaining commercial success.

Why did Japanese comics and cartoons become influential in Hong Kong?

They gained popularity through the growth of comic rentals, targeted youth audiences, and a less fragmented media environment, while the originality and quality of Japanese content filled a local gap.

Aug 22, 2026

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