Japan was blessed with both a lack of natural resources and a position that's basically as far away from Europe and the US as physically possible. This gave them the very rare opportunity to be introduced to Western culture relatively peacefully. They also industrialized relatively smoothly due to learning from the West, and land reforms/redistribution under the Meiji emperor. Meanwhile, expensive raw materials encouraged a focus on quality, which gave the country a good reputation from a consumer perspective.
Apart from WWII, there haven't been a lot of times where it's been convenient to breed disdain, hatred, or contempt for Japan in the West. You don't have extended, decades-long propaganda campaigns against them. You don't have people needing to explain how they're inferior in order to feel better about crushing them underfoot.
Then ofc it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. There's a market for stuff like anime in the West, so the anime industry grows and becomes more in touch with Western interests.
Japan was blessed with both a lack of natural resources and a position that's basically as far away from Europe and the US as physically possible. This gave them the very rare opportunity to be introduced to Western culture relatively peacefully. They also industrialized relatively smoothly due to learning from the West, and land reforms/redistribution under the Meiji emperor. Meanwhile, expensive raw materials encouraged a focus on quality, which gave the country a good reputation from a consumer perspective.
Apart from WWII, there haven't been a lot of times where it's been convenient to breed disdain, hatred, or contempt for Japan in the West. You don't have extended, decades-long propaganda campaigns against them. You don't have people needing to explain how they're inferior in order to feel better about crushing them underfoot.
Then ofc it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. There's a market for stuff like anime in the West, so the anime industry grows and becomes more in touch with Western interests.