Revisiting “Cool Japan” in country-of-origin research: a commentary and future research directions

Purpose: This commentary and conceptual paper is aimed at investigating marketing perceptions of the country-of-origin (COO) perspectives, and emphasis is placed on the “Cool Japan” concept. Design/methodology/approach: A review of research on COO and the concept of “Cool Japan” was conducted, including commentary of previous relevant theoretical frameworks. Findings: The evidence has shown that the brand images of various COOs is dependent on their cultural exports. In the case of Japan, the “Cool Japan” initiative, which initiated the creation and dissemination of Japanese cultural contents such as anime, games and art, has led to tremendous and sustainable economic growth in Japan till date. Research limitations/implications: As previous studies on COO are wide-ranging, they are not exhaustively presented in this paper. However, the importance of considering not only animosity, which has traditionally been taken into account, but also the coolness aspect is suggested. Practical implications: This paper shows that “coolness” is an important concept when nations or regions consider their branding strategies and an integrated approach is needed. Originality/value: This paper extends previous COO research and adds coolness to the traditional animosity. It also considers these in comparison across countries and goes as far as the need to propose a new scale. Conceptual findings from this paper would therefore provide future directions for advancing COO research Cool Japan.