Roland Kelts's Blog

Join USJETAA and Dr. Jolyon Thomas, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania for what promises to be an in depth look at anime.

We will explore the cultural and emotional forces behind anime’s appeal, with a discussion that will be enthralling for both devoted fans and those who are curious or even puzzled by its widespread popularity. It will also shed light on the intense passion that anime inspires, sometimes described as a kind of “religious” following.

*Register online here.

Panelists include:

Dr. Jolyon Thomas is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania who explores how anime, manga, and pop culture connect with spirituality and everyday life in Japan. He’s the author of Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan and has a new book on the way, Animating Action: Changing the World with Anime, Rituals, and Robots.

Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-1999) is an award-winning Japanese American author, journalist, scholar and editor. His bestselling book Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the West examines how Japanese pop culture captured the world’s imagination. He’s currently a Visiting Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo and is developing two new documentary projects addressing contemporary Japanese pop culture and society.

Yuri Lowenthal (Shiga, 1993-1995) is an actor, writer, and producer whose voice brings to life characters like Spider-Man in MARVEL'S SPIDER-MAN, Sasuke in NARUTO, and Ben in Ben 10. With his wife Tara Platt, he co-founded Monkey Kingdom Productions and BugBot Press, co-wrote the bestselling VOICE-OVER VOICE ACTOR, and produced and starred in ORBITAL REDUX with Legendary Entertainment.

Zoom link will be emailed to you upon completing registration.

Sign up for MinkaCon 2025 here. 

Please join me this December 11th at Town Hall New York City with author Haruki Murakami, jazz artist Jason Moran and friends, and scholar/translator Motoyuki Shibata for a very special one-night celebration hosted by Japan Society, The Town Hall, The Center for Fiction, All Nippon Airways and McNally Jackson Books. Tix on sale September 26. https://japansociety.org/events/haruki-murakami/

Culture Rules: Japan Found its Cool in the 21st Century, But Can It Keep It?  In-Person / Online
The branding of "Cool Japan" in the early aughts kickstarted Japan's 21st Century pop culture juggernaut. Global demand for Japan-produced anime, manga, games, fashion and food skyrocketed, and Japanese creatives scrambled to feed it through a rapid succession of media platforms--DVDs, Torrents, Cinemas and Streaming sites--as post-Covid inbound tourism stats exploded. Fiscal analysts now forecast a rosy CGR of 9.8% for Japan's pop culture products and a global market more than doubling to $72 billion in less than 10 years. But spotty government support, a shrinking labor and consumer pool, and rising costs amid a retreat from globalization mean that the sustained business of Cool Japan is hardly a sure bet. Where do we go from here? Pokemon's lucrative lightning might not strike twice.

Roland Nozomu Kelts is an award-winning Japanese American journalist, author, editor and scholar. He is best known for his highly acclaimed bestseller, Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US, and the more recent, Blade Runner: Black Lotus. He contributes to numerous media outlets in Japan, the US and Europe, including the BBC, CBS's "60 Minutes," CNN, NHK, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Guardian and The New York Times, and he has been a contributing editor to the Japanese literary journal "Monkey: New Writing from Japan" since its inception in 2011. Kelts has worked as an author, editor and consultant for publishers in Japan, the UK and the US for over twenty years, and he was a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard in 2017. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. 
Moderator: Kyle Cleveland, ICAS Co-director and Associate Professor of Sociology, Temple University Japan

 

Join legendary British guitarist, photographer and author Andy Summers and acclaimed Japanese American author and scholar Roland Kelts for for Asia Society Japan.
Summers will unveil his powerful photographs of Tokyo—some dating back to 1980, when The Police first toured Japan and filmed their hit video “So Lonely” on the Tokyo metro—and give a public reading from two of his seven published books: his award-winning memoir “One Train Later” and short story collection “Fretted and Moaning." As a bonus. Summers will also perform live on guitar, creating a dialogue between photography, prose, and sound that reveals his lifelong fascination with Japanese aesthetics.
That fascination with Japan began in his youth, when he discovered Akira Kurosawa’s films “Stray Dog” and “Drunken Angel” at an art-house cinema in Bournemouth, UK. Since the 1980s Summers has visited Japan several times to take and exhibit his photos and perform as a solo artist. More recently, he met Kelts at his latest Tokyo photo installation, and this spring was introduced by Kelts to Haruki Murakami, who later hosted him on his radio program on Tokyo FM. Now, for the first time, Summers and Kelts share the stage – promising an evening of art, music and conversation you won’t want to miss.
• Event and Registration DetailsThis event will be conducted in person, and registration is required.In-person participation is for members and guests only. Please pay your fee by credit card (Visa or Mastercard only) or at the door. ScheduleOctober 7, 2025, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. (JST)5:45 p.m.Door open
6:00 – 7:15 p.m.Conversation
7:15 – 8:00 p.m. Network reception 

8:00 p.m. Door close 

           

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AI can help maintain the anime boom, says Roland Kelts, Professor and

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Japanese culture expert.

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He has written a book about anime.

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"They call it 'in-betweener work,' when you draw frames in

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between the keyframes.

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And that kind of work can be done by AI very effectively and save the

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studios money and time.

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A lot of people think of anime as these big hits, etc.

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But there are thousands of anime produced every year.

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And many of them are just for late-night TV.

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They are pretty cheap, so those can probably easily be produced by AI."

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Technology isn’t seen as a threat in Japan, says Kelts.

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This openness is rooted in the country’s indigenous

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religion, Shinto.

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Shinto is centered on worshipping kami, or spiritual entities.

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They inhabit all kinds of objects, manmade or not, and everything is

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accepted to be part of nature.

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"Japanese creativity is quite fluid.

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The very first anime hero was called Astro Boy, and the character was half

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boy, half robot.

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And the idea was not so threatening to Japanese."

Shot live at International House of Japan, here's the live event video from Asia Society Japan of my presentation with veteran anime industry pros Geoffrey Wexler, formerly of Studio Ghibli and now with Studio Ponoc, and Shuzo Shiota of Polygon Pictures. 

The Financial Times says that the export value of Japan's content industry now exceeds its steel, petrochemicals and semiconductor sectors. Leading the content industry is Anime, Japanese-created animation that is both unique and outrageously popular.

Overseas sales tripled during the last decade and are beginning to dwarf the domestic market. Financial analysts predict that its market size will grow at 9.8% CGR and surpass $30 billion by 2033.

But what exactly is Anime, creatively and culturally? And why are its series and features booming abroad while the Anime industry in Japan is weathering a series of severe crises, including labor shortages, overworked and underpaid staffers, and antiquated technologies?

Join us at Asia Society Japan for a truly enlightening evening with two venerated anime industry veterans—Geoffrey Wexler, formerly at Studio Ghibli and currently Chief, International at Studio Ponoc, and Shuzo John Shiota, President and CEO of CG studio Polygon Pictures—together with leading Japanese American pop culture author and journalist Roland Nozomu Kelts, as they explore the answers to these questions.

 

 Like Haruki Murakami? Love Jazz? I'm thrilled to be part of this special one-off event at the Haruki Murakami Library at Waseda University on Wednesday, July 30th, with award-winning jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran and genius literary translator/scholar/author Motoyuki Shibata (MONKEY magazine). Amazing music and bilingual readings in Murakamiland:
https://www.waseda.jp/culture/wihl/ot...
Tix are via lottery only so please toss your name in our hat ASAP if you'll be in Tokyo and want to join us for a unique and brilliant evening.

 

Anime is now booming everywhere, driving streaming platform profits, filling cinemas. Yet Japanese animators remain underpaid, overworked, and harder and harder to find and keep. 

We'll talk about the answers on JULY 7th at this very special event Live in Tokyo. I'll be joined by executives from Studio Ghibli, Polygon Pictures and Studio Ponoc for this unique presentation for Asia Society Japan at International House of Japan. 

This will be in-person only and exclusive, confidential material will be edited out of the video to be posted later.  

So: Who's making the money? And how should you and your partners invest?
Featuring Geoffrey Wexler, Shuzo John Shiota and hosted by Japan economics expert Jesper Koll. Register to join us here.