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The Beginnings of Mangajin The concept of Mangajin magazine began to take shape in 1988. Vaughan Simmons, a businessman and translator who had lived and worked in Japan for 10 years, started developing prototypes of a magazine that would feature Japanese pop culture in a format combining entertainment and language-learning. Simmons's background included 4 years working for George Fields (author of Gucci on the Ginza, From Bonsai to Levis, and noted authority on the Japanese as consumers) at a consumer market research firm in Japan (ASI Market Research, now AC Neilsen Customized Japan). Working with clients like Nestle, Vicks, KFC, and MacDonalds, he saw that American and European companies could be very successful in Japan if they just did their homework and learned a little about the Japanese consumer (= Japanese people). This was part of the motivation for starting Mangajin. At the time, the trade situation between the US and Japan was like a bad tennis match. The US just couldn't seem to hit the ball and it was getting embarrassing, even to the Japanese. Simmons felt that part of the problem was the fact that Americans just didn't know very much about Japan. There was clearly a need for new sources of information about Japan. Most of the information available on Japan was from Japanese sources. Some of it had clearly been "whitewashed" for foreign consumption and some of it seemed to suffer from the "fish describing water" syndrome; the Japanese writer or editor didn't have a feel for what was interesting to the foreign reader. Or, the most offensive of all was the writer who glossed over key points because he or she didn't think the non-Japanese reader could understand them. Usually, the problem was that the writer didn't know how to explain them in terms of another cultural vocabulary. Also, about this time, Japanese language education, especially at the college level, was really taking off, and learning Japanese was considered a smart career move. It looked like Japan Incorporated was about to take over the world and people wanted to be able to talk to their new bosses. (Mangajin wasn't catering to that crowd, however; it's goal was to be a part of turning the situation around. ) From his market research days, Simmons realized that to really understand the Japanese people, you had to at least have some insights into the language, and the converse was also true. So something that combined "culture" and language would be ideal. And as for the real "culture," forget about what they say, look at what they buy -- current pop culture provides the best indication of what Japanese people are really interested in. (Of course, it's also true that modern pop culture frequently contains references to "classical" culture.) Developing the Concept A publication using Japanese manga ("comics") as a medium seemed like an ideal solution. Manga in Japan are a highly developed medium attracting some of the most talented artists and writers in the country. Also, because of the popular appeal (some manga magazines have circulations of 5,000,000 or more), they are a reflection of the Japanese psyche.

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