Abstract:
Anime is one of the Japanese popular cultures favored from children to adults. Ever since Japan experienced economic problems, known as the bubble economy and The Lost Decade in the 1990s to early 2000s, Japan was trying to find a way to restore its economic condition. Japan uses the creative industry named Cool Japan and its tourism sector to help the slumping economy. Anime is a part of Cool Japan favored by many people from different countries. Anime is very influential in increasing Indonesian people’s interest to visit Japan, especially in the 2015-2019 period. Using the soft power theory and public diplomacy, Japan tries to spread a good image to other countries, especially Indonesia, to increase the number of Indonesian tourists visiting Japan. This paper attempts to analyze how anime affected people’s interest in Japanese culture to increase the number of tourists visiting Japan. The result gained through the qualitative research method showed that anime affected the increasing number of Indonesian tourists visiting Japan, and it became the main reason for their visit.
