33 years ago (1989) at around the end of September of that year, the Sony Corporation acquired Columbia Pictures from the Coca Cola Company prompting an arguably xenophobic and racist backlash against Japan and the Japanese in the US as exemplified by the cover of the English language version of Newsweek which blared about the Japanese "invasion" of Hollywood with a Caucasian-looking Columbia Pictures torch-bearing icon, clad in what seems to be some kind of weird pseudo-geisha attire. Back then, it may be recalled that it was Japan, not China, that was the boogeyman for many Americans (and Europeans, including the former French prime minister Edith Cresson who famously referred to the Japanese as "yellow dwarfs" and "ants").
Interestingly, the Japanese language edition of Newsweek has the same illustration of a kimono clad figure but with the headline "Sony's attack." No mention about an invasion from Japan. I wrote a letter to Newsweek about this, asking them why they didn't stick to their xenophobic principles for the Japanese edition and use the same sensational headline as that used for the US edition. I did not receive a reply. Were the honchos at Newsweek thinking that the sensational US edition headline was too provocative and didn't have the guts to admit to their Japanese readers that they thought the Japanese were "invading" the US? Or perhaps they did not want to let on to their Japanese readers that they were racist and/or xenophobic?
In any case, for those who are interested in this bit of business history about Sony's advance into the picture making business and its struggle in accommodating Hollywood culture (as well as about Panasonic's acquisition of Universal Pictures which happened a year after in 1990), you can read about these events and the aftermath in my book "Mergers, Acquisitions, and Global Empires" (Routledge, 2012, available from major book sellers and as mentioned in this website).
This article was originally on LinkedIn.
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