Indonesian-published Japanese Graphic Narrative as a Media to

Convey the Success Story of Japanese Corporations, in Order to

Build Awareness and Understanding about Their World Recognized

Achievement That Related to the Spirit of Bushido

Danendro Adi

, Dria Setiautami

New Media Program, Visual Communication Design Department, School of Design, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta,

Indonesia 11480

Keywords: Graphic Narrative, Japan Corporation, Bushido.

Abstract: Manga, known as comics from Japan, with its unique characteristics, it has become part of the graphic art

heritage that accepted and influencing in many parts of the world, including Indonesia, which also available

in both and digital medias. Manga is not only as a medium for conveying fiction and non-fiction. It has also

narrating the traditional Japanese ethics and culture, which have been applied on the daily life including on

modern organisation. The Japanese ethics and culture often found in a package of a story on graphic

narrative, to build understanding and perception for the readers about this cultural-oriented approach that

has been developed becomes part of management theory. This paper will discuss Biographic Manga in

conveying information and its relation to the human factor, how human processing the information. Begin

with a brief history of Japanese comics and the spirit and ethics of the Samurai that also known as Bushido,

then will be discussed how the information delivered as an attempt to introduce or remind about the

traditional culture that bring success to the Japanese industries.

1 INTRODUCTION

A picture is not only a two-dimensional form but

also as a vehicle to convey information or visual

content in complex meaning to the specific target

audience. It is related to the human ability in

processing the information in visual form that can be

collected through direct observation, seeing them on

printed, electronic, or digital media.

In the human information-processing system that

consisting of three main structures: sensory memory,

working memory, and long-term memory, the data

obtained through senses is transformed into

meaningful information. All data received through

the eyes as external stimulus, such as colour and

shape in an image, register in sensory memory. Then

passes on to working memory where sensory

information is combined with prior knowledge so

that images can be interpreted and understood

(Malamed, 2009).

However, working memory has a limited

capacity that affects to the person's cognitive

abilities. The new information can be quickly faded

away unless the information is manipulated

(Malamed, 2009). For example, deliberately

memorized or repeated until stored in long-term

memory and can be retrieved by working memory

and can be used as a prior knowledge to complement

the next new sensory information.

The way delivering information through a

particular approach regarding to the human factors

can cause more effective results and accepted by the

target audience. One of the approaches that used to

convey information with complex meaning is

through a graphic narrative. A significant feature of

the narrative is its ability to captivate an audience,

regardless narrating the true story as well as fiction,

fact or fantasy (Malamed, 2009). The human ability

to imagine what is narrated, both visual and verbal,

in the working memory on the information-

processing system can trigger an emotional reaction

as if it were occurring in the physical environment.

Looking at to that human factor, graphic narrative

can be a vehicle for conveying information through

both fiction and non-fiction. In a combined package

of visual and narrative displays that evoke feelings

Adi, D. and Setiautami, D.

Indonesian-published Japanese Graphic Narrative as a Media to Convey the Success Story of Japanese Corporations, in Order to Build Awareness and Understanding about Their World

Recognized Achievement That Related to the Spir it of Bushido.

DOI: 10.5220/0010005800002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 243-247

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

243

and emotions, in order to be interpreted and

understood.

Graphic narrative, a term first introduced by

David Kunzle in the book The History of the Comic

Strip, as a combination of still image composition

with narration to create a story (Darmawan, 2012).

Referring to these definitions, the terminology with

a similar explanation, in French called Bande

Dessinee which means image in the sequence. The

definition of Graphic Narrative, Graphic Novel, or

Comic Art, in other parts of the world simply called

Comic, Manga, and others (Petersen, 2011). Similar

to the Kunzle’s definition, Scott McCloud, a comic

expert, define it as a series of pictures in deliberate

sequence (McCloud, 1993).

Manga, the term for picture books or comics

from Japan, with all its unique characteristics as a

graphic narrative, it has become a graphic art that

accepted in many places in the world, including

Indonesia. In 1995, former Japanese Prime Minister

Kiichi Miyazawa using Manga as a medium to

express political and social opinions (Leung, 2005).

Furthermore, in 2008, the Japanese Foreign

Minister, Masahiko Komura, officially inaugurate

the cartoon character, Doraemon, become the first

"Animations Ambassador” as a Diplomatic Corp to

promote Japanese popular culture (McCurry, 2008).

In other words, modern Manga, including animation,

not only as a medium to convey a fiction or non-

fiction, but more than that, it can be as a propaganda

or a medium to convey opinions.

The early period of Japanese Graphic narrative,

along with the invention of printing technology in

the Nara period (710-794), the Japanese was able to

document and duplicate their traditional storytelling

richness in the caricatural form known as toba-e.

The graphic narrative has accepted by the Japanese

people who were at that time had already familiar

with reading and writing. The illustrated story was

firstly introduced in Japan by Buddhist scholars

from Central Asia, to tell a story about the journey

of Buddha, on scrolls (emaki) that dominated with

picture. This Japan's narrative art unique

characteristic which emphasizes the expressive

visualization detail on clothing, gestures, and show

concern to the social customs are still survives as

one of the Japanese comic books unique

characteristics until now. One of the artists form Edo

periods (1603-1868), Katsushika Hokusai, known by

his dramatic depictions of Mount Fuji, The Great

Wave of Kanagawa, also known as the artist who

popularized the word Manga that derived from the

Mandarin, Manhua, which has the meaning as

"spontaneous sketches". The word Manga

popularized by through his book title, Hokusai

Manga, which was first published in 1814 up to 12

edition contains caricatures and studies various

poses of animals and humans in daily activities such

as farming, hunting, sporting activities and games,

including imaginative images of godlike and spirits

(Petersen, 2011). The purpose of publishing the

book is to promote his owns drawing style to a wider

audience.

However, what does not exist on the Hokusai

Manga is an attempt to tell a story. Although Japan

has a long history in terms of storytelling through

pictures, but none of these traditions in accordance

with the definition of Manga in the 20th century.

Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, who

recognised as the father of modern manga since the

comic become the "blueprint" of modern Manga.

Tezuka was emphasizing in time frame movement

on his comic that gives "filmic" feeling to the comic

readers, as perceived when watching film. Visual

language on Tezuka’s comics similar to Will

Eisner's definition of comic as "framing time"

(Darmawan, 2012).

Manga are often portraying Japan in details in

the package of simple fiction or non-fiction

stories.Biographical manga, one of genre in the

Japanese comic, become a media to deliver

knowledge as well as to convey the value from

world recognised organizations or people in Japan

which are inseparable from the traditional Japanese

ethics and culture. One of the ethics that has been

embedded for a long time among the Japanese

society is Bushido or the spirit and ethics of the

Samurai (Bushi) which includes loyalty, willing to

sacrifice, honesty, discipline, and Perseverance. The

ethics and spirit of Bushido itself has been added by

the doctrine of the mean from Confucius thought in

the Edo period that ruled by the Great Generals

(Shogun) Tokugawa family to foster the morals of

Samurais to make them not to be tempted by

materialistic desires or not to be used against the

government. The doctrine teaches the equilibrium

principle of the relationship between government

and people that emphasizes in harmony and balance

in various aspects of life (Sadono, 2004). After the

government succeeded to indoctrinate the samurais,

the Bushido ethic applies to all levels of society,

thus Tokugawa succeeded in shaping the character

of the nation in various fields and layers of society

and community organizations adopted until today.

The combination of Bushido's spirit and the

doctrine of equilibrium also generates basic values

and work guidelines for many modern Japanese

corporate managements that includes honesty,

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

244

discipline, loyalty, and maintaining harmonious

relationships within the organization as well as

among community. The Japanese management

which adapting traditional cultural oriented has

attracted western management expertise, since the

country has managed to accelerate the economic

growth, after the World War II, in a relatively short

period. The cultural insight has been developed and

become part of management theory (Sadono, 2004)

The value of the Bushido spirit is presented in

the Manga that published in Indonesia, in this case

the Biographical Manga about Japanese leading

companies in which are also known by their

continuous innovation. The biographic mangas

which are also available in digital, as the media to

convey information about the world recognise

Japanese company and their achievement, at the

same time, the Mangas have also tried to convey the

richness of the traditional Japanese values and ethics

that are applied and become the modern Japanese

corporate culture. Regardless of there are any

contributions from the Japanese government to the

Manga industries, Manga has become a medium to

displays Japanese culture and ethics in illustrated

stories. It has been contributing to deliver the

information to build awareness and perception

among readers. The importance of knowing the

traditional Japanese values that have been

implemented and become part of today’s daily life is

as a comparative study of how the character of the

nation is built and applied, since the process it is

requires determination and certain amount of time

(Benawa, 2012)

2 METHOD

This research uses a qualitative research approach in

which conducting content analysis from the

biographic manga that published in Indonesia

relating to traditional Japanese ethics in society.

Then, the data collection is associated with the

human factor, how humans interpret the information

conveyed through the graphic narrative so can be

obtain a clearer picture about the role of graphic

narrative in conveying certain values and ethics in

order to create understanding among the readers.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Project X Challengers, created by NHK Project X

Production Team, published in 2010 by Elex Media

Komputindo, biographic mangas about the success

story of four world recognized Japanese company

and product. The four biographic mangas are also

available in digital since they have been officially

published by Digital Manga Publishing, with titles

Shinkansen: The Tenacity of Shinkansen’s Invention,

Cup Noodle: The Miracle of 8.2 Billion Cups,

Honda: Conquer the World’s Top Race, dan Digital

Camera: The Man’s Consolation Match. The four

organisations that have been adapted by NHK

Project X Production Team to the biographic manga,

not merely because they want to promote the

Japanese leading industry and the excellence of

human resources, but also because they are pioneers

in their respective fields, and their innovations has

been beneficial to the Japanese community and as an

inspiration to other community worldwide.

The first title, Shinkansen, tells about the efforts

of post-World War II Japanese scientists to create a

fast train in order to provide convenient

transportation that would be useful in peace era. The

second title, Cup Noodle, about the Nissin Food

Company that create a fast food product as response

to the modern lifestyle changes among Japanese

urban society. The next title, Honda, is about Honda

motorcycle companies which tried to win

international racing competition in order to dominate

the world motorcycle market, and the last title,

Digital Camera, is about Casio's electronic product

development team in creating digital camera that

later change the way people doing their work and

shift the camera industry to digital.

One thing in common from the four titles, they

are narrating problems and failures that have to be

faced by the team before achieving success even

though it has taken few years of trying. All these

efforts were complied with the perseverance, one of

the spirits in Bushido's doctrines. As narrated on the

Shinkansen, when the post-war world II scientists

have taken more than 15 years to creating the train

that finally breaking the train speed record in that

time. Each book is also narrated that they have to

face many problems to be solved before achieving

the results as it was planned. As narrated in Cup

Noodle where the product development process

including packaging design, developing ingredients,

manufacturing techniques, and selling the products,

need to face testing and failures many times before

finally accepted by the market. Even at the

beginning of the story, it has narrated that the

President Director of Nissin Food, has built the

company after the failure from his previous

business.

Indonesian-published Japanese Graphic Narrative as a Media to Convey the Success Story of Japanese Corporations, in Order to Build

Awareness and Understanding about Their World Recognized Achievement That Related to the Spirit of Bushido

245

An effort to survive the world market

competition has also narrated as in the Honda. When

the company was trying to avoid bankruptcy,

President Director Honda co. ltd, Soichiro Honda,

decided to join the world racing championship of the

Isle of Man to prove the world market that Japanese

motorcycles was not inferior to the European which

has already known and won the race. The striving

efforts are also shown in the Manga in title Digital

Camera where the challenges that must be faced not

only to create innovative product that match to target

market, but also how to market the product and

create new trend in urban society.

The similar things from the four stories are

showing perseverance and teamwork, constantly

trying to find solution in order to achieve the goals

and contribute to the society in creating new

cultures. In addition, there are similarities among the

titles in which none of the four titles that narrating

individual work. Even though the success was also

due to the role of the corporate leader, the act of

teamwork narrated in detail. As what it has

illustrated, that each person on the team had an

important role and each role contributes to the

success of the project. Relating to the role of the

leader, the four titles narrated the importance of the

leader in making decision and determining the

further steps to the project. It was required a

harmonious relationship between members and their

leaders, align with the spirit of Bushido and the

doctrine of mean that generates basic values and

work guidelines for many modern Japanese

corporate managements which are includes honesty,

discipline, loyalty, and maintaining harmonious

relationships within the organization as well as with

the society.

The most unique thing from these four titles is on

the Shinkansen, which is narrating the scientists that

formerly work and use their knowledge for warfare,

creating weapon and warplanes, but soon after the

war was over, the knowledge was actually has been

used to develop a useful technology to improve the

quality of social life. In this case it shows that one of

Bushido's doctrines, loyal to the government, has

been maintained in times of war and peace. It has

been believed that creating weapon during the

wartime was as their devotion and dedication to the

nation, the same things when developing fast train in

peacetime which both also made impact to the

society.

Although it is not in written explanation about

the value of the Bushido and the doctrine of mean in

the four manga, it is obviously recognized through

the narrated stories. For most of the Japanese

readers, what have been narrated could be as

something that already as part of everyday life both

in corporate and society.

For Japanese readers, the biographic manga can

be as a reminder about the quality of Japanese

human resources, so it does not need to be written

and explained in detail about the traditional value

because it has been applied in various layers of

society for many years. The values are embedded in

long term memory on human information-processing

systems that obtained through everyday behavior,

formal education, and social environment, all of

them continuously as sensory information that is

continuously manipulated in working memory. But

for the Non-Japanese readers, in addition to

fulfilling its function as a biographic manga that

convey the success and achievement of the world

recognized Japanese company, all information on

the manga as a sensory information that passes on to

working memory are still needs to be added with

prior knowledge so that all of the information can be

interpreted and understood.

At the end of each title, there are some important

facts related to the story has narrated, such as related

to the development process, characters, location, and

product. These important facts are presented through

photography, not in the form of manga, as addition

to remind the reader, also complete the information

that has already been delivered through typical

manga-style illustration that simplifies the shape,

including the faces of main characters in the narrated

story. Visualization through photography will

provide more concrete, convincing, and provide a

clearer picture of the actual events. Through clear

and repeated information delivery, the information

has been manipulated, to make them not quickly

fade from the working memory on human

information-processing system. The information

presented on the Biographic manga are to makes the

target audience understand the narrated story, at the

same time, recalling the value of Bushido, even

though it has not been explained explicitly trough

narrated text. This information can complement the

prior knowledge that related to Japan, which has

already stored in long-term memory.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Looking at the human ability in processing

information, the biographic manga, both in printed

and digital, becomes a medium that is able to convey

the information about the success story of Japanese

companies and the value of Bushido’s spirit that

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

246

have been applied on Japanese society for many

years. However, the four manga cannot be said as a

media to indoctrinate the Bushido's value to the

outside world. Very different thing happens to the

Japanese readers where the value has already

embedded and experienced on everyday life.

However, what is illustrated through the biographic

manga is an example on how knowledge and values

can be delivering to the specific readers through

popular readings, on graphic narrative approaches,

which can be accepted by readers in many different

cultural background and nationality. Moreover, since

it has been officially published in digital, the

information and massage can even easier to

distribute and collect by the target audience. The

importance of knowing the traditional Japanese

values that have been implemented and become part

of today’s daily life is as a comparative study of how

the character of the nation is built and applied. In

order to provide information and values into a media

that easier to digest and easily understood as

mentioned above, both on printed and digital. The

graphic narrative has become one of solutions to

delivering knowledge, in contribution to provide

quality education, to improving people’s lives and

sustainable development.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to appreciate the Research

and Technology Transfer Office and Bina Nusantara

University for providing financial support for the

research.

REFERENCES

Benawa, A. (2012) ‘Humaniora’.

Darmawan, H. (2012) How to Make Comic.

Leung, P. (2005) Manga! Manga! USA: Kodansha

America.

Malamed, C. (2009) Visual Language for Designer.

McCloud, S. (1993) ‘Understanding Comic: The Invisible

Art’, 6.

McCurry, J. (2008) Japan Enlists Cartoon Cat as

Ambassador.

Petersen, R. (2011) Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels:

A History of Graphic Narratives. 15th edn.

Sadono, I. (2004) Konsensus: Budaya Manajemen Jepang

Membangun Produktifitas Kerja.

Indonesian-published Japanese Graphic Narrative as a Media to Convey the Success Story of Japanese Corporations, in Order to Build

Awareness and Understanding about Their World Recognized Achievement That Related to the Spirit of Bushido

247