BETWEEN STATELESSNESS AND ROOTEDNESS: DIVERGENT VISUAL DESIGN STRATEGIES IN JAPANESE AND CHINESE CHARACTER IP EXPORTS

Abstract

As Japan and China emerge as the two dominant exporters of character intellectual property in global cultural markets, their visual design strategies diverge in fundamental ways. Japan's longstanding reliance on mukokuseki stands in sharp contrast to China's recent embrace of guochao. Mukokuseki refers to the deliberate suppression of national and ethnic visual markers to maximise cross-cultural appeal. Guochao, by contrast, is a culturally anchored design mode that foregrounds Chinese aesthetic heritage as a competitive differentiator. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of these two strategies. It draws on foundational frameworks of cultural odourlessness, empirical studies of mukokuseki perception, and theorisation of guochao as a rising cultural identity. Through qualitative visual content analysis of representative IP cases, we identify the structural logic, commercial mechanisms, and cultural-political assumptions underlying each strategy. We further examine the implications of these divergent approaches for export markets in Southeast Asia. Existing consumer perception studies, though limited in scope, point to context-specific responses that challenge the universality of mukokuseki. Our findings suggest that cultural visibility, strategically deployed, may constitute an emergent competitive advantage for Chinese IP exports in post-RCEP regional markets. This advantage, however, also introduces risks absent from Japan's historically dominant stateless model.