Japanese pop culture if the imperial government survived

As the title implies, what do you think Japanese pop culture (Anime, Music, Video games, etc.) would be like if Japan's imperial regime survived? Let's say that by some miracle, The empire of Japan remains the running government of the country. Either they don't try to expand their empire in Asia, the Pacific theater results in a stalemate, or some other POD that results in this scenario. Would any of the media that we know japan for today change or even exist and how would this affect world culture as a whole?
 
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I'd say that the government would be more conservative when it comes to the diffusion of popular culture. Their traditions would probably be more common and I don't think much would come out of Japan, or at least well known modern stuff.
 
Anime as we know it was born out of the circumstances of post-war Japan, so anime if the 30s-style Imperial system had survived would be pretty much unrecognizable from what we know today. Animation was used by the Imperial government in the 30s and 40s as a form of propaganda, with cartoons that generally took Japanese folk heroes (Momotaro being a popular one) and depicting them as fighting off enemies that were usually thinly-veiled stand-ins for the USA or Soviets. Stylistically these were all quite similar to American animation, with the big-eye, rounded, cartoon look found in the works of Disney and the like. I can imagine that anime under a surviving Imperial regime would have largely stagnated stylistically, and would likely just consist of films and whatnot used to promote the imperial state and its various messages. More adult-oriented animation likely would not have occurred, due to social conservatism, and animation would therefore largely remain as propaganda made for kids. On the other hand, if we consider a timeline that involves something like a Taishō-style liberalization actually take hold in Japan and succeed, basically leading towards a "softer" regime, artistic freedom would be greater.
 
It really depends on the level of creative freedom allowed by the Imperial regime. Not all authoritarian states were pop-culture hellholes that repressed any form of art that was not propaganda.
 
It would help if someone could find examples of pop culture from at least the Taisho era. If we could look at those, then we can build off of them in order to get an idea of were the pop culture was going. Showa era works would also be nice, but it must be stuff that wasn't explicitly commissioned by the government, as in pro war propaganda. To be honest , I'm not inclined to believe that overall pop culture in Japan will be that different, as i imagine that many of the differences that exist would be attributed less towards culture and more towards lack of wealth.
 
Now, that I think about the question here is not just how pop culture in Japan would look like if the old government survived, but how would pop culture look like without the economic restructuring and booms that occurred after it's dissolution.
 
Now, that I think about the question here is not just how pop culture in Japan would look like if the old government survived, but how would pop culture look like without the economic restructuring and booms that occurred after it's dissolution.

There wouldn't be anywhere near as much emphasis on apocalyptic themes.
 
It would help if someone could find examples of pop culture from at least the Taisho era. If we could look at those, then we can build off of them in order to get an idea of were the pop culture was going. Showa era works would also be nice, but it must be stuff that wasn't explicitly commissioned by the government, as in pro war propaganda. To be honest , I'm not inclined to believe that overall pop culture in Japan will be that different, as i imagine that many of the differences that exist would be attributed less towards culture and more towards lack of wealth.

Would the Takarazuka Revue count as popular culture...?
 
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