A tsunami of fans surged into Tokyo Big Sight on a cold winter morning in late 2025, lining up before dawn for Comiket 107's 50th anniversary. Fans clutched sketchbooks, handmade costumes, and priceless memorabilia, proudly showcasing Japan's otaku culture: anime, manga, games and fan-created works, the global pop culture calling card for the country.

Comiket, a Japanese-English abbreviation of Comic Market, is the world's largest fan-driven pop-culture event. The event's domestic turnout and international following of over 70 countries bolster Japan's enduring cultural reach, extending far beyond its borders. It draws roughly 250,000 attendees twice a year, peaking near 300,000 in its recent December edition.

In early December, Tokyo Comic Con transformed Makuhari Messe in Chiba into a different kind of pop-culture crossroads. Hollywood franchises flew off the silver screen and joined Japanese otaku culture, drawing about 75,000 attendees. Mainstream icons are assembled with Western superheroes, shared the floor with anime characters and game avatars, a visual mural that displays Japan’s consistent top-five global soft-power rankings position.

“These aren’t just trade shows,” said Sebastian McKinnon, a Canadian filmmaker and artist attending Tokyo Comic Con. “There’s a genuine sense of respect for creators and for the craft itself, like nothing I’ve ever experienced."

In China, Japanese concerts sold out, Japanese films filled theaters, and large-scale fan events based on Japanese-inspired works became fixtures on China’s pop-culture calendar. Japanese pop culture flourished in China despite periodic tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.

This Hanafuda (traditional Japanese playing cards, notably putting Nintendo on the map in the 1800s) house of cards collapsed in November of 2025. After Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's statement, in which she said Japan would regard a Chinese attack on Taiwan as a threat to its national survival, bilateral tensions intensified. Beijing criticized the statement as provocative, and the fallout was swift and far-reaching.

According to multiple media reports, 20 planned Japanese music events were canceled across China’s major cities, including concerts by Kokia, J01, Hiromi Uehara, Momoiro Clover Z, and even the Japanese mega-star Ayumi Hamasaki. Several cancellations came with little notice, with reports of cancellations mid-performance, leaving fans and organizers uncertain about future performances in China.

These swift changes were not limited to otaku culture and music, as the destructive cultural spillover worsened. Japanese comedy giant Yoshimoto Kogyo withdrew all its talent from the three-day Shanghai International Comedy Festival, citing force majeure, with film releases and other entertainment projects postponed or shelved entirely.

COMICUP 32 in Hangzhou, one of China's largest conventions showcasing fan-made works akin to Comiket, also felt the effects of these new content restrictions, directly affecting China’s fan-driven spaces. Organizers rebranded the event as a “New Chinese Style” theme. According to attendees and organizers, Japanese intellectual property, including anime, manga, games, and cosplay, along with all derivative content, was effectively barred, forcing dozens of exhibitors to cancel shortly before the event.

“It felt like the ground shifted overnight,” said Lee, a veteran Tokyo Comic Con attendee from China. “These spaces connected fans beyond politics.”

2025 was a record year for Chinese inbound travel to Japan; however, tourism soon buckled under pressure. Industry analysts described the drop as the most significant decline in Chinese inbound tourism since the COVID-19 pandemic, signified by a sharp drop in Chinese bookings in the weeks that followed, as Chinese authorities issued travel advisories and major Chinese travel agencies suspended Japan-bound package tours.

“Cool Japan”, Japan’s celebrated state-sponsored soft power initiative, has long relied on culture to build bridges worldwide. From anime and games to fashion, food, and music, it crafts perceptions abroad, outpacing conventional formal diplomacy. Analysts note that soft power's true strength lies not just in content, but more so in access.

Public polling data since the restrictions have remained limited, making it difficult to quantify immediate shifts in attitudes. It’s clear from public sentiment that the ripples are spreading. The ripples are spreading, however, and experts say the speed with which cultural exchange narrowed illustrates how swiftly geopolitical tensions can disrupt decades-old networks.

“We don’t want to think about politics while we’re dressed as anime characters,” said Miho, a longtime Comiket attendee. “These events are about sharing something we love: our shared escape.”

Domestically, Japan’s pop-culture ecosystem is thriving on vibrant creativity, considered a new golden age of content by many. Conventions continually attract large international crowds, and creative output shows no signs of slowing. Abroad, particularly in China, the future appears less clear.

Recent history suggests that interest in Japanese culture remains constant even when official channels are closing, thriving through smaller, less visible channels outside official platforms.

This current pause might become a permanent pop-culture rewrite or perhaps merely a cliffhanger in the pages of regional shared culture. What comes next remains to be seen. What is clear, though, is that pop culture, once treated as neutral ground, is now squarely inside the region’s shifting geopolitical story, with pop culture content being the true remaining social capital connecting Japan and the rest of the world. The next chapter with China remains unwritten.