Gen Z’s Japan obsession is so strong that just slapping “Tokyo” on a photo makes it look better. The premise of the “Japan effect” trend on TikTok is users posting identical images side by side: one labeled with the original location and one tagged Tokyo, Japan. The results are almost always that commenters believe the Japan-labeled version is more aesthetic, even if it’s exactly the same. It’s part of a broader cultural interest in Japan: anime viewership on Netflix has tripled in five years, U.S. matcha sales are up 86% in three years, and Gen Z and Millennial visits to Japan have surged 1.3K% since 2019. But some say the trend isn’t really about Japan at all, instead, it’s about romanticizing the mundane—and Japan just appears to be the romantic travel dream Gen Z all shares. (Fast Company)
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