Japanese soft power has seen two faces in 2019. One is that of tidying guru Marie Kondo. The other is the horrifying visage of Momo, an unsettling sculpture turned viral hoax.
The two couldn't be more different — Kondo encourages viewers to de-clutter their closets, while Momo pops up on social media and encourages kids to stab their parents or harm themselves — but they have both managed to be among 2019's most visible pop culture developments, and both originate from Japan (though Momo is better known as hailing from the dark regions of the web).
Despite their differences, both Kondo and Momo's successes in the greater global pop culture discourse share plenty of similarities. Most strikingly, each phenomenon shows how to capture attention at a time when everything feels ephemeral. Hint: confusion goes a long way.
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