“How many Canadians can you name?”
If you ask that question in Japan, many people may struggle to come up with names right away.
And yet Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Drake, Jim Carrey, and Keanu Reeves are all very well known in Japan. Film director James Cameron is Canadian too.
So it is not that Japanese people do not know Canadians.
They know them. They just do not always think of them as Canadian.
That is one of the interesting things about how Canada is seen from Japan.
There is another good example.
MONKEY MAJIK has been active in Japan for many years and is known for hit songs such as “Around The World.” Two of its core members, brothers Maynard and Blaise, are from Canada. The band built most of its career in Japan and is much better known there than it is among the general public in Canada.
Even in Japan, however, there are people who know the songs but never realized that the two brothers were Canadian.
People may not strongly associate individual celebrities with Canada, but the country itself has a very clear image.
The red maple leaf flag is instantly recognizable. Maple syrup is also firmly associated with Canada.
Canadian maple syrup is easy to find in Japanese supermarkets, and if you ask someone in Japan what comes to mind when they hear “Canada,” it will probably be one of the first answers.
But ask them to name a Canadian dish, and the question suddenly becomes much harder.
There are many things Japanese people know about Canada, but once they go a little deeper, that knowledge often becomes much less certain.
One thing that makes Canada feel especially close to Japan is studying abroad.
For Japanese people who want to study English overseas, Canada has long been one of the major choices. Vancouver in particular has a strong image as a place to study English and as a city where Japanese people might find it relatively easy to live.
And it is not only about long-term study.
Once short programs of a few weeks or a few months are included, it is not unusual to hear that someone studied in Canada as a student, that a friend went there to study English, or that someone they know spent time in Vancouver on a working holiday.
Japanese celebrities also sometimes talk about having studied in Canada.
So Canada is not seen only as a place to visit.
It also has the image of a country where you might live for a while while studying English.
Part of that may come from the way Canada is generally perceived in Japan.
From Japan, Canada can look culturally similar to the United States. At the same time, many people have the vague impression that it is calmer, relatively safe, and that the people seem friendly.
Of course, neither public safety nor national character can be summed up so simply.
Still, Canada often has a softer and less intense image in Japan than the United States.
Nature is another major part of the picture.
The Canadian Rockies, Niagara Falls, vast forests and lakes, snow, and the northern lights are all familiar images. Yellowknife is also well known in Japan as a destination for seeing the aurora.
For many Japanese people, Canada feels enormous, cold, and full of nature on a scale very different from what they are used to in Japan.
Winter sports are part of that image too. Many people know that ice hockey is one of Canada’s defining sports, even if relatively few Japanese people follow NHL teams or players closely.
Toronto is also a familiar name in Japan, especially among baseball fans.
The Toronto Blue Jays have had Japanese connections for years. Munenori Kawasaki played for the team, and more recently the Blue Jays faced Shohei Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
That gave Japanese audiences another reason to hear the name Toronto, even if they knew relatively little about the city itself.
This is typical of the way Canada often enters Japanese awareness.
People hear about Toronto through baseball. They hear Canadian singers without necessarily thinking about their nationality. They watch Canadian actors in Hollywood films. They consider Vancouver when looking for somewhere to study English.
Canada keeps appearing, but often without announcing itself as Canada.
That may also explain why Canadian celebrities are so easily mistaken for Americans.
Japanese audiences do not normally watch every North American actor or musician while carefully separating Americans from Canadians.
If someone speaks English, works in Hollywood, or succeeds in the North American music industry, nationality can simply fade into the background.
That is why even someone who knows Justin Bieber or Keanu Reeves very well may still react with, “Oh, he’s Canadian?”
Japan’s connection with Canada is not only a recent one.
Anne of Green Gables has been loved in Japan for a very long time, and Prince Edward Island is well known as the setting of the story.
For many Japanese readers, the novel became one of the earliest cultural images associated with Canada.
Today, studying abroad, working holidays, music, movies, and baseball may be more immediate connections, but Anne of Green Gables shows that Canada had already entered Japanese popular culture much earlier.
There is also a French-speaking side of Canada.
English and French are Canada’s official languages at the federal level, and French is especially central to life in Quebec.
Some Japanese people know that Quebec is French-speaking, but knowledge often becomes much thinner once the conversation moves to Canadian history, differences between provinces, politics, Indigenous cultures, or the issues facing Indigenous communities.
When you think about it, Japanese people actually know a great deal about Canada.
They know the flag and maple syrup. They know Vancouver and Toronto. They know Niagara Falls, the Canadian Rockies, and the northern lights. Canada is also a familiar destination for studying abroad.
And without necessarily realizing it, they know quite a few Canadian singers, actors, and filmmakers too.
Yet ask them to name a Canadian, and they may suddenly struggle.
For Japanese people, Canada is not an unfamiliar country. If anything, it may be a country that has blended so naturally into familiar parts of life that people do not always notice when something is Canadian.
