While other countries bail out banks, slash interest rates and prop up struggling industries, Japan is pinning its hopes for economic recovery on a less likely source: manga comic books.

As part of 15 trillion yen of fresh stimulus measures unveiled today, Japan hopes to raise the percentage of its exports of “soft power” – manga, animated films, video games and pop music – from 2% of the total to 18% over the next decade, creating half a million jobs.

“Japanese content, such as anime and video games, and fashion draw attention from consumers around the world,” the prime minister, Taro Aso – a self-confessed manga addict – told reporters this week as he waved copies of magazines from China and Taiwan featuring Japanese pop stars on their covers.

First, “manga” is “comic books.” Saying “manga comic books” is just as silly as saying La Brea Tar Pits. We don’t usually like being this pedantic but that just irks us.

Second, wow, an elected official who brazenly declares his love of geek culture and forms a mass following of “otaku” that generously follows him to the ends of the Earth. How cool is that!? Wouldn’t it be neat if we had such a leader?

Waitaminute…

Editor’s Note: The image in the quoted news is of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. We have no idea if SZS is Prime Minister Taro Aso favorite manga or if he even knows it exists. But we needed a snappy image to make the text pop. And so we picked our favorite.

(via @largeheartedboy, guardian.co.uk)