Elon Musk is enjoying the Land of the Rising Sun with his partner, Grimes, and their child, X. The Tesla CEO has posted photos taken during their trip since August 18, 2023. Moreover, the Musk family seems excited after calling their vacation” The Fast & The Fanciful: Tokyo Drift 2023.” Of course, the X CEO could be visiting for business reasons.
Believe it or not, Japan is the second-largest user market for its social media platform. Also, his company partners with several Japanese firms like Panasonic. Consequently, numerous worldwide are eager to learn more about Musk’s Japanese journey. Also, seeing him and his family enjoy a trip is cute and endearing.
This article will discuss what Elon Musk has been up to in Japan. Also, I will cover the country’s obsession with X and Musk’s related business relations.
Why is Elon Musk in Japan?
He hasn’t confirmed why he and his family are in Sunrise Land at the time of writing. Fortunately, Business Insider and other news outlets have been posting about their experiences.
On Friday, Elon Musk called his vacation: “The Fast & The Fanciful: Tokyo Drift 2023.” It is seemingly an homage to the 2006 movie, “The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
Then, he posted vacation videos that Business Insider’s Cheryl Teh appreciated. She posted these clips showing Musk’s son, X, in the holographic TeamLab exhibit “The Infinite Crystal Universe.”
The digital art venue immerses people in surreal scenarios like colorful koi fish and a floating flower garden. Also, one of the images features the young X enjoying the hanging stars surrounding him and his family.
Later, the Starlink CEO posted a live stream of his partner, Grimes, at her gig at the Makuhari Messe, an event hall in Chiba prefecture. Of course, people recognize Musk as a businessman, so news outlets discussed his business connections in the country.
The Japan Times said Elon Musk described the social media platform formerly known as Twitter as more “Japan-centric than “US-centric.” As mentioned earlier, Sunrise Land is its second-largest market.
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JPT stated the electronics conglomerate Panasonic produces batteries for Tesla vehicles. Since 2012, Panasonic has been expanding its relationship with Tesla as it pivots away from home appliances to electric cars.
In June, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada revealed the Self-Defense Forces has been testing Starlink. Moreover, Musk donated $250,000 to build a solar power system for those affected by the 2011 Fukushima prefecture disaster.
Japan Times said the Starlink CEO is a fan of classic anime like “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Ghost in the Shell.” Believe it or not, Musk often posts anime-related memes on X.
Why does Japan love X?
Photo Credit: medium.com
Medium writer Yuko Tamura said roughly 58.95 million Japanese people use Twitter. In contrast, the United States has 76.9 million. Why is this eastern nation love X so much?
Exploring such issues lets us see how culture affects consumer preferences. For example, the 280-character limit seemed restrictive for some X users but not the Japanese.
English relies on combining letters into words, so you need numerous characters to write long messages. In contrast, the Japanese language can fit them into a few characters.
The word count limit resembles their haiku and tank, ancient Japanese poetry forms. Summa Linguae shared another reason from Kentaro Morita, a marketing manager at X’s Japan office.
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“In Japan, much more than other countries, people use Twitter to discuss products. Many websites’ reviews may not accurately depict what a product is really like, so Japanese people use Twitter like a search engine to see what real people are saying. Because of this, Japanese businesses have a lot of success promoting their merchandise on Twitter.”
The trend is so pervasive that Japanese businesses create X accounts before making proprietary websites. Surprisingly, it is the only country still referring to that social media platform as Twitter.
The local user base would have been called “X Japan,” but it is already the name of a famous rock band in the country. Hence, the musicians blocked the rebrand to smoothly return to the music scene.
Conclusion
Elon Musk is enjoying his Japan summer vacation with Grimes and their son, X. He showed their videos in the digital TeamLabs exhibit and the Makuhari Messe.
The Starlink CEO would likely secure business deals in the country due to his existing corporate ties. However, he hasn’t disclosed additional details about his trip at the time of writing.
We will have to wait until Elon Musk posts more information. Of course, we would probably see more family moments. Learn more about the latest digital trends at Inquirer Tech.