Canadian, 16, on a mission to save Japan Student joins other foreigners in delving beyond pop culture, exposing problems beneath 'cool Japan'

When Prime Minister Naoto Kan, following in the footsteps of former leader Taro Aso, promoted the idea of "cool Japan" — the export of the nation's popular culture for economic profit — he probably didn't expect that somebody like Peter Dyloco existed.

Nagatacho dreams: Peter Dyloco, 16, a Canadian of Hong Kong descent, runs the website Saving Japan, which focuses on how to lift the nation from its decades-long slump. COURTESY OF PETER DYLOCO

A 16-year-old Toronto resident born in Hong Kong, Dyloco's ambition is to become a politician in Japan.

"My life goal is not only to move to Japan, but reform it from the inside out. Simply said: I want to become a Japanese politician," Dyloco told The Japan Times in an e-mail.

"Too often have I read news articles about the aging Japanese population, the . . . fragile economy and the ballooning public debt. The political inaction doesn't help. It pains me to see Japan falter in such ways, especially knowing that Japan can certainly do better."

Developing an interest in Japan through its popular culture, Dyloco quickly realized there was more to the country than the anime characters, vending machines and teenage pop stars that tend to dominate international discourse on the nation.