Award Name
Open Access Senior Award Winner
Award Date
2025
Faculty Sponsor
Samuel Yamashita
Description/Abstract
Nation branding, or the strategic depiction of a nation to influence the perceptions of international stakeholders and the general population, has become a principal means of increasing soft power in today’s globalized world. Food has long held a place in the nation branding literature, and new food distribution methods allow products to reach audiences in ways once thought impossible. Subscription snack boxes, by delivering snacks from a country on a recurring basis, metaphorically bring the nation to the consumer and foster a narrative of that country in the recipient's mind. One country, Japan, has experienced a noticeable boom in its snack box market; however, since gastrodiplomacy literature has focused solely on cuisines, this study seeks to fill the gap created by omitting snacks from Japan’s nation branding research.
This paper begins by providing an overview of how subscription snack boxes came to be and proposes a method for analyzing these boxes within the context of Japanese nation branding. It asks what sort of Japanese nation brand informs the popular snack box company “Bokksu” and their October 2024 snack box and how this box can be understood from a nation branding perspective. Through a thematic and interpretive analysis, this study concludes that Bokksu’s October box conveys a positive nation brand of Japan by highlighting its natural beauty, serenity and tranquility, regional variation, and quality goods that embrace the duality of old and new. Bokksu’s portrayal sharply contrasts with the pop culture haven and technological revolution that frequently appear in modern-day media.
Terms of Use & License Information
Recommended Citation
Scott, Alexandra K., "Snacks, Subscriptions, and The State: Analyzing Japan’s Nation Brand Through Bokksu Snack Boxes" (2025). 2025 Claremont Colleges Library Undergraduate Research Award. 2.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cclura_2025/2
