The Agency of Local Actors in Cultural Diplomacy

Japan in Spanish-Speaking Audiences

Daniel Veloza-Franco

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9783031974144
• eBook ISBN: 9783031974151
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book analyses local actors’ agency in implementing official cultural diplomacy (CD) activities, using Japan as a case to show how the nation is presented to Spanish-speaking audiences. Drawing on qualitative methods, the book argues that CD activities undergo a process of localisation, whereby local actors strategically adapt and modify official narratives. This localisation highlights both the agency of local actors and a gap —little explored in the CD literature—between official diplomatic narratives and their actual manifestation at the local level. The book further explains why these narrative adjustments occur and how they foster deeper audience engagement, dialogue, and mutual understanding.

Table of contents

• The Agency of Local Actors in Cultural Diplomacy
• Funding
• Ethics Approval
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Graphs
• List of Tables
• About the Author
• 1. Setting the Stage: An Introduction—Local Actors and Cultural Diplomacy
• 2. Cultural Diplomacy and the Role of Local Actors
• 3. Everything Goes According to the Plan: Central Authorities, Their Expectations, and Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy
• 4. Local Detail in Cultural Diplomacy
• 5. Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy for Spanish-Speaking Audiences: The Local Detail
• 6. Japan’s Local Detail in Cultural Diplomacy: Departing from the Expected Plan
• 7. Local Detail and Its Potential: A Conclusion
• Index1