Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, is on an official visit to France this Thursday. Manu, our French President, will receive him during the day at the Élysée, during a working lunch. It will be a question of “collaboration in the fields of civil and space nuclear power”as well as “cooperation in scientific, technological and cultural matters”. But above all, there will also be a question of Dragon BallAnd this is not a joke !
Dragon Ball, “President Macron’s favorite work”
According to several Japanese newspapers, including The Sankei Shimbun or FNN, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will give President Macron Dragon Ball tableware as a “gift” during his visit to France. Indeed, according to Japanese government officials, Dragon Ball is “President Macron’s favorite work”. The Japanese newspaper recalls in this regard that when the author, Akira Toriyama, died in March 2024, Macron published an illustration autographed by Akira Toriyama on Twitter, accompanied by a message of condolences shared millions of times.
Dragon Ball Diplomacy
During his arrival yesterday Wednesday, May 1st in France, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida first met Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, and offered him a kokeshi doll from Dragon Ball. It’s a kind of traditional doll in Japan. As reported in the Japanese newspaper The Sankei Shimbun in his article – so it’s not me who says it – “ France is considered the second largest manga market in the world after Japan, and the popularity of Dragon Ball is very strong there. Toriyama’s death was followed by a series of condolences expressed by French political leaders, and his work once again became a symbol of friendship between Japan and France. »
Gabriel Attal welcomed the Prime Minister at the Hôtel Matignon in Paris, and explained to him that he was a member of the France – Japan friendship group, and that he felt close to Japan. He recalled his memories of visiting Nara, and he renewed his condolences following the death of Akira Toriyama. Attal stated that “many French people read manga such as Dragon Ball”. Dragon Ball also served to heat up the exchanges between the two parties.
In the rest of its article, the newspaper The Sankei Shimbun recalls all the tributes from French politicians to Akira Toriyama, and with hindsight, it’s true that it’s crazy. A little more surprising still (although), the newspaper mentions a report from a New Zealand company dating from 2018, which indicated that “the French prefer Dragon Ball to other anime, the series taking first place in the country”.
The Japanese newspaper even deduces that “this is what makes Japanese manga culture appreciated on the French market”. Moreover, let us also remember that Akira Toriyama is so popular in France that he was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government.
