What is the most powerful instrument of Japanese soft power? If you answered anime or manga, you are not completely wrong, but you are not thinking big enough. A clue to the correct answer was provided at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Tokyo was set to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Shinzo Abe, then prime minister of Japan, popped out of a giant green pipe dressed as Mario, a character from the Super Mario game series developed by Nintendo, a Japanese video game company. The crowd in Rio went berserk, and social media melted.

Abe, a man not previously known for his comedic timing, did more for Japan’s image than years of trade summits and defense white papers. He made the world feel a sudden warmth toward his country, simply by donning the red cap and blue overalls of Mario, the Italian plumber—a character invented by Shigeru Miyamoto, a game developer at Nintendo in 1981. Abe’s stunt worked because it was grounded in the extraordinary, multigenerational grip that Japanese video games have on the global imagination. From post-war pachinko halls to the arcade boom of the late 1970s, Japan already had a popular gaming culture.

After the American video game industry crash of 1983, Nintendo rebuilt the global console market. The Kyoto-based company drew on a design philosophy that prized accessibility and character over graphical realism, producing games whose cultural discount was close to zero. You didn’t need to speak Japanese or understand Japanese social norms to play Super Mario Bros. You just needed thumbs.

Ten years after Abe wore the Mario costume in Rio, a number of Japan’s most iconic franchises prepare for landmark birthdays. Pokémon turns 30 this year. The Legend of Zelda turns 40. Donkey Kong hits 45. Dragon Quest, which essentially invented the role-playing game as we know it, turns 40. Sonic the Hedgehog is 35. As The Japan Times recently noted, these milestones make this a watershed year for an industry whose characters are better known internationally than any Japanese prime minister, living or dead.

Follow the money, then follow the feelings. Pokémon is routinely cited as the highest-grossing media franchise in history, ahead of Star Wars, Mickey Mouse, and the Marvel........

© Time