In 2023, during my first visit to Japan, I took a photo at Narita Airport right before my return to Buenos Aires. I was standing in the boarding area, surrounded by showcases, screens, and duty-free shops, when my attention was caught by an advertisement for cigarettes. Lit by strong backlighting, the poster featured a vibrant red background with Che Guevara’s iconic face at the center. Below, stylized handwriting imitated Che's own signature, suggesting his approval of this revolutionary product. Above, bold white letters read: ありのままの味わい、無添加たばこ, translated as “The true taste. Additive-free tobacco.”

I felt an indescribable sense of irony and estrangement. Here was a Luxembourg-based brand, marketed in Japan, appropriating a Latin American icon to advertise cigarettes with a sleek, stylish look. This scene encapsulated many of today's global transformations: the circulation of symbols detached from their original contexts, the aestheticization of politics, and the market’s uncanny ability to convert any shared memory into design. Che's image had become part of an accessible collection of signs; it no longer embodied an ideology but rather evoked an atmosphere. It no longer denounced, but decorated.

Cuando la soga aprieta
Es la hora y se pregunta “¿qué es lo que soy?”
Un nombre, una dirección
Una cartilla, un buzón, un número de expediente
Una raya en el censo
Un retrato, también un consumidor
Unos pantalones nuevos
Los zapatos de charol, la corbata, la camisa¹

In the early 80s, the album Roberto y Jaime: Sesiones con Emilia was released, a project by Mexican musicians Roberto González, Jaime López, and Emilia Almazán. The opening song, La Soga, asks a question that runs throughout this essay: “¿qué es lo que soy?” - what am I?. At every border, I have felt and still feel reflected in each verse of that song. I am my given name, my passport, and the clothes I wear, particularly during layovers in Ethiopia, where non-Western dress codes persist. I am also a consumer, not precisely of Che cigarettes, but rather of the konbini and MUJI stores.

Néstor García Canclini argues that ways of constructing identity no longer rest on inherited essences or stable narratives. In our current context, identities are reorganized around consumption. What a person owns or manages to acquire functions as a criteria for inclusion or recognition (Canclini, 1995, p. 1). In this panorama, globalization acts not simply as a homogenizing force but as a process that rearranges the relationships between cultures, objects, and symbols. From this perspective, the author suggests that objects lose their fidelity to their original territories. Culture is a multinational assembly, a flexible articulation of parts, a collage of traits that any citizen from any country, religion, or ideology can read and use (Canclini, 1995, p. 2). Within this framework, the image of Che Guevara printed on a cigarette advertisement at Narita Airport, one of Japan’s main entry points, encapsulates this logic. What was once a symbol of the Cuban Revolution, deeply significant within Argentina’s political memory, now appears merely decorative, divorced from its history, accessible to anyone without needing to understand its origins. Thus, its meaning is captured, and its "danger" neutralized.

Christine Greiner, in Fabulaciones del cuerpo japonés, offers a key to interpret these operations. The "other" ceases to be threatening once transformed into a character, a clearly defined figure with an assigned narrative function, which makes it easier to control. By exoticizing the other, whether it’s a culture or a political figure, we’re given the illusion that this otherness can be isolated, contained, and kept from affecting us. (Greiner, 2019, p. 51).

The following year, at a Web3 event held at the United Nations University in Tokyo’s luxurious Omotesando neighborhood, another striking scene unfolded. In the busy coworking area, against an institutional blue backdrop with the UN logo, a banner was placed featuring the face of a smiling, kawaii cat wearing glasses. Kawaii, a term with multiple uses and meanings, refers to something cute, charming, and often childish. More than an adjective, it has become a global vehicle for the commercialization of japanese cultural industries.

Neoliberal globalization not only reshapes what we consume, but also the ways in which citizenship is defined. While the State previously provided a frame, even if limited, for collective participation, today the market organizes this scenario. Even in spaces meant to represent the public sphere, like multilateral institutions, consumerism prevails as the dominant logic. Canclini suggests that, in the context of technocratic decision-making and the international uniformity imposed by neoliberalism, societies appear to be organized by distant global entities, while individuals are left with only goods and messages for everyday consumption. In this context, the cat’s banner does not replace the United Nations symbol but covers and sugarcoats it. The mascot of a private company obscuring the emblem of the UN is more than just a visual coincidence. It unintentionally summarizes the current state of affairs.

This logic extends even to heads of state, who no longer present themselves merely as representatives of their nation but as influencers within the global spectacle. At the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympics, former Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared dressed as Mario Bros in the handover ceremony to Tokyo 2020. Instead of an institutional speech, the performance revolved around icons of pop culture and IPs, an event eventually overshadowed by the cancellation of international attendance due to the COVID-19. Years later in Argentina, President Javier Milei became the main promoter of the cryptocurrency Libra via a post on X, that soon resulted in an immediate rug pull. The post included the CA. This presents two possible scenarios: complete ignorance of the actions taken or deliberate complicity in fraud. Both lead to disastrous outcomes, where the State openly subordinates itself to speculative market logic.

¹ I deliberately chose to keep the lyrics in Spanish. Listen here:

Embelesado lector
De la prensa cotidiana o de un magazine
Asiduo televidente
Una visa, un pasaporte, hasta un boleto de avión
Un voto en las elecciones
Una firma y una voz para el clamor
Un mexicano, un patriota
Una costumbre arraigada y un tostón para el camión

Forms of recognition are neither universal nor spontaneous; they are organized and administered. In this part of the song, identity appears fragmented into bureaucratic elements and continuous movements: documents, routines, journeys. Simultaneously, we are positioned as viewers of mass media, platform users, and consumers of narratives. These narratives, far from being neutral, are shaped by centers of power, directly influencing the image they wish to project. Mariano Garreta expresses it clearly when stating that any original identity belonging to powerful elites is partly constructed through their capacity to control and decide upon objects, goods, and relationships, obviously in relation to other social sectors (Garreta, 2020, p. 171).

The ability to define what constitutes a legitimate image is not exclusive to the West. Sociologist Yoshio Sugimoto, analyzing contemporary Japanese society, argues that what is commonly presented as “national culture” is actually a specific subculture: masculine, urban, and middle-class. The dominant perception of Japaneseness does not emerge from spontaneous consensus but is produced and sustained by sectors concentrating political, bureaucratic, media, and corporate authority (Sugimoto, 2020, p. 33). This dictated form of belonging becomes even clearer through statements by influential figures. Tarō Kōno, former Japanese cabinet minister, acknowledged in a 2025 interview with the international program 60 Minutes the existence of a "psychological barrier" in Japanese society towards foreigners. He pointed out that, despite the demographic crisis and accelerated population aging, strong resistance persists against considering migration as a viable solution. This is not just an individual perception. When such a view is expressed by someone capable of influencing state policies, it reinforces symbolic and material boundaries Japan imposes upon those who do not fit its identity narrative.

In Argentina, the logic is similar, though expressed through different gestures. In 2021, during an official visit by Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, former Argentine President Alberto Fernández declared his belief in Latin America but added that he was also a “Europeanist". During the same speech, he pronounce a phrase that resonated strongly in public discourse: “Mexicans descended from Indians (native people), Brazilians emerged from the jungle, but we Argentines arrived by boat.” He mistakenly attributed the quote to writer Octavio Paz, despite the fact that he was actually paraphrasing a song by an Argentine singer-songwriter. Beyond the error, the statement exposed a persistent idea: the conception of Argentines as essentially European. Rather than being inclusive, this narrative acts as a mechanism of suppression. Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant communities, and border-country migrations are erased in a single gesture. The periphery is excluded. What remains is a white fiction sustained by phrases that slip easily into everyday speech, such as describing Buenos Aires as the "Paris of South America."

Un acta de nacimiento
Un puñado, una tarjeta de navidad
O formal conversación, un novio para las fiestas y futuro poseedor
Cuando la soga aprieta
Es la hora y me preguntas qué es lo que soy?
Para el sistema todo eso.
Para el sistema todo eso, para ti solo soy yo
Para ti solo soy yo

States produce symbolic and geopolitical alignments that shape identities from above, even when these alignments do not match the expectations or desires of their populations. Just as individual identities are reconfigured according to what we consume, countries also attempt to align themselves with powerful nations as a strategy for international legitimacy. Within this process, free trade agreements and supranational integration mechanisms, such as Mercosur or BRICS, institutionally shape the transition from national to global. Canclini warns that viewing the "loss of identity" from an essentialist perspective can get in the way of understanding the real effects of these processes, which reshape sociocultural dynamics unequally based on economic and political interests.

In Japan, the American military presence in Okinawa is paradigmatic. Although this small prefecture accounts for only 0.6% of Japan's territory, it hosts approximately 75% of U.S. bases in the country, occupying about one-fifth of its land area. In 1995, the sexual assault of an Okinawan girl by three U.S. soldiers triggered one of the largest protests in the island’s recent history, reviving collective demands for a revision of the bilateral defense agreement between the two nations. The following year, a local referendum revealed that 89% of the population favored reducing the foreign military presence. This occupation has not only led to episodes of violence but has also caused environmental impacts and unequal economic dependency (Pajon, 2010, p. 10-15-19). It illustrates how political decisions originating from World War II continue to dictate which territories are sacrificed and which populations remain subordinate to foreign interests.

In Argentina, another scenario emerges with similar militaristic roots. Following Donald Trump’s 2017 relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, only a handful of countries broke the international consensus by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In early June 2025, during an event at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, President Milei announced that Argentina would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem the following year. Days later, amidst escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, the Argentine president declared in an interview that “Iran is an enemy of Argentina.” Reactions quickly surfaced from social media users, political figures, and analysts, critically addressing Argentina’s new alignment and the president’s remarks. In this scenario, Argentina seems to be reinforcing its international identity through closer ties with powers that argue “the West is in danger.”

In a world where identities are assembled from globally circulating fragments, symbols become commodities, and politics morph into aesthetics, the ways we define ourselves and belong have become unstable and contradictory. What we consume, what molds us, and ultimately defines our affiliations seems increasingly determined by market-driven logic, imposed by those who hold power, often beyond our control. Certain scenes stick with us not for their clarity, but for the discomfort they leave behind. The image of Che Guevara selling cigarettes in a Japanese airport, or a smiling cartoon cat overshadowing an international coalition, capture different moments but reflect the same phenomenon. In each case, something shifted: symbols once charged with historical or institutional weight became mere backgrounds.

Yet there remains a gap between what is externally defined and what we internally experience. What the system categorizes never fully encompasses our lived experiences or community memories. Perhaps it is within this gap that spaces still exist for inventing other ways of being.

• García Canclini, N. (1995). Consumidores y ciudadanos. Conflictos multiculturales de la globalización. México D.F.: Editorial Grijalbo.

• Garreta, M. (2020). Una mirada actual sobre el problema de las identidades. A.A.V .V ., Estado, sociedad y política en la Argentina contemporánea. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, pp. 165–176.

• Greiner, C. (2019). Fabulaciones del cuerpo japonés. Buenos Aires: Caja Negra Editora.

• 60 Minutes. (2025). Japan's population shrinking as marriage and birth rates plummet. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7l4-efvTi4

• Sugimoto, Yoshio. (2016). Una introducción a la sociedad japonesa. Barcelona: Ediciones Bellaterra.

• Hikotani, T., Horiuchi, Y . y Tago, A. (2023). Revisiting negative externalities of US military bases: the case of Okinawa. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 23(2), pp. 325–349. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.1093/irap/lcad004

• Pajon, C. (2010). Understanding the Issue of U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa. Asie Visions, Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI). https://www.ifri.org/en/publications/enotes/asie-visions/understanding-issue-us-military-bases-okinawa

• Gobierno de la República Argentina (2025). El presidente Javier Milei anunció que en 2026 la Argentina mudará su embajada en Israel