Thread of True Honesty

Interest dies when you're learning it for the wrong reasons (USUALLY ANIME, MANGA, & VIDEOGAMES).
My interest nearly faded away, but luckily, it came springing back to life again.
Japanese isn't extremely difficult in my opinion. At least it is much more regular and structured than English. I'm also being realistic in my learning, knowing that it will take many years to obtain a native-like proficiency. I already had an article in my blog about this, so, yeah...

So why are people interested in Japanese for a reason apart from Animes, Mangas, and Video Games?

Their culture? What do non-Japanese know about Japanese culture?

Only reason I can think of is for Business, and I kinda doubt this is the reason why younger people want to learn the language. The Chinese economy is barely behind Japan and there's just so much more out there in China than in Japan.