[Delirium-Zer0]

Last I heard, the music sales there are dominated by people in their teens to mid-twenties (slightly older than the biggest music-buying demographic here in the states), so it's taken a BIT more seriously, and is a bit more respectable, but as a whole, older people don't take it seriously at all (especially people our grandparents' age or slightly younger), because it isn't japanese enough. Really, in the case of most pop music, they don't see much innovation because the Westerners did it first. They don't really see the beauty in it at all, you know? Kind of a weird way to explain, but... it's KINDA taken seriously, I guess. (Of course this is based on stuff I've read... someone IN japan would have a better perspective)