Almost every person in most anglophone countries and Europe have enjoyed, at some point and in some form, Japanese entertainment and art. Mostly through their animation shows and movies and video games, but also through music and comic books. How did Japan achieve this, and why has no other single non-anglophone country achieved such massive international recognition like Japan has?
This might be too recent to be considered history, so I'll repost elsewhere if I have to.
Even European artists in the 1850s were really in to Japanese culture and art. Great artists like Whistler, Manet and Van Gogh were known for collecting Japanese woodcut prints, clothing and design work.