While Denison said that the Japanese government’s continued desire to clamp down on piracy demonstrated the soft power value of Japan’s anime industry, she also said that viewing methods had changed considerably over recent years.

Mr Blair's elite audience also watched a video message from Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist co-founder of Microsoft. Neither man appears to have been aware that the event, last November, was a "soft power" exercise approved at top levels in the PLA.