By Christofer Hamilton

High demand for “Shogun” and the second season of “Tokyo Vice” seems to point to a more general appetite from U.S. audiences for stories from Japan. So far, demand for “Shogun” has peaked at 48 times the average series demand in its second week, seeming to validate FX’s decision to remake the 1980 miniseries.

The original TV adaptation of “Shogun” simultaneously benefitted from already rising American interest in Japan and helped to drive even greater Japanophilia. One (possibly apocryphal) story credits the original series with popularizing sushi in the U.S. What remains to be seen is whether this year’s “Shogun” will have a similar cultural impact.