Digital Manga Campus Match

　The effort started to recruit students who are aspiring cartoonists to submit their works, get them judged by cartoonists and creators, involve editorial departments from major comic magazines, discover talent, and lead to business.

　70 schools including universities and vocational schools participate. 30 comic editorial departments from 10 companies including Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan provide outlets. I am the executive committee chairperson.

　I greeted the group at the kick-off gathering.

　When I was little, I wanted to become a cartoonist. But I did not know how. I only got to a level at which I read manga textbooks from Mr. Shotaro Ishimori Mr. Fujio Akatsuka. If I knew that there was a manga school, I may have tried to attend. But I am still not sure how you could become a professional, even if you went to school.

　I was told I would become a bad boy, if I read too much manga. However, manga and anime are national treasures these days because of Cool Japan. Such contents. The word “contents” was born in Japan 20 years ago. At that time, the government committee cited the important issues as the way to develop talent who create contents, and the fact that Japan lacked schools for the purpose.

　20 years have passed. Many came from manga schools today. I was also involved in creating the Media Design Research course at the graduate school of Keio University to develop human resources for creating contents. There are examples such as Kyoto Seika University in which a globally recognized cartoonist became the dean. It seems as the situation has changed. However, that does not mean that manga industry and contents industry have been revitalized.

　I work on putting together the contents policy of the government and the Intellectual Property Headquarters. Human resources development for contents is mentioned as the important issue in the intellectual property plan, which is issued by the government every year. However, the current issue is enriching the people in manga industry and contents industry by the developed talents and generating results.

　This project, which is specialized in digital is executed only with private funds without depending on the government. 70 schools gather and 30 editorial departments give support there. This means we can create such a place. Let’s generate results!

 Cartoonist Ms. Machiko Satonaka said to the audience through the microphone. “People will grow. There are schools to nurture them. But the problem is the exit. Can we prepare an exit in which people can have dream and hope? Because of digitization, anyone can express manga now. Let’s expand that possibility. You (that would be me) should draw your own manga, too.”

　Touché, she threw a jab at me.