Participatory Pop Culture Policy

  For policies supporting pop culture, while manga, anime and games are fighting against government, there have been strong opinions that only the private sector has grown and that help should not be provided for the lousy ones. It is correct that only the private sector has grown. 
  Although Japan has built a variety of genres in pop culture in the Internet or mobile phones, they are all quite similar. From now on, I hope that each time a new media technology appears, Japan can make use of its comprehensive strength and create a new pop culture. 
Therein lays an issue where measures should be taken. 
Firstly, Japan is not taking advantage of its present situation. Rather than being a growing industry economically, content is actually shrinking and the production sites of anime are actually facing a dire situation. It is also not possible to be utilized politically. For the young generation situated overseas, Japan is equivalent to Pikachu and Doraemon rather than Sony or Toyota. This soft power is also not being taken advantage of. 
  Also, it is uncertain as to whether the present position can be kept. By definition, pop-culture is an ever-changing culture and it is only natural that it changes regularly. There is no guarantee that pop culture today will be the pop culture tomorrow, and we must always be prepared that it may get replaced by other pop culture from within or from overseas. So does Japan possess any mechanism to permanently create a culture and allow it to continue growing in perpetuity? I do not think that we can say so. I think that the government should consider this as a priority and have this mechanism to enrich the soil. 
   Criticism against the content policy is often directed towards the ‘budget’. For example, there have been calls “to not use taxpayer’s money at all cost!” As subsidies are given to the industry, each time the money flows to where something is wrong, there will be criticisms or calls to put aside the person-in-charge. I am personally also opposed to industry protection and am often hesitant towards such industry measure budgets. However, money is necessary for infrastructure development (digital environment) and human resource development (education). 

  However, one can say that the ongoing criticisms against the government has arisen due to the fact that they are not able to gain the people’s trust in their ‘discerning ability’ to allocate how much resources and to which policy. It is reasonable to say that politicians and bureaucrats are not able to tell the good and bad for the content. Organizations with authority, such as the councils, also tend to have a prejudiced view. 
  It will be ideal if we are able to think about ‘everyone’ in the pop culture which is built by built by ‘everyone’. Although I am not sure how effective if selection is done by having elections through the Internet, I feel that a policy that is of participatory nature is being demanded today.