Content and National Strategy

  I released a book called “Content and National Strategy” as a Kadogawa EPUB book selection. It’s a compilation of the arguments in the government’s IP division over content policy and soft power.

 The government made a cabinet decision regarding the policy regarding the direction and vision of Intellectual Property. This came 10 years after the headquarter of the Intellectual Property division was installed at cabinet secreariat. It summarizes the previous 10 years and sets the strategy for the next 10 years.

 As chairman of the committee to propose a direction, I suggested the following to cabinet minister Yamamoto.

 “I believe it would be best to unify the Content and IT policies to create a Ministry of Culture. In Korea the new government has unified control of IT policy and education technology under the ‘Future Creation Science Ministry.’ It shows clearly how the citizens are fed. Japan needs such an intentional plan.”

 The government doesn’t like plans that change its structure, so there’s sure to be resistance.

At the same time as I was debating the IP issues, I was also charged as chairman at a pop culture committee. In our proposal, we wrote that, “We should construct a system under which everyone ‘participates’ in the distribution of information. Not spearheaded by the government, but by everyone.”

To downplay the role of government in a committee formed by the government is probably something that they don’t appreciate. There will likely be resistance.

 However, if this isn’t stated clearly then the strategy will be flawed.

To this point, there have been many proposals made in many committees. However, there are still two problems. The first is the ability to take action. Plans are all well and good, but they must be implemented for the concrete benefit of industry and culture.

This is still weak. This is why we need strong leadership in the government. Government and stakeholders must unify and lead.

Another point is “preparedness.” There must be an understanding that content and IP will lift Japan up. We must resolve that the policy will stand for 100 years. The importance of this policy must be placed above other fields, and we’re not there yet.

 However, the situation isn’t all that bad. In recent years the most important change is that the government has come to realize the importance of the content policy and many players are enthusiastically coming to the table.

 At our meeting, we gathered representatives from eight ministries and agencies to form a plan. One aspect of the current struggle includes the conditions that were worked out up until this point.

 I expect this enthusiasm to continue.