World’s largest digital children’s book award

 　 Digital Ehon Award (digital children’s book award) defines any digital expressions for children on terminals other than TV and computer as “Digital Ehon,” including smartphone, tablet, signage, and electronic blackboard, and selects the superior works from the submissions for awards. 　 It is cosponsored by the NPO “CANVAS” that I am involved with and “Digital Ehon” corporation. 　The grand prize in production section went to “Nott Won’t...

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Intermittent excitement

　It was 16 years ago. Sydney Olympics. Even though the signal gun went off for women’s marathon, there was no TV broadcast in the United States where I was living at the time. There was no Internet broadcasting, either. My last resort was the Japanese newspaper website. They had text live broadcast. The on-the-spot broadcasting was updated every five minutes. 　I was reading the computer text at my house in Boston. Japanese women were leading the world. Ms. Naoko Takahashi may win. I was overwhelmed. I was going to cry. Then I made an international...

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Three questions regarding copyright

　At the symposium hosted by Copyright Research and Information Center (CRIC). Here are the three points that I discussed. ◯Countermeasures for pirated versions? 　What to do about the overseas deployment of contents is an important issue at the Intellectual Property Headquarters and in the strategy of Cool Japan. 　Countermeasures for pirated versions as a defensive is also a government theme, and the countermeasures of CODA are also becoming tough. However, the question of “Are they on the offensive?” is more important. The export from contents...

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I listed the amazing points about Tokyo

　　Japan is over-concentrated in Tokyo, and it has been a long-term issue to correct this and decentralize. However, I think Tokyo needs to be competitive with cities around the world. I think Tokyo is amazing. Here are the random things that I think Tokyo can beat cities around the world. ・ Within the 100m perimeter of my office, there are Chinese, Korean, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, American, English, French, Italian, German, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Nigerian, and Togolese restaurants. ・ Within the 100m perimeter of my office,...

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Human resource development in manga and international collaboration

 　The control committee of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology “Anime/Manga Industry/Academic/Government Collaboration Consortium” was held recently. The policy handles curriculum development, digital production support, and career advancement support for human resource development in anime and manga. I serve as the chairperson of the committee. 　We are especially rushing the digital compatibility. 　Digital books and magazines sales were ¥10.13 billion in 2013. Among those, comics were ¥7.31 billion. 70% of...

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Why did Japanese mobile phone manufactures lose?

　I had a discussion with major players of communication companies and government OBs on “Why Japanese mobile phone manufactures lost.” 　For the second-generation mobile phone = 2G, Europe spread GSM to their former colonies, and Japan lost in the global competition. This is a well-known fact. This affected the atmosphere between countries. Which technology standard to choose was largely dependent on their policies and strategies as well. 　However, why did Japanese manufacturers lose against Samsung and Apple, even though Japan lead the transition...

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Cork’s strategy on reforming manga

　Mr. Yohei Sadoshima founded “Cork” after leaving the editorial department of the manga magazine Morning. I think the editorial system of publishers is responsible for the development of Japan’s manga to this magnitude. Can the agent be modeled that made the system independent? Cork shows an innovative challenge. 　Cork produces and distributes paper manga, digital manga, and animations “simultaneously.” It breaks the existing model that is based on paper. Manga is animated from the volume one of the book. It shatters the business order of Magazine...

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