Intellectual
Property Headquarters Content Meeting @ Kasumigaseki. This is a new round for
foreign development and infrastructure establishment.
Explanation
of the government’s initiative.
Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications, Section Chief Toyoshima: Objective is to
triple the foreign sales of broadcast content by 2018 from 2010 levels. Sales
were on target in 2014, having doubled to ¥14.4 billion. Promote the
maintenance of overseas broadcast quotas and co-production of content. Recently
have begun to see the participation of local stations.
Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Chief Secretary Takamizu: Offer Japanese dramas and
animated shows for free through the operations of the International Cooperation
Fund. So far have provided 192 programs to broadcasters in 48 countries.
Ministry
of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Section Chief Hirai: Support localization and
promotion of content. 405 companies, representing 36% of all JLOP users, have
expanded abroad for the first time using this structure. Businesses that were
inwardly focused are in the process of spreading abroad.
Ministry
of Economy, Trade, and Industry 2: The Cool Japan organization has invested in
18 cases so far. Provision of money for high-risk/high-return investments. As
METI’s operation for the development of content overseas approaches its tenth
year, it underwent an administrative evaluation review and received a positive
evaluation.
Ministry
of Economy, Trade, and Industry 3: As means for the reinforcement of
infrastructure, the establishment and standardization of digital creation
environments for anime, holding DCEXPO/Innovative Technologies etc.
Ministry
of Economy, Trade, and Industry 4: Revise subcontracting guidelines for the
anime production industry in July. Aim for measures such as documentation of
contracts and public awareness of best practices.
(An
important policy towards the improvement of production working environments,
which are considered poor. This is certainly the task of this administration.)
Well
then, hereafter is the discussion. I’ll pick out several items.
○ Cool
Japan is proceeding forward from the stage of selling content abroad. This is
the period for developing policies that will take us to the next phase and for
hammering out a message, with an eye towards what comes after 2020.
○ A key
point is to continue business after becoming independent of subsidies.
○ Exports
of video games have dropped sharply from ¥700 billion in 2007 to ¥90 billion in
2014. The structure of the industry is also changing. It is unclear how long
the government’s policies will continue and it is important to brace for a time
when they will no longer be in effect.
○ The
infrastructure of industry groups is also frail and is becoming dependent upon
the national supplementary budget. A major policy for the mid-to-long term is
necessary. The effectiveness of policies coordinating with government agencies
is important, but interdepartmental cooperation within agencies is also not
functioning.
○ Liaison
conferences etc. must be established linking government agencies. It would also
be good if industry groups could be optimized and reorganized via mergers etc.
○ It is
becoming difficult to convey the appeal of the content industry to students in
the intellectual property educational setting at universities. An important
theme is how to position content within education at schools.
○ It
would be good to create a message and content, such as anime that depict the
near future of content, that demonstrate the future of content and the content
industry.
○
Companies that are good at producing documentation are the ones that make
money. But the people we want to give our money to are different. Japanese
content relies on the creativity of individuals. It is extremely difficult to
discover these individuals. It’s important to create a space for the purpose of
discovering new creators. The CJ organization should have a mechanism for
recruiting works and reviewing the open net.
○ Nobel
Prize-winners are all good at writing up documents. Those who are bad at it get
forgotten.
○ Let’s
make an appeal towards 2020.
