Yoshimoto Kogyo announces its vision for an Asian Entertainment Platform

 ■ Yoshimoto Kogyo announces its vision for an Asian Entertainment Platform

Yoshimoto Kogyo used the Okinawa International Movie Festival as a stage to announce the establishment of its vision for the Okinawa Asian Entertainment Platform.

In the preamble of the concept paper, it announced that “This Japan-made platform will allow expansion into Asia. It will introduce Asia to what Japan’s regions have to offer, and vice-versa. We aim to construct a platform to connect Asia with Okinawa, Japan through entertainment content.” 

This will become a source of creators and performers across Asia. It will be a place to unearth, foster and provide a workspace for a whole range of creators, including game creators, gamers, manga artists, animators, illustrators, composers, performers, trend creators and secondary creators. Being based in Okinawa, they are aiming to create a local entertainment industry as well as employment opportunities.

With its 108-year history, Yoshimoto Kogyo is pinning its next 100 years on a future that is regional, Asian and digital. The Okinawa International Movie Festival, which has reached its 10th anniversary, has been working consistently to ensure that Okinawa, Japan and Asia as a whole all become a content hub. They are doing this through running events, live concerts and workshops across Okinawa, including on outlying islands throughout the year. 

This press conference also launched the “Laugh and Peace Entertainment School Okinawa,” which is a school that aims to train entertainers. They hope to foster creators and performers to create local Okinawan content that can take on the world. 

They also established the “Yunus Yoshimoto Social Action Co. Ltd.” in collaboration with Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Muhammad Yunus. They have begun by dispatching comedians to live embedded in local communities in all of Japan’s 47 prefectures, where they can experience social issues for themselves, and try to solve them by encouraging collaboration between the technological power of start-ups and the power of entertainment.

The concept for this platform is an extension of their larger business strategy. Their slogan is “Everything is entertainment. Everyone makes it entertaining.” Their expressive tools are film, manga, anime, AR/VR, games, social media and live concerts. Equally, they are dealing with issues that include education, the regions, tourism, local issues, health and sport. This all seems very compatible with the schools and social action.

I was sitting in the section set aside for reporters during the press conference when a microphone was thrust in my direction. I commented that the Okinawa International Movie Festival has both films and laughs. It is a unique event that is difficult to pin down and can be enjoyed in cities and towns across Okinawa. This school and the platform are both outcomes of the festival having continued for ten years. It provides both an entry point to train people as well as a way for output to be shared overseas. Two of the main themes of Government content policy are fostering human resources and overseas expansion. It really should be the Government that is doing this work. But it is a single company, Yoshimoto Kogyo, that is trying to pull this off. It is really quite impressive.