"Otaku Economic Zone Genesis"

 ■ "Otaku Economic Zone Genesis"

It has been a long time since the term "otaku" has taken root. At first, it gave people a strong negative impression, but it turned into a positive image, a fan base that supports pop culture. It also means that the otaku territory has grown from a niche subculture to a mass mainstream culture, and the hobby territory has transformed into a power to form business and industry. 

This book, by an author who has worked for DeNA and Bandai Namco, and is an executive officer of Bushiroad, describes how the production and consumption of otaku culture has expanded, changed and become globalized, from manga, anime and games to music and professional wrestling, unraveling abundant cases and data. It suggests that a successful strategy has a common principle that can be applied not only to the otaku industry but also to other industries, such as the manufacturing industry. The content industry is a market of more than 10 trillion yen, but it hopes to spread to a GDP of 500 trillion yen. 

○ 2.5-dimensional expansion

The development of the "2.5 Dimension" is emphasized as a successful example of the otaku industry. 2D means content and characters such as virtual animations and games, and 3D means a strategy that involves multiple media such as live performances by real talent simultaneously. Pokemon, Dragon Ball, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. All of the otaku culture products that have built a market in the United States, given as an example in this book, are a combination of digital content and live performance, and have been expanded globally. 

The content industry has grown steadily. Industrialization of Japanese animation from the 1960s, a global oligopoly of games from the 1980s, animation event development in the 90s, pirated manga and anime penetration in the 2000s, and video distribution businesses in the 2010s. 

This added to socialization in the 2010s. In other words, it can be said that its popularity has expanded and become established by passing into "an era in which friends who have become a community through events and social networks share trends through video distribution, and share them through e-commerce development of character products". 

○ Background of industrial growth

The book examines the otaku industry growth due to multiple factors. Firstly, the cost structure. Manga had an overwhelming price advantage and production system that offered products at a price one tenth cheaper, three times faster than in the United States. Japanese-style production equipment that provides high-quality industrial products at low prices has also been applied to content. 

However, unlike industries such as that of home appliances, it is important to emphasize that it was a niche industry that started up from a venture that stands opposite of state and industrial groups. 

A large amount of advanced human resources were put into it. "Before 2000, most entrepreneurial talent became novelists, cartoonists, movie and animation directors, and game creators." Manga magazines, TV anime, and console games were the recipients of their content. 

Cooperation is also a point. Unlike content production with capital power by media giants such as Disney and Time Warner, companies that do not have a capital relationship will work together in a bottom-up manner with an emphasis on the field. 

And freedom. As it was perceived overseas, anime had no restrictions on expressiveness. "It was freely developed as an underground culture."

The consumption structure is also important. With the loosening of the cultural line between adults and children, and a large number of magazines distributed, an invention called "animation for adults" was born and consumed by adults and children. 

I agree with the author's cross-cut view that such a special production and consumption structure has made Japan the home of the otaku industry. 

○ Business changes since 1995

This book sees the content industry as having collapsed since 1995. Domestic trends have been declining. 1995 was the peak of disposable income, that is, the time when the Japanese economy reached its peak, and it may have been inevitable that it would contract. 

However, at the same time, 1995 was the year of full-scale takeoff of digitization such as PCs and the Internet, and also the beginning of the global expansion of contents. Since then, manga, anime, and games have become popular digitally and overseas. Since 2010, smartphones have become the main device for most people. Smartphones take up more than half of the information consumption time of 7-9 hours a day for most people. In mobile content, games far surpass manga, video, and music, and overall consumption. It accounts for 70% of the total. While the overseas market for video games is shrinking, the online gaming industry will grow to be worth 2000 billion yen, and anime will triple to 50 billion yen in seven years. Overseas otaku also grew up using the net and watching pirated editions. Hundreds of thousands of people participate in the Japan Expo in France and the Anime Expo in the United States. 

The core is the rights business. Money is earned from secondary use after primary distribution of television and movie broadcasts. Character development happens in VHS, music CDs, toys and food. Proceeds of animation production number around 734.4 billion yen, and the rights business after that is 2.1 trillion yen. A single digit difference. Pokemon is said to have had cumulative sales of 10 trillion yen in 20 years. One type of content has created a huge industry. Moreover, Japan needs to take a more strategic view of the meaning that "almost all characters are born from the United States and Japan". 

○ Live + Social

"Frozen" has been seen by 15 million people and had a revenue of 5 billion yen, while "Love Live!" has been seen by three to four million people and had a revenue of 44 billion yen. Even though the number of users is 5 to 1 between them, sales for the latter are nearly 10 times higher. The book's author says, "the nerd was taken out of the room. An active nerd who goes to live concerts has been created". Moreover, otaku are highly loyal and spend three times as much as ordinary customers. 

It is said that the live music market suddenly tripled in 2010-15. "No industry embodies the shift from packaging to internet and location as much as music does." It seems that in this case, the community features of social media and sharing services are working together. It is transforming its business model into an interactive model that forms a user community and keeps updating content. The author sees this as a "change from content making to service providing". The success of "Pokemon GO" is also linked to this. This is an important example of paving a path between the two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional world. 

Furthermore, this book emphasizes the success of "New Japan Pro-Wrestling". "Dropping out from television has led to its globalization," the author considers. "In Japan, the closer the content is to TV, the slower it is to catch up with new movements such as overseas and distribution, and as with the package business, its decline began in 1995."Will this trend accelerate with 5G starting this year? 

　

○ On the winning patterns of Japanese companies

In conclusion, this book is not mistaken about the old-fashioned cooperative line of Japanese companies; it preaches that the winning patterns may exist in creating high-quality characters and stories made of works by collaborative groups, as well as forming a global market. The hegemony is shifting from the top-down view centered on the TV to the bottom-up one centered on Internet and community. It is important to combine 2D (animation / game) and 3D (talent) to develop as a live content service business. The business structure of a live content maker becomes the main body of the Japanese character economic zone. In contrast to North America's formation of a huge organization as a media consortium, Japanese companies are trying to maximize the assets of old companies in a loose modular alliance in which multiple communities coexist as a cultural consortium. 

Shouldn't hardware and other equipment industries form groups with the software culture industry in order to set up different cultures? 

This is the author's claim. I think it's a view that isn't heard of at American business schools, but is worthy of listening, and backed by history, data, and a sense of the field. Manga, anime, games and professional wrestling were all imported from the United States and underwent a special evolution in Japan, and are now being exported overseas. Cool Japan refers to the products produced overseas that have evolved into an export industry. 

Convenience stores, uniform fashion, ramen. There are various cases other than content. Just as professional wrestling has become part of Cool Japan, there are still other things that can be discovered. This book gives hints which may exist in many industries.