Tokyo: Industry Insiders Skeptical of Bold Japanese Government Plans for Overseas Content Sales Push

Industry expectations are distinctly low for the Japanese government’s ambitious plans to support overseas sales of domestic content. Despite the content industry being selected as one of 17 key sectors, alongside the likes of semiconductors, AI and shipbuilding, those on the frontline of selling Japanese films, shows and properties to international buyers are skeptical about the benefits.

Following the announcement of the policy by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last November, her government this summer set a goal of public and private investment exceeding $2.3 trillion (370 trillion yen) across the selected sectors by 2040. As part of that, the IP360 initiatives aim to raise overseas sales of Japanese content to $127 billion (200 trillion yen) by 2033, to be overseen by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

But experience of previous support programs has lowered expectations and created a good deal of cynicism about the potential effectiveness of the latest scheme among those at the TIFFCOM content market at Tokyo International Film Festival.

“We had the Cool Japan initiative before but Japan has never put up money to support the industry on the scale that South Korea did. There have been subsidies, such as money to send films to Annecy or to go to conventions,” said an overseas sales agent for a mid-sized Japanese film company. “It feels like the support will go to the majors and to small ventures rather than places like us.”

Mirroring the minimum budget requirement for production incentives for international projects to shoot in Japan, domestic live-action films must have a budget of at least 800 million yen – currently $5.1 million – to qualify for support to take them overseas.

“There needs to be new blood both in politics and the ministries. And they [METI] need to bring in more specialists from the industry,” added the agent. “They should also work with non-Japanese who can help them understand overseas markets better; some of the big publishers do that well already.”

An agent handling North American licensing, including manga and anime, for a large Japanese publisher, said it was too early to predict what effect the initiatives will have: “Our sales are growing anyway thanks to the streamers. We’re not seeing the government involved yet, but it’s early days and it will take time for anything to trickle down to the frontline.”

A sales rep at a major Japanese publisher was blunter in their assessment: “There have been a lot of support schemes up to this point and none of them have had much impact.”

Not everyone’s expectations are so low.

“I’ve been in the industry for over 30 years and I can feel the change in the mentality of industry people over the last decade, and especially the last five years. It’s not so domestic now. And I think IP360 is opening up the eyes of the production people,” said Makito Sugiyama, executive director at the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan and formerly involved in international sales for TBS.

“I’ve been involved in government committees and initiatives in the past and there have been subsidy schemes for years, but they were short-term and based on annual budgets. Now there’s longer-term thinking and less bickering between ministries,” added Sugiyama, who is unashamedly enthusiastic about the new initiative.

METI’s guidelines on how to apply for support suggest a continuation of the bureaucracy and opaqueness that has plagued initial programs until now.

“All the application processes for previous subsidies and support were very complex and involved hearings and other procedures that took so much time,” said a rep handling international sales for a major Japanese studio at TIFFCOM. “It’s great that the government is taking this industry seriously but I wonder how they will select projects for the new initiative. They have tended to choose productions with famous actors and directors rather than the mid-size budget films, which are the ones that need help the most.”

That sentiment was largely echoed by an international sales agent at another major Japanese player: “They make it very complicated to get support. I’m not saying they should just make payouts to everyone, but often there is not enough time to put the applications in. Even for us Japanese, the application forms are incredibly difficult to understand.”

“The government is saying they will do all these things but you never know whether they will actually do it,” they added. “We’re not expecting very much.”